Some time after this, he inquires of his disciples, Mark viii. 27, who the people took him for? They tell ing him, " for John the Baptist," or one of the old prophets risen from the dead; he asked, What they themselves thought? And here again, Peter answers in these words, Mark viii. 29, " Thou art the Messiah," Luke ix, 20, " The Messiah of God." And Matt, 56 The Reasonableness of Christianity, xvi. 16, " Thou art the Messiah, the Son of the living " God:'* Which expressions, we may hence gather, amount to the same thing. Whereupon our Saviour tells Peter, Matt. xvi. 17, 18, That this was such a truth " as flesh and blood could not reveal to him, but " only his Father who was in heaven;" and that this was the foundation, on which he was " to build his " church:" by all the parts of which passage it is more than probable, that he had never yet told his apostles in direct words, that he was the Messiah; but that they had gathered it from his life and miracles. For which we may imagine to ourselves this probable reason; because that, if he had familiarly, and in di rect terms, talked to his apostles in, private, that he was the Messiah the Prince, of whose kingdom he preached so much in public every-where; Judas, whom he knew false and treacherous, would have been readily made use of, to testify against him, in a matter that would have been really criminal to the Roman go vernor. This, perhaps, may help to clear to us that seemingly abrupt reply of our Saviour to his apostles, John vi. 70, when they confessed him to be the Mes siah: I will, for the better explaining of it, set down the passage at large. Peter having said, " We believe " and are sure that thou art the Messiah, the Son of the " living God; Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen " you twelve, and one of you is JW'goAo??" This is a reply, seeming at first sight, nothing to the purpose; when yet it is sure all our Saviour's discourses were wise and pertinent. It seems therefore to me to carry this sense, to be understood afterwards by the eleven (as that of destroying the temple, and raising it again in three days was) when they should reflect on it, after his being betrayed by Judas: you have confessed, and be lieve the truth concerning me; I am the Messiah your king: but do not wonder at it, that I have never openly declared it to you; for amongst you twelve, whom 1 have chosen to be with me, there is one who is an informer, or false accuser, (for so the Greek word signifies, and may, possibly, here be so translated, ra ther than devil) who, if I had owned myself in plain as delivered in the Scriptures. 57 words to have been the " Messiah, the king of Israel/' would have betrayed me, and informed against me.
That he was yet cautious of owning himself to his apostles, positively, to be the Messiah, appears farther from the manner wherein he tells Peter, ver. 18, that he will build his church upon that confession of his, that he was the Messiah: I say unto thee, " Thou art " Cephas," or a rock, " and upon this rock I will build " my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail " against it." Words too doubtful to be laid hold on against him, as a testimony that he professed himself to be the Messiah; especially if we join with them the following words, ver. 19, " And I will give thee the " keys of the kingdom of heaven, and what thou shalt " bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven; and what " thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven." Which being said personally to Peter, render the fore- \ going words of our Saviour (wherein he declares the fundamental article of his church to be the believing him to be the Messiah) the more obscure and doubtful, and less liable to be made use of against him; but yet such as might afterwards be understood. And for the same reason, he yet, here again, forbids the apostles to say that he was the Messiah, ver. 20.
From this time (say the evangelists) " Jesus began to " show to his disciples," i. e. his apostles, (who are often called disciples,) " that he must go to Jerusalem, and " suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and " scribes; and be killed, and be raised again the third " day/' Matt. xvi. 21. These, though all marks of the Messiah, yet how little understood by the apostles, or suited to their expectation of the Messiah, appears from Peter's rebuking him for it in the following words, Matt. xvi. 22. Peter had twice before owned him to be the Messiah, and yet he cannot here bear that he should suffer, and be put to death, and be raised again. Whereby we may perceive, how little yet Jesus had ex plained to the apostles what personally concerned him self. They had been a good while witnesses of his life and miracles: and thereby being grown into a belief that he was the Messiah, were, in soi^e degree, prepared 58 The Reasonableness of Christianity, to receive the particulars that were to fill up that cha racter, and answer the prophecies concerning- him. This, from henceforth/ he began to open to them (though in a way which the jews could not form an accusation out of;) the time of the accomplishment of all, in his suffer ings, death, and resurrection, now drawing on. For this was in the last year of his life: he being to meet the jews at Jerusalem but once more at the passover, and then they should have their will upon him: and, there fore,, he might now begin to be a little more open con cerning himself: though yet so, as to keep himself out of the reach of any accusation, that might appear just or weighty to the Roman deputy.
