hence John the Baptift, Matt. xi. 3. ftyles him, "He that fhould come;" as in other places, "Come from God," or " fent from "God," are phrases used for the Meffiah.

Here we see our Saviour keeps to his ufual method of preaching: he speaks to them of the kingdom of God, and does miracles, by which they might understand him to be the Meffiah, whofe kingdom he fpake of. And here we have the reafon also, why he fo much concealed himself, and forbore to own his being the Meffiah. For what the confequence was of the multitude's but thinking him fo, when they were got together, St. John tells us in the very next words; "When Jefus then perceived that they would come and "take him by force to make him a king, he departed again into a "mountain himself alone." If they were fo ready to fet him up for their king, only because they gathered from his miracles that he was the Meffiah, whilft he himself said nothing of it, what would not the people have done, and what would not the Scribes and Pharifees have had an opportunity to accufe him of, if he had openly profeffed himself to have been the Meffiah, that king they looked for? But this we have taken notice of already.

From hence going to Capernaum, whither he was followed by a great part of the people, whom he had the day before fo miraculoufly fed, he, upon the occafion of their following him for the loaves, bids them feek for the meat that endureth to eternal life : and thereupon, John vi. 22-69. declares to them his being fent from the Father, and that thofe who believed in him fhould be raised to eternal life; but all this very much involved in a mixture of allegorical terms of eating, and of bread, bread of life, which came down from heaven, &c. which is all comprehended and expounded in thefe fhort and plain words, ver. 47 and 54. "Verily,

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verily I fay unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting "life, and I will raife him up at the last day." The fum of all which difcourfe is, that he was the Meffiah fent from God; and that those who believed him to be fo, fhould be raised from the dead at the laft day to eternal life. Thefe whom he spoke to, were of those who the day before would by force have made him king; and therefore it is no wonder he should fpeak to them of himself, and his kingdom and fubjects, in obfcure and myftical terms, and fuch as fhould offend thofe who looked for nothing but the grandeur of a temporal kingdom in this world, and the protection and profperity they had promifed themselves under it. The hopes of fuch a kingdom, now that they had found a man that did miracles, and therefore concluded to be the deliverer they expected, had the day before almoft drawn them into an open infurrection, and involved our Saviour in it. This he thought fit to put a stop to, they fill following him, it is like, with the fame defign; and therefore, though he here fpeaks to them of his kingdom, it was in a way that fo plainly baulked their expectation, and fhocked them, that, when they found themselves difappointed of thofe vain hopes, and that he talked of their eating his fieth, and drinking his blood,

that

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that they might have life, the Jews faid, ver. 52. "How can this man give us his flesh to eat? And many, even of his difciples, "faid, It was an hard faying, who can bear it?" And fo were fcandalized in him, and forfook him, ver. 60. 66. But what the true meaning of this difcourfe of our Saviour was, the confeffion of St. Peter, who understood it better, and answered for the reft of the apoftles, fhews: when Jefus afked him, ver. 67. "Will ye alfo go "away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall 66 we go? Thou haft the words of eternal life," i. e. thou teachest us the way to attain eternal life; and accordingly "we believe, and "are fure, that thou art the Meffiah, the fon of the living God." This was the eating his flesh, and drinking his blood, whereby thofe who did fo had eternal life.

Some time after this, he enquires of his difciples, Mark viii. 27. who the people took him for? They telling him, for John the Baptift, or one of the old prophets rifen from the dead; he asked, what they themselves thought? And here again Peter answers in thefe words, Mark viii. 29. "Thou art the Meffiah." Luke ix. 20. "The Meffiah of God." And Matt, xvi. 16. "Thou art the "Meffiah, the son of the living God." Which expreffions, we may hence gather, amount to the fame thing. Whereupon our Saviour tells Peter, Matt. xvi. 17, 18. "That this was fuch 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 paffage it is more than probable, that he had never yet told his apoftles in direct words that he was the Meffiah, but that they had gathered it from his life and miracles. For which we may imagine to ourfelves this probable reafon; because that if he had familiarly, and in direct terms, talked to his apoftles in private that he was the Meffiah, the prince of whofe kingdom he preached fo much in public every where, Judas, whom he knew falfe and treacherous, would have been readily made ufe of to teftify against him in a matter that would have been really criminal to the Roman governor. This perhaps may help to clear to us that feemingly abrupt reply of our Saviour to his apoftles, John vi. 70. when they confeffed him to be the Meffiah. I will, for the better explaining of it, fet down the paffage at large. Peter having faid, "We believe, and are fure, "that thou art the Meffiah, the fon of the living God. Jefus an"fwered them, Have not I chofen you twelve, and one of you is "Jáconos?" This is a reply feeming at first fight nothing to the purpose; when yet it is fure all our Saviour's difcourfes were wife and pertinent. It feems therefore to me to carry this fenfe, to be understood afterwards by the eleven (as that of destroying the temple, and raising it again in three days was) when they fhould reflect on it after his being betrayed by Judas: You have confefied, and believe the truth concerning me: I am the Meffiah your king: but do not wonder at it, that I have never openly declared it to you; for amongst you twelve, whom I have chofen to be with

