£/'^4 I THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, f Princeton, N. J. 1 From the Rev. W. B. SPRAGUE, D.D. SeptA%S*.% Case, Divi'si0ri. Shelf, Section. Book, Ne S £«SS>Q £<^S- i * ^S^ atg±=Cc. cTC^Sfl y S<3S i/. 2*- m \ DEVELOPEMEXT REMARKABLE EVENTS, CALCULATED TO RESTORE THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION TO ITS ORIGINAL PURITY, < AND TO REJ>EL THE OBJECTIONS OF UNBELIEVERS. u. BY JOHN JONES. There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed j and hid, that shall not be known. Matt. x. 26. _ Tivo? S/t «.ji/o»pov «0-«v. Plutarch. De Supe.ntitione. Dissolvathoc argumentum, si qnis potest: ita enim res rem sequitur; ut hxc ultima necesse sit confiteri. Sed ne illud quidem dissolvet ali- quis. Lactantius. VOL. II. LEEDS: PRINTED BY EDWARD BAINES; FOR J.JOHNSON, N° 72, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD, LONDON, 1300. IV • PACE. Jesos furnished the historians of his life with a remarkable fact to prove, that he did not, as the impostors main- t lined, discountenance the institution of marriage, 201-235 The Samaritan system described; the object which it had in view developed; from the representation thus given of it some interesting facts explained, - 235-2S9 r i us and Simon Magus ranked among the leading dis- ci pies of John the Baptist ; who seeing their apostacy holds up in opposition to them, the Lord Jesus as the true Messiah, ... 290-299 The great wisdom and address, which our Lord displayed when passing through Samaria, pointed out, .- 298-31 L A fiction of Rabbinical malice, fourTded on the conversation of Jesus with the woman of Samaria, - 311-319 Jesus designates the followers of the Samaritan impostors under the title of foolish virgins, - 321-333 Repels ihc charge, laid against him by the Jews, of making himself equal with God, - - 333-347 Delivers a summary view of those evidences which proved him to be the expected Messiah, - 347-350 Forewarns the Pharisees of the guilt they should incur in embracing the Samaritan system, - 350-339 Assures the Jewish Doctors, that when they deviated from the purity of his Gospel, they would no longer, in truth, be his disciples — places before them those points, which as the followers of Cerinthus and Simon, they rejected, 368-382 Contrasts his own character with that of the Samaritan im- postor, .... 382-393 The last pathetic address which Jesus delivered to his dis- ciples contains a series of admonitions, calculated to preserve thenffrom the errors of Gnosticism, 393-4 20 Our Saviour attests in opposition to the deceivers, the unity and goodness of God, and the pcrfectability of human kind, - - - - $20-427 Remarkable provisions made by our Lord to render the reality of his death, resurrection, and ascension credi- ble in all ages and countries, - - 427.447 The disciples, on seeing their Master risen from the dead, had recourse to the Gnostic hypothesis that he was in- habited by a demon: This notion rectified by our Lord, 447-455 The design which fudas had in betraying his Master stated, and the description of his death, given by Luke, ex- plained, - 455-4*62 This historian relates an incident to shew, that the testi- mony, which the Apostles bore respecting Christ, did not extend to facts antecedent to his baptism, 462-4G3 Tire Gnostic system embraced by the worst adversaries of the Christian doctrine, as the most likely means of un- dermining it . This system opposed by Peter, and by Stephen, - - - - 4G3-4S3 The Apostles, when preaching the Christian doctrine in Samaria, insisted particularly on those principles which were denied by the Samaritan impostors, 438-195 Peter, while instructing Cornelius and others that were present, gives such a view of the christian doctrine, as waSflikely to secure them from the Gnostic tenets, 493-501 Paul encounters a false prophet who pretended to be a suc- cessor of Jesus Christ, ... 501-504 A dispute which broke out between the Pharisaical Con- verts and (lie Apostolic Teachers. The former dis- patched Missionaries to different places in order to oppose the latter, - - 5,01-515 The Athenian Philosophers accuse the Apostle Paul of violating the laws in introducing :i new God. He re- pels the charge by asserting the simple humanity of ' Jesus, - - - - - 515"53§ Apollos, a Disciple of John the Baptist, adheres strictiy to the doctrine which his Master delivered respecting Christ, and sides with the Apostolic Teachers, in opposition to his former fellow-disciples who adopted the Samaritan system, - - - 520-52$ Many of the Pharisees, devoted to the arts of magic, be- came nominal converts to the faith, on account of tiie miracles done in the name of fesus, - 5 .0-5SQ In consequence of foreseeing the pretended conversion of those men, Christ took an opportunity to lay before tbem, a series of remarks calculated to reform their conduct and to refute their principles, as the future abettors of the Samaritan system. - 530-552 Paul warns the church at Antioch against the Gnostic Teachers, - - " - - 552-560 NUMERICAL ARRANGEMENT PASSAGES EXPLAINED IN TIIJS VOLUME. Matthew v. 41 — 48. vii. 15—28. ix. 14, 13. 15, 17. x. 16—39. xii. 22 — 59. xiii. 24 — 31. 36—44. 54—57. jtvi. 13—18. xxv. 44 — 51. xxv. 1 — 14 14—31. 31—46. xxvi. 26 — 30. Mark i. 1 — 5. ix. 13. 23—27. iii. 2—6 21. iv. 3—9. 21—26. 26—41. vW. 36—37. viii. 30 ix. 3S— 50. xi. 12— 13. xii. 28—52. Luke i. 1 — 4. iii 1 — X. 21—2 1. iv. 16—23. xi 27,28. 24—54. PACE. 422-427 3— 12 322- 511—512 21— SO 530—541. 30— 34 41— 45 85— 91 39— 40 325— 3 ■- 327—333 45— 52 52— 61 428—429 131 — 155 92— 95 96— ' 7 563—364 135—136 109—111 111—114 114—118 98—100 123—127 118—123 127—151 421 — 422 139—140 1 42—1 45 140—1 12 1 45—148 148 — 150 532—545 Luke J.HN Acts xii. 1 — 47. xiii. 23—29. 31—34. xxii. 41 — 45 xxiv.33 — 40. i. 1—19 29—52. ii. 1 — 3. iii. 11—22. 25—36. iv. 1 — 44. 46—54. V. . vii. 19—28. viii. 30—59. x. xiii. — xvii. xix. 53—38. xx. 17. 26—31 i: 16—20 21, 22. ii. 22—37. 42—47. iii. 3—17. iv. 5— 13. v. 13. 34—40. vi. . vii. viii. x. 36—45. xiii. 6—13. 25—43. xv. 1 -12. 24—29. xvii. 16—19. 31, 32. xviii. 24—28, xix. 1 — 6. 11—17. xx. 22—36. fACE. 542—552 12— 16 151—156 430—435 447—451 182<— 208 224—230 250—235 61— 74 290— 29S 298—311 333—336 336—557 362—366 368—382 17— 21 382—420 440— 44G 453, 454= 451—453 455—462 462, 463 463—466 466—468 468—471 472—475 471, 472 476—482 482—485 485—488 488—498 498—501 501—504 512—515 504—507 508-510 516, 517 518, 519 520—523 524—526 526—530 552—560 ER RATA. Pace. 4. Text, Hire 4, 6. 4, 17. 13 f 31. Note, — 2, 32. Text, — 5, 45. 6, . 64. 2, f<7. Note, — 9, 84. Text, — 1.5, 87. Note, — 9, ]1§. 12, 120. 5, 128. Text, — 18, 189. 17, 190. Note, — 2, 226. Text, — 15, 5, 4, 3, 8, 18, 1, 241. £87. 331* 303. 405. 409. For Crysostom Simpliciorum fratrum gosple adopt auTJK Bonicastle Anathagoras exhoration qui incuniberance Demuigus See 45 have Scmo capitulated noble Feter, well new prsefcdt edifications Rea» Clirysostom Simpliciores fratie* gospel adopted 1/OjJ.OV UVTW Bonnycastlc Athenagoras exhortation yvva.ix.ji; quia ■jooXxtto'.v incumbrance Dcmiurgus Sec. 43. has Semus recapitulated nobleman Peter well knew pr a: feels edification SERIES OF EVENTS DEVELOPED. JlIaVING gone through the several branches of the first proposition, I now pro- ceed to the 'second. The purpose of it is as follows : "Our Lord, being divinely inspired, foresaw the fabrication of the doctrines of his divinity and supernatural birth at Rome, and was led, in certain circumstances, to warn his disciples against them. He also furnished them with striking facts, by recording which tliey might, on his authority alone, convince the world of the falsehood of those doctrines. Accordingly, the evangelists wrote their respective gospels partly with the view of refuting the Gnostic heresies, and adopted the admirable method, not of oppos- ing their asseveration to prevailing falsehoods, but simply of stating well-authenticated facts, VOL. II. b g and of leaving the reader to draw his own con- clusions. In consequence of the expulsion of the christians from Italy, the impostors propa- gated their heresies through Greece and Egypt, and introduced them even into the churches esta- blished by the apostles. The introduction of the Gnostic heresies into t/iosc churches, called forth the epistles of Paul, Peter, John, and Jude. These, and no other, are the heresies, which are opposed in the apostolic writings. The discussion of this proposition will form the subject of the present volume, and prove, I trust, the most important part of our enquiry; as it may serve to remove the ob- scurities, which hang over many parts of jthc New Testament; and bring to a decision the controversies, which to the scandal of the christian profession, have so long been agi- tated respecting the divinity and birth of Jesus Christ. It is hoped too, it will furnish- withal, many powerful arguments in favour of the divine mission of Jesus, and of the truth of his gospel. Our Lord, we arc led to believe, was enabled by the wisdom of God to foresee tbosc events that awaited his religion and followers in the world. Many things wercr predicted by him, which have long since been accomplished ; while some of his predictions remain still to be fulfilled. To the firm believer, then, it cannot seem im- probable, that he should have foreseen the events that took place at Rome, and that he should point to the false teachers, who came from thence, and who corrupted the pure and simple system he delivered from God to mankind. In the seventh chapter of Matthew we thus read, " Beware of those false teachers, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. Ye may know them by their fruits. Are grapes ga- thered from thorns, or figs from thistles? So every good tree beareth good fruit, as a bad tree beareth bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that beareth not good fruit will be hewn down and cast into a tire: So then by their fruits ye may know them." " No man for saying unto me Master, Master, shall come into the kingdom of hea- ven, but for doing the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Many will say unto B 2 me in that day, Master, Master, have we not taught in thy name, and in thy name cast out daemons, and in thy name done many miracles ? And then will I profess unto them I never knew you ; depart from me, ye workers of iniquity." This is the first time our Lord has warned his disciples against the false prophets, that would introduce themselves into the chris- tian church. It is, therefore, natural to in- fer, that those here spoken of, were the first false teachers that assumed the christian name. But the first impostors, we have seen, rose up in the city of Rome. These then must be the very men, whom Jesus has. now before his eyes. This conclusion is, it ap- pears to me, unavoidable: And it is con- tinued, by the concurrent testimony of the early christian writers, who assert, that the persons noticed on this occasion, were the founders of the Gnostic * heresies. And it * Thus Justin cites these words of our Lord, and applies them to the followers of Marcion and Valentinus. See his Dialogue with Irypho, p. 101, 102. Irenaeus too refers them to the first heretics. His words are as follow; — Igiturne forte, et cum nostro delicto abripiantur quidam, quasi oves a lupis, ignorantes eos propter exterius ovilis pellis superindumentum, a quibus cavere denunciavit nobis Dominus ; p 2, at the bot- tom. Crysostom, in his Commentary on the place, seems to receives an additional confirmation from the remarkable agreement between the descrip- tion, which Christ gave of the first deceivers, and the character ot the philologers come from Rome. Iremeus, in his Preface, thus speaks of the original Gnostics : " Some, sent against the truth, introduce lying and vain genealogies which, as the apostle says, afford disputations rather than edification in faith ; and by a specious appearance of probability, which they craftily study, they pervert the under- standing of the unlettered, and make cap- tives of them, by cunningly using the ora- cles of the Lord, and basely expounding the fair things said by him. They subvert many, and lead them astray from him, who framed and adjusted the universe, under the pretence of knowing something superior and more exalted than the Creator of the heavens, the earth, and all things there- in." NoW it is maintained, that these words of Irenieus accord exactly with what Jesus here says of them; since it implies, that they have considered the impostors of whom Jesus speaks, as having some connection with the traitor Judas, and to place him in the number of them. 'Ojo,- w 6 IovJ«s* B 3 6 were very skilful in the arts of deception ; that they wore a fair outside; that they gave a specious appearance to their false doc- trines; and by that means deceived the mul- titude : " Go in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat : but straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Beware of those false teachers who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves*." While the impostors invested themselves with the fair name of Christ, they indulged in crimes the most atrocious in themselves, * " De Haereticis," s.nys Jerome, " intelligendum est, qui vi- dentur continentia,castitate, jejunio, quasi quadam pietatisveste* se circundare intrinsecus, vero habentes animum venenatum simpiiciorum fratrum decipiunt." Com. in loco. What Ter- tullian says, is worthy of notice: " Instruit Dominus multos esse venturossub pellibus ovium rapaces lupos. Quaenam istae sunt pelles ovium ? nisi nominis Christiani extrinsecus super- ficies ? Oui lupi ra paces nisi sensus et spiritus subdoli ad in- festandum gregemChristi extrinsecus delitescentes ? Qui pseu- doprophetae nisi falsi praedicatores ? Qui pseudoapostoli nisi adulteri evangelizatores? Qui antichristi, nisi Christi rebelles ? Nunc sunt haereses, non minus doctrinarum perversitate Eccle- siam lacessantes, quam turn antichristus persecutionum atroci- tate persequetur ; nisi quod persecutio et martyras facit, haeresis anostatas tantum. Tcrtul. p. 203. and the most repugnant to the genius of his .religion. This remarkable trait in their cha- racter, our Lord has not omitted : (t Ye may ' know them by their fruits. Are grapes ga- thered from thorns, or figs from thistles*?" From the accounts, which the early fa- thers give of the Gnostics, we may collect, that they professed to be known, and distin- guished from others, as the true believers, by a faith, which was the gift of nature, and by some spiritual seed, supernaturally im- planted in them-f-. Seemingly in opposi- * The seduction of Paulina, in the temple of Isis, is a strik- ing instance of the enormities of which the deceivers were guilty. After their departure from Rome, they persevered in the same wicked line of conduct. Sad accounts are given of them by the fathers, and the authority of the apostles leaves us no room to call in question the truth of their representations. f" AVT0V$ 01 [AY> SKX. TrgGdfsa;?, CtXhcc, Sta, TO (pVCTU B 4e tion to this false standard, Jesus lays down a criterion, by which the real and the pretend- ed christian were to be discriminated ; a criterion that will remain until the end of time a monument of his superior wisdom, as a teacher come from God. — So then by their fruits ye may know them. The abominable vices of which the im- postors of Rome were guilty, ended in the destruction of some, and in the distress of all the Jews and Egyptian?, Tiberius having banished them from Italy and put the princi- pal offenders to death. Our divine Master appears to have foreseen this circumstance : And so greatly was he impressed with it, as to insert a general remark, founded upon it, in the midst of his argument: "a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree bear good fruit. — Every tree that beareth not good fruit, will be hewn down, and cast into a fire*. — So then by their fruits ye may know them.". xsu Tgo; twtov; In rove ■\*zvoov%o$nro<,c , kou rove octoi rm a\>i9:-i«y VToscgj'/ovrai, e| zpjvj yivuTKto-Qeu Tra^iX^ajusv* p. 527» a^ the top. In page 531, he also says, very prettily, The tree is known from its fruits, not from its blossoms and leaves. * Mr. Wakefield appears to have considered this clause as spurious, from the seemingly abrupt manner in which it is in- 9 The Egyptian impostors blended the arts of magic with the new faith, and pretended to perform miracles, and to cast out daemons in the name of Christ*. They appear to have imagined, too, that they were sure of his favour for representing him as a superior Being, and conferring upon him honourable titles, though they disgraced him, by their iniquitous practices. To these prominent features, the following language has a point- ed reference : " Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that dpeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied, in thy name? And in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful things. And troduced, and which indeed is. an obvious interception of the argument. See his Commentaries on Matthew. * The words of Tertullian and Irenaeus, as they are brief, I shall here set down. More proofs of their addiction to magic will be seen in the sequel. Notata sunt etiam coramercia Lere- ticorumcum Mngis quampluribus, cum circuiatoribus, cum ns- trologis, cum philosophis curiositoti scilicet deditis ; Ter. p. 218. Igitur horum mystici sacerdotes libidinose quidem vivunt, ma- gias autem peificiunt, quemadmodum pot st unusquisque ip- sorum. Exorcismis et incantationibus utimtur. Amatoria quoque et agogima, et qui dicuntur paredri, et oniropompi, et quaccunque sunt alia perierga apud ecs studiose exercentur; Iren. p. 05. And, then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; Depart from me ye that work iniquity*." The prevalence of the gospel in Rome, awakened the jealousy of the emperor and senate. To check a superstition-, which they considered as dangerous to the state, they had recourse to violent, though unusual measures. A decree passed to punish the obstinate hy death or hanishment ; while those, that relinquished their professions, were permitted to stay in Rome-f. This is the first persecution that broke out against the followers of Christ. Accordingly Jesus notices it in the next paragraph, and what is remarkable he distinguishes between those * The author of the Recognitions-, r.scribed to Clement, al- ludes to these words of Jesus, and says, that when the devil saw that it was the intention of Christ to establish among mankind the worship of one God, he sent false prophets into the world, who in the name of Christ performed, not indeed the will cfGod, but the will of the devil. Festinat continuo emittcre in hunc mundum pseudoprophetas et pseudoapostolos et falsos doctores, qui sub nomine quidem Christi loquerentur, Daemonis autem voluntatem facerent. Lib. iv. 38. •]- It may be gathered from the words of Suetonius that some of the impostors gave up the christian profession, when threaten- ed by Tiberius. He expelled the magicians, but granted far- don to those that recanted. The passage is cited above ; vdI. i. 11 that gave up, and those that adhered to the faith, by a comparison, seemingly suggested by the downfall of the temple of Isis, and the throwing of her shrine into the Tyber. *' Therefore whoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him. unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth those sayings of mine and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell." These men prided in their knowledge ; and while they arrogated superior acquire- ments to themselves, they branded the hum- ble and sincere disciples, as foolish, carnal, and ignorant*. The unbounded licence of speculation, in which they indulged, erected upon the christian doctrine a building splen- did and lofty in appearance, but unable to * See Jrenaeus, p. 32 ; Tertullian, p. 250, 487; where the impostors appear to call the genuine believers, Carnaks, Sintpti- ccs.t Cohitub^j Rudes, Jnfinni. 12 mstain the storms of persecution, or to face the light of truth. This disgustful trait in their character, our Lord anticipated. Hence he compares them to a foolish man, that built his house upon the sand ; which com- parison fixes upon themselves, the charges of folly, and of ignorance, which they urged against the faithful believers. Hence, too, we see the meaning and propriety of the following clause : " The winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell ; and GREAT WAS THE FALL OF IT*." The admonition, which our Saviour deli- * The higher a building is above the ground, the greater of course must be its fall, according to the following lines of the poet: Septus ventis agitatur ingens Pinus; et celsas graviore casu Decidunt turres For S.rpius, Mr. Wakefield has proposed Sitvtus, which, I think, is the true reading. The words of Crysostom on this ■verse, are no less just than elegant: " The fall is great, because the danger does not respect ordinary things, but the soul. It is a fall from heaven, and from an immortal crown." In allu- sion to those, who had not the honesty nor firmness to with- stand persecution, on account of their profession ; he adds, " The man devoid of piety flees, even when none pursues. Such as these are afraid of shadows. They suspect their friends, their enemies, their domestics, those who know, and those who do not know them ; and before the day of punishment, they suffer in this world, extreme punishment." 13 vered to his followers, respecting the above impostors, is thus related by Luke: "Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved ? And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the straight gate ; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not, whence ye are. Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, 1 know you not, whence ye are, depart from me all ye workers of iniquity. Then shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out." Luke xiii. 23—29. The first thing here worthy of remark is, that this evangelist has confined himself to that part of Christ's discourses, which re- spected the Jewish, and not the Egyptian impostors, that came from Rome. In this he acted with much propriety and wisdom : It for as he wrote his gospel partly with a view of checking the Egyptian heresy, with which the converts of that country were, as we shall see, in general, much tinctured, he would have only inflamed, or at least alien- ated, many or* them, who were otherwise well-disposed, and worthy, if he had repre- sented their leaders in the strong and odious colours, in which they had been depicted by the tongue of inspiration. The Jewish converts in Rome are charged, we have seen, by the Roman historians, Tacitus and Sue- tonius, as being guilty of going about to rob, to plunder, and murder in the night. This charge, though repelled by Joscphus,.as ap- plied to the body of the Jews, will appear from the writings of the apostles themselves, to be well founded in respect to numbers of them. Such of the Jewish people, as were thus criminal, withdrew on their expulsion from Italy into caverns and desart places, and there supported themselves by noctur- nal depredations, notwithstanding their pro- fession of the new faith *i This remark * Jerome, in bis Comments on the Seventy-seventh Psalm, tells us, that the heretics inhabited, desart place/ ; Tom. vii. p. 226. L. Apuleius, in his Metamorphosis ; and Lucian, in his Asltmsy represent the Followers of Jesus, as bands of robbers, who spent their nights En \ lunder, and their day's fa caves and! 15 will account tor, and explain the apparently abrupt and irrelevant observation, which Je- sus subjoins to the question proposed to him: " When once the Master of the house is risen up and hath shut to the door (i. e. hath risen up to shut the door, the phrase being a He- braism), and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door ; saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us, and he shall answer, and say unto you,' I know you not, whence ye are," &c: Our divine Master it seems from the habit of looking into futurity, had associated those false teachers, that would delude the many from the true faith, with the character of thieves, going about to rob people's houses in the hours of darkness. Hence he repre- sents himself, as rejecting them from his own peculiar favour, or from the church, which his virtuous followers would form after his resurrection, under allusion to a household- er rising from his seat to bolt the door against robbers in the night. The Jewish converts in Rome corrupted the simple institution of the Lord's supper, by blending with it those festivals celebrated in desarts. The object of these writers in publishing such book* wrH be a matter of future enquiry. . ' 16 honour of Isis and Osiris, and thus brought upon the innocent followers of Jesus in Ju- dea, and other countries, the imputation of luxury and lewdness. The impostors of whom he here speaks, seem to have prided themselves in their conduct, in that respect, as a thing deserving of praise, then ye SHALL BEGIN TO SAY, WE HAVE EATEN AND DRANK IN THY PRESENCE; and thoil hast taught in our streets. His answer to them, however, is suitable to their desert, " I know you not whence ye are — depart from me all ye workers of iniquity." The evangelist Mark, has not, for a reason presently to be pointed out, recorded what his master had foretold of these impostors; but the beloved disciple represents him as thus speaking of them : — " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same- is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door, is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door, by me 17 if any one enter in he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy; but the good Shepherd giv- eth his life for the sheep." Cap. x. 1 — 13. This passage requires a few observations : The deceivers here meant were thieves, and robbers, a character which, from the above paragraph in Luke, they appear to have deserved. The enormities of which they were guilty, while yet in Rome, make it manifest, that they did not profess the gosple from prin- ciple, but from interested motives ; or, in other words, they became christians because the profession of Christianity enabled them more successfully to practise the arts of de- ception, and to gratify their base inclina- tions ; and this is implied in the words of our Lord concerning them : " The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy*. * Lucian has written the life of one Alexander, a noted Im- postor. That man seems to have been one of those Gnostic teachers, who, like Simon Magus, affected to believe the divine VOL. II. C IS The philologers though they had no com- mission to preach the gospel, either from Christ or his apostles, yet introduced them- selves, as we shall see in the sequel, into the churches as authorised teachers. Hence the meaning of the following asseveration, " Ve- mission of Jesus, in order to enrich themselves by the simplicity and liberality of the christians. Amongst the more ignorant and deluded of them, he seems to have practised his arts of de- ception with great success, though the enlightened and sincere professors of the gospel held him in detestation, and exposed his artifices. What renders him, in this place, worthy of no- tice, is the circumstance that Lucian describes his fraud and ex- tortion, under the same image, as is here applied by our Lord, to the other impostors. Speaking of those simple men, that ga- thered around him to see his wonders, he says, " The city was filled with men, all of whom were shorn (not merely of their wool) of their brains, and their hearts, and who resembled ra- tional creatures only in form, but (in other respects) differed not from sheep." Lucian s Works, vol. i. p. 757. Far. Edition. Not far from the beginning the author thus describes his hero : " I am going to give you the memoirs of a much fiercer thief than Tilliborus ; in as much as he stole not merely in woods, and forests, but in cities; did not only over-run with his plun- der Minya or Ida, or some of the more solitary parts of Asia, but filled, I may say, the whole Roman empire with his theft." Permit me here to observe, that the design of Lucian in this book, was to represent, in the character of Alexander, the teach- ers of Christianity, as magicians and. impostors, and the believers of it in general, as a weak and stupid class of people,, actuated by that hope and fear, which, as he was pleased to call them, are the greatest tyrants of the life of man. This will account for the ignominious names he often applies to those that were im- posed upon by the deceiver; and it will account too for hii act- io?, on this occasion, in co operation with Cc/sus, the great ad- versary of the christian religion. 19 rily, Verily, I say unto you, He that enter- eth not by the door into the sheep-fold, but climbeth up some other way, this same is a thief, and a robber." Such was their pride, that they hardly condescended to rank among the disciples of the obscure Prophet of Nazareth. Consider- ing themselves as possessing beyond him, the light of human knowledge, they claimed rather to be his competitors, and to unfold doctrines, which even exceeded the disco- veries he made. And that they made some pretensions of the kind is manifest from the words of Jesus on this occasion. It may be inferred, from a passage in Tertullian, that the founders of the Gnostic heresies not only affected to rival our Lord, but also to claim a superiority over him as having taught before him *. And their * Simon Magus, who will presently appear to have had some connsction with the impostors from Rome, and who probably was one of those that our Lord had here in view, seems to have set himself up as the great power of God, before the baptism of Jesus. In the second Homily, ascribed to Clement, Simon is said to have been a disciple of John the Baptist, and to have be- come renowned at Alexandria for his skill in the arts of magic, at the time he was beheaded by Herod. C 2 20 pretensions, in this rcspeet, were very spe- cious, as in all probability Jesus, when put to death, was a much younger man than many of those magicians, who received his religion in the court of Tiberius. Now it is a remarkable fact, that in the above pas- sage, the Lord speaks of those deceivers, not as men that would come after him, but as having already come, and as actually em- ployed at that time, in plundering his sheep. AS MANY AS HAVE COME BEFORE ME ARK thieves and robbers*. There are other * The impostors that appeared in the times of Jesus were robbers of men, because they used their knowledge to defraud them, and to enrich themselves. They were robbers of God, >^-xi SsoTnror, as Tatian somewhere says, because they pretended tobe more than men, and arrogated to themselves divine honours. Nor was this the case only with those deceivers, but with almost nil the heathen philosophers, before the age of Christ. Plato had the arrogance to hold himself up as the teacher of a new doctrine, and a messenger sent from heaven ; in which, from spite to the christians, Celsus attempts to justify him; see Origen, p. 281. Pythagoras too laid claims to divination, as Cicero informs us; and if creditcanbegivento his biographer Porphyry, he pretended to have been superiiaturnlly conceived. Even Socrates himself, the most enlightened, and the best-dispesed of the gentile philo- sophers, was not tree from the presumption of supposing, that he was under the guidance and direction of a superior being. This circumstance, according to Xenophon, was the principal ground of the accusation against him. The disgustful arrogance and folly of the ancient philosophers in this respect, led Hermes, in his Derision of the Gentile Philosophy, to say that it originated with the d.cmons, who, from motives of envy and malice, endeavoured, as was supposed, to seduce men from the worship 21 things deserving of notice in the above pas- sage : but these shall be pointed out pre- sently. In the tenth chapter of Matthew, we have an account of the commission, which Jesus gave to his apostles, to go and preach his gospel in the world. On this solemn occa- sion he delivers to them some specific di- rections, which might regulate their con- duct in the execution of their office. Nov/ if we examine the rules, which our Lord of the true God. Our Lord, however, acted a very different part: He represents the supreme Being as the only proper object of adoration ; and of himself he speaks as no other than the son of man. It appears to me, therefore, probable, that the clause IlavTss lo-oi. ir^o (jjlov jiA0ov is intended to mark, the difference, which in this respect subsisted between our divine Master and other teachers, whether they were the impostors of his own time, or the pretended instructors of mankind in the ages pre- ceding. What confirms my opinion is, that the verb nxQov is put in the indefinite tense, so as to comprehend those that were past, as well as those that were then present. This in- terpretation is not far from the sense, which Clement Alexan- drinus annexes to the passage, where he says, that our Lord meant those teachers among the gentiles, who, actuated by vain glory, set up, for their own discoveries, those tenets, which they had stolen from the divine philosophy of Moses, KX-tto.; T»i /2Si£;3si£(X," (piXocrotyiGci; EXTnivXi hvva KepcriiTCvi 'rj Y^utyvf This assertion he makes in allusion to the above words of Christ. See page 428. He repeats the same declaration in Strom, i. p. 400. Examine also what he says in page 360, c 3 22 here prescribes, with the course pursued by the impostors, in the propagation of their principles, we shall find that they are all suggested by a foresight of their conduct, and intended to prevent his disciples from falling into a similar behaviour. The object of the deceivers in professing and teaching Christianity, was to enrich themselves by the liberality of those, whom they deluded. Irenaeus tells us that they magnified their doctrines with all the solem- nity of deep silence and mystery*, and then communicated them for large sums to their followers: And we have the authority of the apostles, as well as of Lucian, who, it will hereafter appear, has given us an ample account of those heretics, that they were ava- ricious and extortionate in the extreme. Accordingly our divine Master delivered it * Quae etlam convenienter videntur mihi non omnes velle in manifesto docere, sed solos illos, qui etiam grandes mercedes pro talibus mysteriis praestare possunt. Non enim jam dicunt similia illis de quibus Dominus noster dixit: Gratis accepistis, gratis date: sed separata (semota scilicet a vulgari hominum notitia) et portentuosa et alta mysteria cum magno labore ex- quisita falacibus. Iren. p. 21. Tertullian, speaking of their mysteries, has these emphatic and expressive words : — Sancta silentio magno, sola taciturni- tate aelestia. 