Page images
PDF
EPUB

"third time? Why? What evil hath he done? I have found no "cause of death in him; I will therefore chaftife him, and let « him go.".

We may observe in all this whole profecution of the Jews, that they would fain have got it out of Jefus's own mouth, in exprefs words, that he was the Meffiah; which not being able to do with all their art and endeavour, all the reft that they could alledge against him not amounting to a proof before Pilate, that he claimed to be king of the Jews, or that he had caufed or done any thing towards a mutiny or infurrection upon the people (for upon thefe two, as we fee, their whole charge turned), Pilate again and again pronounced him innocent; for fo he did a fourth and a fifth time, bringing him out to them after he had whipped him, John xix. 4, 6. And after all, "When Pilate faw that he could prevail "nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and "washed his hands before the multitude, faying, I am innocent of "the blood of this juft man, fee you to it.' Matt. xxvii. 24.

Which gives us a clear reafon of the cautious and wary conduct of our Saviour, in not declaring himfelf, in the whole courfe of his miniftry, fo much as to his difciples, much lefs to the multitude or the rulers of the Jews, in exprefs words to be the Meffiah, the king; and why he kept himself always in prophetical or parabolical terms (he and his difciples preaching only the kingdom of God, i. e. of the Meffiah, to be come) and left to his miracles to declare who he was; though this was the truth which he came into the world, as he fays himself, John xviii. 37. to teftify, and which his difciples were to believe.

When Pilate, fatisfied of his innocence, would have released him, and the Jews perfifted to cry out, "Crucify him, crucify him,' John xix. 6. " Pilate fays to them, Take ye him yourselves, and "crucify him; for I do not find any fault in him." The Jews then, fince they could not make him a state-criminal, by alledging his faying that he was "the fon of God;" fay, by their law, it was a capital crime, ver. 7. "The Jews anfwered to Pilate, We have "a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself "the fon of God," i. e. becaufe, by faying he is the "fon of God,” he has made himself the Meffiah, the prophet which was to come: for we find no other law but that againft falfe prophets, Deut. xviii. 20. whereby "making himself the fon of God" deferved death.

After this, Pilate was the more defirous to release him, ver. 12, 13. "But the Jews cried out, faying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Cæfar's friend; whofoever maketh himself a king, fpeaketh "against Cæfar." Here we fee the ftrefs of their charge against Jefus, whereby they hoped to take away his life, viz. that he "made himself king:" we fee alfo upon what they grounded this accufation, viz. because he had owned himfelf to be " the fon of "God:" for he had, in their hearing, never made or profeffed himself to be a king. We fee here likewise the reason why they

were

were fo defirous to draw from his own mouth a confeffion, in exprefs words, that he was the Meffiah, viz. that they might have what might be a clear proof that he did fo. And, laft of all, we fee the reafon why, though in expreffions which they understood he owned himself to them to be the Meffiah, yet he avoided declaring it to them in fuch words as might look criminal at Pilate's tribunal. He owned himself to be the Meffiah plainly to the underftanding of the Jews, but in ways that could not, to the underftanding of Pilate, make it appear that he had laid claim to the kingdom of Judea, or went about to make himself king of that country. But whether his faying that he was "the fon of God," was criminal by their law, that Pilate troubled not himself about.

He that confiders what Tacitus, Suetonius, Seneca de Benef. 1. iii. c. 26. fay of Tiberius and his reign, will find how neceffary it was for our Saviour, if he would not die as a criminal and a traytor, to take great heed to his words and actions, that he did or faid not any thing that might be offenfive, or give the leaft umbrage to the Roman government. It behoved an innocent man, who was taken notice of for fomething extraordinary in him, to be very wary, under a jealous and cruel prince, who encouraged informa tions, and filled his reign with executions for treafon; under whom words spoken innocently, or in jeft, if they could be misconstrued, were made treason, and profecuted with a rigour, that made it always the fame thing to be accufed and condemned. And therefore we fee, that when the Jews told Pilate, John xix. 12. that he fhould not be a friend to Cæfar if he let Jefus go (for that whoever made himself king, was a rebel against Cæfar), he afks them no more whether they would take Barabbas, and fpare Jefus, but (though against his confcience) gives him up to death, to fecure his own head.

