Matt. xiii. 28, and Mark iv. 17, with Luke viii. 13. For what the two first call " scandalized," the last call " standing off from, or forsaking," i. e. not receiving him as the Messiah (vid. Mark vi. 1—6.) or revolting from him. Here Jesus refers John, as he did the jews before, to the testimony of his miracles, to know who he was; and this was generally his preaching, whereby he declared himself to be the Messiah, who was the only prophet to come, whom the jews had any expec tation of; nor did they look for any other person to be sent to them with the power of miracles, but only the Messiah. His miracles, we see by his answer to John the Baptist, he thought a sufficient declaration amongst them, that he was the Messiah. And therefore, upon his curing the possessed of the devil, the dumb, and blind, Matt. xii. the people, who saw the miracles, said, ver. 23, " Is not this the son of David?" As much as ' to say, Is not this the Messiah? Whereat the pharisees being offended, said, " He cast out devils by Beelzebub." Jesus, showing the falsehood and vanity of their blas phemy, justifies the conclusion the people made from this miracle, saying, ver. 28, That his casting out devils by the Spirit of God, was an evidence that the kingdom of the Messiah was come.
One thing more there was in the miracles done by his disciples, which showed him to be the Messiah; that they were done in his name. " In the name of Jesus of " Nazareth, rise up and walk," says St. Peter to the lame man, whom he cured in the temple, Acts iii. 6. And how far the power of that name reached, they them selves seem to wonder, Luke x. 17. " And the seventy " returned again with joy, saying. Lord, even the devils " are subject to us in thy name."
From this message from John the Baptist, he takes occasion to tell the people that John was the forerunner of the Messiah; that from the time of John the Baptist the kingdom of the Messiah began; to which time all the prophets and the law pointed, Luke vii. and Matt. xi.
Luke viii. 1, " Afterwards he went through every " city and village, preaching and showing the good tid« E 50 The Reasonableness of Christianity, " ings of the kingdom of God." Here we see as every where, what his preaching was., and consequently what was to be believed.
Soon after, he preaches from a boat to the people on the shore. His sermon at large we may read, Matt. xiii. Mark iv. and Luke viii. But this is very observable, that this second sermon of his, here, is quite different from his former in the mount: for that was all so plain and intelligible, that nothing could be more so; whereas this is all so involved in parables, that even the apostles themselves did not understand it. If we inquire into the reason of this, we shall possibly have some light, from the different subjects of these two sermons. There he preached to the people only morality; clearing the precepts of the law from the false glosses which were received in those days, and setting forth th duties of a good life in their full obligation and extent, beyond what the judiciary laws of the Israelites did, or the civil laws of any country could prescribe, or take notice of. But here, in this sermon by the sea-side, he speaks of nothing but the kingdom of the Messiah, which he does all in parables. One reason whereof St. Matthew gives us, chap. xiii. 35, " That it might be fulfilled which was " spoken by the prophets," saying, " I will open my " mouth in parables, I will utter things that have been " kept secret from the foundations of the world." An other reason our Saviour himself gives of it, ver. 11, 12, " Because to you is given to know the mysteries of the " kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For " whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall " have more abundantly; but whosoever hath not," i. e. improves not the talents that he hath, " from him shall " be taken away even that he hath."
One thing it may not be amiss to observe, that our Saviour here, in the explication of the first of these pa rables to his apostles, calls the preaching of the king dom of the Messiah, simply, " The word," and Luke viii. 21, "The word of God:" from whence St. Luke, in the Acts, often mentions it under the name of the " word," and " the word of God/' as we have else where observed. To which I shall here add that of Acts as delivered in the Scriptures. £1 viii. 4, " Therefore they that were scattered abroad, " went every- where preaching the word;" which word, as we have found by examining what they preached all through their history, was nothing but this, that " Jesus " was the Messiah:" I mean, this was all the doctrine they proposed to be believed: for what they taught, as well as our Saviour, contained a great deal more; but that concerned practice, and not belief. And therefore our Saviour says, in the place before quoted, Luke viii. 21, " they are my mother and my brethren, who hear the " word of God, and do it:" obeying the law of the Messiah their king being no less required, than their believing that Jesus was the Messiah, the king and de liverer that was promised them.
