life;" that is, 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.

his usual method of preaching: he speaks to them when Jesus asked him, "Will ye also go away?— of the kingdom of God, and does miracles, by Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom which they might understand him to be the Mes-shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal siah, 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 multitudes' but thinking him so, when they were got together, 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.

82. From thence, 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 occasion of their following him for the loaves, bid them seek for the meat that endureth to eternal life: and thereupon 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 eating, and of bread; bread of life, which came down from heaven, &c. which is all comprehended and expounded in these short and plain words: "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 spoke to, 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 insurrection, and involved our Saviour in it. This he thought fit to put a stop to, they still following him, it is like, with the same design; and therefore, though he here speaks to them of his kingdom, it was in a way that so plainly balked their expectation, and shocked them, that when they found themselves disappointed 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, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat? And many, even of his disciples, said, it was an hard saying,who can bear it?" and so were scandalized in him, and forsook him. 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

:

83. Some time after this, he inquires of his disciples, whom the people took him for. They telling 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. 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., "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 direct 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 governor. 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 Messiah. 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 diabolos?" 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 believe 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 I 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, rather than devil,) who, if I had owned myself in plain words to have been the Messiah, the king of Israel, would have betrayed me, and informed against me.

84. That he was yet cautious of owning himself to his apostles positively to be the Messiah, appears further from the manner wherein he tells Peter, that he will build his church upon that confession of his, that he was the Messiah. unto thee, "Thou art Cephas," or a rock;" and

I say

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: "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, rendered the foregoing 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.

the reach of any accusation that might appear just or weighty to the Roman deputy.

87. After his reprimand to Peter, telling him that he "savored not the things of God, but of man," Mark viii., he calls the people to him, and prepares those who would be his disciples, for suffering; telling them, "Whoever 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 angels:" and then subjoins two great and solemn acts, wherein he should 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 every man according to his works." This is evidently meant of the glorious appearance 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.

85. The probability of this, viz., that he had not yet told the apostles themselves plainly that he was the Messiah, is confirmed by what our Saviour says to them, John xv.: "Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth; but I have called you friends;" 88. But what follows in the place above quoted, viz. in the foregoing verse; "for all things that I Matt. xvi. 28: " Verily, verily, there be some have heard of my Father, I have made known standing here who shall not taste of death, till unto you." This was in his last discourse with they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom," them after Judas was gone out; wherein he com--importing that dominion, which some there mitted to them the great secret, by speaking of the kingdom as his, as appears from Luke xxii. 30, and telling them several other particulars about it, whence he had it, what kingdom it was, how to be administered, and what share they were to have in it, &c. From whence it is plain, that till just before he was laid hold on, the very moment he was parting with his apostles, he had kept them as servants in ignorance; but now had discovered himself openly as to his friends.

should see him exercise over the nation of the Jews, was so covered, by being annexed to the preceding verse, 27, (where he spoke of the manifestation and glory of his kingdom at the day of judgment,) that though his plain meaning here, in verse 28, be, that the appearance and visible exercise of his kingly power in his kingdom was so near, that some 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 86. "From this time," say the evangelists, understood, as they plainly signified, that he should "Jesus began to show to his disciples (that is, his be a king, and that it was so near, that some there apostles, who are often called disciples) that he should see him in his kingdom, this might have must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from been laid hold on, and made the matter of a plauthe elders, chief priests, and Scribes; and be kill-sible and seemingly just accusation against him ed, and be raised again the third day." 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 words, Matt. xvi. 22.Peter had twice before owned him to be the Messiab, 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 explained to the apostles what personally concerned himself. 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 some degree prepared to receive the particulars that were to fill up the character, 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 ali, in his sufferings, 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 therefore he might now begin to be a little more open concerning himself; though yet so as to keep himself out of

by the Jews, before Pilate. This seems to be the reason of our Saviour's inverting here the order of the two solemn 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, perplexed, and the sense at that time rendered unintelligible, 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 disposed towards him St. Luke tells us, chap. xi.: "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 Saviour 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 descrip- | what was the true reason of seeking his life, aptions given of the Messiah, and which would be afterwards fully understood to belong to him, when he had left the world.

89. After this, Matt. xvii., 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 the Scribes, according to the prophecy of Malachi,* rightly said, that Elias was to usher in the Messiah; so indeed Elias was already come, though the Jews knew him not, and treated him ill whereby "they understood that he spake to them of John the Baptist." And a little after, he somewhat more plainly intimates that he is the Messiah in these words: "Whosoever shall give 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 towards the owning, to any of the Jewish nation, himself to be him.

pears from what we have in this seventh chapter: "Then said some of them at Jerusalem, Is not this he whom they seek to kill? But, lo, he speaketh boldly, and they say nothing unto him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Messiah? Howbeit, we know this man whence he is; but when the Messiah cometh, no man knoweth whence he is. Then cried Jesus in the temple, as he taught, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am: and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not. But I know him, for I am from him, and he hath sent me. Then they sought [an occasion] to take him; but no man lays hands on him, because his hour was not yet come. And many of the people believed on him, and said, When the Messiah cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done? The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him; and the Pharisees and chief priests sent officers to take him. 90. In his way to Jerusalem, bidding one follow Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while am him who would first bury his father, "Jesus said I with you, and then I go to him that sent me : unto him, Let the dead bury their dead; but go ye shall seek me, and not find me; and where I thou and preach the kingdom of God." And, am, there you cannot come. Then said the Jews sending out the seventy disciples, he says to them, among themselves, Whither will he go, that we "Heal the sick, and say, The kingdom of God is shall not find him." Here we find, that the great come nigh unto you." He had nothing else for fault in our Saviour, and the great provocation to these, or for his apostles, or any one, it seems, to the Jews, was, his being taken for the Messiah, preach but the good news of the coming of the and doing such things as made the people "bekingdom of the Messiah. And if any city would lieve in him;" that is, believe that he was the Mesnot receive them, he bids them, Go into the streets siah. Here also our Saviour declares, in words of the same, and say, "Even the very dust of very easy to be understood, at least after his reyour city, which cleaveth on us; do we wipe off surrection, that he was the Messiah: for if he were against you: notwithstanding, be ye sure of this," sent from God," and did his miracles by the Spithat the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you." This they were to take notice of, as that which they should dearly answer for, viz. that they had not with faith received the good tidings of the kingdom of the Messiah.

