Pillion

“ Where are those who, having begun as sinners, end as penitents? Show me, in your manner of living, the smallest trace of penitence. Are your graspings at wealth and power, your anxieties to attain the favour of the great, (and by these means an increase of employments and influence,) —are these proofs of it? Would you wish to reckon even your crimes as virtues?—that the sufferings of your ambition, pride, and avarice, should discharge you from an obligation which they themselves have imposed? You are penitent to the world, but are you so to Jesus Christ? ”

“ A prisoner before Pilate, who represented the power of the Roman empire, he professes himself a king of truth, and makes the governor tremble before him. Charged with crime at the tribunal of the high priest, he speaks to him with the majesty and dignity of the judge of the world. And in the agony of death on the cross he dispenses a place in paradise to the penitent robber. ”

“ I felt the justice of this reasoning, and lost all feeling of anxiety or terror at the idea of a public execution. I reflected deeply on the sacraments calculated to support me under such an appalling trial, and I felt disposed to receive them in a right spirit. Should I have been enabled, had I really been conducted to the scaffold, to preserve the same elevation of mind, the same forgiveness of my enemies, the same readiness to lay down my life at the will of God, as I then felt? Alas, how inconsistent is man! ”

“ Let not a little life be denied me, in which I may, by meditation and contrition, prepare myself to stand at the tribunal of Omnipotence, and support the presence of that Judge, who shall distribute to all according to their works: who will receive and pardon the repenting sinner, and from whom the merciful shall obtain mercy! For these reasons, my lords, amidst shame and misery, I yet wish to live; and most humbly implore, that I may be recommended by your lordship to the clemency of his majesty. ”

“ Killing an innocent man would not in the least defile them, or unfit for eating the passover, but to go into a house that had not been purged of 'leaven,' and was further unclean as the residence of a Gentile, though he was the governor, that would stain their consciences—a singular scale of magnitude, which saw no sin in condemning Jesus, and great sin in going into Pilate's palace! ”

“ IV. Let the patient enquirer now judge for himself: whether the romish doctrine, that Punishments, either self-inflicted, or commanded by a priest, or sent in the course of God’s providence, can make satisfaction to the Father through Christ in our behalf, be the doctrine either of Scripture or of the early Church.
V. But, if no man can make satisfaction for his own sins: still less, according to the monstrous phantasy of Supererogation, can he make satisfaction for the sins of others. ”

“ A narrow court, a dead child or husband awaiting dusk for secret removal, shuddering excited women, hysterical from lack of food, listening to the denunciations of officiating priests and mullahs, looking at their dead, at their living--round whose wrists the amulet had been perhaps an hour before--and remembering that though half the evil in the future lay with God, Who was beyond coercion, the other half lay with men who were! ”

“ Before the pasch has been consumed, lo, all this nation will be cursed by shedding blood of innocence; and even now the murderers are at the door.
21. and Pilate said, It shall not be; the sword of Rome will be unsheathed to save your life.
22. And Jesus said, Nay, Pilate, nay; there are no armies large enough in all the world to save my life.
23. And Jesus bade the governor farewell, and went his way; but Pilate sent a double guard with him lest he should fall into the hands of those who were alert to take his life. ”

“ But since the discourse has reminded us of the subjects of a future judgment and of retribution, and of the punishments of sinners, according to the threatenings of holy Scripture and the contents of the Church’s teaching—viz., that when the time of judgment comes, everlasting fire, and outer darkness, and a prison, and a furnace, and other punishments of like nature, have been prepared for sinners—let us see what our opinions on these points ought to be. ”

“ Pilate — pale in the presence of his own momentous question, “What is Truth?” blind to the consequences of his awful decision against human rights and divine Love, ignorant that he was aiding the final proof of what Truth is, and what it does for man — was lured into acquiescence.
The women at the cross could have answered Pilate's question. They knew what inspired their devotion, winged their faith, opened the eyes of their understanding, healed the sick, and cast out evil, and what caused the disciples to say to their Master, “Even devils are subject unto us through thy name.” ”

