"me." Your preaching then, accompanied with miracles, by the affiftance of the Holy Ghoft, fhall be a conviction to the world that the Jews finned in not believing me to be the Meffiah. « Of " righteousness," or juftice: " because I go to my father, and ye fee me no more." By the fame preaching and miracles you fhall confirm the doctrine of my afcenfion; and thereby convince the world that I was that "juft one," who am therefore afcended to the father into heaven, where no unjuft perfon fhall enter. "Of judge"ment: because the prince of this world is judged." And by the fame affiftance of the Holy Ghoft ye fhall convince the world that the devil is judged or condemned, by your cafting of him out, and deftroying his kingdom, and his worship, wherever you preach. Our Saviour adds, "I have yet many things to fay unto you, but you "cannot bear them now." They were yet fo full of a temporal kingdom, that they could not bear the difcovery of what kind of kingdom his was, nor what a king he was to be; and therefore he leaves them to the coming of the Holy Ghoft, for a farther and fuller difcovery of himfelf, and the kingdom of the Meffiah, for fear they should be fcandalized in him, and give up the hopes they had now in him, and forfake him. This he tells them, ver. 1, of this xvith chapter: "Thefe things I have faid unto you, that you may "not be fcandalized." The laft thing he had told them before his faying this to them, we find in the laft verfes of the precedent chapter: "When the paraclet is come, the fpirit of truth, he fhall "witness concerning me." He fhall fhew you who I am, and witness it to the world; and then, "Ye also fhall bear witnefs, be"caufe ye have been with me from the beginning." He fhall call to your mind what I have faid and done, that ye may understand it, and know, and bear witnefs concerning me. And again here, John xvi. after he had told them, they could not bear what he had more to fay, he adds, ver. 13. "Howbeit, when the Spirit of truth "is come, he will guide you into all truth; and he will fhew you "things to come: he fhall glorify me." By the Spirit, when he comes, ye fhall be fully inftructed concerning me; and though you cannot yet, from what I have faid to you, clearly comprehend my kingdom and glory, yet he fhall make it known to you wherein it confifts: and though I am now in a mean ftate, and ready to be given up to contempt, torment, and death, fo that ye know not what to think of it, yet the Spirit, when he comes," fhall glorify "me," and fully fatisfy you of my power and kingdom; and that I fit on the right-hand of God, to order all things for the good and increase of it, till I come again at the last day in the fulness of glory.

Accordingly, the apoftles had a full and clear fight and perfuafion of this, after they had received the Holy Ghoft; and they preached it every where boldly and openly, without the leaft remainder of doubt or uncertainty. But that even fo late as this, they understood not his death and refurrection, is evident from ver. 17, 18. “Then "faid some of the difciples among themfelves, What is this that he "faith unto us; A little while, and ye fhall not fee me; and again,

"a little

a little while, and ye fhall fee me; and because I go to the fa"ther? They faid therefore, What is this that he faith, a little "while? we know not what he faith." Upon which, he goes on to difcourfe to them of his death and refurrection, and of the power they should have of doing miracles. But all this he declares to them in a mystical and involved way of speaking: as he tells them himself, ver. 25. "These things have I spoken to you in proverbs," i. e. in general, obfcure, ænigmatical, or figurative terms. (All which, as well as allufive apologues, the Jews called proverbs or parables.) Hitherto my declaring of myfelf to you hath been obfcure, and with referve; and I have not spoken of myself to you in plain and direct words, because ye "could not bear it." A Methiah, and not a king, you could not understand; and a king living in poverty and perfecution, and dying the death of a flave and malefactor upon a crofs, you could not put together. And had I told you in plain words, that I was the Meffiah, and given you a direct commiffion to preach to others, that I profeffedly owned myself to be the Meffiah, you and they would have made a commotion, to have fet me upon the throne of my father David, and to fight for me, that your Meffiah, your king, in whom are your hopes of a kingdom, fhould not be delivered up into the hands of his enemies, to be put to death; and of this, Peter will inftantly give you a proof. But "the time cometh when I fhall no more "speak unto you in parables; but I fhall fhew unto you plainly of "the father." My death and refurrection, and the coming of the Holy Ghoft, will fpeedily enlighten you, and then I fhall make you know the will and defign of the father; what a kingdom I am to have, and by what means, and to what end, ver. 27. And this the father himself will fhew unto you; "For he loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from the "father." Because ye have believed that I am "the fon of God, "the Meffiah;" that he hath anointed and fent me; though it hath not been yet fully difcovered to you what kind of kingdom it shall be, nor by what means brought about. And then our Saviour, without being asked, explaining to them what he had faid, and making them understand better what before they stuck at, and complained fecretly among themfelves, that they understood not; they thereupon declare, ver. 30. "Now are we fure that thou knoweft all "things, and needeft not that any man should ask thee." It is plain thou knoweft mens thoughts and doubts before they ask. "By this we believe that thou comeft forth from God. Jefus an"fwered, Do ye now believe?" Notwithstanding that you now believe that I came from God, and am the Meffiah, fent by him; "Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye fhall be fcat"tered;" and as it is Matt. xxvi. 31. and " fhall all be fcandalized " in me." What it is to be fcandalized in him, we may fee by what followed hereupon, if that which he fays to St. Peter, Mark xiv. did not fufficiently explain it.

