backed, that, to accomplish a remarkable prophecy (a), he might ride thereon to Jeru- From Matth. salem ||. The disciples † did as they were ordered; and having mounted their master xii. 1. Mark ii. on the colt, he proceeded, as it were, in triumph towards the city, amidst the loud accla- John v. 1. to mations of an innumerable multitude, whilst crouds of people came forth to meet him Matth. xvii. 14. with branches 2 of palm-trees in their hands, some spreading their garments in the Luke ix. 37.

that the very heathens thought those things and sacrifices most proper for the service of their gods, which had never been put to profane uses. Thus the Philistines returned the ark in a new cart, drawn by heifers that had never before undergone the yoke, 1 Sam. vi. 7. and thus Apollo's priest admonished Æneas:

Nunc grege de intacto septem mactare juvencos Præstiterit, Æn. vi. But the chief design that our Saviour might have in the orders which he gave his disciples, was, that the prophecy might, by this means, receive its full completion. "Tell ye the daughter of Sion, behold thy king cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt; the fole of an ass." The former part of the verse is taken from Isa. lxii. 11. and the latter from Zech. ix. 9. Both by the Jews are acknowledged to relate to the Messiah, and, with regard to the latter, R. Joseph was wont to say, "May the Messiah come, and may I be worthy to sit under the shadow of the tail of his ass!" Whitby's Annotations, and Surenhusii Concil. in Loc. ex V. T. apud

Matthæum.

(a) Isa. Ixii. 11. Zech. ix. 9.

A great contest there is among learned men, whether our Lord rode upon the ass, or the colt, or on both alternately. Those who contend for his riding upon both, observe from the words of the prophet Zechariah, chap. ix. 9. that mention is made of riding both "upon an ass, and a colt, the fole of an ass;" and from St Matthew, chap. xxi. 7. they observe farther, that the disciples, having brought the ass and the colt which our Saviour had sent them for, "put on them their clothes, and set him thereon." Since therefore the relation of St Matthew thus lite rally agrees with the prophecy of Zechariah, and both expressly assert, that our Saviour did ride upon the ass as well as the colt, they see no reason why these texts should not be taken in their most plain and obvious meaning, and do thence infer, that, for the more exact fulfilling of the prophecy, our Saviour did actually ride part of the way upon the one and the remaining part upon the other. The generality of interpreters however are against this. They suppose, that, as there was no occasion for our Saviour's riding upon both in so short a journey, and as the other three evangelists only make mention of the colt, there seems to be a necessity for admitting of the fi gure, called enallage numeri in this place; and that, as when we read, that the "ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat," Gen. viii. 4. we understand only upon one of them; so here, when St Matthew tells us, that the disciples brought "the ass, and the colt, and put their clothes on them," by ixava aurav, he must necessarily mean, ixáva ivòs aitar, upon one of them, i. e. the colt, as the words of the prophecy itself

will fairly bear: Nor was there any other reason for
bringing the mother along with it, but that foles will
not usually go without their dams. Wells's Geogra
phy of the New Testament, part i. and Surenhusii
Concil. in Loca ex V. T. apud Matthæum.

+ Very remarkable is our Saviour's prescience,
even as to the most minute matters, in the orders
which he gives his disciples, viz. 1. You shall find
a colt; 2. On which no man ever sat; 3. Bound with
his mother; 4. In bivio, or where two ways meet; 5.
As you enter into the village; 6. The owners of which
will at first seem unwilling that you should unbind
him; 7. But when they hear that I have need of him,
they will let him go. And no less remarkable is the
chearful obedience of these disciples to a command,
which carnal reasoning might have started many ob-
jections against, and which nothing less than a sted-
fast persuasion, that he who sent the message would
be sure to give success to it, could have prevailed up-
on them to execute as they did, without any demur
or delay. Whitby's Annotations, and Stanhope on
the Epistles and Gospels, vol. i.

