The Fountain of Life Opened

Thirdly, But what was the sentence that Pilate gave? We have §3it not in the form in which it was delivered. But the sum of it was, that it should be as they required. Now what did they requires why, crucify him, crucify him. So that in what formalities soever it was delivered, this was the substance and effect of it, I adjudge Jesus of Nazareth to be nailed to the Cross, and there to hang till he be dead. Which sentence against Christ was, First, A most unjust, and unrighteous sentence, the greatest perversion of Judgement and Equity that was ever known to the civilized world, since seats of Judicature were first set up. What! to condemn him, before one accusation was proved against him? And if what they accused him of (that he said he was the Son of God) had been proved, it had been no crime, for he really was so; and therefore no blasphemy in him to say he was. Pilate should rather have come down from his seat of Judgement and adore him, that sit there to judge him. Oh it was the highest piece of injustice that ever our ears heard of. Secondly, As it was an unrighteous sentence, so it was a cruel sentence, delivering up Christ to their wills. This was that misery ⟨p. 320⟩which David so earnestly deprecated, Psal. 27.12. O deliver me not over to the will of mine enemies. But Pilate delivers Christ over to the will of his enemies; men full of enmity, rage, and malice: whose greatest pleasure it was, to glut themselves with his blood, and satiate their revengeful hearts with such a spectacle of misery. For lo, as soon as these Wolves had griped their prey, they were not satisfied with that cursed, cruel and ignominious death of the Cross, to which Pilate had adjudged him; but they are resolved he shall die over and over: they will contrive many deaths in one: Now they say as a Tyrant did once, moriatur, ut sentiat se mori, let him die so as he may feel himself to die, (i. e.) let him die by inch-meal. To this end they presently strip him naked, scourge him cruelly, array him in scarlet, and mock him: Crown him with a bush of platted thorns: fasten that Crown upon his head by a blow with a cane, which set them deep into his sacred Temples: Sceptered him with a reed: spit in his face: strip off his mock-robes again: put the Cross upon his back, and compel him to bear it. All this, and much more they express their cruelty by;