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saying, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." St. Luke tells us, they went through the towns preaching the Gospel; a word which in Saxon answers well the Greek sayyέ, 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 understood 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 understood, that this was the faith they preached; but with it they joined obedience to the Messiah, whom they received 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 kingdom of God is come nigh unto you."

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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. hence John the Baptist, Matt. xi. 3, styles him, "He that should come:" as in other places, "come from

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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 multitude's 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.

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 occasion 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 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, 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

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 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, ver. 52, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat? And many, even of his disciples, 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 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. 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 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 diáconos ?" 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.

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 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, 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 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

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