7 heir sanctity consists in deep silence, and the divinity of their origin in mere taciturnity. 23 in charge to his disciples, not to receive any compensation for the instruction, which they imparted. Freely ye have re- ceived, FREELY GIVE. Lucian has written the life of one Proteus, or Peregrinus. Who is meant by this person, will be a subject of future investigation. But it must appear, at first sight, to any one that will peruse his life, that the author repre- sents him under the character of a Gnostic impostor. " He came to the church with a long beard, and he wore a sordid out coat. A purse hung at his side, and a staff was car- ried in his hand. From thence he went about again to deceive, having plenty of provisions from the christians, by whom he was surrounded, as with guards, and among whom he lived in great profusion*." Our Lord foresaw that the deceivers would act in this manner; he therefore strictly charges his own disciples to avoid a similar conduct: " Provide not gold for yourselves, nor sil- ver, nor money in your purses, nor tra- * TIxoiXQuiv as T5iv £>cxArmav twv ITa^avav, tx.ofj.ci, d nd\j, kca T£t- puvoc, Trivoisov HjU.7T£j^;=to, xca Tnjav Tra^Two, yjxi, to fuXov £v t»i X'-igi s)>, xai oAitfi ju.«A«. rgccyixw; iw.volto — sljrisi rooevTsgov TrAavy- , Cap. II. £25. In both of these clauses, the article is put before »$§*•*■%, man, though it be ob- vious, that by man, is here meant, human kind. But the use of it here, is not improper, on that account, as i' to distinguish between God and mankind, which distinc- tion the writer had in his mind. His mean- ing is to tiiis effect : — " Though mankind needed the information, which Jesus came to communicate, respecting the J)eity, yet he did not, on his part, need the information of any concerning mankind." Again, " In vain do they worship me, teaching for doc- trine, the commandments of men," T« a»0ga»r»v, Mark vii. 7. That is, the commandments, which men taught in opposition to those of God. " Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, t^wfa xm w^mw, Mat. vi. I > D2 36 before those beings, who sec only the out- side of tilings; but before him, who seeth in secret." The article is employed to mark a similar opposition in verses 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, of this chapter. " Let your requests,'' says the apostle, Phil. iv. 6. " be made known unto God," v:^ Toy *w In this admonition, he glances at that ostentatious custom too prevalent among the Jews, of addressing the Almighty in public places, in order to be seen of men. Taken in this view, it is to the following purpose : " Make not an ostentatious display of praying to God in the presence of men : Rather present your petitions. to heaven in private"*. It were, indeed, a long task to * From this example- it appears, that the article placed before 5wj, is used to mark an opposition between God and man, as it does between man and God, when placed before av^uiro;' Instances of this use of it frequently occur in the New Testa- ment. Thus the Pharisees commanded the blind man to whom Jesus had restored his sight, to give the praise to God, So; ^xv tu Sew, John ix. 24. That is, " Express your gratitude for the deed, to the Deity, and not to this man, whom we know to be a sinner ; and therefore not entitled to the glory of having come from God." Thus too we read in Acts viii. 2c. concern- ing Moses, fltjiws t-ji §w, he was beautiful with God; or in the sight of God ; which means, that he possessed those qualities, which made him fair in the estimation of the Supreme Being, and not merely those, which rendered him so, in the apprehen- sion of men. 37 point out all the places in the New Testa- ment, where the article is used for the pur- pose here specified. We return then to the subject. Our Lord stiles himself a human being, and that in opposition to a being of superior order. What could have been his reason for thus describing himself in a manner so peculiar, and so different from the modes of designation, which other men used when speaking of tliemselves ? His reason, as appears to me, could be no other than this: He foresaw that certain impostors would re- present him, as a being superior to the con- dition, and different from the nature of man. This representation, however flattering it might appear to an impostor, was rejected by the humble Prophet of Nazareth, as a flagrant violation of the truth, and a daring invasion of the divine prerogative. To con- vince, therefore, all mankind of its falsehood, he holds himself up to them as one of the same nature with themselves*. Taken in * Though no critic, I believe, has placed the import of this designation in that definite point of light, in which it is here viewed, yet the object which Jesus had, in thus distinguishing himself, has not escaped the attention of some learned men both in modern and in ancient times. The Heresiarch Colorbasus maintained, that Christ, by this title, held himself up as the off- spring of human nature, or as being born of a human father, as D 3 38 view, the following passage is highly deserving of our attention : well as of a human mother. At& zovro won m^uvvu b{U>\bytt 'Brum a~oyr,.o-t aySfftWou" ih (Jesus) confessed hirmelf to he the son of ?r>an, as being the offspring oj man. — Irenaeus, lib. I. c. vii p. 55. Epiphaniu,s answers this argument by insinuating, that he was stiled Son of man, because he assumed a human from his mother. His words are 2s follow : " Let us grant, that he named himself the Son of man, because, according to the opinion of the miserable Colorbasus, his father was called a man, and not because he wasbjrn of the flesh, that is, of the virgin womb of the holy Mary ; what would he say to that which our Lord Jesus Christ told the Jews: You, now seek to a man} who have spoken to you the truth, which 1 heard ofmy Father Here be means not man his father, But confess- ing of his real Father, signifies the Gcd of all." — Epiphanius, p. 26 . Hear next the words of a celebrated modem writer, (Hayne's Scripture Account, p. 207), on this subject: " Son of man isa name, tit'?, or character, which Christ has given himself si in the gospels, that it highly deserves to be well understood. St. Matthew has this title thirty times; St. Mark fifteen times, St. Luke fifteen times; St. John ten times. Upon how many more occasions Christ stiled hjmself Son of man cannot now be known by ?ny other writings now extant; but it may fairly be supposed to have been his common and ordinary stile, when he mentioned himself. And most certainly he did this for very good reasons. The critics assign many ; but studiously omit the great, and perhaps, the only reason, why Christ so often called himself the Son of man, which was undoubtedly to pre- vent the idolatrous notions and practices of his followers, in succeeding ages: Well knowing the great proneness of all na- tions, to deify their heroes ; and being sent from God to reform the Jewish nation and the heathen world, over-run with gross idolatrv, he set himself to preach up the necessity of a genera 1 repentance, a conversion from all kinds of false worship, to the 59 " When Jesus came into the coasts of Cresarca Philippi. He asked his difciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the son of man am ? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist ; some Elias ; others Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am ? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art Christ the Son of the living* God." Mat. xvi. 13—17. worship of the one true and living God in spirit and truth ; and a hearty and sincere obedience to his laws ; which, indeed, were the true and only means of setting up the spiritual kingdom of the most high God amongst all mankind. This was his chief aim, and his glorious scheme, which he pursued with great zeal, diligence, constancy, and self-denial; far from affecting divine honour, and though attended with miracles, yet declaring he could do nothing of himself — that the Father who dwelt in him did the works — that he sought not his own glory, &c. John v. ig. iv. 34. xiv. 10. Philip, ii. 7, g. * The epithet living, which Peter here uses before God, was suggested by the idea of the prophets being dead; which idea pass- ed through his mind as their names were mentioned. A similar association may be seen in the following lines of Virgil : ■ At memor ille Matris Acida H?e, paullatim abolere Sichaeum Incipit, et vivo tentat pvaevertere amore. iEneid I. 724. Sichseus was now dead. This circumstance being in the mind of the poet, gave rise to the epithet vivo, living love, which Dido was now cherishing towards her new lover. D 4< 40 Here we are presented with the opinions which his own disciples and the body of the Jewish people entertained, respecting the person of our Lord. The former thought him to be the Messiah, whom the Jews ex- pected then to make his appearance : the latter, though they had recourse to supposi- tions sufficiently absurd to account for his miracles, do not seem to have the most dis-^ tant idea that he was any other than one of the human race. Now it may be asked, What was the object of Jesus in making the above enquiry? Was it merely to be in- formed, in what light he was regarded by those around him? Such an information in his case was unnecessary: For had he only the discernment of an ordinary person, he could not but know what his own disciples, at least, thought of him. His only object then, must have been, in thus eliciting their sentiments, to furnish his historians with a fact, which, when recorded, would prove, that in the apprehension of all, who knew him — of all, who saw and heard him, he was but a being merely human. It is worthy of notice, that, while our Lord asked whom the people supposed him to be, he tells them in return, that he was the Son of man; that he was only one that had the feci- 41 ings and constitution, which that name im- plies. ' > The parable in which our Lord represents the corruption of his religion, is thus ex- plained by him : " The sower of the good seed is the Son of man. The field is the world; The good seed are the children of the kingdom, and the weeds are the children of the evil one : the enemy, who sowed the seed, is the devil: the harvest is the end of this age, and the reapers are the angels. As, therefore, the weeds are packed up, and burned up in a fire, so also will it be at the end of this age. The Son of man will send forth his messengers; and they will gather together out of his kingdom all the faith- less*, and the workers of iniquity, and will * TTxvra roe, a-y.cc^aXa, literally rendered all the offences; the abstract, as they say, being used for the concrete. The persons meant are those, who by their bad practices, would bring disgrace upon the gospel, and prevent others from pro- fessing it. On this account Clement calls them ovh$o$ x.7trov «vw9ev vko tds a^mov Aoct avovoua.'TQV him, an hungered, or a thirst, or naked, they would have administered unto him. Now, as they were pretended followers of Christ, we cannot reasonably doubt, but that they are the impostors, whom he had before his eyes in the preceding parable; and we are justified in the conclusion, that they were the advocates of the jhpeni, or fatan, or devil (for these are but different names of the same thing) by the sentence which the King passes upon them : " Depart, ye curs- ed, into everlasting fire prepared lor the devil and his angels"*. * Thus we read in the Revelation, chap. xx. 2. " And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and saian." Hence Justin says, in this manner : " Apud nos qui- dem antesignanus malorum dasmonum serpens vocatur et sa- tanas et diabohis, sicut ex scriptis nostris, si inquiratis, cognos- ces potesris. Apol. I. p. 56. ed. Grabe. See also his Dialogue with Trypho,p. 331. The author of the Recognitions, appears to have considered this pnrable as originally levelled against the impostors, who worshipped the serpent. On this account he puts in the mouth of Peter, while disputing with Simon ATagus, the deemed here- siarch of Gnosticism, n passage, which is grounded on the words of Jesus on this occasion, it is a passage, indeed, so just and beautiful, that my English reader will be obliged to me for plac- ing it before him in his own tongue. It is to this effect : " The serpent (in the defence of worshipping images) pours out, by means of others, woids of this kind : " We adore visible ima- ges in honour of the invisible God." This, replied Peter, is E 4 56 Hence we may discover the propriety and force of what our Saviour says on the occa- sion. He represents himself to be tlie Son of man, and a brother of the righteous that believe in him; that is, a human being: — a being of the same nature and character with his virtuous followers, and not as the impos- tors represent him, an Man, God, or Angel. The deceivers are placed on the left-hand, manifestly false. For if ye wish to worship the image of God, ye should do good to man, which is his true image ; inasmuch as. the image of God exists in every man, though such as bears him true resemblance, subsists only in him who possesses a beneficent mind, and a pure heart. If then ye be desirous to magnify the divine image, we open to you the true way for doing it : — Do good to man, who is formed after the image of God — Pay to him honour and esteem — Administer food to the hungry^ drink to the thirsty, raiment to the naked — Attend on the sick, hospitably re- ceive the stranger, and furnish the prisoner with necessaries. This is what we deem truly honourable to God. For such actions as these so much redound to the Divine Gbry, that he, who does not perform them, is believed by ur, to bring disgrace on the character of God. What honour, therefore, do you confer on God, by roving among forms of stone or wood, and venerating as deities, vain and lifeless figures ? Nay, you may be assured that he who commits homicide or adultery, or any thing which brings affliction or injury on men, violates thereby the image of God. For injustice to man is a great impiety n wards Gcd. Every thing, therefore, which you do not wish to suffer, debases, if done to another, with undue dishonours, the divine image. Ee persuaded, then, that the suggestion of the serpent alone, leads you to suppose, that you appear pious in worshipping ob- jects devoid of sense, but that you do not seem impious in hating beings possessed of feelings and reason". Lib. v. 2$. hi and called goats*; because those animals, being remarkab)e for their wantonness, fitly enough represent men, distinguished by their lusts and impurities. For this reason, those-on the right-hand are stiled in oppo- sition to them, the righteous. The heretics, called Valentinians, pretend- ed that they should enter the divine Pleni- * Clement calls the impostors by this very name when he is describing the debaucheries of which they were guilty in their love feasts. Ad lupanaria ergo deducit haec commu.nio, et cum eiscommunicaverint sues ethirci, maximaque a pud illos in spe fuerint meretrices, quae in prostibulis presto sunt, et volentes omnes admittunt. Strom, lib. iii. p. 524. The explanation which Jerome gives of the clause is worth notice. Oves in parte justorum stare jubentur addexteram ; haedi, hoc est, peccatores. ad sinistram qui, pro peccato semper in lege offeruntur. Nee dixit copras, quae possunt habere Isetus, et tonsze egrediuntur de lavacro,' omnes gemeliis faetibus et sterilis nulla inter eas, sed hasdos lascivum animal et petulcum et fervens semper ad coi- tum. Cotn. in loco. It is worthy of remark that our Lord here alludes to the prophet Ezekiel, chap, xxxiv. 17— ig. where God is represented as separating the rams and goats frcm the sheep, and putting the latter under one faithful shepherd. The comment of Origen on the place is very good, and much to my purpose: — The rams and goats which trampled down the pastures and troubled the water, were, according to him, the heretics, who rejected the Old Testament, and adulterated the New. These, he says, were not worthy to be placed on the right-hand of the Shepherd. See his Philocalia, p. 39. I shall only add, that Chrysostom appears to understand our Lord as meaning by the goats, not unbelievers, but those that professed his gospel, and did not produce the fruits of it. See his Com. in loco. S3 tudc, and be united with the angels, in con- sequence of some spiritual seed implanted in them from above, while the followers of Basilides supposed, that this honour would be conferred upon them because of some predilection of nature in their favour. Our heavenly Teacher anticipated these and such like dangerous opinions, and in the parable of the talents, teaches us in opposition to them, that the proper use of our moral and natural powers is the only condition on which we shall be admitted into the joy of our Lord, In this parable, he further illus- trates in what respects and for what purposes we should use them, as his disciples. And this, he tells us, consists in feeding the hun- gry, in clothing the naked, in visiting the .sick, in relieving the prisoner, and hospi- tably treating the stranger. The men that thus employ the goods given them by the bounty of providence, and not those of any other description, shall enter the kingdom prepared for the righteous. The awful de- cision here given, well deserves the attention of those christians, in modern days, who rest their hopes of salvation not upon the efficacy of virtue, but upon creeds of human inven- tion ; — creeds, which we shall presently see, have been all taken from the heathen and. 5$ Jewish Gnostics, and which, therefore, were foreseen and condemned by Christ himself, The opposition, which the apostles made to the impostors, the zeal and indignation with which they exposed their doctrines, and reprehended their depravities, brought upon them and all the Jewish converts, their hatred and malice. They affected, in return, to treat their virtuous opponents with supercilious contempt, and so far from supplying their wants when stripped of their properties by the arm of violence, or of protecting them when driven from their homes, or confined in prison by the zeal of persecution, that they even joined with their enemies in aggravating their afflictions. Hence we may see the force and justice of the accusation, which Jesus alleclges against them : " I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick and in prison, and ye visited me not" *. * As the impostors embraced the christian religion, from base and selfish motives, they were total strangers to generosity of temper, and the exercise of compassion. This circumstance, \ve shall ptesently see, lead our apostles to insist upon charity as ^he great end of the gospel, and to condemn the want of philan,- GO In the last place, As oilr Lord has deliver- ed this parable in opposition to those bad, men, who in that and every subsequent age, corrupted his religion by their own inven- tions, and disgraced it by their vicious con- duct, we may conclude, that by the throne of glory, which he, with his holy angels, will come to sit upon, he means that truly glorious kingdom of peace and righteousness which he will, under God, establish on the earth, when his gospel shall be restored to its origi- nal purity, and by that means, recommend- ed to universal reception, as an object of faith and a rule of conduct. Consequently, the separation of the bad from the good, sig- nifies the removal of impostors and .hypo- crites from the christian church; and their departure into everlasting lire, the total and eternal extirpation of error and vice from the moral government of God. It is wor- thy of remark, and it is a remark which cor- roborates the explanation here given, that our Lord, after having unfolded the mean- thropy as utterly Inconsistent With it. The words of Ignatius to the Smyrnceans are here worthy of notice : — " Observe those who entertain heretical notions respecting the grace of Jesus Christ which is come unto us, how opposite they are to the will of God. For charity they have no respect; they care not for the widow or for the orphan ; not for the bond or free ; not for the oppressed, or the hungry, or the thirsty." Chap. vi. 6! ing of the parable in which he predicts the corruption of his gospel, intimates, that the period will arrive, when, purified from its corruptions, it shall impart to its professors, a splendor similar to that of the sun. Amidst the vast number of books fabri- cated by the early Gnostics, there is one, which they ascribed to Nkodemns. The ascribing of it to the Jewish teacher is, in all "probability, founded upon the conversation which passed between him and our Lord, as recorded by John. Now it might be expected, that as Jesus Christ appears to have had a distinct foresight of the deceiv- ers that would arise and debase his religion, he should, in this very interview, refer to them, and make their conduct and doc- trines the subject of animadversion. And this- we shall find, upon enquiry, to be an indisputable fact. From a passage already cited, we have seen, that in the opinion of these men, there were two Christs * : That the first descended * That the heretics entertained such an opinion, is attested by many of the early writers, whose testimony shall hereafter be produced. In the mean time, accept the words of Origen : *0$-=v 9m«kJ:i» p.oi vgtivh %v><> $vn $s?»s vr^djciTrTW^y 0/a$ot*$«W fi'4 and invested himself with a form according to substance, and then again returned into the Plenitude. After this another Christ came down : He being different, and more, fully authorised than his predecessor, in- vested himself with a form according to knowledge : Which has been shown to mean, that there were two beings, one the author of the Jewish, the other of the chris- tian dispensation; that these were gods dis- tinct from, and unconnected with each other. Hear, now, what our Lord says to Nicodemus : — " And no man hath ascended up to heaven j but he that came down front heaven, even the Son of man, which is in heaven. " Iii this verse it is asserted, that the Being who ascended to, was the same with him that descended from heaven. And what is the meaning of this assertion ? What but this, That the Christ, who went up, and the Christ who came down again, *aj AiaSwtas o* E or Gods. But our Lord says, that as they were but one Being, so that Being was a human Being, meaning himself. But what is understood by the phrase, Even the Son of man which is in heaven ? Read what is said in the preceding verse : " If I have told you things on earth, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you things in heaven"*. Now the things in heaven, * The terms tiriyua, and sirov^noc were in use among the philosophers, the former to express things on the earth (such as fire, air, water, and the properties and animals belong- ing to them), and the latter those in the keavens, namely, the sun, moon, or stars, with their respective qualities and relations. They are, therefore, synonimous with t« eth yn; and t« ev £uj«vo*j, which we often meet with in the writings of the ancient philosophers. Our Lord, it appears to me probable, glances at the study of astrology, and of the hea- venly bodies, which at this time was become prevalent among the Jewish doctors, to the neglect of the moral law, and the pursuit and practice of virtue; and censures them for their affectation of vain and unprofitable knowledge. Socrates, to his immortal honour, exposed and lidicuied the wits of Greece for indulging in fanciful speculations respecting things that were both useless in themselves, and beyond the reach of human comprehension. Read the first book uf (his memoirs, by Xenophon, Johnson has taken occasion from the authority of this grerct philosopher, to vilify the study of mathematics and natural philosophy. His language, though flowing in a stream of majestic eloquence, is mixed with a plentiful ingredient of that pique which he un- 64 here spoken of, meant, at least in part, the conversion of the gentiles, the crucifixion, and subsequent resurrection of Jesus, which were so very remote from the ideas of Nico- demus and others, and which were compre- hended only by the wisdom of heaven. Our Lord, then, was in heaven in the same sense as his death and his restoration to life* were in heaven; that is, he was the only fortunately cherished against our great poe,l. His words are ani- madverted upon with justice and elegance by Bonicastle, when speaking of the advantages of astronomy. But to return from this digression. Justin Martyr in addressing the Greeks has grounded a passage on the words of the Athenian Sage. Speak- ing of the contradictions into which the philosophers had fallen, by the boundless licence of speculation, in which they indulged^ he adds, " What cause can be assigned why thosej- who are re- puted wise among you, are at variance, not only with one another, but with themselves? It was their unwillingness to learn from those who knew, and their presumption that they could attain by human discernment alone, the knowledge of things in heaven (™ &y ougavo»c) when they were enabled to un- derstand things on the earth ra nri tv; yn;. Ad Graces Cohor- taiiu, p. 59. Gx. Edition. See also Her. Irris. p. 21 8. Edit. Worth. The poet Anacreon has a line, which well illustrates this phraseology of our Lord: N00-; «$ Shove as^us, 790. An un- derstanding raised up so as to be among the Gods. Consult the editor Barnes on the place. Clement, paraphrasing the words of Paul, Phil. iii. 2c. uses terms not foreign to these of Jesus : B»*> nJr), Eii ca^'/A wv, ui; sv ov^ccrxi TciXi7iVO(j.v:o;, Vol. 1. p. 509. 1 live even noiu, though in thejiesh, as if in heaven, qf which I am a citizen* 65 person, that understood the counsel of God, respecting himself and the rest of mankind. His object, therefore, is merely to say in refu- tation of the false teachers, that as the Christ was a human being, so his going up to, and coming down from heaven, are not to be taken in a literal but a metaphorical sense. In as much as Jesus in this place is asserting the connection, or rather the unity of the Mosaic system, with his own, he could not but have Moses in his mind on the oocasion. Accordingly he mentions him by name in the next verse. The men of whom we are speaking paid divine honours to the serpent under pretence that it was the same with Jesus Christ. They taught, too, that he did not suffer, but that another suffered for him on the cross. This is what our Lord next adverts to. " As Moses lift up the serpent in the wilderness so it is necessary that the Son of man should be lifted up." Jesus then was not the serpent but a human being; who was ordained to be crucified, and of whose elevation on the cross, the elevation of the serpent by Moses wras but a symbol. They believed, more- over, or pretended to believe, that the VOL. II. f 66 Creator was not good, and consequently no lover of the world, which he had. made; that the Christ was not the Son of the most high God,* hut of the Monogcnes, who, of course was distinct from, and prior to, him. These points our Lord proceeds to refute. " God so loved the world, that he gave his own Son, the Monogenes (only be- gotten) that all, who believe in him, might not perish, but have everlasting life." Though these men were compelled to * The Egyptian Gnostics represented the Logos, or the Son of God, as having been born of Nous, and not of the supreme .Bathos ; while the Jewish heretics, who will appear to have bor- rowed their tenets in part from Simon Magus, supposed Jesus to be the offspring of Sige. To this notion Ignatius in his epistle to the Magnesium, has a pointed allusion deserving here to be noticed : — " Be not deceived by heretical and old useless fables. For if we live according to the Jewish law, we acknow- ledge that we have not received the gospel. For the most di- vine prophets lived according to Christ Jesus, and on this ac- count were persecuted, being inspired by his grace, so as to sa- tisfy the doubting that there is but one God, who manifested Jesus Christ his Son, who is the eternal Logos; who proceeded rot from Sige, and did, in ail things, the will of him that sent him." Chap. viii. Irenaeus has written several chapters in opposition to these notions. I shall have occasion to notice them hereafter. The Carpocratians maintained that Jesus did not descend from the Creator of the world, but from the supreme unknown God. See Epiphan. Kxr. xxvii. p. 102. 67 ftssent to the truth of Christianity yet they did not take upon them, the name of Christ. Their reason for not calling themselves christians, as all the true believers did, was that it excited much hatred in the breasts of its enemies, and brought down upon its friends great sufferings * . By this inconsis- * Our divine Lord, while yet with his disciples, foretold that they should be hated for his name sake. This extraordinary prediction received its completion soon after his departure from the earth. Free as his life was from every crime ; innocent as was his character, and without a stain, yet his enemies asso- ciated with his name every idea of vice and ignominy. This ignominy indeed was so great, that to be accused as a christian was to be pronounced guilty of death. In the apologies of Justin, Anathagoras and Tertullian, this fact is abundantly attested : These men repeatedly and indignantly complain that they were hated and dragged to execution, not because they were guilty of any crime, but because they professed the christian name; and we meet with an allusion to the same iniquitous and cruel con- duct in the first Epistle of Peter, chap. iv. 14 — 17. The malig- nity of Tacitus, however, led him to insinuate that the chris- tians were held in detestation on account of their flagicicusness, though with the same breath he pronounces them innocent of the heinous crime for which they were punished by the sanguin- ary Nero. — Nero subdidit reos et quaesitissimis pcenis affecit, quos per Bagitia invisos; i.e. invisos pei' Jiagitia, non per nomen. An. xv. 44. It is remarkable that, while the catholic apologists say they were hated on account of their name, Tatian complains only that the f Mowers of Jesus were deemed execrable, with- out adding that it was for this reason. I cannot assign any cause for this, but that he did not, in common with thou- sands -of other men of eminence, especially those that favoured the Gnostic heresies, assume to himself the christian F i> 68 tence, which was the effect not of a mis- taken judgment, but of a depraved heart, they stood self-condemned. Accordingly our divine Master says of them, in the next verse. " lie who bclieveth not in liim, ( that is in the Son of man, and not in the Christ as taught by the Gnostics) is al- ready condemned, because he hath not believed in the name, of the only be- gotten Son of God." While they pretended to be the followers of Jesus, they indulged in crimes the most repugnant to the genius of his religion. Avoiding the light of day, they went about in the night, to steal and to murder, or to revel in nocturnal orgies. And it is remark- able that for their baseness in this respect and not for their want of faith in him, he denounces upon them the above con- demnation. " This is the condemnation that the light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, for their .deeds are evil" *. appellation. " Do not," says he to the Greeks, " acl: contrary to justice in unjustly hating us." P. 39. * So little can in justice be alleged against our Lord or his doctrines, that, whenever the adversaries of the christian faith attempt to vilify the one, or refute the other, they prove nothing 69 The arts of magic to which they were de- voted, and for which they were famous, in reality but their own ignorance. The truth of this assertion might be illustrated by a variety of instances: I shall now con- tent myself with the following, taken from the Enquirer, p. 322. " There is nothing perhaps that has contributed more to the in- troduction and perpetuating of bigotry in the world, than the doctrine of the christian religion. It caused the spirit of into- lerance to strike a deep root ; and it has intailed that spirit upon many, who have shaken off the directer influence of its tenets. The short and comprehensive description bestowed upon the refractory to the end of time, appears to be this: They have loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil." Now it is unfortunate for this writer, that our Lord does not censure those he has here in view for their want of faith, but for their being evil, and for their having recourse to darkness to conceal their evil deeds; since they were not unbelievers, but nominal converts, who endeavoured to keep men in ignorance by falsehoods and magical deceptions. Had the luminous au- thor of Political Justice been aware that the refractory here meant were Simon Magus, Basilides, Cerinthus, and the like, he would not have been so forward to place himself in the num- ber ; though I cannot help suspecting that the majority of his infidel biethren, had they lived in those times, would have been well qualified to adorn the school of the Samaritan impostor. With respect to the charge of intolerance against the founder of chr;stianity, it is an evident and malicious falsehood. No cha- racter either in modern or in ancient times was so exempt from every species of bigotry and illiberality, or so happily illustrated the opposite spirit of candour, and of meekness. On many oc- casions, and in a great variety of forms, he has described his religion as consisting in piety to God and love to man ; and though he lays much stress on faith as a mean to a higher and more important end, he resolves his whole°system into the simple rule of doing to others as we wish that others should do to us ; Mat. vii. .12, He has gone even farther, and given us a deline- F 3 70 could nevertheless, succeed only in places secluded from the light of day. Observe ation of the character of those, who shall receive from their final Judge, thr sentence o,f approbation ; and these are men distin- guished, not by sound faith, but by the exercise of compas- sion and generosity in their several situations; Mat. xxv. Nor is this all : He has expressly commanded his followers not to sit in judgment on the conduct or on the principles of their neigh- bours, (Mat. vii. i — 4 ) and prohibited them to use violence and force, either in the promotion of truth, or in the eradication of error; Mat. xiii. 28. And this injunction he has faithfully exemplified in his own conduct. He constantly invited the earnest and unbiassed attention of his heaters, delivered his dis- courses, and performed his miracles, in the light of day, and in the presence of the multitude ; and in order to excite the vigi- ' lance, and quicken the investigation of his enemies, he ofaen said such things that had he not justified them by subs-qucnt miraculous acts, he would have been liable to be executed on the spot. Permit me, finally, to refer you, as decisive proofs of his meekness and liberality, to the gentle rebuke which he passed on the intemperate zeal of his disciples, in wishing that fire should come down from heaven, and consume the inhospitable Samaritans — to his own modest declaration that he himself judged no man; John xii. 47 — and to his solemn affection- ate assurance to Nicodemus, that he did not come to condemn the world, but to save the world ; John iii. 17. It is true, in- deed, that he denounced heavy woes on the scribes and Pharisees,. But it was not on account of their unbelief, but of those flagrant vices, which they attempted to conceal under the veil of superior sanctity. And it is woithv or remark, that on the Sadducees, who surpassed the Pharisees in the enmity, which they bore to his character, and in the opposition they made to his claims, but who did not add to their other immoralities the guilt of hy- pocrisy, he was by no means so severe. Had Jesus been a bigot the former would have been the subject of his keener reprehen- sions; nor would he ever have expressed his satisfaction towards such of the latter as could conscientiously say that they kept the moral law. See Ala rk x. 2 1. 