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91. After this his brethren say unto him, John vii. 2, 3, 4, (the feast of tabernacles being near,) Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples may see the works that thou doest: for there is no man that does any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, show thyself to the world." Here his brethren, which the next verse tells us "did not believe him," seem to upbraid him with the inconsistency of his carriage; as if he designed to be received for the Messiah, and yet was afraid to show himself: to whom he justified his conduct, (mentioned verse 1,) in the following verses, by telling them, "that the world (meaning the Jews especially) hated him, because he testified of it, that the works thereof are evil; and that his time was not yet fully come," wherein to quit his reserve, and abandon himself freely to their malice and fury. Therefore, though he "went up unto the feast, it was not openly, but as it were in secret, verse 10. And here, coming into the temple about the middle of the feast, he justifies his being sent from God; and that he had not done any thing against the law, in curing the man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath-day; which, though done above a year and a half before, they made use of as a pretence to destroy him. But

* Chap. iv. 5.

rit of God, there could be no doubt but he was the Messiah. But yet this declaration was in a way that the Pharisees and priests could not lay hold on to make an accusation of to the disturbance of his ministry, or the seizure of his person, how much soever they desired it: for his time was not yet come. The officers they had sent to apprehend him, charmed with his discourse, returned without laying hands on him; and when the chief priests asked them, "why they brought him not?" they answered, "Never man spake like this man." Whereupon the Pharisees reply, "Are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers of the Pharisees believed on him? But this people, who know not the law, are cursed." This shows what was meant by "believing on him ;" viz. believing that he was the Messiah: for, say they, have any of the rulers, who are skilled in the law, or of the devout and learned Pharisees, acknowledged him to be the Messiah? For as for those who, in the division among the people concerning him, say, "that he is the Messiah," they are ignorant and vile wretches, knowing nothing of the Scripture; and being accursed, are given by God to be deceived by this impostor, and to take him for the Messiah. Therefore, notwithstanding their desire to lay hold on him, he goes on and "In the last and great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink: he that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." And thus he here again declares himself to be the Messiah; but in the prophetic style, as we see by the next verse of this chapter, and those places in

rusalem. There is but one left upon 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."

beforehand what should happen to him at Jerusa- member that though his ministry had abounded lem, whither they were now going; and that all with miracles, yet the most of them had been things that are written by the prophets concern-done about Galilee, and in parts remote from Jeing the Son of man should be accomplished; that he should be betrayed to the chief priests and Scribes; and that they should condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles; that he should be mocked, and spit on, and scourged, and put to death; and the third day he should rise again. But St. Luke tells us, that the apostles "understood none of these things, and this saying was hid from them; neither knew they the things which were spoken." They believed him to be the Son of God, the Messiah sent from the Father; but their notion of the Messiah was the same with the rest of the Jews; that he should be a temporal prince and deliverer. Accordingly we see, Mark x., that even in this their last journey with him to Jerusalem, two of them, James and John, coming to him, and falling at his feet, said, "Grant unto us, that we may sit, one on thy right hand and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory" or, as St. Matthew has it, chapter xx., in thy kingdom." That which distinguished them from the unbelieving Jews was, that they believed Jesus to be the very Messiah, and so received him as their king and Lord.

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96. And now the hour being come that the Son of man should be glorified, he, without his usual reserve, makes his public entry into "Jerusalem, riding on a young ass: as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Sion, behold thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt." But "these things," saith St. John, his disciples understood not at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him."Though the apostles believed him to be the Messiah, yet there were many occurrences of his life which they understood not (at the time when they happened) to be foretold of the Messiah; which after his ascension they found exactly to quadrate. Thus, according to what was foretold of him, he rode into the city, "all the people crying, Hosanna, blessed is the King of Israel, that cometh in the name of the Lord." This was so open a declaration of his being the Messiah, that "some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples." 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 immediately cry out." And again, upon the like occasion of their crying, "Hosanna, to the Son of David," in the temple, 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, "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 tem ple, Hosanna, they were enraged." One would not think, that after the multitude of miracles that our Saviour had now been doing for above three years together, that the curing the lame and blind could so much move them. But we must re(18)

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97. Hence we may guess the reason why St. John omitted 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 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. Compare verse 2, with verse 8, 10, of St. 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 twelvemonth 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 cautious 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 appointed 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 manifest himself to be the Messiah. And, as St. Luke says,

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 attentive to hear him." What he taught we are not left to guess, by what we have found him constantly preaching elsewhere; but St. Luke tells us, chap. xx., "He taught in the temple, and evange lized;" or, as we translate it, "preached the gosgel:" 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.

98. In the first discourse of his, which we find upon record after this, John xii. 20, &c. he foretells his crucifixion, and the belief of all sorts, both Jews and Gentiles, on him after that. Whereupon the people say to him, "We have heard, out of the law, that the Messiah abideth for ever; and how sayest thou, that the Son of man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of man?" In his answer he plainly designs himself, under the name of Light; which was what he had declared 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,