tence had been theirs, the execution must be his; and now they hope to bear down Jesus, with the stream of that frequent confluence.

But what ails you, O ye Rulers of Israel, that ye stand thus thronging at the door? Why do ye not go in to that public room of judicature, to call for that justice ye came for? Was it, for that ye would not defile yourselves with the contagion of a heathen roof? Holy men! your consciences would not suffer you to yield to so impure an act; your Passover must be kept, your persons must be clean: while ye expect justice from the man, ye abhor the pollution of the place. Woe to you Priests, Scribes, Elders, Hypocrites: can there be any roof so unclean, as that of your own breasts? Not Pilate's walls, but your hearts are impure. Is murder your errand; and do you stick at a local infection? God shall smite you, ye whited walls. Do ye long to be stained with blood, with the blood of God? and do ye fear to be defiled with the touch of Pilate's pavement? Doth so small a gnat stick in your throats, while ye swallow such a camel of flagitious wickedness? Go out of yourselves, ye false dissemblers, if ye would not be unclean. Pilate, onwards, hath more cause to fear, lest his walls should be defiled with the presence of so prodigious monsters of impiety.

That plausible governor condescends to humour their superstition. They dare not come into him: he yields to go forth to them. Even Pilate begins justly, What accusation bring you against this man? It is no judging of religion by the outward demeanour of men: there is more justice amongst Romans, than amongst Jews. These malicious Rabbies thought it enough, that they had sentenced Jesus: no more was now expected, but a speedy execution. If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee. Civil justice must be their hangman. It is enough conviction, that he is delivered up to the secular powers.. Themselves have judged; these other must kill.

Pilate and Caiaphas have changed places: this pagan speaks that law and justice, which that high priest should have done; and that high priest speaks those murdering incongruities, which would better have beseemed the mouth of a pagan. "What needs any new trial? Dost thou know, Pilate, who we are? Is this the bonour, that thou givest to our sacred priesthood? Is this thy valuation of our sanctity? Had the basest of the vulgar complained to thee, thou couldst but have put them to a review. Our place and holiness looked not to be distrusted. If our scrupulous consciences suspect thy very walls, thou mayest well think there is small reason to suspect our consciences. Upon a full hearing, ripe deliberation, and exquisitely-judicial proceeding, we have sentenced this malefactor to death: there needs no more from thec, but thy command of execution." O monster, whether of malice or unjustice! Must he then be a malefactor, whom ye will condemn? Is your bare word ground enough to shed blood? Whom did ye ever kiil, but the righteous? By whose hands perished the prophets? The

word was but mistaken; ye should have said, "If we had not been malefactors, we had never delivered up this innocent man unto thee."

It must needs be notoriously unjust, which very nature hath taught pagans to abhor. Pilate sees and hates this bloody suggestion and practice: "Do ye pretend holiness, and urge so injuri ous a violence? If he be such as ye accuse him, where is his conviction? If he cannot be legally convicted, why should he die? Do you think I may take your complaint for a crime? If I must judge for you, why have you judged for yourselves? Could ye suppose, that I would condemn any man unheard? If your Jewish laws yield you this liberty, the Roman laws yield it not to me. It is not for me, to judge after your laws, but after our own. Your prejudgment may not sway me. Since ye have gone so far, be ye your own carvers of justice; Take ye him, and judge him according to your law." O Pilate, how happy had it been for thee, if thou hadst held thee there! Thus, thou hadst washed thy hands more clean, than in all thy basons. Might law have been the rule of this judgment, and not malice, this blood had not been shed.

How palpably doth their tongue bewray their heart! It is not lawful for us, to put any man to death. Pilate talks of judgment; they talk of death. This was their only aim. Law was but a colour; judgment was but a ceremony: death was their drift; and without this, nothing. Blood-thirsty Priests and Elders! it is well, that this power of yours is restrained: no innocence could have been safe, if your lawless will had had no limits. It were pity, this sword should be in any, but just and sober hands. Your fury did not always consult with law: what law allowed your violence to Stephen, to Paul and Barnabas, and your deadly attempts against this Blessed Jesus whom ye now persecute? How lawful was it for you, to procure that death, which ye could not inflict? It is all the care of hypocrites, to seek umbrages and pretences for their hateful purposes; and to make no other use of laws, whether divine or human, but to serve turns.

