But let us beware deception.  Some “hold a lie in their right hands; cry peace when there is no peace to them.”  Let us commune with our own hearts; attend to our temper and conduct; inquire whether we have taken up our cross, and are following Christ?  Whether the spirit of Christ dwelleth in us.  If we have not his spirit, we are none of his.  “If we have his spirit we walk as he walked.”  If this is our happy state, we shall ere long hear from our Judge, “come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world.”  But if found sinners, a very different doom awaits us.

* * * * * *

SERMON XII.

The aggravated Guilt of him who delivered Christ to Pilate.

John xix.10, 11.

“Then saith Pilate unto him, ’Speakest thou not unto me?  Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?’ Jesus answered, ’Thou couldest have no power against me, except it were given thee from above:  Therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.’”

Judea was conquered by the Romans and reduced to a province of their empire, before Christ suffered for the sins of men.  When the Jews conspired his death, Pilate was governor of that province.  The power of life and death was in his hands.  Though said to have been devoid of principle, he was unwilling to give sentence against Jesus.  Free from Jewish prejudices, he was convinced of Christ’s innocence; that he had committed no offence, either against his own nation, or against the Romans; but that for envy he had been arraigned, condemned, and delivered up as a malefactor.

A mighty prince was then expected to arise in Israel.  That he would save his people from their enemies, and crush the powers which held them in subjection, was the general idea entertained of him.  But the Jews had no expectations of such a deliverer in the Son of Mary; nor did the Roman Governor see aught in him to excite suspicion of a formidable enemy.  He wished, therefore, to release him; repeatedly declared him not guilty; and would have set him at liberty, but the Jews opposed.  They declared that “by their law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God”—­or gave himself out for the expected Messias.

This was probably the first hint which Pilate received of this nature, and it seems to have alarmed him.  “When he heard that saying he was more afraid.”

Pilate was not an Atheist.  He appears to have had some knowledge of a divine existence and belief of a superintending providence.  Living among the Jews, he was, no doubt, acquainted with their religion, and their expectations of a deliverer; and if there was a suspicion that this was that deliverer, it concerned him to act with caution; at least to make inquiry.  He therefore returned to the judgment hall, and entered on another examination of the prisoner.  He began by inquiring after his origin.  “He said to Jesus, Whence art thou?  But Jesus gave him no answer.”  The test follows, in which we observe the following particulars, viz: