This was so open a declaration.of his being the Messiah, that, Luke xix. 39> " Some of the pharisees from among " the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy dis-" ciples." But he was so far now from stopping them, or disowning this their acknowledgment of his being the Messiah, that he said unto them, " I tell you, that " if these should hold their peace, the stones would im-" mediately cry out." And again upon the like occa sion of their crying, " Hosanna to the Son of David," in the temple, Matt. xxi. 15, 16, " When the chief priests " and scribes were sore displeased, and said unto him, " Hearest thou what they say? Jesus said unto them, " Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouths of babes " and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?" And now, ver. 14, 15, "He cures the blind and the lame openly " in the temple. And when the chief priests and " scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the " children crying in the temple, Hosanna, they were " enraged." One would not think, that after the mul titude of miracles that our Saviour had now been doing for above three years together, the curing the lame and blind should so much move them. But we must re member, that though his ministry had abounded with miracles, yet the most of them had been done about Galilee, and in parts remote from Jerusalem. There is but one left on record, hitherto done in that city; and that had so ill a reception, that they sought his life for it: as we may read John v. 16. And therefore we hear not of his being at the next passover, because he was there only privately, as an ordinary jew: the reason whereof we may read, John vii. 1, " After these things " Jesus walked in Galilee; for he would not walk in " Jewry, because the jews sought to kill him."
Hence we may guess the reason why St. John omitted 68 The Reasonableness of Christianity, the mention of his being at Jerusalem, at the third passover, after his baptism; probably because he did nothing memorable there. Indeed when he was at the feast of tabernacles, immediately preceding this his last passover, he cured the man born blind: but it appears not to have been done in Jerusalem itself, but in the way, as he retired to the mount of Olives; for there seems to have been nobody by when he did it, but his apostles. Com pare ver. 2. with ver. 8, 10, of John ix. This, at least, is remarkable, that neither the cure of this blind man, nor that of the other infirm man, at the passover, above a twelve-month before, at Jerusalem, was done in the sight of the scribes, pharisees, chief priests, or rulers.
Nor was it without reason, that in the former part of his ministry, he was catitious of showing himself to them to be the Messiah. But now, that he was come to the last scene of his life, and that the passover was come, the ap pointed time, wherein he was to complete the work he came for, in his death and resurrection, he does many things in Jerusalem itself before the face of the scribes, pharisees, and whole body of the Jewish nation, to ma nifest himself to be the Messiah. And, as St. Luke says, chap. xix. 47, 48, " he taught daily in the temple: but " the chief priests, and the scribes, and the chief of the " people, sought to destroy him; and could not find " what they might do; for all the people were very at-" tentive to hear him." What he taught we are left to guess, by what we have found him constantly preach ing elsewhere: but St. Luke tells us, chap. xx. 1, " He " taught in the temple, and evangelized;" or, as we translate it, " preached the gospel;" which, as we have showed, was the making known to them the good news of the kingdom of the Messiah. And this we shall find he did, in what now remains of his history.
In the first discourse of his, which we find upon re cord, after this, John xii. 20, &c. he foretels his cru cifixion, and the belief of all sorts, both jews and gen tiles, on him after that. Whereupon the people say to him, ver. 34, " We have heard out of the law, that the " Messiah abideth for ever: and how sayest thou, that <e the Son of man must be lifted up? Who is this Son as delivered in the Scriptures. 69 " of man?" In his answer, he plainly designs himself under the name of Light; which was what he had de clared himself to them to be, the last time that they had seen him in Jerusalem. For then at the feast of tabernacles, but six months before, he tells them in the very place where he now is, viz. in the temple, " I am " the Light of the world; whosoever follows me shall " not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life;" as we may read, John viii. 12. And ix. 5, he says, "As " long as I am in the world, I am the LIGHT of the " world." But neither here, nor any- where else, does he, even in these four or five last days of his life, (though he knew his hour was come, and was prepared to his death, ver. 27, and scrupled not to manifest himself to the rulers of the jews to be the Messiah, by doing mi racles before them in the temple,) ever once in direct words own himself to the jews to be the Messiah; though by miracles and other ways he did every-where make it known unto them, so that it might be understood.
This could not be without some reason; and the preservation_ jof.his life, which he came now to Jerusalem on purpose to lay down, could not be it. What other could it then be, but the same which liad made him use caution in the former part of his ministry; so to con duct himself, that he might do the work which he came for, and in all parts answer the character given of the Messiah, in the law and the prophets? He had fulfilled the time of his ministry; and now taught and did miracles openly in the temple, before the rulers and the people, not fearing to be seized. But he would not be seized for any thing that might make him a criminal to the government: and therefore he avoided giving those, who, in the division that was about him, inclined towards him, occasion of tumult for his sake: or to the jews, his enemies, matter of just accusation, against him, out of his own mouth, by professing him self to be the Messiah, the King of Israel, in direct words. It was enough that by words and deeds he de clared it so to them, that they could not but under stand him; which it is plain they did, Luke xx. 16, 19. Matt. xxi. 45. But yet neither his actions, which were 70 The Reasonableness of Christianity, only doing of good; nor words, which were mystical and parabolical (as we may see, Matt. xxi. and xxii, and the parallel places of Matthew and Luke;) nor any of his ways of making himself known to be the Messiah; could be brought in testimony, or urged against him, as opposite or dangerous to the govern ment. This preserved him from being condemned as a malefactor; and procured him a testimony from the Roman governor, his judge, that he was an innocent man, sacrificed to the envy of the Jewish nation. So that he avoided saying that he was the Messiah, that to those who would call to mind his life and death, after his resurrection, he might the more clearly appear to be so. It is farther to be remarked, that though he often appeals to the testimony of his miracles, who he is, yet he never tells the jews, that he was born at Bethlehem, to remove the prejudice that lay against him, whilst he passed for a Galilean, and which was urged as a proof that he was riot the Messiah, John vii. 41, 42. The healing of the sick, and doing good miraculously, could be no crime in him, nor accusation against him. But the naming of Bethlehem for his birth-place might have wrought as much upon the mind of Pilate, as it did on Herod's; and have raised a suspicion in Pilate, as pre judicial to our Saviour's innocence as Herod was to the children born there. His pretending to be born at Beth lehem, as it was liable to be explained by the jews could not have failed to have met with a sinister inter pretation in the Roman governor, and have rendered Jesus suspected of some criminal design against the go vernment. And hence we see, that when Pilate asked him, John xix. 9, " Whence art thou? Jesus gave him no answer."
Whether our Saviour had not an eye to this straitness, this narrow room that was left to his conduct, between the new converts and the captious jews, when He says, Luke xii. 50, " I have a baptism to be baptized with, " and TTW? a-vvixopai, how am I straitened until it be ac-" complished!" I leave to be considered. " I am " come to send fire on the earth," says our Saviour, " and what if it be already kindled?" i. e. There beas delivered in the Scriptures. 71 gin already to be divisions about me, John vii. 12, 43, and ix. J6, and x. 19. And I have not the freedom, the latitude, to declare myself openly to be the Messiah; though I am he, that must not be spoken on, until af ter my death. My way to my throne is closely hedged in on every side, and much straitened; within which I must keep, until it bring me to my cross in its due time and manner; so that it do not cut short the time, nor cross the end of my ministry.
And therefore, to keep up this inoffensive character, and not to let it come within the reach of accident or calumny, he withdrew, with his apostles, out of the town, every evening; and kept himself retired out of the way, Luke xxi. 37. " And in the day-time he was " teaching in the temple, and every night he went out *e and abode in the mount, that is called the Mount of " Olives/' that he might avoid all concourse to him in the night, and give no occasion of disturbance, or sus picion of himself, in that great conflux of the whole na tion of the jews, now assembled in Jerusalem at the passover.
But to return to his preaching in the temple: he bids them, John xii. 36, " To believe in the Light, whilst " they have it." And he tells them, ver. 46, " I am *6 the Light come into the world, that every one who " believes in me, should not remain in darkness;" which believing in him, was the believing him to be the Messiah, as I have elsewhere showed.
The next day, Matt, xxi, he rebukes them for not having believed John the Baptist, who had testified that he was the Messiah. And then, in a parable, declares himself to be the " Son of God," whom they should de stroy; and that for it God would take away the king dom of the Messiah from them, and give it to the gen tiles. That they understood him thus, is plain from. Luke xxi. 16, " And when they heard it, they said, " God forbid." And ver. 19, " For they knew that " he had spoken this parable against them."
Much to the same purpose was his next parable, concern ng " the kingdom of heaven," Matt. xxi. 1 — 10. That the jews not accepting of the kingdom 72 The Reasonableness of Christianity ', of the Messiah, to whom it was first offered, other should be brought in.
The scribes and pharisees and chief priests, not able to bear the declaration he made of himself to be the Messiah (by his discourses and miracles before them, '/^Trpoo-Ofv auroJv, John xii. 37, which he had never done before) impatient of his preaching and miracles, and being not able otherwise to stop the increase of his fol lowers, (for, " said the pharisees among themselves, " Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? Behold, the " world is gone after him,") John xii. 19. So that " the chief priests, and the scribes, and the chief of the " people sought to destroy him," the first day of his entrance into Jerusalem, Luke xix. 47. The next day again, they were intent upon the same thing, Mark xi. 17, 18, " And he taught in the temple; and the scribes *• and the chief priests heard it, and sought how they " might destroy him; for they feared him, because all " the people were astonished at his doctrine."
The next day but one, upon his telling them the kingdom of the Messiah should be taken from them, " The chief priests and scribes sought to lay hands on " him the same hour, and they feared the people," Luke xx. 19." If they had so great a desire to lay hold on him, why did they not? They were the chief priests and the rulers, the men of power. The reason St. Luke plainly tells us in the next verse: " And they watched " him, and sent forth spies, who should feign them-" selves just men, that they might take hold of his " words, that so they might deliver him unto the " power and authority of the governor." They wanted matter of accusation against him, to the power they were under; that they watched for, and that they would have been glad of, if they could have " entangled him in his " talk;" as St. Matthew expresses it, chap. xxii. 15. If they could have laid hold on any word, that had dropt from him, that they might have rendered him guilty, or suspected to the Roman governor; that would have served their turn, to have laid hold upon him, with hopes to destroy him. For their power not answering their malice, they could not put him to death by their as delivered in the Scriptures. 73 own authority, without the permission and assistance of the governor; as they confess, John xviii. 31, " It is " not lawful for us to put any man to death." This made them so earnest for a declaration in direct words, from his own mouth, that he was the Messiah. It was not that they would more have believed in him, for such a declaration of himself, than they did for his miracles, or other ways of making himself known, which it ap pears they understood well enough. But they wanted plain direct words, such as might support an accusation, and be of weight before an heathen judge. This was the reason why they pressed him to speak out, John x. 24, " Then came the jews round about him, and said " unto him, How long dost thou hold us in suspense? " If thou be the Messiah, tell us PLAINLY, TrappW*;" i. e. in direct words: for that St. John uses it in that sense we may see, chap. xi. 11 — 14, " Jesus saith to " them, Lazarus sleepeth. His disciples said, If he " sleeps, he shall do well. Howbeit, Jesus spake of " his death; but they thought he had spoken of taking " rest in sleep. Then said Jesus to them plainly, wap-" pcti<na, Lazarus is dead." Here we see what is meant by Trapp'rxna, PLAIN, direct words, such as express the same thing without a figure; and so they would have had Jesus pronounce himself to be the Messiah. And the same thing they press again, Matt. xxvi. 6'3, the high priest adjuring him by the living God, to tell them whether he were the Messiah the Son of God; as we shall have occasion to take notice by-and-by.