71 now what Jesus remarks in reference to their pretended miracles. " Every one that practiseth base things, hateth the light, nor cometh to the light, lest his works should be detected. But he that performeth the rea- lity *, cometh to the light that his works * The original word is ax^nx, which is generally rendered truth; but which often signifies, as I have translated it, reality, meaning a real miracle, in opposition to a ma^ral deception, or The mere appearance of a miracle; and thus stands opposed to 4-si^o?, a lie., or false miracle. The following instances will justify this use of the term : The apostle speaking in the abstract of these impostors, who opposed the artifices of magic to the real miracles of Christ, adds, " And the Lord will consume him with the breath of his mouth, and. with the manifestation of his pre- sence will destroy him, whose coming is according to the opera- tion of Satan, with all imposture ($,iv$qv;, lie,) of miracles, and signs, and wonders, and with every wicked seduction among them, that are lost, because they received not the love, of the truth («x»i- Gucc;) for their preservation. And for this cause will God send them such effectual delusion in believing this lying power, (tw -^zvSu) that all who believed not the truth (T« a\r,Qua,) but took pleasure in such deceit maybe brought to punishment ;" 2 Thess. ii.8-13. Lucian writes thus, concerning the impostor J lexander : Acrwovdo? x.v,i a,xygVKTO<; awru) 0 sroAsjUoj Tgo; JLTrixovgov nv* jjlc<,Xc6 UKoruii' Tin ya.% aXXw SmociOTEgov 9T£0iv £§£ THs-Evo-wjuEv uvou which said, We have heard him (Stephen) speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God. And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the fcribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him t> the council. And set up false loitnesses, ivhich said, This man ccaseth not to speak blasphemous ivords against this holy place, and the laiv. For toe hate heard Jiim say, That this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy tUs place , and shall change the customs ivhich Moses delivered us. Josephus, however, the Jewish historian, has employed his pen with a skill that has hitherto eluded the sagacity of criticism, in defend- ing the prophet of Nazareth and his followers from such a gross misrepresentation. Speaking of those Jewish leaders, whose ob- stinacy and cruelty brought the state to ruin, he says, "They trampled upon all the rights of men, derided the divine laws, and scoffed at the oracles of the prophets, as if they were the divi- nations of jugglers. For these (prophets) have prescribed many rules respecting virtue and vice, which the zealots violated, and thus fulfilled a prophecy (delivered) against our country. For there existed among certain men, an old oracle, which pre- dicted, that the city would then be taken, that the holy place would be burned by the laws of war, when commotions would prevail, and the inhabitants themselves, with their own hands, pollute the sanctuary of God. The zealots, though they knew it, employed themselves as ministers in the accomplishment of these things." On this important passage I shall make a few brief remarks : " There existed," he says, " among certain men, an oid oracle (t*5 vuXcLios Aoyojav^av), that the city would then be taken," &c. £Jow it is maintained, that the oracle here spoken of, is that H 3 102 liensions of this kind, appear to me per- plexing and perilous beyond description: which Jesus delivered against the Jewish state. The truth of this assertion will appear", 1 trust, from the following considera- tions : i. This oracle was a prophecy delivered against the state, and received its completion from the wickedness or the Jewish leaders. Now read what Matthew has recorded, chap, xxiii. 34 — 3Q, and you will there find a denunciation against Jerusa- lem, and an implication that that denunciation would be executed, in consequence of the stubborn and voluntary guilt of its rulers. 2. Josephus says, that according to this oracle, the city was to be taken at the very time, when commotions would prevail, and when the inhabitants, with their own hands, would pollute the sanctuary of God : — Ev$« tots im ttoXiv aXuicrzo-Qou, xtu x»t»- §>XByri<7iy\, x«t ^Cc-^'-r oiKiiai vgofjLixvuo-i to Toy Geov te/^svoj* And this corresponds precisely with the prophecy of our Saviour, for he not only says, that Jerusalem would be taken by war, (See Luke chap. xix. 43.) but that this event would take place in a season distinguished by uncommon disturbances. " When ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not afraid ; for these things must come to pass. — Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences, and feartul sights, and great signs shall there be from heaven;" Luke xxi. 8 — 11. Our Lord, too, has more than hinted, that at the time, when Jerusalem should be destroyed, the holy place would be polluted by the massacre of his followers. See Matthew xxiii. 34 — 39, 3. So convinced were the believing Jews, that the prediction of Jesus would be fulfilled, that multitudes of them, warned by him, sold their properties, and after distributing the value among their poor brethren, left the city. And when the appear- 103 and wonderful is the address with which they extricated themselves ; — An address, which •ances, he foretold would precede its demolition, had presented ■themselves, it was scarcely possible, even for his enemies, not to be convinced, in their hearts, that every thing would take place, as he had prophecied. And this remarkable fact Josephus attests in broad and direct language. " The zealots, though they knew it, employed themselves as ministers in the accom- plishment of these things:"— -'Ojj- ouk ctmrncrKnti ci faurat. 4. Our Lord foretold, that the calamities, which should then befal the jews, would be such as were never before equalled, since the beginning of time; Mat. xxiv. 19 — 22. Accordingly, the Jewish historian prefixes to the prophecy delivered 3gainst his country, a summary account of the calamities, which the jews suffered as the accomplishment of it. The passage is too long to be here transcribed. I must therefore be content to re- fer my reader to it: See Lib. iv. cap. vi. 3. See also Lib. v. cap. i. 5. In the last section, chap. jo. of this same book, he has these very remarkable words : " In a word, no oth'rr city ever suffered such things,f nor was any other generation of men so fruitful in wickedness." Having now shewn that the prophecy, or oracle, of which Jo- sephus speaks, as existing among certain men, was that deli- vered bv, Jesus, recorded by the evangelists, and embraced by the christians ; let us in the next place consider, what view he had in describing it as old, (wccXouos') In thus representing it, he had probably an eye to the prophecy of Daniel, chap. ix. His object, it appears to me, was to screen our Lord and his apostles from the odium of having-handed to posterity a prophe- cy, which threatened the ruin and disgrace of their country, by referring the origin of it to an eminent and highly-reputed ser- vant of God in more ancient times. The evangelists them- celves, it is my opinion, had a similar design : for two of them^ H 4 104* proves at once, the soundness of their- understanding, and the truth of their history. in recording their Master's prediction, refer to that of the pro- phet Daniel. Mat. xxiv. 15. Mark xiii. 13. So sensible was our Saviour that the prophecy, he then gave them to record, would be one great means nt bringing upon them the hatred and reproaches of their countrymen, that he reminded them, on the occasion, they would be hated bv all on bis account. But to return again to Josephus : Jerome intorrps us, that he wrote an exposition of the book of Daniel ; to this book T^end. ret seems to allude, at the end of his commentaries on .nat prophet; and he understood him as bearing in if, his testimony to the christian doctrine, though he did not openly avow its truth. From this, we may gather, that the object of the Jewish historian, in pub- lishing such a commentary, wo? t justify Jesus Christ in f-re- telling the destruction of Jerusalem and the. temple ; and to de- fend him and his followers from calumny. I shall here only add, that, at least, this was his design in lay- ing before the public, his History of the Jewish war. The zea- lots incessantly laboured to throw on Jesus and-his followers, the infamy of having occasioned a foreign foe to coroe and destroy the city and t< mple. In many parts of that work, he holds them up, on the contrary, as the men, who, by their wickedness, brought this melancholy fate on their country : And thus acts as the advocate of Christianity and its first teachers. I cannot, in this place, help expressing my surprise, that Josephus should ever have been regarded as an unbeliever, when he is known to be the author of a history, which virtually exhibits to the world, the founder of the christian faith, as inspired by the. wisdom of God. Would a Jew, that rejected the claims ot Jesus, transmit to posterity a narrative, which demonstrated his divine inspira- tion ? There is no way to evade the force of this question, but by supposing, that Josephus had never heard any thing about the prophecy, which Christ dictated respecting Jerusalem and the temple. Had ?ny fther person however unknown and obscure, been the author of such a prediction, it could not, from its sin- $05 Matthew, as he composedhis gospel in Judea, intimated, that the army which should besiege and demolish the city and temple, was the Roman army, chap. xxiv. 28. But Mark, though he gives a narrative, equally particular and accurate as that of Matthew, has suppressed this intimation, Another painful event, which the evan- gelist had to record, was the dispersion of the Jewish people for their wickedness in crucifying the Messiah. Matthew, it has already been observed, gularity and importance, have failed to become the subject of genera 1 conversation. But, delivered as it was, by a man, who had previously commanded universal attention, by a multipli- city of the most stupendous miracles, it must necessarily have spread over every corner of the community, as soon as it was published, And yet an eminent man, whose industry had explored, and whose memory retained every political event of the age in which he lived, had never heard of it, though he was born on the spot, and just at the time, in which, thedownt'al of his own country and nation was foretold ; though it w.ns foretold too by a person, whose fame Was carried, in a few years, over all the known world; and th .ugh, moreover it was recorded in tl ree distinft histories, wh'ch were published in the different quarters of the globe ;— Notwithstanding this, such a prophecy never reached the ears of Josephus! !— The supposition^ palpa- bly absurd, and savours of nothing less than rank idiotism. And yet it is a supposition that has been made, and made too by pien of sense and learning. See Jortin's Remarks, Vol. p. 26. ' . 106 is very particular in setting down every thing, that had been foretold by our Lord and his forerunner on this subject. One passage, which on account of its obscurity, wants illustration, I shall here notice : " Wherefore I say unto you : Every kind of sin, and of evil-speaking, may be for- given men : But this evil-speaking against the Spirit, will not be forgiven. Even he, who speaketh against the Son of man may be forgiven ; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Spirit, will not be forgiven, either in this age, or in that which is to come," Mat. xii. 31, 32. The general purpose of which seems to be this ; The Jewish nation, in ascribing, through malice and depravity, to an evil spirit, the works, tvhicli I do by the poiccr of God, setting aside, by that means, my claims to the Messidhship, incur a guilt tchicli they cannot expiate for ages to come. The evangelist Mark has stated this subter- fuge of the Pharisaic teachers, and the argu- ment, which his Master used to refute it, but he has omitted the prediction, that his countrymen would thus suffer, on that account ; nor is there a passage in his gospel, which gives the most distant intimation of the future evils which awaited the Jewish people, for their ill treatment of Jesus 107 Christ. This is a circumstance, which, in my opinion, docs great honour to his heart. The tide of popular prejudices against the Jews, he saw, ran sufficiently high every where, and more especially in Rome, with- out attempting to swell it, by an anticipation of those calamities, which would overtake them, in their future dispersion among the gentiles. Having premised these general remarks* which conrirrn the common opinion, that this historian composed his gospel in that city, I proceed to notice those parts of it, which refer to the impostors and their prin- ciples. Now you will naturally expect, that the warnings, which our Lord had delivered to his followers against them; the description he gave of them; the precautions lie communicated to his apostles, to prevent them from falling into their errors and vices, together with those parables, which he op- posed to their doctrines, should be recorded, by Mark with the same, if not greater fidelity than is done by Matthew. But in this expectation, however reasonable, you will be disappointed : Nor is it difficult to point out the reason of his having emitted $hem. The strong things, which our Lord 108 had foretold of the deceivers, if published before their face, which would have been the case, had Mark written them in his gospel, would necessarily have enraged them, and drawn down upon the apostles, their hatred and revenge. Nor would this be the only consequence to be apprehended. Multitudes of Jews and gentiles, infected with the heresies, though not with the vices, of the first Gnostic teachers, would have been alienated from the faith. Of these con- sequences our evangelist was aware ; and as he was more desirous to allay than kindle animosities, to eradicate than foster prejudices, among men, he suppressed such parts as might give offence. He has, however, said enough, as we shall soon see, to prove, that the fictions of the philologers formed no branch of the christian doctrine, Mark has not, as above observed, related the parable, in which his Master predicted the corruption of his religion, by the priests of Isis. The reason of this omission, is now obvious : As he seems to have thought that that prediction had too pointed an allusion to, and contained too severe an animadver- sion upon the impostors, to be endured, }ie has applied to them the parable of th? 109 sower ; in which Jesus describes the effect the gospel would produce, and the recep- tion it would meet with, on its first propaga- tion in the world. The words in which Mark relates that parable, are as follows : " Hearken, behold there went out a sower to sow. And it came to pass as he sowed, some fell on the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth, and immediately it sprang up, be- cause it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, it was scorched, and be- cause it had no root, it withered away ; and some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choaked it, and it yielded no fruit : And others fell on good ground, and did yield fruit, that sprang up and increased, and brought forth, some thirty, some sixty, and some an hundred fold ;" Mark iv* 3—9. This parable, applied to the circumstances of Christianity and its professors in Rome, though undoubtedly capable of a much wider signification, may be thus interpreted: The seed, fallen by the way, was those representations, carried by passengers or strangers into Rome, of the doctrine?, 110 which Christ taught and of the works, which he did *. The fowls of the air, which picked it after it had fallen, mean those advocates of the Egyptian or heathen * A person professing to be in Rome, at the time in ivhich the fame of Jesus was firs, carried into that city, gives this remarkable account of it, " While I was distracted by these anxieties, a cetain fa , i. the feign of Tiberius, and begin n.n^ with the commencement i the spiing season, gradually grew up in every place, oeing in truth the good message of God, and unable to keep the divine will in silence, pervaded the world. This fame spread still farther and wider, announcing that a certain man, in Judea, proclaimed the king- dom of the eternal God, which he said, might be obtained by those who lead an upright and pure life ; and, in order to prove that he spoke these things by divine inspiration, he performed, by his mere command, as one that had received power from C-od, many wonderful signs and prodigies." This passage is taken from the Homilies, ascribed to Clement of Rome. Horn. i. p. 6. I shall quo.e it more at large in the sequel.. Permit me here to observe, that the assertion of the writer, that our Lord made his first appearance in the spring, is counte- nanced by the parable before us. Christ, it is well known, usually copied the subjects of his discourses, and their illustra- tions, by visible symbol from the objects that presented ' themselves. Nothing was more natural th-?n his representing the propagation and growth of his gospel, under the figure of seeds sown in the ground, at a season when the people around him were engaged in such an oci upation. This testimony, it may be observed^ agrees with the tra- dition of the church, that Jesus was baptised, or that he entered on his ministry, in the month of January. See Tillemont, Vol. i. p. ii. It is worthy of observation, that this author calls the gospel, which he describes, as ayaC»i §iov 9evt« yinrnrxt Kcu$i — Mi/cjov ds ov* *iy to xtvoi;ju.;yoy* aX?La to uEytrav t«v ovtwv, ayd^uTrov ysyvjTuy xkj <£>v«£t?;v (puc-tv eij aysmrov xsa apS'agToy, 6o-« tw oox.E»y, S,so7rXxnT3'3», o Tsp unfix jjloc- Twy EK^ivEy uvou %aA.E7rwTaToy' SaTroy y»f da h; avS'gj/Troy •jeov, *i ejj &ov ay^ajTrov ^rcifixXuv, Vol. ii. p. 562. .Sowe persons, abus- ing the generous principle of Roman liberty, carried into Italy the Worship of (a man). Our nation alone was likely to resist that •practice, being accustomed to choose a voluntary death, iji order, as it were, to become immortal, rather than suffer any of tlteir pater- nal rights to be taken from than, though that of which they Here" to be deprived, might be very inconsiderable. But the question agitated was not inconsiderable, but the greatest of all questions, whether the derived and corruptible nature of man is capable of assuming, even in appearance, the underived and incorruptible nature of God — a presumption, which our nation deem the most flagrant ; for sooner may a God transform himself into a man, than a man into a God. The philologers in the court of Tiberius, we have seen, in» troduced into Italy, the doctrine, that Christ was a divine being : and the emperor, at their instigation, proposed his deification to the senate, while he refused that honour to be conferred upen himself. Caligula his successor, however, jealous of the high dignity, 12? thus sacrificed to popular prejudices, not from indecision, nor timidity, ( for a more strenuous, and able advocate of truth, virtue and freedom, scarcely ever appeared on the earth,) but from a conviction, that a more open and direct defence of Christ and his profession, would, in his distressing circumstances, be attended with less advan- tageous consequences. I cannot help ob- serving in this place, that the apostle James mentions our Saviour only twice in the whole of the beautiful epistle, which he addressed to the Jews dispersed among the gentiles. ** And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry, and seeing a fig-tree afar_.off, having leaves, he which superstition had bestowed upon the Man Jesus, and actuated by the bitterest malice agairwt the whole Jewish nation, as the most determined advocates of virtue and freedom, sought his own deification, and went even so far as to menace the Jew3 with placing his image in the temple, as an object of their worship. These facts, which will become the subject of future discussion, serve, without any further comment, to unfold the meaning of the above passage. Philo, it is evident, disapproved the introduction of such a doctrine into Italy, as the deification of Jesus ; but he insinuates that the supposition oi his being a God, in a human form, was less absurd than that such a base, corrupt, and frail creature as Caligula, was capable of assuming the divine nature. 128 eame, if haply he' might find any thing' thereon ; and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves ; for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered, and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for even" Mark, chap* xi. 12 — 15. The conduct of Jesus on this occasion'^ has caused much perplexity to the sacred critics. But the difficulty would have vanished, if they had sufficiently reflected, that his sole object in thus causing the tree to wither, was to impress upon his followers an important moral lesson. The instruction which he intended to convey was to this effect : " Whosoever puts forth the profes- sion of my religion, without the fruits- of it, will, like this fig-tree, be stript of its foliage, and cut down, as an incumberance of the ground." This lesson was strikingly illus- trated and confirmed in the case of Judas, at whom our Lord primarily levelled it. It was illustrated too, with equal force, in the fate of the impostors, who, on account of their guilt, suffered from the hands of Tiberius. As this was the case, and as these were properly enough called the followers of that traitor, our evangelist may have directed it at them. And hence we can IP discover the cause of the peculiarity, in his manner of relating it. Matthew says simply that he saw a fig-tree in the way ; but Mark adds, that it was afar off, f*«X|086v, in allusion, I conceive, to the distance, at which the deceivers were from him. The former again says not a syllable about its not being the time of figs, while the latter gives it as a reason for its having no figs, that it was not the season for them, ov y«? *v *«igbS era**- The meaning of the writer, however, appears to me, not that the time of bearing or gathering figs was not yet arrived, but that the situation of the fig- tree, as being by the way side, where its fruits were liable to be prematurely picked by any that passed, was unfriendly to their production and maturity ; and conse- quently it could never have, at any season, ripe ones upon it. The season here spoken of, respects, therefore, not the time of bear- ing figs, but the place, in which the tree stood ; and the clause should accordingly be rendered, " He found nothing but leaves, for there icas no convenience for figs" By this, the historian hints, that the want of the fruits of Christianity in the men, who were put to death, was but the natural VOL. II. K 130 result of circumstances highly unfavourable to them ; and that those, who would adorn themselves with its virtues, should leave such situations, as preclude their growth and perfection* Josephus assures us, that the calamities, in which the whole Jewish and Egyptian nations were involved, originated with the misconduct of a very few men. Those that were innocent, must have cherished a deep and lasting sense of the injury done them by the guilty in this respect : And as it was an injury that could never be forgot- ten, on the part of the sufferers, so they could not easily, forgive those that had any concern in it. Now this circumstance seems to have led the evangelist, after he had related the above incident, and the subsequent transactions of Jesus in the tem- ple, to subjoin in a manner apparently very unconnected, what our Lord delivered, on another occasion : " And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any; that your Father also, which is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your tres" passes." 131 The story of the miraculous conception, it cannot be denied, is omitted by this writer. Hence Dr. Priestly argues in the following manner : " What shall we say in respect to Mark. If he was an epitomizer of Mat- thew* as some have supposed, but of which I own, I see no sufficient evidence, how came he to leave out the whole of the two first chapters ? And if he was, as I think most probable, an original writer, how came he to give no account at all of the miraculous conception, on the supposition that he really knew of it ? He could not tell, that any other person of equal credit, would write the history ; and, therefore, as he did undertake it, he would certainly insert in it what he thought of principal importance : Consequently he must never have heard of the story, or thought it of no importance. But it is of such a nature, that no person, believ- ing it to be true, ever did, or ever could, consider it as of no importance. It was a singular and most extraordinary measure, in divine providence, and could not but be considered as having some great object and end, whether we should be able to discover it or not. It was, therefore, such a fact, as no historian could overlook, and it may K 2 132 therefore be presumed, that Mark had either never heard of it, or that he did not believe it." Such is the conclusion, which this great man draws from the silence of Mark, res pecting the supernatural birth of Jesus. His arguments are such, to say the least of them, as could never be removed by the advocates of the tale. But, not only has this historian omitted the story; he has also contradicted it. His gospel, rendered verbatim from the original, begins thus : " The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, — (as it is written in the prophets, be- hold ! I send my messenger before thy face, who' shall prepare thy way in thy presence; a voice crying in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight,) — was John, baptizing in the wilderness, and preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." According to thestory of our Lord's mira- culous birth, he was pointed out as king of the Jews, at the very time, in which he was born. If this were true the Magi, and not the Baptist, were the first, who made him manifest. But Mark here says expressly 133 that John was the beginning of the good news, respecting Christ; that is, John was the per- son, with whom the first information of his appearance originated. The term he uses to convey this tact, is the most unequivocal he could have chosen. Had he employed t?u>to; instead of«?%„, his meaning would then have been ambiguous*; as the former is often applied to signify superiority in rank, * An instance of the ambiguity, to which the word t^toj is liable, may be seen in Irenaeus, p. 49. where he thus charac- terises / ulentmus ; 'O /xsv yccq w^-to,', utco t«j Xiyofjum^ Tvx~ix.y>i 'c/a:---:-/::, rtx,; ao^ci; uq 'wiov ^cc^a-/.TriPCi. dWacrxa/UiOi/ jj.i^a,^jxoo-xi; avrui i^noo^-j^Tvr This last word has occasioned much uncer- tainty among the critics. It appears to me, however, to be genuine, and to convey a happy idea. Our Lord assured his disciples, that unless a man abideth in him, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, Ef«gav0»j, John, chap. xv. 6. According to this figure, Irenaeus represents Valentinus as tearing his doc- trines from the stem of Christ, and transplanting them into his own nursery ; where, being now deprived of the nutritious sap, communicated to them by the parent tree, they withered and became fit only for the fire. Tertullian has a fine passage against the heretics, founded on the same metaphor. He con- ceives himself coming into the vineyard of Christ, and discover- ing Apelles, Marcion, and Valentinus, like thieves in the night, busied in breaking down the trees, stopping up the fountains, and removing the hedges ; and then accosts them, Qui estis ? Quan- do et unde venistis ? Quid in meo agitis ? Quo denique jure, Marcion, Silvam meamccedis? Qua licentia, Valentine, fontes meqs transvertis ? Qua potestate limites meos commoves? Quid hie, caeteri, ad voluntatem vestram, seminatis et pascitis ? p. 215. C. K 3 $34 as well as priority, in respect of time : but as be has employed the latter, his meaning cannot, without the grossest perversion, be evaded or misconstrued. Our evangelist not only asserts, that the Baptist was the first, who announced the appearance of our Saviour, but he alsq cites the prediction of a Jewish prophet, to prove, that he was the person appointed to discharge this honourable office. "The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ — was John ; as it is written, I send my mes- senger, before thy face, who shall prepare thy way in thy presence." The words s/xTrgoo-OEv aov, which I render, in thy presence, or in thy view, do not belong to the original prophecy, but are inserted by the historian, as explanatory of the clause ff?0 wfunnew «*> - before thy face ; intimating that the fore- runner of the Messiah, when sent to apprize the Jews of his coming, was, in conformity to ancient prophecy, to proclaim him, at the period of his actual appearance, and not sooner. Thus decisively does the evange- list Mark hold up the story of Jesus being pointed out by the Magi, at his birth, as a falsehood *. * It is but justice to my argument, as well as to the discern- 135 On the supposition, that the tale was true, Mary must then have understood, that her Son would ascend the throne of David, and that he would hold, as the Messiah, an un- limited empire ; Luke i. 32 — 36. As this ment of others, to acknowledge, that I am not the first, who has observed that Mark represents the baptism of John as the begin- ning of the gospel. The Rev. Mr. Pope, of Manchester, in his letters to Mr. Nisbett, has the following observation, p. 138, " Mark does not merely omit the miraculous conception, but expressly calls the event of Christ's baptism, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ ; a phrase which certainly he would not have used, if he had known of any other important event con- cerning Jesus Christ prior to this." Theophilact, I remember, to whose comment I have not an immediate access, considered the evangelist as declaring, that John the baptist was the first, who announced our Lord ; and thus places my argument in even stronger light than is done by Mr. Pope. But it is of greater importance to observe, as we learn from Origen, that such of the ancient heresiarchs as rejected the miraculous conception, alleged the testimony, which Mark, in this very place, bore against it. Hence, that learned man put this question, in re- ference to Simon Magus and his followers : As John, they ima- gine, taught (another God) the Creator of the world, how can he be, as they will hare it, the beginning of the go/pel ? iLo j Swoltou a%xv siva* ivyytXiov, u; uvroi otovTUt, Com. vol. 11. p. 1 4. It was in reference to the above impostors, who rejected the authority of the Old Testament, that the same writer says, Our emngelift appeals to the Jewish prophets, as the proper origin of the gospel. *0 Mo^ko; (p*mv" A^i) tov ivuyytKiov 'yijauv Iwou %f<5"W» Wj>' yiygwTrlty iv Ha-ccix tw ir$o from the structure of the things that are seen, but also> That all perfect intel- lectual system existing* as the combined effect of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, in the divine mind, and of which the external world, is but an imperfect imitation. In order to explain and justify my meaning, I shall translate one paragraph from Origen, and another from Philo. The former of these, in his Commentaries on John. p. 19, thus writes, " The Logos existed, in the first principle, that ail things might be made agreeably to wisdom, and those ideal mo- dels, comprehended by him. For, I am of opinion, that as a house is built, or a ship fabricated, according to those archetypes, which the artist has in his mind, so all things are framed, in conformity to those forms, which the Deity pre-or- dained as the originals' of those to be cre- ated." The latter has a passage to this effect, in his Treatise De Mundi Opificio: 1$$ "The Deity, as such, foreseeing, that rio- thing fair could be done without a fair pattern, and that no sensible object would be perfect, unless wrought after some arche- typical and ideal form, on having deter- mined to create this visible world, precon* certed an intellectual one, in order, that using this immaterial, and diviner world, he might execute that, which is material as a younger image taken from an elder, comprehending in it the several sensible kinds, contained in the other*. After illustrating this assertion with great richness of thought and language, in the case of art architect, he presently concludes, with saying, that the being, in whom this perfect ideal system resided, was the divine Logos, who gave to external things the beautiful forms of symmetry and proportion, and that it might be deemed no other than the Logos himself \. Now as this intellec- * n^oXa/Sav o °soj, '«T£ Seoj, oxt fHfjivy-Oi kxXqv ovx. olv Tore ytvcuro Kutov ^xx T«j*^'7/*aT0j, ov^i t* tuv aKrOnruv a,wxxi~ioi, ogxroy toi/tov KOtrpov art/jLtov^yrxrcci, 7r°G£%zTUKov rov voyitov, wx XSUm pavo; ra> cur ui pari xoa ■jioudsrctTu 7ra§K^£ty|uatTt tov a-tiifji.