38 The Reasonableness of Christianity, " HIM KNOWN: that it might he fulfilled which was " spoken by the prophet Isaiah, saying1, Behold, my " servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom " my soul is well pleased: 1 will put my spirit upon " him, and he shall show judgment to the gentiles. " He shall not strive, nor cry, neither shall any man " hear his voice in the streets." Matt. xii. Mark iii.
And, John xi. 47, upon the news of our Saviour's raising Lazarus from the dead, " The chief priests and " pharisees convened the sanhedrim, and said, What " do we? For this man does many miracles." Ver. 53, " Then from that day forth they took counsel together " for to put him to death." Ver. 54, " Jesus therefore " walked no more openly amongst the jews." His miracles had now so much declared him to be the Mes siah, that the jews could no longer bear him, nor he trust himself amongst them; " But went thence unto a " country near to the wilderness, into a city called " Ephraim; and there continued with his disciples." This was but a little before his last passover, as appears by the following words, ver. 55. " And the jews pass- " over was nigh at hand/' and he could not, now his miracles had made him so well known, have been se cure, the little time that remained, 'till his hour was fully come, if he had not, with his wonted and neces sary caution, withdrawn; " And walked no more " openly amongst the jews," 'till his time (at the next passover) was fully come; and then again he appeared amongst them openly.
Nor would the Romans have suffered him, if he had gone about preaching, that he was the king whom the jews expected. Such an accusation would have been forwardly brought against him by the jews, if they could have heard it out of his own mouth; and that had been his public doctrine to his followers, which was openly preached by the apostles after his death, when he appeared no more. And of this they were accused, Acts xvii. 5—9. " But the jews, which believed not, " moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fel- " lows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and " set all the city in an uproar, and assaulted the house as delivered in the Scriptures. 39 " of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. " And when they found them [Paul and Silas] not, " they drew Jason, and certain brethren, unto the " rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned " the world upside down, are corne hither also; whom " Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the " decrees of Caesar, saying, That there is another king, " one Jesus. And they troubled the people, and the " rulers of the city, when they heard these things: and " when they had taken security of Jason and the other, " they let them go."
Though the magistrates of the world had no great re gard to the talk of a king who had suffered death, and appeared no longer any where; yet, if our Saviour had openly declared this of himself in his life time, with a train of disciples and followers every where owning and crying him up for their king; the Roman governors of Judea could not have forborne to have taken notice of it, and have made use of their force against him. This the jews were not mistaken in; and therefore made use of it as the strongest accusation, and likeliest to pre vail with Pilate against him, for the taking away his life; it being treason, and an unpardonable offence, which could not escape death from a Roman deputy, without the forfeiture of his own life. Thus then they accuse him to Pilate, Luke xxiii. 2. " We found this " fellow perverting the nation, forbidding to give tri- " bute to Caesar, saying, that he himself is a king;" or rather " the Messiah, the King."
Our Saviour, indeed, now that his time was come, (and he in custody, and forsaken of all the world, and so out of all danger of raising any sedition or dis turbance,) owns himself to Pilate to be a king; after first having told Pilate, John xviii. 36, " That his " kingdom was not of this world;" and, for a king dom in another world, Pilate knew that his master at Rome concerned not himself. But had there been any the least appearance of truth in the allegations of the jews, that he had perverted the nation, forbidding to pay tribute to Caesar, or drawing the people after him, as their king; Pilate would not so readily have pro 40 The Reasonableness of Christianity, nounced him innocent. But we see what he said to his accusers, Luke xxiii. 13, 14. " Pilate, when he had " called together the chief priests and the rulers of the " people, said unto them, You 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 those things " whereof you accuse him: no, nor yet Herod, for I " sent you to him; and, lo, nothing worthy of death " is done by him." And therefore, finding a man of that mean condition, and innocent life, (no mover of seditions, or disturber of the public peace) without a friend or a follower, he would have dismissed him, as a king of no consequence; as an innocent man, falsely and maliciously accused by the jews.
How necessary this caution was in our Saviour, to say or do nothing that might justly offend, or render him suspected to the Roman governor; and how glad the jews would have been to have had any such thing against him, we may see, Luke xx. 20. The chief priests and the scribes " watched him, and sent forth " spies, who should feign themselves just men, that " might take hold of his words, that so they might " deliver him unto the power and authority of the « governor." And the very thing wherein they hoped to- entrap him in this place, was paying tribute to Caesar; which they afterwards falsely accused him of. And what would they have done, if he had before them professed himself to have been the Messiah, their King and deliverer?