One thing more there is, that gives us light into this wife and neceffarily cautious management of himfelf, which manifeftly agrees with it, and makes a part of it; and that is, the choice of his apoftles, exactly fuited to the defign and fore-fight of the neceffity of keeping the declaration of the kingdom of the Meffiah, which was now expected, within certain general terms during his miniftry: it was not fit to open himself too plainly or forwardly to the heady Jews, that he himself was the Meffiah; that was to be left to be found out by the obfervation of those who would attend to the purity of his life, the teftimony of his miracles, and the conformity of all with the predictions concerning him; by these marks, thote he lived amongst were to find it out, without an exprefs promulgation that he was the Meffiah, till after his death his kingdom was to be opened to them by degrees, as well to prepare them to receive it, as to enable him to be long enough amongst them, to perform what was the work of the Meffiah to be done, and fulfil all those several parts of what was foretold of him in the Old Testáment, and we fee applied to him in the New.

E 4

The

The Jews had no other thoughts of their Meffiah, but of a mighty temporal prince, that should raise their nation into an higher degree of power, dominion, and profperity, than ever it had enjoyed. They were filled with the expectation of a glorious earthly kingdom. It was not therefore for a poor man, the fon of a carpenter, and (as they thought) born in Galilee, to pretend to it. None of the Jews, no not his difciples, could have borne this, if he had exprefsly avowed this at firft, and began his preaching, and the opening of his kingdom this way; efpecially if he had added to it, that in a year or two he should die an ignominious death upon the crofs. They are therefore prepared for the truth by degrees, Firft, John the Baptift tells them, "The kingdom of God" (a name by which the Jews called the kingdom of the Meffiah)" is at "hand." Then our Saviour comes, and he tells them " of the "kingdom of God," fometimes that it is at hand, and upon fome occafions, that it is come; but fays in his public preaching little or nothing of himself. Then come the apoftles and evangelifts after his death, and they in exprefs words teach what his birth, life, and doctrine, had done before, and had prepared the well-disposed to receive, viz. that "Jefus is the Meffiah.'

[ocr errors]

To this defign and method of publishing the gospel, was the choice of the apoftles exactly adjufted; a company of poor, ignorant, illiterate men, who, as Chrift himself tells us, Matt. xi. 25. and Luke x. 21. were not of the "wife and prudent" men of the world; they were, in that respect, but meer children. Thefe, convinced by the miracles they faw him daily do, and the unblameable life he led, might be difpofed to believe him to be the Messiah; and though they with others expected a temporal kingdom on earth, might yet reft fatisfied in the truth of their mafter (who had honoured them with being near his person), that it would come, without being too inquifitive after the time, manner, or feat of his kingdom; as men of letters, more ftudied in their rabbins, or men of business, more verfed in the world, would have been forward to have been. Men great or wife in knowledge or ways of the world would hardly have been kept from prying more narrowly into his defign and conduct, or from queftioning him about the ways and measures he would take for ascending the throne; and what means were to be used towards it, and when they fhould in earnest set about it. Abler men, of higher births or thoughts, would hardly have been hindered from whispering, at leaft to their friends and relations, that their mafter was the Meffiah; and that though he concealed himself to a fit opportunity, and till things were ripe for it, yet they fhould ere long fee him break out of his obfcurity, caft off the cloud, and declare himself, as he was, king of Ifrael. But the ignorance and lowness of these good poor men made them of another temper. They went along in an implicit truft on him, punctually keeping to his commands, and not exceeding his commiffion. When he fent them to preach the gofpel, he bid them preach "the kingdom of God" to be at hand; and that they did,

without

without being more particular than he had ordered, or mixing their own prudence with his commands, to promote the kingdom of the Meffiah. They preached it without giving, or fo much as intimating, that their mafter was he; which men of another condition, and an higher education, would fcarce have forborn to have done. When he afked them who they thought him to be, and Peter anfwered, "The Meffiah, the fon of God," Matt. xvi. 16. he plainly fhews, by the following words, that he himself had not told them fo; and at the fame time, ver. 20. forbids them to tell this their opinion of him to any body. How obedient they were to him in this, we may not only conclude from the filence of the evangelifts concerning any fuch thing publifhed by them any where before his death, but from the exact obedience three of them paid to a like command of his. He takes Peter, James, and John, into a mountain, and there Mofes and Elias coming to him, he is transfigured before them: Matt. xvii. 9. he charges them, faying, "fee that ye "tell no man what ye have feen, till the fon of man shall be rifen "from the dead." And St. Luke tells us, what punctual obfervers they were of his orders in this cafe, chap. ix. 36. "They kept "it clofe, and told no man, in thofe days, any of those things "which they had feen."

