hearing at Rome. Even against Herod the Great, their charges had been received; they had been admitted to a public audience, and though their claim to national independence at the death of that sovereign had not been allowed, Archelaus had received his government with limited powers: and on the complaint of the people, had been removed from his throne. In short, the influence of that attachment to the Cæsarean family (1), which had obtained for the nation distinguished privileges both from Julius and Augustus, had not yet been effaced by that character of turbulence and insubordination which led to their final ruin. In what manner such a charge of not being "Cæsar's friend" might be misrepresented or aggravated, it was impossible to conjecture, but the very strangeness of the accusation was likely to work on the gloomy and suspicious mind of Tiberius; and the frail tenure by which Pilate held his favour at Rome is shown by his ignominious recall and banishment some years after, on the complaint of the Jewish people; though not, it is true, for an act of indiscreet mercy, but one of unnecessary cruelty. The latent and suspended decision of his character reappeared in all its customary recklessness. The life of one man, however blameless, was not for an instant to be considered, when his own advancement, his personal safety, were in peril : his sterner nature resumed the ascendant; he mounted the tribunal, which was erected on a tesselated pavement near the prætorium (2), and passed the solemn, the irrevocable sentence. It might almost seem, that in bitter mockery, Pilate Condemnfor the last time demanded, "Shall I crucify your king?" "We ation of have no king, but Cæsar," was the answer of the chief priests. Pilate yielded up the contest; the murderer was commanded to be set at liberty, the just man surrendered to crucifixion. Jesus. soldiery. The remorseless soldiery were at hand, and instigated, no doubt, Insults of by the influence, by the bribes, of the Sanhedrin, carried the sen- the popu Jesus by tence into effect with the most savage and wanton insults. They lace and dressed him up in all the mock semblance of royalty (he had already the purple robe and the crown); a reed was now placed in his hand for a sceptre; they paid him their insulting homage; struck him with the palms of their hands; spit upon him; and then stripping him of his splendid attire, drest him again in his own simple raiment, and led him out to death (3). The place of execution was without the gates. This was the case (1) Compare Hist. of the Jews, ii. 86. (2) We should not notice the strange mistake of the learned German, Hug, on this subject, if it had not been adopted by a clever writer in a popular journal. Hug has supposed the 106TOTOV (perhaps the tesselated) stone pavement on which Pilate's tribunal was erected, to be the same which was the scene of a remarkable incident mentioned by Josephus. During the siege of the Temple, a centurion, Julianus, charged on horseback, and forced his way into (3) Matt. xxvii. 27-30.; Mark, xv. 15-20. Circum the cruci in most towns; and in Jerusalem, which, according to tradition, always maintained a kind of resemblance to the camp in the wilderness (1), as criminal punishments were forbidden to defile the sacred precincts, a field beyond the walls was set apart and desecrated for this unhallowed purpose (2). Hitherto we have been tempted into some detail, both by the desire of ascertaining the state of the public mind, and the motives of the different actors in this unparalleled transaction, and by the necessity of harmonising the various circumstances related in the four separate narratives. As we approach the appalling close, we tremble lest the colder process of explanation should deaden the solemn and harrowing impression of the scene, or weaken the contrast between the wild and tumultuous uproar of the triumphant enemies and executioners of the Son of Man, with the deep and unutterable misery of the few faithful adherents who still followed his footsteps: and, far above all, his own serene, his more than human, composure, the dignity of suffering, which casts so far into the shade every example of human heroism. Yet in the most trifling incidents there stances of is so much life and reality, so remarkable an adherence to the usages fixion of the time, and to the state of public feeling, that we cannot but point out the most striking of these particulars. For, in fact, there is no single circumstance, however minute, which does not add to the truth of the whole description, so as to stamp it (we have honestly endeavoured to consider it with the calmest impartiality) with an impression of credibility, of certainty, equal to, if not surpassing, every event in the history of man. The inability of Jesus (exhausted by a sleepless night, by the length of the trial, by insults and bodily pain, by the scourging and the blows) to bear his own cross (the constant practice of condemned criminals) (3); the seizure of a Cyrenian, from a province more numerously colonised by Jews than any other, except Egypt and Babylonia, as he was entering the city, and, perhaps, was known to be an adherent of Jesus, to bear his cross (4); the customary deadening potion of wine and myrrh (5), which was given to malefactors previous to their execution, but which Jesus, aware of its stupifying or intoxicating effect, and determined to preserve his firmness and self-command, but slightly touched with his lips; the title, the King (6) of the Jews, in three (1) Numbers, xv. 35. 