And here we may observe the wonderful providence of God, who had so ordered the state of the jews, at the time when his son was to come into the world, that though neither their civil constitution nor religious wor ship were dissolved, yet the power of life and death was taken from them; whereby he had an opportunity to publish " the kingdom of the Messiah; " that is, his own royalty, under the name of" the kingdom of God, and of " heaven;" which the jews well enough understood, and would certainly have put him to death for, had the power been in their own hands. But this being no matas delivered in the Scriptures t 41 ter of accusation to the Romans, hindered him not from* speaking of the " kingdom of heaven," as he did, some times in reference to his appearing in the world, and being believed on by particular persons; sometimes in reference to the power should be given him by the Fa ther at his resurrection; and sometimes in reference to his coming to judge the world at the last day, in the full glory and completion of his kingdom. These were ways of declaring himself, which the jews could lay no hold on, to bring him in danger with Pontius Pilate, and get him seized and put to death.
Another reason there was, that hindered him as much as the former, from professing himself, in express words, to be the Messiah; and that was, that the whole nation of the jews, expecting at this time their Messiah, and deliverance, by him, from the subjection they were in to a foreign yoke, the body of the people would cer tainly, upon his declaring himself to be the Messiah, their king, have rose up in rebellion, and set him at the head of them. And indeed, the miracles that he did, so much disposed them to think him to be the Messfoh, that, though shrouded under the obscurity of a mean condition, and a very private simple life; though he passed for a Galilean (his birth at Bethle hem being then concealed), and assumed not to himself any power or authority, or so much as the name of the Messiah; yet he could hardly avoid being set up by a tumult, and proclaimed their king. So John tells us, chap. vi. 14, 15, " Then those men, when they had " seen the miracles that Jesus did, said, This is of a " truth that prophet that should come into the world. " When therefore Jesus perceived that they would " come to take him by force to make him king, he "departed again into a mountain, himself alone."
This was upon his feeding of five thousand with five barley loaves and two fishes. So hard was it for him, doing those miracles which were necessary to testify his mission, and which often drew great multitudes af ter him, Matt. iv. 25, to keep the heady and hasty multitude from such disorder, as would have involved him in it; and have disturbed the course, and cut short 42 The Reasonableness of Christianity, the time of his ministry; and drawn on him the repu tation and death of a turbulent, seditious malefactor; contrary to the design of his coming, which was, to be offered up a lamb blameless,, and void of offence; his innocence appearing to all the world, even to him that delivered him up to be crucified. This it would have been impossible to have avoided, if, in his preaching every- where, he had openly assumed to himself the title of their Messiah; which was all was wanting to set the people in a flame; who drawn by his miracles, and the hopes of finding a Deliverer in so extraordinary a man, followed him in great numbers. We read every-where of multitudes, and in Luke xii. 1, of myriads that were gathered about him. v_This conflux of people, thus disposed, would not have failed, upon his declaring himself to be the Messiah, to have made a commotion, and with force set him up for their King. It is plain, therefore, from these two reasons, why (though he came to preach the gospel, and convert the world to a belief of his being the Messiah; and though he says so much of his kingdom, under the title of the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of heaven) he yet makes it not his bu siness to persuade them, that he himself is the Messiah, nor does, in his public preaching, declare himself to be him. He inculcates to the people, on all occasions, that the kingdom of God is come: he shows the way of admittance into this kingdom, viz. repentance and baptism; and teaches the laws of it, viz. good life, ac cording to the strictest rules of virtue and morality. But who the King was of this kingdom, he leaves to his miracles to point out, to those who would consider what he did, and make the right use of it now; or to witness to those who should hearken to the apostles hereafter when they preached it in plain words, and called upon them to believe it, after his resurrection, when there should be no longer room to fear, that it should cause any disturbance in civil societies, and the governments of the world.; But he could not declare himself to be the Messiah, without manifest danger of tumult and sedition: and the miracles he did declared it so much, that he was fain often to hide himself, and a* delivered in the Scriptures. 43 withdraw from the concourse of the people. The leper that he cured, Mark i, though forbid to say any thing, yet " blazed it so abroad, that Jesus could no more " openly enter into the city, but was without in desert " places," living in retirement, as appears from Luke v. 16, and there " they came to him from every quar- " ter." And thus he did more than once.
This being premised, let us take a view of the pro mulgation of the gospel by our Saviour himself, and see what it was he taught the world, and required men to believe.
The first beginning of his ministry, whereby he showed himself, seems to be at Cana in Galilee, soon after his baptism; where he turned water into wine: of which St. John, chap. ii. 11, says thus: " This begin- " ning of miracles Jesus made, and manifested his " glory, and his disciples believed in him." His dis ciples here believed in him, but we hear not of any other preaching to them, but by this miracle, whereby he " manifested his glory," i. e. of being the Messiah, the Prince. So Nathanael, without any other preach ing, but only our Saviour's discovering to him, that he knew him after an extraordinary manner, presently ac knowledges him to be the Messiah; crying, " Rabbi, " thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of " Israel."