«,rtKov rov- %ovtoi «iwto ysvi?, btjxnrz^ ev ckhvu voryrx' Vol. i. p. 4. 160 tual system, of which the visible creation is a representation, received the title of Logos, It was natural, in a philosophic disciple of. Moses, of whom he had learnt the doctrine^ to apply it to that moral dispensation*, deli- vered on mount Sinai, which was designed to raise the rational part of nature to a con- formity with the divine model, and to extend the same appellation, when become a convert, to the religion of Jesus, which he necessarily considered as only the devc- lopement and perfection of the Mosaic Institutions. And this, upon enquiry, we shall find to have been fact. My assertion* however, is not to be admitted, without proof. Permit me, then, to show, by a variety of examples, that the apostolic writers extended the term Logos, expressive of the works of God, as existing in full per- tm Xu?a-V ektoj ova. nxv,r «XX« rjitrQgayiro rn rov ts^vjtou 4^$i tov ctvjov rmToi oVot o zx. rosy iohiiv xoctjuo,- ccWov ovk av i%oi. n tov Ssjov ~\oyov tov TV.VTCc cnx.x.oo'jjmcrciyix^ p. 4. — AffXoi tfs or* '« aj^ETUTo? ir^aayij, o» Qcijj.zv uvea xocjuoj' voitov, csuro; a» un to «££- ftvzoi cro;s a6iiyij.it., loicc rut miCbff o 9tiAi X&yo,", p. 5. * Philo considers the term Logos as synonimous with the law ef Moses: and when he spenks of him as a divine messen« get, he often calls him by no other name than Vs;o$ tap6?, or 5eio.- ?.',yc,-, or y.oyoc &*£ This is particularly the C3se, when he allegorises the law of Moses. 16) lection, in his mind, to the christian sy stent, it being the appointed instrument of exalting mankind from the corruptions, into which they are sunk, by sin and bad passions, into a resemblance of their high original ; and that, when thus extended, they still pre- served its former personification. In John, our Lord speaks thus, " If any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not ; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and recciveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him, the word (Logos) that I have spoken, the same (Logos) shall judge him in the last day ;" chap. xiL 47 — 49. The term Logos, or word, as our translators render it, means here, be- yond dispute, the gospel, or the message, which Jesus communicated from God to the human race. But it is represented, in this place, not merely as a message, but as a messenger, and invested not only with the qualities of a man, but with the office and dignity of a judge. A similar use, and personification of the christian doctrine, occur in the Epistle VOL. II. m 162' to the Hebrews; cliap. iv. 12, 13. "The Logos of God is alive and active, and pierc- ing beyond any two-edged sword, and penetrating, so as to separate between life and death, between joints and marrow, and is a judge of the meditations and thoughts of the heart; and there is no creature con- cealed from him, but all things are bare, and laid open before the eyes of him, with whom we have to do." The meaning of Logos, in this passage, is evidently the same, as in the former ; and it exhibits a similar kind of prosopopoeia. In both instances, the gospel is described under the figure of him, who shall judge the world and pass upon the different characters of men, a final decision *. The latter per- sonification, is probably taken from the for- mer. The apostle thus expresses h\mse\f,Actsx,36: * Though the term Logos here means the christian doc- trine represented under the figure of a judge, yet, it cannot be doubted, but that it is thus employed by our Lord, and his apostle, in reference to its original use, in expressing the supreme wisdom, or intelligence. In this sense, it is applied and personified by Philo, in the following passage : 'O &«>>- Acyos o%vci££Ktrct7o; tci 'w? irctvrx i$ooa,v twoa 'jxavo;, p. O,3, -*''c divine Logos, has that all pervading sight, which is able to be~ hold every object. 163 (t The Logos, whom God hath sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace, through Jesus Christ this (Logos) is the Lord of all." Which verse, it is clear, asserts the convic- tion of the apostle, that the gospel was not to be confined, as he previously supposed, to the Jewish nation, but to be extended to the gentiles, whose assent it was to com- mand, by the evidence of its divine author- ity, and whose lives it was to regulate, by its precepts and motives. This is the meaning of the word, in the above passage : Its per- sonification is no less obvious ; as it is des- cribed, under the idea of a man preaching peace, and of a sovereign holding dominion, over all Others*. * The same observation holds good in this, as in the pre- ceding instance. Logos, in its primary import, signifies those attributes of God, which created, which govern, and preserve the universe. It expresses, therefore, the properties of a being, who, in the strictest sense, is" the Lord of all. Philo often uses ir, to denote the divine attributes ; and, what is remarkable, he always uses it in a personified sense. Thus, he says, that the Logos was the illustrious instrument, by which the Supreme Being made the heavens and the earth. Ta Ti^avsrccTcp x«» TtXawyefosTM Ixvrov Aoyu aju.^ccrsja zkoiu, p. 44» ^n an°thejT place, he savs of him, At bv o-vp'rrcc,^ y.o enjoys that life, of which God alone, with- out the instrumentality of others, is the giver. See Col. i. 16, 18, John iv. 9. The reason, moreover, may hence be as certained, why our Lord is entitled the Son of God, this being synonimous with Logos; and both being alike applied by those, who comprehended the internal signification, of the law of Moses, to express the intellectual xoorld. Hear the words of Philo, whose eyes were illumined by the light, which was reflected to Egypt from the college of fishermen, in Galilee : " This sensible world, is the ijounger son of God, the elder of which he calls the model, that being the 175 intellectual son*". To this son, our author gives the name of Logos, as appears from the following passage : " Earth, water, air, fire, and all things contained in them, whe- ther animate or inanimate, mortal or im- mortal— -these together with the sun, moon, and other stars, which revolve in harmonious courses, in their celestial orbits, are led by their sovereign God, as a flock, by their shepherd, according to an invariable law; he, having placed over them, his Logos, his first-born Son, who, like the viceroy of a great king, will superintend the care of this sacred flock -f-. That by this Logos, * 'O [xtv ya.% Koo-fjioc hvrd? VEWTEgoj wo; Ssou, ars cuo$yito$ uv9 to* yag wg£<7/2yTEgov tovtov tdEav e*we, vomoq ds EKEivoj, 7rgs ds K^iu.'0-ag, wag lau to xa,TUpvjziv diEvo^E, p. 298. •f KaSawsg yag T»va woj/av«v, ynv xai vd\yg xat ajga xat wug, xea Icra, fy rowou; (pvroc. te a.v x.ui face, rcc ju,ev Svnra ra d£ Ssia, sti ds ougavov tyvaw, km 'riKuyj xxi trsAwnc WEgtocbuj, kcu twv cxXkuv aj-sgw T§owaj te av xon x°?iiciS EvagjiAovjoy,-, w; ffoipm xcci j3a..y,i v?-:° AyysXou? ovroc, vuvruv oi y.-j^nvovra., kou Xgij-ov A:yscr2ca, rov E>t=;v rov 'r^toyivov tu tov koo'u.ou vatr^if ff&ga*- ■kXyitu x^7^01'1 TiXuurtx.ru vnv c/.oirnv vn>y ?:°oi re. a •j.vr,-ix.v a,jj.«.srn- (j.aTuv xxu p^ogrjyiay affiovuTX-uv a/ya&uv, p. 637. Nothing appears to me more certain than that the Son of God, here spoken of, means our Lord Jesus Christ. For who else can answer to such a description, as we see in this place given of him ? He is said to be the Son of the universal Father; to be perfect in virtue ; to be the Comforter, by whose medita- tion we may obtain the pardon of our sins, and the richest gifts. Could the author connect such ideas as these with the word, if, as is supposed, he really meant the world? What ltd learned men to this absurd acceptation of Fhilo's meaning, is their inattention to the circumstance, that he, and the apos- tles, applied to our divine Lord, as the grand instrument of carrying into completion, the moral government of God, the very term, which designated that government as existing in 177 Compare with this what is said in chapters fifth and sixth of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and you will perceive the sentiments of the Judaizing christian, equally conspicu- ous in both instances. Let us however proceed, full perfection, in the divine mind, Hence we see the grounds, which Celsus had for the following declaration ; Speaking of the christian advocates, he says, " They call him (Christ) the Son of God, because the ancients gave that title to the world, which was made by God ;" p. 308. This assertion, I main- tain, is founded in truth. But the reply, which Origen makes to it, is very unsatisfactory. No analogy can be pointed out, that would justify a person in ancient or in modern times, in apply- ing to Jesus a term, which denotes the sensible system of things : But when we reflect, that the word Aoyoj was used to denote the intellectual all perfect system, of which the visible world is but an imperfect reality, we see no reason to object against this name being transferred to the chief instrument, under God, of raising the imperfect reality to the perfection of the original pattern. This appears to me a sufficient reason for calling him the Logos, though not the Son of God ; but the ground of the lat- ter appellation is to be sought, T conceive, in the declaration of God himself. See Psalm ii. Mat. iii. 17. xvii. 6. And as the terms ?,oyo; and ojoj, hence became synonimous, being alike descriptive of our Lord, as the Saviour of the world, the latter began to be applied by a retrograde process to the original sig- nification of the former : and thus lio; Qtov as well as \oyo;> came to mean the ideal or inr/-!lectual world, in confirmation of this, it may be observed, tint this appellation was not, I believe, given to the material world, by any philosopher before Philo, who was educated in the christian school ; though Plato, indeed, his supposed master, frequently calls it by the names of tx.yovGy and jugvo') sv»i;. VOL. II. N 178 The same illustrious writer thus de- scribes the divine Logos : " It is a super- celestial constellation, the fountain of the visible stars, which one might not impro- perly call the universal light, whence the sun, the moon, the planets, and stars de- rive their lustre *." This description is the very same as is given of the Logos, in the New Testament. Thus, for instance, it is described in the following verse : The Lo- gos is that true light, which lighteth every man coming into the worlds" Here the true light eixn^-m (p»s means, what Philo calls the universal archetypical, or intellectual light, of which the brightness of sensible light, is but an image, and that a very imperfect one. It is called the true light, because it is the light which exists in the divine mind; and, therefore, the most conform- able to truth and reality. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, uses the, term a\i8ms trite in this yery sense, as he applies it to express what he calls heavenly tilings, * Toy oi xosxrov kva ionro$ S'siov \oyov, uxovx Siov A?y£t* x«t Tavrri<; w.wx. to vowtov $w; iKVvov, I Vuov Xoyoy ytyoviv ukuv tou ^t^ju-yivEuo-aKTOS tw yttiw avrcv, xxi e$-i up 'n; o ' riXic,- ac/A ':i .»Taii ar.Kv.j-tt, Vol ii. 64. 3NT2 180 world, as contemplated by the all-seeing eyes of God : Nor is this the only place, where the Logos is represented under the notion of that Original light, which surpasses, in brightness, the light of the sun. Our » Lord, when transfigured, assumed a rai- ment white like snow, exceeding white, so that 7to fuller on earth can whiten; Mark ix. 3. By this, it was his object, to convey a sublime idea of that lustre, which, in the character of the Logos, he possessed, and which, he was to reflect to the human race. It was the same lesson that, he impressed on the mind of Saul, when he appeared to him, on his journey to Damascus, with a splendor transcending the light of the sun ; Acts xxvi. 13. The following words of John ; Rev. xxi. 23. are, in this respect, deserving of particular notice. Speaking of the new Jerusalem, which he saw coming down from heaven, he says, " And, the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it : For the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." Here it is insinuated, that those men, who shall constitute the new world, accomplished by the gospel, will be so far raised above sensible things, as not to need the light of the natural sun, and rendered IS1 so pure and intellectual, as to enjoy that luminary alone, which is the parent of sensible light. By the Lamb, therefore, our author means the Logos, or the intellec- tual sun ; and by the new Jerusalem, he signifies, that complete community, which corresponds to the ideal world, existing in the divine contemplation. I shall here only remark, that, we may hence see the reason, why the gospel is every where described in the New Testament, under the figure of light. It is represented by this pleasing image, because the very title is affixed to it, which, . in its original acceptation, expresses light, and that light which is most pure and perfect. Let us now collect the several senses, which the apostolic writers connected with the term Logos. It is made by them, we have seen, to signify, the wisdom, power, and goodness of God, as displayed in the creation and preservation of the world ; — the perfect ideal system of things, of which the universe is but an imperfect image ; — the christian dispensation, as being the great instrument, of raising mankind to a similitude with their divine Model ; and N3 182 lastly, the founder of Christianity himself, when spoken of, as the Messenger of hea- ven, and not in respect to his personal nature. All these significations have an obvious affinity to each other ; and the word may convey either, or all of them, as it might suit the purpose of the writer. With this latitude, as appears to me, it is em- ployed by the evangelist John, in the introduction to his gospel. This we now proceed to examine and explain ; remarking, however, first, that he wrote it in opposi- tion to the Gnostics. This is a fact attested by some of the fathers, and we shall pre- sently see, that it is founded in truth. He has, nevertheless, not confined himself to them, but applied his terms with such comprehension, as not only to expose the tenets of those, who corrupted the purity of Christianity, but also to refute the objections made to its truth by unbelievers. " In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God : This was in the beginning with God." The Gnostics maintained, that Nous, or 183 Mono genes *, and not the Logos, was m the beginning, or, as it might be rendered, in the first principle ; and that Charts, Ennaa, or Sige, alone existed with God. But the Evangelist says, that the Logos, was in the first principle f ; that the Logos was with * According to the Valentinians, Logos did not proceed from the Supreme God, but from Monogenes, whom they stiled tyx*) or Pi£a volvtuv' AictSo^evov 11 tov Movoyanv toutov, e^ ci? wjoE/3\rs9»7, 7rgo{2o!.\siv kva auTov Aoyov Ktx,t Zwnv, xart^oc xocvruv tuiv j.itTU avTOv scrofjLtvtiiv aai agxw, Iren. p. 8. •f- The ancient philosophers often used the term Afx», not rrierely to express the beginning of time, but also, the first principle, or the primary cause, of all things. The Pytha- goreans employed it as synonimous with Mova?. Hence Macrobius says of it,Hsec Monas initium finisque omnium, nee ipsa Principii aut finis sciens ad summum refertur Deum. From the pagan philosophers, the Gnostics, and other early christians borrowed the word a§%vj in the same sense. Thus they called the Deity u^x* cuuvtav, avc^x* $lfei ^X*1 a?Xwl'» and the like. See Irenasus, p. iq. In the same signification, the Evangelist appears to me, to employ the term ; and this is •the opinion of the ancient commentators. Take, for example, the words of Chrysostom ; Horn. ii. on John, p. 563. To yx% iv agx*1 1" °vSev ete^ov sr», uXXtx, v rov wa.i ecu ^rikoiriKW, xou cctte^ui; avou' a yctg 0eo,- ej-* cwc"7r£gouv x.aci Eft" ovdiv tt^o ccvtqv* u ow^ovgyo; ffKVTWV, 7T^WTOJ CCVTO;' £t d,E(7'7rOT«J, X.0C.I TO) (>K>S OLWOiVTW, ITOLVTOl, JU.STOS u yivtins — v\n; vtyovov ovdiv gt§a»pnw, Vid. Orig. Con. Celsum, p. 137. 204. On the con- trary, as it came from a Being, free from the corruptibility of matter, it must participate of his own incorruptible nature. And this is implied, and, I think, intended, in the assertion, that the Logos was God or divine. That superiority to, or exemption, from death, is the principle idea, conveyed in the term $eoj, I shall have occasion to shew hereafter. •j- Nymenius, a perpatetic philosopher, subsequent to the times of Jesus, seems to have had an allusion to this etymology : 189 often iised, as synonimous with the latter, XllUS Ongeil SayS, to owy-ix, tov Seou n ovojuo. to-j ay«9ou* Contra Celsum, p. 19. John then asserts, that the Logos, or the christian doctrine, like its great Author, was good, and not, as its enemies maintained, the occasion of evil. It is the same calumny, which Philo, perhaps designs to repel, when he says of the Logos, that it is the fountain of what is TCaLllJ gOOCl, 'n wnyri Tvy%av;i too srgo? aX^Setav ccytzQov' " All things were made by him, and without him was nothing made that was made." The first Gnostics maintained, that Nous or Monogencs, was the author of all things ; whilst a different branch of them supposed, that the world was formed by an inferior demon, called Demurgus. In opposition to each of these, the Evangelist asserts, that the Logos created all things, and for he stiled a book, in which he enquired, concerning the immaterial God, , or the God of the Jews, ke^ rov xguQou' See Orig.Con.Celsum, p. 13. I cannot here help quoting a very pertinent passage from Philostratus in his life of Apollonius, where he is represented, as thus speaking, of the Author of the world, cO Xoyoj ds ty>; fjiiv ruiv oXuiy yivanuig te kcu ovirnx.^ -jeo» ^njutot'iyov owsv* tou d= 'z^v^Y^r^ocl tcivtcc, amov, to ayaOov stva* avxov* tmi toivuv >$ km , undfoin inch proofs as these: The words of Julian arc in the sixth book of Cyril. 195 7 In him was life, and the life was the light of men." According to the impostors, life proceed- ed from Mono genes, and not from the Logos. This John contradicts, and he here asserts, that life was contained in him, and proceeded from him. Life was in the Logos : because it comprehends that divine power, which animates and supports all things. And this life is the light of men, or as it ought to be rendered, of the hunidn race; because it enlightens them, respecting subjects of the first magnitude and import- ance : Such as thv existence, the attributes, and providence of God, and the certainty of a future state of retribution. "And the light shone in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not." Light shines in the night with greater lustre than in the day; because, in the. first case, it is contrasted and heightened by the surrounding gloom ; while the superior splendor of the sun, serves only to absorb and eclipse it. Just so was it with the light of the gospel, on its first appearance. It o 2 196 shone amidst the moral darkness, in which mankind were involved with all the bright- ness of a great light in a dark place, and yet the darkness did not receive its illumination. By the clause, and the darkness did not compre- hend it, the author insinuates, that the efful- gence, which the gospel diffused, was too dazzling to be perceived by those eyes, which had never before been accustomed to such a light, and which had been rendered dim by gross ignorance and superstition. It is worthy of remark, however, that the use of xa«a.«£E, on this occasion, seems to have been taken from an expression of Jesus addressing the Jews : " And he said unto them, yet a little while, the light is with you. Walk, therefore, while ye have the light, lest the darkness apprehend you ;" As if he had said, " You are seeking to seize me, and you will soon succeed in your attempt. But as you reject the light, which I communicate, darkness will in its turn, seize you" *. Chap. xii. 35. * The word xxteXk/je is certainly used in this place, as it ofttn is by Philo, and all other succeeding ecclesiastical writers, to signify the perception of that intellectual light, which addres- ses the mind, in the same manner as the sensible light is perceived by the eye of the body. Thus the same author says, " Vice exists in various forms; and therefore is known to the 197 The above passage, John, I conceive, has here in his mind; and hence says, "The enemies of jfesus arrested hi?n, indeed, but they did not arrest * the divine light, which shone in him." " And a man was sent of God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness to bear witness of the light ; that all through him might believe ; that man was not the light but came to bear witness of the light." By the darkness, which did not arrest the light, our Evangelist meant, in particular, the Jewish rulers, who had rejected and many ; but virtue is rare, and on that account can be discerned {KmotX;;vo,-, ex. c-TTo^aoo,- v\vc, 'm xow xekXiwev, ETayn dto tov y.tv ov°ainov Qvtiv ov -mrXxo-QyA, ■A.a.-ia. stxeva 0% TiTVTixr&m vsou" tox 0 = y t\%tu», aU« ov yEvvnjua ejvcu tou te^vitou, p. 49. 205 if properly attended to, would lead us fully to understand the object of our Evangelist : For he represents the Logos descending on Jesus, or, in his own words, becoming flesh, in the same manner, as the intellectual prin- ciple, was supposed to descend upon Adam, after he had been previously formed into a perfect man. But he not only assures us, that Jesus became flefh; but he refers to the period, when they had an ocular demon- stration of this fact : I mean, to his trans- figuration on the mount, the object of which was to exhibit, by an external symbol, the evanescence of the Mosaic institutions, and the splendor, which he would attain to, after finishing his course *. Be it farther observed, * The object of the transfiguration, in my opinion, was not only to confirm the faith of his disciples in him as the Messiah, but also to give them a sensible representation of the change, which Jesus was to undergo, by his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension into heaven ; and what they least expected, to teach them that the law of Moses was to be super- ceded by the gospel. When he was transfigured, we read that his face shone as the sun, and his raiment became white as snow. Then appeared with him Moses and Elias ; and immediately a voice was heard, sayine, This is my beloved Son, in zchom 1 am well pleased, hear ye him. That is, This my son, and not Moses, you are to obey, for the future, as your legislator. The history then adds, And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only. On this circumstance rested the application of the scene. The Jewish legislator unexpectedly disappeared, and the christian lawgiver, to whom they were 206 (hat the historian contradicts, in direct and positive terms, the notion that the Logos was not the same with the Monogenes, and that he did not descend from the supreme God. " And we have seen his brightness — a brightness like that of the Monosenes from the Father *." You will remark, finally, that God is here represented, under commanded to yield obedience, remained. This scene was to be realized in his resurrection, and in the glorious change, which was then to take place, in his person and condition. And this seems to have been the reason, why they were not to di- Vulge it, till that event had been fulfilled. See Mat.xvii. * It is added, full of grace and truth, or reality, That is, the gracious Logos, or the divine power, wisdom, and good- ness of God, as implied in that term, became united with a real man, and not a man, in appearance, as was maintained by the deceivers; Th^t this is the rea! meaning of the term b&dOemb is evident from the circumstance, that it is the very word, which the early writers uniformly employ, when opposing those, tvho pretended, that Jesus was a mere F /twit ami, cr a spirit, in the form of a man. Thus the author of the spurious letter of Ignatius to the Trallians, when speaking in opposition to those, who said, that he was a human bein^, &>x.txre», ^awwcw, arra.-vv,, or that he was 'xc-avTo; uvj^ui-o;, annexes the adverb 'a/.- truth, or a,V,9»vi>j, or the noun estaj0»o}, no less than sixteen times in the compass of two short chapters. Sec the ninth and truth. Tertullian, in his book De Carne Christi, uses the corresponding term Veritas, very frequently, in reference tr> the same notion. See, for instance, chapter sixteen, where it is opposed to similitude or imago corporis. The same heretical tenet is refuted by Origen in several places, as in his 14th and 17th Homilies on Luke. 20? the amiable character of a Father. By winch he insinuates, that, so far from being un- concerned about the works of his hands, as those Epicurean christians maintained, he exercises parental affections, towards his off- spring ; and, instead of leading an indolent existence in a dark and distant retirement, he resides in the midst of that brightness, which is the fountain of life and happiness to all created things. " And out of his fulness we all have received even favour instead of favour. For the law was given by Moses ; the favour and the reality of it came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God, at any time, but the Monogenes (the only begotten) who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath revealed him." The sacrifices and types, which composed the external institutions of Moses, were understood, by our Ford, and his apostles, to contain under them, some hidden, truths to be developed, under the christian dispensation. The former, therefore, were considered, as constituting the shadow, while the latter formed the reality of those symbols; and this reality, our Evangelist expresses, 208 as is usually done, by the term «x«iyifj truth*. Hence we may discover, in the above paragraph, much beauty and pro- priety. He asserts, on the one hand, contrary to the opinion of the Egyptian Gnostics, the unity of the christian system with the law of Moses ; and, on the other, he maintains, in opposition to the Jews, the superiority of the gospel to Judaism. I shall conclude this explanation, with a few general observations, which may farther confirm and illustrate the truth and justice of it. First ; It is evident, that the description, which the Evangelist gives of the gospel in the introduction, carries an allusion to the account given of the creation by Moses ; * This use of the term a.\r&na. is as common as that in the preceding note. Thus Plutarch, speaking of the Egyptian mysteries and fables, writes, ay.v$%e&s tjxio to assert, the intimate connection, which subsisted between the Jewish dispensation,, and the christian ; and also, the subser- viency of the former, to the latter. For the Egyptian impostors, we have seen, in- sisted, that the Mosaic system, came from a Christ, which was different from the founder of Christianity ; or, in their own words, the Christ, that ascended, was not the same with him, who again descended. What more likely method could be adopted, to tear up, by the roots, such an absurd notion, than to describe the gospel by that title, which ex- presses both the internal wisdom of the Jewish law, and the attributes of that God, who delivered it to Moses ? The historian, thirdly, had in view, to anticipate the objec- tions, made by unbelievers, to the resurrec- tion of the body. By giving the gospel a name, which expresses the infinite power, wisdom, and goodness of God, he would lead us to conclude, that however improbable, and contrary to experience and observation, but improperly applied. This being settled, St. John's design, in my opinion, is to teach us, that the same wisdom, which first formed the world of creatures, with such admirable art, has shined out, no less in the riew moral creation. The thought is truly noble, and conveys a grand idea of the gospel. 211 the resurrection of the human bocty may appear, it is, by no means, an incredible event, since the very Being, who has pledged him- self to accomplish its re-organization, is the same with him, who at first organised and animated it. The Logos, who has pro- mised to restore life to man, when taken away, is no other, than he, who at first gave it. In believing, then, that we shall be raised, into a new state of being, when the present is no more, we believe, the solemn assurance of one, who promised again to do a thing similar to what he hath already proved him- self both able and willing to perform*. * It is well known to those, who have any acquaintance with the writings of the fathers, that, in removing the objections of the pagan philosophers to the resurrection, they have recourse to this conclusion, which is inculcated by the Evangelist, as an argument in favour of that event. See, for instance, Justin Martyr's Apology, chap. 25. also Tatian, page 24. The reasoning of Theodoref, on this subject, is so like what has been said above, that 1 cannot help annexing some of his words. He speaks in reference to the heretics who denied the resurrec- tion of the body : " They think that, as it was impossible to God, at first to have created, without matter, so he is by no means able to restore the body, into its former structure, after it has been dissolved, consumed by time, and changed into a few ashes. They, indeed, allow that God formed' man of one clod of earth : They ought therefore to conclude, that, as the universal author easily changed a piece of clay into a human P2 212 Secondly ; The express design of the christian doctrine was to improve us, and make us partakers of a divine nature. This grand design, we have reason to believe, it will finally accomplish. Evil will gradu- ally be diminished, by means of its benign influence, till it shall at length be completely excluded from the divine government ; and every human being, whether living or dead, be rescued at some period or other, from sin and all its penal consequences, so as to be perfectly assimilated to the image of his Maker. Now this is the animating pros- pect, which the inspired penman places before us, when he exhibits the gospel under that term, which had been used to signify the world as it exists in the all-comprehend- ing mind of God. Viewing natural and moral causes, as terminating in their remot- est effects, he boldly ascribes every appear- ance, denominated good or evil, to the sole agency of the Great Supreme ; and carried away, on the wings of inspiration, beyond the boundaries of sensible things, he fixes body, and of it wrought the numerous and various members, so it is equally easy for him to fabricate anew, out of its small remains, the frame of the body-^-For it is extreme folly to discredit (as impracticable.) a thingsimilar to what we see ; especially when the promise of God is engaged to the perform* ance of it." Hard, fabul. Lib. v. p. 443. Discourse ig, 213 his attention on that divine community, which coalesces with the ideas of Him, who seeth the end from the beginning ; — a com- munity enlightened by a luminary, of which the splendor of the sun is but a faint imaga, and of which every man, however debased, at present, by vice and ignorance, is to be- come a member, after being raised to moral purity and intellection *. * I cannot help here placing before my reader, what Hartley says on this important subject. His ideas, in my opinion, not only coincide, but are the same with those of the Apostles ; " As the enlargement of our capacities enables us thus to take off the edge of our pains, by uniting them with the subsequent superior pleasures, so it confers upon us more and more the power of enjoying our fnture pleasures, by anticipation, by extending the limits of the present time, i.e. of that time, in which we have an interest. For the present time, in a metaphysical sense, is an indivisible moment ; but the present time, in a prac- tical sense, is a finite quantity of various magnitudes, accord- ing to our capacities, and beginning from an indivisible mo- ment in all, seems to grow on indefinitely in beings, who are ever progressive in their passage to an eternal life." " Suppose now, a being of great benevolence, and enlarged intellectual capacities, to look down upon mankind, passing through a mixture of pleasures and pains, in which, however, there is a balance of pleasure, to a greater balance of pleasure perpetually, and at last to a state of pure and exalted pleasure, made so by association r It is evident, that his benevolence to man will be the source of pure pleasure to him, from his power of uniting the opposite sensations, and of great present pleasure from his power of anticipation. And the more we sup- pose the benevolence and capacities of this being enlarged, the P 3 214 This glorious representation, indeed, is not communicated in direct and unequivo- greater and more pure will his sympathetic pleasure be, which arises trurn the contemplation of man. It follows, therefore, that in the ( y i of an infinite mind, creatures conducted, as we think, according to the third of the foregoing suppositions, are conducted according tothesecond, and these accordingto thefirst, or in other words, that the first, second, and third, of the forego- in?, suppositions, are all one and the same (that is, that all men are infinitely happy) in the eye of God. For all time, whether past, present, or future, is present time in the eye of God, and all ideas coalesce into one to him ; and this one is infinite happiness, with- out any mixture of misery, viz. by the infinite prepollence of happiness above misery, so as to annihilate it ; and this merely by considering time, as it ought to be considered in strictness, i. e. as a relative thing, belonging to beings of finite capacities, and varying with them, but which is infinitely absorbed in the pure eternity of God. Now the appearance of things to the eye of an infinite being, must be called their real appearances in all propriety. And though it be impossible for us to arrive at this true way of conceiving things perfectly, or directly, yet we shall approach nearer and nearer to it, as our intellectual