crime, that I profess Myself to be the Messiah, their King? Pilate answers, I have nothing to do with such questions as these. “Thine own nation and the Chief Priests have delivered Thee unto me. What hast Thou done?" Jesus answers, Most true it is that I am a King; but My kingdom is not of this world, and not to be propagated by force of arms3: "For this very end was I born, and for the same purpose came I into the world." I have no kingdom, indeed, upon earth, but that which is founded on truth. I am to make no conquest, otherwise than by convincing the judgments and consciences of men, and gaining them to the belief of sacred truth, and to a submission to it; and every one who is disposed to embrace the truth, will become a subject of My kingdom. Though Pilate asks the question, what Jesus means by the truth, of which He spake, yet he waits for no answer to the inquiry; for it was one which did not appear to concern him, or the judicial duty he was then exercising. We may notice, in passing, the diversity in our Lord's conduct towards the Chief Priests and Pilate. "When He was accused of the Chief Priests and elders, He answered nothing." Our Lord's conduct, on this occasion, was truly dignified. When He was called upon to acknowledge what was really › Dr. Whitby. • Mant and D'Oyly.

true, He gave a direct answer, both to the Chief Priests, and to Pilate. He acknowledged that He was the Christ, the Son of God, the King of the Jews; but false, and frivolous, and unjust accusations He treated, as they deserved, with profound and contemptuous silence'. It appears that this reserve of our Lord astonished the Governor; "insomuch that he marvelled greatly:" but when Pilate heard Him say, "His kingdom was not of this world," he felt it could not be of a nature to give umbrage to the Roman government; and he did not consider it any part of his duty to examine Him about a spiritual empire, with which he had nothing to do. He now, therefore, returns to the accusing party, without the judgment-hall, saying, "I find no fault in this Man."

The priests, it seems, were not disconcerted or abashed by the public declarations, which the Governor, in obedience to conscience and truth, made of the prisoner's innocence; for they persisted in their accusations with more vehemence than before, affirming that He had attempted to raise a sedition in Galilee. Here they artfully make mention of Galilee, to incite Pilate against Him, as a seditious Person; for they knew he was prejudiced against the people of that country, in consequence of a notion which they Bishop Porteus.

7

s Stackhouse.

"Dr. Macknight.

had imbibed from a seditious person, who had brought them into tumult and rebellion against paying tribute to the Romans, for which, not long before, they had been set upon and slain in considerable numbers, by order of Pilate himself 1o. When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked whether the Man were a Galilæan ?”

66

SECT. CLI.-Christ sent to Herod.-Luke xxiii. 6—12.

ON discovering that Jesus belonged to the district of Galilee, which formed part of Herod Antipas's government, and on considering probably that Herod, from his acquaintance with the Jewish religion, was better qualified to take cognizance of this case, Pilate referred the hearing of it to him, who was come up to Jerusalem at this time, on account of the Passover feast'. Before Herod, our Lord conducted Himself with the same majesty, the same patient endurance of wrongs, which became His peculiar situation. He refused to gratify the idle curiosity of the Tetrarch, by working a miracle, or to give him that account of His life and ministry, which he might have heard and credited on the authority of others. The Jewish Doctors, in their zeal and animosity, followed Him to Herod's house, "and vehemently accused Him," yet produced no proof of guilt against Him. It is probable, however, that the same accusation followed Him here, 10 Dr. Whitby. Archbishop Newcome.

1 Dr. Hammond. 2

from Pilate's judgment-hall, that He had called Himself a King, because Herod and his soldiers treated Him with scorn, "and mocked Him;" and exhibiting Him as a mock King3, they clothed Him with some old robe, in colour like those which kings used to wear, and sent Him back again to Pilate. The affront, thus put upon Jesus, shows that it was plainly in derision of the pretension of which these men accused Him; and they durst not touch upon the other head of accusation of His having attempted to raise a sedition in Galilee, because Herod could not fail to know its falsehood *.

It is probable that Herod was gratified with the apparent courtesy and deference shown by the Governor, in sending him One whom he had been "desirous to see of a long season; and he hoped to have seen some miracle done by Him:" yet, although he may have vented his disappointment by this disrespectful treatment of his prisoner, yet towards Pilate Herod felt grateful; and the same day they "were made friends together: for before they had been at enmity with themselves."

SECT. CLII.-Christ, returned to Pilate, is condemned.Matt. xxvii. 15–31; Mark xv. 6—20; Luke xxiii. 13-25; John xviii. 33–40. xix. 8—16.

AGAIN Jesus stood before Pilate, who called together His accusers, to inform them that he had examined their prisoner, "touching the

3 Dr. Whitby.

4 Dr. Macknight.

things whereof they accused Him," and had also sent Him, for his own further satisfaction, to Herod; but "nothing worthy of death is done unto Him." He, therefore, proposes a slight punishment, in concession to their malignity, and his release. It is supposed that Pilate proposed this in the hope of satisfying the people, and inducing them to acquiesce in His discharge. There seems to have been a custom, which was not appertaining to the Jews, but had been introduced by the Roman governors, as an act of grace and popularity, that some prisoner should be set at liberty on the occasion of the great feast. Pilate, therefore, seeing clearly that the whole accusation against Jesus was malicious and groundless, having made these many attempts to save Him, now had recourse to the new expedient of offering to release Him, as the customary act of grace on the feast day";-" for the multitude, crying aloud, began to desire him to do as he had ever done unto them." To the interest thus evidenced for a stranger, accused of a crime, calculated, as it would appear in the sequel, to injure Him in the estimation of the emperor, Pilate may have been further induced by the entreaty of his wife, who had probably heard of His miraculous acts and powerful teaching; for she calls Him "a just man :" and even after her husband was now a second time seated "on the judgment

3 Dr. Hammond.

6 Ibid.

7

Bishop Porteus.