“ Just as you, good sir, believe in eternal punishments, so also do the priests who interpret and initiate into the sacred mysteries. The same punishments with which you threaten others, they threaten you. Now it is worthy of examination, which of the two is more firmly established as true; for both parties contend with equal assurance that the truth is on their side. ”

“ Propose now seriously an amendment of life, and while you reflect on the horrid injustice of Pilate, who condemns innocence, lest he should not appear a friend of Caesar, arraign yourself for your many sins of human respect; think how often you have offended God for fear of displeasing the eye of the world, and turning to your loving Jesus, address Him rather with tears of the heart than with expressions of the tongue in the following
Prayer. ”

“ If it please God, for the Correction of the Prince, or punishment of the People, to suffer Princes to be removed, and others to be placed in their rooms, either by the Factions of the Nobility, or Rebellion of the People; in all such cases, the Judgment of God, who hath Power to give and to take away Kingdoms, is most just: Yet the Ministry of Men who Execute Gods Judgments without Commission, is sinful and damnable. ”

“ The ninth and tenth commandments are declared in the sixth and seventh.
2. After I have considered these sins, I am to charge myself with them before our Lord with great sorrow and shame for having committed them. And although I had broken but one commandment only, I may esteem myself, as the apostle St. James says, " guilty of all;" [182] for in every sin I shall find that which is spiritually prohibited in all: for one mortal sin only in the form that has been declared is as idolatry, infidelity, hatred, adultery, theft, infamy, and homicide. ”

“ Speakest thou not to me? In the original the pronoun, standing at the head of the clause, is emphatic. Speakest thou not to me, the representative of Roman power, who have authority (ἐξουσίαν) to liberate or crucify thee?
Knowest thou not that I have power, &c. The more probable order of the clauses is: “I have power to release thee, and I have power to crucify thee,” the motive of hope standing before that of fear.
11. Pilate's claim to unlimited power over Him makes Jesus again break silence. ”

“ Likewise the Church of Rome has tribunals of penance, where priests hear from the mouth of the sinners themselves the avowal of their sins, of which their souls are to be purified, and from the punishment of which they wish to be exempted. Through the absolution of the priests the greatest sins, without any exemption, are remitted entirely, so that they not only are forgiven, but even their punishment. ”

“ Offences against the law of God were declared to be worthy of death, both of the offender and those who connived at them, and were defined to be, among the people, fornication, banqueting, theft, homicide, perjury, lying, arts superfluous, deceitful, and superstitious, avarice, usury, etc.: among the clergy, simoniacal exactions, such as fees for administering the sacraments, for preaching, burying, bell-ringing, consecration of churches and altars, as well as the sale of preferment ”

“ When we were in the flesh, that is, in a carnal state, under the reigning power of sin and corruption—in the flesh as in our element—then the motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members, we were carried down the stream of sin, and the law was but as an imperfect dam, which made the stream to swell the higher, and rage the more. ”

“ Punishment retained enough of the character of penance to justify the theologian in treating its non-performance as a proof that repentance had been feigned, and that the offender had relapsed into heresy, the penalty for which, under the canons, was death by fire without trial. ”

“ He offers to release Jesus to them, according to the custom. If Pilate had had the honesty and courage that became a judge, he would not have named an innocent person to be competitor with a notorious criminal for this favour; if he found no fault in him, he was bound in conscience to discharge him. But he was willing to trim the matter, and please all sides, being governed more by worldly wisdom than by the rules of equity.
2. The people appeared his enemies, and implacable against him (v. 40) : They cried all again and again, Not this man, let not him be released, but Barabbas. ”

“ They answered He is a conjurer, and casts out devils by the prince of the devils; and so all things, become subject to him.
6 Then said Pilate, Casting out devils seems not to be the work of an unclean spirit, but to proceed from the power of God.
7 The Jews replied to Pilate, We entreat your highness to summon him to appear before your tribunal, and hear him yourself. ”

