135. Herod sends Jesus back to Pilate, who seeks in vain to release Him. Mark xv. 7-9.

Pilate, having failed in his endeavour to transfer the judgment of Jesus to Herod, again took his seat upon the tribunal, and the reluctance which he felt to pronounce sentence must have been much increased by a message communicated to him by his wife, who charged him to have nothing to do with that just Person, concerning whom she had suffered much in a dream. Her name was Claudia Procula, but nothing more is recorded of her; and the incident confirms the Evangelist's veracity; for although under the Republic Governors were not allowed to take their wives into the Provinces, the practice had become common in consequence of Livia's accompanying Augustus, and a proposal to forbid it had been recently submitted to the Senate without success. It had been the Governor's custom for some years at this feast, to please the populace by releasing whatever prisoner they chose to ask for; and Pilate now gave them the option. of Jesus or Barabbas, who, beside the very crime of which they accused the former, had been guilty of murder. As Pilate knew that the chief priests had delivered up Jesus from envy, he hoped that the crowd, who had followed Him so lately with acclamations of seeming loyalty, would decide in His favour. He would thus save His life, and the priests would be less irritated if He were set at liberty by an act of grace, than if he acquitted Him. But they had sufficient influence over the people, to make them ask for the liberation of Barabbas and the crucifixion of Jesus; and though the third time Pilate declared that He had committed no capital offence, but that He should be chastised and dismissed, they only cried out the more vehemently, Crucify Him!

• Tacitus, Annals, iii. 33. Cf. i. 40. ii. 54.

136. Pilate orders Jesus to be scourged, and, after another fruitless attempt to move the pity of the people and declaring His innocence, reluctantly delivers Him to the soldiers to be crucified. John xix. 1-16.

Pilate now ordered Jesus to be scourged, hoping to appease their fury by this cruel and disgraceful punishment. The bodily pain which it inflicted was heightened by the cruel mockery of the whole band, who put on Him a purple robe and a crown of thorns, and gave Him a reed for a sceptre. They then knelt before Him as a sovereign, till, wearied of this assumed deference, they struck Him with His mock sceptre, spat on Him, and smote Him with their hands upon the head. Pilate then exhibited Him to the people in the garb of royalty, and again declared His innocence, saying, Behold the Man! Still the chief priests and their attendants persevered in the cry, Crucify Him! crucify Him! Pilate's reply appears to have been ironical, for they dared not take the Governor at his word, but returned to the charge on which the Council had condemned Him; Take ye Him, and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him. He ought to die according to our law, they answered, because

e An instance of mockery occurred not long after in the reign of Caligula, which, for its striking similarity to the conduct of the soldiers to our Blessed Lord, deserves to be cited. "When Agrippa, who had been appointed to his uncle Philip's tetrarchy with the right of wearing a crown, came to Alexandria on his way to his new dominions, the inhabitants, among other ways of showing their ill will, brought into the Gymnasium, Carabas, a sort of distracted fellow, who at all seasons went naked about the streets, the common jest of boys and idle people placed him on a lofty seat, put a papyrus wreath on his head instead of a diadem, gave him for a sceptre a short stick of it picked up from the ground, and dressed him in a mat instead of a robe, xλauós. Having thus given him a mimic royal air, several young men with poles on their shoulders acted as his guard; and others did him homage or solicited justice; while loud and confused acclamations from the crowd of Maris, (that is, in Syriac, Lord,) intimated whom they meant to ridicule by this mock show." Philo in Flaccum.

