The morning of the happiest day for mankind in the whole course of time. 2. And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor. All we bound him, If you do not follow The Jews bound him ;-our sins. and delivered him to Pontius Pilate. him with this thought in every step of his passion, this gospel has been read to you in vain, and you will now hear the conclusion of it with cold hearts, without desire of his benefits, or faith in his death. 3. Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, Judas did not repent truly, and toward God; for then he would not have hanged himself. All sense of sin, and remorse of conscience for it, is not repentance. Judas was stung home, and yet it is certain he did not repent, any otherwise than the devils do. Reader, this is an opening of hell to thee. 4. Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. He knew his sin; and was horribly oppressed with the guilt of it, and could not help owning it to the chief priests, but did not confess it to God with hope of mercy; and herein his repentance was defective. 4. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. This is all the comfort that the devil and sin have for us in the end. Christ has better. Lay down thy sin at the foot of the cross. Thou art hearing of his death for it, for thy sin, whenever thou offerest it up to him in repentance. 5. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. 6. And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. O sanctified villains! "Straining at a gnat, and swallowing a camel." They would not suffer the price of blood to come into the sacred treasury, and yet it was what they themselves had given for the shedding of it. 7. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. 8. Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day. 9. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value; They are the words of Zechariah in Chap. xi. 12, 13. It is a fair solution of the difficulty, which, I believe, was first observed by Dr. Lightfoot, that as the prophecy of Jeremiah was sometimes placed first in order in the volume of the prophets, so the whole was called by, and cited under his name. Nevertheless, they might be the words of Jeremiah himself, in some prophecy not now extant. 10. And gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me. 11. And Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest. I am, though not in the sense that Pilate meant. 12. And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. To the accusation of the chief priests and elders. Standing in the place of sinners, he would not deny the guilt he bore. 13. Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee? 14. And he answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly. 15. Now at that feast the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would. 16. And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas. 17. Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ? 18. For he knew that for envy they had delivered him. They thought that they were doing an act of justice and religion. Pilate knew, and St. Matthew knew, that envy was at the bottom of it. The true motives of our actions lie deep, and, without great care, will be hidden from ourselves. What is man, with all his sincerity, without the blood of Christ? 19. When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. Judas the betrayer, and Pilate the judge of Christ, bore witness to his innocence. Here is another testimony added, by a dream from heaven. 20. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus. "And God suffered them to prevail; so that the multitude, which just before was for Christ, now clamoured as vehemently for his crucifixion. 21. The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas. 22. Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified. Jesus was silent in his own defence. Observe, I beseech you, how God supplied this defect, by making Pilate repeatedly declare his innocence; which was a more convincing testimony of it to all ages, than his own. 23. And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified. 24. When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. He was not innocent, by washing his hands, when he acted against clear knowledge and conviction. 25. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. This was terribly accomplished soon after. It will be, in the saving virtue of it, at their conversion. It is now upon us for good, through mercy, by their rejection of it. O! let us fly to it! If we do not seek for healing in the blood of Christ, we join with the Jews in this curse. 26. Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. 27. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. 28. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. Cruel mockery! patient Jesus! proud man that will bear nothing! 29. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, king of the Jews! The crown of thorns would cause exquisite pain in so tender a part, especially as the thorns were struck into his temples. Still we do not hear a word of complaint from him. 30. And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. 31. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him. 32. And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name him they compelled to bear his cross. He bore it himself at the first, but now probably was so faint and weary that he could bear it no longer. But though the flesh was weak, the spirit was willing to the last. 33. And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, 34. They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. It was a stupifying potion, and he would not lose the use of his reason, nor diminish the sense of his sufferings. SECTION LXXIII. Chap. xxvii. ver. 35–66. THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST. 35. And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. 36. And sitting down they watched him there; 37. And set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. The accusation of Jesus was his right; his triumph of love; our glory and salvation. That is seldom an accusation of the saints which the world thinks to be such. 38. Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left. He snatched one of them from the jaws of hell, to show the virtue of his cross to all repenting sinners. The other would not confess his sin, and died a thief. If thou wouldst not die a condemned man look to Jesus. 39. And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, |