55.

yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened? having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?" And St. Mark Mar.xvi. 14. writes that Jesus upbraided the eleven with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not those who had seen him after he was risen. When the very chief of the apostles are concerned, there is the same fidelity in the narration. We read that James and John were rebuked for their intolerant spirit, when they would have called down fire from heaven to con- Luk. ix. 54, sume the Samaritans; that Peter was fearful and un- Mat.xiv.30, believing, when he walked on the waves to meet Jesus ; 31. that this apostle was most sternly reprehended, when Mat.xvi.23. he wished our Lord's sufferings far from him; that Peter, James, and John suffered themselves to be over- Luk. xxii. come by sleep, after a solemn exhortation to watch; that Peter rashly drew his sword, and smote a servant Jo. xviii.ro. of the high priest; that he denied his Master with Jo. xiii. 37; oaths and imprecations, after vaunting that he would 74. lay down his life for his sake; and that Peter and John believed NOT our Lord's resurrection, after having heard from Mary Magdalene the angel's assurance that he was risen, and seen the orderly state of the graveclothes in the sepulchre.

2

The authenticity of the Gospels, besides the strong external evidence for it, appears from attention to their subject-matter; our Lord's perfect character and doctrines; the extolling of moral duties; the disparaging of legal and traditionary observances; the declarations that the Gentiles were to be admitted into the church; and the prophecies that the Jewish temple and nation were to be destroyed. It is incredible that such men

z John xx. 8. Beza's MS. inserts the negative particle, and ver. 9. proves that it should be inserted.

40, 45.

Mat. xxvi.

should write so far above all other men, and so contrary to the stream of their own ideas.

It is particularly observable of the evangelists, and indeed of the inspired writers in general, that not one of them speaks of the insufficiency of his own abilities, notwithstanding the greatness of the subject which he undertakes. In the genuine books of scripture there is no such language as the following: "If I have done well, and as is fitting the story, it is that which I 2 Mac. xv. desired; but if slenderly and meanly, it is that which I could attain unto." The authors of the sacred books show a consciousness that they were writing under the all-sufficient influence of the Spirit.

38.

CHAPTER IV.

Proofs in our Lord's conduct that he was not an impostor. THE striking opposition between the tenour of our Lord's actions as a religious teacher, and what might naturally have been expected from a Jewish impostor, forms an argument for the reality of his divine mission with which I shall conclude.

After having received full attestations from the Baptist, whom all men held to be a prophet; after the descent of the Spirit in a bodily shape, and the approbation of God himself by a voice from heaven; instead of asserting his Messiahship in Jerusalem, where men Mat. iv. I. were prepared to admit his claim, he retired into the desert during forty days, and then departed into the obscure country of Galileea.

He contradicted the reigning preconceptions of the a John i. 44. See Randolph's View, &c. p. 45.

24.

16.

Messiah, by his own humble appearance and his selec- Mat.viii. 20. tion of humble followers. The worship of God which he required was a spiritual one, unlike the ceremonies Jo. iv. 23, and pomp of the Jewish temple: his morality was too strict for worldly minded men: he declared his design to substitute an universal religion in the place of a Ver. 21; x. national one he preferred mercy to sacrifice; in- Mat. ix. 13. veighed against Pharisaical traditions; neither practised Mat. xv. 6. himself, nor taught his disciples to practise, Pharisaical Mat. ix. 14. austerities; and subjected himself to a charge of violating the sabbath, and to extreme danger, by repeatedly working miracles on that day.

Though John the Baptist attracted much notice, and all men held him to be a prophet, Jesus did not obtain his testimony by a preconcerted plan with him; but John knew him not till he came to be baptized.

Jo. i. 31.

The accounts of the wonders which preceded and followed his miraculous birth were not forgeries in which he was assisted by his kinsfolk; for they did not acknowledge his prophetical character: his religion Jo. vii. 5. and its evidences were not a political device; for he opposed, admonished, and reprehended the Jewish rulers, and was hated and slain by them.

Nothing indeed could be at a greater distance from secular views than his behaviour to the rich, powerful, and wise men of this world. When a Jewish ruler came to him at the first passover, we see in him no earnest endeavour to secure so useful a convert. He discoursed of a new birth, of receiving the Spirit by Jo. iii. 3, 5, baptism; and humbled his pride as a master in Israel for not comprehending his words. He showed his own contempt of wealth by entrusting Judas with the bag, Jo. xii. 6; his only faithless follower, and one of whose faithlessness he had early knowledge; and he occasionally spake of the deceitfulness and evil tendency of wealth; and Mat.xiii. 22.

10.

vi. 64.

Luk. xvi. 9,

II.

xvi. 23.

Luk.xii.20; described the rich as suddenly cut off, and as lifting up their eyes in future torments after faring sumptuously in this life. The following language was used by him to one of that class, who asked him what he should do Mar. x. 21. to inherit eternal life: "If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell

and p.P.

what thou hast, and give to the poor; and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me." His reproofs of those in power were the freest imaginable, when their unbelief and vices deserved them. And instead of lamenting that the wise and prudent were not in his train, who were the fittest instruments to compass worldly ends, he made it a ground of thanksgiving to God that his doctrine Mat. xi. 25. had been hidden from them and revealed unto babes. Nay, he recounted this among the characteristics of Mat. xi. 5. his Messiahship, that his gospel was preached to the poor.

We have seen that he was equally free in censuring his own followers, even the most zealous and eminent among them.

When his disciples asked him who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, he chose out none of distinguished attachment or ability: but observe his answer: Mat.xviii.4. "Whosoever shall humble himself as a little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

See also

When a certain scribe, and therefore a convert of no mean rank, said to him, "Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest;" his discouraging reply was, Mat.viii 20. "Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; Luk. ix. 59 but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." When he was called the Holy One of God by a demoniac, whom the people might think endued with Mar. i. 25. a spirit of divination, "Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace." In like manner he often concealed his b Page 326, 418.

-62.

miracles, often retired after he had wrought them, and never made an ostentatious display of his power. He

also commanded Peter, James, and John not to disclose Mat. xvii. 9. his transfiguration, and the glorious vision and the voice from heaven which accompanied it, till he was risen from the dead.

When the multitude were about to make him a

king, an end which an impostor would have promoted,

he retired to a mountain alone. And when the same Jo. vi. 15. multitude sought him, and discovered his retreat, he thus addressed them, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ver. 26, 27. Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you; for him hath the Father sealed, even God:" and he purposely alienated them, Ver. 32-65. and some of his disciples, by the most figurative and Ver. 66. dark of all his discourses.

26.

Thus again, when Philip and Andrew told Jesus that certain Hellenistic Jews desired to see him ; Jo. xii. 20penetrating their worldly motives, he spake of his approaching death, and taught his disciples to expect persecution in this life, and an eternal recompense in the next.

When he commissioned his twelve apostles, one part of his injunction to them was, "Freely ye have received, Mat. x. 8. freely give."

He not only discouraged all hope of temporal honours Mar. x. 42– in his disciples, but foretold, in various places, in the 44most public manner, and the clearest and strongest Mar.viii. 34. terms, that hatred, tribulation, and death awaited them.

His followers were to forsake all that they had, to hate Luk.xiv.26,

c See part I. ch. iii. sect. 1. p. 155.

33.