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SERMON XXI.

TUESDAY IN PASSION WEEK.

[Preached at Northallerton, on Tuesday in Passion week, 1828.]

MARK Xi. 27-30.

And they come again to Jerusalem: and as He was walking in the temple, there come to Him the chief priests, and the Scribes, and the elders, and say unto Him, By what authority doest Thou these things, and who gave thee this authority?—And Jesus answered, I will also ask of you one question, and answer Me, and I will tell you, by what authority I do these things.—The baptism of John, was it from heaven or of men?

THE most inattentive reader of the New Testament must have observed one remarkable difference in the conduct of our Lord at different times. Sometimes, after the performance of a miracle, He commands the person who was healed to tell no man-now, before His crucifixion, He comes forth in the boldest, the most public, and most unreserved manner, and addresses the rulers of the people in the most unsparing and stern language. The cause of the difference in question was this-

at the time when He began His public ministry, and through the whole course of that ministry, the people of Israel were in constant expectation of the Messiah; but they had so misinterpreted the books of their prophets, that they anticipated an earthly and temporal deliverer, who should break off the yoke of the Romans, and make the Jewish nation once more a powerful, warlike, and successful people. In the midst of these anticipations, an obscure, and humble stranger from Galilee makes His appearance among them.-He traverses the country from one end to another-He teaches the people with purity and simplicity, with force and truth, in a manner which they had never before heard-He heals the sick-He raises the dead-He proves that He could support large armies without expence, and thus if He pleased, overthrow the Roman yoke at once; for He feeds at one time seven thousand, and at another time five thousand persons, in the wilderness, by multiplying a small portion of bread in their hands. This obscure and humble stranger gradually attracts the notice of all the people, and their astonishment and delight at His miracles was so great, that they were once resolved to take Him by force, and to make Him a king—that is, to make Him the warlike sovereign whom they were expecting. Now, it was our Lord's anxious endeavour so to give His instructions, and so to perform His miracles, that He should impress the people with the conviction, that His object was the salvation of the souls of men, and not the

bestowment of any worldly honours, power, or wealth. He was willing, therefore, at all times that His miracles should be seen, for He could at the same time prove, by His appearance, and language, that He did not aspire to temporal dominion -but He was unwilling that the public curiosity should be excited, and the temper of the people inflamed with any more reports of His miraculous power, because it was necessary so to act, that, while the whole attention of the people should be directed to Him, no encouragement should be given to the mistaken opinions of those, who desired a Saviour different from Himself. And now the time had come, when this part of His mission was completed the attention of the whole nation had been directed to Him, and there is no doubt, that, while many of the people received Him as their spiritual king, others expected, now that He was received with acclamations and hosannas, that He would throw off the mask, and declare Himself the temporal king of Israel. Having been disappointed in their expectation that He would save them from the Roman yoke, they resolve not to submit to His claims as a prophet and a teacher. They had determined, if He persisted in His pretension, to put Him to death; and they published this decree, as I have told you, on the day when He raised Lazarus. On that occasion He carefully, cautiously, and studiously, if I may venture so to speak, confined all His words to His spiritual mission-I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth in Me

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shall never die It was for this kind of expressions rather than for the miracle itself, that they resolved to kill Him. They considered Him as assuming divine honours, and declaring Himself to be the Spiritual Teacher of Israel, to be the Messiah in short, without attempting to deliver them from the Romans. If He had raised Lazarus from the dead, and then affirmed that He would make the Jews an independent and warlike people, they would all have become His supporters-the rulers would have united with Him-every party would have sanctioned Him-the Romans would have been banished-the Jews, for a season at least, would have been again powerful, warlike, and independent-and the work of atonement would have been left undone, and the world would have remained under the curse of God, without hope, and without salvation.

These remarks on the causes of the different conduct of Christ at different times, will enable us to understand the exceeding hatred and indignation which appear to have marked the conduct of the Jews on this day, the third before the passover, when all the various sects and parties among the chiefs of the people came to Christ in their turn, and endeavoured to say something to Him, which should injure His influence as a prophet and teacher. They could not deny His miracles; they were too publicly performed. Their last and only resource was, first to entangle Him in His talk,

1 John xi. 25.

and when this method failed, to execute their former resolution, and to betray Him to Pontius Pilate, the governor. It was on this day that they attempted the first of these objects, which, therefore, we shall proceed to consider. The betrayal took place on the Thursday, and the crucifixion on the day following.

The passage which I have selected as my text, relates to the beginning of these attempts to diminish the influence of Christ as the spiritual teacher of the people.

Immediately after His arrival in the city, the heads of the people came to Him, to demand by what authority He professed to act; though they well knew, as Nicodemus did, that no man could do the miracles which Christ did, except God was with Him2. Their object was to obtain such an answer from our Lord, that they might find something whereof to accuse Him. Christ, therefore, avoided the snare, by demanding of them the origin of the mission of John. He knew that they would not dare to offend the people, and that, therefore, if they answered at all, they must acknowledge that the baptism of John was from heaven; and if they did this, He could then refer to the testimony of John to Himself, as the Lamb of God, which should take away the sins of the world. He could refer to John as His own forerunner, and thus affirm to them upon their own acknowledgment that He was the expected Mes

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