VOL, IV.

F

This

This I have been the more particular in, that it may be seen, that in his laft difcourfe to his difciples (where he opened himself more than he had hitherto done; and where, if any thing more was required to make them believers, than what they already believed, we might have expected they fhould have heard of it), there were no new articles propofed to them, but what they believed before, viz. That he was the Meffiah, the fon of God, fent from the father: though of his manner of proceeding, and his fudden leaving the world, and fome few particulars, he made them understand fomething more than they did before. But as to the main defign of the gofpel, viz. that he had a kingdom, that he fhould be put to death, and rife again, and afcend into heaven to his father, and come again in glory to judge the world; this he had told them: and fo had acquainted them with the great council of God, in sending him the Meffiah, and omitted nothing that was neceflary to be known or believed in it. And fo he tells them himself, John xv. 15. "Hence"forth I call ye not fervants: for the fervant knoweth not what "his Lord does: but I have called ye friends; for ALL THINGS "I have heard of my father, I have made known unto you;" though perhaps ye do not fo fully comprehend them, as you will fhortly, when I am rifen and afcended.

To conclude all, in his prayer, which fhuts up this discourse, he tells the father what he had made known to his apostles; the refult whercof we have John xvii. 8. "I have given unto them the words "which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and THEY " HAVE BELIEVED THAT THOU DIDST SEND ME." Which is in effect, that he was the Meffiah promised and sent by God. And then he prays for them, and adds, ver. 20, 21. "Neither pray I for "these alone, but for them alfo who believe on me through their "word." What that word was through which others should believe in him, we have feen in the preaching of the apostles all through the hiftory of the Acts, viz. This one great point, that Jefus was the Meffiah. The apoftles, he fays, ver. 25. "know that "thou haft fent me," i. e. are affured that I am the Meffiah. And in ver. 21 and 23, he prays, "That the world may believe" (which ver. 23. is called knowing) " that thou haft fent me:" fo that what Chrift would have believed by his difciples, we may fee by this his laft prayer for them when he was leaving the world, as well as by what he preached whilft he was in it.

And as a teftimony of this, one of his laft actions, even when he was upon the crofs, was to confirm this doctrine, by giving falvation to one of the thieves that was crucified with him, upon his declaration that he believed him to be the Meffiah; for fo much the words of his requeft imported, when he faid, "Remember me, "Lord, when thou comeft into thy kingdom," Luke xxiii. 42. To which Jefus replied, ver. 43. "Verily I fay unto thee, To-day "fhalt thou be with me in paradife." An expreffion very remarkable; for as Adam, by fin, loft paradife, i. e. a state of happy immortality, here the believing thief, through his faith in Jefus the Meffiah,

Meffiah, is promised to be put in paradife, and so re-instated in an happy immortality.

Thus our Saviour ended his life. And what he did after his refurrection, St. Luke tells us, Acts i. 3. That he fhewed himself to the apostles "forty days, speaking things concerning the kingdom " of God." This was what our Saviour preached in the whole courfe of his miniftry, before his paffion: and no other myfteries of faith does he now difcover to them after his refurrection. All he fays, is concerning the kingdom of God; and what it was he faid concerning that, we fhall fee prefently out of the other evangelifts; having first only taken notice, that when they now asked him, ver. 6. "Lord, wilt thou at this time reftore again the kingdom to Ifrael?" He said unto them, ver. 7. "It is not for you to know the times, " and the feafons, which the Father hath put into his own power: "but ye fhall receive power after that the Holy Ghoft is come upon

you; and ye fhall be witnefles unto me unto the utmost parts of "the earth." Their great bufinefs was to be witnesses to Jefus, of his life, death, refurrection, and afcenfion; which, put together, were undeniable proofs of his being the Meffiah. This was what they were to preach, and what he faid to them concerning the kingdom of God, as will appear by what is recorded of it in the other evangelists.

