THE FIFTH LECTURE. OF THE PASSION OF CHRIST. JOHN, CHAP. XVIII. 28. Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas into the common hall. Now it was morning, and they themselves went not into the common hall, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the passover. 29. Pilate then went out unto them, and said, What accusation bring you against this man? 30. They answered, and said unto him, If he were not an evil-doer, we would not have delivered him unto thee. 31. Then said Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and judge him after your own law. Then the Jews said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death. 32. It was that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake, signifying what death he should die. IN the 18th and 19th chapters of this Gospel, brethren, is contained the History of the Passion of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is divided in these parts: the first is the suffering of the Lord in the garden; the next is the suffering of the Lord under the high priest Caiaphas, the ecclesiastical judge; the third is the suffering of the Lord under Pontius Pilate, the civil and Roman magistrate; the fourth is the suffering of the Lord in the place of execution; the last in the sepulchre. We have spoken of the first part of his suffering in the garden, besides the inward conflict he had with the wrath of his Father, for the sins of the elect, which he did bear upon him. The Lord is taken like a thief or a vagabond, and bound and led to Hierusalem. We heard also the suffering of the Lord in the hall of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas. When the high priests and elders are set down in council, he is brought in before them, and being brought, they have not a word to say against him, howbeit they bound him and brought him to judgment. This was an informal dealing; therefore the high priest demands of him his doctrine, and of his disciples, to catch a word out of his mouth. whereupon he might make his accusation; when they prevail not this way, the rest of the Evangelists' note that they begin to suborn false witness; but they get no vantage that way neither, for they cannot agree together. Then the high priest begins in wrath to adjure him, to tell him whether he be that Christ or no. The Lord denies it not, but says, "Thou hast said it ;" he gives him a fair testimony of this. After this he says, "Ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of the power of God, and come in the clouds of heaven." "Then the high priest rent his clothes," as though he had blasphemed, and said, "What have we more need of witness? Behold, now ye heard his blasphemy, what think ye?" Then he and the rest of the council concluded that the Lord was worthy of death, and so the council departed. In the meantime, the Lord is kept still in the hall of the high priest, and the officers are all about him, working all kind of injury against him; the rebukes that should have befallen to us are laid on him, as the prophet said of him, Psa. lxix. 10.2 Some spitted on him, some put a vail on his face and smote him, saying in scorn, "Prophesy, Christ, who it is that striketh thee?" Nothing in the Lord but patience; he spake nothing, he made no more resistance than a silly lamb before the shearer. When it is begun to become light in the morning, the priests and elders begin to sit down in council, and the high priest asked of him the same again, "Whether he was that Christ or no?" he answereth, "If I should tell you, ye will 1 Matth. xxvi. 59-60; Mark xiv. 55-66 29 in our authorised version. not believe me ;" what avails it to speak to an indured heart? And he testifies again, "Thou hast said it ;" and he gives an argument of this, "Hereafter shall the Son of man sit at the right hand of the power of God." Then the high priest and the elders, the second time, conclude him to be worthy of death, and adjudge him to die; then the council arises, and the first thing they do, they lead him to Pontius Pilate, the Roman deputy, to the judgment hall, to him to execute that sentence they had given out. In this text, we enter into the third part of the suffering of Christ under Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. First, in the text, we have read how the Lord is led into the common hall of Pilate, then we have what conference was betwixt Pilate and the Jews concerning Christ. Then it is said, "they led him into the common hall," which is, as we call it, the session-house, where the Roman governor sat for the time, and ministrated judgment. Now, brethren, it would be well marked, when it is that they led him to Pilate. It appears plainly in the writings of the Evangelists, namely, Matth. xxvi. 59; Mark xiv. 55; and Luke xxii. 63,' that they led him in after they adjudged him to be worthy of death. They led him not in, thinking that Pilate should sit down and try whether he was worthy of death or not, but that Pilate, upon their word, should give out the sentence of condemnation against him. Mark, and consider, how they abused the judge, a man better than themselves, they make him but a torturer, and the best is, a damner to give out the sentence. Ye may see here a lively image of him who will be called the high priest in the Kirk this day; I mean that beast of Rome, the Roman Antichrist. Indeed, this day, there is no high priest but Jesus Christ only, who did put an end to that office among the Jews; there is no high priest or small priest; great or small in the world, all is but usurped authority; "he is that only high priest, according to the order of Melchizedek, who endureth Inaccurately copied from the Latin Commentary while treating of the general transactions in concilio Pontificum. The reference should be Matth. xxvi. 66; Mark xiv. 64; Luke xxii. 71. 