capacities, benevolence, devotion, and the purity of our happiness, depending thereon, advance : and we seem able, at present, to express the real appearance, in the same way as mathematicians do ultimate ratios, to which quantities ever tend, , and never arrive, and in a language, which bears a sufficient analogy toother expressions that are admitted. So that now, we may, in some sort, venture to maintain that, which seemed, at first sight, not only contrary to obvious experience but even impossible, viz. that all individuals are actually and always infinitely happy. And thus all difficulties relating to the divine attributes, will be taken away. God will be infinitely powerful, knowing, and good, in the most absolute sense, if we consider things as they appear to him. And surely, in all vindications of the divine attributes, this ought to be the light, in which we are to consider things. We ought to suppose 215 cal terms. The reason seems to be, that mankind were not, at the time, prepared to receive it. And it is from their incapacity, in this respect, we are, as it appears to me, ourselves in the centre of the system, and to try, as far as we are able, to reduce all apparent retrogradations to real progres- sions." Observations on Man, Prop. 103^.324,325. This sublime and delightful representation, I again assert, is implied in the doctrine of the Logos above explained. The intellectual system of animated and rational things existed, in full perfection, in the divine mind ; though the sensible system, formed on the model of it, is yet imperfect, but advances,, nevertheless, from one degree of perfection to another, till at length it coalesces with its great original. Does not this imply, that man is capable of continually rising from inferior to superior pleasure, till, by association, or mental enlargement, he attains, in the end, a happiness, un- mixed with misery ? The grand and principal means of mak- ing the moral world, actually to be, what it appears to be, in the eye of God, is the christian dispensation. To this dispensation, therefore, is given the title of Logos, — which denotes the world in its original and archetypical perfection. And are wfi not hence to infer, that the world, ever present in the divine mind, is that, and no other, which is to be carried to completion by the gospel ; and that, consequently, in respect to him, *' all individuals are actually and always infinitely happy." I cannot help adding, that the simple transfer of the term, which expresses the system, as present with God, to that system, which is to be accomplished by the christian doctrine, enables us to conceive more clearly, and to describe more accurately, than even ultimate ratios are described by mathematicians, how a system, which seen. 3 imperfect to beings of limited views, appears, at all times- perfectly complete to the eye of an all- tomprehendihg intelligence. P 4 21G to account for the darkness and ambiguity, which attend the words of our Lord, when he is speaking of the consummation of the age, and the punishment of the wicked. There are not wanting passages, however, in the apostolical writings, which inculcate the joyful thought, that all the human race shall share together in ultimate and complete feli- city. One or two instances that seem to fa- vour this doctrine, I shall here produce : In Acts, Chap. x. 8 — 17. we thus read : And on the morrow, whilst they were on the road, and were coming near the city, Peter went upon the house top to pray, about ihc sixth hour. And he was hungry, and wished to eat ; but while they were mak- ing ready, he fell into a trance, and saw hea- ven opened, and a kind of vessel, like a large sheet let down, by strings at the four corners, to the earth. In this was every four-footed creature of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And a voice said unto him, Rise, Peter, slay and eat. But Peter said, not so, Sir: For I have never eaten any thing unclean. And a voice, in answer to this, said, a second time unto him: What God hath purified, esteem not thou unclean. And after this had been 217 thrice done, the vessel was taken up again into heaven." It has been already observed, that the four- footed creatures of the earthy wild beasts, and creeping things, and jowls of the air, here spo- ken of, denote the various tribes of men, that were to receive the christian doctrine. Hence we may perceive, the moral instruc- tion, which the vision is intended to convey. It teaches us, that every human being came down from heaven, that is, from the hands of God, a fact which was denied by the here- tics, who ascribed the creation of man, with other things, to an inferior evil principle. It inculcates, farther, that, however men may have debased themselves by sin, they shall, sometime or other, be made clean by their Creator. Observe, moreover, that none of the creatures, which came from heaven to the earth, was left there, but all were taken up again. By which we are to understand I conceive that no man shall finally be left, in a state of debasement and misery, but all will be exalted to the place, where, in a peculiar manner, they may en- joy, the glory and felicity of their Maker. That the moral world shall, in time,, be 213 made perfect, is a doctrine, which may be in- ferred, from many passages, in the New Testament. I select the following, as wor- thy of notice : " I am the beginning and the end;" Rev. xxii. 13. As our Lord is here spoken of in the character of the Lo- gos, the beginning, I take to mean, the archetypical, or ideal zvorld, in the mind of God, while the end, signifies the present visible one, carried, by the christian system, to its consummation. But the beginning, and the end, are One, that, is, the moral world, when consummated, will so approximate, in perfection and resemblance, to its great original, as to become the same with it. The words have an allusion to a circle, where the opposite extremes of the circumference coalesce into, and form but one point *. The following language, of the apostle Paul, presents us with a similar description of the world, as conducted by the divine power: — - " From him, and through him, and unto him, are all things ;" Rom. xi. 36\ * This is precisely the idea, which Clement of Alexandria has connected with this verse. His words are the followingl: Kvy.Xo.; ya.% o avro; (ncrnpe Aoyo;) voia-wv ruv :vii. i3. and also Lightfoot's Illustration. The mother, was, perhaps, instigated by the guests, to solicit the interposition of Jesus ; and her compliance, as it favoured dissipation and inebriety, must have been one ground of the rebuke given her by her Son. 2-34 that were enemies to marriage *, that he did not, as they affected to say, discount- enance such an institution. By turning water into wine, he also conveyed to the company an important moral lesson ; namely, that the drink, he was to administer to them, as their heavenly teacher, would so far exceed what was given them by the scribes and Pharisees, as the juice of the vine surpasses stagnant water. * The impostors, whom the sacred penman had In view, denied the lawfulness of marriage. One object of the gospel ascribed to Philip, was to prove the inexpediency of it, on the authority of our Lord himself. This fact appears, from an ex- tract in Epiphanius, alluded to above, which I shall, in this place, translate: " They deride the conduct of the ascetic sect, who practise chastity, virginity, and other unnecessary absti- nences. They produce a gospel, forged under the name of the holy disciple Philip, where he is made to say, Reveal to me, Lord, what the soul must declare, on her ascent into heaven, and how she must answer each of the heavenly powers. She must say (answers he) I knew myself : I gathered myself on every side, and I did not plant children for Satan ; but {ore up his seeds by the roots, and I gathered together my scattered members. And he (the Lord) adds, I know thee, who thou art; for I am one of those above." The author of this book believed (as all the first Gnostics affected to do) that the human soul, after passing through a variety of corporeal forms, ascended to the original fountain whence it emanated. And this seems to be the meaning of the clause av>iKt\a. ifjMvrnv t«vt«%o9-£v, J collected myself entire from all the different bodies through which I have passed. This tenet savours of the system of Epi- curus, no less than of Pythagoras. I refer to what Horace says in Book i. Od. 16, and Lucretius in his third book. 235? The deceivers, whom the Evangelist has in view, pretended, that Jesus wrought miracles, while he was yet a child, and that he wrought them at Bethlehem. In op- position to this, he next asserts, in effect, that our Lord performed no miracle till after his baptism ; and that the place where he performed the first was not Bethlehem, but Cana of Galilee : this beginning of MIRACLES DID JESUS JN CANA OF GALILEE. But, before we proceed any farther, it is necessary to advert to an ancient book, which, though calculated to throw much light on the New Testament, has been much neglected by learned men; The book, to which I refer, consists of the Recognitions and Homilies, ascribed to Clement of Rome, the friend and com- panion of the Apostles. It is supposed to be the composition of an Ebionite. But, ijf it be meant by that supposition, that the author was one, who believed in the simple humanity of Jesus, it is a false one : For, it is evident, that he consi- dered Christ as having existence before his appearance on the earth. It is to be re- marked, at the same time, that I cannot 2** discover any Hebraisms, or any pointed allusions to Jewish customs in the whole of the work : And this circumstance might lead one to conclude, that, if he were not a gentile, he must have been an Hellenistic Jew, less versed in the Jewish rites and language, than in the Grecian. The question, however, who the writer of it may have been, is of little moment : but it is material to remark, that the production itself is of equal antiquity with the writings of the New Testament. And this fact appears to me, to be capable of the strictest proof. The subject of it, in general, is a detail of the dispute, which Peter had with the Samaritan impostor, in an interview, to which we meet with a reference in the Acts of the Apostles : And the object of it is to expose, and by that means to check, the system, which Simon set up in opposi- tion to the gospel. And, as that system expired with its base author, it follows, as a natural consequence, that the book, the end of which was to overthrow it, was published while it yet flourished. When our Lord appeared as the Messen- ger of heaven, the works, which he was enabled to perform, for the substantiating of 237 his claims, necessarily excited the attention hot only of his countrymen, but of the surrounding nations : Nor was this the only effect which they produced. The bulk of the people, seeing the possibility, and even the reality of a supernatural agency, thus unquestionably displayed, were, in conse- quence, strongly disposed to regard, as real miracles, whatever proceeded from the artifices of Magic. This circumstance gave birth to a swarm of impostors in Rome, and in the provinces ; some of whom, by powers pretended to be delegated by Jesus, endeavoured to imitate ; while others, in more favourable circumstances, boldly rivalled the prophet of Nazareth. Among the number of the latter, Simon Magus held a conspicuous rank. Elevated by ambition, and possessing great genius and learning, he, from the first appearance of Jesus, commenced a system of opposition to him, and rivalship. But what seems chiefly to have embol- dened the hopes, and given a temporary suc- cess to his impious project, was the circum- stance of his belonging to, and of having opened his pretended commission among a nation, who were separated from the Jewilh by religious bigotry, and who disputed with them, the claims of superior privileges. Thus favourably situated the -impostor arro- gated> as was natural, every qualification, in an equal, or greater degree, which distin- guished his divine antagonist. Jesus, as being the only begotten Son, declared, or exhibited in a clear light, his Supreme Fa- ther, who, notwithstanding the law, which he delivered by Moses, and the revelation he made of his will by the prophets, conti- nued still, in many respects, the unknown God *. Simon made a similar pretension^ and, in order if possible to surpass the claims of his rival, maintained that the God, which * This is very concisely and emphatically described by the evangelist John, " The law was given by Moses, but grace and the reality (of the law) is come by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time : The only begotten son, who is in the bosom of the Father — he brought him out to public view." rxsivos sftiyrw-a-io i. 17, i8. The allusion is to a king, who, as the manner was with Eastern princes, had not hithert6 con- descended to shew himself ^to his subjects, and therefore, was unknown to them. The Son, however, who lived among the people brought out the Supreme Father from his retirement, and exhibited him before their eyes. In another place, it is ■written, "No one hath known'the F-ather but the Son ;" Mat. xi. ttj. These representations enabled the impostor to affirm, with some degree of speciousness, thnt there existed a God, hitherto unknown to the Jews. — Ita ergo et Jesus vester alium esse Deum incomprehensibilem et omnibus incognitum fatctur; Recogn. Lib. ii. 47* 239 lie revealed, was not only unknown to the Jews * ; but superior to him, whom they worfhipped. And as our Lord re- ceived the title of the word of God, the im- postor assumed to himself that of the power of God-f. The former, again, while living, assured his disciples, that he, like a fhepherd, would be (truck down by the hand of vio- lence ; and the event corresponded with the prediction. This circumstance, which, for a while, appeared fatal to the christian cause, proved equally auspicious to the interests of Simon : And accordingly, he triumphantly held himself up in opposition to the now prostrated Son of God; as the standing- power of god|. Pretending thus to be * Et Simon ait : Ego dico mulfos esse Deos ; unum tamen esse incomprehensibilem, atque omnibus incognitum,horumque omnium Deorum Deum, Lib ii. $3. In the next section he adds : Ego autem non hunc (i. e. Judaeorum Deum,) sed ilium qui etiam hujus Deus est, quern ne ipsi quidem Judaei norunt : neque enim ipsorum est Deus, sed eorum qui agnoverint eum. f He gave it out that he was the highest power of the' Supreme God : Se esse Virtutem Summam Dei excels!, Lib. i. 72. And the accuracy of the representation, which is thus given of him by the author of the Recognitions, is confirmed by the writer of the Acts ; viii. 10. X In the second Homily, Sec. 22. it is thus said of him: Intei dum vero se Christum significant Stantemrappellat, Earn autem appellati?nem usurpayit, quasi qui exstiturus semper sify no a Divine Being, it was natural in him to set himself forth as an object of divine honours. And these honours, he confidently boasted he should attain. " I shall be addressed as a God," says he, " publicly presented with divine honours, and those, who will set up my images, will worship me, and pray to me ;" See Recogn. Lib. ii. 9. The place where he chiefly hoped to ob- tain this distinction, was the city of Rome, where, as wre shall presently see, he had been before, and where, soon after this, he again directed his steps: To a person who had long been duped by him, but whose eyes were at length opened, he thus says, when attempting to persuade him to accom- pany him to that place, " If you will return with me there, I will send you back loaded with riches, and guarded with many atten- dants :" On his refusing, he adds, " You will repent, when you hear, how glorious I ihall become in the city of Rome ;" See Recogn. Lib. hi. 63. When Christianity was first brought into, nee h3beat corruptionis causam, ut corpore concidat, See als# Clem. Alex. p. 833. tliid preached, in that city, a number of the heathen idols seem to have heen throwri down, hy the mistaken zeal of its friends. Among these was one dedicated to Semo Sanco, a Sabine deity. Simon, on his return, seems to have become acquainted with this circumstance, and availing himself of the similarity of that name to his own, pre- tended that he was the divinity meant by it*. And as the deep-rooted prejudice* which the Roman senate cherished towards the gospel, and its founder, induced them willingly to favour any impostor, who was likely to check the one, or vilify the other, they caused the same or another statue to be erected with the inscription, not, as before, of Semoni Sanco, but of Simojii Ded Sancto. And this appears to be the true solution of a difficulty, which the critics have found, in the following passage of Justin Martyr. Addressing the emperor and senate, he says : " Simon a Samaritan * His artifice, in this respect, is well illustrated by what he pretended concerning the strumpet he led about with him. As she was called Helen, he affected, from the similarity, or rather identity of the two names, that she was the very same with the wife of Menelaus, whose conjugal infidelity occasioned th/5 Trojan war. Irenseus, p. 95. Epiphan. p, 57* VOL, Hi R 242 from toe village of Gitton, who, hi the reign of Claudius, by means of demons working in him, did many magical things, is, in your royal city Rome deemed a God, and is honoured as such, with a statue from you ; which statue had been raised in the river Ty'ber, between the two bridges, having upon it this inscription in Latin,. Simoni Deo Sa?icto*." * St/xajva jjl-.v rivet 'Zciuas-K, To-i «V.:tx%-j tuv Svo yzQvgwv £%i)V iviyga.(pviv Pwjuatxw tavtiiv Sj/xoivj Aeuj EayxTw, Apol. ii. p. 51. chap. 34. As a specimen of the opinion of modern critics, respecting this passage, I will here cite the words of Dr. Middleton, in his Inquiry, p. 40. " Tn his Apology, addressed to the emperor and" senate of Rome, he charges them with paying divine honours to the heretic and impostor, Simon of Samaria, commonly called the magician : and, for the truth of his charge, appeals to a statue then subsisting in Rome, and publicly dedicated to that Simon, in the island of the Tyber, with this inscription; Simoni Deo Sancto, But it is manifest, beyond all reasonable doubt, as some learned men have shewn, that Justin was led here into a gross blunder, by his usual want of judgment and knowledge of Roman affairs, and his preconceived belief of certain fabulous stories, which passed current about this Simon, among the first christ- ians: for the statue and inscription, to which he appeals, were not dedicated to his countryman Simon Magus, of whosedeifica* tion there is not the least hint, in any Roman writer, but to a Sabine deity, of ancient worship in Rome, and oi similar 244 As Christ performed a variety of well- attested miracles, which it ■ was in vain, even for his enemies to deny, Simon had no other way to invalidate the inference that he was the Son of God or the mes- senger of heaven, than by opposing to them a number of pretended miracles of his own : Of his skill in the magical arts, he thus ostentatiously boasts: " I have it in my power to make myself invisible to those, who are desirous of seeing me, and again to be- come conspicuous, when wishing to be visible. If I have a mind to flee, I can perforate mountains, and pass through rocks, as through clay. If I were pre- cipitated from a high mountain, I shall name Semoni Sanco, frequently mentioned by the old writers, as the inscription itself, dug up, about two.centuries ago, from the ruins of that very place, or little island, which Justin describes, has clearly demonstrated." What the writer here asserts, may be very true : And yet, if the explanation above given, be just ; and the justice of it, I shall farther confirm hereafter, it does not at all disprove the testimony of Justin, The statue dug up since was, doubtless, one of the original «nes dedicated to the Sabine deity; while that, which was afterwards raised, in imitation of it, for the honour of Simon, must have mouldered away, in the common ruins. The error, therefore lies with Middleton, and other objectors, and not with Justin Martyr, who knew much more about the matter thaa they did. Rc2 £4* be conveyed unhurt to the ground : Being bound, I can loosen myself, and throw in chains those who enchain me ; fastened in prison, I can cause the bolts to open of their own accord. I can give life to dead statues, so as to be thought by those, who see them, to be men. I will make new trees ' suddenly spring up, and spontaneous shrubs to shoot. Throwing myself into the fire, I shall not burn. I will change my coun- tenance, so as not to be known, and cause myself to be seen with two faces before men. I will become a sheep, or a goat; make the beards of boys to grow ; convey myself with wings through the air; produce" vast treasures ; create kings, and throw them down;" Lib. ii. 9, 16". That he opposed these disgustful tricks to the benevolent works of Jesus Christ, is evident, from the circumstance of his alleging them in his dispute with Peter, , But, notwithstanding the address, with which this and other enemies of truth and virtue opposed the progress of Christianity, he saw it, with its illustrious founder, rising into notice and esteem, while himself and his system were sinking fast into contempt, even among his own countrymen. Being. £±5 enable to check its prevalence by open and direct force, he contrived means cal- culated to undermine it by secret artifice. He pretended himself a convert; and, after disguising his real sentiments, which were those of Epicurus, by pernicious, absurd, and mysterious fictions,, he incorporated them, thus modelled and concealed, with the new faith. But not being content to rank as a disciple, and not able to become the head of the christian church, he main- tained, that the power, which enabled our Lord to perform his miracles, was no other than himself. And, in order to throw a veil of speciousness over such a daring and impious pretension, he feigned, that the Christ was a supernatural being, distinct from the man Jesus ; that, when the latter was seized, and condemned by the Jews, the former flew off, and came and entered into him, so that it was no longer Jesus, but himself, that was to be deemed the Son of God, Here then we see that heavenly religion, whose glory it is to have brought life and immortality to light, tarnished by a sudden union with a vile and impious impos- ture ; and a wretch placing himself at its R 3 24S head, whose principles and practice were (diametrically opposed to its genius. The early fathers are, as has been shewn, unanimous in their testimony, that the Samaritan impostor is the original founder of the Gnostic school. This position, neverthe- less, I attempted to shew to be ill grounded : But the perusal of the works, ascribed to Clement, has convinced me, that the fathers are in the right, and myself, thus far, in an error. Several passages in these, throw much light on this dark and doubtful subject; and, when carefully compared, lead us to conclude, that, the magicians, and the wicked Jew, who occasioned the disturbances in Rome, were but the disciples and associates of Simon Magus ; and that he himself was, probably, in the number of those, who were banished from that city. The author of the Homilies, informs us, that Simon was one of John the Baptist's disciples* : that he went, about the time of his master's apprehenfion by Herod, to Alex- * Johannes quidam exstitit, qui singulis diebus baptizaret, quique Domini nostri Jesus secundum conjugationis rationem, fuit precursor — Porro horum triginta, Johanni primus ac piobatissimus erat Simon : Horn. ii. Sec. 23. 247 zmdria, where he became eminent by the practice of magic. In Alexandria, then, it is probable, he contracted an acquaintance with many of the Egyptian philosophers, and with those Gnostic teachers, who, soon after, rose and flourished in Egypt. Nor can it be deemed unlikely, that he, and some of these should have proceeded, some time after, to the capital of the empire, where impostors no less then men of letters, usually -resorted, and where they were then particularly in- vited, by the devotion of Tiberius to the arts of magic and astrology. If this suppo- sition be just, Simon Magus, and his folr lowers, must have composed, in part, those philologers, whose crimes occasioned the molestation of the Jews and Egyptians iu Italy. Orosjus, Eusebius, Tertullian, and Philo, concur, we have seen, in attesting, that, at the time of the commotions in the city, the emperor published an edict in favour of the christians, and caused it to be sent to the praefects of the provinces ; enjoining them to protect the peaceable, in the exercise of their religious rites, and to punish only the guilty; whom the last of the above writers R 4 24-5 asserts to be comparatively very few. Hear now, what the writer of the Recognitions says, on this interesting point ; The centurion, mentioned in the Acts, is thus represented, as informing Peter, " Caesar hath given or- ders, that the magicians should be sought for, and punished, both in the city Rome, and throughout the provinces ; of whom a great number already have been destroyed. 1 will, therefore, divulge among the friends (of Simon) that I am come to seize that magi- cian ; that I was sent by Caesar for this pur- pose, in order, that he alsp might be punished with others his associates *." Here we see the attestation of the above mentioned authors signally confirmed; and farther perceive, that the edict of Tiberius was levelled against Simon Magus, and that those, who were * The passage, more at large, is as follows: Cumque nul- lum videremus exitum rei, supervenit Cornelius centurio, missus a Caesare ad praesidem Caesareae, publici negotii gratia : hunc accersimus ad nos solum, causamque ei, qua maesti esse- mus exponimus ; ac si quid posset ut juvaret hoi tamur. Turn ille promptissime repromittit, se eum (Simonem) fugaturum, si tamen consilio ejus etiam nos adniteremur : Cumque nos polliceremur impigre cuncta gesturos, ait ; Caesar in urbe Roma et per provincias maleficos inquiri jussit, ac perimi ; ex quibus plurimi jam perempti sunt. Ego igitur divulgabo per amicos, me, ut hunc magum caperem, venisse, et ob hjc rpissum a Caesare, quo etiam hie cum caeteris suis sociis puruV fur j Lib. x. 55. 249 punished in Rome, were his friends and companions in guilt, , That the impostor had lately been in Rome, and came from thence, previously to his dispute with the apostle, is a fact, which may be gathered from his own words ; for after his defeat, he talked oiixlurning* to Rome. Let me add, that the author of the Acts, who was a competent judge of the matter, appears, from his history, to have associated the impostor with the perse- cution, that originated with the tumults \x\ Jtaly. Lastly, The religious system, fabricated by Simon, is so very like that, which was professed by the other original Gnostics, that their respective authors must have had some intercourse with each other. But the latter, I have already proved, came from Rome: it follows, therefore, that the former was * A person, who had long been duped by him, and whom he solicited to go with him to Rome, after his defeat by Peter, thus repeats his words : Rogabat autem me, ut cum ipso profkiscerer, dicens se Romam petere ; ibi enim in tantum placiturum, ut Deus putetur, et divinis publice donetur hono- ribus. Tunc, inquit, te omnibus divitiis repletum, si huc red ire placuerit, et pluribus fultum ministeriis mittam ; Lib. iii. 63. 250 in the number of them, or, at least, had some connection with them while in that city. From the short, but I hope, not uninterest- ing view, here taken of the original authors of the Gnostic system, we may form an accu- rate judgment of its nature, and design. Simon, with his immediate successors, Me- nander, Basilides, and others, were undoubt- edly Epicureans no less in principle than in practice : but being desirous, from interested motives, to profess Christianity, and by their profession, to undermine it, they were ob- liged, in some degree, to disguise their real sentiments. Epicurus excluded the Gods from all con- cern, not only in the formation, but in the government of the universe, and represented them as indolent, impassive and solitary beings ; equally untouched with the joys and sorrows of men. Had the popular superstition rendered it safe or expedient, he doubtless would have gone a step farther, and, at once, denied the very existence of such beings. But he well knew that, if lie established his point, so far as to exclude, in the general estimation, the influence of superior intelligences, the transition to an 251 ppen and direct denial of their existence would be short and easy. The impostors, having imbibed this notion of Epicurus, adopted his conduct in their mode of sup- porting it. They did not, indeed, think it prudent openly to maintain, that the world had no intelligent cause, distinct from the matter composing it ; but they insisted, that the author of it was a weak and wicked being ; while he, who was supreme in power and goodness, lived in indolent tran- quillity, unconcerned about human affairs, and known to none but themselves *. * The notion of Epicurus, respecting the divine nature, is |hus poetically described by Lucretius : Omnis enim per se divum natura necesse est Immortali aevo summa cum pace fruatur. Semota ab nostris rebus, sejunctaque longe, Nam, privata dolore omni, privata periclis : Ipsasuis pollens viribus, nihil indiga nostri : Nee bene promeritis ppitur nee tangitur ira. Lib. i. 57 — 63. Very similar to this is the language of Velleius, the speaker, who supported the Epicurean^system, in the dialogue concerning the Gods, written by Cicero : Et quaerere a nobis, Balbe, soletis, quae vita deorum sit, quaeque ab iis degaturastas. Ea videlicet, qua nihil beatius, nihil omnibus bonis aflluentius cogitari potest. Nihil enim agit, nullis occupationibus est im- plicatus : Nulla opera molitur ; sua sapientia ct virtute gaudet: habetexplaratum fore se semper turn in maximis turn in aeternis yoluptatibus. Lib. i. chap. ig. Now?! if you compare with this the account which the 252 The Jewish lawgiver, with the succeed- ing prophets, taught the existence, and inculcated the worship of an all-wise and perfect Jehovah ; boundless in goodness, as well as in power and wisdom ; the sole Creator and Governor of the universe; the righteous Lord, loving righteousness; hating iniquity, and rewarding those, who sought and obeyed him. Had the deceivers acknow- ledged the exiltence and sovereignty of such a being, the necessity of conforming to his law, and the guilt and danger of disobedi- ence, would follow as necessary consequen- ces : They, therefore, endeavoured to guard against these consequences, not indeed by denying that he existed, but by stripping Jhim of his natural and moral perfections. The motives, which induced them to reject a God of infinite purity, inclined them, on impostors give of their supreme unknown God, it will evidently appe tr to have been copied from no other source than the school of Epicurus, Dicunt esse quendam in invisibilibus, et inerra- bilibus altitudinibus perlectum /Eonem, qui ante fuit — Hunc autem et Proarchen, et Propatera, et Bythum vocant ; esse autem ilium et invisibilem, et quern nulla res capere posset. Cum autem a nullo caperetur, et esset invisibilis, sempiternus et ingenitus, in silentio et in quiete multa fuisse in immensis jEonibus; Iren. p. 7. This inaccessible being was not supposed to be the Creator and Governor of the world. His happiness, conformably to the opinion of Epicurus, consisted in silent ease, indolent tranquillity, and indulgences unruffled by disquietudes, and uninterrupted by cares, 25 3 the other hand, to become the advocates of an impure, and unholy being, who, though fictitious, was held up as the symbol of duplicity j and pleasure, and the enemy of truth and virtue. Accordingly they affected to extol and worship the serpent— a pre- tended divinity, whom the supporters of it had from the beginning opposed to the God of the Jews. From thus rejecting the Deity, whom the Jewish people acknowledged and obeyed, the rejection of those scriptures which un- folded the knowledge and enjoined the worship of him, was a matter that followed of course. The Grecian philosopher made the sen- sual appetite the only standard of right and wrong, and taught, that no pleasure coukl exist distinct from the indulgence of the senses *. This was a doctrine too soothing to be resisted by men, who were exceed* ingly depraved by animal gratifications, * His own words, as recorded by Laeriius, in his life, arc the following, Ou ya§ sywyz r%u t» vor.cru roiyvlov, ; tugUjX.avo'ot.v xxrethn^u voutijh}' That is, " The followers oj Basatides think faith to be a mere natural impression (and therefore confine it to t/wir elect) which comprehends their instructions by an intellectual perception without proof. This natural impression, which was. not the result of rational enquiry, they called ir^oX-n^v;, anticipation. And this is the v ery definition, which Epicurus gave of faith in the existence of the popular gods. See Strom, lib. ii. sec. 3. p. 3C3, also sec. 4. p. 365, 259 fcause, could not resist, they endeavoured, artfully to undermine. And the wretched expedient, to which they had recourse to answer this purpose, is a demonstration of the impossibility of openly denying his miraculous endowments, with effect, ill those early times. Jesus, they asserted, had a body unlike those of other men, it being composed of a subtle ethereal sub- stance, which made him an object only of sight. Or, in other words, he was, ac- cording to them, a man in mere appear- ance— a ghost, or a phantom*. This position being admitted, the con- clusion, they well knew, would obviously * This idea also they copied from the Epicurean school. For it was the opinion of Epicurus, that the Gods existed in a human shape, though they had no real bodies, but appeared to have bodies. The words of Cotta in his reply to Velleius are so appropriate, that one might have addressed them without any change to the Gnostic impostors. Mirabile videtur, quod non rideat haruspex, cum haruspicem viderit. Hoc mirabilius quod vos inter vos risum tenere possitis. Non est corpus sed quasi corpus : Hoc intelligerem quale esset, si id in ceris fin- geretur, aut fictilibus figuris : In deo quid sit quasi corpus^ aut quasi sanguis intelligere non possum — Ne tu