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me,

me, there is one who is an informer, or falfe accufer (for fo the Greek word fignifies, and may pofiibly here be fo tranflated, rather than Devil), who, if I had owned myfelf in plain words to have been the Meffiah, the king of Ifrael," would have betrayed me, and informed against me.

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That he was yet cautious of owning himself to his apoftles pofitively to be the Meffiah, appears farther from the manner wherein he tells Peter, ver. 18. that he will build his church upon that confeffion of his, that he was the Meffiah. I fay unto thee," Thou art Cephas," or a rock," and upon this rock I will build my church, and the "gates of hell fhall not prevail againft it:" words too doubtful to be laid hold on against him, as a teflimony that he profeffed himfelf to be the Meffiah; efpecially 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 fhalt bind on earth, fhall be bound in "heaven; and what thou fhalt loofe on earth, fhall be loofed in "heaven." Which being faid perfonally to Peter, render the foregoing words of our Saviour (wherein he declares the fundamental article of his church to be the believing him to be the Meffiah) the more obfcure and doubtful, and lefs liable to be made ufe of against him; but yet fuch as might afterwards be understood. And for the fame reafon he yet here again forbids the apostles to fay that he was the Meffiah, ver. 20.

The probability of this, viz. that he had not yet told the apostles themfelves plainly that he was the Meffiah, is confirmed by what our Saviour fays to them, John xv. 15. "Henceforth I call you not "fervants, for the fervant knoweth not what his Lord doeth: but "I have called you friends," viz. in the foregoing verfe," for all things that I have heard of my father, I have made known unto "you." This was in his last difcourfe with them after Judas was gone out; wherein he committed to them the great fecret by fpeaking of the kingdom as his, as appears from Luke xxii. 30. and telling them feveral other particulars about it, whence he had it, what kingdom it was, how to be adminiftered, and what fhare they were to have in it, &c. From whence it is plain, that till juft before he was laid hold on, the very moment he was parting with his apoftles, he had kept them as fervants in ignorance; but now had difcovered himfelf openly as to his friends.

"From this time," fay the evangelifts, "Jefus began to fhew "to his difciples (i. e. his apoftles, who are often called difciples) that he must go to Jerufalem, and fuffer many things from the "elders, chief priests, and Scribes; and be killed, and be raised again the third day." Matt. xvi. 21. Thefe, though all marks of the Meffiah, yet how little underftood by the apostles, or fuited to their expectation of the Meffiah, appears from Peter's rebuking him for it in the following words, Matt. xvi. 22. Peter had twice before owned him to be the Meffiah, and yet he cannot here bear that he should fuffer, and be put to death, and be raifed again; whereby we may perceive, how little yet Jefus had explained to the

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apostles what perfonally concerned himfelf. They had been a good while witneffes of his life and miracles, and thereby being grown into a belief that he was the Meffiah, were in fome degree prepared to receive the particulars that were to fill up the character, and anfwer the prophefies concerning him. This from henceforth he began to open to them (though in a way which the Jews could not form an accufation out of) the time of the accomp ihment of all, in his fufferings, death, and refurrection, now drawing on: for this was in the last year of his life; he being to meet the Jews at Jerufalem but once more at the paffover, and then they fhould have their will upon him, and therefore he might now begin to be a little more open concerning himfelf; though yet fo, as to keep himself out of the reach of any accufation, that might appear juft or weighty to the Roman deputy.

