HOMILY CXV.

JOHN Xviii. 33-40.

Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto Him, Art thou the King of the Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of Me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is My kingdom not from hence. Pilate therefore said unto Him, Art thou a King then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a King. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice. Pilate saith unto Him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all. But ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the passover: will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews? Then cried they all again, saying, Not this Man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.

1. WHAT Pilate said to Christ, or what answer He made to Pilate, is in the present sermon to be considered and handled. Namely, when it had been said to the Jews, Take ye him, and judge him according to your Law: and they had made answer, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death: Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, v.33.34.

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Christ's kingdom not of this world.

HOMIL. and called Jesus, and said unto Him, Art thou the King of CXV. the Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of

thyself, or did others tell it thee of Me? Undoubtedly the Lord knew both the thing He asked, and the answer Pilate would make: but yet it was His will that it should be spoken, not that He might know, but that it might be written, v.35.26. because it was His will that we should know it. Pilate

answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is My kingdom not from hence. This it is which it was the will of our Good Master that we should know: but first we were to be shewn the vanity of the opinion concerning His kingdom, entertained by men, whether Gentiles or Jews, from whom Pilate had heard that: as if the reason why He must be punished with death were, that He had affected a kingdom to which He had no right; or because the reigning are wont to look with an evil eye upon those destined to reign; and forsooth there were need to beware lest His kingdom should be adverse either to the Romans or to the Jews. Now the Lord might have answered at once, My kingdom is not from hence, &c. to the first question put by the governor, Art thou the King of the Jews? but in putting a question in return, namely, whether he spake this of himself, or had been told it by others, it was His will to shew by Pilate's reply that this had been laid to Him as a crime by the Jews in their Ps. 94, Conference with the governor: thus laying open to us the thoughts of men which He knew, that they are vain; and to them after Pilate's answer, making a reply which now both to Jews and Gentiles was more seasonable and suitable, My kingdom is not of this world. But if He had immediately made this answer to Pilate's interrogatory, He might have seemed to have made it, not to the Jews as well, but only to the Gentiles as holding this opinion concerning Him. Now, however, Pilate in answering, Thine own nation and high-priests delivered thee unto me, has removed from himself the surmise which might have been entertained of him, that he had spoken of himself

11.

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Christ's Kingdom is in the world, not of it. what he had said about Jesus being King of the Jews; JOHN proving that by the Jews he was told this thing. Then, in 36. going on to say, What hast thou done? he makes it plain enough that such was the crime laid to the charge of Jesus: as much as to say, If thou deniest that thou art a King, what hast thou done to be delivered up to me? As if it would be no wonder that He were delivered up to the judge to be punished, should He say that He was a King: but if He should not say this, there was need to ask of Him what else He perchance had done, for which He would deserve to be delivered up to the judge.

Matt. 2,

3-16.

LXX.

& Vulg.

2. Hear therefore, Jews and Gentiles; hear, Circumcision; hear, Uncircumcision; hear, all ye kingdoms of the earth: I bar not your domination in this world, My kingdom is not v. 36. of this world. Fear ye not with that most vain fear, which the elder Herod, when it was told him that Christ was born, was dismayed withal, and slew so many infants to make sure that death might reach Him, being more of fear than of wrath made ruthless: My kingdom, saith He, is not of this world. What would ye more? Come to the kingdom which is not of this world; come, by believing; and not be fierce by being afraid. He saith indeed in the prophecy, concerning God the Father, But I am set by Him as King upon Ps. 2, 6. Sion His holy mountain: but that Sion and that mountain is not of this world. For what is His kingdom, but they that believe on Him, to whom He saith, Ye are not of the ch. 17, world, even as I am not of the world? Though He would 16. have them to be in the world: wherefore He said of them to the Father, I pray not that Thou shouldest take them from ib. 15. the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil. Accordingly in this place also He saith not, My kingdom is not in this world, but, is not of this world. And when in proof of this He added, If My kingdom were of the world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews, He said not, But now is My kingdom not here, but, not from hence. For His kingdom is here even unto the end of the world, having the tares mixed up with it even until the harvest: for the harvest is the end of the world, when the Mat. 13, reapers shall come, i. e. the Angels, and shall gather out of 38-41. His kingdom all offences; which of course could not be, if

19.