+At the feast of tabernacles, it was a custom among the Jews, not only to sing hosannas with the greatest joy, but also to carry palm branches in their hands, Lev. xxiii. 40. and to desire (as the Jews still wish at the celebration of this feast) that they may rejoice in this manner at the coming of the Messiah. Nor was it only at this festival, but upon any other occasion of solemn rejoicing, that the Jews made use of this ceremony: For so we find that, upon the enemy's evacuating the tower of Jerusalem, Simon and his men "entered into it, with thanksgiving, and branches of palm trees, and with harps, and cymbols, and with viols, and hymns, and songs," 1 Maccab. xiii. 51. Nay, the very same manner of expressing their joy prevail. ed among other nations as well as the Jews; for so Herodotus relates, that they who went before Xerxes, as he passed over the Hellespont, strowed the way with myrtle branches: And therefore we need less wonder that we find such of the company, as were by our Blessed Saviour's miricles convinced of his being their king, and the promised Messiah, testifying their joy upon this his inauguration into his kingdom, in such a manner as they, as well as other nations, upon such joyful occasions were accustomed to. Whitby's Annotations, and Surenhusii Concil. ex. V. T. apud Matthæum.

* It was a common practice among the people of the East, upon the approach of their kings and princes, to spread their vestments upon the ground for them to tread or ride over. In conformity to which custom we find the captains, when they proclaimed Jehu king, putting their garments under him, 2 Kings ix. 13. and Plutarch relating, that when Cato left his soldiers to return to Rome, they spread their clothes.

23 Luke vi. 1.

Mark ix. 14.

John vii. 1.

way, others cutting down branches, and strowing them where he was to pass, and all, as it were, with one voice, crying t "Hosanna to the Son of David! blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord! hosanna in the highest!

In this triumphant manner they advanced till they came to the descent of Mount † Olivet, when the whole body of disciples, being transported with the honours shewn to their Master, broke out into raptures of thanksgivings, and loud doxologies to God, for all the mighty works which they had seen; while the whole body of the people, as well those that went before, as those that followed after, joined with the disciples in their hosannas and acclamations; so that, when some Pharisees, being envious of his glory, desired him to command their silence, "if they should be silent, he told them, +3 the very stones would proclaim his praise.'

But notwithstanding all this glorious procession, as he advanced nearer to Jerusalem, so as to have a full view of the city and temple, he paused, and looked stedfastly on the city, and then, with tears in his eyes, †, made this lamentation over it: "Oh! that thou hadst known, at least in this thy appointed day, the things conducing to thy peace; but now, alas! they are hidden from thine eyes. For the fatal time shall come, when thy enemies shall throw up trenches about thee, hem thee in on every side, destroy

thy children, demolish thee, and * not leave in thee one stone upon another, because From Matth. thou wouldst not know the time of thy visitation." †

xii. 1. Mark ii. 23. Luke vi. I. John v. 1. to

Matth. xvii. 14.

Mark ix. 14.

Luke ix. 37.

John vii. 1.

THE OBJECTION.

AND a strange visitation, no doubt, it was, when the great and long expected King of the Jews made his solemn entry into the capital of his dominions in so inglorious and absurd a manner. Had he been carried indeed in a triumphal chariot, with the nobles of the nation attending him, and heralds before proclaiming his great and wonderful acts; nay, had he been but mounted upon a tolerable horse, with a little riding furniture to set him off, and a company of honest yeomen, each on his own steed, to make up the cavalcade, something then might have been said to the matter: But to represent him riding upon an ass, the most contemptible of all creatures, without either bridle or saddle, and nothing but an old coat or two thrust under him; without one person of figure in his retinue, and nothing but a noisy rabble running before, and bauling out, "Hey for our King, for our King for ever;" this is making such a farce of the whole matter, and setting our Saviour out in so ridiculous a dress, as badly comports with the gravity of his behaviour upon all other occasions. Well might the town be in an uproar, to see a king inaugurated in this mock manner; and well might the mob, when the ferment of their joy was over, reflect on what they had done, and turn their hosannas into crucify him:' But what colour of excuse can we make for the four evangelists, who have all related this part of our Saviour's history so much to his disadvantage, and (a) thence given occasion to such an excess of profane wit and ridicule ?

