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"And when they had said this, Pilate, who now was something easier in his own mind, and was desirous to satisfy the people ;* since he per

during the siege of Jerusalem; of whom Josephus himself writes, that having been scourged and tortured in a very terrible manner, they were crucified in the view, and near the walls of this city perhaps, among other places, on Mount Calvary. : And it is very probable, this might have been the fate of some of those very persons who now joined in this cry, as it undoubtedly was of many of their children. For Josephus, who was an eye witness, expressly declares, 'that the number of those thus crucified was so great, that there was not room for the crosses to stand by each other; and that at last they had not wood enough to make crosses of. A passage, which especially when compared with the verse before us, impresses and astonishes me beyond any other which I recollect in the whole story. If this were not the very finger of God pointing out their crime in crucifying his Son, it is hard to say what could deserve to be called so. Elsner has abundantly shown, that among the Greeks, the persons on whose testimony others were put to death, used, by a very solemn execration, to devote themselves to the divine vengeance, if the person so condemned were not really guilty. (Elsner's Observations, vol. i. p. 123-125.) We are told by Grotius, (De Jure Bell.) that Titus commanded the women and children of the Jews to be exposed in theatres, and there to be devoured by wild beasts; a fact, which I should have thought it extremely proper to mention here, if any authority were produced to support it; but as I cannot meet with any such account in Josephus, I am ready to ascribe what Grotius says of it to a slip of memory in that great critic; especially, considering how improbable it was that so humane a prince as Titus should be guilty of such almost unexampled cruelty. On the contrary, in the only passage I recollect where Josephus speaks of exposing the Jewish captives to wild beasts, it is expressly said that Titus sold all who were under seventeen years old."

(Desirous to satisfy the people.) As his former administration had given them a great deal of disgust, he might very probably think it absolutely necessary thus to appease them;

ceived it could be done in no other way, pronounced sentence, that what they demanded should be done, and that Jesus should be put to death. And in pursuance of that sentence, he released to them Barabbas, who was thrown into prison for sedition and murder; but whom, aggravated as his crimes were, they had importunately desired in preference to Christ; and having scourged Jesus, he did not renew that torture.* However, he delivered him to their will to be crucified, with such circumstances as they thought proper; and they soon showed that their tender mercies were cruel.

"And when the Jewish mob had thus prevailed, after they had mocked and insulted him for a while, just as the Roman soldiers had before done in the Prætorium, deriding his pretences to a kingdom, and abusing him like the vilest slave, they took the purple robe off from him, and having dressed him again in his own garments, they led him away to be crucified in the manner which we shall presently relate.

yet they afterwards followed him with their accusations to his ruin; and thus by the righteous judgment of God, he lost all the advantage which he hoped to gain by this base compliance; as Felix did when he afterwards injured Paul on the same unworthy principles." (Acts xxiv. 27.)

* "(Having already scourged Jesus.) Many critics, and among the rest Elsner, (Observ. vol. i. p. 125,) have shown that scourging used to precede crucifixion; but as John, who is most exact in his account of this part of the story, mentions his having been scourged before, and says nothing of the repetition of it, (which, considering Pilate's conviction of his innocence,) he would probably spare, I choose to interpret the word in this manner, which the original will very well bear."

"IMPROVEMENT.-Let us now by a lively act of faith, bring forth the blessed Jesus to our imagination, as Pilate brought him forth to the people; let us with affectionate sympathy survey the indignities which were offered him, when He gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, and hid not his face from shame and spitting: behold the man, wearing his purple robe and thorny crown, and bearing the reed which smote him in his right hand for a sceptre! Behold, not merely the man, but the Son of God, the incarnate Deity, thus vilely degraded, thus infamously abused! Shall we, as it were, increase his sufferings, and while we condemn the fury and cruelty of the Jews, shall we crucify him to ourselves afresh, and put him to an open shame? (Heb. vi. 6.) Or shall we overlook him with slight and contempt, and hide our faces from him, who for our sake thus exposed his own? (Isa. liii. 3.) Let the caution even of this heathen judge, who feared when he heard He so much as pretended to be the Son of God, engage us to reverence him, especially considering in how powerful and incontestable a manner He has now been declared to be so. (Rom. i. 4.) Let us in this sense have nothing to do with the blood of this just person; let his example teach us patiently to submit to those sufferings which God shall appoint for us, remembering, that no enemies and no calamities we meet with, could have any power against us, except it were given them from above. How wonderful was it,

that Pilate should acquit Christ even while he

condemned him; and speak of him as a righteous person, in the same breath with which he doomed him to the death of the most flagitious malefactor! And how lamentably does the power of worldly interest over conscience appear, when, after all the convictions of his own mind, as well as the admonitions of his wife, he yet gave him up to popular fury. O Pilate, how gloriously hadst thou fallen in the defence of innocence-in the defence of the Almighty Son of God! And how justly did God afterwards leave thee to perish by the resentment of that people whom thou didst forfeit thy innocence to oblige! Who can, without trembling, read that dreadful imprecation, May his blood be on us, and on our children! Words which even to this day have their remarkable and terrible accomplishment in that curse which has pursued the Jews through seventeen hundred years. Lord, may it at length be averted, and even turned into a blessing! May they look on him whom they have pierced, and mourn till all the obstinacy of their hearts be subdued--till they bow down in glad submission to that King whom God has set on his holy hill; and thus are brought themselves to reign with him in everlasting honour and joy!

"Now, after Pilate had passed sentence upon Jesus, to satisfy the restless clamour of the Jews, and had delivered him to the soldiers to be crucified, his prosecutors having gained their point, hastened his execution; and having insulted and abused him, (as was said before,) they took Jesus and led him away to that terrible punishment.

And to expose him to the greater ignominy and reproach, and to prejudice the people more strongly against him, there were also two other men who were condemned to die upon the cross for a robbery, and were well known to be great malefactors, that were led out of Jerusalem with him to be executed at the same time, that in such company He might be thought to suffer for the worst of crimes.

"And Jesus thus attended as as a criminal, was led through the city, carrying a heavy part of his cross on his shoulders, according to the custom of those who were to be crucified. And in this manner He went out of the city to a place which lay on the western side of Jerusalem, but a little without the boundaries of it, which was called in the Hebrew language Golgotha, or the place of a skull, because the bodies of many criminals, having been executed on that little eminence, were buried there.

"And as they led him on, Jesus was now so faint with the loss of blood, so very sore with the lashes

" *

(Carrying a heavy part of his cross, went out of the city, &c.) Dr. Lardner has abundantly proved from many quotations, that it was customary not only for the Jews, (Numb. xv. 35; 1 Kings xxi. 13; Acts vii. 58,) but also for the Sicilians, Ephesians, and Romans, to execute their malefactors without the gates of their cities. (See his Credibility, part 1. vol. i. page 354, 355.) What our Lord carried was not the whole cross, but only that transverse piece of wood, to which his arms were afterwards fastened, and which was called antennæ, or furca, going across the stipes or upright beam, which was fixed in the earth. This the criminal used to carry, and therefore was called furcifer. See Bishop Pearson on the Creed, page 203, 204."

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