When, on the day of his refurrection, he appeared to the two going to Emmaus, Luke xxiv. they declare, ver. 21. what his difciples faith in him was: "But we trufted that it had been he that "fhould have redeemed Ifrael;" i. e. we believed that he was the Meffiah, come to deliver the nation of the Jews. Upon this Jefus tells them, that they ought to believe him to be the Meffiah, notwithstanding what had happened; nay, they ought by his fuffering and death to be confirmed in that faith, that he was the Meffiah. And ver. 26, 27. "Beginning at Mofes and all the prophets, he "expounded unto them in all the fcriptures the things concerning "himfelf;" how," that the Meffiah ought to have fuffered these "things, and to have entered into his glory." Now he applies the prophecies of the Meffiah to himself, which we read not that he did ever do before his paffion. And afterwards appearing to the eleven, Luke xxiv. 36. he faid unto them, ver. 44-47. "The "words which I spoke unto you while I was yet with you, that all " things must be fulfilled which are written in the law of Mofes, "and in the Prophets, and in the Pfalms concerning me. Then "opened he their understandings, that they might understand the ❝ scripture, and faid unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it be"hoved the Meffiah to suffer, and to rife from the dead the third "day; and that repentance and remiffion of fins fhould be preached " in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerufalem." Here we see what it was he had preached to them, though not in fo plain open words before his crucifixion; and what it is he now makes them understand; and what it was that was to be preached to all pations, viz. that he was the Meffiah, that had fuffered, and rose

from the dead the third day, and fulfilled all things that were written in the Old Teftament concerning the Mefliah; and that those who believed this, and repented, fhould receive remiffion of their fins through this faith in him. Or, as St. Mark has it, chap. xvi. 15. "Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature; "he that believeth, and is baptized, fhall be faved; but he that "believeth not, fhall be damned," ver. 20. What the "gofpel" or "good news" was, we have fhewed already, viz. the happy tidings of the Meffiah being come, ver. 20. And "they went forth "and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and con"firming the word with figns following." What the "word" was which they preached, and the Lord confirmed with miracles, we have feen already out of the hiftory of their Acts: I have already given an account of their preaching every where, as it is recorded in the Acts, except fome few places, where the kingdom of the Meffiah is mentioned under the name of "the kingdom of God," which I forbore to fet down, till I had made it plain out of the evangelifts, that that was no other but the kingdom of the Messiah.

It may be feasonable therefore now, to add to thofe fermons we have formerly feen of St. Paul (wherein he preached no other article of faith, but that "Jefus was the Meffiah," the king, who being rifen from the dead, now reigneth, and fhall more publicly manifeft his kingdom, in judging the world at the last day) what farther is left upon record of his preaching. Acts xix. 8. At Ephefus, "Paul went into the fynagogues, and fpake boldly for the space of "three months; difputing and perfuading concerning the kingdom " of God." And Acts xx. 25. At Miletus he thus takes leave of the elders of Ephefus: "And now behold, I know that ye all, "among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall "fee my face no more.' What this preaching the kingdom of God was, he tells you, ver. 20, 21. "I have kept nothing back "from you, which was profitable unto you, but have fhewed you, " and have taught you publicly, and from house to houfe; testify"ing both to the Jews, and to the Greeks, repentance towards God, "and faith towards our Lord Jefus Chrift." And fo again, Acts xxviii. 23, 24. "When they [the Jews at Rome] had appointed "him [Paul] a day, there came many to him into his lodgings; to "whom he expounded and teftified the kingdom of God; perfuad<c ing them concerning Jefus, both out of the law of Mofes, and

out of the prophets, from morning to evening. And fome be"lieved the things which were spoken, and fome believed not." And - the hiftory of the Acts is concluded with this account of St. Paul's preaching: "And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired

houfe, and received all that came in unto him, preaching the "kingdom of God, and teaching thofe things which concern the "Lord Jefus the Meffiah." We may therefore here apply the fame conclufion to the hiftory of our Saviour writ by the evangelifts, and to the history of the apoftles writ in the Acts, which St. John does to his own gospel, chap. xx. 39, 31. “Many other figns did

“ Jcfus