to the great joy of all his subjects, except the English Puritans, and the remonstrant Presbyterians of Scotland, who never ceased to oppose both the restored monarchy and the restored church; and who would neither accept toleration themselves, nor allow it to others—" men whom no severity could repress, nor forbearance conciliate.”

In August, Sharp returned to Edinburgh, and received the public thanks of his brethren for his exertions in maintaining their cause.

In October, the committee of estates in Edinburgh wrote to the magistrates of St. Andrews, ordering them to discharge Mr. Samuel Rutherford from the exercise of his office as principal of St. Mary's college, and to cause his book, entitled Lex Rex, to be burnt by the common hangman, in the market place of the city, as being “full of seditious and treasonable matter, corrupting the minds of his majesty's subjects, and withdrawing them from the duty of that loyal love and obedience which they owe to his sacred person and greatness."1

1661. The Scottish parliament met at Edinburgh on the 1st of January. Sharp preached the opening sermon. It cancelled all the acts which the pretended parliaments and general assemblies had levelled against royalty and episcopacy during the rebellion, and restored the church as it had been established from 1610 till 1638. Thus, says Mr. Wodrow, the Presbyterian historian, "was iniquity established by

law!"

In February, Sharp was made a professor of divinity in St. Mary's college, St. Andrews; and in July the king sent for him and offered him the primacy of Scotland, which he accepted. This was no more than a just tribute to his talents, his experience, and his extraordinary merits; and at the same time a recompence forthe services which he had rendered to his sovereign. There was, perhaps, no man in Scotland better qualified in all respects for the performance of the duties of the high office to which he was now promoted. L.

Note.-The Episcopates of Archbishop Sharp and his two successors are given in the Episcopal Magazine for November and December, 1839.

A LIFE OF CHRIST.

FROM THE WALKING ON THE WATER TILL THE MISSION OF THE

SEVENTY.

THE miraculous feeding of so many thousands convinced them that Christ could be none other than the expected Messiah; and as the national prejudices which were fostered by the pride of the Pharisees were all in favour of a temporal prince, the multitude proposed immediately to make him a King, whether he would or not. But, "the powers that be" are not from the people, but proceed from God, and they are His deputies or representatives, unto whom Christ said the word or commission of God came for the government of the people. Hence kings are called the Lord's anointed, and they acknowledge

1 Town Council Records, Oct. 22, 1660.

St. John, x. 35.

that they reign by his grace; but never call themselves the people's anointed, or ever admit that they reign by the people's grace or favour. To prevent the people from committing an act of rebellion against the Roman government, which was then the sovereign power, and which He himself acknowledged to be of divine right, Christ conveyed himself away and went into a mountain by himself alone, having previously dismissed the multitude and constrained his disciples to depart for Capernaum. They had scarcely rowed twenty-five or thirty furlongs, when they were placed in great jeopardy by a furious storm and contrary wind, which prevented their making much way. While the apostles were toiling against the storm, they were suddenly alarmed by what they thought was a phantasm, but which was their Lord himself, walking on the surface of the angry deep as if it had been dry land, and they began to cry out for fear. He made as if he would have passed by them; but when he heard their cries, he stopped and began to converse with them, bidding them be of good cheer for it was He himself, their Lord. Notwithstanding the many times in which they had seen him exert his supernatural power, they still doubted, and Peter, who was ever the most ready, in his forward and affectionate zeal, requested, if it really was He, that He would bid him come unto him on the water: Christ commanded him to come, when he immediately stepped on the surface of the water, on which he walked towards his Master. In the first attempt his faith was good, and he walked steadily; but before he had proceeded far he began to sink. Probably some heavy wave had hid his Lord from his sight, and natural fears now obscured his faith; but which so far returned as to make him cry for help,-"Lord save me." Christ graciously heard his cry, and stretched forth his hand and set him again on the surface with this gentle rebuke; "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt." Christ and his servant were received into the ship, the wind ceased, and the whole were miraculously conveyed to the port whither they went.2

Peter seems, on several occasions to have been selected by our Lord as a type to represent both the unity of his church, and also the church itself. On the present occasion he represented the whole church. In the symbolical language of Scripture, the sea represents nations in a tumultuary state; and in the blessed region of eternal felicity, we are told that there is "a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal proceeding out of the throne of God and the Lamb," which apparently typifies the rest and felicity of the blessed, in opposition to "the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt." While Peter's faith was firm, he walked with safety upon the troubled sea; but when the storm and tempest raged, and perhaps hid his blessed Master from his view, his faith failed, and he began to sink. His danger, which might typify the persecutions to which portions of the church may be subjected, recalled him, as it usually does the church itself, to a sense of duty and a renovation of faith; and his cry for help, like the prayers of the church under persecution,

1 St. John, xix. 11.

VOL. II.