Well had it been for their credit, if the three first had omitted this account of our Saviour's entry, as they have done that of his raising up Lazarus from the dead. In this St John stands alone, but not without some suspicion of the truth of his narrative, when he represents the very person, whom in the beginning of his Gospel he extolled so gloriously, sinking into a passion below the dignity of some heathen sages, and foolishly (b) weeping for the loss of a friend, whom that very moment he was going to restore; and when he represents his friend, who was dead, coming forth from his sepulchre, though (c) bound hand and foot with his grave-clothes' (which is not so easy, one would think, to be done), and at the same time having his face (that it might not be known who he was) bound about with a napkin.'

These circumstances look a little oddly, and seem to impair the strength of the miracle; as our Saviour's (d) curing the man that was born blind (another piece of history wherein St John stands alone), by a kind of whimsical eye-salve made of dirt and spittle, sounds not a little romantic, unless we may suppose, (e) that underhand he

* How exactly this was likewise fulfilled, the same historian relates, viz. that Titus, having ordered the soldiers to lay the city level with the ground, and to leave nothing standing but three of the most famous turrets that overtopped the rest, as monuments to posterity of the Romans power and conduct in taking the place, his orders were so punctually executed, and all the rest laid so flat, that the place looked as if it had never been inhabited. Joseph. de Bello, lib. vii. c. 18.

The word visitation may be taken either in a
VOL. III.

good or bad sense; for either the mercies or judge-
ments of God; but here it denotes the former, and
particularly the dispensation of the Gospel, first by
the ministry of John, then by the preaching of Christ
himself, and afterwards by the labours of his Apostles
and disciples. Beausobre's and Pool's Annotations.
(a) Bishop Sherlock's ivth Dissertation.
(6) Jolm xi. 35.

(c) Ibid. ver. 44.

(d) John ix.

(e) Woolston's Discourses on the Miracles: 2E

A. M. 4035, made use of a proper medicine, and had privately in his mouth some sanative and bal&c. or 5441. samic matter, which, dissolved in spittle, might effect the cure.

Ann. Dom.

31, &c.

Vulg. Er. 30.

The truth is, whatever high commendations may be given of the Gospel of St John, as an history greatly conducive to our Saviour's honour, and calculated on purpose, as it were, to assert the doctrine of his divinity, yet it is no small objection to its authority, that the whole account of the woman taken in adultery, and brought before him, is supposed to be a forgery, and therefore omitted in the best copies; and if we look into some other passages during the same period, we shall soon perceive, that it falls infinitely short of the orthodox character which some have given it.

For when (according to St John) we find Christ declaring, that (a) He was to work the work of him that sent him; that (b) the doctrine which he taught was not his own, but his that sent him; and that he (c) spake not of himself, but as his Father had taught him so he spake,' can we think otherwise, than that he acknowledges his inferiority to the Deity, (d) as subject to the command of another, which the true God can never be; and as receiving his instructions from another, which, had he a Divine besides the human nature, he must have been the prime author of.

The very Socinians allow, that in respect of the commission which he had from God, the Scriptures might indulge him with a title extraordinary; and when (e) 'the Jews took up stones to stone him,' for assuming, as they thought, a co-equality with God, how is it that this beloved apostle of his brings him off? Why, by making him acknowledge himself to be God, in the same sense that judges and other great magistrates are so called, viz. (ƒ) in virtue of the Divine authority wherewith they are invested.

Nay, well it were if St John were the only sacred penman who seems to impair the truth of Christ's divinity: But if we look into two other evangelists (g), we shall find them, on a very remarkable occasion, doing the same thing. For when the two sons of Zebedee came and requested of our Lord to have a certain pre-eminence in his future kingdom, these writers make him modestly decline all power of conferring such like honours and dignities as the peculiar prerogative of God alone: (h) To sit at my righthand, and my left, is not mine to give; but it shall be given to them of whom it is prepared of my Father:' Words that he never would have spoken, say the ancient Arians, had he not been conscious of an inferiority.

But even besides these, there are other difficulties in the compass of this part of the evangelical history that we cannot so well account for. For if innocence is better than amendment, and there is no proportion in the numbers, why is there more (i) joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, than over ninety and nine just persons who need no repentance?' If the Judge of all the earth cannot but do right, and will reward every one according to his works,' why does the householder, in the parable (k), make the wages of all the labourers in the vineyard, of those that wrought but one hour, and of those that bore the heat and burden of the day, equal?' If our Saviour, at other times, in his travels from Galilee to Jerusalem, met with no let, no incivility from the people of Samaria, why did they once, merely (1) because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem,' deny him the common rights of hospitality? And (to name no more) supposing the last was the greatest day of the feast of tabernacles, yet why should our Saviour, on that more than any other, cry out, (m) If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink?' Nor can we conceive where the passage is, or in what sense it is to be understood, that he who believeth in Christ shall out of his belly have rivers of living waters flowing'."

