}} LIBRA.RY (IF THK Theological Seminary. PRINCETON, N. J. BR A5 .H8A 1843 ' " Cu^ Marsden, John Howard, 1803- An examination of certain ^'^' passages in our Lord's AN EXAMINATION OF CERTAIN PASSAGES IN OUR LORD'S CONVERSATION WITH NICODEMUS. EIGHT DISCOURSES PREACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE IN THE YEAR MDCCCXLIII. AT THE LECTURE FOUNDED BY THE REV. JOHN HULSE, M. A. BY THE / REV. JOHN HOWARD MARSDEN, B.D. RECTOR OF GRKAT OAKLEY, ESSEX, AND LATE FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE. LONDON WILLIAM PICKERING MDCCCXLIV TO THE REV. WILLIAM WHEWELL, D.D. MASTER OF TRINITY COLLEGE, AND LATE VICE-CHANCELLOR, THE REV. RALPH TATHAM, D.D. MASTER OP ST. JOHN's COLLEGE, AND THE REV. JAMES SCHOLEFIELD, M.A. REGIUS PROFESSOR OF GREEK, PREACHED BY THEIR APPOINTMENT, ARE MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. THE duty of" the Lecturer or Preacher, appointed under the Will of the late Rev. John Hulse, M. A. of St. John's College, was originally to preach twenty Sermons during the year at St. Mary's Church in Cambridge; upon '* The Evidence for Revealed Religion ; the Truth and Excellence of Christianity ; or the more difficult Texts and obscure parts of the Holy Scriptures, such as might appear to be more generally useful and necessary to be explained." By an order of the Court of Chancery, the number of Lectures has been reduced to eight : and the Preacher is required to print them within twelve months after the deli- very of the last Lecture. LECTURE T. Our Lord speaks with less reserve than was his custom afterwards. — Period of this interview. — Scanty records of his early life. — Two stages therein. — Prevalent notions at the time respecting baptism. — Super- natural appearance at our Lord's baptism. — Notoriety of it. John hi. 2. The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him ; Rabbi, we knoto that thou art a teacher come from God. LECTURE II. Probability that Nicodemus would be acquainted with these facts. — His motive in seeking the interview. — He would understand the text (iii. 5.) literally. — Such interpretation accords with the rest of Scripture. — Meaning and importance thus given to the baptism of our Lord himself. — This announcement in some degree anticipatory. — Progressive dig- nity of the Jewish baptism, John's baptism, and the Christian Sacrament. John hi. 5. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. LECTURE III. Discussion of the question, whether Nicodemus would expect the Messiah to be a divine Personage. — Examination of opinions on this subject from the earliest times. John hi. 16. God so loved the world that he gave his only-hegotten Son. LECTURE IV. A divine Messiah expected by the more enlightened ; a temporal Prince by all. — Profligacy of the Jewish Rulers. — Causes of their rejection of Jesus. — Their cavillings against him. — They charge him with blas- phemy. — The effect of his miracles is thus nullified. John hi. 19. This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than tight, because their deeds were evil. VI II CONTKXrs. LECTURE V. Our Lord announces his future crucifixion. — The same mode of death prefigured of old. — Process by which it was brought to pass. — The San- liedrim adjudged him guilty of death, because he called himself the " Son of God." — Import of this phrase. — Regularity of the proceedings at his trial. — Verdict given with apparent sincerity, John hi. 14. As Moses lifted rip the serpent i)i the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man he lifted tip. LECTURE VL Jesus was " lifted up," in order that they who " believe in him " may be saved. — Probability that Nicodemus would understand this to be spoken of an expiatory sacrifice. — Nature of this " belief." — Not a mere act of the understanding. John iir. 14, 15. As Moses lifted 7ip the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up ; that whosoever believeth in him should 7iot perish, but have ever- Lasting life. LECTURE VIL Declaration of our Lord that he had come down from heaven. — This de- scent took place at his birth. — He declares his omnipresence. — His eternal filiation a necessary inference from his own words. John hi. 13. And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. LECTURE VIIL The offer of salvation not confined to the Jews. — This would surprise Nico- demus. — The aggravated guilt of the Jews. — Tlie fulfilment upon them- selves of their own Imprecation. — Conclusion. John hi. 17. For God sent not his Son into the tvorld to condemn the world ; but that the woi-lil throu>:}i liim m/"-/if be fuved. "^.. LECTURE I. JOHN IIL 2. THE SAME CAME TO JESUS BY NIGHT, AND SAID UNTO HIM ; RABBI, WE KNOW THAT THOU ART A TEACHER COME FROM GOD. TT is worthy of observation, that one of the fullest exhibitions of the scheme of redemption which our Saviour ever delivered, was addressed, not to his chosen disciples, as might have been expected, but to a Pharisee ; not in the light of day, and before an as- sembled multitude, but in the secresy and stillness of night. Although brief, and apparently made at the very commencement of his ministry, it will be found in scope more comprehensive than that longer and more formal address, which he delivered on taking leave of his disciples in the night preceding his cru- cifixion. In this, however, there was no deviation from our Lord's usual practice. Neither to the multitude at large, nor to his chosen followers in private, were the announcements which he made respecting his LECTURE I. character and person, either direct or frequent. One of the clearest declarations which he is represented to have given of his Messiah-ship, occurred in a conversation held like the present with a single per- son, and that person a Samaritan. He seems in general to have avoided the subject altogether. In reply to the plain question, " Who art thou ?"^ and to the remonstrances addressed to him on his reserve,^ he was equally incommunicative. When they de- manded to know his authority, he evaded the ques- tion. ^ On several occasions the unclean spirits were charged not to make him known. And in the last year of his ministry, when Peter, in the name of all his disciples, had made a profession of their belief in him as the Messiah and the Son of God, he laid upon them a strict injunction not to divulge it. * In fact, this temporary suppression of his claims, was a necessary process in the developement of that great scheme, which the Son of God came upon earth to execute. Without it, he would have been in daily peril of his life. He could not have gone at large among the people for that period of time, which was allotted in the divine counsels to the completion of his ministry. He could not, by mi- racles and teaching, have aiforded that full evidence of his being the Christ, which the world now pos- ' John viii. 25. ~ John x. 24. 3 Matf. xxi. 23. 1 Matt. xvi. 20. LECTURE I. '3 sesses. If he had at once proclaimed himself to be a King, his enemies would at once have found an opportunity of denouncing him to the Roman au- thorities as a stirrer up of sedition; and his ministry would have come to a sudden and premature termi- nation. For the same reason, he was accustomed on certain occasions to escape from their jealousy, by departing out of Judaea into Galilee. *' He would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him."^ How necessary this caution was to his safety, will appear from the following incident as recorded in his life. After the raising of Lazarus there was a special convocation of the Sanhedrim, and it was resolved at all hazards to put him to death. When this meeting took place, a short period had to intervene before the Feast of the Passover : and if they had at once succeeded in their design, that remarkable coincidence in point of time between the type and the reality, the slaying of the Paschal Lamb, and the crucifixion of the Redeemer, would not have taken place. But he defeated their inten- tion ; " he walked no more openly among the Jews." ^ Short as was the period which elapsed before ^^his hour was come," for that short period his life would have been in continual jeopardy, had he not adopted this precaution. When the Passover 5 John vii. 1. ^' John xi. 54. 4 LECTURE I. was fully come, he appeared again among the people openly. And besides the danger lest his course should be brought to an abrupt termination by the enmity of the Jews and the jealousy of the Romans, there was another cause for this reserve. It was necessary that his reputation among men should be in all respects without reproach and blameless. It was necessary that after a life spent in the daily exercise of meekness, patience, and humility, a life in every point conformable to the prophecies respecting him, he should at last be led as a sheep to the slaughter ; that not even the shadow of offence should rest upon him ; that he should be free from spot or imputation even at the hands of his enemies. If he had openly and at once announced himself as the Messiah, this would not have been the case. The multitude would have risen up in rebellion, and placed him at their head. One single declaration in public from his own lips would have been sufficient. For even without any such declaration, those five thousand men who had been fed with miraculous food in the wilderness, were so eager to proclaim him as the Messiah, that it was only by escaping into the solitude of a moun- tain, that he prevented them from taking him by force to make him a King. Had it not been for the caution which he habitually practised, instead of leaving behind him the recorded and repeated con- viction of the Roman Procurator, that he was without LECTURE I. ^ fault, he would have been summarily executed as a turbulent and seditious malefactor. But most truly was he offered up as a lamb without spot or blemish : his entire innocence being manifest to all the world, even to those who gave him up to be crucified. He was condemned, indeed, by the Sanhedrim : by them he was pronounced guilty of blasphemy, and worthy of death. But upon that sentence of the Sanhedrim is founded, as will presently be shown, an unanswerable argument in support of one of the main articles of the Christian faith. It stands an everlasting record of his having declared himself to be the Son of God, in the strictest sense of the expression. These observations will suffice to show, that the explicitness of our Lord's declarations in his con- versation with Nicodemus, is accounted for by those very circumstances which at first may have excited surprise. The fact of its having taken place by night, and with only one person, sufficiently ac- counts for the absence of our Lord's ordinary reserve : for although that person was a Pharisee, he was neither an enemy nor a spy. It was a conversation with a man of education and learning, a Master in Israel : one better versed in the interpretation of the prophecies, and more likely to be free from vulgar prejudice, than our Lord's ordinary disciples. We are prepared, then, to expect, that he should enter into the subject more deeply, and make more explicit o LECTURE I. declarations respecting the mystery of redemption, than his custom was in general. The period at which this interview took place, was shortly subsequent to the first Passover after the commencement of his ministry. For a while he re- mained in the city, and wrought miracles : but '^ although many believed on him, he did not commit himself unto them,"^ having already found how ne- cessary it was to practise caution. He had been publicly proclaimed to be the Messiah by John at Bethabara : and the tidings of this announcement, as well as of the supernatural appearance of the Holy Spirit at his baptism, must ere this have been well noised abroad. The indignation, too, which he had expressed on witnessing the profanation of the Temple by .the money-changers, and the authority with which he expelled them, and the use of that significant expression, — " my Father's house,^" — must have filled men's minds with a spirit of enquiry and speculation. With a view, then, to obtain from his own mouth something more definite and au- thentic than common hearsay, this cautious Pharisee sought a private interview. Not, as some have thought, with a sinister motive, like those of his brethren who sought to entangle Jesus in his talk ; for he would in that case have preferred to make the exposure public. But simply desirous to hold the " Jolin ii. 21. » John ii. 16. LECTURE I. ' conference with becoming seriousness, and to avoid the danger of interruption and ridicule. And that which he so faithfully sought, was freely and fully granted. He was permitted to contemplate the wondrous scheme of sanctification and redemp- tion. It was revealed to him, not indeed that Jesus was the Messiah, which seems to have been taken for granted from the first ; but that he was the '' only begotten Son of God," and that this filial relation existed antecedently to his appearance in the flesh. That the Father, of his great love to mankind, gave him up for their salvation. That he must be crucified. And that every true believer, being received into his kingdom by baptism, and renewed by the Holy Spirit, will be saved from perdition, and admitted into everlasting life. That Nicodemus was admitted at once to a clear comprehension of these great and. mysterious doc- trines, is more, perhaps, than we should be justified in asserting. It is probable that our Lord, accord- ing to his practice, spoke in terms which at the time were imperfectly understood ; but which aflforded a complete knowledge of the truth to such as chose to reflect upon them afterwards. However this may be, the inquirer's doubts were set at rest, and he em- braced the faith in sincerity. On two subsequent occasions, we find him devoting the influence of his station and the resources of his worldly substance, to the Saviour in whom he had believed. When the ^ LECTURE I. Sanhedrim, alarmed at our Lord's increasing popula- rity, and annoyed to find that even their own emissa- ries returned to them with a conviction of his super- human character, scornfully enquired whether any of the Rulers or Pharisees believed on him, Nico- demus, who was one of the council, pointed out the injustice of condemning a man without enquiry, and without evidence of his having transgressed the law. And after the crucifixion, when Joseph of Arima- thea offered his own newly-made sepulchre for the reception of the body, Nicodemus presented an abundant supply of spices for the embalming. These events are both of them recorded by the same Evan- gelist who records the present conversation ; to which, indeed, he attaches so much importance, that al- though his Gospel was written more than half a century after it took place, he does not in either instance introduce the name of Nicodemus, without making a special allusion to this nocturnal inter- view. To the investigation of certain passages in this important and memorable conversation — memorable, as having been the first, and important, as having been one of the fullest exhibitions of divine truth which the Saviour ever delivered, — I would venture to invite your attention. It has been selected as a subject, not, as I trust, presumptuously; but in ac- cordance with the obligation laid upon me by the founder of this Lecture, as being one of the '' more LECTURE I. y difficult and obscure parts of Holy Scripture, such as appear more generally useful to be explained." With this apology for entering upon an investigation, in the course of which must be discussed certain points both of fact and doctrine, on which divines of great learning and piety have held conflicting opinions, I would express also an anxious desire to state those opinions faithfully, and with a single eye to the truth. In such a spirit would I strive to fulfil the trust, that the pious Prayer of the Founder may pre- vail, and that the divine blessing may go forth with his benefaction : " that the Greatest and Best of beings, by his all-wise Providence and gracious in- fluence, may make the same eflectual to the pur- poses for which it was intended." It is to be observed, that in the long portion of our Saviour s incarnate life, which elapsed between his infancy and the public announcement of his Messiah-ship by the Baptist, only one personal ac- tion, namely, the conversation with the Doctors in the Temple, has been recorded by the Evangelists. That event, however, must be regarded as one of considerable importance, inasmuch as there dropped from his lips, even then, an intimation of his relation to the Father, and of a certain work which he had undertaken to perform. It forms, indeed, a sort of connecting link between the supernatural events in the early part of his life, of which he was the object, and those in the three years before its con- 10 LECTURE 1 elusion, in which he was the agent. It would render more vivid his mother's recollection of those mysterious declarations concerning him, which she had never ceased to ponder in her heart. And with regard to ourselves, it gives us reason to believe, that if any other events of importance in their bear- ing upon his character, any acts of public teaching, any miracles, had taken place during this long inter- val, the same Spirit under whose guidance that con- versation has been recorded, would not have suffered other events of equal importance to remain unnoticed. It gives us sufficient reason to conclude, that as the Son of God became verily a man, so his childhood and youth passed over like the same seasons in the life of an ordinary mortal. Among the rude inhabi- tants of .that obscure town in which he abode, so little was he supposed to differ from his brethren according to the flesh, that when he began to attract their notice by a superhuman power of healing, their exclamation was : — "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James ?" ^ It is clear, then, that in our Saviour's incarnate life upon earth, there were two stages widely differ- ing from each other in their character. In the for- mer, the beams of the Godhead were in a much greater degree obscured by the fleshly nature which he had put on, than in the latter. It was un- ^ Mark vi. 3. LECTURE I. H doubtedly a stupendous depth of humiliation from the " glory which he had with the Father," when he went about healing the sick, casting out devils, and raising the dead. But the humiliation was deeper still, when he dwelt for the space of nearly thirty years with the family who were his kinsfolk accord- ing to the flesh ; passing among the simple inha- bitants of Nazareth, as one who differed in no single point from such as they were themselves. Let us now proceed to inquire, at what period our Saviour advanced from the lower state of his in- carnate life to the higher ; and whether the change was marked by any outward circumstances which the inspired historians have been directed to record. When Jesus had arrived at the thirtieth year of his age, John the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth, of whom it had been announced before his birth, that he should " make ready the way of the Lord his God, in the spirit and powder of Elias," ^° began to preach and baptize in the wilderness of Judaea. He proclaimed the near approach of that event which the whole nation were anxiously looking for; and he applied to it the particular phrase, which to their expectations and prejudices was most congenial. He spoke of it as a Kingdom : — " the Kingdom of heaven is at hand." ^^ By way of preparation for the admission into this Kingdom, he inculcated the ne- i« Luke i. 17. " Matt. iii. 2. 12 LECTURE I cessity of repentance : and to such as applied to him for advice, he delivered precepts of a stricter morality than they had hitherto practised. It soon became evident, indeed, that the kingdom of which he spoke was of a very different character from that to which they had been accustomed to look forward. He proclaimed, it is true, that in order to smooth the way for this mighty conqueror who was approaching, " every valley was to be filled, every mountain and hill to be brought low."^^ But the preparation of which he spoke was figurative : it was a levelling of the proud imaginations of the human heart. The meek and lowly ones were to be exalted : the lofty spirits to be brought low. The salvation of the Lord was about to be manifested to his creatures ; and all flesh, all mankind without respect of persons, were to be admitted to participate in its bless- ings.^^ He spoke, too, of the person and office of Him who was approaching. He announced him as ^* the only-begotten Son," which still abides " in the bosom of the Father," " although incarnate upon earth. He alluded to his pre-existence,^^ and to his future office as a judge.^''* In an especial manner he called their attention to him as a sacrifice, an expiatory victim. 12 Luke iii. 5. ^ Luke iii. 6. 1* John i. 18. 15 John i. 15. 10 Matt. iii. 12. LECTURE r. 13 even " the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world." ^^ And to such as faithfully received his announce- ments, and complied with his exhortations to repent- ance; signifying also their desire to embrace the redemption offered through that sacrifice of the Lamb of God ; to such he administered the rite of Baptism. Apprizing them at the same time that there would be another and a far superior baptism, a baptism ac- companied with an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, one to which this baptism of his own was merely in- troductory and subordinate. ^^ I indeed baptize you with water, unto repentance : but He that cometh after me is mightier than I ; He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." ^^ So far exalted is he in power and dignity above all whom he comes to visit, that I his forerunner am not worthy to per- form for him the vilest office of drudgery. I am not worthy to unloose the latchet of his shoes.^^ And yet, to the baptism of his forerunner did the Saviour of the world present himself. Well might John shrink from the performance of his office upon so illustrious a recipient. Rightly did he appreciate the benefits of that future baptism, when he ex- claimed, " I have need to be baptized of thee : and comest thou to me ?"^" 17 John i. -29. ^^ Matt. iii. 11. 19 Luke iii. 16. -» Matt. iii. 14. 14 LECTURIi I. True, indeed, it was, that John had need of those spiritual benefits, which were at a subsequent period to be conveyed to the faithful in baptism by the in- stitution of Christ. But the Son of Man was now in his humiliation ; and its full efficacy was not given to baptism until after he had been glorified. Having consented, then, to be born among those to whom God by his prophet had given this prior baptism, he meekly submitted to it as to one of God's ordinances. He overruled the scruples of the Baptist, and re- plied ; '^ Suffer it to be so now ; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness."^^ It is of importance to know in what light the rite of baptism was regarded by the Jews, at the period when these events took place. We shall find that it was no novelty. Besides the manifold washings and purifications enjoined by the law, it was the custom not only to circumcize, but to baptize also, every proselyte. All the rest of mankind being looked upon as unclean, were deemed incapable of admission into the covenant of Israel without a washing or baptism, to signify their purification from that uncleanness. When thus admitted, they were understood to commence a new life : and it mio-ht appropriately be said of them, that they were " born again." The same idea, and the same figurative mode of 2» Matt. iii. 15. LECTURE I. 15 expressing it, are found to have prevailed also among the Greeks, in the case of any person who being long absent from his family and unheard of, was supposed to have perished in a foreign land. They performed his funeral obsequies, and looked upon him as dead. And if it happened that after all this he returned to them in safety, still the de- filement of the dead rested upon him : he was regarded as unlucky and profane ; from all religious sacrifices and ceremonies he was excluded, and forbidden to associate even with the members of his own family. In this predicament did he remain until he had been washed with water, a ceremony which was supposed to cleanse him from pollution, and render him admissible to the privileges of society. Having before been looked upon as dead, he now entered upon a new life, and was born again : the washing, both in this instance and in that of the Jews already mentioned, being evidently analogous to that of an infant newly-born. When the Saviour of the world presented himself to be baptized by John, the rite was administered to him under circumstances of a strange and super- natural character. As soon as he came up out of the water, the heavens were opened, and John beheld the Holy Spirit as a dove descend and light upon him; and a voice was heard out of heaven, proclaiming him to be the beloved Son of the Father, in whom He was well pleased. John had already been apprized 16 LECTURE I. by an express act of revelation, that the person upon whom a visible descent of the Spirit should thus take place, would be One who should himself baptize with the Spirit. And he bare record that this person was the " Son of God," — " the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world." After his baptism, Jesus was carried by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness : and there during a mira- culous fast of forty days, he underwent a severe and mysterious temptation. And it is to be observed, that the tempter's mode of attack, in two instances out of the three which are recorded, was grounded upon the special fact of our Lord's now appearing in a new and divine character. '' If thou be the Son" OF God," give a visible and satisfactory proof of thy divinity ; '*' command that these stones be made bread." '^ If thou be the Son of God," cast thyself down among the multitude in the courts below; who, beholding thee supported in thy descent by angels, and coming down amid the clouds of heaven, will acknowledge thee triumphantly to be the Messiah of their long-cherished expectations. No sooner was this mysterious interview con- cluded, than " angels came and ministered to him ;" a service which does not appear to have been rendered to him, since they proclaimed his birth to the shep- herds. Indications of his divine nature and cha- racter began to present themselves. Having gathered around him twelve chosen associates, he commenced LECTURE I. 17 that public course of miracles and teaching, which he continued until his crucifixion. He who had hitherto been known only as the Carpenter's Son of Nazareth, assumed a character of such mysterious dignity, as to excite amazement wherever he ap- peared. And be it observed, that the period of this change is explicitly marked by all the Evangelists, as simultaneous with his baptism in the Jordan, when he received a visible communication of the Holy Ghost. The simple fact of his going to John to be bap- tized, would attract little or no remark. Among the multitudes who flocked around him from every part of Judea, that mingled assemblage of Pharisees and Sadducees, soldiers and publicans, from whom '* the kingdom of heaven suffered violence," the mere cir- cumstance of a stranger from Nazareth being bap- tized, and he too of obscure condition, having the form of a servant, might be passed over without any special observation. But for the same reason, any unusual or supernatural appearance that might occur, would be the more extensively noised abroad. Every one would carry away the report of it ; and to such as became interested in our Lord's miracles and teaching, it could not fail to be a constant subject of inquiry and meditation. It must be remembered, that the Baptist publicly bare record of all that he had heard and seen ; and that he proclaimed our Lord's exalted office and divine nature, in the c 18 LECTURE I. plainest language. And such was the esteem and reverence paid to his character as a Prophet by the multitude, that every thing which fell from his lips would be quickly and widely circulated, and pro- duce a deep impression upon every serious mind. In conclusion, I will venture to call your attention to the following recapitulation of facts. Our blessed Saviour, in commencing his public ministry, in passing from the state in which his divine power was quiescent, into another, in which that power was daily and hourly exercised, — from a state in which he passed among men as the member of a lowly household in Nazareth, into another, in which he was proclaimed by the Baptist to be the Messiah, the Saviour, the Son of God, — received a visible baptism of water and the Spirit. This was publicly testified by the Baptist himself. And the Baptist also declared that it had previously been revealed to him from Heaven, that the Person upon whom at his baptism he should witness that descent of the Spirit, should himself baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire. LECTURE II. JOHN III. 5. EXCEPT A MAN BE BORN OF WATER AND OF THE SPIRIT, HE CANNOT ENTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD. THE principal events which were brought before your notice in the last Lecture, are so closely connected with the prosecution of the subject in the present, that it is necessary to recall them to your recollection. It was shown that our blessed Saviour in commencing his public ministry, in passing from a state in which his divine power was quiescent, into another in which it was daily exercised, — from a state in which he was recognized only as the Car- penter's Son of Nazareth, into another in which the Baptist proclaimed him to be the only-begotten Son of God, — it was shown that in the period of this transition, he received from John the rite of baptism, which was accompanied by a visible descent of the Holy Spirit. And that the Baptist had been in- formed by a special revelation, that the Person upon 20 LECTURE II. whom he should witness such a descent of the Spirit, " the same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." ^ With facts so full of importance, occurring at a time when men's minds were strained to an intense degree of curiosity upon this particular subject, it is only reasonable to assume that Nicodemus would be well acquainted. A Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrim can scarcely be supposed to have inte- rested himself so far in the claims and character of one, whom his colleagues regarded with an evil eye, without previously making himself acquainted with the principal events which had stamped upon that Personage a strange and mysterious notoriety. As to the precise opinions which Nicodemus may be supposed to have held upon the all-absorbing subject of the Messiah's advent, we may form, perhaps, a fair conjecture. When John began to preach in the wilderness, he wrought no miracle : and yet the people *^ mused in their hearts whether he were the Christ or not." ^ Now Jesus, at the time when this interview took place, had been publicly announced as the Messiah by John himself, and had also began to work miracles. This was strong evidence: and if it did not carry conviction with it to the understanding of Nicodemus, it induced him at all events to prosecute a diligent enquiry. In com- ' Jolin i. ;i.i. '^ Luke iii. 15. LECTURE II. 21 mon with the great mass of his countrymen, he doubt- less expected that the Messiah would sit upon an earthly throne, and exercise an earthly dominion. And in common with the more enlightened few, who had searched the Scriptures, and explored the trea- sures of ancient tradition and prophecy, he probably expected that this mighty Prince and Deliverer would be of a more exalted nature than those whom he came to save. But whenever the divine presence had been manifested to Israel in her favoured days of old, it was usually attended with a brightness of external glory. When God spake to Moses out of the bush, the bush burned with fire. When he went before his people in their march out of Egypt, it was in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night. In fire he descended upon Mount Sinai : and there were " thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people that was in the camp trembled."^ The idea, therefore, of this lowly Galilean peasant being received as the divine founder of an everlasting and universal empire, filled him with amazement, and confounded him. But might he not, by means of a private interview, be admitted to the secret of some glorious manifes- tation yet to come, — some mysterious putting aside ^ Ejtodus xix. 16. 22 LECTURE 11. of the fleshly disguise, and assumption of the splen- dours of divinity ? Such an expectation was cherished by our Lord's chosen disciples up to the last ; and it may fairly be supposed to have suggested itself to the mind of Nicodemus. He does not, however, make any further profession of belief, than that Jesus is a teacher sent from God. On the ground of his miracles, the testimony of which he does not, like his brethren, call in the aid of sophistry to invalidate, he acknowledges his conviction that Jesus was a Prophet. This indirect mode of askino; for information, our Lord does not condescend to notice ; but he enters at once into the great subject, which, as he well knew, occupied the thoughts of the enquirer.* He declared at once with much solemnity and earnestness, that a man is incapable of being admitted to a participation in the blessings of that kingdom which He had come upon earth to establish, unless he be " born again." Nicodemus was filled with surprise by this announce- ment of the necessity of being born again ; and the question which he put to our Lord in reference to it, is * " It is an excellent observation," (says Lord Bacon) *' which hath been made upon the answers of our Saviour Christ to many of the questions which were propounded to him, how that they are impertinent to the state of the question demanded: the reason whereof is, because not being like man, which knoweth man's thoughts by his words, but knowing" man's thoughts immediately, he never answered their words, but their thoughts." LECTURE II. 23 generally supposed to shew that he understood the phrase to have been spoken of a natural birth. Inas- much, however, as we are more mterested in the decla- rations made by our Saviour than in the exclamations of Nicodemus, we will proceed at once to his reply ; a reply of which it may safely be said, that few pas- sages in the whole range of Scripture surpass it in importance. With the same earnestness and solem- nity as before, our Lord proceeded to say, — " Verily, verily, I say unto thee ; except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." This passage is clearly intended to be explanatory of the preceding. When Jesus said, that a man must be born again, his meaning was, that he must be born of water and of the Spirit. In this passage is embodied a doctrine which it is of incalculable importance to understand aright; inas- much as it excludes, in our Saviour's own words, from the society of his servants and subjects — from that kingdom, which although at present like the grain of mustard seed, was already commencing- — every one who has not undergone a certain prepa- ratory change implied by the expression, — to be " born of water and of the spirit." We must endea- vour, therefore, to ascertain how it was understood by Nicodemus. Reverting, then, to the striking and supernatural circumstances which occurred a short time before, at the baptism of our Lord himself in the Jordan, let us 24 LECTURE If. ask, whether they would not at once be brought to the enquirer's recollection by these words? When he considered that the very person with whom he was conversing, had been himself baptized with water and the Holy Spirit, being born as it were into a new life at the precise moment when that bap- tism was administered, was he not likely to under- stand that He insisted upon the necessity of a baptism in some degree resembling it ? Was he not likely to conclude from these words, that as it had hitherto been necessary for the Gentile to be baptized, before he could be admitted among the heirs of the pro- mises and privileges of the children of Abraham, so it would henceforward be necessary for even the Jew to receive the rite of baptism, before he could be admitted to the exclusive privileges of the king- dom of the Messiah : a baptism, too, not of water only, like that of the Jewish proselytes, but of water and the Spirit, like that of Jesus himself? Here we find the cause of his amazement. When he re- collected the supernatural occurrence of which John bare record, the opening of the heavens, the descent of the Holy Ghost, and the mysterious voice, well might surprise take possession of him. And our Lord, knowing what was in his thoughts, at once proceeded to enlighten his understanding, by show- ing that such a new birth of the Spirit is necessary, in order to deliver man from his natural state of guilt and corruption; at the same time dispelling LECTURE II. 25 his amazement, by explaining that in ordinary cases the descent of the Spirit is invisible, its presence being recognized only by its effects. ** That which is born of the flesh," he said, *' is flesh : and that which is born of the Spirit, is Spirit." Born into the natural life, of sinful parents, by nature we are sinful. But when born of the Spirit, a principle being implanted by which the motions of our sinful nature are continually resisted, we are sanctified by its perpetual influence. " The soul," as St. Paul says, ** is brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ."^ This descent of the Spirit, however, is im- perceptible to the outward eye, and its operation is to be recognized only by its influence upon the life and conversation. Our Lord illustrates his meaning by a comparison with the wind. ** The wind bloweth where it listeth :" — no power of man can control or direct its force. At one time *' thou hearest the sound thereof," at another time it is still. Men are aware of its presence, and they perceive its eflects : but no one can see it when it approaches, nor watch whither it is gone. So also is the Spirit. Notwithstanding this illustration, the necessity of that change in state and relations implied by a new birth, was still to the Pharisee a doctrine hard to be understood. All his pre-conceived opinions, all his national hopes, were shaken to their very foundation. 5 2 Cor. X. 5. 26 LECTURE If. Born of the chosen seed of Abraham, of that lineage on which he had so long been taught to pride him- self, and on the ground of which he had believed himself to be an heir of the most glorious promises, must he nevertheless be born again ? That the Gentile, if he would gain admission into Messiah's kingdom, must be born again, he could easily under- stand. It would be in exact accordance with his exclusive prejudices. But to admit that any of God's ancient people were to be thrust down from the lofty privileges to which they had succeeded by inheritance, and placed on the same footing with the uncircumcised and idolatrous Gentile, was indeed a stumbling block to this Master in Israel. Our Lord reproved him for his incredulity ; in- timating at the same time that the knowledge of these things was not derived from any act of revelation, but from an essential and independent faculty re- siding within himself, and entirely his own. The Son of Man, who has " come down from heaven," must unquestionably be able to search out and dis- close the hidden mysteries of God. Besides this, our Lord continued, he who "' believes not the earthly things," the comparatively simple truths which I have told him respecting the mode of admission into my kingdom, " how shall he believe when I tell him heavenly things," — ^when all the mysteries of redemp- tion are revealed to him, the pre-existence and eternal generation of the Son of God, his death upon LECTURE II. 27 the cross, and the salvation which he will purchase with his blood for all who truly believe in him ? Let us pause for a moment, and mark the dignity of our Saviour's demeanour. The person to whom he addressed this remonstrance and rebuke, was one whom it would have been desirable, on account of the authority of his rank and learning, to gain over as a proselyte. But to gain over proselytes, as the world understands the phrase, was no part of the Redeemer's mission. His practice was to denounce error and to proclaim the truth, without concealment and without compromise; without any disposition to palliate his hearers' incredulity, or to soothe their vanity by fair speeches. Want of faith, want of know- ledge, and hardness of heart, were reproved with a dignified severity, which made no respect of persons ; and which no one, even among the wise and learned, was able to resist. *' He taught them as one having authority, and not as the Scribes."^ The arrangement, then, of the several parts of this memorable conversation is clear and connected. In the course of it are enumerated the benefits com- municated to all who belong to the kingdom of God ; but not until the mode of admission into that king- dom has been pointed out in the first instance. Every one who would be admitted therein, must be born of water and the Spirit, — baptized outwardly ^ Matt. vii. 29. 28 LtCTUKE II. with water, and inwardly with the Holy Ghost, — by a baptism, the inward and invisible eft'ect of which was outwardly represented and acted at his own. This is the simple and literal interpretation of the text : and the coherence of the several parts of the discourse, as well as the consistency of the discourse itself with the events of the preceding narrative, is obviously strengthened by it. Listen to the judicious remarks of one of our most eminent and judicious divines upon this very passage : *' I hold it for a most infallible rule, in expositions of sacred Scripture, that where a literal interpretation will stand, the farthest from the letter is commonly the worst."'' And it is to be observed, that this interpretation agrees with, and is confirmed by, every other passage in the sacred writings in which the subject is either directly or indirectly alluded to. It agrees with the declaration made by our Saviour at the time when the rite was instituted by him as a perpetual ordi- nance. ** He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." ^ It agrees with St. Peter's public ex- hortation to the first recipients of the ordinance. " Repent, and be baptized, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost/' ^ It agrees with the * Hooker, Ecclci». l^olity, B. v. 59. ' Mark xvi. 16. ^ Acts ii. 38. LECTURE ir. 29 allusion of the same Apostle in his writings to the ark of Noah ; where he says that " the like figure whereunto, even baptism, doth now save us." *® As the ark carried those eight persons over the water in safety, when the rest of mankind perished in the flood, so does baptism, by the grace therein commu- nicated, provided that it be not lost by wilful and habitual disobedience, save us from the condemnation due to a sinful world. We are admitted into the ark of Christ's Church, and are saved by the constant renovation wrought in us by the Holy Spirit, which was first given when we were regenerate in baptism. It agrees also with the tenor of that counsel given by St. Paul to Titus, when he reminded him, that they had themselves, also, been led away by all evil passions, until the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared ; *^ who, according to his mercy saved us, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost." ^* It agrees also with the doctrines taught by the Fathers of the Primitive Church, without a single exception : and it is set forth in the Articles, and embodied in the Baptismal Service, of our own. With evidence before us so clear and decisive, all further speculation upon the subject would be curious and unprofitable. What matters it whether the Al- mighty be ever pleased to communicate the regene- '" 1 Pet. iii. 21. " Titus iii. 5. 30 LECTURE IT. rating influence of the Spirit through other channels, when this is so clearly pointed out to us ? Like the Syrian of old, we should be wasting the precious moments by standing to ask whether Abana and Pharphar, rivers of Damascus, are not better than all the waters of Israel, when we have received the easy and intelligible command, to wash in the Jordan and be cleansed of our leprosy. We must neither be too indolent nor too fastidious to accept the offered means of grace. *' Know ye not, that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" ^^ If we cultivate his influence and purify his abode; if we crucify the old man, and daily pro- ceed in all virtue and godliness of living; then will he progressively form us after the divine image, and render us meet for our spiritual inheritance. But if we neglect these means of grace, they will only ag- gravate the bitterness of our condemnation. We now see the glorious advantages which accrue to mankind from our Lord's humility in submitting to the baptism of John. Who shall attempt to depre- ciate or decline the baptism of grace, when the Saviour himself declined not the baptism of repent- ance? With what alacrity should sinners hasten to the baptism ordained by their Master and Redeemer, seeing that He disdained not to offer Himself to the baptism of a servant ; humbling Himself, even to the '" 1 Cor. iii. 16. LECTURE ir. 31 receiving of that which was utterly superfluous, in order that they who need it may receive it the more gladly ! The sinless, purer than the element itself, received the baptism of sinners. He who baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire, was Himself baptized with water. " For our sakes He sanctified himself, that we also might be sanctified through the truth." '^ Who shall presume to speak unad- visedly of the baptism which He ordained as the sacrament of admission into his kingdom, when it is remembered that He consecrated the rite by His own participation in it ; sanctifying the water to the mystical washing away of sin, and giving also an outward representation of that which takes place inwardly at the baptism which He instituted ? The heavens are opened, and a bright inheritance is dis- closed to view. The Holy Spirit descends upon the recipient, and places him in a state of salvation. And a voice from heaven announces his adoption among the children of God. In this, as in many other passages in our Saviour's history, we are led to observe, how closely, in the same event, were the proofs of his humiliation in sub- mitting to put on the nature of man, united with some glorious manifestation of the inextinguishable ma- jesty of the Godhead. When he first came into the world, to what lower depth of humility could the '' John xvii. 19. 32 LECTURE IT. Son of God have descended, than to have that poor and lowly virgin for his mother : — and yet how gloriously was he announced to the shepherds by an angel, and ushered into the world with the strains of a celestial chorus ! What greater proof could there be of his humility, than to be born in the stable of a village inn, and to be cradled in a manger : — yet what greater glory, than to be manifested to the Eastern sages by a star, and to receive from them royal pre- sents, gold, frankincense, and myrrh ! What greater indignity could he have submitted to, than to be led from place to place by the Tempter, and to be as- sailed by his blasphemous suggestions : — yet what greater glory, than to receive in his triumph after the conflict the ministration and homage of angels ! How unspeakable was his forbearance, in suffering himself to be apprehended by the High Priest's servants with swords and staves like a malefactor : — how calm his dignity, when with the breath of his mouth he cast down those who assaulted him, and caused them to fall backward upon the ground ! What greater humiliation could he have endured, than to be gazed upon in his extremity with scornful indifference, like a fugitive slave upon the cross : — what proof of majesty more exalted, than by his death to eclipse the sun, and wrap the heavens in obscurity, to cleave the rocks and rend in twain the veil of the temple, to cause the earth to quake, and the graves to give up their dead ! And in like man- LECTURE IT. 33 ner, what greater humility could there be, than to go down into the river, and receive the baptism of one who was not worthy to unloose the latchet of his shoe : — and yet, what greater glory, than to receive that visible testimony of the Father and the Holy Spirit ; when the heavens were opened, and the Spirit like a dove descended upon him, and a voice was heard to say, " This is my beloved Son, in whom f am well pleased !" It has been already observed, and must still be borne in mind, that at the period of this conversation, our Lord's own sacrament of baptism, as ordained by him to be the rite of admission into his church, was not yet in existence. The Jews were in the habit of baptizing their proselytes ; and John baptized those persons who received his announcements re- specting the Messiah : but the baptism in the name of the three persons of the blessed Trinity was not instituted until afterwards. Now, since it is absurd to suppose that our Lord's allusion in the text was to the Jewish baptism, it may seem, that the only alter- native is to refer the declaration to the baptism of John, and to assume that in John's baptism there was a communication of the Holy Spirit. This, it is almost superfluous to observe, would be in direct opposition to a well-known passage in the Acts of the Apostles : where we read, that certain disciples at Ephesus, who had already been baptized after John's baptism, were required to be re-baptized in the p 34 LECTURE II. name of Christ ; because they had never " so much as heard whether there was any Holy Ghost." ^^ In order to explain this apparent difficulty, it will be necessary to revert once more to a consideration of the circumstances under which this conversation took place, and to its general character. Occurring, as it did, at the commencement of our Lord's ministry, it was in drift and substance in a great measure anllci'patory . That great and crowning event in the scheme of man's redemption, the " lifting up " of the Son of Man upon the cross, is spoken of by anticipation. The sacrifice which was to atone for sin, and to impart their efficacy to the sacramental means of grace, had not yet been offered. Men were living partly under the old dispensation, and partly under the new. The spiritual kingdom of the Messiah was not fully established, until his hu- miliation had come to an end. ^' The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified."^'* It was not until after his Ascension, that converts were admitted into his kingdom by the sacrament which he himself ordained, and which is alluded to, by anticipation, in the text. And in like manner, as, at the time when this con- versation took place, the mind of the inquirer would naturally revert to that mysterious baptism by which the subsequent ordinance was prefigured, and the '' Acts xix. 2. '^ John vii. 39. LECTURE IT. 35 water sanctified ; so, at the time when this conversa- tion was recorded^ the minds of those who perused the narrative would naturally revert to the sacramental ordinance itself, which had then been administered among them for a period of more than fifty years. And inasmuch as in the former case, our Lord said nothing to remove that impression from the mind of Nicodemus ; and in the latter, the Evangelist suffered the impression to remain unnoticed, and therefore tacitly acquiesced in ; how can we avoid the conclu- sion which forces itself upon our minds, that to give a construction merely figurative to the mention made in the text, of water in conjunction with the Spirit, is a proposition which we should have been bound in fairness to reject, even if the voice of antiquity had been silent ? In conclusion, let us advert for one moment to the progressive dignity and excellence, which is to be observed as we advance from the Jewish baptism to that of John, and from John's baptism to that of Christ. The Mosaic law was extremely precise with re- spect to cleansings. It required sacrifices, and in- sisted upon the observance of times and seasons. It separated the unclean person from the rest of the congregation. And at length the rite of baptism was administered, as a sign and seal of purification. In all these points the baptism of John was of a higher character. It required no sacrifices, no strict- 36 LECTURE n ness of purification, no observance of times and sea- sons. Every true penitent, who confessed his sins, and threw himself upon God's mercy, at once re- ceived remission. This baptism, then, was a token not merely of purification from legal defilements, but of an inward purification of the heart : the soul being impressed with a deep sense of guilt, and inspired with an earnest desire to embrace the re- demption offered through the Saviour. But the baptism of the Saviour is more excellent and exalted still. It implies a new-birth of the Spirit, — a translation from a natural state in Adam, to a spiritual state in Christ, — the implanting of a new principle of life in the soul by the operation of the Holy Ghost. And it imparts not merely forgiveness of sins, but a covenanted title to everlasting happi- ness, and an adoption among the children of God. LECTURE III. JOHN III. 16. GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD, THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY-BEGOTTEN SON. WHEN we reflect upon that obvious unity of design which pervades the entire of God's revelations ; that harmonious correspondence of types and prophecies in the Old Testament, with the nar- rative of our blessed Saviour's birth and ministry in the New, which the Jews might have examined for themselves, and to the study of which they were repeatedly directed by himself : when it is considered too, that these predictions not merely referred to the more important actions and events in which he was interested, but also particularized many subordinate circumstances with a surprising minuteness of de- tail ; not merely stating that he should be sold for pieces of silver, but specifying the actual number of them ; not merely stating that his garments should fall into the hands of his executioners, but also that one portion of them should be divided, and that for the other they should cast lots : when all this is 38 LECTURE I] I. reflected upon, we are led to inquire, especially in such investigations as the present, with what degree of clearness the Prophets of old had announced the important fact of their Messiah's divinity. It is something better than mere curiosity which prompts us to inquire, what were the prevailing opinions and expectations entertained by the Jews at the time of his appearance. Would Nicodemus, for instance, be prepared to hear the Messiah's king- dom designated, as it is in this conversation, the kingdom of God ? And if so, would the still more explicit declaration in the text, that the Messiah whom God had given to the world, was his '* only- begotten Son," be in accordance with the popular notion, or opposed to it? With respect to the former of these questions, there can be little or no doubt. When the Baptist proclaimed that the " kingdom of Heaven" was at hand, his meaning was so clearly understood, that the Priests and Levites sent at once to ask him whether he was the Christ. The origin of the expression may be found, perhaps, in that celebrated passage of Daniel, where His kingdom is described as universal and everlasting.^ And the great object of our Lord's teaching, throughout the whole of that ministry which he now commenced, was to give to this popular phrase its true and spiritual signification. ' Dan. vii. 14. LECTURE III. 39 But upon the other question, namely whether the Jews expected a mere man, or a divine person, for their Messiah, the opinions of learned men have* been divided. It is to be observed, however, that these conflicting notions have been made subservient to the same cause, namely, the confirmation of the great doctrine, that Jesus was verily the Son of God. While it is argued on the one hand, that the idea of a Trinity of Persons in the Godhead was held from the earliest ages, and that it was e^vpected that the Second Person in that Trinity would manifest himself as the Messiah, and consequently that the divinity of Christ was no new doctrine introduced by the Apostles, but an essential part of the original faith of the Jewish Church from the beginning of the world ; those persons on the other hand, who entertain the notion that the Jews expected their Messiah to be a mere man like themselves, have argued most ingeniously, that our Lord's assertion of his divinity, was the principal, if not the only cause, of their rejection of him. The sentence of death, gravely and deliberately pronounced upon him as a blasphemer, by the Sanhedrim, is alleged as a decisive proof that he asserted himself to be, in the full and proper sense of the expression, the Son of God.^ Whatever may have been the prevailing opinion * See Wilson on the New Testament. 40 LEC'IUUE III. on this subject in later ages, there can be little doubt, that in the generation immediately subsequent to ♦the issuing of the original Promise, it was generally understood that the Deliverer would be more than man. Without assuming that any particular reve- lation was made to Adam, respecting the precise import of that mysterious Promise ; or that he pos- sessed any better knowledge of its meaning than such as would be suggested by reason alone ; it may at least be assumed, that he understood that the Tempter's victory was to be nullified, and that God would assert his supremacy. The crafty and pow- erful Spirit was to give up his prey ; and that which had been lost in the first conflict, was to be regained in the second. But man had succumbed to the wiles of this fearful adversary, when arrayed in all the strength of native innocence ; how then could he be expected to subdue him, after that panoply of innocence had been taken away ? The *^ strong man armed" was now keeping his palace, and his goods were in peace. In peace, therefore, would they continue ; until " a stronger than he " should come upon him, and take from him all his armour, wherein he trusted, and divide his spoil. ^ That the slave of Satan, enfeebled, corrupted, and degraded by sin, already held in dire and helpless thraldom, should be expected not only to throw oflp his fetters, but to ^ Luke xi. 21. LECTURE 111. 41 put an end also to the dominion of his enslaver, is altogether incredible. In after times, as the nature and effects of the Fall itself came to be misunder- stood, other views of a more earthly character super- vened ; and, at least among the multitude, the idea of a divine Deliverer would seem to have been lost. But in the primitive and patriarchal ages, although it was revealed, that of the '* seed of the woman " this mighty Deliverer was to spring, they could scarcely suppose that he would partake of the wo- man's nature. The Promise seems to have been carefully trea- sured up among the patriarchal Traditions. The first allusion to it is met with on an occasion when we are prepared to expect it; namely, when Eve brought into the world her first-born. *' I have gotten a man from the Lord," * was the exclamation of her pride and delight. It was doubtless her hope, that this child would prove the Avenger, and would bruise the serpent's head. And if we admit an interpretation which rests upon no mean authority, we find here an allusion not only to his person, but also to his nature. For it has been translated by certain critics, Jewish as well as Christian, — " I have gotten a man, which is the Lord." In the next place, we find an allusion to the Promise in the history of the respective sacrifices of * Gen. iv. 1. 42 LECTURE III. Cain and Abel. " The Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering : but unto Cain and to his offer- ing he had not respect."^ There was a certain quali- fication or principle residing in Abel, by which he was enabled to offer a sacrifice more excellent and acceptable than that of his brother. And this prin- ciple, as we are expressly informed in the Epistle to the Hebrews, was faith.^ In faith was the one sacri- fice offered, in unbelief the other. The same passage gives us also a special definition of faith. It is " the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen f"^ — that is, a firm belief in the decla- rations of God, and as full a persuasion of the reality of things future and invisible, as if they were the objects of sense. What declaration, then, respecting things future and invisible, did the one brother re- cognize and the other reject, in the offering of their respective sacrifices ? It must have been something beyond the first and fundamental principles of religion : inasmuch as the great truth that " God is, and that He is a rewarder of all who diligently seek Him," was recognized by the two brothers alike, in the act of worship which they were performing. It must^ indeed, have been something connected with the sacrifices themselves : for the historian expressly ^ Gen. iv. 4. 6 Heb. xi. 4. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. 7 Heb. xi. 1. LECTURE III. 43 states, that " to Abel and to his offering, the Lord had respect ; but unto Cain, and to his offering, he had not respect." Now with regard to the intrinsic value and cha- racter of the offerings themselves, as estimated ac- cording to the light of nature alone, Cain's offering, and not Abel's, would be pronounced the more ap- propriate and the more valuable. The one consisted of the fair productions of the earth, such as had probably been offered to his Maker by Adam in the garden of Eden : — the other consisted of the bloody and reeking limbs of a slaughtered animal. The one was procured, by merely gathering from its parent tree or plant, that which seemed to invite acceptance, and which must otherwise have fallen useless to the ground : — in the preparation of the other there was a frightful spectacle of suffering, the groans and gasps and agonies of death. To the " fruits of the ground " there was attached at that primitive era no small degree of value ; both as comprising the sole means of man's sustenance, and as being also in some measure the creation of his own industry. But the flesh of animals was alto- gether useless. After the skin had been stripped off for purposes of clothing, there being as yet no per- mission to use the flesh as food, it was mere refuse. Abel offered to the Lord a sacrifice of that which cost him nothing. In short, it was in this point of view no sacrifice at all. 44 LECTURE III. It follows, then, that the faith of Abel, by which the inferior offering was rendered more excellent and more acceptable than the superior, must have been a reliance upon some revelation or p^oinise imme- diately connected with that offering. Within these narrow limits we must confine it. Now, even if this restriction had not existed, and if there had been no reason to conclude that AbeFs faith amounted to anything more definite than a general belief in God's promises; even in that case, the original Promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, must not only have been included in the number, but must also have been extremely prominent among them. And if it was a 'particular faith, connected in some way or other with this particular offerings what can we suppose it to have been, but a belief that the pro- mise would be fulfilled by a future sacrifice, even the '*Lamb slain from the foundation of the world?"* Abel comes before the Lord as a penitent, praying for grace and forgiveness, bringing an expiatory sacrifice, offering an atonement by the shedding of blood. Cain presents himself as a just person, need- ing no repentance. He makes an offering, in acknow- ledgment of God's bounty, and his own dependence ; but there is nothing to signify his unworthiness, no confession of his entire wretchedness in the eyes of ^ Rev. xiii. 8. LECTURE III. 45 an offended Creator. In accordance with this view of the case, is the Almighty's expostulation with him. *' If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted ? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door."-^ If thou art perfect in thy righteousness, shalt thou not be accepted ? If thou art a sinner, thy sin, which is unatoned for, lieth at thy door. If this interpretation be correct, it follows that man must already have received some intimation of a future deliverance through the intervention of an expiatory sacrifice. ^^ And in whatever degree the nature of the redemption was comprehended, in the same degree there must have been also a compre- hension of the nature of the Redeemer. In the brief accounts which we possess of the ages between the Creation and the Deluge, although they afford at best a very obscure insight into the prevailing state of religion, and communicate but little respecting the hopes and expectations of man- kind in general, we find enough to show that the curse of the Fall was understood and felt; and that those who preserved any sense of religion, continued to cherish the hope of deliverance. Perhaps, indeed, it was specially provided for in the counsels of Infinite Wisdom, that this persuasion should never be entirely obliterated. After the lapse of ten cen- 9 Gen. iv. 7. ''^ See Euseb. Demons, Evan. lib. i. c. 8. 46 LECTURE III. turies, Noah was born ; and in the name selected for him by his father, we find an explicit allusion both to the Curse and to the Promise of deliverance. '* This same," said Lamech, '' shall comfort us, concerning our work and toil of our hands : be- cause of the ground which the Lord hath cursed." ^^ The patriarch in these words is evidently address- ing others, who, along with himself, entertained a common hope of deliverance. From which it appears, that even in that degenerate and sinful age, there were still a small company of faithful men, who had not forsaken God, nor forgotten his promises. And although he alludes more particularly to the curse upon " the ground," it cannot be supposed that the more grievous portion of it which rested upon man himself, was forgotten. It would seem, indeed, as if he had the notion of a gradual deliverance ; commencing with the lighter, and then proceeding to remove the heavier burden. This is by no means inconsistent with the tenor of subsequent revelation. For St. Paul has affirmed, that ^' the last enemy which shall be destroyed, is death." ^^ And it is to be observed, that the absence of any allusion to an exalted or divine nature, in connexion with a person expected to remove merely the lighter part of the curse, is no proof at all that such was not expected to be the nature of that mightier Deliverer, who was " Gen. V. 29. " 1 Cor. xv. 26. LECTURE III. 47 to triumph over the Tempter, and to bruise the serpent's head. We now proceed to examine what traces of a knowledge of the divine nature of the future De- liverer, may be discovered in the history of the great " father of the faithful." In treating of the respective sacrifices of Cain and Abel, it has been shown how much reason there is to believe, that some prophetical intimation of the scheme of redemption by an expiatory sacrifice, had been communicated to mankind from the very first. And it is affirmed by the Jewish Doctors, that when Abraham made preparation to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice upon Mount Moriah, he would not so easily have overcome the yearnings of paternal love, had he not hoped that this sacrifice would prove effica- cious to the salvation of the world. The existence of this tradition is a fact of considerable importance ; inasmuch as it shows, that among the more learned Jews the idea of an expiatory sacrifice was no novelty. But if it was indeed true, that the patriarch ima- gined that he was himself about to offer the sacrifice ; the victim being of no higher nature than his own son ; we should at once confess, that his acquaint- ance with its real purport, was far less perfect than might have been anticipated. In direct opposition, however, to the fact, we have the testimony of a passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews. It is to be observed, not only that the 48 LFXTURE III. Apostle avoids all allusion to the 7iatitre and efficacy of the sacrifice ; which would scarcely have been the case, if Abraham had really entertained the idea ascribed to him ; but also, that he represents Abra- ham's view of the fulfilment of the Promise, as altogether unconnected with the prese7it sacrifice, and extending far beyond it. The faith which he exer- cised, and which it is the main object of the Apostle's argument to illustrate, was a belief, that although Isaac, the heir of the Promise, might be slain, God was able to raise him up from the dead, in order to fulfil the Promise/^ According to the tradition, he thought that the act which he was about to perform, was a process in the fulfilment of the Promise : but according to the Apostle, he thought that it was an obstacle to that fulfilment ; and that it was necessary for his son, whom he was about to slay, to be raised to life again, before it could take place. Which two positions are clearly incompatible. But even if the tradition had been correct, and if Abraham had believed for the moment that he was about to offer a sacrifice for the removal of the curse, this erroneous notion would the next moment have been dispelled. For an instance of vicarious suffering was immediately presented to him on the same spot ; being ordained by the Almighty himself. And the original Promise was repeated in terms so '^ Heb. xi. f). LECTURE III. 49 magnificent, that when reflected upon by a mind imbued with no more traditional knowledge than that which was subsequently transmitted by Moses, they would show beyond all question that the promise was to have its fulfilment in a far greater Personage than Isaac. Abraham '' saw" the day of Christ, and " rejoiced" ^"^ in the contemplation of it. Whether we understand from this, that his eyes rested now for the first time upon objects which had never before been revealed to him ; or, which is far more probable, that he now viewed in the full blaze of spiritual light the spectacle which he had hitherto beheld only through a glass, darkly ; in either case it would be diflftcult to believe, that he expected the mighty Deliverer and Avenger, who was to compre- hend every nation of the earth within the range of the blessings which he had to distribute, could possibly be a frail and mortal creature like himself. We proceed to examine the degree of light upon this subject which was granted to Moses, as it may be traced in his own declarations in the Pentateuch. An attempt has been made to show, that indica- tions of the future Redeemer's divine nature may be discovered in that prophetical song, in which he described the fortunes of the several tribes, a short time before his death. ^^ It is possible, however, that in this inquiry, the critic's usual sagacity may have '* John viii. 56. '* Bp. Horsley, Sermon xxv. E 50 LFXTURE III. been affected by the narrow limits within which he has thought proper to confine his search. And the necessity of making alterations in the ordinary trans- lation before the allusion can be understood, impairs, in a popular point of view, the value of the testi- mony. We may pass on, therefore, to other evi- dence ; which although less direct, may perhaps be more satisfactory. An opinion has been entertained by many writers of acknowledged authority in modern times, as well as by the most ancient Jewish commentators, and the early Fathers of the Church of Christ ; that on those numerous occasions when the Deity was visibly manifested to mankind under the former dispensation, the Personage by whom the manifestation was made was the great Angel of the Covenant, the Word of God. " The Father hath no man seen at any time :" ^^ — He dwelleth " in the light which no man can ap- proach unto." ^^ And yet we read that God appeared unto Abraham in the plains of Mamre ; ^® and that he called unto Moses out of the midst of tlie bush.^^ On further examination, however, it will appear, that in several instances in which these manifesta- tions of the Deity are recorded, the same Person spoken of in one place as '^ Jehovah," in another place is called the *' Angel of the Lord." It is said. Joliii i. la. '" 1 Tim. vi. 16. Gen. xviii. 1, '' Exod. iii. 4. LECTURE III. 51 for instance, that the ^' Angel of the Lord"^" ap- peared to Moses in the wilderness ; and in the next passage that *' God"^^ called unto him; and in the next he is expressly announced as the " God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." ^^ We read again, that in the departure from Egypt, the Lord went before the children of Israel in a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire ; ^^ and yet in the same passage this divine Pro- tector is called the " Angel of God."^* Isaiah calls him the " Angel of God's presence :"^^ and to Joshua he announced himself as the '* Captain of the Lord's Host." ^^ In the declaration made to the Israelites in the 23rd chapter of Exodus, he is proclaimed to be the Angel in whom is the essential and incommu- nicable name of Jehovah : — ** beware of Him and obey his voice ; provoke Him not, for He will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in Him."^^ It is clear, then, that Jehovah, and the Angel of Jehovah, are spoken of in the Old Testament as the same Person. In the New Testament we are expressly informed that this Divine Personage was Christ. St. Paul says of the children of Israel during their wanderings in the desert, that they ^' drank of that *° Gen. iii. 2. '' Gen. iii. 4. '"'' Gen. iii. 6. " Exod. xiii. 21. ^* Exod. xiv. 19. ^^ Isaiah Ixiii. 9. "^ Joshua V. 14. " Exod. xxiii. 21. 52 LEG ru RE III. spiritual rock which followed them, and that rock was Christ." ^^ He says again that when they tempted God, they tempted Clirist.^" He brings forward Moses as an example of faith, in that he preferred to the treasures of Egypt the '^ reproach of Christ." ^° And we find St. John, in allusion to a certain passage in the prophecy of Isaiah, wherein is described a vision of the Lord in his glory, ex- pressly stating that he saw the glory of Christ.^^ We cannot, then, refuse to acquiesce in the opinion so generally entertained by ancient commentators, that the Personage, by and in whom the Almighty manifested himself to Abraham, to Moses, and to the Israelites of old, was the Second Person in the ever-blessed Trinity. And if such indeed was the case, it cannot be supposed that the more pious and enlightened among the Jews, and still less that Moses, who was ad- mitted to more familiar communication with the Ahnighty tlian any other of the sons of men, would be kept in ignorance of this important truth. Though it might be speedily isncumbered with the burden of man's inventions, of its actual existence in the world there can be very little question. To those whose understanding was gross and their eyes dim, the doctrine of a mysterious union of the divine and human natures in their promised Deliverer, would '" 1 Cor. X. i. '' 1 Cor. X. i). "" Ileb. li. 2{>. ^' John xii. U. LECTURE III. 53 appear incredible. In this, as in all other cases of a similar description, men would put such an inter- pretation upon the Scripture, as was most congenial to their feelings and early prejudices. While the devout and lowly-minded inquirer received with awful reverence the promises handed down to him from antiquity ; desirous to transmit to future ages, entire as he had received them, the hope and belief of a purer age ; others, less spiritually-minded and less scrupulous, intent rather upon conquest and universal sovereignty, than upon the deliverance from Adam's curse, would fill up the shadowy out- line delineated for them by the patriarchs, with the visible form and features of a man. We turn now to the valuable and independent testimony of one, whose knowledge must have been derived from the traditions of the patriarchs in a direct channel ; and who preserved, in the midst of idolatrous neighbours, the worship of the true Jehovah. The operation of the primitiv-e curse, and the corruption of man's nature, are made the subject of his frequent lamentation. '' Man cometh forth," he says, *^ like a flower; and is cut down."