After his reprimand to Peter, telling him, " That he " savoured not the things of God, but of man," Mark viii. 84, he calls the people to him, and prepares those, who would be his disciples, for suffering, telling them, ver. 38, " Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my *' words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of " him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he " cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy an-" gels:" and then subjoins, Matt. xvi. 27, 28, two great and solemn acts, wherein he would show himself to be the Messiah, the king: " For the Son of man shall " come in the glory of his Father, with his angels; and " then he shall render to every man according to his " works." This is evidently meant of the glorious ap pearance of his kingdom, when he shall come to judge the world at the last day; described more at large, Matt. xxv. " When the Son of man shall come in his " glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he " sit upon the* THRONE of his glory. Then shall the " KING say to them on his right hand," &c.
But what follows in the place above quoted, Matt, xvi. 28, " Verily, verily, there be some standing here, " who shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of " man coming in his kingdom;" importing that do minion, which some there should see him exercise over the nation of the jews; was so covered, by being an nexed to the preaching, ver. 27, (where he spoke of the manifestation and glory of his kingdom, at the day of as delivered in the Scriptures. 59 judgment,) that though his plain meaning here in ver. 28, be, that the appearance and visible exercise of his kingly power in his kingdom was so near, that some 4 there should live to see it; yet if the foregoing words had not cast a shadow over these latter, but they had been left plainly to be understood, as they plainly sig nified; that he should be a King, and that it was so near, that some there should see him in his kingdom; this might have been laid hold on, and made the matter of a plausible and seemingly just accusation against him, by the jews before Pilate. This seems to be the reason of our Saviour's inverting here the order of the two so lemn manifestations to the world, of his rule and power; thereby perplexing at present his meaning, and securing himself, as was necessary, from the malice of the jews, which always lay at catch to entrap him, and accuse him to the Roman governor; and would, no doubt, have been ready to have alleged these words, " Some here " shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man " coming in his kingdom," against him, as criminal, had not their meaning been, by the former verse, per plexed, and the sense at that time rendered unintelligi ble, and not applicable by any of his auditors to a sense that might have been prejudicial to him before Pontius Pilate. For how well the chief of the jews were dis posed towards him, St. Luke tells us, chap. xi. 54, " Laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something " out of his mouth, that they might accuse him;" which may be a reason to satisfy us of the seemingly doubtful and obscure way of speaking, used by our Sa viour in other places; his circumstances being such, that without such a prudent carriage and reservedness, he could not have gone through the work which he came to do; nor have performed all the parts of it, in a way correspondent to the descriptions given of the Messiah; and which would be afterwards fully understood to be long to him, when he had left the world.
After this, Matt. xvii. 10, &c. he, without saying it in direct words, begins, as it were, to own himself to his apostles to be the Messiah, by assuring them, that as 60 The Reasonableness of Christianity, the scribes, according to the prophecy of Malachi, chap. iv. 5, rightly said, that Elias was to usher in the Messiah; so indeed Elias was already come, though the jews knew him riot, and treated him ill; whereby " they " understood that he spoke to them of John the Bap-" tist," ver. 13. And a little after he somewhat more plainly intimates, that he is the Messiah, Mark ix. 41, in these words: " Whosoever shall g'ive you a cup of " water to drink in my name, because ye belong to the " Messiah." This, as I remember, is the first place where our Saviour ever mentioned the name of Messiah; and the first time that he went so far to wards the owning, to any of the Jewish nation, himself to be him.