HOMIL. His kingdom were not here. But yet it is not from hence ; CXV. because it sojourns as a stranger in the world: for to His ch. 15, kingdom He saith, Ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. They were therefore of the world, when they were not His kingdom, but belonging to the prince of this world. Of this world,' then, is, whatever of mankind, created indeed by the true God, is begotten from Adam of a vitiated and condemned stock: and that is become a kingdom no more of the world, whatever thereof in Christ Col. 1, is begotten again. For so hath God delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love: of which kingdom He saith, My kingdom is not of this world, or, My kingdom is not from hence.

13.

v. 37.

1 εἰς

τοῦτο

3. Pilate therefore said unto Him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. Not that He was afraid to own Himself a king; but, Thou sayest' is so balanced, as neither to deny that He is a king, for He is a king having a kingdom not of this world; nor to own that He is such a king as could be thought to have a kingdom of this world. For that sort of king was meant by the interrogator in saying, Art thou a king then? And this saying, Thou sayest, is as much as to say, Carnal, thou carnally sayest.

4. And then He adds: To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. In the words, 'In hoc natus sum,' the syllable of the pronoun hoc is not to be made long, as if [it were the ablative case, and] the meaning were, In hac re natus sum, in this thing was I born: but it is to be made short [as accusative], and is as if He had said, Ad hanc rem natus sum, or Ad hoc natus sum, To this end was I born; just as He saith, Ad hoc veni in mundum, For this cause came I into the world. For in the Greek Gospel there is no ambiguity in the word'. Whence it is manifest, that He here spake of his temporal nativity by which He came incarnate into the world; not of that Generation without beginning, by which He was God by Whom the Father made the world. Unto this then, i. e.

Meaning that the syllable hoc, though long, has its vowel short, as being accusative, not as in the ablative.

where both the syllable and the vowel are long.

to bear witness to the Truth, i. e. to Himself. 1021

XVIII.

to this end, said He that He was born, and for this purpose JOHN came into the world, of course by His birth of the Virgin, 38. 39. that He should bear witness to the truth. But because all 2 Thess.

dit

28.

8.9.

men have not faith, He further said, Every one that is of the 3, 2. truth heareth My voice. Hears with the inner ears, i. e. 'obediently hears My voice: which is as much as to say, 1 obauBelieveth Me. When therefore Christ bears witness to the Truth, undoubtedly He bears witness to Himself, seeing it is His word, I am the Truth: and indeed He hath said in ch. 14,6. another place, 1 bear witness of Myself. But in that He ib. 8, 18. saith, Every one that is of the Truth, heareth My voice, He hath commended the grace by which He calleth according to the purpose. Of which purpose the Apostle saith, We know Rom. 8, that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to the purpose, the purpose, to wit, of the Caller, not of the called: which is elsewhere put more openly thus, Be thou partaker of the afflictions of 2 Tim.1, the Gospel according to the power of God; Who saveth us, and calleth us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His purpose and grace. For if we consider the nature in which we were created, seeing He Who is the Truth created all men, who is there that is not of the Truth? But not all men have this bestowed on them by the Truth Itself, that they should hear the Truth, i. e. obediently hear the Truth, and believe on the Truth; obauclearly, with no foregoing merits, lest grace be no more grace. Rom. For if He had said, Every one that heareth My voice is of11, 6. the Truth, it might be thought that a person is said to be of the Truth, because he obeys the Truth: now He saith not this, but, Every one that is of the Truth obeyeth My voice: and consequently, a person is not of the Truth by reason that he hears His voice, but hears His voice by reason that he is of the Truth: i. e. because this very thing was by the Truth as a gift bestowed upon him. And what is this, but that by the gift of Christ he believes on Christ?

diant

5. Pilate said unto Him, What is Truth? and waited not v.38.39. to hear the answer, but when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and said unto them, I find in him no fault at all. But ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the passover: will ye therefore that I release