Where death is fore-resolved, there cannot want accusations. Malice is not so barren, as not to yield crimes enough. And they began to accuse him, saying, "We found this fellow perverting the nation; and forbidding to give tribute unto Cæsar, saying that he himself is Christ and king. What accusations saidst thou, O Pilate? Heinous and capital. Thou mightest have believed our confident intimation; but since thou wilt needs urge us to particulars, know that we come furnished with such an indictment, as shall make thine ears glow to hear it. Besides that blasphemy, whereof he hath been condemned by us, this man is a seducer of the people, a raiser of sedition, a usurper of sovereignty." O impudent suggestion! What marvel is it, O Saviour, if thine honest servants be loaded with slanders, when thy most innocent person escaped not so shameful criminations? Thou, a perverter of the nation, who taughtest the way of God truly! Thou, a forbidder of

tribute, who payedst it, who prescribedst it, who provedst it to be Cæsar's due! Thou, a challenger of temporal sovereignty, who avoidedst it, renouncedst it, professedst to come to serve! O the forehead of malice! Go, ye shameless traducers, and swear that truth is guilty of all falsehood, justice of all wrong; and that the sun is the only cause of darkness, fire of cold.

Now Pilate startles at the charge. The name of tribute, the name of Cæsar, is in mention: these potent spells can fetch him back to the Common Hall, and call Jesus to the bar. There, O Saviour, standest thou meekly to be judged, who shalt once come to judge the quick and the dead. Than shall he, before whom thou stoodest guiltless and dejected, stand before thy dreadful Majesty guilty and trembling.

The name of a king, of Cæsar, is justly tender and awful. The least whisper of a usurpation or disturbance is entertained with a jealous care. Pilate takes this intimation at the first bound; Art thou then the King of the Jews? He felt his own freehold now touched it was time for him to stir. Daniel's Weeks were now famously known to be near expiring. Many arrogant and busy spirits, (as Judas of Galilee, Theudas, and that Egyptian seducer,) taking that advantage, had raised several conspiracies, set up new titles to the crown, gathered forces to maintain their false claims. Perhaps, Pilate supposed some such business now on foot; and therefore asks so curiously, Art thou the King of the Jews?

He, that was no less Wisdom than Truth, thought it not best, either to affirm or deny at once. Sometimes, it may be extremely prejudicial, to speak all truths. To disclaim that title suddenly, which had been of old given him by the prophets, at his birth by the Eastern Sages, and now lately at his procession by the acclaiming multitude, had been injurious to himself; to profess and challenge it absolutely, had been unsafe, and needlessly provoking. By wise and just degrees, therefore, doth he so affirm this truth, that he both satisfies the inquirer, and takes off all peril and prejudice from his assertion. Pilate shall know him a King; but such a King, as no king needs to fear, as all kings ought to acknowledge and adore: My kingdom is not of this world.

It is your mistaking, O ye Earthly Potentates, that is guilty of your fears. Herod hears of a King born; and is troubled: Pilate hears of a King of the Jews; and is incensed. Were ye not ignorant, ye could not be jealous. Had ye learned to distinguish of kingdoms, these suspicions would vanish. There are secular kingdoms, there are spiritual; neither of these trenches upon other your kingdom is secular, Christ's is spiritual; both may, both must stand together. His laws are Divine; yours, civil: His reign is eternal; yours, temporal: the glory of His rule is inward, and stands in the graces of sanctification, love, peace, righteousness, joy in the Holy Ghost; yours, in outward pomp, riches, magnificence: His enemies are the Devil, the World, the Flesh; yours are bodily usurpers, and external peace-breakers:

His sword is the power of the word and Spirit; yours, material: His rule is over the conscience; yours, over bodies and lives: He punishes with hell; ye, with temporal death or torture. Yea, so far is he from opposing your government, that by Him ye kings reign : your sceptres are His; but to maintain, not to wield, not to resist. O the unjust fears of vain men! He takes not away your earthly kingdoms, who gives you heavenly: He discrowns not the body, who crowns the soul: His intention is not to make you less great, but more happy.

The charge is so fully answered, that Pilate acquits the prisoner. The Jewish Masters stand still without: their very malice dares not venture their pollution, in going in to prosecute their accusation. Pilate hath examined him within; and now comes forth to these eager complainants, with a cold answer to their over-hot expectation; I find in him no fault at all. O noble testimony of Christ's Innocence from that mouth, which afterwards doomed him to death!

