to all creatures, and reverence thee as my God, and as the only Son of the eternal Father. Thy works manifest thee sufficiently; thy miracles make all nature sensible of what thou art; there is only the malice and blindness of men that know thee not. But when thou discoverest to my heart, that is totally blind, a ray of thy divine light, O eternal beauty! ah, how clearly does it then see that thou art the true Son of God! and in how comfortable a manner does the impression of thy spirit give me the experience of this truth! When will that happy day come, when my soul, charmed with thy beauty, shall say to thee, thou art my God, my Lord, and my love? when will the moment come, when I shall be able to love nothing, and esteem nothing but thee, O my sovereign good, and the centre of repose?

VII. Thou art judged worthy of death, because thou madest thyself king! Alas, O Lord! thou never hadst any mark of royalty on earth; and always concealed thy majesty. But when the sea became firm under thy feet, and calm at the least sign of thy will; when death and the graves obeyed thy voice; when the devils departed by thy command from the bodies of the possessed; when diseases gave way to thy power; did not all creatures, though insensible, acknowledge thee for their king? I acknowledge thee also for mine, O divine Jesus! and adore thee as my sovereign Lord and Redeemer.

Thou governest me by thy wisdon, chastisest me by thy justice, pardonest me by thy mercy, instructest me by thy law, enrichest me by thy liberality, and defendest me by thy power. How comes

it then that the Jews look upon thee as a mock king? Do not the prodigies thou workest sufficiently show thy sovereign power; and do not the devils themselves confess it?

But since those foolish people will not have thee to reign over them, come, Lord! and reign over me; establish thy empire in my soul, and let nothing therein resist thy will. Let those who believe not in thee, condemn and refuse to obey thee; for my part, O my God! I acknowledge thee, receive thee, cast myself at thy feet, and submit myself entirely to thee; because I know thou art my true King. Accept the homage I pay thee; grant that I may be faithful to thee, may not betray thee, and may never abandon thy service.

VIII. They still accuse thee of having forbidden to pay tribute to Cæsar. What a falsehood! who was ever more exempt than thou, O my God! from this obligation? And yet thou hast always submitted thereto. Carried to Bethlehem, in obedience to Cæsar's command, and to pay him at thy coming into the world, the tribute he required of his subjects. Thou didst command Peter to pay the tribute for thee and himself; and thou publicly taughtest that we must render to Cæsar what belongs to Cæsar.

Thou art loaded with false accusations, O my Jesus! and answerest nothing. They return thee evil for the good thou hast done, falsehood for the truth thou hast taught, and iniquity for the justice which thou hast maintained; and thou didst not so much as say one single word in thy own defence! Permit me, therefore, O Lord! to speak for thee. How couldst thou detain the goods of another, thou who art the author and dispenser of all goods? What need hast thou of the tributes that are paid to the kings of the earth, thou from whom they themselves hold all they possess, and who hast despised all their grandeur for my sake. It is true, that thou exactest a tribute of me; but is the tribute of my love; and that thou forbiddest me, under severe penalties, to pay to any other besides thyself. If that be thy crime, O my Lord and my King! the Jews cannot be accused of falsehood; but that tribute is entirely due to thee, O thou God of my heart! since thou hast acquired it with the price of thy blood. It is not enough to give thee the fruits thereof, I offer thee my whole heart; permit no creature, O Lord! ever to share it with thee.

IX. In fine, these sacrilegious people say, that thou art a seditious person and a disturber of the public peace; thou, O sweet Jesus! who art the Lamb of God, and the Prince of Peace; thou who reconcilest us to thy Father, teachest us so holy a doctrine. purifiest our faith, retrenchest the false interpretations which the corruption of men had added to the law of God, bringest us a law full of sweetness, and unitest all our hearts in the unity of thy love. Those who hear and follow thee, enjoy a solid peace; and those who abandon thee, fall into trouble.

What tumult didst thou then excite amongst the people, O my God! Thou hast borne with the sins of the whole world, received sinners, and healed the sick: thou hast enlightened the blind, taught the way to heaven; and yet they called thee a disturber of the public peace! Be thou blessed, O my Lord and my God! for the profound silence thou keepest under so evident a calumny, against the sanctity of thy works, and innocency of thy life, by suffering thyself to be thus condemned, as if thou hadst been guilty, I adore that heroic patience, and that extreme love, which made thee suffer everything without defending thyself. When wilt thou kindle in my heart, that heavenly fire, which thou hast brought upon earth?

O most sacred Mother of God! you, who share with your wellbeloved Son the affronts which he suffers, who pass for the mother of an impostor, and a seditious person, and who so sensibly feel the false testimonies wherewith they blacken his innocency, obtain me an ardent and sincere desire of resembling him; and that all my joy may be to suffer for him, and all my glory to live with him in abjection and contempt. Ye angels of God, who behold this

truth; ye saints of heaven, who have followed him, bless the Lord for me, and obtain me the grace of comprehending and loving him, and never to seek any other glory than that of resembling this divine Saviour. Amen.

THIRTY-FIRST SUFFERING OF CHRIST.-He is abandoned in the night-time to the insolence of the soldiers.

I. The crimes which the Pharisees and chiefs of the Jews accused our Saviour of were so manifestly false, and his innocence was so well known, that they justly feared they could not obtain his condemnation, either from the people or from Pilate; and that they should be looked upon afterwards as wicked persons and calumniators. For whereas, truth and virtue fear nothing, because they carry their own defence along with them; malice, on the contrary, is afraid of itself, especially when, to hide its poison, it covers itself with the appearances of zeal. It is as apprehensive of the light, as innocence is desirous of it. It is always diffident, and never thinks itself secure, even under the guise of virtue. Thus it is never at rest; apprehends everything; seeks new artifices every moment for its defence; heaps crime upon crime, till it comes at last to a terrible excess; and nothing is more true than these words of the wise man: A troubled conscience always forecasteth grievous things.-Wisdom, xvii. 10.

