for it is that only food by the which the life of God is nourished within thee here; and one day it shall present unto thee such satiety of all pleasure and joy in the face of God, as the heart cannot think of now, howbeit thou gettest but scant in this world. Alas! that we should let such a joy pass away, for fault of feeling and tasting!

"What is the verity ?" says Pilate; he asks this not with pleasure, but loathing and disdaining, and tarries no answer, "but goes his way." His stomach loathes Christ. Then in Pilate we have an example of natural men; if any will speak of things heavenly unto them, of Christ, and of his benefits, they will stay the speech so far as they can; and if thereafter any will insist, and yet speak on, then, at the last, if thou wilt urge them, they must speak something, but they will speak as Pilate did, lightly and disdainfully; and when they have asked, they will leave off, and will not care for an answer, but ask for the fashion's cause, when they are constrained thereunto. We are by nature like to Pilate; either we will not speak one word of things heavenly, or else, if we be compelled to speak, and words be thrown out of us, we will speak with a loathing and disdaining of the heart. There was never any thing in the world that could move the natural man more to loathing than the word of God; he will hear it with such disdain, that when one thing is said in word he will say another in heart, and he will think him who teaches him the most foolish man in the world. And he who is wisest, if he be not regenerated and renewed, he shall count Christ and things heavenly most foolish. A simple body is sooner won than he who is wise in his own conceit in the world. If thou wouldst be a hearer or speaker of heavenly things, strive always to get a reformation of thine own corrupt nature, and let thy meditation and prayer be thus, "Lord, reform mine heart, that thy word may be fruitful in me, so that both I may hear with pleasure, and also that the words come not from the teeth forward, but from the deepness of mine heart,

'It will be seen that there is here an anticipation of the first part of the 38th There is no such anticipation in the Latin Commentary.

verse.

F

when I speak of thee and things heavenly, that so thy word may edify both me and others." It is a more dangerous thing to come to hear, if we be not duly prepared, than to tarry away; and better not to speak at all, than to speak of things heavenly without the inward sense of the heart. Now the Lord grant us grace, that, in hearing and speaking of things heavenly, we may have this heavenly disposition in some measure, for Christ's sake. To whom, with the Father, and Holy Spirit, be all praise, honour, and glory, both now and evermore. Amen,

THE SEVENTH LECTURE.

OF THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

JOHN, CHAP. XVIII.

38. Pilate said unto him, What is truth? And when he had said that, he went out again to the Jews, and said unto them, I find in him no cause at all.

39. But

you have a custom, that I should deliver you one loose at the passover; will ye, then, that I loose unto you the King of the Jews?

40. Then cried they all again, saying, Not him, but Barabbas. Now this Barabbas was a murderer.

WE heard these days past (brethren) of the suffering of the Lord, first, in the garden; next, under Caiaphas, the high priest for the time; and then we entered into the third part of his suffering, under Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, who abode in Hierusalem for the time. We heard the accusation that the high priests and the Jews allege to Pilate the judge, where he sat in judgment against Jesus Christ. The accusation was not blasphemous against God, for when' the priests thought him afore in their own judgment-seat worthy of death, but treason against the majesty of Cæsar. "He calls himself," say they, "the King of the Jews," as

Is this a misprint for blasphemy and which ?

though Christ had come into the world to be an earthly king, and to take the kingdom over Cæsar's head. When Pilate had posed Christ about this, after one or two answers, he finds this accusation vain, false, and feigned. And, therefore, brethren, first, in this text we have read this day, we have the purgation of Jesus, and that out of Pilate's own mouth. Next, how he secks by all means to get him out of the Jews' hands. Thirdly, we have the part of the Jews, how they seek maliciously the life of the innocent, and prefer Barabbas (a murderer) unto him. As to the first part, it is said that "Pilate went out again to the Jews," out of the hall, and professed before them all," that he found no fault in that man worthy of death." Then Pilate, after his inquisition, finding Jesus Christ, who was accused before him, free of all affectation of Cæsar's kingdom, yet finding that he denied not but that he was a king; (and that was that good witnessing that Christ gave under Pontius Pilate, as Paul (1 Tim. vi. 13) says;) but he was no king. of this world, then Pilate thinks there was no crime in Christ Jesus. As concerning the other kingdom, Pilate thought it but an imagination and fantasy; therefore, thinking that Jesus made himself to be a fantastic king, and sought not Cæsar's kingdom from him, he would not count him worthy of death, but he cleanses him. Politic and profane hearted men in this world, who smell of nothing but of the earth, and have no sense of heavenly things, if ye will but leave them the things of this world, as Cæsar's kingdom, the glory, the honour, the riches, and the pleasures of this world unto them, they care not what men speak of God, or his kingdom, or of Jesus Christ, or of matters of religion. Howbeit that they would say, that they would climb up to heaven, and rave' it from God, they care not for it; as Paul says, "the natural man counts heavenly things but foolishness." Speak to them of heavenly things, all is but imagination, and heaven is as a dream to them. Lysias the chief captain, who was in Jerusalem after this man, under the governor Felix, when Paul was persecuted in Jerusalem, ye remember what he wrote to Felix, "They accuse him of trifles, i.e. Take by violence.

2 Cor. ii. 14.

and of questions of their law; but I find nothing in the man worthy either of death or of bonds," (Acts xxiii. 29.) Worldly men count it not a crime, or a thing worthy of punishment, to derogate from God's glory. Well, let men spend their time; one day they shall feel it to their grief, that religion is the most earnest and excellent thing that ever was; and they shall curse the time that ever they esteemed any thing excellent but religion. Yet this is commendable in Pilate, that he gives so fair a testimony of Jesus. An ethnic, who had no knowledge of God, nor sense of the life to come, to stand up in the face of them who should have known Jesús Christ, and to purge the innocent, might have made the high priests and the Jews ashamed. Yet, will ye mark this more narrowly? Albeit his purgation be fair, yet he faileth far; for in purgation he uttereth a profane heart; whilst he purges him in words, he scorneth him. in his heart, and condemneth that kingdom of his, and that truth whereof he spake, as a fable. Profane men, who have no part of sanctification, when they speak fairest, and when they seem to do best, they do nothing but sin. Why? Because, in the meantime, when they speak fairest, their heart is full of vanity, and in their heart they scorn God. Albeit thou standest up and speakest much for the defence of Christ, and seemest to be angry at the Jews, as Pilate did, if, in the meantime, thine heart believe not in that Jesus, thou art but a scorner, and all thy speech serveth for no purpose to thee, if thou believest not; therefore, in speaking of heaven, and of religion, and of Jesus Christ, we should take heed to the heart, that it be sanctified; and remember that while the mouth speaks God sees the heart; and when thou speakest of that name of Jesus Christ, let thine heart grip unto him, and so thy speech shall be edifying and gracious. Now when he hath cleansed him by word, thereafter by deed he seeks to get him loose. it is subjoined that Pilate says, "Ye have a custom, that I should deliver you a prisoner loose at the passover; will ye that I let loose the King of the Jews?"

And

The rest of the Evangelists, Matthew xxvii. 12, Mark xv. 3, Luke xxiii., setteth down another accusation that passed in