cannot now entreat my Father, and have such an interest with him, that he would presently furnish me with a celestial army for my guard, marshalled in dreadful array, and consisting of more than twelve legions of angels.* But how then, if I should thus stand on my own defence, shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, even the very prophecies which I came to accomplish, which have so expressly foretold that thus it must be? Or how should I approve my submission to him that sent me? You only look at second causes, and have but an imperfect view of things; but I consider all the sufferings I am now to meet as under a divine direction and appointment, and regard them as the cup which my Father has given me; and when considered in that view, shall I not willingly submit to drink it? shall I not acquiesce in what I know to be his will? or would it be the part of a dutiful and affectionate Son to dispute the determination of his paternal wisdom and love?

“Then without any opposition he surrendered himself into the hands of those who came to apprehend him; and all uniting in their enmity against. him, the band of Roman soldiers, with the captain at their head, and the Jewish officers that came with them, seized Jesus as a malefactor,

*" (More than twelve legions of angels.) The Roman armies were composed of legions, which did not always consist of the same number of men, but are computed at this time to have contained above six thousand; and twelve legions were more than were commonly entrusted with their greatest generals. How dreadfully irresistible would such an army of angels have been, when one of these celestial spirits was able to destroy 185,000 Assyrians at one stroke! (2 Kings xix. 35.)"

and presently bound him, to prevent his escape. But as they were binding him, Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye at least that I may have my hands at liberty thus far, and stay but for a moment, while I add one act of power and compassion to those I have already done; and calling Malchus to him, he touched his ear, and immediately healed him.* Then Jesus said in that same hour to the chief priests and to the captains of the temple-guard,† and to the elders of the people, or to those members of the Sanhedrim who (as was said before) were so forgetful of the

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(He touched his ear and healed him.) As this was an act of great compassion, so likewise it was an instance of singular wisdom, for it would effectually prevent those reflections and censures on Jesus which the rashness of Peter's attack might otherwise have occasioned."

"(The captains of the temple.) There was indeed a Roman guard, and commanding officer, which attended near the temple, during the time of the great feasts, in order to prevent any sedition of the Jews. See Josephus' Antiquities, lib. xviii, cap. 4. [al.6.] s, 3, and Bell. Jud. lib. v. cap. v. [al. vi. 6.] s. 8. And this appears to be the band and captain mentioned here by John, ver. 12, where the word in the original is xapxoc, which plainly shows it was a Roman officer, and in the title given to Lysias, Acts xxi. 31, who was commander of the garrison kept by the Romans in the castle of Antonia, from whence there were detachments sent at the time of the feasts, and posted in the porticoes of the temple, to suppress any tumults among the people, when such great numbers flocked together. But for those captains of the temple spoken of by Luke, there is no doubt but they were Jewish officers, who are said by John to have attended with the former; of whom it is to be observed, that as the priests kept watch in three places of the temple, and the Levites in twenty-one, so their leaders were called orparnyou Tov iepov, or captains of the temple; and Josephus more than once speaks of one of the Jewish priests by that title."

dignity of their character, as to come to him themselves, with the dregs of the populace, at this unseasonable time, and on this infamous occasion to these he said, and to the multitude that now surrounded him, For what imaginable reason are you come out against me, as against a robber that would make a desperate resistance, armed in this way with swords and staves, as if you came to seize me at the hazard of your lives? When I was with you every day, as I have been for some time past, and publicly sat teaching in the temple, you had opportunities enough to have secured me, if there was any crime with which you could have charged me; yet then you did. not apprehend me, or offer to stretch out your hands against me; but I know the reason better than yourselves do: you have hitherto been kept under a secret restraint, which is now removed; and this is your hour, in which God has let you loose against me, and the power of darkness is now permitted to rage with peculiar violence; for it is under the instigation of Satan and his infernal powers that you now act, with whatever pious names you may affect to consecrate the deed. (And though you are left to your own free agency, yet Omniscience foreknows that you would at this very time so act as to accomplish events most contrary to your own schemes, and that all this is done that those scriptures of the prophets, given by inspiration of God, through his foreknowledge of all that ever comes to pass, past, present, and to come, might be illustriously fulfilled) I therefore resign myself into your hands,

though I have given you abundant evidence that I am not destitute of the means of deliverance, if I was inclined to use them.

"Then all the disciples, who but a little while before had solemnly protested that they would never leave him, when they now saw him bound in the hands of his enemies, according to his repeated predictions, forsook him and fled *_ each of them shifting for his own safety, as well as he could, and seeking to shelter himself either among friends or strangers. And a certain youth, who was lodged in a house near the garden, and who was waked by the noise of this tumult, having an affection for Jesus, and apprehending him in danger, arose out of his bed, with nothing but a linen cloth, in which he lay, cast about his naked body; and he followed him a

* " (All the disciples forsook him and fled.) Perhaps they were afraid that the action of Peter should be imputed to them all, and might bring their lives into danger. But whatever they apprehended, their precipitate flight in these circumstances was the basest cowardice and ingratitude; considering not only how lately they had been warned of their danger, and what solemn promises they had made of a courageous adherence to Christ; but also what an agony they had just seen him in; what zeal he had a few moments before showed in their defence; and what amazing power he had exerted to terrify his enemies into a compliance with that part of his demand which related to the safety of his friends. He had also at the same time intimated his purpose of giving them a speedy and kind dismission; so that it was very indecent thus to run away without it; especially as Christ's prophecy of their continued usefulness in his church was equivalent to a promise of their preservation, whatever danger they might now meet with. But our Lord probably permitted it, that we might learn not to depend too confidently even on the friendship of the very best of men."

little way, after the rest of his disciples were gone, transported into a forgetfulness of his own dress, by his concern for Jesus; and the young mer that made a part of the guard, suspecting he was one that belonged to Jesus, laid hold of him; but he leaving the sheet that was wrapped about him in their hands, fled away from them naked, in the utmost consternation. After which Jesus was led away to Annas first, (for he was father-inlaw to Caiaphas, which was the high-priest that same year.) Now Annas sent him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest; where, though it was now the dead time of the night, all the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders or the chief persons of the Sanhedrim, with their proper officers, met together on a summons from Caiaphas, and were assembled with him, waiting for Jesus to be brought before them.

"And though Simon Peter had at first forsaken Christ, and shifted for himself, as the rest of his companions did, yet afterward he and another disciple, even the evangelist John, bethought themselves, and determined to return; and accordingly they followed Jesus afar off,* desiring to see what would become of him; and as the other disciple was known to the high priest,† he was admitted without

(Followed Jesus afar off.) It appears from hence that Peter and John recovered themselves quickly after their flight, or else they could not have followed at some distance, and yet be so near as to be ready to go into Caiaphas' house with him."

"(That disciple was known to the high priest.) We cannot imagine the acquaintance was very intimate, considering the