quidem, Vellei, sed non vis fateri. It is material to remark that Cicero considered this opinion of the Epicureans as a mere subterfuge adopted for the purpose of deception, but at which they laughed among themselves. And this was eminently true in respect to the Gnostic impostors, S 2 2sd follow, that his works also were phantoms,—' or things done in appearance only : And thus the foundation been withdrawn, the splendid edifice of the christian hope would effectually be demolished. This notion, however, did not sufficiently favour the views of Simon ; since, if true, it left him without any specious plea for saying, that he himself was the Son of God. Living, too, near a people, who had personally known and conversed with Jesus, he could not main- tain an opinion so wild, without appearing contemptible and ridiculous to the enemies, as well as to the friends of Christ. He there- fore contrived a more plausible fiction ; namely, that Jesus was really a man, but that that man, by no means, constituted the Christ; this being a God descended upon him at his baptism, and again left him oil his apprehension. Accordingly he affected to acknowledge and honour the diyinity, which dwelt in the man Jesus, while he anathematised, cursed, or excommunicated Jesus himself. Authorities in proof of the distinction, which he thus made, have already been produced. His followers, being advocates for the Egyptian divinity, of which the serpent was the symbol, were, from this circumstance, sometimes called Op'hittf or Ophiani, while, at other times, they were distinguished hy the appellat- ion of Cainists * ; because they were actu- ated by those sentiments of envy and malice towards the true disciples, which prompted Cain to the murder of his brother. Of these Origcn thus speaks : " Cclsus * The resemblance, which those men 'were supposed to bear to Cain, and which thus procured them the name of Cainists, has induced the apostle John to use this emphatic language, *' Whosoever hateth his brother is a man-slayer , and ye know that no man-slayer hath eternal life abiding in him ;" Epis. iii. ij. Epiphanius has a remark concerning them, deserving of notice in this place : Aidasntovw ^e ra-vra. ma ra toj«ut«, toi/,- kovyipov; r*jiAa>m>, xoa rov; ayaOouj ccTa,yo°-;vovTss' These, and such things, tney teach, honouring the evil, and repudiating ilie good; p. 277. C. And the truth of this assertion is confirmed, in a striking manner, by the language of this Apostle : " For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another : Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him, be- cause his own WORKS V/ERE EVIL, AND HIS BROTHER'S righteous ; iii. 11, 12. It will appear hereafter, that the \vhole of this Epistle is levelled against the Cainists ; and hence we shall perceive the propriety of those precepts to righteousness and brotherly love, which recur in almost every verse of it. Jude, it is to be farther remarked, refers to the Cainis*ts, when [he says, " Woe to them who have gone in the way bfCain." verse n. These impostors appear to have gloried in the name of Cain, given them for the above reason, as the re- presentative of a power superior to that which was typified by Abel ; that is, of a God more powerful and perfect than the heavenly Father of the christians, or Jehovah of the Jews. See Epiph. p. 276, So i Q62 plight to know that there exist those (pre- tended christians) who espouse the cause of the serpent, and on that account are stiled OphitiC ; who outdo the fictions of the Giants and Titans, and, so far from being christians, accuse Jesus no less than Celsus himself : Nor do they admit any one into their society unless he first curse Jesus *. To this fact we meet with many allusions In the writings of the apostles. • Take the following passage for an example : " Where- fore I give you to understand, that no one, speaking by the Spirit of God, calleth Jesus cursed," that is, rejecteth Jesus with execra- tions; lCor. xii. 3. The impostors pre*: * Ei^Eveu dE ccvrov fp^Wj ori U rcc o^ewj eXojusvo», id? xa,\u$ to«j TrgaTot; avS^wTroK (tv^ovXevg-cx-vto^ xai -nmvaj kou yiyxvTOcg Tov; (jLVVkKQv; v'irtefia.XovTZt;, kxi G^jkvoj Sice touto xaXoi/p.svot, ioaov- tov aTCooiovrk rev avcn X^rtavo*, 'ute ovx.eXoc.ttov KeXctov xcc-TriyogEtv avTov; Toy Irio-ov x.ou jut) 7T§otepov ir^ocniaQou T*va iiri to crvvsogioy lacvTuv, tav yu.n a§«j Swaj k&tu. tov Irtcrov, p. 294. Tney thus rejected, and anathematised Jesus, because they were compelled to acknowledge, that he was a human being. On other occasions, they seem to have receded from this notion, which they had borrowed from the Samaritan leader, and maintained, as was afterwards done by Valentinus, Marcion, and others, that he was a man only in appearance. And this illustrates the justice of the complaint, which Origen immediately subjoins; "See hovy unreasonably Celsus acts, when, in his publication against the christians, he vilifies as christians, those who are unwilling to hear the name of Jesus, nor allow that he was wise and vir- tuous, nor 'even that he ~aas a man,'' 26: tended to be divinely inspired, and, on the authority of this affected inspiration, excom- municated, with curses, the man whom Paul proclaimed as the Son of God. At the close of this stpistle, the same illustrious writer says, in reference to the impostors, *' If any man love not the Lord Jesus, let him be anathema." That is, Instead of excommunicating Jesus, excommunicate that person, whoever he be, that, pre- tending to receive the Christ, yet blas- phemes and hates the Lord Jesus. This circumstance will serve to develope ano- ther peculiarity in the stile of the New Testament : The authors of it never use the simple title of Christ to express the person of our Lord, excepting in circumstances where it is obvious they meant a being subject to mortality and other human infir- mities, but annex to it the name Jesus.. And when it was their object to make pro- minent the idea that the Christ was no other than the man Jesus, they place Jesus, the last of his names. It is farther to be remarked, that the above notion, propagated by Simon, led the four Evangelists to impress on their respective gospels a feature very character- istic of their compositions ; which, though s 4 2S4 deserving of notice, has not yet been ob- served. In conformity to their master's own injunction, they no where directly stile him Christ ; nor do they give him the appella- tion of Lord, except on tl ose occasions, as will presently be seen, where they have a reference to the deceivers, who rejected him under that appellation. On the con- trary, they usually designate him by the simple title of Jesus, and thus affix to him, as the Son of God, the very name, which distinguished him as a human being. These general remarks I shall not stop here to illustrate, as instances attest-? jng their truth and justice, will continually present themselves in our progress, , The title of Lord, in its original accepta? lion, was applied to orte, who exercised a right over the persons and properties of those men who lived in subordination to* him. When appropriated to Jesus Christ, it was used, in the same sense, to signify the claims which, as their legislator, he had to the obedience of his followers. But the Gnostic teachers, too proud to acknowledge a supe- rior, and too depraved to conform to so beautiful a model of christian imitation, openly rejected him as their Lord ; though 265 they affected to embrace and worship him as a supernatural being. Hence Irenasus gays of them, they are not willing to stile him Lord *. And to this peculiarity in their system, we shall perceive many obvious references in the apostolic writings. Take, tor example, the latter part of the verse quoted above : "Therefore I make it known to you, that no one, speaking by the Spirit of God, calleth Jesus cursed : And no one is able to call Jesus Lord, save in the Holy Spirit," The following is a still more re- markable instance; Phil. ii. 5 — 12. "Let the same mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in a divine (splen- did) form, did not contentiously retain it; but emptied himself of it, having taken a mean form, being in the likeness of men, and proved to be in frame as a man. But he humbled himself so as to be obedient unto death, and (that too) a death on the cross. And, on this account, Gqd hath highly exalt- ed him, and bestowed on him a name above every other name, that in the name of Jesus, every knee should bend, in heaven, and upon earth, and beneath the earth, and every tongue should confess Jesus Christ to be Lord unto the glory of God the Father." f Oloe Kvoiov oyojua^civ avrov tSiXovpt, p. 9, 26G In the chapter preceding this paragraph, the Apostle openly speaks of the impostors, who, from envy towards him, preached Christ. In this chapter he intreats the christians at Phillippi, to preserve among themselves unanimity and meekness; and then he adverts to the sentiments of the deceivers as the cause of their dissentions. The transfiguration, it has already hecn observed, was symbolical of the glorious change, which our Lord should undergo in his person and character, after his death and resurrection. But though he assumed, on that occasion, a divine or very splendid form, yet he presently laid it aside, and took upon him his former humble and mean figure : And so far was he from being anxious to retain the splendor, with which he was then invested, that he commanded his disciples not to divulge it, until the event had explained the nature, and realized the object of the scene. Now, in reference to those men, who, while they disgraced him by their conduct, affected to honour our Lord by turbulently ascribing to him a divine nature; the Apostle observes, — "Jesus being in a divine form, did not contentiously 26T retain it ; but emptied himself of it, having taken a mean form" *. The impostors, while they maintained, the divinity of Christ, maintained farther, that he was a man only in the likeness of men. This is what the Apostle next noti- ces : And he asserts virtually, that as Jesus, in form, resembled men, so he was found, on the fullest investigation, to be really a man. — "He was in the likeness of men, and proved to be in frame as a man." — The term * Origin appears to have understood the Apostle in this place, as refering to his transfiguration on the mount, for he uses the phrase, which Paul here employs, to express the splendid appearance then assumed by him, in the presence of his three disciples: nn :" Heb. i. 5. But if this be the honoured name meant, how came the writer to say that in the name of Jesus, and not in the name of the Son, every knee should bend ? His reason for the substitution was this : Having asserted, that Christ was a real man, that he suffered, and died, and rose in reality, and thus proved that he was the Son of God, he inculcates, on his readers, that whatever honour is due to him, in this light, was, of course, to be associated with the name Jesus ; — that name which distinguished him as a human being, however odious it was rendered by his open enemies, or his false friends. The obvious reference, which the Apostle here has to the C216 Lastly, Though they affected to magnify the Christ, they rejected, with execrations, the man Jesus, and refused to acknowledge him as their Lord. And this characteristic feature of their system, Paul has noticed on Gnostic teachers, unfolds the source whence he has borrowed the terms here used by him : — uo$r> — ejcevskts — sv o^mo^-vi «v9-£0t&hi — W5 av^wTTOi* For all these originated in the Gnostic school, and are thence borrowed by our Apostle. As the two latter are obviously so, I will content myself with a few instances of the two former. Thus, according to Irenoeus, they said of the iEons, or Gods, of which Christ was one, po$n kou y/xw/xn io-ovs x.y,Tci£$«c-»v rr,v xara yvuaiv. See p. 1 g, 23. If you would wish to see with what frequency they used these terms, examine chapter ninth book first; Nor was the application of the word sxsvu/c-e, less frequent among them. See Iren. p. 50. Epiphon. 272, 273. The constant use of these terms, indeed, byt~the Gnostics, shews, that they were appropriate to their system. And this is fully confirmed, by their primary signification: For, " the term uo&ri, forma species, figura, imports the outward form, face, or resem- blance of any thing or person, in opposition to its internal nature or constitution." See the excellent Mr. Lindsey's Sequel, p. 274; and the veib x.tvow (taken from Kivosi vacuus, void) signi- fies to make empty, hollow, or unsubstantial. Consequently both of them are words the most expressive of any that could be adopted by the deceivers to cdnvey their peculiar notion that our Lord was a man only in appearance, only an empty form , or a vain shadow. The propriety of exewo-e, as used by Paul, consists perhaps in this, The transfiguration of Jesus was but a vision. This visionary appearance, this vacant representation, he laid aside, and again resumed his own substantial nature-, his own solid figure as Jesus of Nazareth. nii this occasion : " And every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." We now return to the subject. From the above enquiry into the nature and object of the first Gnostic system, we may account for some interesting particulars, which can- not otherwise well be accounted for. 1. It appears, that the early adversaries of the gospel, sometimes confounded the followers of Jesus Christ, with those of Epicurus ; and, at others, associated them together, as bearing, in the common esti- mation, some affinity to each other. The impostor Alexander, as is related by Lucian, uses this language, " If any christian, or Epicurean atheist, come here to inspect my mysteries, let him flee." On hearing this, the whole multitude of his followers exclaimed, " Away with the christians % Away with the Epicureans." Lucian's Works, vol. i. 770. They are again men- tioned in connection with each other m page 760. Plutarch in his Treatise concerning Isis, sec. 23. has a passage to this effect, " I fear, says he, that this, (namely, the supposition 272 that the pagan Gods were but deified men) would be to agitate topics that ought not to be agitated, and to wage war not only with high antiquity, but also with many generations of men, renowned for their piety towards the Gods : Since it would be nothing less then the transferring of such great names from heaven to the earth ; the overturning of that faith and reverence, which almost all have cherished from the first generation, and the opening of a wide door for an atheistical people, who turn the divinities into men." By the atheistical people here mentioned, the sophist, it ap- pears to me, intended the followers of Jesus, who uniformly maintained, that the popu- lar Gods were no other than dead men deified by ignorance and superstition * : And this they did, in part, on the authority of Euhemcrus, whom Plutarch immediately censures for having given a handle to such * Quo modo ergo, Inquiet aliquis, Dii crediti sunt, nimirum quia ret;es maximi ac potentissimi fuerunt ob merita virtutum suarum aut munerum, aut artium repertarum, cum Chari fuissent iis, quibus imperitaveiint, in memoriam sunt conscciati. Quod si quis dubitet, res eorum gestas, et facta consideret ; qua; universa tam poetas quam historici veteres prodiderunt. Lactantius, page 34- This author cites the authority of Euhemerus, in p. 47. He is cited also by Au- gustine, Arnobius, Clemens Alexandrinus. See Squire's Note on the place in Plutarch. It is worthy of remark that ail impious doctrine. It will appear, how- ever, when we analyse this book, that the sophist chiefly had in view the Gnostic teachers, who came from the school of Epicurus, and many of whose sentiments they still retained. I cannot help calling your attention to the monstrous depravity of this writer. Plutarch, like every other intelligent heathen, must have well known that the pagan divinities, were but human beings, raised by folly and adulation to the rank of gods ; and yet so base he appears to have been, as, contrary to his conviction, to deny this fact, and that from no other motive than to check the progress of the new religion. The philologers in the court of Tiberius, though nominal converts to the christian faith, were, in reality, rank Epicureans. Accordingly this same writer, in his dialogue concerning the cessation of the heathen oracles, after having noticed the story of the death of Pan, which they had invented this last, though he affects, from malice against the christians and ! their cause, to reject the notion that the heathen gods were but deified men, yet tells us that Osiris was no other than an Egyptian king; sec. xiii. p. 32. Thus, equally remote from consistence, and the love of truth, shall we ever find the ancient adversaries of the Christian faith. VOL, II, T r274 in conjunction with the Egyptian Thaumas,. puts the following remark in the mouth of Gleombrotus, respecting them : " As to the scoffs and reproaches of the Epicureans, we need not heed them, since they are so barefaced as to deride even providence, calling it a mere fable ;" See vol. i. p. 253. This leads me to remark, that, as the author in the context is speaking of the Epicureans, he means, perhaps, by u$u\*f -idols, those images, which Democritus and Epicurus after him, supposed to fly from the surfaces of things, and to remain entire, when the objects, which give birth to them,- are far removed, or long destroyed. The passage, on this probable supposition, should thus be rendered ; " If it be fit to scoff in philosophy, we should scoff at those images, dumb, blind, and lifeless, which, after an indefinite revolution of years, re-appear, and every where return, though flown from bodies, some indeed living, others long since burnt or rotted." But, though this be a fair version of the clause, yet 1 maintain that the translation given in vol. i. p. 241 — 245. with the criticism annexed, is also admis- sible : Since the Sophist may have levelled his language against the philologers, both as the followers of Christ, and as those of Epicurus, Nothing was more natural than 275 that a malignant enemy of the christians should, when a fair opportunity presented itself, have attempted to expose the doctrine of a future resurrection, espoused by them, by blending it with a fabulous hypothesis equally remote from reason and truth. The Epicurean christians, whom Plutarch stig- matizes, did not, it is granted, admit the future re-organisation of the human body. But he well knew, that they had espoused a religion, which inculcates, and classed themselves with a people, who embraced this tenet, however repugnant to the pagan philosophy, as the fundamental article of their faith. The circumstance of our Lord quelling the storm, as it had a symbolical reference to events* which awaited the progress of his religion in the world, gave rise to the practice, usual among early ecclesiastical writers, of representing the christian church under the figure of a ship floating on the sea. A passage, where this comparison is carried to undue extent, I shall here translate from a spurious letter* said to have been addressed by Clement to the apostle James i " The state of the church in general, re- sembles a large ship, conveying through a t 2 27S violent tempest, men of different countries, all desirous of becoming citizens of the same good community. The owner of the ship may be compared to God ; the governor to Christ ; the pilot to the bishops; the masters of the oars to the deacons ; the sailors to the catechumens ; the whole mul- titude of brethren to the passengers ; the world to the sea ; the adverse winds to temptations ; persecutions, and dangers, and various afflictions, to the huge waves ; the doctrines of false prophets to torrents and gusts of wind, driving from the land ; promontories and rugged places to judges, high in authority, and menacing cruelties ; narrow and boisterous streights, to those who are not governed by reason, but fluctuate respecting the commandments of truth, Hypocrites may be deemed like pirates : But think sins alone to be the fatal rocks, and devouring gulfs. That we may there- fore sail with a prosperous gale, and be conveyed without great danger, into the har- bour of the hoped-for city, offer such prayers as are meet to be heard. And prayers become thus worthy by virtuous actions ;" Cot. vol. i. p. 609. The perusal of this passage may prepare you for the following representation, given by the philosopher 277 Maximus Tyrius*. "Since my discourse lias adopted the image of the spa, let us not * Etej Je o Aoycc, ovk oi$cc ottwj, ukovo$ jcAarna,- ittt\v,£tro, fin aowix.n-; @a.g(3z,gu)i E/tEivwv tojv avdgwv} ct odjc itracr* SaAoiTTay, oyd"s aAsyoyj-t Toy Aiyto^ou Atoj, ouds Sewv fia-sMew' Tlc<,pzo~Y.iva,o~u.To on jusAAwy 7rAstv o o.Qeoj bwrog xat a-jaAaT- voj j3ct<7i\tw; jotEyaAnv xai ivgvxuigov yaw, 'iva, ctvrw Tucrxi ai 'noovcu <7-yjw,7r?iEac7t' to ju.ev y«£ ai/T«s /3«o-iA£l« r-v o*a xa.AAi5-«> 7r«5*ac/Ej, xou Ektoo-Qev S av?.ris jusyaj o^ocroq ay%» %vca,uv TtTguyvos xaj Jev^a £ju.Ts@u>CE<7av, pojca, Kai oy^vat, xaj jUTiAEea xsit cj^teAo*" to $ cevnrni Xovrgov rjv, fc.c« yii|u.v«o-ioy' to j \oowac, \ (3%tra,\i>w vayj, ^cst jtvi CM? »iv 7ra>'T« ^£5"<" AuAwv, o-y^y^'wvl' evott*),, ofixSov r oi^^tavm rTEi^EEl at^^«?a^vw X-itJjUV E7i"£Ta?al£ t011 «i^§a>5ia* ffvEi/jwaxaTEto** XaS'^ov cryv 7roAA«o TraTaya, tyvweray tote Tt5 jhev 'nS'ovn? %?E'as t»j ^e (J^v*!?* 'Ai /iEV yxj «AAa* oAx.aJsff cryvEVEj^afAEVutt t» '0£EOS/T0* Tcuro teXoj avonrou ETi/3arov, xat «;£«>iroo veo.-^ nca aaaigov fju^r:;-^ Pisser. xxxi. sec. 3, 279 vessel. When the time for sailing arrived, this great and costly ship departed for the deep, resembling a floating island. In company with it sailed other ordinary ships, well built, and provided for the occasion. While the atmosphere continued tranquil, the royal ship abandoned itself to pleasures, and every place in it was filled with incense, •with the accents of instrumental music, and the shouts of men. But when a storm, succeeding the calm, troubled the air, and a hurricane beat upon it with frequent gusts, then they became sensible of the superior advantage of art over pleasure. The other gallies, having contracted their sails, stemmed the waves, sustained the storm, and disen- gaged themselves from the attack of the destroyer : But this unhappy ship was whirled around, like the body of a huge man, giddy and tottering through drunkenness. The master knew not to use his art; the effeminate crowd lay astonished and groaning. The tempest dissipated the whole of that admired ship. And this was the end of that stupid governor, and of his use- less ship, and his unseasonable effeminacy. " By the royal ship here represented, the author, I conceive, intends the christian T 4 / 280 system, modified by Simon Magus and his followers. And this will account for his connecting it with the philosophy of Epi- curus. The Gnostic heresy originated, beyond doubt, in Egypt, the foundation of it being laid by the Samaritan impostor while yet in Alexandria. For this reason, Max- imus says that the vessel sailed from an Egyptian harbour. Pure as was the gospel in itself, and efficacious as it proved in the hancjs of its faithful professors, it became, after it was corrupted by the impostors, the instrument of the most flagrant vices, and a pretext for the most impure indulgencies. Hence it is here said of it, with truth, that all the pleasures were embarked with the com- mander of it. It Js farther asserted, that those on board were enemies to the blessed gods. This assertion is characteristic of the followers of Jesus ; nor was their aversion to engage in maritime affairs less descriptive of their character; since Philo assures us, that they studiously avoided navigation and com- merce, as instruments of vice and luxury *. From this, and other authors, we shall * The words of Philo are remarkably strong :— E^7roji«; v> wrrfcw; r> vccvKXri^toic, ovcls ov«£ tcreco-i, to? ei3" 7rXsovEf*xv cctyoey.%- wTodWojucro-jjusvoi* He is speaking of the Zs«eHe(c,hristians) p. 877. Tatian was a descendant of the Essenes, and his sentiments on this subject seem to have been the same. NaimMjdDai, says he? V4£ TTjV V.TT'i .r-iy,v OVK SCTJir^EVCO, p. 44, 231 hereafter shew, that Christianity excited universal attention on its first introduction into Egypt ; and that multitudes, not only among the Jews, but among the Egyptians, embraced it, though not in all its purity. And hence we see the meaning of this Sophist ( for he does not merit the name of philosopher) when he says, that the Egyp- tians admired the sight, hailed the com- mander as blessed, and every one in a manner wished to come on board the delightful vessel. The system of Simon Magus, in consequence of the vigorous opposition made to it by the apostolic teachers, gradually died away; when about the times of Hadrian, its wretched remains were, by a general accommodation between the contending parties, transferred into the sanctuary of the orthodox church ; where they were not indeed buried, but em- balmed, by blending with them the everlast- ing oracles of God*. The disappearance of * The accommodation here alluded to is an interesting fact, that will be more fully developed and confirmed hereafter. While the Apost'es lived, they firmly rejected all compromise with the teachers of the Gnostic system. Hut their successors, among the gentiles, shewed a more ductile temper. Being strongly disposed to favour a heresy, which so nearly coincided •with their previous pagan prepossessions, they admitted, with the heretics, that Jesus was a supernatural Being ; but, at tha game time, maintained with the Apostles, that Jie was a real 282 the Samaritan imposture in this manner, gave occasion to Maximus for saying, that the royal ship was lost in the storm. It is worthy of remark, that the apostle Paul speaks of Christianity as becoming a wreck in respect to those, who departing from its divine purity, adopted it, as cor- rupted by Simon. See 1 Tim. i. 19. man. And thus commenced the monstrous doctrine, that he was b: th God and man. This important modification required, that a correspondent change should be made in the representation of his birth. His humanity implied, that he was really born, and pointed to some human beings as instrumental in giving him existence. On the contrary, his divinity rendered him incompatible with the idea of birth ; and it would appear incon- gruous and absurd even to the most superficial understanding, to suppose that mortal creatures could ever bestow existence on an immortal being. In order, therefore, to avoid this absur- dity, and to combine in his character both natures, it was agreed to represent him as born of a mother only. By this happy ex- pedient not only room was left for admitting the doctrine of his divinity, but the admission of it became necessary, in order to account for his supernatural conception. — It should, however, be recollected, that though the gentile converts, now become the predominant party in the christian church, accommodated to the apostolic doctrine the Samaritan system, and thus consecrated such incongruous tenets with the title of orthodoxy, there were many of the Gnostics who refused to accede to the compromise. Accordingly, Valentinus, Marcion, Manes, and others, ad- hered to the principles of Simon, though purified, indeed, from some of their grosser parts. On this account they have been deemed the founders of new heresies ; while the truth is, that they only modified, and that in a slight degree, the tenets of the Samaritan impostor. 283 Permit me here only to observe, that the object of the Sophist in the above represent- ation, was to vilify the gospel, by holding it up as being the same with that, which was taught by the Gnostic impostors. In this respect Maximus has only done what was universally practised by other enemies of our holy religion. Being superior to all attack, as it was exhibited in the preaching, and in the conduct of its genuine professors, the adver- sary, however able, had no other means of opposing it with success, but by encounter- ing it as embraced by its base corruptors. 2. From the view, which we have taken of the nature and object of the Gnostic system, we may perceive the justice of the representation given by our Lord and his Apostles, when they exhibit its author as led to embrace the gospel from sinistei* motives ; as concealing, under the fair profession of friendship, the most rancorous malice and hatred towards the cause, which they out- wardly had espoused. See Mat. vii. 15. xiii. 25. Acts viii. 21, 22. John x. 8. Actsxiii. 10. xx. 29, 2 Cor. xi. 13. 3. Hence also we see that the Apostles ^vere fully justified in holding up those, who 284 deviated from the standard of faith laid down by them and their divine Master, as men not merely weak, but wicked; not only mis- taken in judgment, but depraved in heart; as men, who had made shipwreck of con- science, as well as of faith *, 4. Our Lord and his apostles, as well as all succeeding ecclesiastical writers, concur in representing the first corruptors of the christian religion, as men, who had received their commission from the evil principle, — from satan, the devil, or serpent, in whose service they were engaged, and whose fate they shall finally share. Thus the Saviour describes them, in opposition to his own faithful disciples, as the angels of the devil ; * The justice of the following paragraph of Whitby, sanc- tioned by the ever-memorable Jebb, will hence be much illustrated and confirmed : " Heresy, according to the scripture notion, being not a pure mistake of judgment ; but an espous- ing a false doctrine out of disgust, pride, or envy, or from wordly principles, or to avoid persecution, or trouble in the flesh, may well be ranked among carnal lusts." Hence are such men said, *' not to serve Jesus Christ, but their own belly ;'* Rom. xvi. 18. " To teach what they ought not for filthy lucre's sake ;" Tit. i. II. "To account gain for godliness ;" I Tim. vi. 5. " And through eovetousness, with feigned words, to make merchandise of others ;" 2 Pet. ii. 3. And therefore the Apostle doth not advise us to convince, but only to admonish, end correct the heretic, as knowing that he sins, being convinced of his own conscience;" Jebb's Works, vol. ii. p. 148. 285 Mat. xxv. 41. And, speaking of them as the tares, which debased the good seed, he calls them, sons of the evil one; Mat. xiii. 38* Thus too are they delineated by the great apostle of the gentiles : " For such are false apostles, men of deceitful actions : trans- forming themselves into apostles of Christ, And no wonder; for satan himself putteth on the appearance of an angel of light ; so that it is no great matter, if his ministers also put on the appearance of ministers of righteousness; whose end will be according to their works;" 2 Cor. xi. 13 — 15. Thus too, writes the author of the interpolated letter to the Trallians: " Avoid the impious heresies ; for they are the inventions of the devil, of that serpent, which being the origin of evil, hath, by means of the woman, deceived Adam the founder of our race. Avoid his mischievous shoots, Simon his his first born son, Menander, Basilides, and those base crowds, who worship men," Chap. x. Similar to this is the language, which is used by other authors, and there appears much propriety in the use of it. The impostors worshipped the serpent, and opposed it to the Creator and Governor of the universe. They were marked by those 286 qualities of envy, malice, duplicity, fraud, and falsehood, which distinguished that fancied divinity. By blending falsities of their own invention with the word of God, they exposed it to serious objections, and brought disgrace on the christian profession, by making it a pretext for the most intem- perate gratifications. Hostility, concealed under the veil of friendship, is far more detestable in its nature, and dangerous in its consequences, than open and avowed enmity. For this reason, the first preachers of the gospel deemed those heresies, which originated with the Samaritan impostors, as alone constituting what merited the name of antichrist. 