The name of Pilate is inserted not with the view of branding him with infamy, but in order to fix the date of the crucifixion of Jesus.  It is the only intimation of the time of His death that the Creed contains.  It states that He was born, and that His mother was the Virgin Mary, and beyond this reference to Pilate there is no intimation as to the time of the nativity or the death.  Bishop Pearson writes:—­“As the Son of God, by His deliberate counsel, was sent into the world to die in the fulness of time, so it concerns the Church to know the time in which He died.  And because the ancient custom of the world was to make computations by the governors, and refer their historical relations to the respective times of their government, therefore, that we might be properly assured of the actions of our Saviour which He did, and of His sufferings,—­that is the actions which others did to Him,—­the present governor is named in that form of speech which is proper to such historical or chronological narrations when we affirm that He suffered under Pontius Pilate."[082] From stating the birth of Christ, the Creed passes by what at first sight may seem an abrupt transition to His suffering, crucifixion, and death.  There is no reference to His life or works, though these differed so widely from those of ordinary men.  The reason seems to be that the end for which He came into the world was to suffer and die.  Although He spake as never man spake, and did the works no other man did, it was not in the first place to teach or to work miracles that He emptied Himself of His glory and came to earth, but in order to suffer and die in the room and stead of sinners.  Others had been prophets and teachers, others had worked miracles, others had done good in their day and generation, but none save Jesus had come in his own name or wielded power so marvellous as His.  No one could share with Him the work of suffering and dying for sinners.  He was lifted up that He might draw all men unto Him.  “He suffered the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God."[083] On the cross He tasted death for every man, and made a sacrificial atonement for the sins of the world.  “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities:  the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."[084] His dying was the leading thought and purpose of His life.  Those who were with Him fixed their eyes on His greatness as manifested in His wisdom and miracles, and looked for His setting up a kingdom of this world, but He Himself from the very beginning knew that the path to be traversed by Him was one of agony and death.  He was straitened until this baptism of suffering should be accomplished.[085] At His first Passover He had intimated that, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man should be lifted up.  He used this expression “lifted up” three times, and an Evangelist gives the explanation:  “This he said, signifying what death he should