262 The NEW and COMPLETE LI F E af. our BLESSED LORD me unto thee bath the greater,/, being gated thereto by malice. Hearing this fweet and modell anfwer, fuch an imprelfion was thereby made on Pilate, that he went out to the people, and declared his intention of releafing Jesus, whether they gave their confent or not. Upon which the chief priefts and rulers of Ifrael cried out, If thou let this man go, thou art not Ccefar'sfriend : who- foever maketh hinfellf a king, feaketh agaitjl Cefar. If thou releafell the pri- foner, who bath fet himfelf up for a king, and endeavoured to raire a rebellion in the country, thou art unfaithful to the intereft ofthe emperor thy mailer. This argument was weighty, and (hook Pilate's refolution to the very bafis : he was terrified at the thought of being accufed to Tiberius, who in all affairs of government always fur pefled the worfi, and punifhed the moil minute crimes, relative thereto, with death. The governor being thus confirained to yield, contrary to his inclination, was very angry with the priefts for flirting up the people to fuch a pitch of madnefs, and determined to affront them. He therefore brought Jesus out a fecond time into the pavement, wearing the purble robe and the crown ofthorns ; and, pointing to him, raid, " Behold your king ;" ridiculing the national expectation ofa Meffiah, as their deliverer. Stung to the quick, by this farcaflical expreffion, they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify hint. To which Pilate anfwered, with the fame mocking air, Shall I crucify your king? The chief anfwered, We have no kingbut Ccefar. Thus did they publicly renounce their hope of the Melliah, which the whole economy of their religion had been cal- culated to cherifh : they alto publicly acknowledged their fubjections to the Ro- mans ; and, confequently, condemned themfelves, when they afterwards rebelled againfi the emperor Vefpafian, who, with his fon Titus, deflroyed their city and temple. We may here obferve, that the great unwillingnefs of the governor to pafs fen- tence of death upon Jesus, has fomething in it very remarkable. For from the cha- racler of Pilate, as drawn by the Roman hiflorians themfelves, he feems to have been far from pof'efbng any true principle of virtue. To what then could it be owing, that fo wicked a man fhould fo Readily adhere to the caufe of innocence, which he defended with uncommon bra- very, and perhaps would never have aban- doned it, had he not been forced by the threatenings of the chief priefts and rulers of Ifrael ? And when he did yield, and paffed fentence upon our dear Redeemer, why did he Rill declare him innocent? This can certainly be attributed to no other caufe than to the fecret and powerful direction of the providence of the Al- mighty, who intended that at the fame time his fon was condemned and executed as a malefa&or, his innocence fhould be made appear in the moll public manner, and by the moll authentic evidence ; even that of the judge himfelf. It was the power of the Almighty that fet bounds to the inveterate malice and fury of the Jews, that would not fuffer them to Rain the innocence of the, bleffed Jesus, at the fame time they deprived him of his life ; but faid to their boiflerous malice, as he had before faid to the foaming billows of the ocean, Hitherto_Malt thou come, but no further, and here _hall thyproud wavis be flayed : for none can flay his hand, or controul his will, C H A P T E R
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