Think Well On't/Day 28
THE TWENTY-EIGHTH DAY.
Our Saviour is scouraged at the Pillar and crowned with Thorns.
Consider, how the Jews still continuing to cry out against our Lord, and in a tumultuous manner to demand his crucifixion, Pilate contrives another way to bring about his being set at liberty, viz. by striving to satisfy their cruelty, in ordering him to he most severely scourged. O! Pilate, how cruel is thy mercy! Is it thus that thou treatest him whom, thou declarest innocent? Is this thy justice? But our sins, O my soul, required that the Lord of glory should be thus cruelly treated, and subjected to this ignominious punishment, to which none but common slaves or the meanest wretches are liable, and to which a Roman citizen could upon no account be condemned. Stand thou, my soul, and see in what manner this sentence is executed. Behold how the bloody soldiers lay their impious hands on this meek Lamb of God, how they strip off all his clothes, and tie him fast to a stony pillar; see how they discharge upon his sacred back and shoulders innumerable stripes, lashes and scourges: behold the blood come spouting forth on all sides; see how his body is all rent and mangled by their cruelty, and the flesh laid open to the very bones; behold bis enemies all the while insulting over him, and rejoicing at his torments; whilst he, with eyes cast up towards heaven, is offering up all that he suffers for their sins, and for those of the whole world. Ah sinners, take a serious view of your Redeemer's condition, and contemplating in his torn and mangled body, the malice of sin, learn to detest this hellish monster, which has brought on the Son of God all these sufferings.
2. Consider, how these bloody ruffians by their cruel scourging having made but one wound of our Saviour's body, from head to foot, loose him at last from the pillar, leaving him to put on his clothes as well as he could. Ah! Christians, have compassion now on your Saviour's abandoned condition; who has no one to lend him an helping hand to bind up his gaping wounds, or stanch the blood that comes flowing from them! O! present yourselves now, and offer him what service you are able: offer at least to assist him in putting on his clothes, to cover his green wounds from the cold air. But, O how rough are these woolen cloaths to his wounded hack! Alas! instead of affording him any fuse or comfort, they do but increase His sores, by their rubbing upon them.
3. Consider how the bloody soldiers had scarce given our Saviour a short respite after his scourging, when they were pushed on by the devil to act another scene of cruelty, such as never was heard of before or since: and that was to make themselves a barbarous sport, in crowning him for a king. Therefore they drag him into the court of the Proetorium, and assemble together the whole regiment: then violently strip him again of all his clothes, which now begin to cleave to his wounded body; set him on a bench or stool, throw about him some old ragged purple garment, twist a wreath of long hard and sharp thorns, and press it down on his sacred head, put in his hand for a sceptre a reed or cane: then in derision, coming one by one, they bend their knees before him, with a scornful salutation, Hail, King of the Jews; they spit in his face, buffet him, and taking the reed or cane out of his hand, strike him with it on the head, so driving the thorns deeper in, whilst the blood trickles down apace from the many wounds which he receives from their points. Sweet Jesus, what shall we here say, or which shall we most admire, the malice of these ministers of Satan, or thy unparalleled charity, which made thee undergo such unheard of reproaches and torments for ungrateful sinners? Blessed be thy goodness for ever.
4. Consider how Pilate, hoping now that the rage and malice of the Jews would be satisfied, so as to insist no longer upon our Saviour's death, after they should see with how much cruelty and contempt he had been treated in compliance with their fury, leads him forth as he was with his crown of thorns on his head, and his ragged purple on his shoulders; and from an eminence shews him to the people, with an Ecce homo, Behold the man. Behold in what manner he has now been handled; cease then to seek his death any longer. Let his body, mangled from head to foot, bespeak your pity. But thou, Christian soul, behold the man, with other kind of eyes than these hard-hearted wretches: and see to what a condition thy sins and his own infinite charity have reduced him. Behold his head crowned with a wreath of sharp thorns, piercing on all sides his sacred flesh, and entering into his temples with excessive pain. Behold his face quite disfigured with blows and bruises, and all besmeared with spittle and blood. Behold his whole body inhumanly rent and torn with whips and scourges; and now covered with a hard ragged garment, rubbing and at each moment increasing his wounds: and then look up and contemplate him upon his throne of glory, and see what return thou canst make him for having thus annihilated himself for the love of thee. He desires no more of thee than an imitation of his patience and humility: see, then, in what manner thou art to practise these lessons.