In his way to Jerusalem, bidding one follow him, Luke ix. 59, who would first bury his father, ver. 60, " Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead; '•' but go thou and preach the kingdom of God." And Luke x. 1, sending out the seventy disciples, he says to them, ver. 9, " Heal the sick, and say, The kingdom " of God is come nigh unto you." He had nothing else for these, or for his apostles, or any one, it seems, to preach, but the good news of the coming of the king dom of the Messiah. And if any city would not receive them, he bids them, ver. 10, " Go into the streets of " the same, and say, Even the very dust of your city, " which cleaveth on us, do we wipe off against you; " notwithstanding, be ye sure of this, that the king-" dom of God is come nigh unto you." This they were to take notice of, as that which they should dearly an swer for, viz. that they had not with faith received the good tidings of the kingdom of the Messiah.
After this, his brethren say unto him, John vii. 2, 3, 4, (the feast of tabernacles being near,) " Depart hence, " and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may see the " works that thou doest: for there is no man that does " any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be " known openly. If thou do these things, show thy-" self to the world." Here his brethren, which, the next verse tells us, " did not believe in him," seem to as delivered in the Scriptures. 61 upbraid him with the inconsistency of his carriage; as if he designed to be received for the Messiah, and yet was afraid to show himself: to whom he justified his conduct (mentioned ver. 1.) in the folio wing verses, by telling them, "That the world" (meaning the jews especially) " hated him, because he testified of it, that " the works thereof are evil; and that his timew as " not yet fully come," wherein to quit his reserve, and abandon himself freely to their malice and fury. There fore, though he " went up unto the feast," it was " not " openly, but, as it were, in secret," ver. 10. And here, coming into the temple about the middle of the feast, he justifies his being sent from God; and that he had not done any thing against the law, in curing the man at the pool of Bethesda, John v. 1 — 16, on the sabbath-day; which, though done above a year and a half before, they made use of as a pretence to destroy him. But what was the true reason of seeking his life, appears from what we have in this viith chapter, ver. 25 — 34, " Then said some of them at Jerusalem, Is not " this he whom they seek to kill? But lo, he speaketh " boldly, and they say nothing unto him. Do the " rulers know indeed, that this is the very MESSIAH? " Howbeit, we know this man whence he is; but when " the Messiah cometh, no man knoweth whence he is.
" Then cried Jesus in the temple, as he taught, Ye " both know me and ye know whence I am: and I " am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, " whom ye know not. But I know him; for I am " from him, and he hath sent me. Then they sought " [an occasion] to take him, but no man laid hands on " him, because his hour was not yet come. And many " of the people believed on him, and said, When the " Messiah cometh, will he do more miracles than these, " which this man hath done? The pharisees heard that " the people murmured such things concerning him; " and the pharisees and thief priests sent officers to take " him. Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while " am I with you, and then I go to him that sent me: " ye shall seek me, and not find me; and where I am, " there you cannot come. Then said the jews among 62 The Reasonableness of Christianity, " themselves, Whither will he go, that we shall not " find him?" Here we find that the great fault in our Saviour, and the great provocation to the jews, was his being taken for the Messiah; and doing such things as made the people " believe in him;" i. e. believe that he was the Messiah. Here also our Saviour declares, in words very easy to be understood, at least after his re surrection, that he was the Messiah: for, if he were " sent from God," and did his miracles by the Spirit of God, there could be no doubt but he was the Messiah. But yet this declaration was in a way that the pharisees and priests could not lay hold on, to make an accu sation of, to the disturbance of his ministry, or the seizure of his person, how much soever they desired it: for his time was not yet come. The officers they had sent to apprehend him, charmed with his discourse, re turned without laying hands on him, ver. 45, 46. And when the chief priests asked them, " Why they brought " him not?" They answered, " Never man spake like " this man." Whereupon the pharisees reply, " Are " ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers, or of the " pharisees, believed on him? But this people, who " know not the law, are cursed." This shows what was meant " by believing on him," viz. believing that he was the Messiah. For, say they, have any of the rulers, who are skilled in the law, or of the devout and learned pharisees, acknowledged him to be the Messiah?