After his reprimand to Peter, telling him, that he "favoured not "the things of God, but of man," Mark viii. 34. he calls the people to him, and prepares thofe, who would be his difciple, for fuffering; telling them, ver. 38. "Whoever fhall be afhamed of "me and my words in this adulterous and finful generation, of "him alfo fhall the fon of man be afhamed when he cometh in "the glory of his father with the holy angels:" and then fubjoins, Matt. xvi. 27, 28, two great and folemn acts, wherein he fhould fhew himself to be the Meffiah the king; "for the fon of "man fhall come in the glory of his father, with his angels; and "then he fhall render every man according to his works." This is evidently meant of the glorious appearance of his kingdom, when he fhall come to judge the world at the laft day; defcribed more at large, Matt. xxv. "When the son of man fhall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then fhall he fit upon the THRONE of his glory. Then fhall the KING fay to them on "his right-hand, &c." But what follows in the place above quoted, Matt. xvi. 28. "Verily, verily, there be fome ftanding here, who "fhall not taste of death, till they fee the fon of man coming in his "kingdom;" importing that dominion, which fome there fhould fee him exercise over the nation of the Jews, was fo covered, by being annexed to the preceding ver. 27. (where he spoke of the manifeftation and glory of his kingdom at the day of judgement), that though his plain meaning here in ver. 28, be, that the appearance and visible exercise of his kingly power in his kingdom was fo near, that fome there fhould live to fee it; yet if the foregoing words had not caft a fhadow over thefe latter, but they had been left plainly to be understood, as they plainly fignified, that he fhould be a king, and that it was fo near, that fome there fhould fee him in his kingdom; this might have been laid hold on, and made the matter of a plaufible and feemingly juft accufation against him by the Jews, before Pilate. This feems to be reafon of our Saviour's inverting here the order of the two folemn manifestations to the world of his rule and power; thereby perplexing at prefent his meaning, and fecuring himfelf, as was neceffary, from the malice

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of the Jews, which always lay at catch to intrap him, and accufe him to the Roman governor; and would, no doubt, have been ready to have alledged thefe words, "Some here fhall not taste of death, till they fee the fon of man coming in his kingdom,' against him as criminal, had not their meaning been, by the former verfe, perplexed, and the fenfe at that time rendered unintelligible, and not applicable by any of his auditors to a fenfe that might have been prejudicial to him before Pontius Pilate. For how well the chief of the Jews were difpofed towards him, St. Luke tells us, chap. xi. 54. "Laying wait for him, and feeking to catch fome-~ "thing out of his mouth, that they might accufe him:" which may be a reason to fatisfy us of the feemingly doubtful and obfcure way of fpeaking ufed by our Saviour in other places; his circumftances being fuch, that, without fuch a prudent carriage and refervedness, he could not have gone through the work which he came to do, nor have performed all the parts of it, in a way correfpondent to the defcriptions given of the Meffiah, and which would be afterwards fully understood to belong to him, when he had left the world.

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After this, Matt. xvii. 10, &c. he, without faying it in direct words, begins, as it were, to own himself to his apoftles to be the Meffiah, by affuring them, that as the Scribes, according to the prophecy of Malachy, chap. iv. 5. rightly faid, that Elias was to ufher in the Meffiah; fo indeed Elias was already come, though the Jews knew him not, and treated him ill whereby they underftood that he spoke to them of John the Baptift," ver. 13. And a little after he fomewhat more plainly intimates that he is the Meffiah, Mark ix. 41. in these words: "Whofoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to the Mef"fiah." This, as I remember, is the first place where our Saviour ever mentioned the name of Meffiah; and the first time that he went fo far towards the owning, to any of the Jewish nation, himself to be

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him.

In his way to Jerufalem, bidding one follow him, Luke ix. 59. who would first bury his father, ver. 60. "Jefus faid unto him, "Let the dead bury their dead; but go thou and preach the king"dom of God." And, Luke x. 1. fending out the feventy difciples, he fays to them, ver. 9. "Heal the fick, and fay, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you." He had nothing else for thefe, or for his apostles, or any one, it feems, to preach, but the good news of the coming of the kingdom of the Meffiah. And if any city would not receive them, he bids them, ver. 10. "Go into the ftreets of the fame, and fay, Even the very duft of your city, "which cleaveth on us, do we wipe off against you: notwithstanding, be ye fure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you." This they were to take notice of, as that which they fhould dearly answer for, viz. that they had not with faith received the good tidings of the kingdom of the Meffiah.

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