Whether twelve other men, of quicker parts, and of a station or breeding which might have given them any opinion of themselves, or their own abilities, would have been fo cafily kept from meddling beyond just what was prescribed them, in a matter they had fo much intereft in; and have faid nothing of what they might in human prudence have thought would have contributed to their mafter's reputation, and made way for his advancement to his kingdom, I leave to be confidered. And it may fuggeft matter of meditation, whether St. Paul was not, for this reafon, by his learning, parts, and warmer temper, better fitted for an apoftle after, than during our Saviour's miniftry; and therefore, though a chofen veffel, was not by the divine wifdom called till after Chrift's refur

rection.

I offer this only as a fubject of magnifying the admirable contrivance of the divine wifdom, in the whole work of our redemption, as far as we are able to trace it by the footsteps which God hath made vifible to human reafon. For though it be as easy to omnipotent power to do all things by an immediate over-ruling will, and fo to make any inftruments work, even contrary to their natures, in fubferviency to his ends; yet his wifdom is not usually at the expence of miracles (if I may fo fay), but only in cafes that require them, for the evidencing of fome revelation or mission to be from him. He does conftantly (unless where the confirmation of fome truth requires it otherwife) bring about his purposes by means operating according to their natures. If it were not fo, the courfe and evidence of things would be confounded; miracles would lofe their name and force; and there could be no diftinction between natural and fupernatural.

There

There had been no room left to fee and admire the wisdom, as well as innocence, of our Saviour, if he had rafhly every where expofed himself to the fury of the Jews, and had always been preferved by a miraculous fufpenfion of their malice, or a miraculous refcuing him out of their hands. It was enough for him once to escape from the men of Nazareth, who were going to throw him down a precipice, for him never to preach to them again. Our Saviour had multitudes that followed him for the loaves, who, barely feeing the miracles that he did, would have made him king. If to the miracles he did, he had openly added, in exprefs words, that he was the Meffiah, and the king they expected to deliver them, he would have had more followers, and warmer in the caufe, and readier to fet him up at the head of a tumult. Thefe indeed God, by a miraculous influence, might have hindered from any fuch attempt; but then pofterity could not have believed that the nation of the Jews did at that time expect the Meffiah, their king and deliverer; or that Jefus, who declared himself to be that king and deliverer, fhewed any miracles amongst them, to convince them of it; or did any thing worthy to make him be credited or received. If he had gone about preaching to the multitude which he drew after him, that he was "the Meffiah, the king of Ifrael," and this had been evidenced to Pilate, God could indeed, by à fupernatural influence upon his mind, have made Pilate pronounce him innocent, and not condemn him as a malefactor, who had openly, for three years together, preached fedition to the people, and endeavoured to perfuade them that he was the Meffiah "their king," of the blood-royal of David, come to deliver them. But then I afk, whether pofterity would not either have suspected the story, or that fome art had been used to gain that teftimony from Pilate? because he could not (for nothing) have been fo favourable to Jefus, as to be willing to release fo turbulent and feditious a man, to declare him innocent, and to caft the blame and guilt of his death, as unjust, upon the envy of the Jews.

But now the malice of the chief priests, Scribes, and Pharifees; the healinefs of the mob, animated with hopes, and raised with miracles; Judas's treachery, and Pilate's care of his government, and of the peace of his province, all working naturally as they fhould; Jefus, by the admirable warinefs of his carriage, and an extraordinary wifdom vifible in his whole conduct, weathers all thefe difficulties, does the work he comes for, uninterruptedly goes about preaching his full appointed time, fufficiently manifefts himfelf to be the Meffiah in all the particulars the fcriptures had foretold of him; and, when his hour is come, fuffers death; but is acknowledged both by Judas that betrayed, and Pilate that condemned him, to die innocent. For, to ufe his own words, Luke xxiv. 46. Thus it is written, and thus it behoved the Meffiah to fuffer." And of his whole conduct, we have a reafon and clear refolution in those words to St. Peter, Matt. xxvi. 53. "Thinkest thou that I "cannot now pray to my father, and he fhall prefently give me

« more

« PreviousContinue »