5. In the last place, the above enquiry discloses the true reason why the first Gnos- tic teachers rejected the law of Moses, and the predictions of the prophets. The Jew- ish legislator enjoined the worship of one supreme and benevolent being, in direct opposition to that feigned divinity, whom the Egyptians adored under the symbol of the serpent. The inspired penmen of Judea enforced the same sublime doctrine, and delivered to their countrymen many impres- sive lessons of justice, mercy, humility, and 287 truth. Their predictions, too, illustrated and confirmed in a signal manner the divine omniscience. And when it appeared, that Jesus was the person, who corresponded to the representations of ancient prophecy, their inspiration furnished a decisive argu- ment against the falsehoods of the deceivers. We cannot, therefore, wonder, that they should have rejected Moses and the pro- phets * : fAnd as their vices disposed them * The reasons which Simon the heresiarch had for rejecting the Jewish scriptures, are implied in the following paragraph of Theodoret : " He said, that the prophets were the servants oft he (evil) angels ; and therefore he commanded those, who believed in him, not to attend to them, nor to dread the threats of the law, but te practise with freedom, whatever they wished. For it was not by virtuous actions, but by grace, they were to attain salvation. For this reason, those of his sect abandoned them- selves to all manner of lasciviousness ; practised various magical artifices, invented seductive charms, and other sorts of witchcraft, which they frequented as divine mysteries ;** Theod. Fab. Hser. Lib. i. cap. i. We cannot doubt, from this passage, and the testimony of other writers, but thnt the rejection of the Old Testament, by the Gnostics, originated in their depravity. It is of great consequence to mark this circum- stance. For it is of little moment what arguments were urged in support of that opinion by the heretics of subsequent times. But so barren in ingenuity were the impostors, that more than two hundred years elapsed before they could contrive any pre- text to cover the baseness of their motives. The objections to the law and the prophets, which are alledged by the disciples of Manes, in the third century, are capitulated with much elegance by Gibbon ; but who, either through great ignorance, or great insidiousness, supposes them to have been employed by the first founders of Gnosticism. I will here set down his own 288 to this, still less surprising must it appcaf that they attempted to justify themselves by some specious subterfuges. words, and I desire my readers to compare them with the above paragraph from Theodoret : " While the orthodox church preserved a just medium between excessive veneration and improper contempt for the law of Moses, the various heretics deviated into equal, but opposite extremes of error, and extrava- gance. From the acknowledged truth of the Jewish religion, the Ebionites had concluded that it could never be abolished. From its supposed imperfections, the Gnostics as hastily infer- red, that it was never instituted by the wisdom of the Deity. There are some objections against the authority of Moses, and the prophets, which too readily present themselves to the scepti- cal mind ; though they can only be derived from our ignorance of remote antiquity, and from our incapacity to form an adequate judgment of the divine ceconomy. These objections, were eagerly embraced, and as petulantly urged, by the vain science of the Gnostics. As those heretics were, for the most part, averse to the pleasures of sense, they morosely arraigned the polygamy of the patriarchs, the gallantries of David, and the Seraglio of Solomon. The conquest of the land of Canaan, and the extirpation of the unsuspecting natives, they were at a loss how to reconcile with the common notions of humanity and justice, But when they recollected the sanguinary list of murders, of executions, and of massacres, which stain almost every page of the Jewish annals, they acknowledged that the barbarians of Palestine had exercised as much compassion for their idolatrous enemies, as they had ever shewn to their friends or countrymen. Passing from the sectaries of the law to the law itself, they asserted that it was impossible that a religion, which consisted only of bloody sacrifices and trifling ceremonies, and whose rewards, as well as punishments, were all of a carnal and temporal nature, could inspire the love of virtue, or restrain the impetuosity of passion. The Mosaic account of the crea- tion and fall of man was treated with profane derision by the Gnostics, who would not listen with patience to the repose of the 289 We at length return to the gospel of John. The above investigation will, it is Deity after six days labour, to the rib of Adam, the garden of Eden, the trees of life and of knowledge, the speaking serpent* the forbidden fruit,- and the condemnation pronounced against human kind, for the venal offence of their first progenitors. The God of Israel was impiously represented by the Gnostics, as a being liable to passion and to error, capricious in his favour, implacable in his resentment, meanly jealous of his superstitious worship, and confining his partial providence to a single people, and to this transitory life. In such a character they could dis- cover none of the features of the wise and omnipotent Father of the universe. They allowed that the religion of the Jews was somewhat less criminal than the idolatry of the gentiles ; but it was their fundamental doctrine, that the Christ whom they ador- ed, as the first and brightest emanation of the Deity, appeared upon earth to rescue mankind fiom their various errors, and to reveala new system of truth and perfection. The most learned of the fathers, by a very singular condescension, have imprudently admitted the sophistry of the Gnostics. Acknowledging that the literal sense is repugnant to every principle of faith^ as well as of reason, they deemed themselves secure and invul- nerable, behind the ample veil of allegory, which they care- fully spread over every tender part of the Mosaic dispensation;** Vol. ii. Chap xv. 282 — 284. No reader of taste can help admiring the elegance, while he must detest the artifice, with which this passage is penned. The writer has thrown over the dark deformities of the Gnostic system, the splendor of refined eloquence ; and put in the mouth of its teachers, not those objections, which they really alledged, but those which he wished them to have alledged against the divine legation of , Moses. The assertions, that they were averse to the pleasures of sense ; that they could not listen with patience to the speaking ser- pent ; that they objected to the Jewish religion, because its rewards and punishments were of a temporal and carnal nature, yet deemed it less criminal than the idolatry of the Gentiles ) VOL. II. 17 290 hoped, serve to develope the meaning of many parts of it yet unnoticed. The third chapter contains, you have seen, matter apparently very foreign to the subject of this enquiry. The remainder of it has an equal claim on our attention : " Then there arose a ques- tion, between some of John's disciples and the Jews, about purifying. And they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that they objected to Jehovah from a real conviction of his im- perfection?, and that finally they worshipped Christ as the first and brightest emanation of the Diety, are palpably false, and demonstrate that the historian did not know, or did not wish to appear to know the real sentiments of the original heretics. The insinuatiQn that the most learned of the fathers had re- course to the allegorising of the law of Moses, in order to evade the objections of the Gnostics, betrays equally ignorance, or artifice. Philo is the person that affords us the first and best specimen of thb allegorical interpretation. Origen, Clement and others, have done little more than copying his sentiments : and whatever may be thought of their justice, they certainly originated in ciicumstances by no means connected with the Gnostic heresies. The truth is that none were more given to this method of explaining the Jewish writings than the Gnostics. They carried it to such a pitch of extravagance as to interpret, in a similar way the simple facts of the Evangelical records. And their only way, of evading the force of those numerous passages, which Christ levelled against them in the course of his ministry, was to put upon them a mystical construction. In proof of this assertion read the fifth and sixth chapters of Irenseus's first bonk, and compare with it what the apostle Peter remarks at the end of his second epistle. 291 that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same bap* tizeth, and all men come to him. John answered and said, A man can receive no- thing, except it be given unto him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom : but the friend of the bridegroom which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly, because of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy, therefore, is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. He that cometh from above, is above all : He that is of the earth, is earthly, and speaketh of the earth : He that cometh from heaven is above all* And what he hath seen and heard, thathetesti- fieth, and no man receiveth his testimony. He that receiveth his testimony, hath set to his seal, that God is true. For he, God whom hath sent, speaketh the words of God ; for God giveth not the spirit by measure unto him. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life : And he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him;" chap. iii. 25 — 36\ V <2 292 Before I make any remark on this passage, I must produce one from the Homilies, and another from the Recognitions, ascribed to Clement, — " Simon (Magus), in order to usurp the doctrine of piety, acted thus : — There existed one John, who baptized every day, and who, according to the order of the conjugal pairs, was the forerunner of Jesus. And as the Lord had twelve, so he had thirty principal disciples. In the number of these thirty disciples of John Simon was the first and most approved ; but on the death of John didnot immediately succeed him in his office. For, having gone to Alexandria to practise magic, Dositheus, on the murder of John, as- sumed the supremacy, and, having falsely an- nounced the death of Simon also, he became his successor as the head of the sect*." "And * My reader may wish to see at large the whole passage. I will, therefore, insert it from the latin translation : Ut autem ipse (Simon) religionis opinionem invaderet, factum est ita : Johannes quidam exstitit, qui singulis diebus baptizaret, quique Domini nostri Jesu secundum conjugationis rationem fuit pre- cursor ; et queraadmodum Dominus habuit duodecim apostolos, duodecim mensium solis gerentes numerum : similiter is triginta viros principes habuit menstruam Iunae rationem implentes. Quo in numero, una quaedam erat mulier, dicta Helena : ut ne hoc quidam absque mysterio esset. Cum enim mulier di- midium sit viri, imperfectum tricenarii constituit numerum : sicut et in Iun^, cujus incessus non perfectum mensis cursum conficit. Porrohorum triginta, Johanni primus ac probatissi- mus erat Simon : quf quidem, quo minus post mortem Johan- 203 behold one of the disciples of John affirmed that John, and not Jesus was the Christ ;" Recogn. Lib. i. 90. From the first of these paragraphs, we learn that Dositheus was a disciple of the Baptist ; that he aspired at the supremacy, that is, aimed at being deemed the expected Christ, in opposition to both John and Jesus; and after that the death of the former, nis piinceps dcclaratus sit, hoc in causa fuit. Nam ipso pere- gre in iEgyptum profecto, propter Magiae exercitationem : Jo- hanne ccciso, Dositheus principals appetens, cum ipsius Simo- nis mortem falso annunciasset, factus est sectae successor. At Simon Paulo post reversus, et cum locum tamquam proprium affectans vehementer, nactus Dositheurn, locum quidem non repetiit : sciens, hominem qui contra ipsius volunratem occu- paverat principatum non depositum iri. Quare per simulatam amicitiaro, brevi quidem in secundum a Dositheo locum irrepsit. Non multos autem post dies, intra numerum condiscipulorum collocatus, caepit Dositheo derogare, tanquam non germane doctrinam traderet. Idque eum asserebat non invidia facere sed inscientia. Et aliquando Dositheus, Simonis artificiosam sentiens obtrectationem, eo tendentem ut aboleretur plurimorum opinio, neque amplius ipse putaretur esse stans, furore commotus, cum ad scholam solito convenisset, Virga Simonem inventum verberat : At per corpus Simonis, quasi per fumum, visa est virga transire: super quo obstupefactus Dositheus, ait ad eum. Die mihi si tu es stans, ut adorem te, Cumque Simon respondisset, Ego sum ; Dositheus videns se non esse stantem, cecidit et adoravit eum — Sic que non multo post Dositheus, illo stante, ipse concidens defunctus est. Horn, ii. 23. 24. p. 627. v 3 c294> he actually placed himself at the head of hi3 sect. The arrogance ot that impostor, in this respect, was doubtless not endured by the faithful disciples of the Baptist, who it appears from the last of the above passages, maintained that their master was the Messiah in preference even to the Lord Jesus. An altercation of course arose between them, which demanded an appeal to the Baptist himself, Now let us review the above extract of the Evangelist. " Then a dispute arose between the disciples of John and a certain jew about purification *," Is it not, then, very probable, that the Jew here meant was Dositheus ? But let us proceed : The claims of that deceiver, the majority of them must have spurned with contempt. But what confounded their understanding's, and filled them with jealousy, were the circumstances of Jesus performing such miracles, and the people flocking to him, having now deserted their former master. Seeing the Baptist thus stripped, by two * This appears to be the true reading. lovSawv being a corruption of Jou&jmoi/tjvoj, which is preserved by the Syriac and Persic versions. And this too is the reading copyed by Crysostom in his commentaries on the place. The common reading, ^ays Mr. Wakefield, is universally given up on the best authorites and is absolutely incompatible with the scope of the passage. See the note to his translation. 295 claimants very different indeed, of the high dignity, with which they were, as his followers, eager to invest him, Was it not natural in them to go and make him ac- quainted with the state of things ? And pray what animadversions might we expect John should make by way of reply ? Cer- tainly, that he should hold up our Lord as the Messiah, first, in preference to himself, and then in opposition to Dositheus. And this reasonable expectation, we shall see, he has not disappointed ; " John answered, and said, A man can receive nothing, ex- cept it be given him from heaven. As much as to say ; I cannot justly assume the charac- ter of the Messiah, because you, my partial disciples and friends, are desirous to bestow that dignity on me. Heaven alone has a right to confer it, and, in as much as heaven has not conferred upon me, I cannot in justice claim, an office so illustrious." He goes on, " Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ but that I am sent before him." The disciples of John were actuated with jealousy and hatred towards Jesus; since they were compelled to consider him as the u 4 c296 successful rival of their Master. The Bap- tist attempts, with great delicacy, to soothe their prejudices by representing himself as being still the friend of the bridegroom ; and then adds, " He must increase, but I must decrease." That is, He should be raised^ and I lowered, in your estimation. Thus far John adverts to the mistaken expectation of his disciples respecting him- self. He next, I conceive, refutes the false claims of his apostate followers : " He that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth." To say of a man, that he is of the earth, must, in this connection, mean that he comes in a name, and arrogates an office for which he has not qualifications from heaven ; and that he speaks of the earth, signifies that he advances not such doctrines as the wisdom of God inspired, but such as accorded with human views, and flattered human vices. It is evident, then, that the Baptist is here referring not to himself, but to some self- commissioned impostor. John did not come from the earth, but was sent from God. He did not speak the things of the earth, but faithfully announced the message, 297 winch the Spirit delegated to him in the wilderness. But Dositheus was of the earth, and spoke of the earth, and like the earth, of which he was made, he and his doctrines have long since perished. On the contrary, the Baptist adds, — He that comethfrom above is above all — He is above me — above the prophets, and even above Moses — much more is he above apostates and deceivers. The Baptist, in the next place, appeals to the testimony, which God himself gave in favour of Jesus at his baptism — to the miraculous endowments, which then de- scended upon him, in the exercise of which he is subject to no controul but his own discretion. " He that receivcth his tes- timony, confirmcth by his seal, that God is true. For he, whom God hath sent, speaketh the words of God, (that is speak- eth not the things of the earth, or the doc- trines of human wisdom, but the things from above, or the doctrines of divine wisdom :) For God giveth not the spirit by measure unto him." The Baptist concludes his testimony by intimating that eternal life was to be obtained not through himself, nor through any other that falsely claimed to be the Messiah, but through 293 him, whom the Father attested hy a voice from heaven to be his beloved Son ; and that the wrath of God awaited those, who should not acknowledge him as their Lord, or should act in open resistance to his claims. — "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. He that1 belie veth on the Son hath everlasting life : But he, that is not obedient to the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God remaineth on him." From the supposed Clement we learn, that Simon Magus, on hearing of the death of John, returned from Alexandria, sup- planted Dositheus, and soon set up a more successful opposition to the claims of Jesus. The latter being divinely inspired foresaw what was to happen. He therefore took occasion to pass through Samaria, and with admirable address, contrived to make the people of that country acquainted with his divine mission and miraculous endowments. While refreshing himself, -after the fatigue of the journey and heat of the day, between him and a woman of the place ensued a conversation, which necessarily fixed their mutual attention on the Samaritan impostors. With that simplicity which ever character- 299 ises truth, and that modesty which is foreign to imposture, lie led her to perceive that he was really inspired, hefore he declared the nature of his character. The evangelist John well knew the object of the interview ; and seeing that it was admirably adapted to defeat the artifices of Simon in placing in an advantageous light the real inspiration of Jesus, he makes it, naturally enough, the next im- portant step in his narrative. " When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had "heard that Jesus made and baptised more disciples than John (though Jesus himself baptised not but his disciples.) He left Judea and departed again into Galilee. And he must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus there- fore being wearied with his journey sat thus on the well : And it was about the sixth hour. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water : Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that 300 thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria, for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep : From whence then hast thou that living water ? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle. Jesus answer- ed and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But who- soever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst : But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no hus- band. Jesus saith unto her, Thou hast well said I have no husband. For thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou hast is not thy husband, in that saidst thou truly. The 301 woman saithunto him, Sir, I perceive thai thou art a prophet ;" chap. iv. 1 — 20. In early times when a belief in the exis- tence and agency of demons generally pre- vailed, the performance of such works as deviated from the known course of nature, was not deemed an absolute proof that the author acted with the authority of the Almighty. In consequence of this per- nicious opinion, the messenger of hea- ven was liable to be classed, among the magicians ; and to have the artifices of designing men opposed to his mira- culous deeds. This was eminently the case as to Moses, and more eminently still was it the case in respect to Jesus Christ. The impostor of Samaria availing himself of the popular confidence in the arts of magic, and of the general ignorance, that none but God had power to controul the laws of nature, audaciously classed his un- meaning tricks with the miracles of our Saviour. The ignorant were perplexed by his impious pretensions, and many of the prejudiced, especially among his own countrymen, were brought over to his cause. Of the state of the dispute between these, it must be allowed, very unequal 302 claimants, the Recognitions, ascribed to Clement, afford an interesting and impor- tant statement, and enable us, by that means, fully to comprehend the language and design of our Lord, in his interview v/ith the woman of Samaria*. Peter the champion of the christian faith is repre- sented to lay down a very just and decisive criterion, by which his hearers might ascer- tain what events should be considered as proceeding from God, and what from the influence of magic. Such signs, he ob- * The words to which I allude are to this effect; Et nunc quoque cum gentes ab idolorum cultu liberari deberent ; iterum malitia. quasi ipsa imperans, anticipavit suumque velut ser- pentem misit in adjutorium, videlicet quem cernitis Simonem, quimira facit ad stuporem ac deceptionem, non tamen signa salutaria ad conversionem ac salutem. Quocirca vos oportet ex miraculis quae fiunt, factores attendere, quis cujusnam sit operarius. Si inutilia miracula edit, malitiae est minister j sinvero utiiia boni est praxes. Porro inutilia miracula sunt, quae edidisse Simonem dixistis : quod, inquam, statuas faciat ambulare ; quod super carbones ignitos volutet se ; quod draco fiat ; quod in capram transformetur ; quodque in aere volet, ac similia alia, quae, cum ad sanandos homines non fiant, ad tnultos fallendos natura comparata sunt. Miracula vero miser- icordis Veritatis, humanitatis plena sunt: Qualia Dominum fecisse audistis, meque post ilium prece edidisse, quibus multi adfuistis : alii multiplicibus morbis, aut Demone liberati ; alii vel manibus vel pedibus firmati ; alii visu vel auditu donati, et quaecunque alia edere potest vir ad Spiritum hominum amentem pertinens. Horn. ii. 33, 34. See also Recogn. Lib. iii. 5g. where much more is said to this purpose, 503 served, as were really useful, and calculated to promote repentance and reformation, claimed God for their author: but, if on the other hand they answered no good end, if they were mere prodigies, fitted only to excite wonder and perpetuate fraud, they should be ascribed to no other than the minister of evil. That criterion, however just, Peter, well new would not be allowed by one, who had no- thing but contemptible artifices toboastof. He therefore exhibits his Master in another, and, if possible a more decisive point of view — as aided not only by the power, but inspired by the wisdom of heaven. It was admitted, even in those ignorant ages, that none but God could foresee events, that were yet in futurity ; and that consequently none but God could enable a human being to foretel them. The prediction, therefore, of things to come, too numerous and defi- nite to be deemed the effect of conjecture, was a quality, which, in the estimation of sober reason raised the founder of Christi- anity above the competition of imposture *. * Theophylact has a remark on the last verse of the first chapter of John, p. 582. deserving here to be noticed. "Pro- phecy" says he, " has greater efficacy than wonders to draw men to the faith : For the demons are able to exhibit the appear- ance of wonders ; but to foreknow and to foretel future events 2 304 Accordingly the author of the Recognitions represents him under this unrivalled charac- ter, and throughout gives him the name of THE TRUE PROPHET *< Now turn your attention to the piece of with accuracy is what none can do — no not an angel, much less a demon." * The author of the Recognitions not only holds up our Lord in the light of a prophet, but maintains farther that as such he is the only safe teacher of truth and virtue — the only sure guide into the knowledge of God and his will. Hunc ergo qui ad auxilium domus, caligine ignarantiae et vitiorum fumo replaete, perquiritur, ilium esse dicimus qui appellatur vents propheta ; qui solus illuminate animas hominum potest, ita u't oculis suis viam saiutis evidenter inspiciant. Aliter enim impossible est de rebus divinis seternisque cognoscere, nisi quis ' a vero isto propheta didicerit : quia fides rerum, causarumque sententiae, pro ingertiis magis defendentium ponderantur : unde eteadem causa nunc justa nunc injusta putatur ; et quod modo verum videbatur alceriusassertione falsum videtur. lsta de causa, religionisac pietatis fides, veri prophetae praesentiam postulavit, ut ipse nobis diceret de singulis, prout se ipsa Veritas habet ; et doceret quo modo oporteat de singulis credi. Et idea ante omnia fidem prophetae omni cum examinatione oportet probari : quem quum cognoveris esse prophetam, de reliquo cuncta ei credas, oportet • nee ultra discutere eum per singula quae docuerit, sed habere firma et saneta quae dicit, quaeque quamvis fide suscipi videantur, ante habita tamen probatione creduntur. Cum enim semel ex initio prophetae Veritas exa- minata constiterit, reliqua demum fide audienda sunt et tenenda, qu3 eum doctorem esse j^m constitit. Et sicut certum est cuncta secundum veritatis regulam teneri opportere, quae divinam ad scientiam spectant, ita indubitatum est a nullo alio, nisi abipso solo sciri posse quod verum est. Recogn. Lib. i. i6„ 505 history before us ; and you will instantly see that this is the peculiar and prominent cha- racter, which our Lord assumed on the pre- sent occasions But did he make to the woman a formal profession that he was a prophet I No ; In the course of the conversation, he told her such things respecting herself, as necessarily led her fo make this confession, ■ — " Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet/' With this conviction she presently departed* and apprized them in the city. Come, mid see a man, which told me all tilings that ever I did. This was the very thing which Jesus intended. He was well aware that, if he, or his own disciples, had in a place, where so much prejudice was cherished against them as being Jews, made such a declaration, so far from gaining credit they would be treated with derision. But coming from a" person who was one of themselves, and whose previous ignorance of him precluded all rea-5 sonable suspicion of collusion, it could not but be believed by many of the unprejudi- ced. Accordingly we find that this was the case. " And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him, for the saying of the woman which testified, He told me all that ever I did." It is worthy of observa-* VOL. II. x 306 tion that the Evangelist has on this occasion evinced the divine inspiration of his Master by a variety of facts. He represents him as foretelling the abolition of the Samaritan and the Jewish superstitions ; as hinting at the future conversion of many in Samaria in consequence of the seeds of repentance and reformation, which by that interview he planted among them* : And what is remarkable he holds him up as claiming the character of a prophet in the face of his enemies, verse 44. Permit me farther to * Herein is thatsaying true, "One so weth and another reap* eth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour : Other men laboured and ye are entered into their labours." Here our Lord refers to the future conversion of many among the Samaritans, when the apostles Philip, Peter, and John, should preach ihe gospel to them ; See Acts viii. But he hints that the seeds of their conversion were planted by his passing through the country on this occasion, Dy the testimony o£ the woman that he was a prophet, and by the miracles he wrought on some of the inhabitants. See Luke xvii. 16. But as he is in this place referring not to past but future events, he has adopted the usual prophetic stile ; that is, he represents the planting of the word by certain men, and the reaping of the fruits of their labour by the Apostles, as things already taken place. Hence we discern the futility and temerity of the fol- lowing objections urged by Mr. Evanson. " Who were those sowers of the word prior to the disciples? When were his disci- ples sent to reap and not to sow ? What did they ever reap about which they had bestowed no labour ? And who were those other men unto whose labours they entered ? Surely a writer," adds he, " So little consistent with the best confirmed 2 6 oi remark, that though the historian makes very prominent the prophetic character of Jesus, he does not represent him as perform- ing any miracles during his stay in Samaria. He probably did none ; and the reason was that the people were so ignorant, and had been so duped by the artifices of Simon as to be utterly disqualified from drawing the proper inference, that the author of such works must have come from God, Before he produced his credentials among a people* who were not able to estimate their value and authority, it was necessary for him to instruct them : And this seems to have been the purpose to which he devoted the two days he spent in that place* And accord- ingly we read, " And many more believ- ed on him, because of his own doctrine/9 ver. 41. One of the interesting topics of his instruction was the religious bigotry* which unfortunately divided the Jews and the Samaritans. And this, as he did on another occasion, he endeavoured to eradicate by representing the Messiah as designed to save the latter as well as the former, and indeed truth and common sense is very unjustly accounted an Apostfe of Jesus Christ." p. 230. X l2 308 the whole race of man. And hence those, who believed in him, made this joyful declaration: "We have heard him ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of tlie world, ver. 42. But this is not all. It is necessary again to return to the conversation between him and the Samaritan woman. Simon, in order to render his opposition to Jesus the more effectual, availed himself, as was natural, of the superstition of his countrymen. These had been accustomed from ancient times to offer their worship on mount Gerizim, as the place most acceptable to God. This prejudice the interest of the impostor re- quired him to sanction ; and he went even so far as to deny the acceptance of the tem- ple worship, and to substitute that moun- tain for Jerusalem itself. In consequence of this, the dispute between the parties ran so high, at the time when our Lord passed through the country, that the woman, on perceiving he was a prophet, being more anxious to indulge her religious zeal, than to supplicate pardon for her criminal con- duct, immediately informed him, " Our fathers worshipped in this mountain ; and yc say that Jerusalem is the place where 309 men ought to worship." Jesus made this solemn reply — a reply which demonstrates that his heart was not the seat of vulgar pre- judices, but of rational and sublime piety ; and that his head was enlightened by sober reflection and divine illumination. " Wo- man, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father/' He then reminds her, that both the Jews and the Sa- maritans, as they did not offer the sacrifice of a penitent and pure heart, did not offer the homage most acceptable to God; and hints, I conceive, at the odious conduct of Simon and his followers, who, in the exercise of the most palpable hypocrisy and falsehood, affected to worship the supreme Being, in a manner more acceptable than was done by others. " The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth : For the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit, and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth." Verses 23, '24-. Farther; the deceiver rejected the God of the Jews, as an inferior and evil being; x 3 310 and pretended to reveal another God, which was supreme over all, and which was known only to himself. The worship of this divinity he set up among his countrymen, instead of the Creator and Governor of the universe, who had manifested himself in a special manner to the Jews by their patri- archs and prophets. This distinguishing feature in the system of Simon Magus is thus remarkably recognised by pur Lord. Ye; WORSHIP WHAT YE KNOW NOT; WE WOR^ SHIP WHAT WE KNOW, From the Recognitions we learn that one of the leading points, which the impostors denied, was, that there will be no life to come, and consequently that the salvation, promised by Jesus to his virtuous followers, can never be attained. In reference to this dangerous notion, our Saviour, in the next place, makes prominent that salvation, which was his great object to reveal and establish. For salvation is of the jews. Which short clause conveys these three important pro- positions ; — that he came to save * mankind ; * Simon Magus strenuously denied that Christ came to save mankind, or that his object was to procure them salvation in a life to come. Accordingly Peter in his dispute with him maintains this position : nor is he content with having once 311 that the God of the Jews, so far from being evil, and delighting in the miseries of his creatures, intends, and will finally accom- plish, their eternal redemption from vice and misery ; and lastly, that the person sent to execute this benevolent scheme was to be a Jew, and not a Samaritan. Before we proceed any farther permit me to place before you a fiction, which the ma- lice of the Jewish Rabbis has grafted on the event before us. The passage is ex- tracted from Wasjenseils Refutation of Tol- dos Jeschu, p. 16. "When king Jannasus slew the masters, Rabbi Josuah, son of Bara- chiah, and Jesus fled into Alexandria, a city of Egypt. Simon Ben Sheteck writes these words to R. Josuah son of Barachiah. The holy city Jerusalem sendeth greeting to thee, Alexandria of Egypt. O ! Sister, My husband liveth in the midst of thee, and shall 1 sit desolate. R. Josuah, being assured that the persecution was ended, determined to leave Alexandria and repair to Jerusalem. asserted it, but frequently repeats it in the course of the dispute. My reader will meet with instances where the writer renders prominent that salvation contained in the gospel and denied by the impostor in Lib. ii. 72. ii. ig, 25. iii. 65, 68. x 4 312 Having therefore departed with Jesus his constant follower and disciple, he was enter- tained, on the journey, by a certain woman, who treated them with every office of honour and hospitality. Then R. Josuah, delighted with the commodiousness of their entertain- ment, thus began to praise it. How beautiful is this hospitable place : But Jesus pretend- ing to understand him, as if he spoke of the hostess, said, Master this is truly affirmed by thee ; yet the obliquity of her eyes takes somewhat away from her beauty. The Master, being on this enraged, exclaimed, Wretch, art thou bent on such a thing? Dost thou dare to fix looks so intent on women ? He instantly called out four hundred trum- pets, at the sounding of which, he excom- municated Jesus with all curses." It is agreed among learned men, that by Jesus here mentioned, the writer intends Jesus Christ. Rabbi Josuah signifies, I con- ceive, John the Baptist, whose grand-father was called Barachiah ; but here for the sake of disguise, is said to be his father. Under the title of Simon Ben Shelccli is represented, Simon the magician. The Hebrew word ttttto Shetech signifies to slay, and has an affi- nity with &n&' Shecliet to, lay open for slaughter^ 313 The Samaritan impostor therefore is here denominated Ben Shetech or Ben Shechet, in reference partly to the frequent murders of which he was guilty, and more particularly to his practice of killing children* and * To Aquila the brother of Clement, when asking him, how he performed his magical wonders, Simon makes this reply. Fueri incorrupti et violenter necati, animam adjura- mentis ineffabilibus adsistere mihi feci, et per ipsam fit omne quod jubeo. Lib. ii. 13. Notice is taken of this nefarious custom, as practised by Simon and other magicians, in Justin Martyr's Apology ; chap 24. p 34. Tertwllian's Apology ; chap 23, Eusebius, Histor. Eccles. Lib. vii. chap. 10. I cannot help subjoining in this connection a passage, with which my reader will be much struck both for its singularity, and those marks of genuineness and truth, wh;ch the narrative car- ries with it. Peter, maintaining against Simon, the immor- tality of the soul, thus addresses him. " Tell me what in- credible thing has most power to persuade, that which is an object of sight or of hearing." Simon replied, that which is seen. Dost thou then wish to learn of me in words a thing, which may ensure thy conviction by its reality and appearance. I do not know, (answered he) in what way thou wilt relate it. Since thou dost not know, (rejoined Peter) Repair to thy house, and having entered the inner chamber thou shalt see there depo- sited a picture containing the image of a youth, violently slain, and covered with purple. — Ask that, and it will inform thee by its answer or even by its sight. For what need is there to interrogate that picture, whether the soul be immortal, when thou.seest it, (as is pretended) standing present with thee. If the soul be not there, it ought not to have the appearance of being (here. If thou be ignorant of the picture, to which I allude, let me, with other ten of those that are present, go without delay into thy house. Simon hearing this and touched with the sense of guilt, changed his colour and became pale: And dreading lest, if he denied, his house should be searched, o«; 314 laying open their entrails for the purpose of divination. It is on account of his rapa- Jest Peter, through indignation, should make his crimes more known to the people that were present, he thus answered : I beseech thee Peter, by that good God, which is in thee, that thou wouldst overcome the evil within me, and dispose me to repent- ance. And 1 will assist thee in thy preaching For I now learn from real tacts that thou art a prophet of the true God ; and there- fore art acquainted with the secrets of men. Then Peter says, You now see, brethren, Simon seeking repentance; soon you will behold him again returning to his former infidelity. Thinking that I am a prophet, because I have made public those evil deeds, which he performed in secret, he promises to repent. But I deem it not right in me to falsify, though it were to effect the salvation of this man. I therefore, call heaven and earth to witness that what I have said, 1 said not through inspiration, but had learnt it, from those who had been the associat.s of his crimes, but who are now converted to the faith. I therefore tevealed things made known to me by men, and not presignified of God ;" Recogn. Lib. iii. 44, 45. The incident here recorded, as it seems to me not easy to be conceived or feigned by the most powerful imagination, was probably founded in truth : And therefore affords in conjunc- tion with many other remarkable occurrences, that might be pointed out in the course of that work, a strong presumption that the writer did not altogether copy his fancy, but relates real and notorious facts. That honesty and love of truth, which re- strained Peter from ascribing to divine inspiration, the know- ledge of a transaction, imparted to him by some men, are precisely characteristic of the Apostles of our Lord. A, parallel case is recorded by the evangelist Mark chap. ix. Nor is there a circumstance in the whole compass of ancient history, which more clearly proves that the pen of the author was governed by the strictest impartiality and that he had not the least intention of imposing upon his readers in record- ing the miracles of his divine Master. 