From hence, staying a few days at Capernaum, he goes to Jerusalem, to the passover, and there he drives the traders out of the temple, John ii. 12 — 15, saying, " Make not my Father's house a house of merchan- '* dize." Where we see he uses a phrase, which, by interpretation, signifies that he was the " Son of God," though at that time unregarded. Ver. 16, Hereupon the jews demand, " What sign dost thou show us, since " thou doest these things?" Jesus answered, " Destroy " ye this temple, and in three days I will raise it " again." This is an instance of what way Jesus took to declare himself: for it is plain, by their reply, the jews understood him not, nor his disciples neither; for it is said, ver. 22, " When, therefore, he was risen " from the dead, his disciples remembered, that he 44 The Reasonableness of Christianity, " said this to them: and they believed the scripture, " and the saying of Jesus to them."
This, therefore, we may look on in the beginning, as a pattern of Christ's preaching, and showing himself to the jews, which he generally followed afterwards; viz. such a manifestation of himself, as every one at present could not understand; but yet carried such an evidence with it, to those who were well disposed now, or would reflect on it when the whole course of his ministry was over, as was sufficient clearly to convince them that he was the Messiah.
The reason of this method used by our Saviour, the scripture gives us here, at this his first appearing in public, after his entrance upon his ministry, to be a rule and light to us in the whole course of it: for the next verse taking notice, that many believed on him, " because of his miracles," (which was all the preach ing they had,) it is said, ver. 24, " But Jesus did not " commit himself unto them, because he knew all " men;" i. e. he declared not himself so openly to be the Messiah, their King, as to put himself into the power of the jews, by laying himself open to their malice; who, he knew, would be so ready to lay hold on it to accuse him; for, as the next verse 25, shows, he knew well enough what was in them. We may here further observe, that " believing in his name " signifies believ ing him to be the Messiah. Ver. 22, tells us, That " many at the passover believed in his name, when they " saw the miracles that he did." What other faith could these miracles produce in them who saw them, but that this was he of whom the scripture spoke, who was to be their Deliverer?
Whilst he was now at Jerusalem, Nicodemus, a ruler of the jews, comes to him, John iii. 1 — 21, to whom he preaches eternal life by faith in the Messiah, ver. 15 and 17, but in general terms, without naming himself to be that Messiah, though his whole discourse tends to it. This is all we hear of our Saviour the first year of his ministry, but only his baptism, fasting, and temptation in the beginning of it, and spending the rest of it after the passover, in Judea with his disciples, baptizing as delivered in the Scriptures. 45 there. But " when he knew that the pharisees re- " ported, that he made and baptized more disciples " than John, he left Judea," and got out of their way again into Galilee, John iv. 1, 3.
In his way back, by the well of Sichar, he discourses with the Samaritan woman; and after having opened to her the true and spiritual worship which was at hand, which the woman presently understands of the times of the Messiah, who was then looked for; thus she answers, ver. 25, " I know that the Messiah cometh: when he " is come, he will tell us all things." Whereupon our Saviour, though we hear no such thing from him in Jerusalem or Judea, or to Nicodemus; yet here, to this Samaritan woman, he in plain and direct words owns and declares, that he himself, who talked with her, was the Messiah, ver. 26.
This would seem very strange, that he should be more free and open to a Samaritan, than he was to the jews, were riot the reason plain, from what we have observed above. He was now out of Judea,, among a people with whom the jews had no commerce; ver. 9, who were not disposed, out of envy, as the jews were, to seek his life, or to accuse him to the Roman governor, or to make an insurrection, to set a jew up for their King. What the consequence was of his discourse with this Samaritan woman, we have an account, ver. 28, 39 — 42. " She left " her water-pot, and went her way into the city, and " saith to the men, Come, see a man who told me all " things that ever I did: Is not this the Messiah? And " many of the Samaritans of that cityBELiEVED ON HIM " for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told " me all that ever I did. So when the Samaritans were " come unto him, they besought him, that he would " tarry with them: and he abode there two days. And " many more believed, because of his own word; and " said unto the woman, Now we believe not because of " thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves; and we " know/' (i.e. are fully persuaded) " that this is indeed " the Messiah, the Saviour of the world/' By compar ing ver. 39, with 41 and 42, it is plain, that " believ- 46 The Reasonableness of Christianity* " ing on him" signifies no more than believing him to be the Messiah.
From Sichar Jesus goes to Nazareth, the place he was bred up in; and there reading in the synagogue a pro phecy concerning the Messiah, out of the Ixi. of Isaiah, he tells them, Luke iv. 21, " This day is this scripture " fulfilled in your ears."