(a) John ix. 4.
(e) John x. 31.
(h) Matth. xx. 23.

(m) John vii. 37, 38.

6

(a) AT a former passover, when the people, in admiration of our Saviour's miracles, From Matth. would have paid him kingly honours, he withdrew, and refused that unseasonable testi- xii. 1. Mark ii. mony of their zeal, because the accepting these honours then would have been liable to John v. 1 to misrepresentation, and might have obstructed the efficacy of his preaching.

23. Luke vi. 1.

But now Matth. xvii. 14.
Mark ix. 14.

that the course of his prophetic office was finished, and the time of his leaving the world, Luke ix. 37. and returning to his Father, so near at hand, he thought it not amiss to accept of their John vii. 1. readiness to acknowledge and proclaim his royal dignity, and himself to go up to Jeru- ANSWER. salem in a more public manner than usual, that thereby he might exasperate his bloodthirsty enemies, and so draw on his intended passion.

To exasperate his enemies indeed, a more pompous appearance might have been more conducive, and more agreeable to his regal dignity; but in this our saviour was not left to his own option. Since the prophet, so long before, had prescribed the form of his entry into Jerusalem, as a characteristic of his being the true Messiah, there could be no deviating from it, even though he could have procured his numerous guards, and triumphal chariots, splendid attendants, and other ensigns of royalty, to adorn the day of his inauguration. (b) "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Je. rusalem, behold thy King cometh unto thee! He is just, and having salvation, lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass." This is the prophecy whereby our Saviour was directed, at this time, in his approach to Jerusalem; and to justify his conduct in this particular, it may not be amiss to enquire a little into the true reason of it.

To this purpose we may observe with a learned prelate (c) of our own, that the law which God gave to the kings of Israel, whenever there should be any, (d) "not to multiply horses to themselves," was founded upon a special promise, that he would continue to be, as he had all along been, (e) their defence against their enemies; that this was a law wherein every prince that was to succeed to the government of Israel was concerned, and designed for a standing trial, both of prince and people, whether they had trust and confidence in God; that, while this law was observed, the troops of Israel were victorious, and, though few in number, and seemingly unfit for action, proved an overmatch for royal armies; that, when it came to be laid aside, and kings, as they decli ned in their confidence towards God, began to multiply their horses and chariots of war, they soon sunk in their military successes, till, at length, the whole land was carried away captive And therefore, (f) "woe unto them, says the prophet, that stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many, and in horsemen, because they are strong, but look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord.”

Now to apply this to the prophecy before us. Since the kings of Israel were obliged to renounce the assistance of horses and horsemen, and to depend on God for success in the day of battle; and since those who did so were their nation's deliverers, and those that did otherwise were destroyers of it; under which of these capacities, think we, should the king, whom God promised to the daughter of Jerusalem, come? Should he appear, as some of the late kings of Israel did, in all the pomp and pride of war, surrounded with horses and chariots, in direct opposition to the law of God? Or should he appear, like some of the ancient worthies, (g)" who by faith subdued kingdoms, and out of weakness were made strong?" Kings who feared God, and therefore feared no enemy, and who, though mounted on asses, were able to put to flight the thousands and ten thousands of chariots and horses that came against them? To resolve us in this enquiry, the prophet himself comes into our aid: For, immediately after his description of the promised King, he adds, (h) " and I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim,

66

(a) Stanhope on the Epistles and Gospels, vol. i. (b) Zech. ix. 9. Fourth Dissertation, annexed to his Use and Intent of Prophecy. (e) Ibid. xx. 1. (f) Isaiah xxxi. 1. (g) Heb. xi. 33, 34.

(c) Bishop Sherlock's
(d) Deut. xvii. 16.
(h) Zech. ix. 10.