ufe of their force against him. This the Jews were not mistaken in; and therefore made ufe of it as the strongest accufation, and likeliest to prevail with Pilate against him for the taking away his life; it being treafon, and an unpardonable offence, which could not escape death from a Roman deputy, without the forfeiture of his own life. Thus then they accufe him to Pilate, Luke xxiii. 2. "We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Cæfar, faying, that he himself is a king ;" or rather, the Meffiah the king.

66

Our Saviour indeed, now that his time was come (and he in cuftody, and forfaken of all the world, and fo out of all danger of raifing any fedition or disturbance), owns himself to Pilate to be a king; after having first told Pilate, John xviii. 36. "That his kingdom was not of this world ;" and for a kingdom in another world, Pilate knew that his mafter at Rome concerned not himself, But had there been any the leaft appearance of truth in the allegations of the Jews, that he had perverted the nation, forbidding to pay tribute to Cæfar, or drawing the people after him as their king, Pilate would not fo readily have pronounced him innocent. But we fee what he faid to his accufers, Luke xxiii. 13, 14, "Pilate, "when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers of "the people, faid unto them, You have brought this man unto "me, as one that perverteth the people; and behold, I having ex"amined him before you, have found no fault in this man, touch"ing thofe things whereof you accufe him; no, nor yet Herod, "for I fent you to him; and lo, nothing worthy of death is done "by him." And therefore, finding a man of that mean condition and innocent life (no mover of feditions, or difturber of the public peace) without a friend or a follower, he would have difmiffed him, as a king of no confequence; as an innocent man, falfely and malicioufly accuted by the Jews.

How neceffary this caution was in our Saviour, to say or do no thing that might juftly offend, or render him fufpected to the Roman governor, and how glad the Jews would have been to have any fuch thing against him, we may fee Luke xx. 20. The chief priests and the fcribes "watched him, and fent forth fpies, who fhould feign themfelves juft men, that might take hold of his words, that fo they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor. And the very thing wherein they hoped to entrap him in this place, was paying tribute to Cæfar, which they afterwards falfely accufed him of. And what would they have done, if he had before them profeffed himself to have been the Meffiah, their king and deliverer?

And here we may obferve the wonderful providence of God, who had fo ordered the ftate of the Jews at the time when his fon was to come into the world; that though neither their civil conftitution nor religious worship were diffolved, yet the power of life and death was taken from them; whereby he had an opportunity to publish the kingdom of the Meffiah; that is, his own royalty, un

der

der the name of the "kingdom of God," and of "Heaven;" which the Jews well enough understood, and would certainly have put him to death for, had the power been in their own hands. But this being no matter of accufation to the Romans, hindered him, not from speaking of the "kingdom of Heaven," as he did: fometimes in reference to his appearing in the world, and being believed on by particular perfons; fometimes in reference to the power that fhould be given him by the Father at the refurrection; and fometimes in reference to his coming to judge the world at the last day, in the full glory and completion of his kingdom. These were ways of declaring himself, which the Jews could lay no hold on, to bring him in danger with Pontius Pilate, and get him feized and put to death.

Another reason there was, that hindered him, as much as the former from profeffing himself in exprefs words to be the Meffiah, and that was, that the whole nation of the Jews expecting at this time their Meffiah, and deliverance by him from the fubjection they were in to a foreign yoke, the body of the people would certainly, upon his declaring himfelf to be the Meffiah their king, have rifen up in rebellion, and fet him at the head of them. And, indeed, the miracles that he did fo much difpofed them to think him to be the Meffiah, that though fhrouded under the obfcurity of a mean condition, and a very private fimple life; though he paffed for a Galilean (his birth at Bethlehem being then concealed), and affumed, not to himself any power or authority, or fo much as the name of the Meffiah, yet he could hardly avoid being fet up by a tumult, and proclaimed their king. So John tells us, chap. vi. 14, 15. "Then thofe men, when they had feen the miracles that Jefus did, faid, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into "the world... When, therefore, Jefus perceived that they would "come to take him by force to make him king, he departed again "into a mountain himself alone.". This was upon his feeding of five thoufand with five barley loaves and two fishes. So hard was it for him, doing thofe miracles which were necessary to testify his 'miffion, and which often drew great multitudes after him, Matt. iv. 25. to keep the heady and hafty multitude from fuch diforder as would have involved him in it, and have difturbed the course, and cut fhort the time of his miniftry, and drawn on him the reputation and death of a turbulent feditious malefactor; contrary to the defign of his coming, which was to be offered up a lamb blameless, and void of offence; his innocence appearing to all the world, even to him that delivered him up to be crucified. This it would have been impoffible to have avoided, if, in his preaching every where, he had openly affumed to himself the title of their Meffiah; which was all was wanting to fet the people in a flame; who, drawn by his miracles, and the hopes of finding a deliverer in fo extraordinary a man, followed him in great numbers. We read every where of multitudes; and in Luke xii. 1. of myriads that were gathered about him. This conflux of people, thus difpofed, would

