count of a beautiful piece of Mosaic work with which the floor was adorned; but in Hebrew it was called Gabbatha,* or the High Place, because it stood on an eminence, so that the judge, being seated there on his tribunal, might be heard and seen by a considerable number of people. "And it was then the preparation of the Passover, or the sixth day of the week, and consequently the day which fell before the paschal sabbath, which was observed with some peculiar solemnity, (see John xix. 31,) and the morning was so far advanced, that it was drawing on apace towards the sixth hour, and was now about the third hour, or nine in the morning, which obliged them to dispatch, that they might have execution done as usual before noon. And Pilate finding, after all, that he must yield to the people, and consent to the death of Jesus, lest his former struggle should be misrepresented at Rome, was resolved to manage this incident so as to procure from the Jews a public acknowledgment of Cæsar's authority; and therefore, pointing to Jesus, as He now appeared in this mock pomp of royalty, he says to the Jews, who were present in vast numbers, Behold your King, if you think fit to own him, * 66 (In Hebrew, Gabbatha.) There are various etymologies of this word: I think the most probable is, that which derives it from, elevavit, and so it intimates its being raised on high. It was, perhaps, a kind of stage or scaffold, in the midst of a spacious area belonging to the palace, in which the governor might place himself on public, and especially on judicial occasions. It plainly appears from the connexion of the words, that it was not in his house, but somewhere without, probably in some open place." as it is said many of you have done. But they again cried out with indignation and disdain, Away with him! away with him! we are so far from owning him, that we desire thee to crucify him. Pilate says to them, What, shall I crucify your king? How strange, and how extravagant a demand is this! And the chief priests answered in the name of all the people, We have no king but the emperor Tiberius Cæsar, whose royal authority we all of us acknowledge, and will always maintain. "And Pilate seeing that it signified nothing any longer to oppose the popular torrent, but that they rather grew more tumultuous by the delay, was determined, however, to do all he could to make his own conscience easy in complying with this their unjust request; and therefore, he took water, and washed his hands in the presence of the multitude, saying, I call heaven and earth to witness, that I am innocent of the blood of this righteous man; look you to the consequences of shedding it, and remember, you are answerable for them, whatever they may prove. And all the people answered, saying, We will venture those consequences; may his blood, if innocent, be on us and on our children! and may the curse of shedding it lie on us, throughout all generations!* * " (May his blood be on us, and on our children.) As this terrible imprecation was dreadfully answered in the ruin so quickly brought on the Jewish nation, and the calamities which have since pursued that wretched people in almost all ages and countries, so it was peculiarly illustrated in the severity with which Titus, merciful as he naturally was, treated the Jews whom he took "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 pre-vailed, 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.) * 66 "(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 |