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was the choice of the apostles exactly adjusted; a company of poor, ignorant, illiterate men; who, as Christ himself tells us, Matt. xi. 25, and Luke x. 21, were not of the "wise and prudent" men of the world: they were, in that respect, but mere children. These, convinced by the miracles they saw him daily do, and the unblamable life he led, might be disposed to believe him to be the Messiah: and though they, with others, expected a temporal kingdom on earth, might yet rest satisfied in the truth of their Master, (who had honoured them with being near his person) that it would come, without being too inquisitive after the time, manner, or seat of his kingdom, as men of letters, more studied in their rabbins, or men of business, more versed in the world, would have been forward to have been. Men, great or wise in knowledge, or ways of the world, would hardly have been kept from prying more narrowly into his design and conduct; or from questioning him about the ways and measures he would take, for ascending the throne; and what means were to be used towards it, and when they should in earnest set about it. Abler men, of higher births or thoughts, would hardly have been hindered from whispering, at least to their friends and relations, that their Master was the Messiah; and that, though he concealed himself to a fit opportunity, and until things were ripe for it, yet they should, ere long, see him break out of his obscurity, cast off the cloud, and declare himself, as he was, King of Israel. But the ignorance and lowness of these good, poor men, made them of another temper. They went along, in an implicit trust on him, punctually keeping to his commands, and not exceeding his commission. When he sent them to preach the Gospel, he bid them preach "the kingdom of God" to be at hand; and that they did, without being more particular than he had ordered, or mixing their own prudence with his commands, to promote the kingdom of the Messiah. They preached it, without giving, or so much as intimating that their Master was he: which men of another condition, and an higher education, would scarce have forborn to have done. When he asked them, who they

thought him to be; and Peter answered, "The Messiah, the Son of God," Matt. xvi. 16, he plainly shows by the following words, that he himself had not told them so; and at the same time, ver 20, forbids them to tell this their opinion of him to any body. How obedient they were to him in this, we may not only conclude from the silence of the evangelists concerning any such thing, published by them any where before his death; but from the exact obedience three of them paid to a like command of his. He takes Peter, James, and John, into a mountain; and there Moses and Elias coming to him, he is transfigured before them, Matt. xvii. 9, He charges them, saying, "See that ye tell no man what ye have seen, until the Son of man shall be risen from the dead." And St. Luke tells us, what punctual observers they were of his orders in this case, chap. ix. 36, They kept it close, and told no man, in those days, any of those things which they had

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Whether twelve other men, of quicker parts, and of a station or breeding, which might have given them any opinion of themselves, or their own abilities, would have been so easily kept from meddling, beyond just what was prescribed them, in a matter they had so much interest in; and have said nothing of what they might, in human prudence, have thought would have contributed to their master's reputation, and made way for his advancement to his kingdom; I leave to be considered. And it may suggest matter of meditation, whether St. Paul was not for this reason, by his learning, parts, and warmer temper, better fitted for an apostle after, than during our Saviour's ministry: and therefore, though a chosen vessel, was not by the divine wisdom called, until after Christ's resurrection.

I offer this only as a subject of magnifying the admirable contrivance of the divine wisdom, in the whole work of our redemption, as far as we are able to trace it, by the footsteps which God hath made visible to human reason. For though it be as easy to omnipotent power to do all things by an immediate over-ruling will, and so to make any instruments work, even con

trary to their nature, in subserviency to his ends; yet his wisdom is not usually at the expense of miracles, (if I may so say) but only in cases that require them, for the evidencing of some revelation or mission to be from him. He does constantly (unless where the confirmation of some truth requires it otherwise) bring about his purposes by means operating according to their natures. If it were not so, the course and evidence of things would be confounded, miracles would lose their name and force, and there could be no distinction between natural and supernatural.