not

not have failed, upon his declaring himself to be the Meffiah, to have made a commotion, and with force fet him up for their king. It is plain therefore from thefe two reafons, why (though he came to preach the gospel, and convert the world to a belief of his being the Meffiah, and though he fays fo much of his kingdom, under the title of the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of Heaven) he yet makes it not his business to perfuade them that he himself is the Meffiah, nor does in his public preaching declare himself to be him. He inculcates to the people, on all occafions, that the kingdom of God is come. He fhews the way of admittance into this kingdom, viz. repentance and baptifm; and teaches the laws of it, viz. good life, according to the ftricteft rules of virtue and morality. But who the king was of this kingdom, he leaves to his miracles to point out to thofe who would confider what he did, and make the right ufe of it now; or to witnefs to those who fhould hearken to the Apoftles hereafter, when they preached it in plain words, and called upon them to believe it, after his refurrection; when there fhould be no longer room to fear that it should cause any difturbance in civil focieties and the governments of the world. But he could not declare himself to be the Meffiah, without manifest danger of tumult and fedition: and the miracles he did declared it fo much, that he was fain often to hide himself, and withdraw from the concourfe of the people. The leper that he cured, Mark i. though forbid to fay any thing, yet "blazed it fo abroad, that Jefus could no more openly enter into the city, but was without in defart places," being in retirement, as appears from Luke v. 16. and there" they came to him from every quarter." And thus he did more than once.

This being premifed, let us take a view of the promulgation of the gospel by our Saviour himself, and see what it was he taught the world, and required men to believe.

The first beginning of his miniftry, whereby he fhewed himself, feems to be at Cana in Galilee, foon after his baptifm; where he turned water into wine of which St. John, chap. ii. 11. fays thus, "This beginning of miracles Jefus made, and manifefted his glory,

and his difciples believed in him." His difciples here believed in him, but we hear not of any other preaching to them, but by this miracle, whereby he "manifefted his glory;" i. e. of being the Meffiah the prince. So Nathanael, without any other preaching, but only our Saviour's discovering to him that he knew him after an extraordinary manner, presently acknowledges him to be the Meffiah; crying, "Rabbi, Thou art the fon of God; Thou "art the king of Ifrael."

From hence, ftaying a few days at Capernaum, he goes to Jerufalem to the paffover, and there he drives the traders out of the temple, John ii. 12-15. faying, "Make not my father's house a "houfe of merchandize." Where we fee, he ufes a phrafe, which, by interpretation, fignifies that he was the "Son of God," though at that time unregarded. Ver. 16. Hereupon the Jews demand,

"What

"What fign doft thou fhew us, fince thou doeft these things? "Jefus answered, Deftroy ye this temple, and in three days I will "raife it again." This is an inftance of what way Jefus took to declare himself for it is plain by their reply the Jews understood him not, nor his difciples neither; for it is faid, ver. 22. "When "therefore he was rifen from the dead, his difciples remembered "that he faid this to them: and they believed the fcripture, and "the faying of Jefus to them."

This therefore we may look on, in the beginning, as a pattern of Chrift's preaching, and fhewing himself to the Jews; which he generally followed afterwards, viz. fuch a manifestation of himself, as every one at prefent could not understand; but yet carried fuch an evidence with it to those who were well-difpofed now, or would reflect on it when the whole course of his ministry was over, as was fufficient clearly to convince them that he was the Meffiah.