2 Matth., xiv.; Mark, vi.; John, vi.
4 M

entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, and he graciously stretched forth his hand and helped him, as he does the church when she recovers her faith and first love.

The apostles received Christ into the ship with great joy, and worshipped him, and acknowledged him to be the Lord; yet their hearts were hardened and they merely wondered with sore amazement, and had already forgotten the miraculous feast which they had enjoyed so recently. When the ship reached the shore, the people recognised their Divine Physician and brought all their sick to be healed. The multitude which were fed at Bethsaida followed Jesus to the land of Gennesaret, which lies a little to the north-westward of Capernaum. But He exposed their selfish motives for following him, which was because, having partaken of the miraculous feast, they desired to be again fed; but he took occasion to preach to them of the living bread, which came down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. He spoke to them of spiritual food, under the metaphor of bread, suggested by the bread with which he had fed them at Bethsaida, as He had formerly taught the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well, of the water whereof whosoever drinks shall never thirst. He instructed them that there was a kind of food which should endure to everlasting life, which was his flesh and blood, and which was given from heaven. He assured them that this is a more excellent food than that with which he had recently fed them, and for which they now followed him; more excellent even than the manna which their fathers had eaten in the wilderness. That was corporeal meat; but what He then spoke of was spiritual food even Christ himself with all the fruits and benefits of his cross and passion, consisting in the saving benefits prepared for us by his crucified body and blood. This is the food, the meat, the bread, which He said gives life to the world, and of which whosoever eateth shall live for ever, and which could be eaten before his passion as well as since, because he is the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world; that is in regard of the merits, fruits, and the efficacy of his death, and the faith of believers. The fathers all ate the same spiritual meat and all drank the same spiritual drink in the wilderness, and that spiritual rock that followed them was Christ, and Abraham saw his day by faith and rejoiced.

In this sermon Christ did not speak of the eucharist, which was not at that time instituted. At the very time when he spoke he was the bread of life and the living bread, and He pressed the eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood, as then an imperative duty, and therefore this meat and drink was then in being and might then be eaten by the faithful, which shows that Christ did not speak of a sacramental eating and drinking, far less of the modern notion of transubstantiation, which He plainly obviated, by declaring that "it is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." The eating and drinking of which our Lord spake consisted in believing. The flesh of Christ is spiritual nourishment for the soul, and can only be eaten spiritually by faith; and it is spiritual life which is nourished by it; consequently our eating is entirely spiritual. But our Saviour has himself explained that this eating and drinking consist in believing, by using alternately, "eating,"

coming," "believing," as convertible terms as in verse 35 —“I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger: and he that believeth on me shall never thirst."-"Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life." Here therefore He spoke of an eating and drinking which is by faith alone, and that to eat is nothing else than to believe.1

The carnal minds of the Jews, like those of some Christians, could not receive this mystery, and therefore many of his disciples deserted him and would walk with him no longer. When our Saviour saw this defection he turned to the twelve, and asked if they too intended to go away. Here St. Peter answered in the name of all, yet no blessing followed, as on a subsequent occasion; although he made a full confession in the name of all the apostles, that "we believe and are SURE that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God." Here Christ warned them that one of them was a traitor and had a devil." "With the discourse, (says the learned and laborious Mr. Greswell), mysterious, figurative, and interesting as it is, which ensued in the synagogue on this meeting, the particulars of our Lord's second year are obviously to be brought to a close. And now, at the determination of this discourse, the first distinct allusion, anywhere on record, to the future treachery of Judas is found to occur: and so exactly a year before its completion that it is seen to have been now predicted on Saturday the seventh of April, as it will be found, hereafter, to have been consummated on Friday the fifth of April.""

