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Jesus, he was exceeding glad: for he was desirous to see him of a long season, because he had heard many things of him; and he hoped to have seen some miracle done by him. Then he questioned with him in many words; but he answered him nothing. And the chief priests and Scribes stood and vehemently accused him. And Herod with his men of war set him at nought, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate. And the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together: for before they were at enmity between themselves. And he saith unto the Jews, Behold your king! But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Cæsar.

And Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, said unto them, Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that perverteth the people: and, behold, I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him: no, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him. I will therefore chastise him, and release him.

Behold, how all imaginable circumstances seem to conspire to increase the infamy thrown on that sacred head, which now most worthily wears a crown of eternal glory! Of a truth, O Lord, against thy holy Child Jesus, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the chief priests, and all the people of Israel, were gathered together, to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel had determined before to be done. (Acts iv. 27, 28.) The wisest person on earth was by Herod and his soldiers derided as a fool: the most deserving was condemned by the chief priests: and the most innocent was treated as a criminal by Pilate, and furiously demanded as a public victim by the Jews. All the proofs of his innocence are overborne by a loud and senseless cry: and those hosannahs with which the streets and temple were so lately echoing, are exchanged into Crucify him, crucify him. So uncertain is human applause, and so unrighteous may human judgments be.

But in the midst of all, the blessed Jesus stands collected in himself. Firm as a rock he bears the violence of the storm, and is not moved by all the furious waves that beat upon him; and when he saw a robber and a murderer preferred before him, and a sentence of the most cruel death clamorously called for and demanded against him, he silently commits himself to him that judgeth righteously, who ere long brought forth his righteousness as brightness, and his salvation as o lamp that burneth. (Compare 1 Peter ii. 23, and Isaiah lxii. 1.)

Lord, if thou callest us out to share in thy sufferings, may the Spirit of God and of glory thus rest on us! And may neither the scorn nor the rage of our enemies separate as from thee, who did so courageously bear all this for us; nor may they ever sink us into any weakness of behaviour unworthy of those who have the honour to call themselves thy followers!

SECTION CX.

MATT. XXVII. 15-26. MARK XV. 6-15. LUKE XXIII. 17-25. JOHN XIX. 16.

Now at that feast the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would. And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection. And the multitude crying aloud began to desire him to do as he had ever done unto them, (for of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast). 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? will ye that I release unto you the king of the Jews? For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy.

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. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus. The

governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? And they cried out all at once, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas. Pilate therefore, willing to release Jesus, answered and said again to them, saying, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? him whom ye call the king of the Jews? And they all cried out again, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. And Pilate said unto them the third time, Why, what evil hath he done? I have found no cause of death in him: I will therefore chastise him, and let him go. And they cried out the more exceedingly, they were instant with loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed.

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. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they had desired; and took Jesus and scourged him. And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required, and he delivered Jesus to their will to be crucified.

How wisely was it ordered by Divine Providence that Pilate should be obliged thus to acquit Christ, even while he condemned him; and to 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 ad. monitions of his wife, he yet gave him up to popular fury. O Pilate, how gloriously hadst thou fallen in the defence of the Son of God! and how justly did God afterwards leave thee to perish by the resentment of that people whom thou wast now so studious 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 accom plishment 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!

SECTION CXI.

MATT. XXVII. 27-34.

XXIII. 26-34.

MARK XV. 16-23. LUKE
JOHN XIX. 16-18.

THEN the soldiers of the governor took Jesus, and led him away into the common hall, called Pretorium: and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlot robe. 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! and they spit upon him, and smote him with their hands, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.

And the soldiers, after they had mocked him, took off the purple from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him out to crucify him.— And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha. And as they led him away, they laid hold upon a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus; on him they laid the cross, and compelled him to bear it after Jesus.

And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for your

selves, and for your children. For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?

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And there were also two other malefactors led with him to be put to death. And when they were come to the place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, they gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall and they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh; but he received it not: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. There they crucified him, and the two malefactors with him; one on the right hand, and the other on the left, and Jesus in the midst.

Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.

Here let us pause a while, and make a few serious reflections on this amazing story, which the evangelists relate with so much simplicity. Behold the Son of God bearing his cross, fainting under the load of it, and at length extended upon it, and nailed to it. Him they took, and with wicked hands crucified and slew him. (Acts ii. 23.) Blessed Jesus, was it for this that thou didst honour our nature by a union to thine own, and come from thy throne of glory to visit these abodes of misery and guilt! Was it for this that so many gracious discourses were delivered, and so many works of love and power performed! for this, that thou mightest be treated as the worst of criminals, and suspended on a cross in the air, as if unworthy of a place on earth even to die upon ! Amazing and lamentable sight! Justly, O sun, mightest thou blush to see it: justly, O earth, mightest thou tremble to support it!

Lord, like these pious women, who had the zeal and fortitude to attend thee, when thine own apostles forsook thee and fled, we would follow thee weeping: yet not for thee, but for ourselves: that our guilt had brought us under a condemnation, from which we could be redeemed by nothing less than the precious blood of the Son of God: that Lamb without blemish and without spot. (1 Peter i. 19.) We should behold herein the goodness and the severity of God, (Rom. xi. 22,) for while

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