For as for those who in the division among the people concerning him, say, " That he is the Messiah," they are ignorant and vile wretches, know nothing of the scripture, and being accursed, are given up by God, to be deceived by this impostor, and to take him for the Messiah. Therefore, notwithstanding their desire to lay hold on him, he goes on; and ver. 37, 38, " In " the last and great day of the feast, Jesus stood and " cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto " me and drink: he that believeth on me, as the scrip-" ture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of " living water/* And thus he here again declares him self to be the Messiah; but in the prophetic style, as we may see by the next verse of this chapter, and those as delivered in the Scriptures. 63 places in the Old Testament, that these words of our Saviour refer to.
In the next chapter, John viii. all that he says con cerning himself, and what they were to believe, tends to this, viz. that he was sent from God his Father; and that, if they did not believe that he was the Messiah, they should die in their sins: but this, in a way, as St. John observes, ver. 27, that they did not well under stand. But our Saviour himself tells them, ver. 28, " When ye have lift up the Son of man, then ye shall '* know that I am he."
Going from them, he cures the man born blind, whom meeting with again, after the jews had questioned him, and cast him out, John ix. 35 — 38, " Jesus said " to him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? " He answered, Who is he, Lord, that I might be-" lieve on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast " both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. " And he said, Lord, I believe." Here we see this man is pronounced a believer, when all that was pro posed to him to believe, was, that Jesus was " the Son " of God," which was, as we have already shown, to believe that he was the Messiah.
In the next chapter, John x. 1 — 21, he declares the laying down of his life both for jews and gentiles; but in a parable which they understood not, ver.
As he was going to the feast of the dedication, the pharisees ask him, Luke xvii. 20, " When the king-" dom of God," i. e. of the Messiah, " should come?" He answers, That it should not come with pomp and observation, and great concourse; but that it was al ready begun amongst them. If he had stopt here, the sense had been so plain, that they could hardly have mistaken him; or have doubted, but that he meant, that the Messiah was already come, and amongst them; and so might have been prone to infer, that Jesus took upon him to be him. But here, as in the place before taken notice of, subjoining to this future revelation of himself, both in his coming to execute vengeance on the jews,, and in his coming to judgment, mixed toge- 64 The Reasonableness of Christianity, ther, he so involved his sense, that it was not easy to understand him. And therefore the jews came to him again in the temple, John x. 23, and said, " How long " dost thou make us doubt? If thou be the Christ tell us " plainly. Jesus answered, I told you, and ye BELIEVED " not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they " bear witness of me. But ye BELIEVED not, because " ye are not of my sheep, as I told you." The BELIEV ING here, which he accuses them of not doing, is plainly their not BELIEVING him to be the Messiah, as the fore going words evince; and in the same sense it is evidently meant in the following verses of this chapter.
From hence Jesus going to Bethabara, and thence re turning into Bethany; upon Lazarus's death, John xi. 25 — 27, Jesus said to Martha, " I am the resurrection " and the life; he that belie vet h in me, though he were " dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and be-" lieveth in me shall not die for ever." So I understand «7ro9ai/y] eif rov al&W, answerable to fyg-s-rxi si; TOV alwva, of the septuagint, Gen. iii. 22, or John vi. 51, which we read right, in our English translation, " live for ever." But whether this saying of our Saviour here, can with truth be translated, " He that liveth and believeth in " me shall never die," will be apt to be questioned. But to go on, " Believest thou this? She said unto him, " Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Messiah, the " Son of God, which should come into the world." This she gives as a full answer to our Saviour's demands; this being that faith, which, whoever had, wanted no more to make them believers.
We may observe farther, in this same story of the raising of Lazarus, what faith it was our Saviour ex pected, by what he says, ver. 41, 42, " Father, I thank " thee, that thou hast heard me; and I know that thou " hearest me always. But because of the people who " stand by, I said it, that they may believe that thou " hast sent me." And what the consequence of it was, we may see, ver. 45, " Then many of the jews who " came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus " did, believed on him;" which belief was, that he was " sent from the Father;" which, in other words, was, as delivered in the Scriptures. 65 that he was the Messiah. That this is the meaning, in the evangelists, of the phrase, of " believing on him," we have a demonstration in the following words, ver.