We enter now upon the third and last year of Christ's ministry, the fame of whose miracles, and his teaching, had spread over the whole country, and the envious Scribes and Pharisees came from Jerusalem to Capernaum to perplex him; and they challenged his disciples for omitting those false traditionary customs which had grown by supererogation on the burthensome ceremonies of the law. He had taught his disciples a simplicity and spiritual holiness of manners, in opposition to the ostentatious display of the Pharisees; and he now reproved the latter severely, for supplanting the commandments of God, and rendering them of none effect by the traditions of men. "And again," says Bishop Taylor, "He thunders out woes and sadnesses against their impieties; for being envious of ministers, and punctual in rites and ceremonials, but most negligent and incurious in judgment and the love of God; for their pride, for their hypocrisy, for their imposing burdens upon others which themselves helped not to support; for taking away the key of knowledge from the people, obstructing the passages to heaven, for approving the acts of their fathers in persecuting the prophets. But for the question itself, concerning washings, Jesus taught the people that no outward impurity did stain the soul in the sight of God; but all pollution is from within, from the corruption of the heart, and impure thoughts, unchaste desires, and unholy purposes; and that CHARITY is the BEST PURIFIER in the world."

1 Essay on Transubstantiation.

2 St. John, vi.

4 Great Exemplar.

3 Greswell's Dissertations on the Principles and Arrangement of an Harmony of the Gospels, vol. ii. p. 351.

It is not very easy to ascertain what were our Lord's motives for departing from Capernaum and going into the Sidonian territory, where the people were a mixture of Jews and Canaanites that were suffered to remain after the conquest. It is probable that the malice of the Pharisees had exhibited dangerous symptoms after the recent exposure of their avarice, impiety, and hyprocrisy, in the synagogue; and that He had gone to Sidonia to avoid their persecution. Although He desired it yet He could not be concealed; He was met by a woman of Canaan, whose young daughter was possessed by a devil. She was an idolatress, consequently an alien from the commonwealth of Israel, yet, like many of the heathens connected with the Jews, she had true notions of our Lord's mission and office. Her faith brought her to Christ, and induced her to implore his mercy for her suffering child, by his proper titles of "Lord" and "Son of David." Notwithstanding this act of faith and his own benevolent tenderness of disposition,— “He answered her not a word." Wondering no doubt at this indirect refusal, and feeling compassion for the mother's distress, his disciples besought him to send her away in comfort; but He intimated that she was not entitled to this privilege, not being one of the flock of the house of Israel. Not discouraged however by these repulses, she came and worshipped him, saying, "Lord, help me." Still suppressing his compassion, and rejecting her suit, He told her, "it is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs," i. e., to unbelievers or Gentiles. This might have staggered a less faithful servant or a less attached mother; but it only increased her faith and prompted her to a holy violence: :-"Truth, Lord; yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table." From prayer she ventured to argue with our Lord, who graciously admitted her to this privilege for our example and instruction, and which is without a parallel in sacred history, save that of Abraham. The trial of her faith was severe, and it is recorded for our admonition, and he is the best Christian who best imitates her resignation and perseverance, which our Lord rewarded by granting her prayer. "O woman, great is thy faith! Be it unto thee even as thou wilt." Here was a true, genuine, working faith, not a "trembling" belief. "The mercy shown to this deserving woman, by the edification which is conveyed in the manner in which the favour was conferred, was rendered a blessing to the whole church; inasmuch as it was the seal of the merit of the righteousness of faith — not of 'faith separable from good works,' consisting in a mere assent to facts, but of that faith which is the root of every good work, of that faith which consists in a trust in God, and a reliance on his mercy, founded on a just sense of his perfections; - it was a seal of the acceptance of the penitent, and of the efficacy of their prayers; and a seal of this important truth,- that the afflictions of the righteous are certain signs of God's favour, the more certain in proportion as they are more severe." 1

Jesus remained but a short time in that country, but returned to the neighbourhood of Bethsaida, on the east side of the lake in De

1 St. Matth., xv.; St. Mark, vii.; Horsley's Sermons, vol. iii., p. 173.

1