d

C

and prudence, he was thrice compelled to preserve his life by miracle: and that, after he had fed five thousand with five loaves and two fishes, the multitudes were about "to take him by force and make him a king :" upon which he retired to a mountain, and on his return from solitude taught with * unusual obscurity, purposely flessening the number of his followers, and sifting (as it were) the chaff from the wheat.

As our Lord's miracles tended to induce a persuasion that he was the Christ, it may justly be supposed that he occasionally concealed them for the same general reasons. However, as they were de

signed to prove his prophetic character, very many of them were wrought in the most public manner. But let us observe in what particular instances our Lord withheld his miracles from the notice of the Jews.

k

When he had cleansed a leper in a certain city, he straitly charged him not to proclaim it, instantly sent him away from following him, and said to him, "See thou say nothing to any man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded; for a testimony unto them :" that is, that this miracle may be hereafter a witness and proof to them of my divine power, they themselves allowing the cure to be

Luke iv. 30. John viii. 59. x. 39.

fib. 60, 65.

* See p. 300.

Mark i. 43. Comp. Matt. ix. 30.

d John vi. 15. ib. 32-58. h Matt. viii. 2, &c. and p. p. * Mark i. 43. Comp. Mat.

ix. 25. Mark i. 12. v. 40. Luke iv. 29. viii. 54. John x. 4.

perfect before they learn in what manner it was effected. The inconvenience which arose from the publication of this miracle, contrary to our Lord's injunction, sufficiently explains his present conduct: though I allow that other reasons may have concurred. The leper "went out, and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter, insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city, but was without in desert places.

On another occasion " great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all, and charged them that they should not make him known.”

thew furnishes m one reason.

Here St. MatThis charge of silence

was partly owing to our Lord's meekness and humility. To which may be added from the context, that, immediately before, the a Pharisees and Herodians had taken counsel against him that they might destroy him.

When he had raised Jairus's daughter, he charged her parents in many words to tell no one what had been done. Yet at this very time he wrought, before a large multitude, the miracle of healing a woman who had been diseased with an issue of blood for twelve years: which was an astonishing instance of knowledge and power. Still he commanded that the greater miracle of restoring life to one dead should not be divulged. At the time of performing this miracle, the Scribes and Pharisees had murmured at his eating with publicans and sinners: and ib. 14. and p. p.

"Mark. i. 45.

a ib. v. 43. and p. p.

c. xii. 17-21.

? Luke v. 30. and p. p.X

n

When Jesus healed a blind man near Bethsaida, "he sent him to his house, saying, neither go into the town, nor tell any one of the town." It should seem, as Benson suggests, that the inhabitants of that place, in which our Lord had wrought many mighty works, were deemed unworthy to have further means of conviction granted them.

e

Lastly we read that Jesus commanded Peter, James and John not to disclose his transfiguration, and the wonders which passed at it, till he rose from the dead. Besides the general reasons already mentioned, our Lord might choose to distinguish these three apostles by a special manifestation of his glory, to try their fidelity towards him; and, during his continuance on earth, he might wisely rest the truth of his heavenly mission on more public transactions.

We may therefore conclude that Jesus's conduct, respecting his reserve about his Messiahship and the occasional concealment of his miracles, is so far from affording any just ground for objection, that it appears amiable, wise and necessary; that it furnished an example of prudence and humility to his immediate followers in the exercise of their miraculous powers; and was remarkably opposite to the ostentatious manner of an impostor.

Mark viii. 26. Life of Christ, p. 347. e Matt. xi. 21. Luke x. 13. f Our Lord had three chosen witnesses to this extraordinary fact. It is said of Apollonius that Achilles appeared to him, and conversed with him [Vita. Apoll. a Philostrato, I iv. c. xv. xvi. Ed. Lips. 1709. fol.] But he sent his companions to their ship; and went alone to the tomb of Achilles. ib. c. xi. See Lardner's Testimonies, iii. 357.

8 Mark ix. 9. and p. p.

See how our Lord's lowly manner of work. ing miracles, Mark v. 37, 9. is imitated by St. Peter, Acts ix. 40. and by

St. Paul, Acts xx. 10.

From some of the reasons assigned to shew the fitness of our Lord's behaviour in these particulars, we may partly learn with what wisdom it was ordered that his birth and appearance should be humble : since acknowledged splendour of descent, and a display of worldly grandeur, would have suited the secular notions of the Jews about their Messiah, and would naturally have stirred up a people to sedition who were remarkable for their impatience of a foreign yoke, from the very prejudice which worldly magnificence in Jesus's appearance would have confirmed.

44

END OF THE FIRST PART.