delivered Him up unto thee. Take ye Him, and judge Him according to your law, was Pilate's reply; and it intimated that the crime with which He was charged was not a capital one. This they indirectly contradicted by saying, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death; thus unwittingly bringing about our Lord's own prediction, that He should die not by Stoning, the Jewish mode of inflicting capital punishment, but by Crucifixion, the Roman; a fact which manifested to the whole empire that the Shiloh, to whom the sovereignty belonged, had been already sent, and that the Sceptre and the Lawgiver had departed from Judah. Meanwhile, as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so the true King of Israel opened not His mouth, to the Governor's amazement. His enemies, knowing that Pilate would disregard the charge of Blasphemy, as certain questions against Him of their own superstition, accused Him of Treason against His master. We found Him perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Cæsar, saying that He Himself is Christ a King. Pilate could refuse no longer with safety to himself. He accordingly interrogated Jesus, saying, Thou art the King of the Jews? Jesus then being thus called upon, judicially acknowledged that he had spoken true, but enquired first whether he had enquired of his own accord, or the question had been suggested to him by others. “The question might either have arisen from a dawning conviction of the truth, like that of Nicodemus; or it might be only an official inquiry, to learn, from the prisoner Himself, whether the accusation of the elders were just. Our Lord's reply is to ascertain, from Pilate's own lips, the motive of the question. Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of Me? Is it from a sincere doubt in your own mind, the fruit of My miracles, or only as a magistrate, to ascertain My guilt or innocence, that you make this inquiry? As afterwards, when St. Paul

at Corinth, (Acts xviii.) was brought before the judgment seat, and the Proconsul Gallio refused to judge of words and names, and of the Law, so now the answer of Pilate disclaimed every thing beyond a judicial purpose. Am I a Jew? Thine own people and the chief priests have delivered Thee unto me: what hast Thou done? Do you think that I, a Roman Governor, trouble myself with questions of Jewish superstitions, or have any thought of becoming Thy disciple? The chief priests charge Thee with stirring up the people against Cæsar. I wish only to know whether You have really set Yourself up for a king. What hast Thou done? Are you really guilty, or what have You done to give colour to their accusation? The question of Pilate, it is clear, is that of a magistrate. Our Lord makes answer accordingly, and without either denying, or openly asserting that He is King of the Jews, clears Himself from the charge of stirring up the people to violence and sedition. My Kingdom is not of this world. If My Kingdom were of this world, then would My servants have fought, that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is My Kingdom not from hence. The Kingdom which I claim does not derive its origin from human policy, or depend for its attainment on the efforts of a party, or the weapons employed by ambitious men. It is the direct gift of My heavenly Father, and assured to Me by His promise. If it were to be secured by seditious measures, My disciples would have fought against the Jews, when they came to take Me prisoner by violence. But since I taught them to offer no resistance, and yielded Myself at once to My enemies, it is therefore clear that the Kingdom which I look for has a higher source, and involves no seditious violence"."

Jesus, in explanation of the Sovereignty which He claimed,

For this and the next quotation I am indebted to Mr. Birk's able Work, entitled, "The Christian State, or the first Principles of National Religion."

added, that it was not from or out of this world, oùx ëσTIV êx Toû xóσμOU TOÚTOU. All then are mistaken, who, treating His Government like the Jewish Theocracy, would either merge the Church in the State, or the State in the Church. The Romanist professes that Christ now reigns on earth through His visible Vicegerent, who is directly supreme in all ecclesiastical causes, and paramount over things temporal, whenever they are connected with those that are spiritual. The enthusiastic Anabaptists of Germany, and the Fifth-Monarchy-men of England, while they denounced the Pope, came to the same conclusion, for maintaining that dominion was founded upon grace, they inferred that their Lord's sovereignty, till His return, ought to be administered by His true servants the saints, that is, by themselves. Disgusted with the pretensions of both, too many in modern times run into the opposite extreme, resolving the sovereignty of Christ into a mere spiritual preeminence, and virtually, though unintentionally, dethroning Him. Their theory unhappily derives support from the authorized version of our Lord's reply, My kingdom is not of this world. Of has a double meaning, but there is no ambiguity in 'Ex, for which it stands; and a reference to the original shows that the text is wrested from its meaning, when brought in proof that Christ is not Sovereign of the world. In what proportion His Sovereignty should be divided between the Clergy and the Laity, has been frequently disputed; but it is strange that any Christian should deny that He is a Sovereign, since, in sending forth His Apostles to teach all nations, He encouraged them with this declaration, All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Surely it ought not to surprise us, that He to whom the powers and authorities of heaven have been made subject, should also reign over the race whose nature He has united with His own; and as in reward of His obedience unto death His Father hath put all things under His feet, how can believers con