^* ** I have said to corruption, thou art my father ; to the worm, thou art my mother and my sister." ^^ But let us turn away from these complaints, and observe the fulness of his assurance in a future and complete •'* Joh xiv. 2. ^^ Job -wii. 14. .54 LECTURE Til. restoration ; — so full, indeed, that he commences by expressing an earnest desire to leave behind him some public and perpetual record of his faith, even that his words might be " graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever." ^"^ " I know," he says, " that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth : and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." ^^ Surely, when Job thus declared his solemn conviction, that by virtue of this redemp- tion he should be raised up from the corruption of the grave, and admitted into God's presence, un- changed by the wasting of disease or the ceaseless operation of decay ; we cannot for a moment doubt, that he believed the Redeemer of whom he speaks, to have been of a nature far superior to his own. As we advance in the sacred volume, the light burns again more brightly, and the divine nature of the Messiah is announced in terms which cannot easily be mistaken. Among all the patriarchs and princes of God's chosen people, none had enjoyed such a profusion of dignities and blessings as David: and yet the Messiah was to be David's Lord.^^ In the presence of Jehovah the angels and archangels veil their faces : and yet the Messiah is placed at Jehovah's ** right hand."^^ To which of the Angels '' Jobxix. 24. 3* Jobxix. 25. ^ — " Ps. ex. 1. The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. LFXTURE III. 55 said he at any time *' Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?" — and yet in these words he addresses the Christ.^^ And as we proceed to pas- sages in the later prophetical writings, in which is given to him the sacred and incommunicable name of Jehovah ; when we find it distinctly said that he shall be called^' Jehovah our righteousness ;"^9 we can- not but wonder that on this subject there should ever have been a divided opinion. It is scarcely possible to believe, that such expressions as ^' The Mighty God,"'^*' — " God with us,"*^ — could be misunderstood by all. To use the figurative language of St. Peter, it may be fairly supposed, that although the day had not yet dawned, nor the day-star arisen in their hearts, there was nevertheless " a light shining in a dark place," unto which some few among them would take heed ; namely, the " sure word of prophecy."*^ With what sentiments would a devout Jew peruse the following passage, with which the word of pro- phecy is closed by Malachi ? ^' The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in." *^ When he saw that the Messiah, to whom the passage is understood to refer by all the expositors, the Messenger of the new and everlasting covenant, is here spoken of as the Lord of the Temple, which was ^' Ps. ii. 7. ^^ Jer. xxiii. G. '" Isaiah ix. 6. *' Isaiah vii. 14. "' 2 Pet. i. 19. ''' Malachi iii. 1. 56 LECTURE I IT. consecrated to no other Deity than Jehovah ; — when he meditated upon the clear intimation of a judgment to be conducted by him, in the words that follow — ** But who may abide the day of his coming ; who shall stand when he appeareth ?" ** — when the sincere and devout Israelite, waiting like Simeon and Zacharias for the consolation of Israel, gave his attention to this passage alone, he could not rise up from the sacred volume without a strong suspicion, that those among his countrymen who expected a mere 77ian for their Messiah, were labouring under a grievous error and delusion. ** Malachi iii. 2. LECTURE IV JOHN III. 19. THIS IS THE CONDEMNATION, THAT LIGHT IS COME INTO THE WORLD, AND MEN LOVED DARKNESS RATHER THAN LIGHT, BECAUSE THEIR DEEDS WERE EVIL. IT has been shown, that we may trace in the Old Testament so many intimations of the divine nature of the promised Messiah, so many facts and statements from which that truth must have been deduced as a necessary inference, as to make it difficult for us to believe, that it was not in some degree understood by the more pious and enlightened Jews, at the time of our Saviour's appearance. But the predominant expectation, the notion which reigned without a rival over the minds of a vast majority of the people, was that of a prince and a conqueror. The prophecies relating to the Messiah's sovereignty, were more direct, more easy of compre- hension, and better adapted to chime in with the prejudices of the people, than any other. That "the government should be upon his shoulder," and that ** of its increase there should be no end, upon tlie 58 LECTURE IV. throne of David and upon his kingdom," ^ — this was the kind of prophecy most congenial to the dispo- sitions and feelings and circumstances of the Jews ; this was the idea most easily embraced, most fondly and universally cherished. They looked for a Messiah, who should place himself at the head of a mighty army, and break asunder the galling bonds of the Romans, and exalt Abraham's descendants to the sovereignty of the world. That rumour which had spread itself over all the East, and was thought worthy of being recorded even by the historian at Rome, must have had its origin in an expectation very deeply rooted in the bosoms of all who were imme- diately interested therein. Such as enjoyed rank and distinction in the present state of things, ex- pected to have a corresponding share of them in the future. This expectation, indeed, may be discovered among our Lord's simple- minded disciples. A certain ambitious mother is represented to have preferred a petition in behalf of her two sons, that they might be allowed to secure the distinction of sitting the one on his right hand and the other on his left, as chief ministers of state, in his kingdom : and the rest of the disciples are stated to have expressed, not their surprise at the ignorance of this request, but a kind of jealous indignation at its presumption.'^ In minds so absorbed with the prospect of earthly do- i Isaiah ix. 7. " Matt. xx. 21. LECTURE rV. 59 minion, there would be little room left for specula- tions upon the nature, whether human or divine, of him by whom it was to be exercised. And yet it may he questioned, whether the very absoluteness of the empire shadowed out for him by the Prophets, might not alone have been sufficient to convince them, that he was to be more than man, *' I saw in the night visions," says the Prophet Daniel, " and behold One like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days. And there was given unto him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.""^ When it is remembered that the very title of " Ruler of all nations," is em- phatically applied in Scripture to Jehovah himself; we shall see that to Him, rather than to man, whose breath is in his nostrils, ought to have been assigned the glories of that universal empire, so magnificently described by the Prophet. But the mystery of an incarnation, the union of the divine and human natures in one person, was beyond the power of their imagination to conceive. And even those upon whose minds had broken a few faint glimmerings of the primitive truth, would ^ Dan. vii. 13. 60 LhXTURE IV. figure to themselves a very different personage from the lowly and persecuted Jesus. It is not to be denied, that intimations of a more correct understanding, and in cases too where we should have least have expected to find it, may sometimes be met with. The woman of Samaria, a person not disposed, as we may presume, to search into the right understanding of prophecy, and be- longing to a nation not included in the common- wealth of Israel, instructed by fugitive priests, and recognizing as Scripture only the writings of Moses ; this woman knew that Messiah was to be a teacher, " I know," she said, '* that Messias cometh ; when he is come, he will teach us all things." And the penitent thief upon the cross, one whose character does not permit us to suppose that he had gained a more enlightened knowledge of theology than his countrymen in general, spoke of Christ's kingdom in a manner and at a moment from which it plainly appears, that the kingdom on which his thoughts were placed, was ^future and a spiritual one. But with the great mass of the people, including the Scribes and Pharisees and the Rulers, the ex- pectation of a temporal dominion was paramount : in their ambitious bosoms it found a soil congenial to its growth. Stubborn and rebellious as their fathers had been of old, no generation of the past had exhibited such an entire spectacle of ungod- liness as the present. Their magistrates and priest- LECTURE IV. 61 hood were to the last degree corrupted, and the most sacred offices were publicly exposed for sale. The whole nation was split into factions ; hating, persecuting, and devouring one another. There never had existed, from the beginning of the world, a race of men more profligate and depraved than the higher classes of the Jews at this period. This i& no prejudiced statement : it is not an enemy who hath said this, but one of themselves. One of their own historians concludes his account of them by declaring, that if the Romans had delayed their attack upon Jerusalem, he believes that the city must either have been swallowed up by an earth- quake, or destroyed like the cities of the plain by fire from heaven. Observe their character, too, as depicted by our blessed Saviour. So mild and for- bearing in other parts of his discourses, we find him giving utterance to the bitterest terms of indignation when he alludes to the Scribes and the Pharisees. He charges them with the commission of almost every crime of which human nature is capable ; and this too, under the semblance and cloke of religion. Of all hypocrites, indeed, these men must have been the vilest. Uttering long prayers, and yet devouring widows' houses. Scrupulous in paying tithe of every trifling herb in their garden, and yet violating all the principles of justice. Binding heavy burdens on other men's shoulders, and refusing so much as to touch them with one of their own fingers. Com- 62 LECTURE IV. passing sea and land for the sake of one proselyte, and then making hini tenfold more the child of hell than themselves. Putting on all the outward robes and parade of righteousness ; like whited sepulchres, which within are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. And such being the unscrupulous profligacy of these men, it is easy to understand how this exposure of their profligacy would exasperate them, and set in motion the evil passions which are here delineated. *' The light was come into the world : but men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil :" — '* they would not come to the light, lest their deeds should be reproved."* It penetrated into the dark recesses of the charnel house, and exhibited all the loathsomeness of its interior to public view. Little tenderness would they feel for one who had said to them in public, — ** Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how shall ye escape the damnation of hell ?" ^ The only matter of surprise is, that they did not compass his destruc- tion more speedily. But he was careful not to afford them ground of accusation against him ; and they feared lest the common people, who deemed him a prophet, might take alarm if he were appre- hended without some such ostensible ground, and raise a revolt in his favour. If this had not been the case, the period of his ministry would have been brought to a much earlier termination. -♦ * John iii. 20. ' Mutt. Xxiii. 33. LECTURE IV. 63 So entirely were these wretched men filled with the persuasion of their own infallibility, so convinced were they that this wandering Nazarene could not possibly turn out to be the Christ, that we find them, in a manner altogether unconscious and unsuspect- ing, pronouncing their own sentence of condem- nation. When the term of his ministry was drawing near to a close, on the day after his public and triumphant entry into the city, he began to converse with the Scribes and Elders in the temple ; signi- fying to them by the most intelligible parables, the rejection of their chosen race, and the adoption of the Gentiles into the covenant. After concluding the parable of the vineyard and the unfaithful hus- bandmen, he put to them this question ; — " When the Lord, therefore, of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen V ^ to which they replied ; — " He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husband- men, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons." Thus unconsciously did they pronounce the very sentence which had already gone forth against them. While he was yet speaking, they treated his observations with indifference : and when he had finished, they sought the more ** to lay hands on him," for they perceived at length that the parable was spoken of themselves. ^ Matt. xxi. 41. 64 LECTURE IV. So marvellous was the process by which men's evil passions were made subservient to the general advantage. If our Lord had presented himself to a race of men less corrupt, they could scarcely have with- stood the evidence which he gave of his Messiah-ship : scarcely could they have rejected him and put him to death : scarcely, in short, could they have fulfilled the prophecies. And supposing that any considerable number of them had become followers of Jesus and propagators of his Gospel, might it not have been suggested in after times that Christianity was their own contrivance, and that it had been imposed upon the people by their authority ? " The Kings of the earth stood up, and the Rulers took counsel together, against the Lord, and against his Christ." ^ Thus far the prophecy had its full and literal fulfilment. And equally full and literal was the fulfilment of that which follows : ''He that dwelleth in heaven did laugh them to scorn ; the Lord had them in derision."^ We arrive, then, at the following conclusion ; that in the minds of men such as we have been des- cribing, proud, sensual, uncharitable; and unjust; accustomed to build upon the notion of a temporal Messiah the most romantic schemes of earthly splen- dour and dominion ; in such minds, the very fact of our Lord's appearing in the condition of a lowly Galilean peasant, was quite suflBcient to account for their rejection of him. 7 Ps. ii. -2. 8 pg, ii, 4_ LECTURE IV. 65 But on the other hand, consider the similar con- dition of John the Baptist. In the camel's hair and leathern girdle of that prophet there was certainly nothing of royal splendour, and amid his solitary haunts there was little of the gorgeous furniture of a palace ; and yet the Sanhedrim dispatched a formal deputation of their body to ask him whether or not he was the Christ.^ This fact does not in the slightest degree invali- date our position. It merely proves that lowliness of estate was not in the Jirst instance a sufficient ground of rejection. For although at present encum- bered with the garb of humiliation, he might after a brief period lay aside the disguise, and stand forth in that exalted character which they expected. In the case of our blessed Saviour, this manifestation was looked for by his disciples even to the last : and after his resurrection, as he walked with two of them to Emmaus, they unconsciously told him of their disappointment. On one occasion, believing him to be the Messiah, and believing also that the Messiah must of necessity be a king, the people took him by force, and would have invested him with royalty against his will.^° And it seems probable, that some who at first were inclined to believe in him on the ground of his miracles, began to waver when they saw that not a single miracle y John i. 20. 10 John vi. 15. 66 LECTURE IV. was wrought for the chastisement of his persecutors, or for his own protection. There was a degree of plausibility in the taunt, — " he saved others, him- self he cannot save." " Almost all the illustrious characters of old, whom God had raised up to be Princes and Rulers among his people, although they might have suffered adversity for a time, in the end were miraculously favoured with success. And as the Messiah was to surpass Joseph, and Moses, and Joshua, and David, and the Maccabees, in power and dignity, so it would be expected by them that Jesus of Nazareth, if he was indeed the Christ, w^ould emerge from that temporary disguise into a full blaze of splendour and success. It is to be borne in mind, that under the Jewish dispensation temporal blessings were regarded as a token of God's favour, and temporal afflictions as the instruments of his wrath ; an entrance into the land that flowed with milk and honey was the reward of obedience, as the punishment of disobedience was to be shut out. We can scarcely wonder, then, that doubts were excited in the minds even of our Saviour's chosen followers, when they beheld the fulfilment of a class of pro- phecies to which they had never directed their attention ; and discovered that he whom they believed to be the Messiah, the Prince, the Deliverer, was *' a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." ^- »» Matt, xxvii. 42. ^" Isaiah liii. 3. LECTURE IV. 67 Among the higher orders of the Jewish people, the real state of the case seems to have been this. On the faith of God's promises of old, they believed that the Messiah's advent was now near at hand. Respecting the natui^e of this illustrious Personage, they were little disposed to speculate : with respect to his office, they were fully persuaded that he was to be a king. A Messiah and not a King, was a proposition which they were unable to comprehend : and a King without pomp and authority, without an army, without attendants save twelve simple-minded men of humble grade in society like himself, was a combination which they could not admit. In fact, until they were alarmed at his increasing favour with the populace, his person and claims would probably be regarded with indifference, if not with contempt. It was a desire to please the Romans by this act of apparently disinterested loyalty, in con- junction with the revengeful feeling of minds ex- asperated by his repeated attacks upon them in public, which at length produced a determination at all hazards to put him to death. Various were the objections from time to time raised against him, and many were the taunts which they threw out. It was one of the popular notions respecting the Messiah, that he should come into the world by some myste- rious process, in accordance with the mysterious character which he was to bear : and in allusion to this they said, — " howbeit, we know this man, whence 68 LECTURE IV. he is : but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is." ^^ That he should spring from the family of an obscure Galilean, was altogether absurd and incredible. It appears also from contemporary history, that they expected the Messiah to appear, not in a real human body, but in the semblance of one ; and yet here was a Messiah, not only in human flesh and blood, but in the form of a servant. At one time they censured him for sitting down to meat with publicans and sinners ; at another, for violating the sanctity of the Sabbath. Others objected to him, because he came from Nazareth. Every variety of subtle device was employed to " entangle him in his talk ;" to draw from him some declaration relative to their favourite traditions and prejudices, which might alarm the fickle mind of the multitude, and turn the tide of popularity against him. But the charge which they brought against him with most success, the charge by which they effected their design, and on the ground of which the San- hedrim unanimously pronounced him to be worthy of death, was the charge of blasphemy ; blasphemy, in assuming to himself the power and attributes of divinity. In the judgment of all who did not believe him to be the Messiah, the assumption of a divine character would at once stigmatize him as a blasphe- mer, whether they expected that the Messiah would 1' John vii. -27. LECTURE IV. 69 be a divine Personage or not. And many of the common people who had previously been disposed to receive him, would take alarm at such charges of blasphemy ; not being acquainted with the ancient traditions, nor aware that a divine Messiah was foretold by the prophets, and expected by the patriarchs before them. The first effect of our Lord's miracles seems to have been, to produce in the minds of some, and that perhaps no small number, of the multitude, a con- viction that he was indeed the Christ. No sooner, however, had the burst of enthusiasm subsided, and the novelty of the miracle worn away, than these subtle and sceptical spirits commenced their work. As a specimen of their general behaviour towards him, we may adduce a certain passage in his history, as related by the Evangelist St. John. Five thou- sand men, who had been miraculously fed by him upon five barley loaves and two small fishes, were constrained to acknowledge him to be the Messiah. *' This is of a truth," they said, " that prophet which should come into the world." '* And in accordance with the popular ideas upon the subject, they attempted to invest him with ensigns of royalty, and to place him at their head. The next day they followed him across the lake to Capernaum ; and there he proceeded to tell them, that their pretended John vi. 14. 70 LECTURE IV. zeal in his behalf was little better than selfishness. " Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled." ^^ He then alluded to the fact of his being " sent" by the Father : upon which they asked him for a sign from heaven in confirmation of what he asserted. It was doubtless suggested to them, that if Jesus was really what he professed to be, his power would not be confined to objects upon the earthy as had hitherto appeared to be the case, but would extend also to the heavens. If Joshua had been entrusted with a power to stay the sun in its diurnal course ; if Elijah's prayer had brought down fire from heaven to consume his sacrifice ; surely this Person, who professes not only to be sent from God, but in a strict and peculiar sense to have God for his Father, will be able to give evidence thereof by exhibiting some manifestation of his glory in the heavens. He will say to us, as the Lord said to Ahaz, — " Ask thee a sign ; ask it either in the depth or in the height above," ^^ — if he be in reality the Divine Personage which he professes to be, and not a confederate with the powers of darkness. What is the supplying of yesterday's single meal, when compared with the daily supply of manna which Moses provided during so long a period for four hundred thousand Israelites in the wilderness? If, then, he professes to be '' John vi. 26. "^ Isaiah vii. 11. LECTURE IV. 71 ** that Prophet" who is to be greater than Moses, we may fairly demand from him a greater manifes- tation of miraculous power. Here we have scepticism undisguised : — and it is in the same body of people who had hailed him with enthusiasm, and attempted to make him a king only the day before. And no sooner did he proceed in metaphorical language to speak of his divine nature, than their secret cavillings broke out into an open murmur of disapprobation. The tide of popular feeling was now fast receding : and those who had hitherto kept silence, watched their opportunity to insinuate that he was professing to be somewhat more than man. *' Is not this," they asked, ** Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know ? How is it then that he saith, — I came down from Heaven?" ^7 These men were well aware, that if they could once succeed in impressing the multitude with a sus- picion that Jesus was guilty of invading the attri- butes and unity of God, the effect of his miracles would be nullified. Here — they would say — is a dreamer of dreams, a prophet such as Moses des- cribed in the book of Deuteronomy.