47» 48, " Then gathered the chief priests and pharisees " a council, and said, What do we? For this man does " many miracles; and if we let him alone, all men will " BELIEVE ON HIM." Those who here say, all men would BELIEVE ON HIM, were the chief priests and pha risees, his enemies, who sought his life, and therefore could have no other sense nor thought of this faith in him, which they spake of; but only the believing him to be the Messiah: and that that was their meaning, the adjoining words show: " If we let him alone, all the " world will believe on him;" i. e. believe him to be the Messiah. " And the Romans will come and take " away both our place and nation." Which reasoning of theirs was thus grounded: If we stand still, and let the people " believe on him," i. e. receive him for the Messiah: they will thereby take him and set him up for their king, and expect deliverance by him; which will draw the Roman arms upon us, to the destruction of us and our country. The Romans could not be thought to be at all concerned in any other belief whatsoever, that the people might have on him. It is therefore plain, that " believing on him," was, by the writers of the gospel, understood to mean the " believing him to be " the Messiah." The sanhedrim therefore, ver. 53, 54, from that day forth consulted to put him to death.
" Jesus therefore walked not yet" (for so the word m signifies, and so I think it ought here to be translated) " boldly," or open-faced, " among the jews," i. e. of Jerusalem. '"'En cannot wellhere be translated "no more," because, within a very short time after, he appeared openly at the passover, and by his miracles and speech declared himself more freely than ever he had done; and all the week before his passion, taught daily in the temple, Matt, xx. 17. Mark. x. 32. Luke xviii. 31, &c. The meaning of this place seems therefore to be this: that his time being not yet come, he durst not yet show himself openly and confidently before the scribes and pharisees., and those of the sanhedrim at Jerusalem, * 66 The Reasonableness of Christianity, who were full of rrialice against him, and had resolved his death: " But went thence into a country near the " wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there " continued with his disciples," to keep himself out of the way until the passover, " which was nigh at hand," ver. 55. In his return thither, he takes the twelve aside, and tells them before-hand what should happen to him at Jerusalem, whither they were now going; and that all things that are written by the prophets, concerning the Son of man, should be accomplished; that he should be betrayed to the chief priests and scribes: and that they should condemn him to death and deliver him to the gentiles; that he should be mocked, and spit on, and scourged and put to death; and the third day he should rise again. But St. Luke tells us, chap, xviii. 34, That the apostles " understood none of these things, and this " saying was hid from them; neither knew they the " things which were spoken/' They believed him to be the Son of God, the Messiah sent from the Father; but their notion of the Messiah was the same with the rest of the jews, that he should be a temporal prince and deliverer: accordingly we see, Mark x. 35, that, even in this their last journey with him to Jerusalem, two of them, James, and John, coming to him, and falling at his feet, said, " Grant unto us that we may sit one on " thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy " glory:" or, as St. Matthew has it, chap. xx. 21, " in " thy kingdom." That which distinguished them from the unbelieving jews, was, that they believed Jesus to be the very Messiah, and so received him as their King and Lord.
And now, the hour being come that the Son of man should be glorified, he, without his usual reserve, makes his public entry into Jerusalem, riding on a young ass! " As it is written, Fear not, daughter of Sion; behold, " thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt." But " these things," says St. John, chap. xii. 16, " his dis-" ciples understood not, at the first; but when Jesus " was glorified, then remembered they that these things " were written of him, and that they had done these " things unto him." Though the apostles believed as delivered in the Scriptures. 67 him to be the Messiah, yet there were many occurrences of his life, which they understood not (at the time when they happened) to be foretold of the Messiah; which, after his ascension, they found exactly to quadrate. Thus according to what was foretold of him, he rode into the city, " all the people crying-, Hosanna, blessed is the " King of Israel, that cometh in the name of the Lord."