murderer and a robber 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 a lamp that burneth. (Compare 1 Pet. ii. 23, and Isa. lxii. 1.) But to proceed in the history.

"Then as the priests and people of the Jews continued their clamorous demand that Jesus should be crucified, Pilate thought it most advisable to seem at least to consent to it, and therefore took Jesus and scourged him, hoping that after He had been severely scourged, the rage of the populace would be something abated, and they might at last be prevailed upon to consent that He should be dismissed. Then the soldiers of the governor, knowing that it was the Roman custom to scourge prisoners just before they were put to death, (a barbarous, heathenish custom,) interpreted Pilate's order on this head as a declaration that He was immediately to be crucified; and therefore, they took Jesus, and led him away into the common hall in Pilate's palace, which was called the prætorium, (as being the place where the prætor, a Roman magistrate, used to keep his court,) and there they gathered to him the whole band or cohort to insult and torment him, not being concerned to keep any measures with a person whom they looked upon as entirely abandoned to their will; and having stripped him of that splendid garment in which Herod had contemptuously dressed him, in order to vary the mockery and

affront, they wantonly clothed him in a vest of imperial purple, and put on him a scarlet robe over it, that in this gaudy dress He might have something of a mock resemblance to a prince. And further to ridicule his pretensions to royalty, which they considered as an affront to their nation and emperor, the soldiers having maliciously plaited a crown of thorns, put it upon his head, and put a large reed or cane into his right hand, to represent a sceptre. And then they began in a ludicrous manner to pay their homage and salutations to him, as to a newcreated prince on his coronation day; and bowing the knee before him, they did him reverence in a scoffing way, and mocked him, saying, All hail, thou most magnificent king of the Jews! hail, mighty monarch! we give thee joy on thy accession to the crown!' and then approaching him, as if they would have offered him some present, as usual on such occasions, they smote him with their hands, and proceeded so far as to spit upon him, even in his very face; and at last took the reed or cane out of his hand,† and barbarously

'(Having plaited a crown of thorns.) It is certain they intended hereby to expose his pretended royalty to ridicule and contempt; but had that been all, a crown of straws might have served as well. They undoubtedly meant to add cruelty to their scorn, which especially appeared in their striking him on the head, when this crown was put on. If the best descriptions of the eastern thorns are to be credited, they are much larger than any commonly known in these parts."

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t (Took the reed or cane out of his hand.) The word Kaλaμoç does, indeed, sometimes signify a slender reed, (Matt. xi. 7; xii. 20; and 3 John ver. 13;) but it includes all kinds

struck him with it on the head, and so, as it were, nailed down the thorns into his forehead and temples, and occasioned thereby exquisite pain, (in addition to the agony He was enduring from the stripes laid upon him by the Roman soldiers,) as well as a great effusion of blood; all which this holy Sufferer bore with the utmost meekness and composure, neither reviling nor threatening them, but silently committing himself to the righteous invisible Judge," (1 Pet. ii. 23 ;) who, that He might be perfectly glorified in his beloved Son, allowed the powers of darkness to pursue their malignant rage against him; thereby at once illustrating their wickedness and impotence, together with the infinite perfection of his almighty Son, whose transcendent righteousness could never have been fully demonstrated, or the constellation of mercies purchased, which now are purchased by his unspeakable merits, had He not, unto the uttermost, endured all the tortures which the malice of devils and men could possibly de- . vise wherewith to try his constancy and virtue.

"In the mean time, Pilate was taken up with trying and condemning some other prisoners, who were to be executed that day; and while he thus was sitting on the tribunal he had erected, his wife having by this time been informed that Jesus had been brought before him, and was going to be given up to death, sent a very importunate

of canes; and it is most probable this was a walking-staff, which they put into his hand as a sceptre; for a blow with a slight reed would scarce have been felt or have deserved a mention in a detail of such dreadful sufferings.

message to him,* saying, I beseech thee see to it, that thou have nothing to do with the blood of that righteous one, against whom the Jews are now demanding judgment; for I have suffered many things this day on his account in a dream,† and have had such terrible views represented to my imagination in my sleep this very morning, that I cannot but look upon it as something divine, and conclude, that if thou dost upon any terms consent to his death, it will be attended

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(His wife sent to him.) While Rome was governed by a commonwealth, it was unusual for the governors of provinces to take their wives with them; but afterwards it grew customary, and the motion made against it in the fourth year of Tiberius, was rejected with some indignation.-See Tacit. Annal. lib. iii. cap. 33, 44."

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+ (I have suffered many things to day on his account in a dream.) Perhaps the word onμepov, to-day, may imply, that she had dreamt these things that morning since Pilate rose; and as the heathens imagined those dreams most significant which came about break of day, she might on that account lay the greater stress on them. Jansenius thinks she had now a representation of those calamities which afterwards befell Pilate and his family. Josephus expressly assures us, that Pilate having slain a considerable number of seditious Samaritans, was deposed from his government by Vitellius, and sent to Tiberius at Rome, who died before he arrived there. And Eusebius tells us, (Hist. Eccles. lib. ii. cap. 7.) that quickly after, (having, as others say, been banished to Vienne in Gaul,) he laid violent hands upon himself, falling on his own sword. Agrippa, who was an eye witness to many of his enormities, speaks of him in his oration to Caius Cæsar, as one who had been a man of a most infamous character. (Philo. Jud. in Leg. p. 1034;) and by that manner of speaking as Valesius well observes, it is plainly intimated he was then dead probably, the accusations of other Jews following him, had before that proved his destruction."

with dreadful consequences to thyself and thy family.

"Pilate therefore alarmed by such a message as this, went into the common hall himself, to see what they were doing with the prisoner; and when he beheld with strong emotion all those indignities and torments which Jesus had borne, and saw how severely the soldiers had scourged him, thinking that the sight of him in so sad a condition might move the Jews to compassion, he determined to make one trial more. And accordingly he came out again to the public tribunal where the Jews were assembled, and having ordered Jesus to be led thither, he said to them just before He appeared, Behold, I am bringing him out to you again, that you may know and observe it, that I can find no fault in him; though the tortures He has now undergone are such, as must surely have brought him to confession, if He were indeed guilty.

Then as he spake these words, Jesus came out of the prætorium, wearing the thorny crown and the purple robe, now also dyed in his own blood, which streamed forth from all parts of his body; and Pilate said to them, Behold the man; view him attentively, and when you see what dreadful things the poor unhappy creature has suffered, let that content you; for surely, considering his innocence, He has suffered already much more than enough. When therefore the chief priests and their attending officers saw him, fearing lest the people should relent, they presently renewed their exclamations, and eagerly