What a difference there is, betwixt a man, as he is himself, and as he is the servant of others' wills! It is Pilate's tongue, that says, I find in him no fault at all: it is the Jews' tongue in Pilate's mouth, that says, Let him be crucified. That cruel sentence cannot blot him, whom this attestation cleareth.

Neither doth he say, "I find him not guilty in that, whereof he is accused;" but gives an universal acquittance of the whole carriage of Christ, I find in him no fault at all. In spite of malice, Innocence shall find abettors. Rather than Christ shall want witnesses, the mouth of Pilate shall be opened to his justification. How did these Jewish blood suckers stand thunder stricken, with so unexpected a word! His absolution was their death; his acquittal, their conviction. "No fault, when we have found crimes! No fault at all, when we have condemned him for capital offences! How palpably doth Pilate give us the lie! How shamefully doth he affront our authority, and disparage our justice!" So ingenuous a testimony doubtless exasperated the fury of these Jews: the fire of their indignation was seven-fold more intended, with the sense of their repulse.

I tremble to think, how just Pilate as yet was, and how soon after depraved ; yea, how merciful, together with that justice. How fain would he have freed Jesus, whom he found faultless!

Corrupt custom, in memory of their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, allowed to gratify the Jews with the free delivery of some one prisoner. Tradition would be encroaching: the Paschal Lamb was monument enough of that happy rescue: men affect to have something of their own. Pilate was willing to take this advantage, of dismissing Jesus. That he might be the more likely to prevail, he proposeth him, with the choice and nomination of so notorious a malefactor, as he might justly think uncapable of all mercy; Barabbas, a thief, a murderer, a seditionary; infamous for all, odious to all. Had he propounded some other innocent prisoner, he might have feared the election would be doubt

ful: he cannot misdoubt the competition of so prodigious a malefactor. Then they all cried again, Not Him, but Barabbas. O Malice, beyond all example shameless and bloody! Who can but blush to think, that a Heathen should see Jews so impetuously unjust, so savagely cruel? He knew there was no fault to be found in Jesus; he knew there was no crime, that was not to be found in Barabbas yet he hears, and blushes to hear, them say, Not Him, but Barabbas.

Was not this, think we, out of similitude of condition? Every thing affects the like to itself: every thing affects the preservation of that it liketh. What wonder is it then, if ye Jews, who profess yourselves the murderers of that Just One, favour a Ba

rabbas ?

O Saviour, what a killing indignity was this, for thee to hear from thine own nation! Hast thou refused all glory, to put on shame and misery, for their sakes? Hast thou disregarded thy Blessed Self, to save them? And do they refuse thee for Barabbas? Hast thou said, "Not heaven, but earth; not sovereignty, but service; not the Gentile, but the Jew?" and do they say, Not him, but Barabbas? Do ye thus requite the Lord, O ye foolish people and unjust? Thus were thine ears and thine eyes first crucified; and, through them, was thy soul wounded even to death, before thy death; while thou sawest their rage, and heardest their noise of Crucify, Crucify.

Pilate would have chastised thee. Even that had been a cruel mercy from him; for what evil hadst thou done? But that cruelty had been true mercy to this of the Jews, whom no blood would satisfy, but that of thy heart. He calls for thy fault; they call for thy punishment: as proclaiming thy crucifixion is not intended to satisfy justice, but malice, They cried the more, Crucify him, Crucify him.

As their clamour grew, so the President's justice declined. Those graces, that lie loose and ungrounded, are easily washed away with the first tide of popularity. Thrice had that man proclaimed the Innocence of him, whom he now inclines to condemn, willing to content the people. O the foolish aims of ambition! Not God, not his conscience come into any regard; but the people. What a base idol, doth the proud man adore! even the vulgar, which a base man despiseth. What is their applause, but an idle wind? What is their anger, but a painted fire? O Pilate, where now is thyself, and thy people? whereas a good conscience would have stuck by thee for ever; and have given thee boldness before the face of that God, which thou and thy people shall never have the happiness to behold.

The Jews have played their first part; the Gentiles must now act theirs. Cruel Pilate, who knew Jesus was delivered for envy, accused falsely, maliciously pursued, hath turned his proffered chastisement into scourging; Then Pilate took Jesus, and scourged him. Woe is me, Dear Saviour! I feel thy lashes: Ishrink under thy painful whippings: thy nakedness covers me with shame and