by force have made him king; and therefore it is no wonder he should fpeak to them of himself, and his kingdom and fubjects, in obfcure and myftical terms; and fuch as fhould offend thofe who looked for nothing but the grandeur of a temporal kingdom in this world, and the protection and profperity they had promised themselves under it. The hopes of fuch a kingdom, now that they had found a man that did miracles, and therefore concluded to be the Deliverer they expected; had the day before almost drawn them into an open infurrection, and involved our Saviour in it. This he thought fit to put a stop to; they ftill following him, 'tis like, with the fame defign. And therefore, though he here speaks to them of his kingdom, it was in a way that fo plainly baulked their expectation, and fhocked them, that when they found themselves difappointed of thofe vain hopes, and that he talked of their eating his flesh, and drinking his blood, that they might have life; the Jews faid, ver. 52, "How can this man "give us his flesh to eat? And many, even of his dif

ciples, faid, It was an hard saying: Who can hear it ?" And fo were fcandalized in him, and forfook him, ver. 60, 66. But what the true meaning of this discourse of our Saviour was, the confeffion of St. Peter, who underftood it better, and answered for the rest of the apostles, fhows: when Jefus answered him, ver. 67, "Will ye "alfo go away? Then Simon Peter anfwered him, "Lord, to whom fhall we go? Thou haft the words of "eternal life :" i. e. thou teacheft us the way to attain eternal life; and accordingly, "we believe, and are "fure, that thou art the Meffiah, the Son of the living "God." This was the eating his flesh and drinking his blood, whereby those who did fo had eternal life.

Some time after this, he inquires of his difciples, Mark viii. 27, who the people took him for? They telling him, "for John the Baptift," or one of the old prophets rifen from the dead; he asked, What they themselves thought? And here again, Peter anfwers in these words, Mark viii. 29, "Thou art the Meffiah." Luke ix. 20,"The Meffiah of God." And, Matt. xvi. 16, "Thou art the Meffiah, the Son of the living "God:"

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"God:" Which expreffions, we may hence gather, amount to the fame thing. Whereupon our Saviour tells Peter, Matt. xvi. 17, 18, That this was fuch a truth "as flesh and blood could not reveal to him, but

only his Father who was in heaven;" and that this was the foundation, on which he was "to build his "church" by all the parts of which paffage it is more than probable, that he had never yet told his apoftles in direct words, that he was the Meffiah; but that they had gathered it from his life and miracles. For which we may imagine to ourselves this probable reafon; because that, if he had familiarly, and in direct terms, talked to his apoftles in private, that hệ was the Meffiah the Prince, of whofe kingdom he preached fo much in public every where; Judas, whom he knew falfe and treacherous, would have been readily made ufe of, to teftify against him, in a matter that would have been really criminal to the roman governor. This, perhaps, may help to clear to us that feemingly abrupt reply of our Saviour to his apoftles, John vi. 70, when they confeffed him to be the Meffiah I will, for the better explaining of it, fet down the paffage at large. Peter having faid, "We believe "and are fure that thou art the Meffiah, the Son of the

living God; Jefus answered them, Have not I chofen you twelve, and one of you is dálo?" This is a reply, feeming at first fight, nothing to the purpose; when yet it is fure all our Saviour's difcourfes were wife and pertinent. It feems therefore to me to carry this fenfe, to be understood afterwards by the eleven (as that of destroying the temple, and raifing it again in three days was) when they should reflect on it, after his being betrayed by Judas: you have confeffed, and be→ lieve the truth concerning me; I am the Meffiah your king: but do not wonder at it, that I have never openly declared it to you; for amongst you twelve, whom I have chofen to be with me, there is one who is an informer, or falfe accufer, (for fo the greek word fignifies, and may, poffibly, here be fo tranflated, rather than devil) who, if I had owned myself in plain

words

words to have been the "Meffiah, the king of Ifrael," would have betrayed me, and informed against me.

That he was yet cautious of owning himself to his apoftles, pofitively, to be the Meffiah, appears farther from the manner wherein he tells Peter, ver. 18, that he will build his church upon that confeffion of his, that he was the Meffiah: I fay unto thee, "Thou art Cephas," or a rock, "and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell fhall not pre"vail against it." Words too doubtful to be laid hold on against him, as a teftimony that he profeffed himfelf to be the Meffiah; efpecially if we join with them the following words, ver. 19, "And I will give thee the "keys of the kingdom of heaven, and what thou shalt " bind on earth, fhall be bound in heaven; and what "thou fhalt loofe on earth, fhall be loofed in heaven." Which being faid perfonally to Peter, render the foregoing words of our Saviour, (wherein he declares the fundamental article of his church to be the believing him to be the Meffiah) the more obfcure and doubtful, and lefs liable to be made ufe of against him; but yet fuch as might afterwards be understood. And for the fame reason, he yet, here again, forbids the apostles to fay that he was the Meffiah, ver. 20.

