the warning, and, while he prepares for that Kingdom of Righteousness, will own Me also for the eternal King. Such, very plainly, is the true meaning of this answer of our Lord; and in this manner it is afterwards explained by the Apostle himself, (1 Tim. vi. 13—15.) when he speaks of this good confession, and teaches us that it relates to the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which His Father, the blessed and only Potentate, in His times shall show.

"Such an answer, however, was beyond the narrow field of Pilate's vision, and he turned away from this glorious confession with an air of contemptuous unconcern. Pilate saith unto Him, What is Truth? But though careless about these higher claims, he was well persuaded that the charge of sedition was groundless. He looked on the prisoner, apparently, as an enthusiast, but one whose enthusiasm. was quite harmless; for when he had said this, he went out, and said unto the Jews, I find in Him no fault. He cared nothing about this Utopian kingdom which was to come. down from heaven. It was enough that he was satisfied there had been no actual sedition against the Emperor of Rome. But still a deeper impression, though kept down by the pride of a worldly heart, could not be entirely stifled; and when he heard presently the real charge of the Jews, By our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God, the fear of surrendering an innocent victim to the popular hatred, is aggravated by an awe, which he could no longer conceal, arising out of the mysterious dignity of this Man of sorrows, and those beams of Divine Majesty which shone out amidst His patient suffering."

It is remarkable, that this acknowledgment of Sovereignty did not produce upon the Governor the effect that was expected. The philosophy of the Stoics was then so popular at Rome, that it could not have been wholly unknown to any who had received a liberal education. They

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had proudly pourtrayed an imaginary sage, their model of ideal perfection which they aspired to realise, as inferior to Jupiter only as being a mortal, in other respects as his equal, or rather superior, as the god was described to be wise by nature, the sage by choice. Horace had already in jest summed up his perfections, with the title of King of kings: (Ep. i. 107.) and Pilate having, we may suppose, some notion of these lofty pretensions, might have regarded the King of Israel as a visionary, but harmless, self-styled Sovereign. Every one, said our Lord in conclusion, who is of the truth, heareth My voice. Pilate proved that he was not; for though he asked, What is Truth? he would not stay for an answer. The question may be explained in several ways: but it seems to me most natural to suppose, that he meant to say, this is no season for entering upon a philosophical discussion, I have now to consider the means of saving thy life; for he immediately went out upon the pavement, and publicly declared, that he found no cause to condemn Him. They, exasperated, cried out, He stirreth up the people to rebellion, beginning from Galilee, to this place. Pilate then questioned Him again, but having made His good confession, He gave the Governor no answer.

134. Pilate, being informed that Jesus is a Galilean, sends Him to Herod. Luke xxiii. 6—12.

The mention of Galilee, however, suggested an expedient, by which he hoped, without offending His accusers, to avoid condemning a person whom he believed to be innocent. Finding on enquiry that Jesus was called a Galilean, he sent Him to Herod, the sovereign of that district, whom the passover had brought to Jerusalem. Herod had long desired to see one of whom he had heard such extraordinary reports, and whom he suspected to be the Baptist risen from the grave. He was therefore at first exceedingly glad;

but as Jesus performed no miracle to gratify him, nor even answered any of his questions, he was disappointed, and despised Him. Still, though the priests had followed and urged to Herod, as a Jew, the charge of blasphemy, as they had done. that of treason to the Roman Governor, he too did not choose to have any concern in His death, and therefore sent Him back to Pilate. Previously, however, he joined his soldiers and officers in coarsely deriding His pretensions, by clothing Him in a royal robe; and this act has been considered by some as equivalent to a declaration of innocence, as he did not substitute for His own dress the black suit of one capitally condemned. Herod and Pilate had been upon bad terms on several accounts. We learn from St. Luke, (xiii. 1.) that the Governor had massacred some Galileans while worshipping in the Temple; and from Philo, that he had placed without leave, in the Tetrarch's palace, some shields which he had dedicated to Tiberius. In this trial before the Rulers of Galilee and Judæa was verified, according to St. Peter, (Acts iv. 25-28.) a passage in the second Psalm; for in leading the prayer of their own then little company, when they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, he said, referring to it, Of a truth against Thy holy Child Jesus, whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together. The only result of Pilate's courtesy, was his reconciliation with Herod. Still it afforded him a topic in favour of the Prisoner's innocence; and the Tetrarch's concurrence in his opinion, that Jesus had done nothing worthy of death', had the more weight, from his being a Jew.

d Such seems to be the sense of #empayμévov avtê, and it is so translated by Beza; our own version, which agrees with the Vulgate, nothing worthy of death done unto Him, may mean, He had not been treated by Herod like a person guilty of a capital offence.

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!

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

* 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.