Therefore the Pharisees and chief-priests applied themselves so diligently to destroy the reputation of Christ, and to establish their own, that they everywhere defamed his person, life, doctrine, and miracles; and resolved at last, by a diabolical malice, to render him contemptible to the people. They knew how inconstant the populace were in their judgments; that they never penetrate the bottom of things; and that they always allow themselves to be carried away by noise, following the multitude, and dazzled by appearances.

II. They therefore no longer observed any measures with our Saviour. When they saw themselves masters of his person, they affronted him openly, and ill-treated him in so unheard of a manner, that the vulgar were shaken in their first sentiments concerning him. They began to think, that if that man were as holy as he was said to be, the priests, who were the depositories of the law of God, and the Pharisees, who made profession of sanctity, would not treat him so unworthily. That they had some private reasons for using him so, and had perhaps found some considerable crime in his conduct, which it was not proper to publish. Indeed that artifice succeeded with them; for the next day, that very people who had followed Christ, were charmed with his doctrine, astonished at his miracles, and had received him as the

Messiah, abandoned him so far as to join against him with his cruellest enemies.

III. Then it was that their hatred, which they had so long dissembled, began to break out. They affronted him in a thousand ways, as also did the soldiers who guarded him. They rudely struck him, and buffetted him, whereby his sacred face became swollen and livid; they pulled his beard and hair; and although all that was done in the darkness of night, it was visible next day what he had suffered during so cruel a night. This artifice succeeding, prompted them also to observe no longer any form of justice, and to corrupt Pilate's judgment; who, not knowing any other of Christ than what he had heard from his malicious accusers, had, even upon their accusations, judged him innocent, yet was prevailed upon by. them, so far as to pass an unjust sentence against him, not having the courage to resist the rage of the people, and the cabal of the magistrates.

IV. Our Saviour had already received a blow on the face in Annas's house; but after he had been judged guilty of blasphemy at the house of Caiphas, all strove which should ill-treat him most. They tied his hands behind his back, put a cord about his neck, and held him fast, that he might not turn away his face when they struck him. That precaution was needless: for, after having told us, that to him who strikes us on the cheek, we ought to offer also the other (Luke, vi. 29), he was resolved to confirm by his own example, the doctrine he had taught us; and if he did it not, when he received a blow in the house of Annas, it was because he had a regard to our weakness, and would comfort us in the extreme repugnance we feel in suffering affronts.

He taught us therefore by that conduct, that though we feel in ourselves a very sensible pain when we are ill-treated, yet we ought to avoid impatience and wrath, which always scandalize our neighbour; and to testify by our words and by our whole exterior behaviour, a Christian moderation. For that patience pleases God nevertheless, though it be not yet perfect: and if we are faithful in practising it on all occasions, our sorrow will soon be turned into joy, and our confusion into glory; and we shall at last esteem ourselves too happy, in being reputed worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus.-Acts v. 41.

V. That inhuman treatment was accompanied with so many confused outcries, such injurious words, and despising actions, that to comprehend the indignity thereof, we need only consider what the hatred of the Jews was against our Saviour; or rather that of the devil, who excited them to affront him at a time, when there was no person whose authority could stop or quell their insolence and cruelty. There is no beauty in him, nor comeliness, says the prophet (Isaias liii. 2), and we have seen him, and there was

no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him: despised and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity; and his look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him not. For that reason the prophet had said a little before, that what he was going to say would not be believed; and that the hand of God, laid heavy upon his Son, was incomprehensible.

VI. The countenance of Christ was so beautiful, so grave, and so modest, that it drew veneration from all those that beheld it; and whatever hatred the Jews might bear him, they were always restrained by a certain sentiment of respect, when they saw him, They knew also by their own experience, that he penetrated the bottom of hearts, and knew the most secret thoughts, since he had sometimes discovered the same to themselves. Hence it was that in order to satisfy their hatred with more freedom, they blindfolded him; and after having rudely struck him, and given him some blows, they said to him, by way of mockery, prophesy to us, O Christ! who is he that struck thee. What malice! what affront! and what indignity!—Matt. xxvi. 68.

He that shall compare the majesty of this Man-God, with the baseness of those that treat him so, shall be capable only of admiration and silence, especially if he considers the patience with which this King of Glory suffers such great ignominies, and the compassion he has even for those who make him suffer them.

VII. But what ought to redouble our astonishment, is, that the opinion of such numbers of men still to this day places the height of dishonour and infamy in those things which Christ suffers; I do not say not only Infidels, who-not knowing this Divine Mediatorconsider not those reproaches as the true remedy of their evils; but even among Christians, who are persuaded that his confusion is the source of their glory. A blow is so atrocious an injury to them, that they do not think they can wash off the stain but in his blood from whom they received it, and expose themselves to lose their own soul in order to deprive their enemy of life; and yet the faith which they profess, and the experience of the saints teach them, that it is an advantage for a Christian to suffer what Christ has suffered; that the hope of celestial blessings is established by injuries and contempt, and that charity is inflamed and purified thereby at the sight of our Saviour suffering and dying.

But alas! their own pride, and the vanity of worldly opinions, blinds them in such a manner, that they are not touched with the examples of Christ, nor with the purity of his doctrine. They bring for an excuse, their ignorance and weekness; but as they acknowledge that the error they are in upon this point, is manifestly contrary to evangelical truth, to the law of God, and to the example of our Saviour, which are an infallible rule to us; they endeavour to excuse themselves on account of their ignorance.