From this time (fay the evangelifts) "Jefus began to fhow to his difciples," i. e. his apoftles, (who are often called difciples) "that he muft go to Jerufalem, and

fuffer many things from the elders, chief priefts, and "fcribes; and be killed, and be raised again the third

day," Matt. xvi. 21. Thefe, though all marks of the Meffiah, yet how little understood by the apoftles, or fuited to their expectation of the Meffiah, appears from Peter's rebuking him for it in the following words, Matt. xvi. 22. Peter had twice before owned him to be the Meffiah, and yet he cannot here bear that he fhould fuffer, and be put to death, and be raised again, Whereby we may perceive, how little yet Jefus had explained to the apostles what perfonally concerned himfelf. They had been a good while witneffes of his life and miracles and thereby being grown into a belief that he was the Meffiah, were, in fome degree, prepared

to

to receive the particulars that were to fill up that cha racter, and answer the prophecies concerning him. This, from henceforth, he began to open to them (though in a way which the jews could not form an accufation out of;) the time of the accomplishment of all, in his fufferings, death, and refurrection, now drawing on. For this was in the last year of his life; he being to meet the jews at Jerufalem but once more at the paffover, and then they fhould have their will upon him: and, therefore, he might now begin to be a little more open concerning himself: though yet fo, as to keep himself out of the reach of any accufation, that might appear juft or weighty to the roman deputy.

After his reprimand to Peter, telling him, "That he "favoured not the things of God, but of man," Mark viii. 34, he calls the people to him, and prepares thofe, who would be his difciples, for fuffering, telling them, ver. 38, "Whofoever shall be afhamed of me and my "words in this adulterous and finful generation, of "him alfo fhall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels" and then fubjoins, Matt, xvi. 27, 28, two great and folemn acts, wherein he would fhow himself to be the Meffiah, the king; "For the Son of man "fhall come in the glory of his Father, with his an

gels; and then he fhall render to every man accordding to his works." This is evidently meant of the glorious appearance of his kingdom, when he fhall come to judge the world at the last day; defcribed more at large, Matt. xxv. "When the Son of man fhall come "in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then "fhall he fit upon the THRONE of his glory. Then

fhall the KING fay to them on his right hand," &c. But what follows in the place above quoted, Matt. xvi. 28, "Verily, verily, there be fome standing here, "who fhall not tafte of death, till they fee the Son of

man coming in his kingdom;" importing that dominion, which fome there fhould fee him exercise over the nation of the jews; was fo covered, by being anBexed to the preaching, ver. 27, (where he fpoke of the manifeftation and glory of his kingdom, at the day of judgment)

judgment) that though his plain meaning here in ver. 28, be, that the appearance and vifible exercife of his kingly power in his kingdom was fo near, that fome there fhould live to fee it; yet, if the foregoing words had not caft a fhadow over thefe latter, but they had been left plainly to be understood, as they plainly fignified; that he should be a King, and that it was fo near, that fome there fhould fee him in his kingdom; this might have been laid hold on, and made the matter of a plaufible and feemingly just accufation against him, by the jews before Pilate. This feems to be the reafon of our Saviour's inverting here the order of the two folemn manifestations to the world, of his rule and power; thereby perplexing at prefent his meaning, and fecuring himself, as was neceffary, from the malice of the jews, which always lay at catch to intrap him, and accufe him to the roman governor; and would no doubt, have been ready to have alleged these words, "Some here fhall not tafte of death, till they fee the "Son of man coming in his kingdom," against him, as criminal, had not their meaning been, by the former verse, perplexed, and the sense at that time rendered unintelligible, and not applicable by any of his auditors to a sense that might have been prejudicial to him before Pontius Pilate. For how well the chief of the jews were disposed towards him, St. Luke tells us, chap. xi. 54, Laying wait for him, and feeking to "catch fomething out of his mouth, that they might "accufe him" which may be a reafon to fatisfy us of the feemingly doubtful and obfcure way of speaking, ufed by our Saviour in other places; his circumstances being fuch, that without such a prudent carriage and .refervedness, he could not have gone through the work which he came to do; nor have performed all the parts of it, in a way correfpondent to the defcriptions given of the Meffiah; and which would be afterwards fully understood to belong to him, when he had left the world.

After this, Matt. xvii. 10, &c. he, without faying it in direct words, begins, as it were, to own himself to his apostles to be the Meffiah, by afsuring them, that as

the