This we may observe in the whole management of their design against his life. It turned upon this, that they wanted and wished for a declaration from him in direct words, that he was the Messiah; something from his own mouth that might offend the Roman power, and render him criminal to Pilate. In the 21st verse of this xxth of Luke, " They asked him, saying, Master, we " know that thou sayest and teachest rightly; neither " acceptest thou the person of any, but teachest the " way of God truly. Is it lawful for us to give tribute " to Caesar, or no?" By this captious question they hoped to catch him, which way soever he answered, 74 The Reasonableness of Christianity, For if he had said they ought to pay tribute to Caesar, it would be plain he allowed their subjection to the Ro mans; and so in effect disowned himself to be their King and Deliverer; whereby he would have contra dicted what his carriage and doctrine seemed to aim at, the opinion that was spread amongst the people, that he was the Messiah. This would have quashed the hopes, and destroyed the faith of those that believed on him; and have turned the ears and hearts of the people from him. If on the other side he answered, No, it is not lawful to pay tribute to Caesar, they had out of his own mouth wherewithal to condemn him before Pontius Pilate. But St. Luke tells us, ver. 23, " He " perceived their craftiness, and said unto them, Why " tempt ye me?" i. e. Why do ye lay snares for me? " Ye hypocrites, show me the tribute money;" so it is, Matt. xxii. 19, " Whose image and inscription has it? " They said Caesar's." He said unto them, " Render " therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and u to God the things that are God's." By the wisdom and caution of which unexpected answer, he defeated their whole design: " and they could not take hold of " his words before the people; and they marvelled at " his answer j and held their peace." Luke xx. 26. <( And leaving him, they departed." Matt. xxii. 22.
He having, by this reply (and what he answered to the sadducees, concerning the resurrection, and to the lawyer about the first commandment, Mark xii.) an swered so little to their satisfaction or advantage, they durst ask him no more questions, any of them. And now, their mouths being stopped, he himself begins to ques tion them about the Messiah; asking the pharisees, Matt. xxii. 41, " What think ye of the Messiah? whose " son is he? They say unto him, the Son of David." Wherein though they answered right, yet he shows them in the following words, that, however they pretended to be studiers and teachers of the law, yet they understood not clearly the scriptures concerning the Messiah; and thereupon he sharply rebukes their hypocrisy, vanity, pride, malice, covetousness, and ignorance; and par ticularly tells them, ver. 13, " Ye shut up the kingas delivered in the Scriptures. 75 " dom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in " yourselves, nor suffer ye them that are entering, to " go in." Whereby he plainly declares to them, that the Messiah was come, and his kingdom begun; but that they refused to believe in him themselves, and did all they could to hinder others from believing in him; as is manifest throughout the New Testament; the history whereof sufficiently explains what is meant here by " the kingdom of heaven," which the scribes and pharisees would neither go into themselves, nor suffer others to enter into. And they could not choose but understand him, though he named not himself in the case.
Provoked anew by his rebukes, they get presently to council, Matt. xxvi. 3, 4. " Then assembled together " the chief priests, and the scribes and the elders of " the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who " was called Caiaphas, and consulted that they might " take Jesus by subtlety, and kill him* But they said, " Not on the feast-day, lest there should be an uproar " among the people. For they feared the people/' says Luke, chap. xxii. 2.
