25o The NEW and COMPLETE LIFE Of Our BLESSED LORD Peter, who had come with him : And Simon Peter followed Jefus, and fo did another difciple: that difciple was known unto the highprig, and went in with Jefus into the palaceof the highpriejl. But Peter flood at the door without. Then went out that other difciple, and fpake unto her that kept the door, and brought in Peter. And when they had kindled afire in the mid,ft of the hall, and werePet down together, Peter fat down among them. The maid- fervant who kept the door concluding Peter to be a difciple alto, followed after him to the fire, and looking earneftly at him, charged him with the fuppofed crime : Thenfaith the damfel that kept the door unto Peter, Art not thou alfo one of this man's difciples? This blunt attack threw Peter into fuch confufion, that he flatly denied his having any connefl.ion with JESUS,' replying, Ian not, and adding, I know not, neither un- dezfiand Iwhat thou fay. As if he had faid, I do not underfiand there is any rea- fon for your afking me fuch a queftion. Thus, the very apoftle who had before acknowledged his Mailer to be the Mef- fsah, the Son of the Living God, who was honouredwith the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and had fo confidently boafted of fortitude, and firm attachment to him in the greateft dangers, proved an arrant deferter of his caufe upon trial. Hisfhame- ful fears were altogether inexcufable, as the enemy who attacked him was one of the weaker fex, and the terror of the charge was, in a great meafure, taken off by the infinuation made in it, that John -was likewife known to be CHRIST'S difciple; for, as he was known at the high-priefl's, he was confequently known in that charac- ter : Art thou not alfo one of this man's dif''iples? Art thou not one of them as' well as he who is fitting with you? Equi- vocation, mental refervation, and fisch like. bare arts, are below the dignity and cou- rage of reafonable creatures ; but down- right lying, and that in the prefence of John his fellow- difciple, is abominable, and can only be accounted for, by the confu- fion and panic which had feized him on this bccafion. As Peter's inward pertur- bation muff have appeared in his counte- nance and geflure, he didnot choofe to flay long with the fervants at the fire : he went . out, therefore, into the porch, where he was a little concealed : And he went out into the porch, and the cock crew, namely, for the firfl time. And a maidjaw him again, and began tofay to them thatfloodby, This is one of them; and he again denied it with anoath, Iknow not the man : thus ag- gravating his former crimeby that of perjury. Peter havingbeen thus attacked without doors, thought proper to return and mix with the crowd at the fire : And Simon Peter flood and warmed himfelf. From this circumftance We may conclude, that the enfuing was the third denial ; and that Peter left the porch where the fecond de- nial happened, and was come again into the hall:. Here one of the fervants of the high firm, being his kinfrnan 'whole ear Peter cut off, faith, Did not I fee thee in the garden with him? Peter then denied again, and immediately the cock crew. The words of Malchus's kinfman bringing to Peter's remembrance what he had done to that fervant, threw him into fuch a panic, that when thofe who flood by repeated the charge; he impudently denied it : He even began to cufe and to fwear, Paying, I know not this man Of whom ye fpeak. For, when they heard Peter deny the charge, they fupported it by an argument drawn from the accent with which he pro- nounced his anfwer. Surely thou art one of them, for thou art a Galilean, and thy fpeech agreeth thereto ; fo that, being preffed on all fides, to give his lie the better colour, he profaned the name of God, by imprecating the bittereft curfes on, himfelf, if he was telling a falfehood: perhaps, he hoped, by thefe afls of im- piety, to convince them effeftually, that he was not CttRtST'S difciple. This zealous apoftle thus denied Isis Mailer three diftini times, with oaths and aQéverations, totally forgetting the vehement protcftations
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=