There had been no room left to see and admire the wisdom, as well as innocence of our Saviour, if he had rashly every where exposed himself to the fury of the Jews, and had always been preserved by a miraculous suspension of their malice, or a miraculous rescuing him out of their hands. It was enough for him once to escape from the men of Nazareth, who were going to throw him down a precipice, for him never to preach to them again. Our Saviour had multitudes that followed him for the loaves; who barely seeing the miracles that he did, would have made him king. If to the miracles he did, he had openly added, in express words, that he was the Messiah, and the king they expected to deliver them, he would have had more followers, and warmer in the cause, and readier to set him. up at the head of a tumult. These indeed God, by a miraculous influence, might have hindered from any such attempt: but then posterity could not have believed, that the nation of the Jews did, at that time, expect the Messiah, their king and deliverer; or that Jesus, who declared himself to be that king and deliverer, showed any miracles amongst them, to convince them of it; or did any thing worthy to make him be credited or received. If he had gone about preaching to the multitude, which he drew after him, that he was the

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Messiah, the king of Israel," and this had been evidenced to Pilate; God could indeed, by a supernatural influence upon his mind, have made Pilate pronounce him innocent, and not condemn him as a malefactor, who had openly, for three years together, preached

sedition to the people, and endeavoured to persuade them, that he was "the Messiah, their king," of the royal blood of David, come to deliver them. But then I ask, Whether posterity would not either have suspected the story, or that some art had been used to gain that testimony from Pilate? Because he could not (for nothing) have been so favourable to Jesus, as to be willing to release so turbulent and seditious a man; to declare him innocent, and to cast the blame and guilt of his death, as unjust, upon the envy of the Jews.

But now, the malice of the Chief Priests, Scribes, and Pharisees; the headiness of the mob, animated with hopes, and raised with miracles; Judas's treachery, and Pilate's care of his government, and of the peace of his province, all working naturally as they should; Jesus, by the admirable wariness of his carriage, and an extraordinary wisdom, visible in his whole conduct; weathers all these difficulties, does the work he comes for, uninterruptedly goes about preaching his full appointed time, sufficiently manifests himself to be the Messiah, in all the particulars the Scriptures had foretold of him; and, when his hour is come, suffers death: but is acknowledged, both by Judas that betrayed, and Pilate that condemned him, to die innocent. For, to use his own words, Luke xxiv. 46, "Thus it is written, and thus it behoved the Messiah to suffer." And of his whole conduct we have a reason and clear resolution in those words to St. Peter, Matt. xxvi. 53, "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the Scripture be fulfilled, that thus it must be?”

Having this clew to guide us, let us now observe, how our Saviour's preaching and conduct comported with it in the last scene of his life. How cautious he had been in the former part of his ministry, we have already observed. We never find him to use the name of the Messiah but once, until he now came to Jerusalem, this last Passover. Before this, his preaching and miracles were less at Jerusalem, (where he used to make but very short stays) than any where else. But now he comes six days

before the feast, and is every day in the temple teaching; and there publicly heals the blind and the lame, in the presence of the Scribes, Pharisees, and Chief Priests. The time of his ministry drawing to an end, and his hour coming, he cared not how much the Chief Priests, elders, rulers, and the Sanhedrim were provoked against him by his doctrine and miracles: he was as open and bold in his preaching, and doing the works of the Messiah now at Jerusalem, and in the sight of the rulers, and of all the people, as he had been before cautious and reserved there, and careful to be little taken notice of in that place, and not to come in their way more than needs. All that he now took care of was, not what they should think of him, or design against him (for he knew they would seize him), but to say or do nothing that might be a just matter of accusation against him, or render him criminal to the governor. But, as for the grandees of the Jewish nation, he spares them not, but sharply now reprehends their miscarriages publicly in the temple; where he calls them, more than once, "hypocrites," as is to be seen, Matt. xxiii. And concludes all with no softer a compellation than "serpents," and "a generation of vipers."

After this severe reproof of the Scribes and Pharisees, being retired with his disciples into the "Mount of Olives," over-against the temple, and there foretelling the destruction of it; his disciples ask him, Matt. xxiv. 3, &c. "When it should be, and what should be the sign of his coming ?" He says to them, "Take heed that no man deceive you for many shall come in my name," (i. e. taking on them the name and dignity of the Messiah, which is only mine) "saying, I am the Messiah, and shall deceive many. But be not you by them misled, nor by persecution driven away from this fundamental truth, that I am the Messiah; "for many shall be scandalized," and apostatize; "but he that endures to the end, the same shall be saved: and this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world;" i. e. the good news of me, the Messiah, and my kingdom, shall be spread through the world. This was the great and only point of belief they were warned to stick to; and this is inculcated again, ver. 23—26,

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