Having in the night got Jesus into their hands, by the treachery of Judas, they presently led him away bound to Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas. Annas, probably, having examined him, and getting nothing out of him for his purpose, sends him away to Caiaphas, John xviii. 24, where the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders were assembled, Matt. xxvi. 57. John xviii. 13, 19. " The high priest then asked Jesus of his dis-" ciples, and of his doctrine. Jesus answered him, I " spake openly to the world: I ever taught in the syna-" gogue, and in the temple, whither the jews always " resort, and in secret have I said nothing." A proof that he had not in private, to his disciples, declared himself in express words to be the Messiah, the Prince. But he goes on: " Why askest thou me?" Ask Judas, who has been always with me. " Ask them who heard " me, what I have said unto them; behold, they know " what I said." Our Saviour, we see here, warily de clines, for the reasons above-mentioned, all discourse of his doctrine* The sanhedrim, Matt, xxvi, 59, 76 The Reasonableness of Christianity, " sought false witness against him:" but when " they " found none that were sufficient," or came up to the point they desired, which was to have something against him to take away his life (for so I think the words Ira* and trn mean, Mark xiv. 56, 59.) they try again what they can get out of him himself, concerning his being the Messiah; which, if he owned in express words, they thought they should have enough against him at the tribunal of the Roman governor, to make him " Ise-" sae majestatis reum," and to take away his life. They therefore say to him, Luke xxii. 67. " If thou be the " Messiah, tell us." Nay, as St. Matthew hath it, the high priest adjures him by the living God, to tell him whether he were the Messiah. To which our Saviour replies, " If I tell you, ye will not believe; and if I " also ask you, ye will not answer me, nor let me go." If I tell you, and prove to you, by the testimony given me from heaven, and by the works that I have done among you, you will not believe in me, that I am the Messiah. Or if I should ask where the Messiah is to be born, and what state he should come in; how he should appear, and other things that you think in me are not reconcileable with the Messiah; you will not answer me, nor let me go, as one that has no pretence to be the Messiah, and you are not afraid should be received for such. But yet I tell you, " Hereafter shall the Son " of man sit on the right hand of the power of God," ver. 70. " Then say they all, Art thou then the Son of " God? And he said unto them, Ye say that I am." By which discourse with them, related at large here by St. Luke, it is plain, that the answer of our Saviour, set down by St. Matthew, chap. xxvi. 64, in these words, " Thou hast said;" and by St. Mark, chap. xiv. 62, in these, " I am;" is in answer only to this ques tion, "Art thou then the Son of God?" and not to that other, " Art thou the Messiah?" which preceded, and he had answered to before; though Matthew and Mark, contracting the story, set them down together, as if making but one question, omitting all the interven ing discourse; whereas it is plain out of St. Luke, that they were two distinct questions, to which Jesus gave two distinct answers. In the first whereof he, accordas delivered in the Scriptures. 77 ing to his usual caution, declined saying in plain ex press words, that he was the Messiah; though in the latter he owned himself to be " the Son of God." Which though they, being jews, understood to signify the Messiah, yet he knew could be no legal or weighty accusation against him before a heathen; and so it proved. For upon his answering to their question, " Art thou then the Son of God? Ye say that I am;" they cry out, Luke xxii. 71, " What need we any fur-" ther witness? For we ourselves have heard out of his " own mouth." And so thinking they had enough against him, they hurry him away to Pilate* Pilate asking them, John xviii. 29 — 32, " What accusation " bring you against this man? They answered and said, " If he were not a malefactor we would not have deli-" vered him up unto thee." Then said Pilate unto them, " Take ye him, and judge him according to your " law." But this would not serve their turn, who aimed at his life, and would be satisfied with nothing else.
