The Jews had no other thoughts of their Meffiah, but of a mighty temporal prince, that fhould raise their nation into an higher degree of power, dominion, and profperity, than ever it had enjoyed. They were filled with the expectation of a glorious earthly kingdom. It was not therefore for a poor man, the fon of a carpenter, and (as they thought) born in Galilee, to pretend to it. None of the Jews, no not his difciples, could have borne this, if he had exprefly avowed this at first, and began his preaching, and the opening of his kingdom this way; efpecially if he had added to it, that in a year or two he fhould die an ignominious death upon the cross. They are therefore prepared for the truth by degrees. Firft, John the Baptift tells them, "The kingdom of God" (a name by which the Jews called the kingdom of the Meffiah)" is at "hand." Then our Saviour comes, and he tells them" of the "kingdom of God," fometimes that it is at hand, and upon fome occafions, that it is come; but fays in his public preaching little or nothing of himself. Then come the apoftles and evangelifts after his death, and they in exprefs words teach what his birth, life, and doctrine, had done before, and had prepared the well-difposed to receive, viz. that " Jefus is the Meffiah."

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To this defign and method of publishing the gofpel, was the choice of the apoftles exactly adjusted; a company of poor, ignorant, illiterate men, who, as Chrift himself tells us, Matt. xi. 25. and Luke x. 21. were not of the "wife and prudent" men of the world; they were, in that refpect, but meer children. Thefe, convinced by the miracles they faw him daily do, and the unblameable life he led, might be difpofed to believe him to be the Meffiah; and though they with others expected a temporal kingdom on earth, might yet reft fatisfied in the truth of their mafter (who had honoured them with being near his perfon), that it would come, without being too inquifitive after the time, manner, or feat of his kingdom; as men of letters, more ftudied in their rabbins, or men of bufinefs, more verfed in the world, would have been forward to have been. Men great or wife in knowledge or ways of the world would hardly have been kept from prying more narrowly into his defign and conduct, or from queftioning him about the ways and meatures he would take for afcending the throne; and what means were to be used towards it, and when they fhould in earnest fet about it. Abler men, of higher births or thoughts, would hardly have been hindered from whispering, at leaft to their friends and relations, that their mafter was the Meffiah; and that though he concealed himfelf to a fit opportunity, and till things were ripe for it, yet they fhould ere long fee him break out of his obfcurity, caft off the cloud, and declare himfelf, as he was, king of Ifrael. But the ignorance and lownefs of these good poor men made them of another temper. They went along in an implicit truft on him, pun&tually keeping to his commands, and not exceeding his commiflion. When he fent them to preach the gospel, he hid them preach the kingdom of God" to be at hand; and that they did,

without

without being more particular than he had ordered, or mixing their own prudence with his commands, to promote the kingdom of the Meffiah. They preached it without giving, or fo much as intimating, that their mafter was he; which men of another condition, and an higher education, would fcarce have forborn to have done. When he asked them who they thought him to be, and Peter anfwered, "The Meffiah, the fon of God," Matt. xvi. 16. he plainly fhews, by the following words, that he himself had not told them fo; and at the fame time, ver. 20. forbids them to tell this their opinion of him to any body. How obedient they were to him in this, we may not only conclude from the filence of the evangelifts concerning any fuch thing published by them any where before his death, but from the exact obedience three of them paid to a like command of his. He takes Peter, James, and John, into a mountain, and there Mofes and Elias coming to him, he is transfigured before them: Matt. xvii. 9. he charges them, faying, "See that ye "tell no man what ye have seen, till the fon of man fhall be rifen "from the dead." And St. Luke tells us, what punctual obfervers they were of his orders in this cafe, chap. ix. 36. "They kept it clofe, and told no man, in those days, any of thofe things "which they had seen."

Whether twelve other men, of quicker parts, and of a station or breeding which might have given them any opinion of themselves, or their own abilities, would have been fo eafily kept from meddling beyond juft what was prescribed them, in a matter they had fo much intereft in; and have faid nothing of what they might in human prudence have thought would have contributed to their mafter's reputation, and made way for his advancement to his kingdom, I leave to be confidered. And it may suggest matter of meditation, whether St. Paul was not, for this reafon, by his learning, parts, and warmer temper, better fitted for an apostle after, than during our Saviour's miniftry; and therefore, though a chofen veffel, was not by the divine wifdom called till after Chrift's refurrection.