2 i. e. They led him in, not thinking, &c. for ever." But he who falsely takes upon him that style follows the fact and example of Caiaphas, first condemning Christ, and then giving him over to Pilate to execute the sentence; for he will sit down in his council and adjudge the innocent to death, as Caiaphas did Christ, and then he will use the power and arm of the emperor; for what is the emperor and so many kings, who have given themselves over to his slavery, but like as many hangmen to the Pope? What is the King of Spain but a burrio to the Pope? He dare not but execute the decree of the Inquisition; was he not compelled to pleasure the Pope and his crew, in putting his own son to death?? Ye saw never two things liker to other than the Pope and Caiaphas. The time is noted when the Lord Jesus is led to the common hall; first, it is in the morning, after the rising of the sun, and after the council of the high priest and of the elders was loosed.3 The manner of the delivery is noted; when they come to the place of judgment, the Jews will not enter in, because they will not defile themselves, if it were with the touching of a profane ethnic, or the walls of a house. O, hypocrites! The cause is set down, they were in a preparation to cat the passover that same night; now will ye see these holy folk? they will not be polluted with the touching of Pilate; they bad polluted themselves miserably with touching of Jesus that innocent, and polluted both hand and heart in taking him, and leading him to the judge, accusing him and abusing him; yet when they have done all this, they will not be defiled with Pilate; they are profane in the greatest thing in the world, to slay the Lord Jesus, they are religious in a light ceremony of their own invention. Look the nature of hypocrites; Paul, Ephes. v. 12, "It is a shame even to speak of those things which an hypocrite will do in secret." And if ye will come to ceremonies and outward observations, no man is so precise, and will seem so holy as they, the faithfulest creature will not be so 1 Heb. vi. 20. * This is an allusion to the death of Don Carlos, son of Philip II. of Spain, 1568. 3 The Latin Commentary (p. 901) notices, that it was at this time that Judas in despair hanged himself. i. e. A heathen. holy in bodily exercise as they; yea, I say unto you, if there be no more but this bodily exercise and keeping of ceremonies, the Lord counts all but abominations, as ye may see in Isaiah, chap. i. Preaching and hearing, speaking, conferring, the Lord counts no more of them than if he had never ordained them, if there be no more but this outward action; and, as before, even so now I say, we have a vive image of the deceivers of the world. The Pope's religion is nothing but a deceiving of the world, by keeping of vain and unprofitable ceremonies invented by him; will ye come to trifles of their own inventions, they appear to be very religious, and exceeding holy" touch not, handle not, taste not"-but their cloister monks are so defiled, that they defile the world; offer him gold or silver, he will not touch it, and if a woman come into their cloister, all must be purified with fire after that she is come out, though she were a queen; there is the louns'' religion. I pronounce, that in Popedom there is but a show of godliness, and have denied the power thereof; follow the Papists who will, they have nothing almost but trifles and their own inventions. Well, then, come to the conference between the Jews and Pilate. Pilate, yielding to their vanity and superstition, not so much to their religion," he cometh out to them," and seeing he must judge the Lord, "he asketh if they had any accusation against him," because they would not come in. It is not enough to judge a man except the pursuer have an accusation, and Pilate would not sit down to judge, except he saw the accusation; indeed, the Jews took him, bound him, and in the high priest's hall handled him unworthily, before they had any accusation against him, and they bring him in judgment ; but Pilate, an ethnic and a sinner, as they called him, will not proceed that way; he is more formal, he will not sit down in judgment till he hear the accusation. An ethnic who lives without God in the world, and without the promises, as Paul speaks, he is more just and formal in judgment than all the Jews who professed the true God. This falls out oftentimes, that a Turk or Pagan, who, liv 3 |