appeared in the desert near Jordan, baptizing the people, and urging them to repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand.* He accompanied this prediction with exhortations to virtue, according to the Essene school, representing that national reformation was the appointed precursor of the approaching change. He thus appears to have combined many of the Essene characteristics with a modification of the teaching of Judas, omitting its warlike tendency. The laudatory terms in which Josephus speaks of him as a teacher of virtue, furnish a strong presumption that John's discourses contained at least no apparent incentive to insurrection.†

The appearance, however, of an enthusiast, preaching in the desert their long-expected kingdom, produced much excitement throughout Judea.‡ Crowds came to hear him, and

* Matt. iii. 2; Mark i. 4; Luke iii. 3.

"Now some of the Jews thought that God had suffered Herod's army to be destroyed as a just punishment on him for the death of John, called the Baptist. For Herod had killed him, who was a just man, and had called upon the Jews to be baptized, and to practise virtue, exercising both justice toward men, and piety toward God. For so would baptism be acceptable to God, if they made use of it, not for the expiation of their sins, but for the purity of the body, the mind being first purified by righteousness. And many coming to him (for they were wonderfully taken with his discourses), Herod was seized with apprehensions, lest by his authority they should be led into sedition against him; for they seemed capable of undertaking any thing by his direction. Herod therefore thought it better to take him off before any disturbance happened, than to run the risk of a change of affairs, and of repenting when it should be too late to remedy disorders. Being taken up on this suspicion of Herod, and being sent bound to the castle of Machærus, just mentioned, he was slain there."-Antiq. xviii. ch. 5.

In later times, the preaching and sect of John the Baptist were lost sight of, owing to the pre-eminence of his successor. But that his sect was one of much notoriety near his own time, is seen from Acts xviii. and xix.; for, twenty-three years after his death, Apollos and other Jews, who had not even heard of Jesus, were preaching the baptism of John. It is remarkable that the writer calls these Jews "certain disciples," which shows that John's preaching was considered to comprise the essential doctrine of the new sect, of which he was strictly the founder. This doctrine was the

to give the outward sign of inward purification, submission to baptism.* Amongst these was a Galilean named Jesus, the son of Joseph, a carpenter of Nazareth.

All classes of society must from time to time produce individuals of distinguished mental superiority. In ordinary times this may remain unseen and dormant; but when some prevalent enthusiasm is abroad, it is quickened into life and action, and breaks forth to public gaze in the form of a great character. Jesus, the peasant of Galilee, possessed one of those gifted minds which are able to make an impression on mankind, and the age in which he lived supplied the stimulus required for its manifestation. He partook of the enthusiasm common to many patriotic Jews of his time, viz. an expectation of the approaching miraculous exaltation of Israel; and the perception of his own mental elevation over those around him led him to indulge in the idea, not unnatural to any ardent Israelite, that he himself was to be the prophet and prince, like unto Moses, who should fill the restored throne of David. He had studied intensely the literature within the reach of the Jewish peasants, the Scriptures of the Old Testament,† with which his mind was the more thoroughly imbued, as its attention had not been diffused over a wider field of wri

coming of the kingdom of Heaven. Aquila and Priscilla did not pretend to convert Apollos, who was already instructed in "the way of the Lord," but only to explain this way more perfectly." Acts xviii. 24-26.

Moses ordered the people to wash their clothes previously to receiving the law. Exod. xix. 10. Aaron and his sons were washed at their consecration. Levit. viii. 6. Lightfoot (in Matt. iii. 6.) quotes Maimonides and many other Jewish authorities to show that baptism was considered a necessary introduction of proselytes to Judaism. Hence a new teacher might naturally adopt this rite as the sign of initiation or adherence to his doctrine. "Partaking of the waters of purification" was an initiatory rite with the Essenes. War, ii. 8, 6.

The Apocrypha is not an important addition; and the other Jewish writings were chiefly comments upon the Scriptures.

