ESSAY I.

own ac

Himself

kingdom,

quiry.

§ 1. To any one who is convinced of the Christ's divine origin of the Christian Religion,-who is count of satisfied that what is called in Scripture "The and his Kingdom of Heaven" does really deserve that the first intitle, and who is inquiring into the personal character of its Founder, and into the nature of that Kingdom which He proclaimed and established, the most obvious and natural course would seem to be, to appeal, in the first instance, to that Founder Himself, and to consider what account He gave of his own character and that of his kingdom. For to believe Him sent from God, is to believe Him incapable of either deceiving or being deceived, as to these points. He must have understood both his own personal nature, and the principles of the religion He was divinely commissioned to introduce. Having

Christ tried

twice.

Trial before

the Sanhe

and then

before Pilate.

a full reliance therefore both on his unerring knowledge, and his perfect veracity, our first inquiry should be, as I have said (without any disparagement of other sources of instruction) into the accounts He gave of Himself and his religion; both in the various discourses which He delivered and declarations which He made, on sundry occasions, and, most especially, on the great and final occasion of his being tried and condemned to death.

We collect from the sacred historians that He underwent two trials, before two distinct tribunals, and on charges totally different; that on the one occasion He was found guilty, and on the other, acquitted; and that ultimately He was put to death under the one Authority in compliance with the condemnation which had been pronounced by the other.

He was tried first before the Sanhedrim, (the drim first, Jewish Council) "for blasphemy," and pronounced " guilty of death:" before the Roman governor, Pilate (and probably before Herod also) He was tried for rebellion, in setting up pretensions subversive of the existing Government, and was pronounced not guilty. The Jewish ruler had the will, but not the power, to inflict capital punishment on Him; Pilate had the power, and not the will. But though he "found no fault in Him," he was ultimately pre

a

vailed on by the Jews to inflict their sentence of death. "We have a law," they urged, " and by our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God."

Of this most interesting and important portion of the sacred narrative many persons, I believe, have a somewhat indistinct and confused notion; partly from the brevity, scantiness and indeed incompleteness, of each of the four narratives, when taken alone; each evangelist recording, it may be supposed, such circumstances, as he was the most struck with, and had seen or heard the most of: and partly, again, from the commonly prevailing practice of reading the Scripture-histories irregularly and in detached fragments, taken indiscriminately and without any fixed object, out of different books."

This indistinctness a reader of ordinary intelligence may I think very easily clear away, by attentively studying and comparing together all the four accounts that have come down to us and he will then find that this portion

a

'Huic is expressed in the original.

b The whole of the New Testament is read in this irregular mode, in the Second Lessons appointed in our Service; as these are appointed in reference to the day of the month only; and it is consequently a matter of chance which of them shall fall on Sunday. This is one of the imperfections which a Church-government, if we had one, would not fail to remedy. See Appendix to the Second Essay.

Application of the Jews

infliction of

capital punish

ment.

of the history so examined, will throw great light on some of the most important points of Gospeltruth;-on those two great questions especially which were alluded to in the outset, as to the fundamental character of "the kingdom of Heaven," and the person of its Founder.

§ 2. When the Jewish Rulers and People to Pilate for were clamorously demanding the death of Jesus under sentence of the Roman Authorities, and Pilate in answer declared that before his-the Roman-tribunal, no crime had been proved, saying, "Take ye Him and judge Him according to your law," his intention evidently was that no heavier penalty should be inflicted than the scourging which was the utmost that the Jewish Authorities were permitted to inflict. But they replied that the crime of which they had convicted Him, was, by their law, capital, while yet they were restricted by the Romans from inflicting capital punishment; (" it is not lawful for us to put any man to death") on which ground accordingly they called on the Governor to execute the capital sentence of their Court.

motives for

Pilate's Their clamours prevailed, through Pilate's apyielding. prehension of a tumult, and of himself incurring

It seems to have been not unusual for the Roman Governors of Provinces to endeavour thus to prevent, or mitigate, or cut short, any tumult not directed against the Roman

suspicions of disloyalty towards the Emperor; which they had endeavoured to awaken by crying out that "if he let this man go, he was not Cæsar's friend: whosoever maketh himself a king, speaketh against Cæsar." But this was only brought forward as a plea to influence Pilate. The trial before the Jewish Council had nothing to do with the Roman Emperor, but was for "blasphemy," because "He made Himself the SON OF GOD."

of the ex

Son of God.

It is important, therefore, to inquire, since Meanings this phrase may conceivably bear more than one pression, meaning,-in what sense it was understood by those who founded on it the sentence of death. In a certain sense all mankind may be called God's Elect children of God. In a more especial manner,- called Sons. People in a higher sense, those are often called his children whom He has from time to time chosen to be his "peculiar People,"-to have his will

power itself, by yielding to the wishes of the populace, however unreasonable, or conniving at their disorders. A sort of compromise was thus made with the most turbulent and violent among them; who, provided they made no attempt to throw off the yoke of a foreign Power, were permitted to sacrifice a fellow-citizen to their lawless fury. Thus Gallio at Corinth left the rioters to settle their own disputes as they would; (Acts xviii.) and the magistrates at Philippi readily and spontaneously gratified the populace by seconding and sanctioning their unjust violence.

and reluctantly.

d (Acts xvii.)

Pilate on this occasion did so, tardily

"for we are also his children."