And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.
Ver. 30. And they spit upon him] So doth profaneness still cast dirt and drivel into Christ's face. See Trapp on " Mat 26:67 " Robert Smith, martyr, in his examination before Bonner, made one of his doctors to say, that his breaden god must needs enter into the belly, and so fall into the draught. To which he answered: What derogation was it to Christ, when the Jews spit in his face? Smith presently replied, If the Jews, being his enemies, did but spit in his face, and we, being his friends, throw him into the draught, which of us deserveth the greatest damnation?
And smote him on the head] Or, into the head, εις κεφαλην : drove the thorns into his holy head with bats and blows, as Basiliades, the Duke of Russia, nailed an ambassador's hat to his head, upon some displeasure conceived against him. At the taking of Heidelberg, the Spaniards took Monsieur Mylius, an ancient minister and man of God, and having abused his daughter before his face, they tied a small cord about his head, which with truncheons they wreathed about, till they squeezed out his brains. The monks of Pignerol roasted the minister of St Germain, till his eyes dropped out. And the Spaniards suppose they show the innocent Indians great favour, when they do not, for their pleasure, whip them with cords, scratch them with thorns, and day by day drop their naked bodies with burning bacon. So very a devil is one man to another.