^^ He says,-^ " Let us go after other gods, which we have not known, and serve them." — He giveth " a sign and a wonder; and the sign and the wonder come to pass." '^ John vi. 42. '" Deut. xiii. I. 72 LECTURE IV. He is precisely such a character as the Lawgiver has described to us ; and we must therefore listen to what the Lawgiver proceeds further to say respect- ing him. " Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God, with all your heart and with all your soul." ^'^ It will not require a very profound insight into the secret workings of the human mind, to convince us, that under the smart of mortified pride and dis- appointed ambition, there might easily be built upon such foundation as this, a positive and plau- sible rejection of the Saviour, in the face of all his miracles. One of their own descendants, a learned Jew in the middle ages,^*^ asserts his deliberate con- viction, that the testimony of the understanding which proves the falsity of the professions of such a prophet, ought to preponderate over that of the eyes, though they see the miracles. If their minds were impressed with such a doctrine as this, it is not dif- ficult to account for the clamour which they raised against Jesus, and the bitterness with which they persecuted him, even to death. For the statute of Moses goes on to enact, that if such a person should be even *' thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy '" Deut. xiii. 3. '" Maimonides: vid. Pra'f. in Misnam, p. 3. LECTURE IV. 73 son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend which is as thine own soul ; thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him, nei- ther shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him : but thou shalt surely kill him. Thine hand shall be first upon him, to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all thy people. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die." Acting upon this principle, and obeying this command, they spared not Jesus of Nazareth : ascribing his miracles, as we learn from repeated instances in the Gospels, to the cooperation of evil spirits. And when we consider the great proportion there is among mankind of that indolent class of per- sons, who would view the miracles with a stupid kind of wonder, as strange and unaccoimtable trans- actions, of which they would not even take the trouble to conjecture a cause ; men, upon whose unresisting dullness the active energy of others would work the persuasion, that these miracles were wrought by an infernal agency, and intended for the express pur- pose of proving their faith ; we cannot be at a loss in accounting for the general and almost unanimous rejection of Him who wrought them. Although, as we have shown, the more enlightened among the Jews must have expected a divine Messiah, the very fact, nevertheless, of the Messiah's laying claim to divinity was turned against him by his enemies. And 74 LECTURE IV. when they had succeeded in alienating the affections of the multitude, they made this claim the ground of a formal accusation against him before the court of the Sanhedrim, where he was unanimously pronounced guilty, and condemned to death as a blasphemer. The circumstances of his trial, however, must be reserved for our future consideration. LECTURE V JOHN III. 14. AS MOSES LIFTED UP THE SERPENT IN THE WILDERNESS, EVE^J SO MUST THE SON OF MAN BE LIFTED UP. AMONG other important announcements made by our Lord during the present interview, it is intimated in these words that the Messiah must be put to death, and that his death will be that of the cross. That such is the import of the passage there can be no doubt. The same expression is introduced by the same evangelist on two other occasions ; and on one of these he distinctly states that our Lord made use of it, in order to ** signify what death he should die." ^ The prevailing notion was, that Christ should "abide for ever:"^ and yet Nicodemus is here informed by Christ himself, not only that he should die, but that his death would be that of a malefactor and slave. The crucifixion, then, of the Messiah, was pre- figured by the '* lifting up " of the serpent of brass 1 John xii. 33. • Jolin xii. 34. 76 LECTURE V. in the wilderness. In the act itself of lifting up, as well as in the benefits accruing in each case to the faithful, the one was a type of the other. As those Israelites who had been infected with the poison of the fiery serpents in the wilderness, on looking up to the brazen serpent with the natural vision, were saved from the bodily death which awaited them ; so all the children of Adam who look up with the eye of faith to the Redeemer upon the cross, are saved from the sting of that old serpent which be- guiled Eve in Paradise, and from the bitter pains of eternal death. This particular mode of death had also been pre- figured of old by a variety of types and prophecies. When Isaac was led up the mountain to be sacrificed, it is expressly recorded, that he bore the wood.^ Now the only mode of death in which we find it to have been the custom for the suflferer to bear the wood, was the death of the cross. Again: in the celebration of the Passover, it was strictly com- manded that the lamb should be slain without break- ing a bone thereof. It was implied, therefore, that the Messiah should be cut off* by a mode of death usually attended with the breaking of bones; and that in his case there should be a special exemption from this part of the customary process. It was also to be a mode of death corresponding with the ■* Gen. xxii. b. LECTURE V. 77 prediction of the Psalmist — " They pierced my hands and my feet."* To which we may add, that it seems to have been specially provided for, in the great scheme of man's redemption, that the sacrifice which was offered up for the sins of the whole world, should be offered up in the face of the world; and that the Resurrection, the last and greatest of all the miracles, should be placed beyond the possibility of doubt. Both which points were at- tained by the publicity of our Lord's crucifixion : there being no mode of execution which so com- pletely exhibited to public gaze the lingering agonies of its victim, as the death upon the cross. But among the Jews, at the time when these pro- phecies were delivered, and for centuries afterwards, this mode of execution seems to have been unknown. Besides the more common practice of stoning, we find the stake, the halter, and the sword employed as instruments of death ; but not the cross. In the law of Moses it is never once mentioned. The body of a notorious criminal, already lifeless, was some- times exhibited as an object of public execration upon a tree : but the literal death of the cross, in which the hands and the feet were pierced with nails, and the sufferer " lifted up " to expire amid unutterable tortures, was a mode of punishment * Psalm xxii, 16. 78 LFXTURE V. practised more particularly among the Romans, and inflicted upon none but the vilest criminals. It was clearly necessary, then, that the Messiah should not make his appearance until the Jewish nation had lost their independence; until they had ceased to be governed, at least in matters relating to life and death, by the Law of Moses ; until, in fact, as it is elsewhere specified, " the sceptre had departed from Judah, and a lawgiver from between his feet."^ And it was further necessary, that they should be in subjection to a people, among whose modes of punishment was that of the cross. Both of which conditions were fulfilled at the time when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. At this period, then, the Jews being in subjection to the Romans, by whom, in certain cases, this mode of execution was adopted, it is probable that any atrocious criminal would be sentenced to that par- ticular mode of death prefigured of old for the Messiah, and predicted by himself in the text. But how could it come to pass, that the meekest and gentlest and most benevolent among the children of men, one who went through the land dispensing to the sick and speechless, the blind and the daemoniac, a profusion of those blessings which are proverbially beyond all price, — how could he ** who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth," ^ ^ Gen. xlix. 10. ^ 1 Peter ii. 22. LECTURE V. 79 become amenable to any law which required the infliction of this dreadful mode of death ? The Romans, like all usurpers, exercised their do- minion with a very jealous vigilance ; and were ac- customed to suppress, by the most peremptory and severe measures, any encroachment on their supre- macy. They were well aware of the universal ex- pectation that the Messiah would be a temporal prince : and if Jesus of Nazareth had put forward any claim upon temporal authority, or shown the slightest disposition to acquire political influence, his destruction would have been summary and cer- tain. His enemies, in fact, thought to alarm the Roman Procurator by bringing this accusation against him, though they knew it to be false. But Pilate, having satisfied himself by a strict inquiry, that although a King, he expressly disclaimed all earthly dominion, dismissed the charge, and was desirous to release the prisoner. This, however, he was prevented from doing, by their continued impor- tunity. They taunted him, as being no friend to Caesar, if he should suffer this pretended king to go at large. And at length the Procurator, well knowing that the jealous temper of Tiberius would take alarm at such insinuations, and apprehensive perhaps of a tumult among the people, gave a tardy assent to their demand that the murderer Barabbas should be released to them, and that Jesus of Nazareth should be crucified. 80 LECTURE V. It appears, then, that our Lord's crucifixion is to be ascribed, not to any tyrannical act of jealousy on the part of the Roman authorities, but to the invete- rate enmity of his own countrymen. In a former Lecture it was attempted to account for this enmity : and I shall now endeavour to show by what process they carried their murderous intention into effect under the forms of justice. For all that the Roman Procurator did, was merely to sanction the execution of a sentence, which had been pronounced by the solemn tribunal of the Sanhedrim. Our Lord was formally tried, and formally con- demned : ^ and the Evangelists have given a circum- stantial account of the proceedings. From the first it was the evident object of his adversaries to prove him guilty of blasphemi/. At the commencement of the trial they attempted to do it by the rules of evi- dence laid down in the Mosaic Law : but in this they failed. The High Priest then began to examine him by questioning, and succeeded in drawing from him wdiat they considered a direct avowal of his guilt. He was asked in the first place, — " Art thou the Christ?"^ To this question he gave no im- mediate answer. *' If I tell you," he said, "ye will 7 See Wilson on the New Testament, where the circumstances of this trial are investigated with equal perspicuity and acute- ness. « Luke xxii. (j7. LECTURE V. 81 not believe : and if I also ask you, ye will not an- swer me, nor let me go." He then proceeded to say, *' Hereafter shall the Son of Man sit at the right hand of the power of God." ^ Upon which they all with one voice put to him a second question, ^^Art thou, then, the Son of God?" To this he replied by a simple and direct affirmative, *^ Ye say that I am." This acknowledgment was sufficient for their pur- pose. " What need we any further witness," they said, ** for we ourselves have heard of his own mouth ?" The High Priest rent his clothes, saying — " He hath spoken blasphemy ! Behold now, ye have heard his blasphemy : what think ye V They answered and said, — "He is guilty of death." '' It appears, then, that in the solemn court of the Sanhedrim our Lord was adjudged guilty of the crime of blasphemy by the Mosaic Law, for simply declaring himself the *^ Son of God." Their own statement of the matter, as delivered to Pilate, is thus recorded by St. John. " We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God."" They had long ago rejected his claims to the Messiah-ship, upon grounds which in a former Lecture we endeavoured to ascertain. And here we have the grounds of their sentence y Luke xxii. 69. lo Matt. xxi. 65. 1' John xix. 7. 82 LECTURE V. which condemned him to death. It was, '' because he made himself the Son of God." To this phrase, however, various meanings may be attached. Passages are met with in Scripture in which Prophets are styled Sons of God. There is no instance, however, of a man's being pronounced guilty of a capital offence, for merely declaring him- self to be a Prophet. In other places it occurs in the signification of one " favoured by God." But vain, again, will be our search for written statute or tradi- tionary maxim, by which he who declares himself "favoured by God," is pronounced a blasphemer. But perhaps it may have been received as one of the popular designations of the Messiah. And if so, we arrive at this conclusion, that our Lord having ac- knowledged that he professed to be the Messiah, was by the Sanhedrim pronounced guilty of that offence, and sentenced to death as a blasphemer. Before we proceed to examine the evidence given by the Evangelists on this point, it must be premised that the very supposition of such a fact is in the highest degree improbable. Supposing that his accusers had been represented as setting themselves to prove the falsehood of such aclaim,by show^ing that some characteristic marks of the Messiah were wanting, or that they could detect clear evidences of imposture, it might be asserted with some degree of plausibility that the claiming to be the Messiah constituted his offence. But such LECTURE V. 83 was not the case. Nor is it at all credible, that the sole and simple act of professing to be the Messiah, at the very time when the Messiah's advent was universally expected, could be so summarily pro- nounced an offence by the supreme court of judica- ture. Oftentimes had he been saluted as the Messiah by others ; — amid the Hosannas of the multitude he had entered the holy city itself: — but we do not find that any punishment was inflicted upon those per- sons, or that they were in any way stigmatized as blasphemers. All that the Pharisees did, was to call upon him to rebuke his disciples. ^^ And yet when his trial came on, a long and tedious process of examination of witnesses was ineffectual in proving a fact, which, if it was the mere claiming to be the Messiah, might have been proved at once by any who had been present on the occasion just alluded to. And when at length they condemned him, it was upon a confession elicited from him by a tedious process of interrogation, and expressed not in direct terms but by a periphrasis. We now proceed to the more positive elucidation of the matter, which is derived from the record of the proceedings at the trial examined in detail. Jesus was formally tried by the existing law of the nation, and found guilty of blasphemy in calling himself the Son of God. This, we contend, amounted '' Luke xix. 39. 84 LECTURE V. to some thing of far greater importance than the mere calling himself the Messiah. For in the first place, there is no proof that the term ^^ Son of God," was held to be synonymous with that of" Messiah ;" and secondly, there is no law to be found, which made it blasphemy to claim to be the Messiah, under any phrase or designation whatever. In opposition to the first of these positions, pas- sages of Scripture are sometimes adduced, in which the two phrases are coupled together ; and on this ground we are told that they are synonymous. When Nathanael was called to be a disciple, his confession of faith was this, " Rabbi, thou art the Son of God ; thou art the King of Israel." ^^ When Martha con- versed with our Lord at Bethany, she declared to him, '* I believe thou art the Messiah, the Son of God."^"* But in reference to these and all similar passages it must be borne in mind, that the original announcement made by the Baptist at the Jordan was precisely the substance of these professions of belief. Both these titles were given to him, and he had assumed them both.^^ So that the passages just quoted are a simple acknowledgment of faith in Jesus as being the personage that he professed to be. They are assuredly no proof that the two expressions were used to signify the same thing. '^ John i. 49. " John xi. 27. '•' John i. 30. 34. LECTURE V. 85 In fact, other passages are met with which prove the direct reverse. Such, for instance, was Peter*s reply to our Lord's question, " Whom do ye say that I am ?" Peter answered, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God." ^^ Now if these two phrases had been synonymous, or if this acknow- ledgment had merely amounted to a belief that Jesus was the Christ, it would have been nothing more than what John had announced in public at his baptism ; nothing more than what had been declared by a mixed assemblage of five thousand people at once. And yet our Lord expressly stated in reply, that the substance of this acknowledgment was a truth of so high and divine import, that the unenlightened mind of Peter could not have learnt it, but by a special revelation from above. If it had amounted to nothing more than a confession of belief in Jesus as the Messiah, he surely would not have said, as he did, — " Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. "^^ What can be clearer or more decisive than the similar profession of faith made by the Ethiopian eunuch, *' I believe that Jesus Messiah is the Son of God !" ^® The very structure of the sentence shows that something higher and more divine than what the speaker understood by the term of Messiah, was "^ Matt. xvi. 16. '^ Matt. xvi. 17. '^ Acts viii. 37. 86 LECTURE V. implied in the idea annexed to the " Son of God ;'' and that this, and not the Messiah-ship, was the great object of the speaker's faith. In the absence, then, of all proof, or even proba- bility, that these two expressions were admitted into common usage as synonymous, we cannot allow that our Lord would be understood to claim simply the Messiah-ship, when he claimed to be the Son of God. Which conclusion is strengthened by the consideration, that the claim which he put forward, whatever that claim might be, was gravely pro- nounced by the Sanhedrim to be blasphemy and punishable with death. This must have been either by the code of Moses or the oral Law : in neither of which do we find it specified as a capital crime, nor indeed as a crime at all, to assume the title and character of the Messiah. It would appear, then, that the members of the court before which our Lord was tried, on the ground of his having repeatedly spoken of God as his Father, — of his having asserted his own pre-exist- ence, — of his having assumed the power of forgiving sins, — of his having announced his future appear- ance as the judge of the world at the last day, — were of opinion that he had assumed powers and attributes appertaining exclusively to divinity. A^d although there was nothing in this at all incompatible with the character and office of the Messiah as de- scribed by the Prophets ; — of which fact some at least LECTURE V. 87 among them must have been aware ; — they, neverthe- less, having previously determined that he should be put to death, availed themselves of the assumption of divinity implied in these several propositions, to bring him within the range of the ancient statute against blasphemers. And when in the course of the trial he spoke of a future judgment, declaring that they should hereafter see the Son of Man on the right hand of God, and acknowledging in the plainest terms that he professed to be the Son of God, they seized at once upon the declaration, and unanimously pronounced it to be blasphemy. If Jesus had been an earthly Prince and a warrior, these claims to divinity would not only have been admitted without a question, but in all probability would have been considered an additional proof of his Messiah-ship. But in the lowly and unwarlike Nazarene, ** the things that should have been for his wealth," they attempted to make "unto him an occasion of fall- ing." ^^ And although they desired nothing so much as to hail the advent of a Messiah who should put an end to the usurped authority of the Romans, they were nevertheless content to call in the aid of that authority in order to execute their own sentence, and to put their true Messiah to death. Such was the process of events, which fulfilled the prediction in our text, and caused the Son of Man to '" Psalm Ixix, 23. 88 LECTURE V. be " lifted up" on the cross. The trial was conducted with every appearance of regularity : all insufficient evidence was rejected, and the sentence was unani- mously agreed upon by the court, as soon as they had heard his confession. There is no reason to doubt that it was their sincere conviction, that he had literally and strictly claimed to be the Son of God. If it would have been enough for their pur- pose to prove that he had claimed to be the Messiah, without any reference to divinity in that personage, they might have accomplished it at once. All that tedious examination of witnesses which we read of, would have been a solemn mockery of judicial exact- ness ; as well as an unnecessary and irksome inter- ruption of that sanguinary purpose, which it was their object to accomplish without delay. It must be remembered, too, that towards the at- tainment of that object, the verdict which they are so studiously endeavouring to substantiate, would not render them the slightest assistance. They did not themselves possess the power of putting him to death, whatever might be his guilt : and the only charge likely to have weight with Pilate, who did possess that power, was that of treason against the sovereignty of Rome. This was in fact the main charge brought against him before that magistrate ; the principal ground of their attack. When they mentioned to him the result of their own investiga- LECTURE V. 89 tion, it was done altogether incidentally. When they said, ** We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God,"^° it has the air of having been said at hazard, by persons who knew it would have but little weight. It seems, in short, to be not only the easiest, but the sole way of accounting for their conduct, to suppose that these unhappy men were in that single point sincere. To this effect is the tenor of St. Peter's address to them, " I know, brethren, that through ignorance ye did it f '^^ — as well as our Lord's own prayer in their behalf, *' Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do !" ^^ If one redeeming quality could be found amid the overwhelming mul- titude of this people's iniquities, it was their jealousy of all encroachments upon the dignity of Jehovah. Blind though they were in their appreciation of our Lord's character, harsh in their demeanour towards him, cruel and murderous in their present designs upon his person, it is possible nevertheless that they may have been sincere in stigmatizing as a blas- phemer, one who claimed to be a divine Personage, even the Son of the Living God. This view of the case derives additional confir- mation from the strict analogy which we are thus "'" John xix. 7. " Acts iii. 17. " Luke xxiii. 34. 90 LECTURE V. enabled to trace, between their treatment of his claims in public and in private. When he entered into conversation with them upon ordinary occasions, so long as his allusions were confined to the subject of his Messiah-ship, they listened with a sort of con- temptuous indifference, regarding him as an im- postor whose claims were unworthy of serious atten- tion, inasmuch as he possessed not one of the prin- cipal qualifications which they looked for. They taunted him with the absence of external testimony ; — " Thou bearest record of thyself; thy record is not true. "^^ But no sooner did he make allusion either directly or indirectly to his divine nature, than they raised against him the cry of blasphemy, and attempted to put him to death. When he made that important declaration, — " Verily I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am,"*^* — which amounted to a direct assumption of one of Jehovah's attributes, it produced a sudden burst of indignation ; and they not only sought to kill him, but prepared to do it on the very spot. *' They took up stones to cast at him" -'^ as a blasphemer. On another occasion they came round him in the Temple, and said, — " If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly." "^ To which he replied, — " I told you," ^^ John viii. 13. '^^ John viii. 58. " John viii. 59. ^'^ John x. 24. LECTURE V. 91 — already have I told you, — '' and ye believed not." Here was a substantial avowal of the fact ; and yet so far from being considered blasphemous, it was received without a single observation. But no sooner did he utter the words, — " I and my Father are one,"^^ — than they interrupted him by the same significant act as before, taking up stones to put him to death. Their words, too, were equally expressive with their actions. Jesus said unto them, — *^ Many good works have I showed you from my Father ; for which of these works do ye stone me?"^^ To which they replied, — *' For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy ; and because that thou being a man makest thyself God." And it is re- markable, that the obnoxious expression to which he had given utterance, and which was thus pro- nounced by them to amount to an assertion of divinity, was the identical expression which he after- wards made use of at the trial. This appears from the words of our Lord's own expostulation ; — " Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, — Thou blasphemest — because I said, I am the Son of God ?" '^ Let us, then, for a moment compare this more private and desultory conversation, with the graver and more regular proceedings before the Sanhedrim. " John X. 30. ""^ John x. 32. =^ John X. 36. 