John 18:19-21

The high priest then asked Jesus— The court being duly constituted, and the prisoner placed at the bar, the trial began about break of day. See Luke 22.

66. The high priest asked our Lord, what his disciples were? for what end he had gathered them? whether it was to make himself a king? and what the doctrine was which he taught them? In these questions there was a great deal of art; for as the crime laid to our Lord's charge was, that he had set himself up for the Messiah, and deluded the people, they expected he would claim that dignity in their presence, and so, without further trouble, they would have immediately condemned him on his own confession. But to oblige a prisoner to confess what might take away hislife, being an unjust method of procedure, Jesus complained of it with reason,and bade them prove what they laid to his charge by witnesses. "I spake openly, as to the manner; ever, or continually, as to the time; in the synagogue and temple, as to place; in secret have I said nothing;—no point of doctrine which I have not taught in public."It was greatlyto the honour of our Lord's character, that all his actions were done in public, under the eye even of his enemies; because, had he been carrying on any imposture, the lovers of truth and goodness had thus abundant opportunities to have detected him. In his defence, therefore, he appealed, with beautiful propriety, to that part of his character.