The reafon of this method used by our Saviour, the fcripture gives us here, at this his first appearing in public, after his entrance upon his miniftry, to be a rule and light to us in the whole course of it for the next verfe takes notice that many believed on him "because of his miracles" (which was all the preaching they had). It is faid, ver. 24. "But Jefus did not commit himself unto them,

becaufe he knew all men;" i. e. he declared not himself fo openly to be the Meffiah, their king, as to put himself into the power of the Jews, by laying himfelf open to their malice, whom he knew would be fo ready to lay hold on it to accufe him; for, as the next verfe 25. fhews, he knew well enough what was in them. We may here farther obferve, that "believing in his name," fignifies believing him to be the Meffiah. Ver. 22, tells us, That " "many "at the paffover believed in his name, when they faw the miracles "that he did." What other faith could thefe miracles produce in them who faw them, but that this was He of whom the fcripture fpoke, who was to be their deliverer ?

Whilft he was now at Jerufalem, Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, comes to him, John iii. 1-21, to whom he preaches eternal life by faith in the Meffiah, ver. 15. and 17. but in general terms, without naming himself to be that Meffiah, though his whole difcourse tends to it. This is all we hear of our Saviour the first year of his miniftry, but only his baptifm, fafting, and temptation. in the beginning of it, and spending the reft of it after the paffover in Judea with his difciples, baptizing there. But " when he knew that the Pharifees reported that he made and baptized more difciples than John, he left Judea," and got out of their way again into Galilee, John iv. 1. 3.

66

In his way back, by the well of Sichar, he difcourfes with the Samaritan woman; and after having opened to her the true and fpiritual worship which was at hand, which the woman presently underftands of the times of the Meffiah, who was then looked for; thus the anfwers, ver. 25. "I know that the Meffiah cometh: when he is come, he will tell us all things." Whereupon our Saviour,

though

though we hear no fuch thing from him in Jerufalem or Judea, or to Nicodemus, yet here to this Samaritan woman, he in plain and direct words owns and declares, that he him.felf, who talked with her, was the Meffiah, ver. 26.

This would feem very ftrange, that he fhould be more free and open to a Samaritan than he was to the Jews, were not the reason plain from what we have obferved above. He was now out of Judea, with a people with whom the Jews had no commerce, ver. 9 who were not difpofed out of envy, as the Jews were, to seek his life, or to accufe him to the Roman governor, or to make an infurrection to fet a Jew up for their king. What the confequence was of his difcourfe with this Samaritan woman, we have an account, yer: 28. 39-42. "She left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and faith to the men, Come, fee a man who "told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Meffiah? and many of the Samaritans of that city BELIEVED ON HIM for the faying of the woman, which teftified, He told me all that ever I "did. So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they befought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there "two days. And many more believed because of his own word; "and faid unto the woman, Now we believe not because of thy "faying; for we have heard him ourselves; and we know" (i. e. are fully perfuaded) "that it is indeed the Meffiah, the Saviour of "the world." By comparing ver. 39, with 41 and 42, it is plain, that "believing on him," fignifies no more than believing him to be the Meffiah.

འ་

From Sichar Jefus goes to Nazareth, the place he was bred up in, and there reading in the Synagogue a prophecy concerning the Meffiah out of the Ixift of Ifaiah, he tells them, Luke iv. 21. This day is the fcripture fulfilled in your cars."

But, being in danger of his life at Nazareth, he leaves it for Capernaum and then, as St. Matthew informs us, chap. iv. 17. "He began to preach, and say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Or, as St. Mark has it, chap. i. 14, 15. Preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and faying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent ye, and believe in the gofpel;" i. e. believe this good news. This removing to Capernaum, and feating himself there in the borders of Zabulon and Naphtali, was, as St. Matthew obferves, chap. iv. 13-16. that a prophecy of Ifaiah might be fulfilled. Thus the actions and circumftances of his life anfwered the prophefies, and declared him to be Meffiah. And by what St. Mark fays in this place, it is manifeft, that the gofpel which he preached, and required them to believe, was no other but the good tidings of the coming of the Meffiah, and of his kingdom, the time being now fulfilled.

In his way to Capernaum, being come to Cana, a nobleman of Capernaum came to him, ver. 47. "and befought him that he "would come down and heal his fon, for he was at the point of "death."

4