" The jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for " us to put any man to death." And this was also, " That the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which " he spake, signifying what death he should die." Pur suing therefore their design of making him appear, to Pontius Pilate, guilty of treason against Caesar, Luke xxiii. 2, " They began to accuse him, saying, We " found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbid-" ding to give tribute to Caesar; saying, that he him-" self is the Messiah, the King;" all which were infe rences of theirs, from his saying, he was " the Son of " God:" which Pontius Pilate finding (for it is conso nant that he examined them to the precise words he had said), their accusation had no weight with him. How ever, the name of king being suggested against Jesus, he thought himself concerned to search it to the bot tom, John xviii. 33 — 37. " Then Pilate entered again " into the judgment-hall, and called Jesus, and said " unto him, Art thou the king of the jews? Jesus an-" svvered him, Sayest thou this of thyself, or did others " tell it thee of me? Pilate answered, Am 1 a jew? (< Thine own nation and the chief priests have deli- 78 The Reasonableness of Christianity, " vered thee unto me: what hast thou done? Jesus an-" swered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my king-" dom were of this world, then would my servants " fight, that I should not be delivered to the jews; " but now my kingdom is not from hence. Pilate there-" fore said unto him. Art thou a king then? Jesus an-" swered, Thou sayest that I am a king. For this end " was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, " that I should bear witness to the truth: every one " that is of the truth heareth my voice." In this dia logue between our Saviour and Pilate, we may observe, 1. That being asked, Whether he were " The king of the jews?" he answered so, that though he deny it not, yet he avoids giving the least umbrage, that he had any design upon the government. For, though he al lows himself to be a king, yet, to obviate any suspicion, he tells Pilate, " his kingdom is not of this world;" and evidences it by this, that if he had pretended to any title to that country, his followers, which were not a few, and were forward enough to believe him their king, would have fought for him, if he had had a mind to set himself up by force, or his kingdom were so to be erected. " But my kingdom," says he, " is not from hence," is not of this fashion, or of this place.
, 2. Pilate being, by his words and circumstances, sa tisfied that he laid no claim to his province, or meant any disturbance of the government; was yet a little surprised to hear a man in that poor garb, without re tinue, or so much as a servant, or a friend, own himself to be a king; and therefore asks him, with some kind of wonder, " Art thou a king then?"
3. That our Saviour declares, that his great business into the world was, to testify and make good this great truth, that he was a king; i. e. in other words, that he was the Messiah.
4. That whoever were followers of truth, and got into the way of truth and happiness, received this doc trine concerning him, viz. That he was the Messiah, their King.
Pilate being thus satisfied that he neither meant, nor could there arise, any harm from his pretence, whatas delivered in the Scriptures. 79 ever it was, to be a king; tells the jews, ver. 31, " I " find no fault in this man." But the jews were the more fierce, Luke xxiii. 5. saying, " He stirreth up the " people to sedition, by his preaching through all " Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place.'* And then Pilate, learning that he was of Galilee, Herod's jurisdiction, sent him to Herod; to whom also " the " chief priests and scribes," ver. 10, " vehemently ac-" cused him." Herod, finding all their accusations either false or frivolous, thought our Saviour a bare ob ject of contempt; arid so turning him only into ridi cule, sent him back to Pilate: who, calling unto him the chief priests, and the rulers, and the people, ver. 14, " Said unto them, Ye have brought this man unto " me, as one that perverteth the people; and behold, I " having examined him before you, have found no " fault in this man, touching these things whereof ye " accuse him; no, nor yet Herod; for I sent you to " him: and lo, nothing worthy of death is done by " him." And therefore he would have released him: " For he knew the chief priests had delivered him " through envy," Mark xv. 10. And when they de manded Barabbas to be released, but as for Jesus, cried, " Crucify him;" Luke xxiii. 9/2; " Pilate said unto " them the third time, Why? What evil hath he done? " I have found no cause of death in him; I will, there-" fore, chastise him, and let him go.
We may observe, in all this whole prosecution of the jews, that they would fain have got it out of Jesus's own mouth, in express words, that he was the Messiah: which not being able to do, with all their heart and en deavour; all the rest that they could allege against him not amounting to a proof before Pilate, that he claimed to be king of the jews; or that he had caused, or done any thing towards a mutiny or insurrection among the people (for upon these two, as we see, their whole charge turned); Pilate again and again pronounced him innocent: for so he did a fourth, and a fifth time; bringing him out to them, after he had whipped him, John xix. 4, 6. And after all, " when Pilate saw that " he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult 80 The Reasonableness of Christianity,