But being in danger of his life at Nazareth, he leaves it for Capernaum: and then, as St. Matthew informs us, chap. iv. 17, " He began to preach and say, Re- " pent; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. " Or, as St. Mark has it, chap. i. 14, 15, " Preaching the " gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time " is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; " repent ye, and believe the gospel; " i. e. believe this good news. This removing to Capernaum, and seating himself there in the borders of Zabulon and Naphtali, was, as St. Matthew observes, chap. iv. 13 — 16, that a prophecy of Isaiah might be fulfilled. Thus the ac tions and circumstances of his life answered the prophe cies, and declared him to.be the Messiah. And by what St. Mark says in this place, it is manifest, that the gospel which he preached and required them to believe, was no other but the good tidings of the coming of the Messiah, and of his kingdom, the time being now ful filled.
In his way to Capernaum, being come to Cana, a nobleman of Capernaum came to him, ver. 47, " And " besought him that he would come down and heal his " son; for he was at the point of death." Ver. 48, " Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and " wonders, ye will not believe." Then he returning homewards, and finding that his son began to " mend c< at the same hour which Jesus said unto him, Thy son " liveth; he himself believed, and his whole house," Here this nobleman is by the apostles pronounced to be a believer. And what does he believe? Even that which Jesus complains, ver. 48, " they would not BE- " LIEVE, except.they saw signs and wonders; which as delivered in the Scriptures. 47 could be nothing but what those of Samaria in the same chapter believed, viz. that he was the Messiah. For we no- where in the gospel hear of any thing else, that had been proposed to be believed by them.
Having done miracles, and cured all their sick at Capernaum, he says, " Let us go to the adjoining towns, " that I may preach there also; for therefore came I " forth," Mark i. 38. Or, as St. Luke has it, chap. iv. 43, he tells the multitude, who would have kept him, that he might not go from them, " I must evangelize," or tell the good tidings of " the kingdom of God to " other cities also; for therefore am I sent." And St. Matthew, chap. iv. 23, tells us how he executed this commission he was sent on: " And Jesus went about all " Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching " the gospel of the kingdom, and curing all diseases." This then was what he was sent to preach every- where, viz. the gospel of the kingdom of the Messiah; and by the miracles and good he did he let them know who was the Messiah.
Hence he goes up to Jerusalem, to the second pass- .over, since the beginning of his ministry. And here, discoursing to the jews, who sought to kill him upon occasion of the man whom he had cured carrying his bed on the sabbath-day, and for making God his Father, he tells them that he wrought these things by the power of God,' and that he shall do greater things; for that the dead shall, at his summons, be raised; and that he, by a power committed to him from his Father, shall judge them; and that he.is sent by his Father, and that who ever shall hear his word, and believe in him that sent him, has eternal life. This though a clear description of the Messiah, yet we may observe, that here, to the angry jews, who sought to kill him, he says not a word of his kingdom, nor so much as names the Messiah; but yet that he is the Son of God, and sent from God, he refers them to the testimony of John the Baptist; to the testimony of his own miracles, and of God himself in the voice from heaven, arid of the scriptures, and of Moses. He leaves them to learn from these the truth they were to believe, viz. that he was the Messiah sent 48 The Reasonableness of Christianity, from God. This you may read more at large, John v.
The next place where we find him preaching, was on the mount, Matt. v. and Luke vi. This is by much the longest sermon we have of his, any-where; and, in all likelihood, to the greatest auditory: for it appears to have been to the people gathered to him from Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusalem, and from beyond Jordan, and that came out of Idumea, and from Tyre and Sidon, mentioned Mark iii. 7, 8. and Luke vi. 17. But in this whole sermon of his, we do not find one word of be lieving, and therefore no mention of the Messiah, or any intimation to the people who himself was. The reason whereof we may gather from Matt. xii. 16, where "Christ " forbids them to make him known; " which supposes them to know already who he was. For that this 12th chapter of St. Matthew ought to precede the sermon in the mount, is plain, by comparing it with Mark ii. be ginning at ver. 13, to Mark iii. 8, and comparing those chapters of St. Mark with Luke vi. And I desire my reader, once for all, here to take notice, that I have all along observed the order of time in our Saviour's preach ing, and have not, as I think, passed by any of his dis courses. In this sermon, our Saviour only teaches them what were the laws of his kingdom, and what they must do who were admitted into it, of which I shall have oc casion to speak more at large in another place, being at present only inquiring what our Saviour proposed as matter of faith to be believed.
After this, John the Baptist sendsHo him this message, Luke vii. 19, asking, " Art thou he that should come, " or do we expect another? " That is, in short, Art thou the Messiah? And if thou art, why dost thou let me, thy forerunner, languish in prison? Must I expect deliver ance from any other? To which Jesus returns this an swer, ver. 22, 23, " Tell John what ye have seen and " heard; the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are " cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the " poor the gospel is preached; and blessed is he who " is not offended in me." What it is to be " offended, " or scandalized in him," we may see by comparing as delivered in the^ Scriptures. 49