I offer this only as a fubject of magnifying the admirable con trivance of the divine wifdom, in the whole work of our redemption, as far as we are able to trace it by the footsteps which God hath made vifible to human reafon. For though it be as eafy to omnipotent power to do all things by an immediate over-ruling will, and fo to make any inftruments work, even contrary to their natures, in fubferviency to his ends; yet his wifdom is not ufually at the expence of miracles (if I may fo fay), but only in cafes that require them, for the evidencing of fome revelation or miffion to be from him. He does conftantly (unlefs where the confirmation of fome truth requires it otherwife) bring about his purposes by means operating according to their natures. If it were not fo, the courfe and evidence of things would be confounded; miracles would lofe their name and force; and there could be no diftinction betweer. natural and fupernatural.

There

There had been no room left to fee and admire the wisdom, as well as innocence, of our Saviour, if he had rafhly every where expofed himself to the fury of the Jews, and had always been preferved by a miraculous fufpenfion of their malice, or a miraculous refcuing him out of their hands. It was enough for him once to efcape from the men of Nazareth, who were going to throw him down a precipice, for him never to preach to them again. Our Saviour had multitudes that followed him for the loaves, who, barely feeing the miracles that he did, would have made him king. If to the miracles he did, he had openly added, in exprefs words, that he was the Meffiah, and the king they expected to deliver them, he would have had more followers, and warmer in the cause, and readier to fet him up at the head of a tumult. Thefe indeed God, by a miraculous influence, might have hindered from any fuch attempt; but then pofterity could not have believed that the nation of the Jews did at that time expect the Meffiah, their king and deliverer; or that Jefus, who declared himself to be that king and deliverer, fhewed any miracles amongst them, to convince them of it or did any thing worthy to make him be credited or received. If he had gone about preaching to the multitude which he drew after him, that he was "the Meffiah, the king of Ifrael," and this had been evidenced to Pilate, God could indeed, by a fupernatural influence upon his mind, have made Pilate pronounce him innocent, and not condemn him as a malefactor, who had openly, for three years together, preached fedition to the people, and endeavoured to perfuade them that he was the Meffiah "their king," of the blood-royal of David, come to deliver them. But then I ask, whether pofterity would not either have fufpected the story, or that fome art had been used to gain that teftimony from Pilate becaufe he could not (for nothing) have been fo favourable to Jefus, as to be willing to releafe fo turbulent and feditious a man, to declare him innocent, and to caft the blame and guilt of his death, as unjust, upon the envy of the Jews...

But now the malice of the chief priefts, Scribes, and Pharifees; the headinefs of the mob, animated with hopes, and raifed with miracles; Judas's treachery, and Pilate's care of his government, and of the peace of his province, all working naturally as they hould; Jefus, by the admirable warinefs of his carriage, and an extraordinary wifdom vifible in his whole conduct, weathers all thefe difficulties, does the work he comes for, uninterruptedly goes about preaching his full appointed time, fufficiently manifefts himfelf to be the Meffiah in all the particulars the fcriptures had foretold of him; and, when his hour is come, fuffers death; but is acknowledged both by Judas that betrayed, and Pilate that condemned him, to die innocent. For, to ufe his own words, Luke xxiv. 46. "Thus it is written, and thus it behoved the Meffiah to fuffer." And of his whole conduct, we have a reafon and clear refolution in thofe words to St. Peter, Matt. xxvi. 53. Thinkeft thou that I cannot now pray to my father, and he shall prefently, give me

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"more than twelve legions of angels? but how then fhall the "fcripture be fulfilled, that thus it must be ?"

Having this clue to guide us, let us now obferve how our Saviour's preaching and conduct comported with it in the last scene of his life. How cautious he had been in the former part of his ministry, we have already obferved. We never find him to use the name of the Meffiah but once, till he now came to Jerufalem this laft paffover. Before this, his preaching and miracles were less at Jerufalem (where he used to make but very fhort ftays) than any where else; but now he comes fix days before the feaft, and is every day in the Temple teaching; and there publicly heals the blind and the lame, in the prefence of the Scribes, Pharifees, and chief priests. The time of his miniftry drawing to an end, and his hour coming, he cared not how much the chief priests, elders, rulers, and the Sanhedrim, were provoked against him by his doctrine and miracles; he was as open and bold in his preaching, and doing the works of the Meffiah now at Jerufalem, and in the fight of the rulers, and of all the people, as he had been before cautious and referved there, and careful to be little taken notice of in that place, and not to come in their way more than needs. All that he now took care of was, not what they should think of him, or defign against him (for he knew they would feize him), but to fay or do nothing that might be a juft matter of accufation against him, or render him criminal to the governor. But as for the grandees of the Jewish nation, he fpares them not, but sharply now reprehends their miscarriages publicly in the Temple, where he calls them, more than once, hypocrites, as is to be feen Matt. xxiii. and concludes all with no fofter a compellation, than" ferpents" and "generation of vipers."