92 LECTURE V. In each case the crime alleged against him was blasphemy ; and in each case he was pronounced to be worthy of death. In each case the blasphemy was supposed to consist in his appropriation to himself of a particular designation. Which title or designation was in each case the same, namely, that of '^ Son of God." Are we not justified, then, in taking the explanation of the phrase given in the one case, as applicable also to the other ? Is it not a fair con- clusion that he was condemned for blasphemy by the grave assemblage of the Sanhedrim, as he had already been condemned on the present less formal occasion, ** because that he, being a man, made himself God ?" '' The result, then, of our investigation is this. As it had been foretold by the prophets, and as he him- self intimated in the text, the Son of Man was at last ^^ lifted up" on the cross. He was crucified by the Roman authorities, in order to satisfy the impor- tunate demands of his own countrymen, who had already passed upon him the sentence of death in their own tribunal as a blasphemer. Which blas- phemy consisted in an acknowledgement made at his trial that he claimed to be received as a Divine Personage. Indirectly he had asserted this claim on many occasions during his ministry ; by declaring '' John X. 33. LECTURE V. 93 his pre-existence to Abraham, by declaring his unity with the Father, by assuming the right and power to forgive sins, by claiming a paramount authority over the divine ordinance of the Sabbath. And it was for claiming to be the Son of God in the direct and literal sense of the expression, that he was pronounced a blasphemer, and sentenced to death by the solemn tribunal of the Sanhedrim. LECTURE VL JOHN III. 14, 15. AS MOSES LIFTED UP THE SERPENT IN THE WILDERNESS, EVEN SO MUST THE SON OF MAN BE LIFTED UP ; THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVETII IN HIM, SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE EVER- LASTING LIFE. THE process by which our Lord's announcement in the former part of this passage, was fulfilled, has already been traced and noted down. We have endeavoured to ascertain the grounds upon which the Jews in the first place rejected him, and the course which they afterwards adopted to take away his life. We have seen that from time to time the charge of blasphemy was brought against him, because he claimed to be the Son of God in a sense which was understood to amount to blasphemy. We have also seen, that he was at length formally arraigned before the court of the Sanhedrim, and pronounced guilty of that crime, and sentenced to death. Which sentence the Roman Procurator was prevailed upon by their taunts and importunities to carry into effect . We come now to consider the LECTURE Vr. 95 object or end of that crucifixion, as declared by our Lord himself to the Pharisee in the text. The substance of the passage is this. That the Son of man must be put to death upon the cross, in order that mankind, who would otherwise have perished, may, by believing in him, not only be saved from perdition, but be admitted to eternal life. In order to produce this result, the Son of Man must be put to death. It is not stated, that he came into the world, — nor that he works miracles, — nor that he delivers instruction, — in order that they who believe in him may be saved. But it is announced as clearly as words can express it, that in order to attain for the believer this inestimable benefit, the Son of Man must be ^' lifted up, even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness." The Pharisee therefore was given to understand that it was the Saviour's death which would give to faith of the believer its wondrous eflicacy. He must have inferred from these words, that neither the incarnation nor the ministry, without i\\e passion of the Redeemer, would have accomplished the object for which God sent him into the world. And it must further be observed, that the Redeemer's suffering is not to be understood as merely operating as a test of the sincerity of him who suffered. The Pharisee is not informed, that the Son of Man must be lifted up, in order that men may be persuaded that he is in earnest, and that all 96 LECTURE VT. he states is therefore to be believed. Such inter- mediate process as this is not even hinted at. The object of his passion is not to make men believe, but to save such as shall believe. That those w^ho are brought to acknowledge him as the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, may not perish under the burden of their iniquities, but being admitted to the salvation thus purchased for them, may enjoy ever- lasting life. This prophetical intimation of his death is con- formable to our Lord's general practice in many of his subsequent discourses. Both he himself, indeed, and his apostles in after times, invariably laid the greatest stress upon those prophecies which related to his death. " That Christ must needs have suffered," is the perpetual burden of their preaching : and his death is constantly represented as an event of paramount importance in that great and myste- rious work which he had undertaken to perform. It was announced, then to Nicodemus, that every one who should believe in the Son of Man would be saved ; and that in order to give to mankind this capability of salvation, it was necessary that the Son of Man should be put to death. By what means the death of the Son of Man would produce this effect, does not immediately appear from the words which he made use of. Nor indeed was any further elucidation necessary. The person to whom the announcement was made, belonged to a nation whose LECTURE VI. 97 worship was almost entirely sacrificial ; and who from the earliest ages had seen instances of atone- ment by the death of a victim perpetually before their eyes. It was their belief, that the priest by laying his hand upon the head of the animal brought to the altar, transferred to it the guilt of the person in whose behalf it was about to be sacrificed. When this was done, the death due to that sinner as a legitimate punishment of his transgressions, was inflicted upon the animal in his stead ; and by this vicarious suffering he was saved from the conse- quences of his guilt. The one was said to " bear," or to " take away," the sins of the other. Inasmuch, then, as Jesus had only just before been announced by the Baptist as '^ the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world ;" seeing also, that the Paschal lamb had been a standing and vivid repre- sentation of him for more than fifteen hundred years ; and remembering that it had been foretold by pro- phecy, that he should " bear the iniquities of others," and that his " soul should be made an offering for sin ;"^ we cannot suppose that the Pharisee, unless he was in ignorance of these facts and prophecies, (which is in the highest degree incredible,) could avoid marking in our Saviour's announcement the clear intimation of an expiatory death, — an offering of atonement. 1 Isaiah liii. 10. n 98 LECTURE VI. If there were any communications in this me- morable discourse, which the Master in Israel to whom it was addressed, found himself unable to comprehend, he would doubtless treasure them up in his memory, until some further communications from the same source threw light upon their ob- scurity. If, therefore, we compare the passage be- fore us with others that fell subsequently from the same lips, we shall be pursuing the same method of elucidation which we may reasonably conclude to have been adopted by the Pharisee himself. When our Lord, then, spoke of the shepherd "giving his life"^ for the sheep; sacrificing his own life to save theirs ; or in other words, dying in their stead ; when he spoke of his life being given as ** a ransom " for many ; ^ and when at the very latest period of his ministry, during the solemn institution of the Eucharist, he declared that his blood was to be shed "for the remission of sins;''* what would be the effect of all this upon a mind already pre- occupied with a tolerably distinct idea that the " lifting up " on the cross was to be an expiatory sacrifice, but to confirm that impression ; and to con- vince the Pharisee, that the purport of our text is precisely what St. Paul afterwards expressed in the following sentence, — " Whom God hath set forth to be 2i propitiation, ihxongh faith in his blood ?" ^ - John X. 11. 3 Matt. x\. 28. •* Matt. xxvi. 28. ^ Rom. iii. 25. LECTURE VI. 99 The benefits, then, of our Lord's passion are con- fined to such as believe in him : — to such as believe him to be what he announced himself, even the only begotten Son of God, given up by the Father out of his exceeding love for us; who, by the voluntary sacri- fice of himself upon the cross, places us in a situa- tion to escape the punishment of our sins, and to obtain everlasting life. The blood shed upon the cross is set forth by the Father as " a propitiation ;" but it is a propitiation only, " through y?//^A in that blood." The Deliverer, promised of old to Adam and the patriarchs, is come down from heaven to bruise the head of the serpent : but the benefits of his victory accrue to none but those who admit him as their Deliverer, and believe the declarations which he makes respecting his person and ofiice. It pleased him to clothe himself in the flesh, and to assume the nature of those whom he came to redeem, even of the meanest of them. He cast a veil over the splen- dour and majesty of the Godhead. And thus, while men looked on the one hand at the lowliness of his disguise, and on the other, at the mighty works which he performed, they were bewildered with amazement and doubt. Here, then, was ample scope for the exercise oi faith. And the faith which distinguished the believer from the infidel, was that which Peter on a certain occasion came forward to profess in the name of his brethren. *' We believe, 100 LFXTURE Vr. and are sure, that thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. "^ This belief, however, is something more than a mere act of the understanding, something better than a mere assent to certain propositions w^hich no reason- able person can deny. When our Lord made the declaration in the text, it surely signified something more, than that such as had sufficient evidence placed before them, w^ould be saved ; and that such as had it not, must perish. In some degree, at least, it must be in a man's pov^^er to believe, or to refuse belief, as he chooses. In other words, besides and in connection with the act of the understanding, there must also be a positive exertion of the will. As it has been observed in reference to the prayer which our Lord offered up for the confirmation of Peter's faith, '^What else did he pray for, but that the Apostle might have a most free and most firm and most constant ivill to continue in that faith ?'"^ In connexion with the assent of the understanding- are implied certain previous acts of the will, and certain others subsequent. It is required previously that we divest ourselves of all prejudice ; suftering no motive to influence our minds but a simple desire to lay hold upon the truth. There must be a readi- ness to prove and examine all things, together with <5 John vi. 69. ' Aug'ustin, De corrcpt. et g-ratia : c. 8. LECTURE VI. 101 a steady resolution to hold fast at all hazards that which is good. We must receive the truth " as a little child," with docility and gentleness. That aversion to its simplicity, that bias toward evil, which is often found in men hacknied in the ways of the world, must never appear in the candid searcher after truth. There is undoubtedly a certain virtue in cherishing a disposition to weigh with fairness the evidence of truth, as there is also a certain re- sponsibility incurred by opposing it. As the people of Bersea received the approbation of the Evangelist for their readiness to hear and their willingness to investigate ;^ so on the other hand it was said by our blessed Lord himself, that the Holy Spirit would '' reprove the world oi sin,'' not because they had per- secuted the Messiah and put him to death, but because they " had not believecV' on him.^ The generality of mankind, indeed, in forming their judgment upon questions of religious faith, are influenced far less by a love of the truth, than by earthly and carnal motives, altogether inconsistent with the truth. If it will condemn their mode of living, they become extremely backward in their search after it. In the words of Scripture, they shut their eyes, and stop their ears, and harden their hearts; lest they should see, and hear, and understand. When the nation of the Jews rejected their Messiah, 8 Acts xvii. 11. 9 Jolin xvi, 9. 102 LECTURE Vr. here lay the cause of that rejection. Light had come into the world, (as our Lord told Nicodemus), but men " loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." '' If any man will do my Father's will," said our Lord to the Jews themselves, " he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself."^** The sinful indulgences to which these men had become habituated, the evil passions which held them in thraldom, the stubborn prejudices which they refused to give up, all con- spired in throwing over their minds a worse than Egyptian darkness ; and although light was in the dwellings of the righteous, they refused to "come to the light," lest their deeds " should be reproved." St. Paul says distinctly, that they who " believe not the truth," are such as " have pleasure in un- righteousness :" ^^ and again he says, that they who perish are not only devoid of the truth itself, but of the " love of the truth." '^ A very trifling weight of evidence, in short, will satisfy us, as to the truth of a doctrine which chimes in with our prejudices, and does not check the free indulgence of our passions. But if we have a distaste for the proposition asserted, if the spell of sin be cast over our soul, we can listen to the most convincing arguments with an easy and unconscious indifference; and they make upon our "' John vii. 17. ^i 2 These. 1" 2 TIkiss. ii. 10. LECTURE Vr. 103 slumbering conscience no more impression, than Na- than's parable did upon the guilty King of Israel. To these qualifications of mind and temper must be added that humble and earnest sense of depend- ence upon God, which finds its utterance in prayer. The man who believes that God heareth and an- swereth prayer, will not hesitate to ask for that light and that guidance, which are of such unspeakable importance to his happiness. And even he who has not yet attained to such a degree of knowledge, — he to whom the efficacy of prayer is as yet a matter of doubt, — urged by no other motive than the voice of conscience speaking within him, will fall down before the God of truth, and pray to be enlightened. Such are the previous acts of the will, which must be annexed to the assent of the understanding, in order to produce a saving faith. We come now to consider others which are subsequent. In the first place there must be resolution and fortitude. The truth when once admitted, must be professed without reserve and without compromise. If we stifle a religious sentiment, when in our heart we more than suspect it to be true, — if we disown that for which we have a secret veneration, in order to escape ridicule, — what is it but a species of unbelief? Amid the early persecutions of the church, this faint- heartedness was made by our Lord and his Apostles the constant subject of their denunciations. Unless a man was prepared to go '' through much tribula- 104 LECTURE VI. tion ;" ^^ he could not enter into the kingdom of God. Unless he forsook his friends, his possessions and his family, and was prepared, when called upon, to give up life itself, he could not be Christ's disciple. Lastly : no professed belief in Christ will prove efficacious in saving a man from the punishment of his transgressions, unless it influence and direct his conduct. It must be made the principle of right action through life. Here, indeed, a most powerful exertion of the will is superadded to the assent of the understanding. If a man, professing the faith of Christ, obeys not the commandments of Christ, he has *' denied the faith," and is " worse than an infi- del."^* On the one hand, we read of those who are ^'obedient to the faith, "^^ and of those who *' purify their hearts by faith :"^^ while on the other hand, we are told of certain professors who " hold the truth in unrighteousness."^^ As a mere act of the under- standing, as a mere assent to convincing evidence, there can be no efficacy whatever in faith. It is in no wise better than the faith of devils : for they " be- lieve," says the Apostle, '' and tremble." '® In order to make it a saving faith, there must be those prepara- tory acts of the will which have been already pointed out ; and in its train must follow all the graces of the Christian character. Arts .viv. 2-2. " 1 Tim. v. 8. '^ Acts vi. 7. Act.s \v. P. '^ Rom. i. 18. '* James ii. 19. LECTURE vr. 105 And this faith is progressive. The faith that worketh by love, though it be but as a grain of mustard seed, if it be proportionate to the light and weight of evidence, will by no means be rejected. For he who is author and finisher of our faith, is One who will not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax ; and having commanded us by his Apostle to receive them that be *'weak in faith, "^^ he has de- clared thereby that he receiveth them himself. There is no doubt that the Spirit of God, being implored by devout and humble prayer, will advance the be- liever to higher degrees of faith, and give him a cer- tainty of adherence beyond the certainty of evidence.'^'^ By a mysterious process faith will be elevated into knowledge. He will be as fully assured of the Gos- pel of Christ, as those who heard it with their ears and saw it with their eyes, and whose hands handled the word of life. We find an actual instance of the advancement from one degree of faith to another in the history of the Gentile Cornelius. Although he was no be- liever in Christ, although the path in which he walked was illumined by scarcely a single ray of light, still, according to the best of his ability he '^ feared God and worked righteousness."^^ And we are told that he was " accepted" before Him ; that his prayers •^ Rom. xiv. 1. =° Chilling-worth, Rel. Prot. 1. 9. '• Acts X. 106 LECTURE VI. and his alms went up " for a memorial." But how far was he accepted ? Not to be brought immediately to salvation, but to be advanced to a higher degree of knowledge. Being directed to call upon the Apostle Peter, he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but presented himself a willing disciple to the man of God. For although he had been accepted while as yet he was in the dark estate of heathenism, if after the communication of further knowledge he had still remained in the same condition of heathenism, he would have incurred the condemnation spoken of by our Lord in this discourse ; and his place would have been with those, who, when the light had come unto them, " loved darkness rather than light." And after all it must be borne in mind, that faith in its full and Scriptural sense, is a gift of the Holy Spirit. It is not simply an act of the will, still less is it an act of the understanding: it is a state and habit of the soul ; the will being directed, and the understanding enlightened by the Spirit of God. It is expressly enumerated among the fruits of the Spirit by St. Paul;*^ and the same Apostle has declared that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but *' by the Holy Ghost." '^^ Without this, all discussions upon the evidence or obscurity of faith, the most lively de- scriptions, and the most studied discourses on its na- ture and essential properties, will be little better than " Gal. V. 22. " 1 Cor. xii. 3. LECTURE VI. 107 the notions which a blind man entertains on the dif- ference of day and night. Supposing that the power of sight were suddenly at midnight given to one who had never yet beheld the light of the sun ; it might be easy perhaps to persuade him, that the glimmer- ing of the stars which he saw, was that which he had heard spoken of, as the light of day. But after the day itself had once begun to dawn upon him, the distinc- tion between day and night would become every mo- ment more perceptible ; and although the sun itself were as yet unseen, he would become still more and more aware that it was approaching.^* The Spirit of truth, says our Lord, takes of the things that are Christ's and " shows them" to the soul ;^^ not in the barrenness of speculative doctrine, but as truths of mighty import, indispensable to sal- vation. It represents him, not merely in his office as the Messiah, but also in his person as the beloved and only-begotten Son of the Father, who took upon him our nature, and made of himself a willing sacrifice upon the cross. Here is the great point of all. For as Jesus died, in order that we through faith might be saved : so the death of Jesus must be the paramount object of that faith. Who can expect to reap the benefits of the passion, who believes not that such benefits exist? Who can appropriate to himself the propitiation, if he refuses to admit that a pro- -* Th. Jackson, vol. i. p. 617. 23 John xvi. 14. 108 LECTUKE VI. pitiation was offered ? As the philosophy of the pagan was said by one of its wisest votaries, to be nothing else than a meditation upon death, so the philosophy of the Christian consists in chief part of a meditation upon the death of him who overcame death. With St. Paul we desire to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified. Go to the pious believer in humble life, and ask him to tell you the substance of that faith, by which he is enabled, amid the rigours of poverty and the sufferings of disease, to go forward rejoicing on his pilgrimage. He will reply, that it is the assurance that his Saviour died for him upon the cross ; and that there is *' no condem- nation to such as are in Christ Jesus." -^ If, indeed, the faith through which man is encou- raged to hope for salvation, required that assent of the understanding to certain theological propositions, which is produced in the minds of learned men by careful study, by the examination of evidence, and by the exposition of type and prophecy, how very small a proportion of the vast multitude who died in the first Adam could be made alive in the second ! '■*' Such knowledge" would indeed be *' too wonder- ful" for them ; they could not ^' attain unto it." What does the " hewer of wood," or the " drawer of water," know of those curious and abstruse questions, upon which the divines of successive generations have -^ Rom. viii. 1. LECTURE Vr. 109 exercised their acuteness and exhausted their eru- dition? Truly, the peace of God which passes man's understanding springs from another and a higher source than this. But whatever knowledge there may be, or what- ever may be the want of knowledge, there must be the same exertion of the will, the same candour, the same child-like docility, the same prayerful obedience. Upon the soul that cherishes these necessary virtues, there will assuredly be poured out such a measure of divine grace, as will produce a lively faith in God's word and promises, even though the apprehension of some points therein may be indistinct. A principle of life and energy will be implanted ; the leaves and blossoms of promise will soon make their appearance, and in due time there will be the fruits of a holy life. The poor will be rich in grace and godliness : the slow in speech will be eloquent in the Scriptures : to the rude and unlearned will be given a delicate per- ception of the presence and attributes of Him with whom they are admitted into communion : and the simple ones will become wise, even wise unto salva- tion. LECTURE VII. JOHN III. 13. AND NO MAN HATH ASCENDED UP TO HEAVEN, BUT HE THAT CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN, EVEN THE SON OF MAN WHICH IS IN HEAVEN. WHILE the other Evangelists have occupied themselves for the most part in recording the miracles and personal actions of our Lord, or in transmitting those discourses which are of a practical tendency, consisting of new precepts of morality, or new and stringent expositions of the ancient law, the object of St. John seems to have been to record those discourses in particular which related to the Saviour's nature and person. He states clearly and succinctly what the Saviour uttered, bringing his readers to a conviction that Jesus was " the Christ, the Son of God ;" so that " believing they might have life through his name."' In the verse now before us, our Lord declared that he had " come down from heaven." Already had ' .lohn XX, :31. LECTURE VII. Ill the Pharisee acknowledged his belief in him as a pi^ophet. But inasmuch as all prophets were of the earth, earthy ; Jesus, who came down from heaven, was jiiore than a prophet. Was it then an angel or an archangel who had thus descended from on high to redeem Israel ? A being it was of nature more exalted than either angel or archangel : for he de- clares himself to be still " in heaven," although con- versing with Nicodemus upon earth. In this con- versation he applies to himself for the first time the appellation, *' Son of Man ;" coupling the intimation of his omnipresence, with this allusion to his humilia- tion as one of the children of men. And he further declares, that there is no other being upon earth, save himself, competent to give information on those mysterious subjects which are treated of in this dis- course. " No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven." In a former part of these Lectures our attention was directed to the strong probability, that on those occasions when the Deity had manifested himself of old, by the name of the angel of God's presence, it was the Son who appeared, the second person in the blessed Trinity. If such were the case, there can be no dispute as to the meaning of the clause in our text, which affirms that the Son of Man came down from heaven. But inasmuch as an ingenious attempt has been made by those persons who deny the divi- 112 LECTURE Vif. nity of our Saviour, not only to remove the insur- mountable difficulty v^^hich this passage in its literal interpretation presents to them, but to enlist it also among their ow^n authorities, we will proceed to examine the validity of the hypothesis, which is made to produce so extraordinary a result. Without any ground whatever in the passage or its context, and without the support of one single text of Scripture, they have assumed as a fact the notion, that our Lord, previous to his appearance among men as a prophet, was taken up into heaven, as Moses into the mount, to receive instructions re- specting the duties of his office ; and that the descent from heaven alluded to in the text, was merely a return to the earth where he had been dwelling before. A doctrine which, although acknowledged by one of themselves to be well nigh exploded, is nevertheless pronounced by that critic to be far preferable to the literal and obvious interpretation adopted by ourselves.