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tings. But a bold and active mind cannot be entirely fettered, even by the authorities which it acknowledges; these may give to it a direction, but its native energy will find a vent in original thought and speculation. The inconsistency between the admission of a divine authority and the exercise of reason, is overlooked; or if attended to, an excuse for the latter is easily found in the right of each mind to explain and interpret at least in its own way. So Jesus, although from early associations, patriotism, and conviction, a sincere believer in the divine authority of Moses and the prophets,* drew his chief materials of thought from his own observation of men and things; commented freely† upon the Scriptures, which it never occurred to him to controvert; scrupled not to give to them his own sense;‡ and delivered his own sayings with force and sufficiency.§ Whilst admitting to himself only the office of fulfilling the law and the prophets, he, in reality, made these the stock on which he grafted his own thoughts and sentiments. In like manner, although his station and place of abode made him peculiarly conversant with the doctrines of the Essenes and Galileans, he was not a mere follower of either party, but adopted and re-invigorated with his sanction, so much of the sentiments of either as accorded with his own taste and judgment. He retained the pure morality of the Essenes, but neglected their rigid austerities.

* Matt. xxiii. 2.

+ Matt. xix. 8, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives, but from the beginning it was not so, and I say unto you..

Matt. xxii. 40, On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

§ Matt. v. 21, 22, Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time... 'but I say unto you, &c. The greater part of the moral precepts of Jesus may be traced in the Old Testament and the Apocrypha; but the mode of introducing them, and the addition of some new views, are enough to establish his title to originality.

He adopted the religious liberalism of Judas, but he abstained from the evidently useless proceeding of declared insurrection.

A mind conscious of its own power, and whose energy is increased by a tincture of enthusiasm, must make itself felt in some manner. It was impossible for Jesus to remain his whole life a carpenter at Nazareth; but all ordinary ways to greatness were then closed to the lower ranks in Judea, except that of heading a revolt. The priesthood was confined to the family of Aaron; the prejudices of Jerusalem must exclude a Galilean peasant from the Sanhedrim ;* and other subsidiary dignities could only be reached by subservience to the Romans or to the tetrarchs. The necessity of action in a sphere congenial to the ruling tendencies of the mind, is, with some persons, a more powerful motive than a cool calculation of consequences; and Jesus determined to imitate Moses, and fulfil the prophets, by assuming the character of the Messiah, or the Prophet-king of Israel.

The preaching of John roused him from the obscurity in which he had remained till about the 30th year of his age; and immediately after his baptism by his predecessor, he' began himself, with far greater resources, to preach on the same favourite topic, the approach of the Kingdom of heaven,† endeavouring chiefly in the first place, to introduce that general Repentance, and return to righteousness, which by many devout Jews were believed to be the first and most indispensable requisites for attaining the Kingdom. His discourses, like those of John, were filled up with exhortations to morality, agreeing mostly with those of the older Jewish

• Strictly speaking, the Sanhedrim was open to all the Israelites. Maimon. in Sanhed. cap. 2. But the priests and Levites appear to have formed the greater part.

+ Matt. iv. 17, From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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writings and of the Essenes, and with vigorous reproofs of the prevailing corruptions of the age. Public preaching on such topics, accompanied by inexhaustible illustrations from nature and familiar objects,* could hardly fail in any country of drawing crowds of listeners.

In nations little acquainted with physical science, mental superiority is often supposed to be connected with some degree of command over the inanimate world; and the multitudes who heard Jesus imagined that nature, as well as they, must recognize his authority. Nor was it unnatural, in the state of science at that time, that Jesus himself should share the notion.† Accordingly, when urged by the crowds to heal their maladies, he yielded to their importunities,‡ so far as to speak the word which they wanted.§ In many such cases, the confident expectation of its efficiency was enough to produce an apparent success, and it appears that Jesus was in general cautious of committing himself to the trial, unless there was this confidence in the party apply

Matt. xiii. 34, All these things spake Jesus to the multitude in parables, and without a parable spake he not unto them.

+ The learned Josephus even often intimates that he himself possessed certain supernatural gifts by virtue of his priestly dissent. War, book iii. c. viii. 3, 9.

And they brought unto him all sick people, &c.; ix. 27, And two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us; xv. 23, And a woman of Canaan cried unto him, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after us. . . In this gospel, it seldom appears that Jesus sought an opportunity of doing a miracle, but rather that the attempt was forced upon him.

§ The addition, "and he healed them all," or its equivalent, occurs so regularly at the close of all Matthew's narratives of this sort, that it looks more like a sentence adopted to finish the story well, than the evidence to a matter of fact. For, in general, this, the most important part of the story, is passed over without giving particulars. See, in addition to the above, Matt. viii. 13-16; xiv. 14; xv. 30; xx. 34. The question concerning Matthew's veracity will be considered in chap. iii.