After this fevere reproof of the Scribes and Pharifees, being retired with his difciples into the Mount of Olives, over-againft the Temple, and there foretelling the destruction of it, his difciples afk him, Matt. xxiv. 3, &c. "When it should be, and what should "be the figns of his coming?" He fays to them, "Take heed that "no man deceive you: for many fhall come in my name;" i. e. taking on them the name and dignity of the Meffiah, which is only mine; faying, "I am the Meffiah, and fhall deceive many." But be not you by them mifled, nor by perfecution driven away from this fundamental truth, that I am the Meffiah; "for many fhall "be fcandalized," and apoftatize, but he that endures to the "end, the fame thall be faved: and this gofpel of the kingdom fhall "be preached in, all the world:" i. e. the good news of me, the Meffiah, and my kingdom, fhall be spread through the world. This was the great and only point of belief they were warned to ftick to; and this is inculcated again, ver. 23-26. and Mark xiii. 21-23. with this emphatical application to them in both thefe evangelifts." Behold, I have told you before-hand;" remember ye are forewarned.

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This was in his answer to the apostles enquiry concerning his coming, and the end of the world, ver. 3. For fo we tranflate

Tñs ouvientías të aiûve; we muft understand the difciples here to put their question, according to the notion and way of speaking of the Jews. For they had two "worlds," as we tranflate it, vai o Mλ ai; the " prefent world," and the "world to come." The kingdom of God, as they called it, or the time of the Meffiah, they called ¿ μéxλav aiwv, “the world to come," which they believed was to put an end to "this world:" and that then the just should be raifed from the dead; to enjoy, in that "new world," a happy eternity, with those of the Jewish nation who should be then living. These two things, viz. the vifible and powerful appearance of his kingdom, and the end of the world, being confounded in the apoftles queftion, our Saviour does not feparate them, nor diftinctly reply to them apart; but, leaving the enquirers in the common opinion, anfwers at once concerning his coming to take vengeance of the Jewish nation, and put an end to their church, worship, and commonwealth; which was their aid, prefent world, which they counted fhould laft till the Meffiah came and fo it did, and then had an end put to it. And to this he joins his last coming to judgement, in the glory of his father, to put a final end to this world, and all the difpenfation belonging to the pofterity of Adam upon earth. This joining them together made his anfwer obfcure,' and hard to be understood by them then; nor was it fafe for him to fpeak plainer of his kingdom, and the deftruction of Jerufalem, unlefs he had a mind to be accufed for having defigns against the government. For Judas was amongst them: and whether no other but his apoftles were comprehended under the name of "his difci

ples," who were with him at this time, one cannot determine.' Our Saviour therefore fpeaks of his kingdom in no other style but that which he had all along hitherto used, viz. "The kingdom of "God;" Luke xxi. 31. When you see these things come to pafs, "know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand." And continuing on his difcourfe with them, he has the fame expreffion, Matt. xxv. 1. "Then the kingdom of heaven fhall be like unto "ten virgins." At the end of the following parable of the talents, he adds, ver. 31. "When the fon of man fhall come in his glory,' "and all the holy angels with him, then fhall he fit upon the "throne of his glory, and before him fhall be gathered all the "nations. And he shall fet the fheep on his right-hand, and the "goats on his left. Then fhall the KING fay, &c." Here he defcribes to his difciples the appearance of his kingdom, wherein he will thew himself " a king" in glory upon his throne: but this in fuch a way, and fo remote, and fo unintelligible to a heathen. magifirate, that, if it had been alledged against him, it would have fcemed rather the dream of a crazy brain, than the contrivance of an ambitious or dangerous man defigning against the government; the way of expreffing what he meant being in the prophetic ftyle; which is feldom fo plain as to be understood till accomplished. It is plain, that his difciples themfelves comprehended not what kingdom he here fpoke of, from their queftion to him after his re

furrection,