judicature in Judea was left in the hands of the resident Procurator.

For by this means it came to pass that Christ, who by the determinate counsel of God was to die, and by the prediction of the prophets was to suffer in a manner not prescribed by the law of Moses, should be delivered up to a foreign power, and so suffer death after the customs of that nation to whose power he was delivered. The malice of the obstinate Jews was high to accuse and prosecute him, but the power of the Jews was not so high as judicially to condemn him. For although the chief priests, and the elders, and the scribes, "condemned him to be guilty of death;" (Mark xiv. 64.) yet they could not condemn him to die, or pronounce the sentence of death upon him, "but delivered him up unto Pilate:" and when he refusing, said unto them, "Take ye him, and judge him according to your law," they immediately returned, "It is not lawful for us to put any man to death." (John xviii. 30, 31.) The power of life and death was not in any court of the Jews, but in the Roman governor alone, as supreme; and therefore they answered him, it was "not lawful:"* not in respect of the law of Moses, which gave them both sufficient power and absolute command to punish divers offenders with death; but in relation to the Roman empire, which had taken all that dominion from them. Forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem, the Jews themselves acknowledge that they lost this power; which is sufficient to shew that they had it not when our Saviour suffered and it is as true that they lost it twenty years before, at the relegation of Archelaus, and the coming of Coponius the Procurator with full power of life and death. Wherefore our Saviour was delivered unto Pilate, as the supreme judge over the nation of the Jews, that he might pronounce the sentence of death upon him.

But how this judge could be persuaded to an act of so much injustice and impiety, is not yet easy to be seen. The numerous controversies of the religion of the Jews did not concern the Roman governors, nor were they moved with the frequent quarrels arising from the different sects. Pilate knew well "it was for envy that the chief priests delivered him;" (Matt.

I say, therefore, the Jews answered, that it was not lawful for them to put any man to death, because that power was taken out of their hands. For although St. Augustin thinks they thought it not lawful in respect of the Passover: Intelligendum est eos dixisse, non sibi licere interficere quenquam, propter diei festi sanctitatem, quem celebrare jam ceperant.' Tract. 14. in Ioan. and St. Cyril be of the same opinion; yet others of the ancients deliver the true cause why they apply themselves to Pilate, to be their

want of power; as Ammonius most expressly, Caten. Patr. in S. Ioan. c. xviii. p. 427.: Τίνος ἕνεκεν αὐτὸν οὐκ ἀνεῖλον, ἀλλ ̓ ἐπὶ τὸν Πιλάτον ἤγαγον; μάλιστα μὲν τὸ πολὺ τῆς ἀρχῆς αὐτῶν καὶ τῆς ἐξουσίας ὑπετέμνετο, λοιπὸν ὑπὸ Ῥωμαίους τῶν πραγμάτων κειμένων· and upon these words in St. John, ibid. p. 428. : Ως ἐκπεσόντες τῆς ἀρχῆς, ἦσαν γὰρ ὑπὸ ̔Ρωμαίους, εἶπον τοῦτο. So Theophylact: "Αγουσιν αὐτὸν εἰς τὸ πραιτώριον, οὐ γὰρ εἶχον αὐτοὶ ἐξουσίαν ἀνελεῖν, ἅτε τῶν πραγμά των ὑπὸ ̔Ρωμαίους κειμένων. Com. in Ioan. c. 18. And before him St. Chrysostom.

xxvii. 18.) and when "he had examined him, he found no fault touching those things whereof they accused him." (Luke xxiii. 14.) Three times did he challenge the nation of the Jews, "Why? what evil hath he done?" Three times did he make that clear profession, "I have found no cause of death in him." (Ibid. 22.) His own wife, admonished in a dream, "sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man:" (Matt. xxvii. 19.) and when he heard that "he made himself the Son of God, he was more afraid :" (John xix. 7, 8.) and yet notwithstanding these apprehensions and professions, he condemned and crucified him.

Here we must look upon the nature and disposition of Pilate, which inclined and betrayed him to so foul an act. He was a man of a high, rough, untractable, and irreconcileable spirit,* as he is described by the Jews, and appeareth from the beginning of his government, when he brought the bucklers stamped with the pictures of Cæsar into Jerusalem (which was an abomination to the Jews), and could neither be moved by the blood of many, nor persuaded by the most humble applications and submissive entreaties of the whole nation, to remove them, till he received a sharp reprehension and severe command from the emperor Tiberius. After that, he seized on the Corban, that sacred treasury, and spent it upon an aqueduct: nor could all their religious and importunate petitions divert his intentions, but his resolution went through their blood to bring in water. When the Galileans came up to Jerusalem, to worship God at his own Temple, "he mingled their blood with their sacrifices." (Luke xiii. 1.) Add to this untractable and irreconcileable spirit, by which he had so often exasperated the Jews, an avaricious and rapacious disposition, which prompted him as much to please them; and we may easily perceive what moved him to condemn that person to death whom he declared innocent. The evangelist telleth us that " Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus to be crucified." (Mark xv. 15.) They accused him at Rome, for all the insolences and rapines which he had committed, and by this act he thought to pacify them.t

It was thus necessary to express the person under whom our Saviour suffered; first, That we might for ever be assured of the time in which he suffered.