1 Kings, xxi. 13.; Hebrews, xiii. 12. Extra urbem, patibulum. Plautus. See Grotius. (2) It is curious to trace on what uncertain grounds rest many of our established notions relating to incidents in the early history of our religion. No one scruples to speak in the popular language of "the Hill of Calvary;" yet there appears no evidence, which is not purely legendary, for the assertion that Calvary was on a hill. The notion aro se from the fanciful interpre tation of the word Golgotha, the place of a skull, which was tho ught to imply some resem blance in its form to a human skull; but it is far more probably derived from having been strewn with the remains of condemned malefactors. (3) Hence the common term "furcifer." Patibulum ferat per urbem, deinde affigatur cruci. Plauti frag. (4) Mark, xv. 21; Luke, xxiii. 26. (5) Matt. xxvii. 34.; Mark, xv. 23. The Rabbins say, wine with frankincense. This potion was given by the Jews out of compassion to criminals. (6) Luke, xxii. 38.; John, xix. 19, 20. languages (1), so strictly in accordance with the public usage of the time; the division and casting lots for his garments by the soldiers who executed him (those who suffered the ignominious punishment of the cross being exposed entirely naked, or with nothing more than was necessary for decency) (2); all these particulars, as well as the instrument of execution, the cross, are in strict unison with the well-known practice of Roman criminal jurisprudence. The execution of the two malefactors, one on each side of Jesus, is equally consonant with their ordinary administration of justice, particularly in this ill-fated province. Probably before, unquestionably at a later period, Jerusalem was doomed to behold the long line of crosses on which her sons were left by the relentless Roman authorities to struggle with slow and agonising death. malefac tors. of the execution. In other circumstances, the Jewish national character is equally conspicuous. This appears even in the conduct of the malefactors. The fanatical Judaism of one, not improbably a follower, or in- The two fected with the doctrines of the Gaulonite, even in his last agony, has strength enough to insult the pretender to the name of a Messiah who yet has not the power to release himself and his fellow-sufferers from death. The other, of milder disposition, yet in death, inclines to believe in Jesus, and when he returns to assume his kingdom, would hope to share in its blessings. To him Jesus, speaking in the current language promises an immediate reward; he is to pass at once from life to happiness (3). Besides this, how striking the triumph of his enemies, as he seemed to surrender himself without resistance to the growing pangs of death; the Spectators assemblage, not only of the rude and ferocious populace, but of many of the most distinguished rank, the members of the Sanhedrin, to behold and to insult the last moments of their once redoubted, but now despised, adversary. And still every indication of approaching death seemed more and more to justify their rejection! still no sign of the mighty, the all-powerful Messiah! Their taunting allusions to his royal title, to his misapprehended speech, which rankled in their hearts, about the demolition and rebuilding of the Temple (4); to his power of healing others, and restoring life, a power in his own case so manifestly suspended or lost; the offer to acknowledge him as the Messiah, if he would come down from the cross in the face of day; the still more malignant reproach, that he, who had boasted of the peculiar favour of God, was now so visibly deserted and abandoned, the son of God, as he called himself, is left to perish despised and disregarded (1) The inscriptions on the palisades which divided the part of the temple court which might be entered by the Gentiles from that which was open only to the Jews, were written, with the Roman sanction, in the three languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. (2) Matt. xxvii. 35.; Mark, xv. 24.; Luke, (4) Matt. xxvii. 