“ Anon they pass by the groups of penitents, whose distorted limbs and painful postures denote their self-imposed penance—these linger round the outer limits of the holy of holies like the thieves round a wonted prison, or as it seemed to them, like the wicked at the gates of Paradise. ”

“ All persons who shall practise invocation, or conjuration, of wicked spirits, any witchcraft, enchantment, charm, or sorcery, whereby any person shall happen to be killed, or destroyed, shall, with their aiders, and abettors, be accounted felons, without benefit of clergy ”

“ When Pilate saw him standing at the entrance of his tribunal, even he (hart-hearted as he usually was) started, and shuddered with horror and compassion, whilst the barbarous priests and the populace, far from being moved to pity, continued their insults and mockery. ”

“ Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus, etc., etc.
Twenty-eighth Day. Pilate must have witnessed much of this cruelty, as it was inflicted right in his court, with his consent, perhaps even by his orders. What a frightful spectacle it was to look upon this figure of a man, scourged almost beyond recognition, with a crown of thorns on His head, bound, and a cloak thrown over His shoulders. Pilate thought that this spectacle would render the Jews merciful, that the punishment had been sufficient. ”

“ The scourging appears to have been inflicted within the prætorium (Mtt. xxvii. 27) , and when it had been carried out, Pilate himself went and led forth the Sufferer wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe (Jn. xix. 4, 5) , and presented Him to the people, saying, Behold the Man556. Would not this spectacle of terrible suffering suffice? Could cruelty demand yet more? Crucify Him was the cry of the chief priests and their attendants (Jn. xix. 6) . The sight of so much suffering so meekly borne drew forth no pity, and no relenting. Take ye Him, and crucify Him, replied the procurator ”

“ I pardon to those who have discharged their penance the sins both of adultery and of fornication.”296 Twenty years later Pope Callistus carried the indulgence yet further, receiving to penance those who had committed murder or idolatry.297 Once more, after a period of thirty years, the breaking out of the Decian persecution raised afresh the question of admitting great sinners to penance, and the actual discipline of the Roman Church, as established under Zephyrinus and Callistus, is set forth in a letter to Cyprian by Novatian, then one of the most esteemed presbyters of that church. ”

“ Gregory of Nyssa, how the Lord of all submits as an obedient subject to the unjust sentence of Pilate, and to the hands of His executioners, who barbarously torture and crucify Him. "The Lord all is obedient to the sentence of the judge, the king of all does not disdain to feel the hand of the executioners." ”

“ At the divine tribunal the poor sinner shall see himself accused by the devil, who, according to St. Augustine, ” will recite the words of our profession, and will charge us before our face with all that we have done, will state the day and hour in which we sinned. ”

“ I apply one for my miserable soul, the rest in suffrage for the souls in purgatory, particularly N. N. [Here mention the souls for whom you intend to apply them.] I begin this devotion under Thy sacred protection, and in imitation of Thy dolorous Mother. Let then this holy exercise obtain for me mercy in this life, and glory in the next. Amen. Jesus!
Station I.
Christ is sentenced to death by Pilate. ”

“ In the political and religious drama of enslaving the great majority of the people, the above parts of the play are, of course, the peculiar province of the priesthood, who to the fabled guilt of original sin, have charged upon the gloomy minds of their wretched votaries, an endless catalogue of sins, by thought, word, and deed ”

“ And on the following day the judge commanded and they brought in before him the man who was bound and in prison, and he asked him if he would be persuaded to deny his God and to worship the sun, and he would not agree to do either; and the judge gave orders that he was to be laid out and beaten, and to be smitten with rods, and when they had laid him out, and the strokes were being laid on by two [men] at a time, he denied Christ. Now when the judge saw this, he commanded the men to stop beating him, and he called him to him, and asked him, saying, “What aileth thee? ”