3. Consider the hurryings of Jesus from Annas to Caiaphas; there a Council is called,1 and Caiaphas the high Priest adjures our Lord to tell him if he was Christ the Son of God: no sooner he affirms it, but he is doomed guilty of blasphemy, and so guilty of death. Now again they assault him like mad dogs, and disgorge upon him all their malice, fury, and revenge; each one to the utmost of his power gives him buffets, and strokes; there they spit upon that Divine face with their devilish mouths, there they hoodwink his eyes, and strike him on the cheek, scoffing, and jesting, and saying, Read, who is it that smote thee? O beauty of Angels! was that a face to be spit upon? men usually when they are provoked to spit, turn away their faces towards the foulest corner of the house, and is there not in all that Palace a fouler place to spit in than the face of Jesus? O my soul, why dost thou not humble thy self, at this so wonderful example? how is it that there should remain in the world any token of pride after this so great and marvellous an example of humility? surely I am at my wits end, and very much astonished to consider, how this so great patience overcomes not my anger, how this so great abasing assuageth not my pride, how these so violent buffets beat not down my presumption: Is it not marvellous that Jesus Christ by these means should overthrow the Kingdom of pride, and yet that there should remain in me the relics of pride? consider all those night-sufferings of Christ; O cruel night! O unquiet night! now was the season that all creatures should take their rest, that the senses, and members wearied with toils and labours, should be refreshed; but on the contrary Christ's members and senses were then tormented, they struck his body, they afflicted his soul, they bound his hands, they buffeted his cheeks, they spit in his face; O my soul thou sinnest in the dark, in covert, in secret, when no eye is upon thee, when the Sun, that eye of the world is set, or hid; and therefore all the night long is Christ thus tormented by thy sins; not one jot of rest hath Christ, not a wink of sleep must seize on him, whom thou by the alarm of thy sins disquieted, both at evening, at mid-night, and at the Cock-Crow, and at the dawning.
3. Consider the hurryings of Jesus from Annas to Caiphas; there a Councel is called,1 and Caiphas the high Priest adjures our Lord to tell him if he was Christ the Son of God: no sooner he affirms it, but he is doomed guilty of blasphemy, and so guilty of death. Now again they assault him like mad dogs, and disgorge upon him all their malice, fury, and revenge; each one to the utmost of his power gives him buffets, and strokes; there they spit upon that Divine face with their devilish mouths, there they hudwink his eyes, and strike him on the cheek, scoffing, and jesting, and saying, Read, who is it that smote thee? O beauty of Angels! was that a face to be spet upon? men usually when they are provoked to spit, turn away their faces towards the foulest corner of the house, and is there not in all that Palace a souler place to spit in than the face of Jesus? O my soul, why dost thou not humble thy self, at this so wonderful example? how is it that there should remain in the world any token of pride after this so great and marvellous an example of humility? surely I am at my wits end, and very much astonished to consider, how this so great patience overcomes not my anger, how this so great abasing asswageth not my pride, how these so violent buffets beat not down my presumption: Is it not marvellous that Jesus Christ by these means should overthrow the Kingdom of pride, and yet that there should remain in me the relicks of pride? consider all those night-sufferings of Christ; O cruel night! O unquiet night! now was the season that all creatures should take their rest, that the senses, and members wearied with toils and labours, should be refreshed; but on the contrary Christ's members and senses were then tormented, they struck his body, they afflicted his soul, they bound his hands, they buffetted his cheeks, they spit in his face; O my soul thou sinnest in the dark, in covert, in secret, when no eye is upon thee, when the Sun, that eye of the world is set, or hid; and therefore all the night long is Christ thus tormented by thy sins; not one jot of rest hath Christ, not a wink of sleep must seize on him, whom thou by the alarm of thy sins disquieted, both at evening, at mid-night, and at the Cock-Crow, and at the dawning.
- 1Mat. 26.63. Ver. 66.