39-43.; Mark, xv. 31, 32.; by God; all this as strikingly accords with, and illustrates the state of, Jewish feeling, as the former circumstances of the Roman usages. And amid the whole wild and tumultuous scene there are some quiet gleams of pure Christianity, which contrast with and relieve the general darkness and horror: not merely the superhuman patience, with which insult, and pain, and ignominy, are borne; not merely the serene self-command, which shows that the senses are not benumbed or deadened by the intensity of suffering; but the slight incidental touches of gentleness and humanity (1). We cannot but indicate the answer to the afflicted women, who stood by the way weeping, as he passed on to Calvary, and whom he Conduct commanded not "to weep for him," but for the deeper sorrows of Jesus. to which themselves or their children were devoted; the notice of the group of his own kindred and followers who stood by the cross; his bequest of the support of his Virgin Mother to the beloved disciple (2); above all, that most affecting exemplification of his own tenets, the prayer for the pardon of his enemies, the palliation of their crime from their ignorance of its real enormity, Preterna tural darkness. "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (3)." Yet so little are the Evangelists studious of effect, that this incident of unrivalled moral sublimity, even in the whole life of Christ, is but briefly, we might almost say carelessly, noticed by St. Luke alone. From the sixth hour (noonday), writes the Evangelists St. Matthew, there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour (4). The whole earth (the phrase in the other Evangelists) is no doubt used according to Jewish phraseology, in which Palestine, the sacred land, was emphatically the earth. This supernatural gloom appears to resemble that terrific darkness which precedes an earthquake. For these three hours Jesus had borne the excruciating anguish -his human nature begins to fail, and he complains of the burning thirst, the most painful but usual aggravation of such a death. A compassionate bystander filled a sponge with vinegar, fixed it on a long reed, and was about to lift it to his lips, when the dying Jesus uttered his last words, those of the twenty-second Psalm, in which, in the bitterness of his heart, David had complained of the manifest desertion of his God, who had yielded him up to his enemies-the phrase had perhaps been in common use in extreme distress-Eli, Eli, lama Sabacthani?-My God, my God, why hast (1) Luke, xxiii. 27-31. (2) John, xix. 25—27. · (3) Luke, xxiii. 34. Matt. xxvii. 45-53.; Mark, xv. 33-38.; Gibbon has said, and truly, as regards all sacred writings, that "the celebrated passage of Phlegon is now wisely abandoned." It still maintains its ground, however, with writers of a certain class, notwithstanding its irrelevancy has already been admitted by Origen, aud its authority rejected by every writer who has the least pretensions to historical criticism. thou forsaken me (1)? The compassionate hand of the man, raising the vinegar, was arrested by others, who, a few perhaps in trembling curiosity, but more in bitter mockery, supposing that he called not on God (Eli) but on Elias, commanded him to wait and see, whether, even now, that great and certain sign of the Messiah, the appearance of Elijah, would at length take place. Their barbarous triumph was uninterrupted; and he, who yet (his followers were not without some lingering hope, and the more superstitious of his enemies not without some trembling apprehension) might awaken to all his terrible and prevailing majesty, had now manifestly expired (2). The Messiah, the imperishable, the eternal Messiah, had quietly yielded up the ghost. Even the dreadful earthquake which followed, seemed to pass away without appalling the enemies of Jesus. The rending of the veil of the Temple from the top to the bottom, so strikingly significant of the approaching, abolition of the local worship, would either be concealed by the priesthood, or attributed as a natural effect to the convulsion of the earth. The same convulsion would displace the stones which covered the ancient tombs, and lay open many of the innumerable rock-hewn sepulchres which perforated the hills on every side of the city, and expose the dead to public view. To the awe-struck and depressed minds of the followers of Jesus, no doubt, were confined those visionary appearances of the spirits of their deceased brethren, which are obscurely intimated in the rapid narratives of the Evangelists (3). But these terrific appearances, which seem to have been lost on the infatuated Jews, were not without effect on the less prejudiced Roman soldiery; they appeared to bear the testimony of Heaven to the innocence, to the divine commission, of the crucified Jesus. The centurion who guarded the spot according to St. Luke, declared aloud his conviction that Jesus was a just man; according to St Matthew, that he was the Son of God (4). Secure now, by the visible marks of dissolution, by the piercing of his side, from which blood and water flowed out, that Jesus was actually dead; and still, even in their most irreligious acts of cruelty and wickedness, punctiliously religious (since it was a sin to leave the body of that blameless being on the cross during one day (5), (1) Matt. xxvii. 46.; Mark, xv. 34-37.; John, silence of all other history. Compare the very xix. 28-30. sensible note of M. Guizot on the latter part of (4) Matt. xxvii. 54.; Luke, xxiii. 47. Lightfoot (5) Deut. xxi. 23. The Jews usually buried executed criminals ignominiously, but at the request of a family would permit a regular burial. Lightfoot, from Babyl. Can. Death of Jesus. Burial of |