Matt. ix. 13, we have an account again of this preach ing; what it was, and how: " And Jesus went about all " the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, " and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing « every sickness and every disease among the people." He acquainted them, that the kingdom of the Messiah was come, and left it to his miracles to instruct and con vince them, that he was the Messiah.
Matt. x. when he sent his apostles abroad, their com mission to preach we have, ver. 75 8, in these words: " As ye go, preach saying, The kingdom of heaven is " at hand: heal the sick," &c. All that they had to preach was, that the kingdom of the Messiah was come.
Whosoever should not receive them, the messengers of these good tidings, nor hearken to their message, in curred a heavier doom than Sodom and Gomorrah, at the day of judgment, ver. 14, 15. But ver. 32, " Who- " soever shall confess me before men, I will confess " him before my Father who is in heaven." What this confessing of Christ is, we may see by comparing John xii. 42. with ix. 22. " Nevertheless, among the " chief rulers also many believed on him; but because " of the pharisees they did not CONFESS HIM, lest they " should be put out of the synagogue. And chap. ix. 22, " These words spake his parents, because they feared " the jews; for the jews had agreed already, that if any " man did CONFESS THAT HE WAS THE MESSIAH, 5£ The Reasonableness of Christianity, " he should be put out of the synagogue." By which places it is evident, that to confess him was to confess that he was the Messiah. From which, give me leave to observe also, (what I have cleared from other places, but cannot be too often remarked, because of the differ ent sense has been put upon that phrase) viz. " that " believing on, or in him," (for sis avrov is rendered either way by the English translation,) signifies believing that he was the Messiah. For many of the rulers (the text says) " believed on him:" but they durst not con fess what they believed, " for fear they should be put " out of the synagogue." Now the offence for which it was agreed that any one should be put out of the synagogue, was, if he " did confess, that Jesus was the " Messiah." Hence we may have a clear understand ing of that passage of St. Paul to the Romans, where he tells them positively, what is the faith he preaches, Horn. x. 8, 9, " That is the word of faith which we preach, " that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord " Jesus, and believe in thine heart, that God hath raised " him from the dead, thou shalt be saved;" and that also of 1 John iv. 14, 15, " We have seen, and do tes- " tify, that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of " the world: whosoever shall confess, that Jesus is the " Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God." Where confessing Jesus to be the Son of God, is the same with confessing him to be the Messiah; those two expressions being understood amongst the jews to sig nify the same thing, as we have shown already.
How calling him the Son of God, came to signify that he was the Messiah, would not be hard to show. But it is enough, that it appears plainly, that it was so used, and had that import among the jews at that time: which if any one desires to have further evidenced to him, he may add Matt. xxvi. 63. John vi. 69. and xi. 27. and xx. SI. to those places before occasionally taken notice of.
As was the apostles commission, such was their per formance; as we read, Luke xi. 6, "They departed " and went through the towns, preaching the gospel, " and healing every-where." Jesus bid them preach, as delivered in the Scriptures. 53 " saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand." And St. Luke tells us, they went through the towns preach ing the gospel; a word which in Saxon answers well the Greek Euayyg'Atoi/, and signifies, as that does, " good " news." So that what the inspired writers call the gospel, is nothing but the good tidings, that the Messiah and his kingdom was come; and so it is to be under stood in the New Testament, and so the angel calls it, " good tidings of great joy," Luke ii. 10, bringing the first news of our Saviour's birth. And this seems to be all that his disciples were at that time sent to preach.