^ Let us, then, proceed to examine what is meant by the words, *' He that came down from heaven." The descent here spoken of must necessarily have taken place at our Lord's birth, unless it can be proved, or made probable, that there had been a descent from heaven since his birth. And if such a descent had taken place, there must necessarily have 2 Dr. Priestley. LECTURE Vir. 113 been an ascent into heaven previous to it. But if our Lord had really ascended into heaven, surely an incident of so much importance would by one or other of the Evangelists have been recorded. We cannot believe that an event vrhich w^ould have afforded in- surmountable proof of his divine mission, and vi^ould have been so efficacious in the dissemination of his Gospel, would be passed over by them, not only with- out express and particular mention, but even without allusion. His nativity, his circumcision, his presen- tation in the Temple, his reception by Simeon, the adoration paid him by the Eastern magi, and his flight into Egypt, have all been specially recorded, as important in their connection with the great sub- ject which it was the commission of the Evange- lists to illustrate. Can we then believe, that such an incident as his ascent into heaven, would be passed over in utter silence? Supposing that he really ascended into heaven, as we are told he did, for the purpose of receiving instruction and power, it might be that the wisdom displayed in his public disputation with the doctors, was an early exercise of that divinely-acquired knowledge. It is, at all events, something better than idle curiosity which tempts us to enquire, whether that marvellous exhi- bition of super-human knowledge occurred before the alleged ascent into heaven, or after it. Down to the period of the disputation in the Temple, it would seem that the child had never been missing I J 14 LECTURE VI I. from his parents' side ; and subsequently to this event, it is specially recorded that he returned to Nazareth, and remained there, and w^as subject to them. It does not appear how the hypothesis is to be recon- ciled with the history, in either case. Besides this, we may ask, whether it is probable, that after having been summoned up to heaven to receive his commission as an ambassador of the Most High, he would wait for the inauguration of the Spirit at his baptism ? Would the Legate of heaven, already accredited and sent as such into the world from the throne of heaven itself, (which must have been the case according to this hypothesis,) be likely to go to John to be baptized ? If this alleged ascent into heaven took place at all, it must certainly have been subsequent to his baptism. And yet from this period the narrative is so circumstantial and full, that the presumed omission of an event of so much importance, is utterly inconsistent with its character, and altogether incredible. And not only is this hypothesis of an antecedent or preparatory ascension erected without a shadow of support, either from written word or unwritten tradition, but it is also at variance with the tenor of revelation, both in reference to the attributes of God, and the office undertaken by the Mediator. For what reason can even be surmised, for the alleged fact of such an ascent into heaven having been kept secret? We cannot doubt that a revelation of the LECTURE VII. 115 Almighty's will might have been made quite as effectually, without such intermediate process as with it. That it should take place, nevertheless, and having taken place, be concealed from man's know- ledge, is incredible. On the Son's part, too, we cannot so much as conjecture any motive for con- cealment, excepting such as it would be derogatory to the divine character even to imagine. In short, the hypothesis is an addition to the words of the book of life, made by those who, for the most part, are prone to abstract therefrom : — an addition such as St. John^ has carefully warned us against, at the conclusion of the sacred volume, by denunciations of the most awful import. It is also irreconcilable with a certain specification of the sacerdotal duties of the Messiah, given in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Christ our high priest is there distinctly represented as having entered into the holy place once. And inasmuch as that one entrance was by " his own blood,"* that is to say, subsequent to his crucifixion, the supposition of any other ascent, — such, for instance, as the one here suggested, — must unquestionably fall to the ground. Inasmuch, then, as it is highly improbable, if not incredible, that Jesus had ever ascended into heaven since the commencement of his incarnate life, it is in the same degree improbable that he could have des- ^ Rev. xxii, 18. * Heb. ix, 12. 116 LECTURE Vir. cended from heaven during that period ; and there- fore the descent mentioned in the text must liave taken place when he became incarnate. And inas- much as the phrase " to have come down from heaven," implies a real pre-existence in heaven, it cannot be doubted that Christ did so pre-exist. For not one human being, however born, however sancti- fied, however dignified and exalted, is said on that ac- count alone to have " descended from heaven." John the Baptist, filled as he was with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb, born of an aged father and a childless mother by an immediate operation of the power of God, — even John the Baptist, a greater than whom had not yet appeared among the children of men, himself pointed out and ac- knowledged his own immeasurable inferiority to the Mighty Personage who was approaching. The one is ''of the earth," — " speaking of the earth ;" the other is " He that cometh from above," — " He that cometh from heaven, and is above all."^ And in like manner the first parent of the human race, although framed and fashioned by a special act of creative energy, and placed upon this nether globe where never human foot had rested before, is never- theless represented as altogether assimilated in nature to the earth from which he was created. So far from its being said of him that he " came down from ^ John iii, 31. LECTURE VII. 117 heaven," we find an express distinction made between him and the second Adam on this very point. While the first man is ** of the earth, earthy ;" the second man is the " Lord from heaven." ® And proceeding from the passage before us to others of a similar import, which in this Gospel of St. John are of frequent occurrence, we shall find our Lord speaking yet more decidedly of his descent from heaven, as from a place of settled abode, pre- viously to his appearing among mankind. " I came down from heaven, — he says — not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me."'^ " What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before ?"^ ** I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world : again I leave the world, and go to the Father."^ Supported then, by these and numerous other passages which might be adduced both from the writings of the Evangelists and the Epistles of St. Paul, are we not justified in our plain and literal interpretation of the text ? At this early period of his ministry, and in this his first exposition of divine truth, the Saviour announced the important doctrine of his pre-existence in heaven. It will not be foreign to the subject to observe, that this pre-existence was a state of glory. *' Glorify thou me," — says our Lord in his prayer — " with the 6 1 Cor. XV, 47. 7 John vi. 38. ^ John vi. 62. 9 John xvi. 28. 118 LECTURE VII. glory which I had with thee before the world was."^*' When he became incarnate, he " emptied himself," — as St. Paul uses the expressive phrase, — ^* of this glory, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men." ^^ And in this pre-existence of glory, it was by the more immediate agency of the Son that God created the worlds. In fact, when we read the express declaration to tliis effect in the Epistle to the Hebrews,^^ as well as the plain statement made by St. John at the commence- ment of his Gospel, ^^ it seems almost impossible that the passage in our text should ever have received any interpretation except the literal one. It seems, indeed, as if this Evangelist, who prefaced his Gospel with an explicit declaration of our Lord's pre-exist- ence, made it a special object throughout to record those particular instances, in which he alluded to his descent from heaven at the commencement of his incarnate life, and his future return thither at its close. We now come to consider our Lord's declaration of his Omnipresence. At the very time when he was thus conversing with Nicodemus upon earth, he declared himself to be also in heaven. " The Son of Man, which is in heaven," is a very plain passage. So plain, in fact, that those who deny his divinity, '" John xvii. 5. " Phil. ii. 7. " Ilebr. i. 2. '■' John i. 3. LECTURE VII. 119 have thought it advisable to alter the translation, and to render it, — " The Son of Man which was in heaven." "But it is scarcely necessary to observe, that by this mode of interpretation we put an asser- tion into the Saviour's mouth, which, after what had gone before, is altogether superfluous. After Nico- demus had been informed that the Son of Man " came down from heaven," why should another clause be added to the sentence, for the mere purpose of assuring him that the Son of Man had been in heaven ? Who would dream of questioning the fact of his having been in the place from which he had descended ? Beyond all question, the passage contains a clear intimation of his omnipresence. The blessed Word, although incarnate and dwelling upon earth, was nevertheless still abiding with Him, whom even the heaven of heavens cannot contain. Might he not, indeed, — as an eloquent writer has suggested, — at the same moment be present in other worlds, per- forming works of love and beneficence innumerable, carrying messages of reconciliation and peace ! For who shall venture to say that this moral pestilence which he came to remove, may not have spread its desolating effects over other planets as well as our own ? Who shall affirm that the mighty scheme of redemption was set up for the exclusive benefit of this solitary world of ours ? Who shall venture to confine within arbitrary limits either the omnipotence or the omnipresence of the Godhead ? 120 LECTURE VII. It has been already remarked, that our Lord in this passage applies to himself for the first time the significant appellation of" Son of Man :" and thus the phrase which is usually supposed to designate with much appropriateness his humiliation, is annexed to a proposition which expresses his exalted and divine nature. In this sentence alone, the union of man- hood and divinity is implied beyond a doubt. And you will observe, that in the next passage he calls himself the " Son of God." As appearing among men in the form of men, he was in a certain sense the " Son of Man." But if he was nothing more than this, why did he so immediately apply to himself that other designation, — why suggest doubt and invite discussion by declaring in the very next passage, that he whom God had given to the world, was " his only-begotten Son?" The very fact of his having used both these expressions in consecutive passages of one brief conversation, that conversation, too, occurring under circumstances peculiarly impressive, leads to the inevitable inference, that in each expression so made use of there was a peculiar appropriateness. He who was sent into the world by the Almighty to save it, was his *' only-begotten Son." He, who, in the execution of this scheme, was lifted up on the cross at Calvary, was the " Son of Man." Both being one and the self-same Person. We find also in this conversation a clear proof, that the Son of God stood in that relation to the LECTURE VII. 121 Father antecedently to his incarnation ; that it was not accidental, but inherent in his nature. The attention of Nicodemus is expressly called to the fact of the Almighty's love to mankind being so great, as to overcome the reluctance which a father must feel in giving up his only and beloved son to be put to death. This will be rendered more intelli- gible by a reference to the typical offering up of Isaac. In the narrative of that event we find it expressly stated, with respect to the blessing pro- mised to the Patriarch as a reward of his singular faith and obedience, that it was bestowed upon him " because he had not withheld his son, his only son."^"^ The attention of future ages is fixed upon the points of resemblance between the proposed victim and the promised Messiah. Each was an " only son," and each was to be offered up as a sacrifice. If, there- fore, that filial relation between the Messiah, and Him who gave up the Messiah to be put to death, did not subsist antecedently to the incarnation, the analogy between the type and the anti-type is lost ; and our Lord's assertion in the present discourse, instead of impressing us with a sense of God's exceeding love for us, is devoid of point and appli- cation. By subsequent passages of Scripture this con- clusion is strongly fortified. In the parable of the '* Gen. xxii. 16. 122 LECTURE VI I. vineyard, for instance, why did those persons to whom it was addressed, pronounce so promptly and decidedly the condemnation of the guilty husband- men? Was it not on account of the surpassing atrocity of their crime ; namely, the murder of him who stood next in succession to the inheritance, the Son of their Master V^ And again, in that animated appeal and argument of St. Paul, wherein he shews the ground we have for believing that God will pro- vide for us all things that be needful, the aptness and force of his reasoning depend entirely upon the filial relation inherent in the very nature of the Son of God. ** He that spared not his own Son," asks the Apostle, ^' shall he not with him also freely give us all things?'"' It would not, however, be fair to dismiss the subject, without noticing another passage of Scrip- ture, which is appealed to with much confidence by those who are of opinion that this relation was merely occasional, and that the Son of God was invested with it for the first time when he came into the world. In the angel's annunciation to the Virgin, we find the following passage ; — '^ The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee : therefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee, shall be ca//6Y/theSonof God."^^ ■'• Matt. xxi. 38. " Kom. viii. 32. '- Luke i. 35. LECTURE VII. 123 By adverting to the immediate and express object of this announcement, we shall be enabled to arrive the more easily at its meaning. It was the reply to an enquiry made by the Virgin Mother; and its object was to inform her, that although she was highly favoured, and blessed among women, inas- much as she had been chosen to be the mother of so illustrious a child, that this child, nevertheless, would not be born in the natural course of filial succession, like the other children of men, but brought into the world by a special act of Omnipotence. As the first Adam, who was placed on the earth before that suc- cession commenced, was for this reason called the Son of God ; so the second Adam, in whose case the succession was miraculously interrupted, should be called the Son of God also. The allusion in this particular case is neither to his nature, nor to his person, but merely to the mode of his putting on our flesh. When that ever-blessed Saviour, who was verily the Son of God, being of one substance with the Father, and begotten by him before the worlds, became man, of the substance of his mother, and was born in the world, it was announced to that Virgin Mother that the mode of his birth should be supernatural; and that in reference to his earthly descent, the point to herself at the time most interest- ing, he should be "■ called" the Son of God. With a few obvious remarks upon the effect which 124 LECTURE VI r. this view of the scheme of redemption ought to pro- duce upon our heart and affections, we will dismiss the subject. The eternal Son of God came down from Heaven to redeem us. " God so loved the world, that he gave his only -begotten Son ;" — he gave him up to death, even the death of the cross. Can the tongue of man express, or can the heart of man conceive, the amount of that debt of gratitude, which we owe to the Son who suffered for us, and to the Father whose love was such as to induce him to give up that Son ? For, suppose that some sinless being, — call him angel or archangel if you please, — after being ex- posed, if it were possible, to the same temptations which our Saviour underwent, had, like him, in all points baffled the Tempter. Suppose, further, that he had submitted, like our Lord, to suffer all the misery of which our nature is capable, and had given up even his life as a ransom to redeem us from everlasting misery. And suppose it were possible for the life of that single being to be accepted as a satisfaction for our guilt. What effect, let me now ask, would be produced in our feelings, towards him whose vicarious suffering had thus saved us from per- dition, as well as towards Him, to satisfy whose justice this sacrifice of the innocent for the guilty had been demanded ? Towards the being who had taken upon him the LECTURE VII. 125 part of Redeemer, submitting of his own accord to be degraded and put to death for our sake, even the least susceptible bosom would overflow with grati- tude ; although the sphere from which he descended is by the supposition that of a created being like ourselves. How much greater reason, then, have we to love that Saviour, who for our sake laid aside the majesty of the Godhead ! But in such a case as that which we have been supposing, what would have been the feeling excited within our breast toward the Almighty himself? It would have been a shrinking unwillingness to ap- proach his presence, a desire to avoid him, and to escape his notice. It would have partaken, in short, much more of fear and aversion, than of love. That feeling which is embodied in the command, that we love Him with all our heart, with all our mind, and with all our soul, — that feeling which alone can qualify an intelligent being for the enjoyment of the presence of his Creator, — never could have existed. It could not, in short, have existed under any other cir- cumstances, than those in which we are placed by the scheme of redemption through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The same Person in the Godhead who inflicts the punishment, out of his great love to mankind hath supplied a vicarious sufferer, equal in glory and in majesty co-eternal with himself, even his only-begotten and beloved Son. The Deity in one Person exacts the punishment, and in another sus- 126 LECTURE VH. tains it. Whether, then, we look at the Father who gave up his Son, or at the Son who consented thus to be given up, we love Him who " first loved us."^« '" 1 John iv. 19. LECTURE VIII. JOHN III. 17. FOR GOD SENT NOT HIS SON INTO THE WORLD TO CONDEMN THE WORLD, BUT THAT THE WORLD THROUGH HIM MIGHT BE SAVED. IN these few and simple words a subject is pre- sented to us, the full import of which it would be impossible for any terms of human eloquence to em- body, or convey to the mind. We have here the unadorned majesty of divine truth, as it fell from the lips of the Son of God. When the Prophets of old essayed to express the things suggested to them by the Spirit, they were overwhelmed with awe by the sublimity of the subject, and they endeavoured to clothe it in the gorgeous apparel of Eastern imagery ; so as to produce upon the minds of others, an effect in some degree corresponding to that upon their own. But how different to this was the severe simplicity of the style in which Jesus spoke ! It has been remarked, that as the brightness of countenance and raiment, which dazzled the vision of his Apostles when he was transfigured before them on the Mount, was to the Saviour himself, but a single and glim- 128 LECTURE VIII. me ring ray of that primeval glory, of which he had emptied himself for a time, so the sublime and mysterious perceptions of truth which astonished and confounded the mind of man, were to the Saviour's mind common and familiar ; and he gave utterance to them accordingly in that simplicity of phrase, of which we have here an instance. It is also to be observed, that the words of our blessed Saviour are generally related without any attempt at explanation or comment. The object of the Evangelists seems to have been, to present nothing more than a record of those announcements which contain the great principles of our faith, and to avoid the insertion of any thing less divine among the words of the Son of God. In passages where a single observation would have thrown light upon subjects now involved in darkness and dispute, they have still remained silent ; fearing to stretch forth a profane hand to support the ark of God. Sometimes, indeed, it happens, as is the case in this conversation, that a link in the chain, a question or a remark, is left for the reader himself to supply. As to the pro- bability of objections being raised to their statements, they do not seem to have given it a single moment's consideration. Whether that which they relate appear credible or incredible, is of little moment, so that it be God's truth. If you believe them, it is well : if not, there is no help for it. They adopt no devices either direct or indirect, to recommend either LECTURE VIII. 129 themselves or their Master. Although his influence over them had been sufficient to induce them to leave all and to follow him, they do not pass upon him one single encomium. Against his and their persecutors they utter neither accusation nor complaint. This fact, especially in the case of rude and uneducated men, betokens a deep sense of the importance and dignity of their subject. Let us proceed to devote our attention more par- ticularly to the announcement in the text. Although many were the truths delivered in this brief conver- sation, which would fill the mind of the Pharisee with surprise, none, perhaps, was so directly opposed to his earliest and most deeply-rooted prejudices, as that which has already been hinted at, and is here ex- plicitly set forth. When our Lord, in the fifteenth verse, declared, that " whosoever believeth in him," shall " have eternal life," it is probable that Nico- demus would take it for granted, that none but a Jew was entitled to appropriate to himself this, or any other promise, relating to the kingdom of the Messiah. But however that may be, the next pas- sage, in which is set forth the great love which God had shown to mankind in general, and the ofter of salvation, through faith, to every believer in Christ, must at all events have filled him with amazement. The Jews imagined that God had created the world solely for their own sakes ; and that in His sight all the rest of the nations were mere refuse. On that K 130 LECTURE VIII. occasion in our Lord's ministry, when, dissembling the beneficent intention which was in his breast, he said to the Syrophcenician stranger, — " It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs," ' — he spoke in entire accordance with the sentiments of those by whom he was surrounded. To such an extent, indeed, did they carry these sentiments, that they denied to strangers the usual conveniences and civilities of life. They refused to point out his way to the wandering traveller, or to direct him to the fountain