So Philo testifieth of him: "Hv yàg τὴν φύσιν ἀκαμπὴς, καὶ μετὰ τοῦ αἰθάδους ausinixtos. De Virtut. et Legat. ad Caium, p. 590. vol. ii. And again: Ola our byκότως ἔχων καὶ βαρύμηνις ἄνθρωπος. Ibid.

For that which is observed by Philo upon the dedication of the shields at the first entrance into his government, must needs be much more true at this time of our Saviour's passion, when he had committed so many insolences, viz. that he

The enemies of Christianity

feared the Jews should complain of him to Tiberius : Τὸ τελευταῖον τοῦτο μάλιστα αὐτὸν ἐξετράχυνε, καταδείσαντα μὴ τῷ ὄντι πρεσβευσάμενοι καὶ τῆς ἀλλης αὐτοῦ ἐπιτροπῆς ἐξελέγξωσι τὰς ὕβρεις, τὰς ἁρπαγὰς, τὰς αὐτ κίας, τὰς ἐπηρείας, τοὺς ἀκρίτους καὶ ἐπαλ λήλους φόνους, τὴν ἀνήνυτον καὶ ἀργαλεωτάτην WμÓTTA SIEGERŐÓTES. De Virtut. et Legat. ad Caium, p. 590. vol. ii.

'Cautissime qui Symbolum tradiderunt, etiam tempus quo hæc sub Pontio

began first to unsettle the time of his passion, that thereby they might at last deny the passion itself; and the rest of their falsehood was detected by the discovery of their false chronology.* Some fixed it to the seventh year of the reign of Tiberius,† whereas it is certain Pontius Pilate was not then Procurator in Judea; and as certain that our Saviour was baptized eight years after, "in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar." (Luke iii. 1.) Some of the Jews, lest the destruction of Jerusalem might seem to follow upon, and for, our Saviour's crucifixion, have removed it near threescore years more backward yet, placing his death in the beginning of Herod's reign, who was not born till towards the death of the same king. Others have removed it farther yet near twenty years, and so vainly tell us how he died under Aristobulus, above fifty years before his birth in Bethlehem. This they do teach their proselytes, to this end, that they may not believe so much as the least historical part of the blessed evangelists. As, therefore, they deny the time of our Saviour's passion, in design to destroy his doctrine; so, that we might establish the substance of the Gospel depending on his death, it was necessary we should retain a perfect remembrance of the time in

Pilato gesta sunt designarunt, ne ex aliqua parte velut vaga et incerta gestorum traditio vacillaret.' Ruffinus in Expos. Symb. §. 20. Credimus itaque in eum qui sub Pontio Pilato crucifixus est et sepultus. Addendum enim erat Judicis nomen propter temporum cognitionem.' S. August. de Fide et Symb. c. 5. §. 11. Pilatus Judex erat in illo tempore ab imperatore positus in Judea, sub quo Dominus passus est; cujus mentio ad temporis significationem, non ad personæ illius pertinet dignitatem.' Serm. 131. de Tempore. Irenæus speaking of St. Paul: 'Evangelizabat Filium Dei Christum Jesum, qui sub Pontio Pilato crucifixus est.' 1. v. c. 12. And to make the more certain character of time, Ignatius added to the name of Pilate that of Herod : ̓Αληθῶς ἐπὶ Ποντίου Πιλάτου καὶ Ηρώδου τετράρχου καθηλωμένον ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἐν σαρκί. Epist. ad Smyrn. c. 1.

So Eusebius detected some of those which lived not long before him: Ovxov σαφῶς ἀπελήλεγκται τὸ πλάσμα τῶν κατὰ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ὑπομνήματα χθὲς καὶ πρώην διαδεδωκότων, ἐν οἷς πρῶτος αὐτὸς ὁ τῆς παρασημειώσεως χρόνος τῶν πεπλακότων ἀπελéyXEL TO LEûdog. Hist. Eccles. 1. i. c. 9.

† ἐπὶ τῆς τετάρτης δ ̓ οὖν ὑπατείας Τιβερίου, ἢ γέγονεν ἔτους ἑβδόμου τῆς βασιλείας αὐτοῦ, τὰ περὶ τὸ σωτήριον αὐτοῖς πάθος τολμηθέντα περιέχει, καθ ̓ ὃν δείκνυται χρόνον μηδ ̓ ἐπιστάς πω τῇ Ἰουδαία Πιλάτος. Euseb. Eccl. Hist. 1. i. c. 9.

