him, and from Judea, and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and from beyond Jordan, and they about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude; when they had heard what great things he did, came unto him, and he healed them all, and charged them that they should not make him known; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, saying, Behold my servant whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my Spirit upon him, and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles: he shall not strive, nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.'1

61. And John, xi. Upon the news of our Saviour's raising Lazarus from the dead, the chief priests and Pharisees convened the sanhedrim, and said, What do we? For this man does many miracles. When from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death. Jesus therefore walked no more openly amongst the Jews.' His miracles had now so much declared him to be the Messiah, that the Jews could no longer bear him, nor he trust himself amongst them; but went thence into a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there continued with his disciples.' This was but a little before his last passover, as appears by the following words: 'And the Jews' passover was nigh at hand:’ and he could not, now his miracles had made him so well known, have been secure the little time that remained till his hour was fully come, if he had not, with his wonted and necessary caution,

1 Matt. xii; Mark, iií.

withdrawn, and walked no more openly amongst the Jews, till his time (at the next passover) was fully come; and then again he appeared amongst them openly.

62. Nor would the Romans have suffered him, if he had gone about preaching that he was the king whom the Jews expected. Such an accusation would have been forwardly brought against him by the Jews, if they could have heard it out of his own mouth; and that had been his public doctrine to his followers, which was openly preached by his apostles after his death, when he appeared no more. And of this they were accused, Acts, xvii. But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city in an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. And when they found them (Paul and Silas) not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down, are come hither also, whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Cæsar, saying, that there is another king, one Jesus. And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city, when they heard these things and when they had taken security of Jason and the other, they let them go.'

63. Though the magistrates of the world had no great regard to the talk of a king, who had suffered death, and appeared no longer anywhere; yet if our Saviour had openly declared this of himself in his lifetime, with a train of disciples and followers

everywhere owning and crying him up for their king, the Roman governor of Judea could not have forborne to have taken notice of it, and have made use of their force against him. This the Jews were not mistaken in; and therefore made use of it as the strongest accusation, and likeliest to prevail with Pilate against him for the taking away his life; it being treason, and an unpardonable offence, which could not escape death from a Roman deputy, without the forfeiture of his own life. Thus then they accuse him to Pilate: We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Cæsar; saying, that he himself is a king; or rather, the Messiah, the King.

64. Our Saviour indeed, now that his time was come, (and he in custody, and forsaken of all the world, and so out of all danger of raising any sedition or disturbance,) owns himself to Pilate to be a King after having first told Pilate, that his kingdom was not of this world; and for a kingdom in another world, Pilate knew that his master at Rome concerned not himself. But had there been any the least appearance of truth in the allegations of the Jews, that he had perverted the nation, forbidding to pay tribute to Cæsar, or drawing the people after him as their king, Pilate would not so readily have pronounced him innocent. But we see what he said to his accusers: Pilate, 'when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers of the people, said unto them, You have brought this man unto me, as one that perverteth the people; and behold I having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof you accuse

him; no, nor yet Herod, for I sent you to him ; and lo, nothing worthy of death is done by him.' And therefore finding a man of that mean condition, and innocent life, (no mover of seditions, or disturber of the public peace,) without a friend or a follower, he would have dismissed him, as a king of no consequence; as an innocent man, falsely and maliciously accused by the Jews.

65. How necessary this caution was in our Saviour, to say or do nothing that might justly offend, or render him suspected to the Roman governor, and how glad the Jews would have been to have any such thing against him, we may see Luke, xx. 20: The chief priests and the Scribes watched him, and sent forth spies, who should feign themselves just men, that might take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor.' And the very thing wherein they hoped to entrap him in this place was paying tribute to Cæsar, which they afterwards falsely accused him of. And what would they have done, if he had before them professed himself to have been the Messiah, their king and deliverer?

66. And here we may observe the wonderful providence of God, who had so ordered the state of the Jews, at the time when his Son was to come into the world, that though neither their civil constitution nor religious worship were dissolved, yet the power of life and death was taken from them; whereby he had an opportunity to publish the kingdom of the Messiah; that is, his own royalty, under the name of the kingdom of God and of

heaven; which the Jews well enough understood, and would certainly have put him to death for, had the power been in their own hands. But this being no matter of accusation to the Romans, hindered him not from speaking of the kingdom of heaven, as he did; sometimes in reference to his appearing in the world, and being believed on by particular persons; sometimes in reference to the power that should be given him by the Father at the resurrection; and sometimes in reference to his coming to judge the world at the last day, in the full glory and completion of his kingdom. These were ways of declaring himself, which the Jews could lay no hold on, to bring him in danger with Pontius Pilate, and get him seized and put to death.

67. Another reason there was that hindered him as much as the former from professing himself in express words to be the Messiah; and that was, that the whole nation of the Jews expecting at this time their Messiah, and deliverance by him from the subjection they were in to a foreign yoke, the body of the people would certainly, upon his declaring himself to be the Messiah their king have rose up in rebellion, and set him at the head of them. And, indeed, the miracles that he did, so much disposed them to think him to be the Messiah, that, though shrouded under the obscurity of a mean condition, and a very private simple life; though he passed for a Galilean, (his birth at Bethlehem being then concealed,) and assumed not to himself any power or authority, or so much as the name of the Messiah; yet he could hardly avoid being set up by a tumult, and proclaimed their