at which he might quench his thirst. Be- cause God had declared of old that He hated the sin of idolatry, they held that He hated all the rest of the world excepting themselves. All the curses and fearful judgments which were denounced by the prophets of old against the workers of iniquity, were deliberately transferred to the Gentiles. And this they not only held as an opinion, but acted upon as a principle : especially in the later days of their commonwealth ; when they made war upon their neighbours in various parts of Egypt and Syria, and put vast multitudes of them to the sword. They held, that the precepts of their law, which had for- merly required them to extirpate the Canaanites, obliged them to kill idolaters, and to destroy idolatry, whenever they had the power. One special part of the Messiah's office, according to an ancient tradition, ' Matt. XV. 26. LECTURE Vlir. 131 was to inflict a summary and sweeping vengeance upon the Gentiles. So that when this Pharisee heard a plain declaration, that the Messiah was 7iot come into the world to condemn it ; and further than this, an equally plain declaration that he was come to save the world, it must have filled him with amaze- ment. So utterly unprepared were the Jews to un- derstand that the wall of partition was to be broken down, that even our Lord's Apostles, though com- manded expressly to preach the Gospel to all nations, delayed to execute the command, until a miracle was wrought for the special purpose of enlightening them. Well, indeed, might the Pharisee exclaim, " How can these things be ?" The kingdom of Christ, so different in its very nature from all that they had been expecting, — so exclusive in the first instance that no one could gain admission thereinto, unless he were born again of water and of the Spirit, — shall neverthe- less, on these conditions, be open unto all nations of the world. The strictest observer of the Law, with- out faith, will be excluded ; and the believing Gentile will obtain admission. In their popular phraseology, the Messiah's advent was to be as morn- ing light to Israel, and darkness to the rest of the world. It was to be like the threshing-time, when the wheat is bestowed into the garner, and the chaff swept away by the wind. The nations of the world were to be like the burning of a furnace, while Israel alone was to be preserved. But the chosen people 132 LECTURE VIU . **loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil :" and it is intimated to Nicodemus, that the morning light of Messiah's advent was to lighten the Gentiles as well as themselves. Instead of priding themselves upon being members of an exclusive and sacred commonwealth, with the rest of mankind as aliens, if not enemies, they were now to look upon the world itself as their country, and the whole assemblage of the human race as fellow citizens. Nay — our Lord assures his hearer in this discourse, that unless they enter upon a new life, and abandon their worldly de- sires and opinions, and join themselves to a Messiah of low estate, whose ignoble career is to be termi- nated by an infamous death upon the cross, they will not only be excluded from all the benefits of his kingdom, which was now commencing, but con- demned to everlasting perdition. In the expression made use of by our Lord on this occasion, we have a remarkable instance of his prac- tice of borrowing images and illustrations from acci- dental objects, which presented themselves at the time of his teaching. Many, perhaps most, of our Lord's discourses were delivered in the open air. And he was accustomed to borrow from the scenes of common life, from the vicissitudes of the seasons, from the ordinary employments of those to whom he spake, such apt phrases and comparisons as were eminently calculated to remain impressed upon the memory of his hearers. Truths of high and heavenly import LECTURE VII r. 133 were brought to the attention of the listener in a familiar mode of presentation ; as angels of old came to the tent-door of the patriarch, having put on the shape and countenance of humanity. And these truths vy^ould ever after recur to the memory, on sight of those external objects with which they had been associated. The vine spreading out her branches, the sower sowing his grain, the lilies flowering in the field, which even now suggest to the reflective mind the lessons of divine wisdom deduced from them by the Saviour, must have produced an effect more frequent and more forcible upon those, who had been present when they were delivered. On one occasion, our Lord went up early in the morning to the Temple ; and as the sun tinged with its matin ray the gilded ornaments of that gorgeous edifice, he took occasion to discourse upon that particular prophecy (already alluded to) which represented the Messiah's advent as the morning light. And in the course of this his nocturnal interview with Nicodemus, although there was a total absence of those objects which usually sup- plied him with illustrations, — although darkness pre- vailed over the field and the vineyard, and the fowls of the air had gone to their nest, and the hen had gathered her chickens under her wing, — we find, never- theless, that the darkness itself, dispelled as it was in part by the light which illumined their apartment^ supplied our Lord with a metaphorical explanation of the causes which operated upon mankind, in bringing 134 LECTURE VIII. them to admit or to refuse their Messiah. If their deeds are evil, men love to remain in darkness, and re- fuse to come to the light, lest their deeds should be reproved. *' But he that doeth truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God." The sequel to this portion of Jewish history is easily told. While they thus beguiled themselves with a fond expectation that all the benefits of the Messiah's advent would center in themselves, it fell out, that as a nation they were altogether excluded from those benefits. Many came from the East and from the West, who shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac in the kingdom of heaven, while the children of the kingdom are cast out. At the very time when other nations were receiving the grain of mustard seed, which presently grew up to be a mighty tree in their land, so that under its shadow were dis- pensed to them all the blessings of the Gospel of Christ, these children of the promises underwent the accumulated horrors of war, and pestilence, and famine. The siege of their city was unparalleled in history for the extremity of its miseries ; and the rem- nant that escaped were scattered over the face of the earth. As a nation they believed not ; as a nation they were condemned ; and as a nation they suffered. This unbelief on the part of the Jews was attended with circumstances of peculiar aggravation. Not only did they refuse to acknowledge their Messiah : — they LECTURE VIII. 135 persecuted him also, and blasphemed him, and put him to death. The very persons who had been eye- witnesses of his spotless life and conversation, — who had heard the heavenly doctrines on which he dis- coursed, and beheld the mighty wonders which he performed ; — they, who at this very time were intent upon the accomplishment of types and prophecies, by which he was clearly pointed out ; — this people loving darkness rather than light, shut their eyes to the blaze of evidence, and rejected him. And when they perceived that their authority was shaken by his influence over the multitude, they ceased not from their murderous intent until they had destroyed him. Dark, indeed, is the complexion of guilt like this ; — and yet there is wanting another and a deeper shade to complete it. When these wretched men had sur- mounted all the difficulties that stood in their way ; — when they had persuaded the Roman Procurator to shed the innocent blood, prevailing by their importu- nities over the sense of justice which dwelt in that pagan's bosom, though it was wanting in their own; — when they had rejected his proposal to set Jesus at liberty, demanding a notorious robber and murderer in his stead ; — when Pilate, in accordance with a pre- vailing notion that the guilt of an unjust sentence would thus be expiated, asked for water, and washed his hands before the multitude, and called upon them to listen to his exculpatory declaration, — " I am innocent of the blood of this just person, see 136 LECTURE VIII. ye to it;" — then did all the people present, with one voice, unite in fastening the guilt of that horrid crime upon themselves and their posterity. They answered and said, — '^ His blood be upon us, and upon our children."^ It is to be observed, that all the people thus united in taking upon themselves that enormous load of re- sponsibility. Not only the lewd fellows of the baser sort, who are usually the foremost in these clamorous eruptions of popular fury, but the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders, the dignitaries of their ec- clesiastical polity, assembled before the Procura- tor's tribunal. Not only the citizens of Jerusalem, but strangers who had come up from remote dis- tricts of the country to the annual celebration of the Passover. "All the people," says the Evangelist, united in the uttering of this fearful imprecation. An imprecation it was of awful import, when spoken in reference to an innocent person, under any circum- stances whatever. But when we consider to whom it referred in the present instance, we are filled with amazement and horror at the bare idea of such daring impiety ; such blind, deliberate, and unrelenting ma- lice. And although by that special act of interces- sion, preferred in behalf of these wretched men by the Saviour himself upon the cross, we cannot doubt that mercy would be obtained for such as should - Matt. xAvii. 25. LECTURE VIII. 137 repent, and believe in Him whom they had crucified, still we are prepared to expect, that so horrid an im- precation, called down by an assembled nation upon their own heads, should receive its accomplishment in some national visitation of extreme and unheard of severity. It was written in their own Law, that " the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it."^ However mean might be the condition of the person slain, such was the Law's enactment. In this case, therefore, the victim being the Son of God, and the murderers being a whole nation, assembled for a religious solemnity, the nation's blood was to be required as a satisfaction for that which had been shed. Their own Law demanded it; and with their own voices they had publicly and spontaneously acquiesced in the demand. Let us enquire, then, how the sentence of their condemnation was executed. During the few years that next followed, the na- tion advanced with rapid strides in their career of iniquity. The sentence against their evil work was not executed speedily, and therefore '' their heart was fully set in them to do evil."* When the day of their visitation was near at hand, the Apostle James issued a special announcement of its approach.^ The avarice, and fraud, and oppression, which pre- 3 Numb. XXXV. 33. "* Eccles. viii. 11. * James v. 138 LECTURE VIII. vailed, and the retributive vengeance about to be executed, are depicted by him in a passage which neither the Hebrew prophets of old, nor the tragic writers of ancient Greece, have surpassed in grandeur. He addresses himself to the rich ; — calling upon them to weep and howl for the stunning affliction which is at hand. The stores of the wardrobe and of the granary, and of the coffer, are all departing from them. Their garments are moth-eaten ; their corn and wine and oil are putrified ; their gold and silver are cankered. The rust of their precious metals rises up in judgment against the hoarders of them, eating into their flesh like fire. They have treasured up for themselves wrath against the day of wrath. The hire of their reapers, which they have fraudu- lently kept back, is gifted with a tongue, and calls out for vengeance : the clamorous outcries of those who have gathered in the harvest, have penetrated the ears of the Lord of Hosts. That luxurious profli- gacy which had been expatiated upon by the last of the Prophets,^ as characteristic of the great and ter- rible day of the Lord, is described as now prevailing: with a dark allusion to the bloody scenes of the Jewish war. ** Ye have lived delicately upon the earth, ye have been luxurious ; ye have pampered your hearts, as for a day of slaughter : ye have con- demned, ye have slain, the Just One." Although 6 Malachi iii. 5. LECTURE VIII. 139 years have elapsed since he was crucified, the day of vengeance is speedily approaching ; — the im- precation of his murderers is now on the eve of ful- filment. Your fathers slew him, and you do not dis- approve the deed. You feel secure, — you despise the Crucified ; you deem him powerless, unable either to vindicate his own cause, or to protect his followers. As you fondly believe, — " He is not arrayed against you." — But wait : — the time of his array is now ap- proaching ; the day of vengeance is at hand.^ Such was the announcement of the approaching visitation made by the Apostle James ; and we turn from it to the contemporary narrative of the Jewish historian. We shall find, that the history of this people from the period in question, is little better than a mere register of calamities. Every fresh Pro- curator sent down from Rome appeared to be more greedy of gain than his predecessor : and no one who was supposed to possess money, was safe. When they remonstrated, it was only to provoke fresh insults; when they ventured upon resistance, it ended invari- ably in discomfiture. Intestine discord was rife among them ; and the Procurator himself is said to have fo- mented their jealousies ; hoping, that in the tumult of their mutual slaughter his own peculations might es- cape notice. In vain did the heads of the people strive to quell the sedition ; in vain did the Priests and Levites 7 Jebb, Sacr. Lit. Sect. xiii. 140 LECTURE VIII. prostrate themselves before the ring-leaders, at one time with the pomp and ensigns of their office, at another with garments rent and ashes upon their heads, beseeching them to desist from that reckless career which was bringing ruin upon all. Such in- deed, was the ferocious cruelty of the dominant party, as to induce the more moderate to pray for the suc- cess of the enemy. The High Priest was dragged from his place of refuge, and assassinated before the eyes of the multitude. Already had it been announced that the Roman army were on their march ; — already had it been announced that they were in Galilee ; — and at length they were seen, drawn up in warlike array, around the walls of the city. The narrative of the siege that followed would have surpassed belief, had it not proceeded from the pen of an eye-witness ; one of the vast number who participated in those miseries, and one of the few that survived. As provisions grew scarce in the city, the ancient blessing pronounced upon Abraham was changed into a curse ; and inasmuch as his seed was now multiplied " as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is on the sea-shore," the miseries of this belea- guered people were therefore the more extreme. All the bands of natural affection were broken asunder ; and the mother snatched its morsel of food from her famishing child. Of those who sallied forth in quest of provisions, multitudes were intercepted, and cruci- fied before the eyes of their comrades. As they had LECTURE VITI. 141 treated the Saviour, so were they treated themselves : and it is^ far from improbable that some of these executions took place on Mount Calvary itself. Certain of the more wealthy, being suspected of having swallowed their gold in order to conceal it, were exposed to the most horrid mutilation. The prophecy of St. James was verified : for the rust of their gold rose up in judgment against them, and did eat into their vitals like fire. The strong men wandered about like spectres, and the besiegers in derision held out food to them from beyond the walls. A certain matron of noble birth, whose name and family are recorded by the historian with scrupulous accuracy, being driven by her extreme sufferings to a state of phrenzy, put to death and devoured her own child. At length, the innermost of the three walls was demolished ; and the besiegers, exasperated by the obstinacy of their defence, put to the sword every surviving inhabitant, without distinction of age or sex. And the country beyond Jordan, and the hills around the city, echoed with their lamentable cry. Supposing that the imprecation, to which we have alluded, had been found only in the Gospel of St John, we might have been told that it was inserted after these calamities had taken place. And if the historian whose narrative we have quoted, had been an apostle or a Christian, he might have been sus- pected of a design to make the fulfilment of the im- precation thus circumstantial and complete. In both 142 LECTURE VIII. points, however, the case is altogether otherwise. The imprecation is recorded by that Evangelist whose Gospel was written the earliest : and the description of its fulfilment is given, not by a Christian writer, but by a Jew ; — by one who seems designedly to have avoided the very mention of the name of Christian, although, in other respects, one of the most faithful and accurate of historians. The motive that induced these wretched men to persecute the Saviour, as assigned by themselves in one of their councils, was the fear of being suspected to countenance a king set up in rivalry with Cassar ; — " lest the Romans come and take away our place and nation."^ It appears, therefore, that they had adopted the sure course to bring upon themselves that very catastrophe, which it was their desire to avert. For the Roman army took away their place and nation so entirely, that the survivors of that dreadful slaughter were scattered over the whole face of the earth. To what can we ascribe the universal contempt and abhorrence to which they have been exposed, not only from Christians, but from Turks and Infidels, — their long exclusion from the common privileges of national hospitality,— the manifold oppres- sions under which they have groaned, — the frequent exactions and exiles and massacres which have be- fallen them, — and the fact of their being to this day « John xi. 18. LECTURE VIII. 143 a proverb and a bye- word among the nations of the earth ; — but to the vengeance of heaven which pursues them in answer to their own imprecation, " His blood be upon us and upon our children !" — All their previous sufferings, their disastrous wars, and their long cap- tivities, appear as nothing in comparison with what they have endured since the destruction of their city. And as we behold them scattered among the nations of the earth, yet still preserving their ancient customs, and language, and worship, and exclusiveness of des- cent, we cannot but recognize an awful monument of retributive justice, and a fulfilment of the vengeance which they had invoked upon their own heads. The Saviour condemned them not, but they condemned themselves. Our investigation of this memorable interview is now brought to a close. Many were the subjects for future meditation which this thoughtful Pharisee carried home with him ; many germs of divine truth were entrusted to his care. In fact, most of the fun- damental articles of the Christian faith may be found, more or less developed, in this conversation, and pre- sented in the very words of the Saviour himself. By going lower down the stream, we may find the water more abundant, perhaps, and more available : but here we draw it forth in its original freshness, as it springs from the Fountain of all Truth. C. WHITTINGHAM, 21, TOOKES COURT, CHANCERY LANE. ^ — ,^_ ^ ^ Nearly ready for Public at ion ^ by William Pickering, Piccadilly, The following Series of the ool^0 of Common '^xv^tx, from Edward VI . to Charles II. The Firji Book 5/ Edward VI. C{)e fioolie of tf)e common praget ann aDminiflta^ cion of x\i ^acramente0, ann ot^er ri'te^ anti ceremonfe^ of tlje Cliurcje : after tlje life of tlje CJurcIje of (Englanti^ LONDINI JN OFFICINA Edouardi Whitchurche. ANNO DO. 1549. Menfe Martii. 2 The Second Book (t/* Edward VI. Cf)e TBofee of common prager, ano aOmmiGracion of tlje ^acramente^, ano otljec nte0 anti Ceremonies \Xi tlje CJurcJe of (Englantie. Londinl^ in off etna Edvvardi Whytchurche. Anno. 1552. 3 The FirJi Book of Qnttn Elizabeth. Cf)e TBofee of common praier, ann aDminillration of tl)e »)acramente0, antJ otljer rites anti Ceremonies in tlje Cljurc^e of (Englantie. Londini^ in officina Richardi Graftoni. Anno 1559. % — =jt 2 TBoofes of Common Pragct, 4 ^/«^ James's Book as fettled at Hampton Court, The Booke of Common Prayer, and Adminiftration of the Sacraments, And other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England. Imprinted at London by Robert Barker^ Printer to the King's moft Excellent Maieftie. Anno 1604. 5 The Scotch Book c/Charies I. The Booke of Common Prayer, and Adminiftration of the Sacraments. And other parts of divine Service for the ufe of the Church of Scotland. Edinburgh, Printed by Robert Youngs Printer to the King's moft Excellent Majeftie. 1637. 6 King Charles the Second's Book^ as fettled after the Savoy Conference. 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A MANUAL OF BRITISH HISTORIANS, comprising an Account of the Monkish Writers, Early Chroniclers, and the Collections in which they are printed, with the Period of each history, and when the writer flourished. By William D. Macray, of the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Bvo. m-- '^ INDEX Page Aldine Edition of the British Poets . . 7 Alford's Abbot of Muchelnaye 10 Andrew's Private Devotions 10 Aristophanes' Plaj's, translated 14 Bacon's Works, by Basil Montagu ... 15 Essays, by Ditto 13 Advancement of Learning .. 13 Novum Organum 13 Barlee on the Epistles 9 Minor Prophets 9 Berners, of Fysshinge with an Angle. . 14 Bourne's (Vincent) Poems, Lat. &,"Eng. 11 Bowles's (W. Lisle) Poems 7 Bridgewater Treatises 6 Browne's (Sir T.) Works, by Wilkin 9 Burbidge's Poems 11 Catharine Douglas, a Tragedy 8 Chaucer's Canterbury Tales 12 Claims of Labour 8 Coleridge's (Samuel Taylor) Works . . 8 (Sara) Pliantasraion 8 Common Prayer, Books of 1 and 2 Conversations on Chronology'" 13 Costello's S[)f cimens of the Early Poe- try of France 11 Courtenay's Future States 6 Coxe's Hymns from the German U Crabbe's Natural Tlieology 6 Cynosure, by the Editor of theCarcanet 13 Dance of Deatli, by Douce 13 Daniel's Modern Dnnciad, &c 11 Davison's Poetical Rhapsody 12 De Vere's (Sir A.) Song of Faith, &c. 12 Donne's (Dr.) Devotions 10 Drummond's No])le British Families.. 5 Durer's (Albert) Passion of Christ 13 Dyce's Specimen of English Sonnets .. 12 Early English Dramatists, by D3'cc .. 12 Early English Poetry, edited by Wright 12 Early Prose Romances, edited by Thoms 12 Essays in the Intervals of Business . . 8 Felltham's Resolves 9 Fisher's (R. P.) Three Poems U Fitchett's (John) King Alfred 11 French's History of England 7 Fuller's Holy and Profane State 9 Holy War 9 ^ Good Thoughts, &c 9 Gabell's Accordance of Religion, &c. . 6 Goethe's Faust, Part II 11 Gray's Works, edited by Mitford 10 Green's Hunterian Oration 14 Guest's English Rhythms 8 Haweis on the Reformation 9 Henry's Events of a Military Life 11 Henry II. an Historical Drama 8 Herbert's (George) Poems and Remains 9 Holbein's Illustrations of the Bible 13 Howard's Science of Drawing 14 Page Huber's English Universities 7 Junius, Original Work by 13 Kant's Critick of Pure Reason 15 King's (Bp.) Poems - 11 Early Ballad Poetry 10 Liturgical and Biblical Works . . 3 and 4 Lowndes's Bibliographer's Manual. ... 9 Malthus on Political Economy 9 Memorials of the Rebellion 9 Merivale's Poems 11 Translations from Schiller. U Metcalfe on Caloric 14 Methuen's Poems 12 Montagu's (Basil) Selections 13 Essa3-s and Selections 13 More's (Sir Thomas) Life 14 Moultrie's Poems 1 1 Dream of Life 11 Nolan's Warburtonian Lectures 9 • Evangelical Christianity 9 O'Brien (Edward) The Lawyer 10 Outlines of tlie Laws of Thought 13 Phillips on Angling !.... 14 Philomorus 14 Physical Theory of Another Life 9 Piers Ploughman, edited bv Wright.. 10 Pigott's Scandinavian Mythology 14 Piscatorial Reminiscences 14 Poems, edited by the Dean of Exeter . 10 Ramsay on Human Happiness 6 Richardson's Dictionary 5 abridged 5 Roberts's History of Letter-Writing . . 6 Roberts's Spiritual Creation 11 Robinson's Scripture Characters 13 St. Aubvn's (Mary) Poems 11 Sandbach's (Mrs. H.R.) Poems 11 • Giuliano de Medicis 11 Shakespeare's Plays, 1 Vol. r2mo 12 Sibbes's Soul's Conflict & Bruised Reed 10 Skurray's Version of the Psalms 12 Bidcombe Hill 12 Small Books on Great Subjects 15 Smyth's Lectures on Modern History . 5 on the French Revolution 5 Surrey and Wyatt's Poems 12 Table" Talker, "from the Morning Post 15 Tatham's Bampton Lectures 6 Taylor's Holy Living and Dying 10 Temple Window. . . ". .' 12 Testament, The New, by a Layman.. 14 Walton's Angler, by Sir H. Nicolas .. 6 Watkin's Pleasure of the Mind 14 Watson's (J. S.) Geology 12 White's Fragments of Italy, &c 6 White Ladv and Undine 10 Whole Dut"y of INIan 10 Zareefa, and other Poems 10 \^- nnceton Theoloqical Sfminary-Speer Let 1 1012 01147 0335