Divers of the Jews place the passion of Christ in the year of their account 3724, which is sixty-nine years before our common account of the year in which he suffered. This invention of their own, grounded upon no foundation, and backed with not so much as the least probability, they deliver as a tradition among them, continued in this rhyme,

בשנת ג'אלפים תש"כד הנצרי נלכד ובשנת תק"לב בעץ נצלב

i. e. In the year 3724 he of Nazareth was taken,
And in the year 532 he was crucified on a tree.

Not that they thought him taken in one
year, and crucified in another; but these
two unequal numbers signify the same
year, the lesser number being a period of
years, which, seven times numbered,
equalleth the greater. So that their mean-
ing is, that after seven periods, consisting
of 532 years, in the year of the world
3724, Jesus of Nazareth was crucified.

Others of the Jews pretend another account, viz. that Jesus was born in the year 3671, which was the fourth of Jannæus, and crucified in the year 3707, which was the third of Aristobulus; making him the disciple of R. Josuah the son of Perachiah, according to that usual

כרבי יהושע בן פרחיה שדחפו,phrase of theirs .Vide Sepher Juchasin לישו בשתי ידים

which he died. Nor need we be ashamed that the Christian religion, which we profess, should have so known an Epocha, and so late an original. Christ came not into the world in the beginning of it, but in "the fulness of time." (Gal. iv. 4.)

Secondly, It was thought necessary to include the name of Pilate in our CREED, as of one who gave a most powerful external testimony to the certainty of our Saviour's death, and the innocency of his life. He did not only profess, to the condemnation of the Jews, that he found nothing worthy of death in Christ; but left the same written to the Gentiles of the Roman empire. Two ways he is related to have given most ample testimony to the truth: first, By an express written to Tiberius, t and by him presented to the senate; secondly, By records written in tables, of all things of moment which were acted in his government. I

Thirdly, It behoved us to take notice of the Roman governor in the expression of our Saviour's passion, that thereby we might understand how it came to pass that Christ should suffer according to the Scriptures. The prophets had foretold his death, but after such a manner as was not to be performed by the Jews, according to whose law and custom, no man among them ever so died. Being then so great a prophet could not die but in Jerusalem, being the death he was to suffer was not agreeable to the laws and customs of the Jews; it was necessary a Roman governor should condemn him, that so the counsel of the will of God might be fulfilled, by the malice of the one, and the customs of the other.

And now the advantage of this circumstance is discovered, every one may express the importance of it in this manner: Í am fully persuaded of this truth as beyond all possibility of contradiction, that in "the fulness of time" God sent his Son; and that the eternal Son of God, so sent by him, did suffer for the sins of men, after the fifteenth year of Tiberius the Roman emperor, and before his death, in the time of Pontius Pilate the Cæsarean Procurator of Judea; who, to please the nation of the Jews, did condemn him whom he pronounced innocent, and delivered him, according to the custom of that empire, and in order to the fulfilling of the prophecies, to die a painful and shameful death upon the cross. And thus I believe in Christ,

that SUFFERED UNDER PONTIUS PILATE.

Was Crucified.

FROM the general consideration of our Saviour's passion, we proceed to the most remarkable particular, his crucifixion, standing between his passion, which it concludeth, and his death, which it introduceth. For the explication whereof, it will be necessary, at first, To prove that the promised Messias was to be crucified, that he which was designed to die for our sins was to suffer on the cross; secondly, To shew that our Jesus, whom we worship, was certainly and truly crucified, and did suffer whatsoever was foretold, upon the cross; thirdly, To discover what is the nature of crucifixion, what peculiarities of suffering are contained in dying on the cross.

That the Messias was to be crucified, appeareth both by types which did apparently foreshew it, and by the prophecies which did plainly foretell it. For, though all those representations and predictions which the forward zeal of some ancient

todia Pontii Pilati et punitum, cujus exstant Acta Passionis ?' These Acta in the time of Maximinus were adulterated, and filled with many blasphemies against our Saviour, as appears by Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 1. i. c. 9. Οὐκοῦν σαφῶς ἀπελήλεγκται τὸ πλάσμα τῶν κατὰ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν

ὑπομνήματα χθὲς καὶ πρώην διαδεδωκότων and: Πλασάμενοι δῆτα Πιλάτου καὶ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ὑπομνήματα πάσης ἔμπλεα κατὰ τοῦ Χριστοῦ βλασφημίας, γνώμη του μείζονος ἐπὶ πᾶσαν διαπέμπονται τὴν ὑπ' αὐτὸν ἀρχήν. l. ix. c. 5.