Moreover the Chief Priests with the Elders and the Scribes, who were by way of being the rulers of the people, and ought to have restrained their malice, were worse than the others in deriding Thee; for, with glaring eyes, and stretched out necks, they stood over against the Cross, casting up at Thee impudent glances; and, jesting one with another, poured forth their shameful blasphemies, saying: "He saved others; Himself He cannot save." Thus did they strive to misrepresent and to disparage the wonders which Thou hadst divinely wrought, and the gifts of healing, which Thou hadst so mercifully dispensed, but of which they were known to be envious. They suggest therefore that Thou shouldst come down from the Cross, falsely pretending that they, who had so often shown themselves the enemies of true believers, would then believe in Thee. When Thou didst work yet greater miracles than this, they piled up false accusations against Thee, instead of believing in them: clearly, therefore, what they now wanted was, not to believe, nor to seek for Salvation, but to provoke Thee by their malice. And so, at length, brimming over with presumptuous insolence, they flung at Thy Divine Nature impious words; and, addressing Thee as the Son of God, they said: " He trusted in God: let Him now deliver Him, if He will have Him: for He said . I am the Son of God."
O most cruel and most savage persecutors of the Son of God, why were ye not content with perpetrating the horrible crime of the Crucifixion? Why must ye add to your sins that of blaspheming and deriding the Son of God? Alas! Alas! what do ye? Why sharpen your venomous tongues upon One so loving and so spotless? Wherein has
