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XLII.

LECT. But our Evangelist tells us the reason of this cowardly caution on the part of the parents; their too selfish timidity: and it shews the intolerable bondage, the tyranny and despotism of the Jewish Sanhedrim; which, that we be not too lifted up, we may remember, to our shame, has been equalled, perhaps outdone,. by the Roman Inquisition; itself, like this, a degenerate form of a purer system; rejecting the commandments of God that they may keep their own tradition. Nay, the intolerance of many a sect in modern times too closely resembles the conduct of these Jewish rulers, who "had agreed already, that if any man did confess that He was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue." Hitherto there had been no enactment, nothing emanating from authority on the subject; no opinion pronounced by the Sanhedrim on the claims of Jesus. Hitherto, as we have seen, they had treated Him with contempt; expecting that this new light would soon blaze out. But they begin to think that they have let Him alone too long; as they shortly say, "What do we? for this man doeth many miracles. If we let Him thus alone, all men will believe on Him: and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation'." So they had at last agreed to take some decisive steps. They had now come to the conclusion summarily to punish any who dared to confess Him.

m

Now there were among the Jews three degrees of excommunication. The first excluded the offender from the congregation of the faithful, from the rites of the Church; shut him out m hồn, v. 22.

ch. xi. 47, 48.

from the synagogue with all the privileges, and LECT. they were many, included in that term, for the XLII. space of thirty days. And in a theocracy like the Jewish, in a polity so penetrated with the religious element, in a system into every of whose details the sacred rites so entered, bound up with their daily, domestic life,-this was a penalty which would be felt in a degree which we can hardly realize. If now the offender continued obstinate, such sentence was repeated or prolonged, and an awful anathema or curse was added: and now his household were forbidden from holding communion with him, that he might be forced into submission. But if he still continued in the same unyielding temper, he was finally cut off from his people; an outcast and alien.

Even the first and mildest of these was not lightly to be encountered. The Lord, when He bids His disciples count the cost of attaching themselves to Him, forewarns them of this:

66

They shall cast you out of the synagogues; yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service"." And again, further on in this same history, we read, "Nevertheless, among the chief rulers also many believed on Him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue. For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God." Thus did those wicked fill up the measure of their iniquity, fulfilling the awful denouncement, "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: for ye

ach. xvi. 2. See also Luke xiv. 25-35.

ch. xii. 42, 43.

LECT. have taken away the key of knowledge.

Ye

neither enter in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered."

And with regard to the confession of Christ, hear His awful but strengthening words elsewhere, "Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of Man also confess before the angels of God; but he that denieth me before men, shall be denied before the angels of God."

It may not fall to us to stand before rulers and kings for His name's sake. We may not be brought before councils; nor be called to a crown of martyrdom: but still, if we would hear His welcome voice owning us at that day, we must confess Him; confess Him now: sometimes it may be by refusal to comply with an evil custom, ever it must be by resolving to do the right thing; sometimes by declining to do that which our Master has forbidden, always by doing what He has said; sometimes openly by word of mouth, at all times by the resistless eloquence of a godly and Christian life. For this, to those who earnestly seek it, He will give ever-increasing strength and grace.

Of course we must see to it that what we are particular or singular about be indeed His will. We are not to be eccentric, and stickle for a mere trifle: nor expend a martyr's zeal in any thing short of a martyr's cause. A man may be absurdly and dangerously scrupulous. He may fancy he is contending for the truth, when he really is doing his utmost to prejudice the cause of truth. But if it be a point of plain Christian faith and practice, then die we rather than deny our

Lord. And for the encouragement of the weak LECT. and feeble amongst us, we may call to mind the XLII. Master's gracious message by this our Evangelist to the Philadelphian Church, "I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my

name."

P See the whole passage, Rev. iii. 7—13.

LECTURE XLIII.

THE MAN THAT WAS BORN BLIND CONFOUNDS THE
PHARISEES, AND IS EXCOMMUNICATED.

XLIII.

JOHN ix. 24-34.

LECT. THE man that had been blind, to whom the faculty of sight was so miraculously imparted, had been removed out of court while the examination of his parents was going on. He is now brought in again. That examination, as we have seen, signally failed, either to produce any discrepancy between the statements of the parents and of their son, or to bring out any fact to the discredit of Jesus, or to the disparagement of the miracle. Nevertheless, when the man is again introduced, these shameless inquisitors, who wrest judgment and pervert the seat of justice, pretend that in the interval, during his absence, they had discovered something to the utter discredit of Jesus. Things had come to light, so they feigned, which proved Him to be a more than ordinarily bad character. Facts regarding Him had come to their knowledge, which shewed that He could not have been the divinely-directed

ads hu Tupads. Unless some stress be laid upon the word was in the E. V. it may convey a wrong idea: a present instead of a past sense. b Such is the force of the word aμapтwλós here. Comp. Luke vii. 34. 37. 39. xv. 2. xix. 7.

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