were prevented by their fear of the people from proceeding to execute their sentence; but resolved to recommend the execution of it to Pilate, the Roman governor. But as it was not yet light, all other proceedings against the Lord Jesus were suspended till the next morning; and therefore the members of the council separated, and most of them went to their respective homes: others continued together in the High Priest's house, and others retired to rest in some of the apartments, or walked about, and passed away the time in conversation. But so much favour was shewn to the condemned Jesus, as to carry him to a quiet prison, and there to be kept until break of day, that he might enjoy a little rest after his fatigue and painful agony. On the contrary, he is turned over to the servants and officers of the court, who, during the rest of the night, insulted our blessed Lord, as their inveterate malice prompted them, in the most inhuman and barbarous manner. Thus on the last night of our blessed Saviour's life, his eyelids were never closed in sleep. And as the High Priests of the Old Testament did not use to sleep, on the night preceding the great Day of Atonement; so the true High Priest of the New Testament was a stranger to sleep, by the cruelty of his enemies, the night preceding the important day on which the sins of the whole human race were to be expiated, that there might be the more exact conformity between the type and the great antitype. By this circumstance, our blessed Saviour has likewise sanctified the sleepless nights of his faithful servants, when either in the pangs of repentance, inward temptations, or outward sufferings and afflictions, they cannot forbear crying out with the Psalmist, Thou holdest mine eyes waking.' (Psalm lxxvii. 4.) So that when on any of these accounts we cannot sleep in our beds, let us think on these sleepless hours of our Lord and Saviour, on the night when he was betrayed, bound, and sentenced to death, and treated in the most contemptuous and barbarous man

rer.

In farther treating on these words, I shall consider, First, The persons by whom our Saviour was thus injuriously treated, and

Secondly, The ill treatment which he patiently endured.

I. As to the persons by whom our blessed Saviour was injuriously treated, St. Matthew says only in general, They did spit in his face.' St. Mark is more particular, and observes that 'some began to spit on him, to cover his face, and to buffet him, and the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands.' But St. Luke expresses it thus: And the men that held Jesus mocked him.' It is very probable, that either the chief Priests themselves, or some other members of the Sanhedrim, when the assembly was dissolved, went out of the hall; and begun this unjust treatment, and, as it were, gave the signal for it, by spitting in his face as they passed by Jesus, and venting imprecations against him, as a detestable blasphemer. For, according to the connection of St. Matthew's account, they who had before said, he is guilty of death,' lead the way in this abusive treatment of our Saviour. Now this was not said by the servants, but by the members of the council; and St. Mark says, 'And some began to spit on him, and the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands;' so that he distinguishes between those who began to spit on our blessed Lord, and the servants who struck him. When the council had set the example of insulting Jesus, and of giving him up, as an accursed person, to all manner of ill usage, all the servants and inferior officers soon followed it. These St. Luke calls the men who held Jesus;' namely, those who had apprehended and bound him, and still held him bound, being appointed to watch and secure him till the morning.As this unruly multitude was composed of Roman soldiers, whom Pilate had furnished them with, and Jewish servants and officers, who belonged to the

Sanhedrim; both were concerned in this abusive and injurious treatment, and passed away their time in offering the greatest insults and indignities to the Son of God. Before we proceed any further, we shall make the following observation on the subject before

us.

That they who do not know the Lord of Glory should revile him, is not to be wondered at; but is it not astonishing, that he should daily be reviled by those who acknowledge him to be the son of God? St. Paul says of the rulers of the Jews, 'that they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, had they known him.' (1 Cor. ii. 8.) With much more reason may it be said of these rude ignorant servants, they would not have spit on the blessed Jesus, and struck him, had they been sensible of the adorable dignity of his sacred person; but they concluded that Jesus was a false prophet and a blasphemer, since the Sanhedrim had condemned him as such. And though at other times they would have pitied the greatest malefactor, when under sentence of death, rather than add to his sorrow, by ridiculing and insulting him; yet the servants of the Jewish council imagined, that they did God service by thus injuriously treating a man, whom they looked upon as an impious blasphemer. But it is greatly to be apprehended, that in the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for these soldiers and servants, than for those wretched nominal Christians, who by their behaviour insult Him, whom they confess with their mouths.

II. As to the injurious treatment which our Lord suffered from these persons, it consisted in the seven following particulars. But previously to the particular consideration of each of these insults, we shall make some general remarks on the subject.

First, In this abusive treatment of the Son of God, the soldiers did not act merely according to the impulse of their depraved nature; but their hands and

tongues were the instruments of the prince of darkness, who now poured on the Son of God all the indignities which infernal malice could invent.

Secondly, The prophetic office of Jesus Christ was the mark, at which the keen arrows of reproach were here chiefly levelled. The office in which the Son of God chiefly displays his wisdom, as his regal office declares his power, and his priestly office his love, here becomes the sport of fools; and it is vilified in the High Priest's palace, as the kingly office of Christ was chiefly insulted and derided in the palace of the Roman governor.

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Thirdly, Though the Son of God may seem to be entirely delivered up to the rude insults of servants; yet nothing here happened to him but according to the predetermined council of God. Indeed, the devil acted in these sons of wickedness according to the impulse of his malignant nature; but God had set limits to his rage and malice, and without the least participation in his guilt, over-ruled every circumstance for the accomplishment of the prophecies, inspired by the Holy Ghost. According to these prophecies, as the Messiah, at his examination and trial was surrounded as it were by bulls and dogs, opening wide their mouths, as a ravening and roaring lion; (Psalm xxii. 12, 13, 16.) so was he now to experience what is foretold in the following passages of Scripture: The assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: I am become a worm and no man'; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.' (Psalm xxii. 6.) Here the Messiah was despised by man, abhorred by the nation, a servant of rulers.' (Isaiah xlix. 7.) He was 'despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him, [by blindfolding him ;] he was despised, and we esteem. ed him not.' (Isaiah liii. 3.) Here the Rock of salvation was lightly esteemed by his people. (Deut. xxxii. 15.) Here the Messiah's prophetic complaint

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was fulfilled, 'I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting: I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. (Isaiah 1. 6, 7.)

Lastly, Here was also fulfilled what the Lord Jesus himself had foretold, namely, The Son of Man shall be mocked, and spitefully treated, and spitted on.' (Luke xviii. 32.) Hence it appears that nothing fell out on this occasion, but what God in his wise counsel had predetermined concerning the Messiah, and likewise foretold by the mouth of his holy prophets. This is a powerful preservative against

the offence of the cross.

Let us proceed to take a separate view of the several kinds of insults offered our blessed Saviour, and point out what useful meditations they afford to a pious soul. It is said by St. Luke,

1. And the men who held Jesus mocked him, and smote him.' (Luke xxii. 63.) We find in the history of our Saviour's passion, that during his sufferings, he was mocked in four several places; namely, in Caiaphas's house, in Herod's palace, (Luke xxiii. 11.) at Pilate's judgment seat, (Matt. xxvii. 27, 29, 31.) and on the Mount of Golgotha. (Matt. xxvii. 41. Luke xxiii. 36.) In all these passages, the other Evangelists use the same words as St. Luke does in the passage above cited. They not only mocked him, but it is added, 'they smote him,” i. e. they mocked him, striking him, and tearing off his skin. It is probable, that among other insults they took the blessed Jesus by the beard, and pulled it with such violence as to tear off the skin with the hair; and thus was literally fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, 'I gave my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.' That this was one of the most painful and ignominious insults used among the ancients, appears from many passages in profane authors.