So, Luke ix. 59, 60, to him that would have excused his present attendance, because of burying his father; " Jesus said unto him, let the dead bury their dead, " but go thou and preach the kingdom of God." When I say, this was all they were to preach, I must be under stood that this was the faith they preached; but with it they joined obedience to the Messiah, whom they re ceived for their king. So likewise, when he sent out the seventy, Luke x. their commission was in these words, ver. 9, " Heal the sick, and say unto them, The king- " dom of God is come nigh unto you."
After the return of his apostles to him, he sits down with them on a mountain; and a great multitude being gathered about them, St. Luke tells us, chap. ix. 11, " The people followed him, and he received them, and " spake unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed " them that had need of healing." This was his preaching to this assembly, which consisted of five thousand men, besides women and children: all which great multitude he fed with five loaves and two fishes, Matt. xiv. 21. And what this miracle wrought upon them, St. John tells us, chap. vi. 14, 15, " Then these " men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, " said, This is of a truth that prophet that should " come into the world," i. e. the Messiah. For the Messiah was the only person that they expected from God, and this the time they looked for him. And hence John the Baptist, Matt. xi. 3, styles him, " He " that should come;" as in other places, " come from 54 The Reasonableness of Christianity, " God," or " sent from God," are phrases used for the Messiah.
Here we see our Saviour keep to his usual method of preaching: he speaks to them of the kingdom of God, and does miracles; by which they might understand him to be the Messiah, whose kingdom he spake of. And here we have the reason also, why he so much concealed himself, and forbore to own his being the Messiah. For what the consequence was, of the mul titude's but thinking him so, when they were got to gether, St. John tells us in the very next words: " When " Jesus 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 so ready to set him up for their king, only because they gathered from his miracles that he was the Messiah, whilst he himself said nothing of it: what would not the people have done, and what would not the scribes and pharisees have had an opportunity to accuse him of, if he had openly professed himself to have been the Messiah, 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 so miraculously fed; he, upon the occa sion of their following him for the loaves, bids them seek for the meat that endureth to eternal life: and thereupon, John vi. 22 — 69, declares to them his being sent from the Father; and that those who believed in him, should be raised to eternal life: but all this very much involved in a mixture of allegorical terms of eat ing, and of bread; bread of life, which came down from heaven, &c. Which is all comprehended and expounded in these short and plain words, ver. 47 and 54, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth " on me hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up " at the last day." The sum of all which discourse is, that he was the Messiah sent from God; and that those who believed him to be so, should be raised from the dead at the last day, to eternal life. These whom he as delivered in the Scriptures. 55 spoke to here were of those who, the day before, would by force have made him king; and therefore it is no wonder he should speak to them of himself, and his kingdom and subjects, in obscure and mystical terms; and such as should offend those who looked for nothing but the grandeur of a temporal kingdom in this world, and the protection and prosperity they had promised themselves under it. The hopes of such 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 almost drawn them into an open in surrection, and involved our Saviour in it. This he thought fit to put a stop to; they still following him, 'tis like, with the same design. And therefore, though he here speaks to them of his kingdom, it was in a way that so plainly baulked their expectation, and shocked them, that when they found themselves disap pointed of those vain hopes, and that he talked of their eating his flesh, and drinking his blood, that they might have life; the jews said, ver. 52, " How can this man " give us his flesh to eat? And many, even of his dis- " ciples said, It was an hard saying: Who can hear it?" And so were scandalized in him, and forsook him, ver.
60, 66. But what the true meaning of this discourse of our Saviour was, the confession of St. Peter, who understood it better, and answered for the rest of the apostles, shows: when Jesus answered him, ver. 67, " Will ye also go " away?" Then Simon Peter answered him, " Lord, to " whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal " life:" i. e. thou teachest us the way to attain eternal life; and accordingly, " we believe, and are sure, that " thou art the Messiah, the Son of the living God." This was the eating his flesh and drinking his blood, whereby those who did so had eternal life.
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.