315 city and infamy in these respects, that our Lord, as has already been shewn, uses this language : " The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy ;" John x. 10. It is farther to be observed that the above terms are sometimes used in the Jewish scriptures to signify those, who had apostatised from the law of Moses, and in consequence, were devoted to those enor- mities, which were practised in the Pagan solemnities *. Such a designation therefore well suited the character of Simon; nor was it to be expected that a Jewish doctor should give a very favourable representation of one, who, though a bitter" enemy of Jesus, was a Samaritan, and an apostate too from their law. Having thus ascertained who are intend- ed by Jesus, Rabbi Josuah, and Simon Ben Schetech, we shall be able to develope the meaning of the above passage. Scjanus, the minister of Tiberius, caused some of those, who preached the christian faith in Rome, to be put to death ; while at his insti- gation, all the Jews and Egyptians were ba- nished from Italy. Hence we discover the * See Hosea chap. v. 2. 316 origin of the assertion, that king Janmeus slew ike masters. After the banishment of the Jewish and Egyptian nations, many of them, with Si- mon, perhaps, in the number, repaired to Alexandria : and here we trace the founda^ tion, which the author had for saying, that R. Josuah and Jesus went to that city for the avoiding of persecution. This persecu- tion was soon stopped by an edict, which Tiberius published in favour of the Jewish people, and by other salutary precautions, calculated to restore the public peace. This circumstance appears to have given rise to the fiction that R. Josuah, on finding that the persecution was ended, resolved to leave Alexandria and return into Judea. The writer of the Clementine Homilies informs us that Simon, on hearing of the death of John hastened home from Egypt with the view of succeeding him in his office : Nor is it improbable, that while yet in the number of his followers, he considered him to be the Messiah, and solicited him to be proclaimed as such. And this seems to have been the fountain whence was de- rived the following fiction : The Icoly city 317 Jerusalem sendetli greeting to thee Alexandria of Egypt. O ! sister, my husband liveth in the midst of thee: And shall I sit desolate ?" This husband means their expected Messiah* By this it is evident that the writer of this paragraph would have us believe that John the baptist was really the Christ. And we shall find, from an examination of the Mishna and the Talmuds, that the Jewish teachers were in their hearts convinced that the Messiah had appeared in the person of Jesus ; but too perverse and depraved to acknowledge this conviction, they affected to regard his forerunner as the Christ. Why Jesus and John instead of Simon should be sent to Alexandria is a matter not difficult to be discovered. The miracles which the former performed could not successfully be denied : In order therefore to evade the conclusion to be drawn from them, that he was the Son of God, it was necessary to represent him as having been in Egypt to learn the magical arts : And this is the reason why the Rabbis have been pleased to send him there, not, conformably to the story of his birth, in his infancy, but in his maturer years. The interview, which Jesus had with IS man and that a Samaritan woman, who had hitherto led an irregular life, was a cir- cumstanee, which could not fail to furnish the active malice of his enemies among the Jews, and especially the Samaritans, with a plausible ground for invidious insinuations, if not an open charge of criminality. Accordingly it appears to have been the very incident, which occasioned the fol- lowing fabrication : " R. Josuah, being delighted with the commodiousness of the entertainment, began thus to praise it, How beautiful is this hospitable place. But Jesus, pretending to understand him, as if he had spoken of the hostess, said, Master, this is truly affirmed by thee ; yet the obliquity of her eyes takes away some- what from her beauty. The Master being on this enraged, exclaimed, "Wretch, dost thou dare to fix looks so intent on women ? That some malicious representa- tion of this kind was grafted on the dis- course of Jesus with the Samaritan woman, may be inferred from one or two places in the gospel before us. It is for this reason, perhaps, that the Evangelist is so particular in stating that the interview took place at the sixth hour, that is, in the middle of the day. It is to be remarked farther, that. 319 the disciples, on their return expressed, their surprize and concern that he should thus converse so familiarly with a Samaritan woman. And this surprize and concern his enemies seem to have magnified into a re- prehension of his conduct on the part of his disciples. The contradiction of some such falsehood as this, John appears to have had in view when recording the following words; " And upon this came his disciples and marvelled that he talked with the woman. Yet no man said what seekest thou? OR WHY TALKEST THOU WITH Hatt ; verse 21 . We now return to the subject. A verse already noticed in part, it is here necessary to review. " He that hath the bride is the bridegroom ; but the friend of the bride- groom, which standeth, and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly, because of the bridegroom's voice : This my joy is therefore fuliillcd ;" chap. iii. 29. There are in this verse two circumstances, which shew that John had the impostors Dositheus and Simon before his eyes. The latter, we have seen, described himself as standing in opposition to Jesus thrown down by the arm of violence. But it appears that the former had assumed the 320 same figure, when, on having apostatised iYonl the baptist, he himself claimed the Messiah- ship. The refusal of John to be proclaimed the Christ at the instigation of his mistaken followers, furnished, it is probable, this im- postor with a pretext for saying that he was throicn doivn or degraded. The historian represents the Baptist as using a language well calculated to repel such an insinuation. " The friend of the bridegroom, which standeth* and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly, because of the bridegrooms voice." Observe the baptist carefully reminds his dis- ciples that he did not stand by liimsclf or rejoice on his oicn account, but by, and on account of, the bridegroom ; and therefore, * It ought to be observed that by the term I Ignitus the BaptiJt appears to signify, that, so far from being the Messiah, he was only one that stood in his presence to wait upon him. See Gen. xli. 46. and Deut. i. 36. where it is used in that sense. It should, however, be remarked that used, as iuhere is, in the participle perfect, it does not signify so much the circum- stance of standing as a waiter or servant in the presence of his Master, as the permanence or firmness of his station in oppo- sition to fickleness, change, or degradation. This idea is implied in it, when the apostle Paul thus speaks of himself, " Having obtained help of God / have stood 0?r,xa) to this day." Acts xxvi. 22. When employed in the perfect tense the cor- responding verb sto carries the same signification in latin, as in the following line of Virgil: ■ IIus erat, dum res stetit Ilia regno. 321 that he received no disappointment, that he incurred no cause of grief or degradation in not being himself ordained the Messiah. His joy consisted in pointing him out, and in hearing his voice ; and this joy received its accomplishment in the appearance of the bridegroom." The Jews gave their expected Messiah the title of bridegroom, or husband, and them- selves they spoke of, as his spouse. But our Lord never appears in a direct manner to have applied this title to himself during his ministry ; as it was his modest policy to in- culcate by his works, rather than profess in words, that he was the Christ. It was how- ever a word in vogue among the disciples of John, who, as they supposed him to be the Messiah, appropriated it to their Master. Simon Magus was perhaps the person who imported it into Samaria ; and hence it be- came a fashionable term, though used in a very different sense, in the Gnostic school. And this seems to have been the reason, why it is never employed in the four gospels, but in circumstances, which have a manifest reference to the disciples of John or the Samaritan impostor. - vol. n. Y y>2 Let us examine one or two of these, When considered in this light they will ap- pear to have much propriety. " Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, why do we and the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not. And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bride-chamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them ? But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them ; and then shall they fast;" Mat. ix. 14, 15. Here our Lord calls himself the bridegroom ; and his own disciples the children of the bride- groom. And this he evidently did to cor- rect the erroneous opinions maintained by the followers of the Baptist, who had appro- priated these terms to themselves and their Master. But what is principally to be remarked here is that Jesus holds out the violent death, which awaited him, and the grief and despondency, that would overtake his own disciples, on his apprehension and suffering. " The days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them (shall be conveyed away by violence, as was the case, when he was seized bv the soldiers with Judas at their head) and then shall they fast." The circumstance, which induced him to make this prophetic representation a part of 323 his reply seems to have been the following' : From the questions here proposed by the disciples of John, and more especially from their uniting with the Pharisees, we may infer that they were actuated by sentiments of envy and malice towards our Lord. These unworthy passions carried many of them so far as, from mere spite to Jesus and his followers, to favour the claims of the leading disciple Simon Magus. And we shall find in the sequel, that the Jewish part of those false brethren, who opposed the Apostles, consisted mostly of the disciples of the Baptist, and such of the Pharisees, as were baptised by him. Our inspired Lord then anticipated the conduct and sen- timents, which the men now addressing him would adopt ; and the fundamental principle among these was, that Christ did not suffer in reality but in appearance only. He therefore takes an immediate opportunity to furnish his followers with materials against the falsehood of that opinion : And thus by predicting the sudden and violent manner, in which he should be taken away, together with the subsequent distress of his disciples, he gives a decisive proof of his divine commission. Y2 324 Another and, I believe, the only remaining occasion, where Jesus describes his character as the Messiah, under the figure of a bridegroom, occurs in the twenty fifth of Matthew. But we cannot well come at the meaning of that passage, unless we take a route somewhat circuitous. The apostle Peter writes thus : u. I am now, be- loved, writing the second of my letters to you, in both which I endeavour to stir up youruncorrupted thoughts to remembrance; that ye should call to mind the words for- merly spoken by the holy teachers, and the commandment of our Lord and Saviour, delivered by the Apostles, attending to this especially that in the end of these days scoffers will come, walking after their own wills, and saying where is that promise of his coming;" 2 Epis. iii. 1 — 5. He then presently adds, " The Lord is not slow with his promise, as some men account it slowness ; but is patient for your sakes, being desirous that none should be lost, but all come over to repentance : for that day of the Lord will come as a thief by night ;" 9, 10. The scotl'ers here meant were Simon Magus, and his disciples, now be- come, as we shall sec, very numerous even in Judca and among the dispersed Jews. 325 The commandment of our Lord and Saviour, to which he calls their attention, is contain- ed in the following words : " Watch, there- fore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this that if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to have been broken up. There- fore be ye also ready : for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man cometh. Who then is a faithful and a wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season ! Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Verily, I say unto you, that he shall make him ruler of all his goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken: The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites ;" Mat. xxiv. 42. &c. Y 3 32 The restored man knew not ivho he was : for Jesus had avoided the multitude in the place. This verse does not seem to be fully understood by modern critics. The ancient commentators hov/ever thoroughly compre- hended its meaning. They considered it as asserting, that Jesus went to the impotent man, when the people were all gone away, that he might not have an opportunity ef coming to "the knowledge of his benefactor, by asking of somebody present, who he was, " Why, says Crysostom, did Christ conceal him- self ? First that the testimony given of him in his ab- sence might be without suspicion, secondly, that he might not too much inflame the resentment of (the Jews) : for the very sight of a person envied kindles, in the envious, no inconsider- able spark." See his commentaries on the place, p. 704. See also Theophylact, who pursues Crysostom's remark somewhat farther ; p. 625. D. 341 him before the rulers. The culprit thus told his own tale, which, simple as it was, must have been somewhat to this effect : " I laboured under an infirmity eight and thirty years, and all that time lay at the pool of Bethesda, hoping, but without success, to find relief from the troubled-water. Thus deplorably situated, a man just now came to me, and put the question, if I wished to be healed : and immediately, without even touching me, or using any other mean than his word, he restored me to that strength and health, which you see me now enjoy. After this he commanded me to take my bed and go home. I obeyed his orders : for motives both of fear and gratitude compelled me to act in compliance with a person, who is evi- dently endued with a power from God. This is the only apology I have to offer for my conduct. On the truth of my tale you may fully rely: nor can my veracity be called in question, as my long confinement, in so public a situation, has made me and my inveterate disorder known to multitudes of people, many of whom are now present ready to attest the fact. But what renders it impossible fairly to suspect me of collusion, and precludes all temptation to falsehood, is z 3 542 the circumstance, that my benefactor Is, at this very time, unknown to me: Nor can you suppose, that I should have obeyed the commands of a stranger, and, by that means, bring upon myself your displeasure, and the sentence of the law, if I did not perceive, in my restoration to health, that command fully sanctioned by supernatural authority." As this story, which carried its own de- monstration, was incontrovertible, the Phari- sees dismissed the man, not perhaps without charging him to inform them, as soon as he should come to the knowledge of the per- son who had compelled him to break the sabbath. The person guilty of this, he soon found out, and accordingly, " He told the Jews that it was Jesus who made him whole*." They, therefore, transferred to ^ Observe the address which the man shews in covering the supposed guilt of his benefactor. When he returns with the information to the Jews, he tells them not that it was Jesus who made him break'the sabbath, or take up his bed ; but that it was Jesus who made him xohole; insinuating by that means, that what he did was a beneficent and worthy deed, and that he acted with a power given him of God. When on the contrary the bigotfed enemies of our Lord interrogated the cripple, they asked not, Who healed thee ? but, Who was it that said unto thee, Take up thy bed ? Gvrui;, remarks Theophylact, 7^0; p£» to KaXov tOiXovTt nv'PX-.orrov, 7r,y o; dOKOWJ&v 'srcceccfixa-iv tov cocftftci.* 70V aw *.«* hutui Tgosf-jov, p. 625. ;43 him the accusation, which they had before urged against the lame man. The defence, which our divine Master made, is no less remarkable for its brevity, than it is for its conclusiveness. My Father yet worketli; and I too work : As though he had said : " The wisdom of my heavenly Father direct- ed, and his power enabled me to do the deed for which you deem me guilty. From the charge of guilt, I am, therefore, protected by his concurrence : and that concurrence, as it demonstrates my innocence, demon- strates your malice, bigotry and superstition. Nor is it possible effectually to defend yourselves from the imputation of these odious qualities, but by disproving a fact, which you have already investigated, and the reality of which you are compelled to believe, and which indeed you have vir- tually acknowledged in the dismissal of the accused person." An argument thus enforced by appeal to a miracle, the truth of which could not be denied, they were unable either to evade, or to resist. They therefore gave up the point : but, instead of candidly confessing their er- ror and contumacy, they sought out new z 4 344 grounds for accusing him, and depriving him of life. "Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also, that God was his Father, making himself equal with God; ver. 18. As every Jew was in the habit of address- ing the Supreme Being under the endeared name of Father, it is not easy to see how the adversaries of Jesus could, with any colour of truth infer, that because he spoke of God ashisFather,heinadehimselfequal with him. It is however but justice to the accusers to observe, that if we consider his words in the exact point of light in which they were used by the Saviour, there will appear some spe- ciousness, though no real justice, in the in- ference. Joseph, the carpenter, taught his son Jesus, we have reason to believe, his own occupation, and thus enabled him to pursue it on equal terms with himself. Previously, however, to the commencement of his ministry, the father, we may conclude from a variety of circumstances, resigned his breath. Now, in reference to the death of Joseph, his earthly father, and in con- tradistinction to that event, our Lord uses this language respecting his heavenly Father: 345 My Father still worketh, and I too work. Which is to this effect ; " Though my father on earth, whose employment I learnt, and with whom I worked on equal terms, as being now no more, hath ceased to work, yet my Father in heaven, with whom I am at present engaged, in a more important oc- cupation, and who, with the same parental kindness, which I have experienced, in a worldly sense, from the beloved author of my existence, hath instructed me in the di- vine art of healing the bodies and souls of men ; — this my heavenly Father, I say, still continues to work with me, and I with him*." This comparison, being implied in the words of Jesus, it was natural in his ene- mies to affect to understand him, as if he represented himself as employed on the same * The phrase €W- «§«, literally rendered, means until now ; or as Mr. Wakefield has it to this time, that is, My heavenly- Father continues to work in the extraordinary deeds, of which I am but the instrument in his hands, and in the ordinary opera- tions of nature, which, unlike human operations, are carried on, and will be carried on without intermission, and that on sab- bath days as well as other days. Let me here remark, as a con- firmation of the explanation given above, that the Jews present understood the clause as bearing a pointed reference to Joseph his natural father, who worked no more. Thus understanding the words of Jesus, they had some plausible foundation for their accusation of him : And had they not understood him so, such a construction would not only be palpably perverse and devoid of all plausibility, but would never have occurred to them. 34(5 footing with respect to God, a colleague or a partner, as he was in regard to Joseph of Nazareth, in his worldly calling. Jesus, perceiving that his adversaries construed his words into an assertion that he possessed the same equality with the Deity, which one man has with another, disclaims their per- verse construction in a manner unusually solemn: " Indeed, indeed, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do; for what things soever he doeth, these doeth the Son like- wise ;" ver. 19. Which is, as though he had spoken to the following effect: " Ah equality between two partners in one busi- ness, or two colleagues in the same office, implies some resources originally underived from, and still independent of, each other: an equality of this kind, in regard to my heavenly Father, is what I most solemnly disclaim. For the power and wisdom, which I possess, are entirely derived from him, and upon him I depend in the same unqua- lified manner for the exercise and continu- ance of them. And as whatever I did when first learning the trade of my father on earth, I did, by his assistance and direction ; and without that assistance and direction was unable to do any thing ; even so, in the 347 divine art of healing men, and of teaching them the way of salvation, I am utterly unable to perform a single action without, in a similar way, being directed and assisted by my Father in heaven." He then sub- pins : " For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him whatsoever he doeth himself." That is, " My human parent in conse- quence of his affection for me, kept from my knowledge no mysterious branch of his art, m secrets of his trade, but shewed me whatever himself knew, and taught me to attain skill and excellence in the most dif- ficult and refined parts of it. This is, too, the case with my divine Parent. With the same parental affection he has revealed to rne his Son those mysteries which he had hitherto concealed from his servants m the preceding ages; and for the same reason he has enabled me to do, what no other being but himself is able to perform. Having thus repelled the heinous charge of making himself a God equal with the Almighty; and attested, on the contrary, his absolute dependence upon and subordi- nation to his heavenly Father— Having done this, too, in a language which recognises his descent from Joseph of Nazareth, he 348 proceeds, after a short digression, occa- sioned by the train of his ideas*, to prove that he was, however, what he represented himself to be — The Son qf God. But he again repeats his former protestation, that he had nothing, but what was given him. " I can do nothing of myself: As I hcarl judge, and my judgment is just; for I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father which sent me." 30. He then begins with the testimony which John bore to him at his baptism. "There is another that beareth witness of me : And I know that the wit- ness which he witnesseth of me is true. Ye sent unto John and he bare witness unto the truth." 32, 33. In the next place he alleges the miracles, which he performed as proving far more decisively than the testi- * The curing of a man, so aged and infirm, of a disease so inveterate, excited of course much attention and astonish- ment. The wonder, which the people thus expressed, naturally led our Lord to reflect upon two other events, which from their magnitude and extraordinary nature, would command still greater astonishment — Accordingly he anticipates his raising of Lazarus from the dead, and his own subsequent resurrection. And having these in his mind, it was equally natural, that he should immediately deliver some general remarks, founded upon them, respecting the future resurrection of mankind ; of which his own was designed to be at once the proof and the pledge. The subject, into which, he thus digressed, verse 20, he pursues till the thirtieth verse, where he again takes up his dispute with the Jewish doctors. 349 mony of John, that he was the Son of God. ** But I have greater witness than that of John, for the works which the Father gave me to finish, the same works, that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me." 36, Fie appeals, thirdly, in support of his claims, to the declaration made by God himself — This is my beloved Son, in idiom I am well pleased ; " And the Father himself which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me." 37. He then insinuates that the voice and form, which was then sensibly heard and seen, were not perceived in a proper manner, that is, were not under- stood and obeyed, by those, who though present to the testimony given him from heaven, now opposed his claims. (t Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape." In proof of this he gives the following very good reasons : " And ye have not his word abiding in you : For whom he hath sent, him ye believe not." 3$. Finally in justification of his claims as the Son of God, he direcleth their attention to the Jewish scriptures as bearing testimony to him: " Search the scriptures : For in these ye think ye have eternal life ; and they are they which teftify of me." 39. 350 Simon Magus, we have seen, was, for some lime, the leading disciple of John, and per- haps present when at his baptism Jesus was announced from heaven as the Son of God. Be thisj however^ as it may, it is certain that the great body not only of the Jewish people, but also of the Pharisees, expected the Baptist to be the Messiah, and joined with his disciples from sinister motives, in extoll- ing him in opposition to our Lord. There is reason to believe, too, that many of them, when disappointed in respect to John, were prompted by the same dishonourable views, to support the pretensions of the Samaritan impostor. Accordingly while our Saviour was, on this occasion, exhibiting to his perverse countrymen a beautiful summary of those arguments, which demonstrate the divinity of his mission, he had his eyes fixed on some such events ; and he levels his language against them. Thus he adverts to the expectation of his adversaries that John was to be the Messiah. " But I re* ceive not testimony from men : But these things I say that ye might be saved. He (John) was a burning and shining light, and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light." 34, 35. In this verse we see it suf- 2 551 ficiently declared that for a certain time tlie Pharisees were inclined not only to prefer the Baptist, but even to exult in his eleva- tion. He then reflects upon their basenc & in affecting to receive, from mere spite to him, an impostor, who came in his own name, without any recommendation from God or any good man. " I am come in my Father's name and ye receive me not. Iil ANOTHER COME IN HIS OWN NAME, HIM ye will receive"*. 43. The object of Simon and his followers, was to gratify lust, avarice and ambition, or to receive honour from men. In reference to these base views, our Lord attests, / receive not honour from man. ver. 4 1 . and in verse 44< * The ancient writers on the New Testament very properly understand our Lord as meaning Antichrist in the person of Simon Magus. TW, asks Crysostom, & V,fsjy fao-iv ev vu onftari roh) : 7ov AvT^t-on &Mnriiteu svrayQa xva t&Ja.vri&irnv%dt.VTi>t 7%; uyvufAO&vvr.s 7i%an ovjrthkfyv' Et y*g tut a.ywzu'nis tov S.-ov us diwx'TE, itoXKdi waXAov ewi Toy AvTi^jr&u rovio y&eaQou easi* excho; ya§ oi/dsv Totoyrov s^u, ours etfanfetXQau ttcccx tov xx-joc, oi/te jcxtcj yvw/xw wsiv TW v/.nvov' uWa, rovvxrriov 'avocv, rvgKVUKvs tx u.r$tv Uvtu Tgoo-ny.ovrx- 'a°Trc.fyv, kxi tov eot ifAvrvi m 0ms) ver. 44. and inculcates that he is love itself, though rejected by those among the Jews, who sided with the Samaritan impostor ; ver. 42. Farther, Simon denied a future life, and rejected the Jewish prophets. These important points our divine Master next maintains : And he directs the attention of his adversaries to the Jewish scriptures as latently containing that life and immortality, which he brought to light in his gospel, and to himself as the person corresponding to the representa- tions of ancient prophecy. " Search the scriptures*, for in them ye think ye have * The verb e^wcen is used not in the indicative, but in the imperative mood. As it signifies to search minutely, or to examine with accuracy and attention, it carried with it when here employed by Jesus, a command not merely to peruse the letter, but thoroughly to enter into the spirit of their sacred writings ; not to rest in their primary signification, but care- fully to weigh their internal, their metaphorical sense. By which he insinuated to them, that if they thus investigated 357 reference to Simon and other impostors, who had no will to fulfil but their own; no doctrine to teach but such as coincided with the mistaken views, and flattered the base passions of men ; nor any other to bear testimony to their claims, but their associates in guilt. I cannot quit this interesting chapter, without calling the attention of those, who If, however, you supply solum in the first clause, and read at foret, in the second, the difficulty vanishes at once: And in plain English it will be as follows : Nasvius is not only in the hands, but remains fixed in the memories of men. Eurudamas, the soothsayer, delivered a prophetic dream, that his two sons would never return from the Trojan war : And the dream was realized ; for Diomedes slew them both ; Hence Homer thus sings : To»j ova s^ojaEvot," 6 yzf>wv zxpvaT avu^ov? A\7m o-Qias xaawsgos A»oju.*i&i,- e|ev«h|e Iliad, iv. 151, 152. Critics have been equally unsuccessful in explaining these, as the above verse of the Latin Poet : But supply povov to the first, and then they may be rendered thus : In respect to their return^ the sage, (ou povov sk^volto) not only interpreted dreams (signify- ing that his sons would be slain) but the valiant Diomedes did (actually) slay them. A A 3 ij vo^oWtx,-* And here I wish to direct the attention of my readers to a fact no less curious than important; namely, that by the Jewish christians whom Epiphanius describes, under the ignominious title of Ebionites, are meant those, who among the Jews, favoured the system of Simon Magus. The truth of this fact will appear •more fully in the sequel. Nor does it by any means follow from this, that the name of Ebionites did not, in early times, com- prehend all the Jewish converts. The distinction between them and the Nazarenes, and the appropriation of the former term to the Jewish heretics still appear to be owing to the artifice of Epiphanius and others. Nothing was more natural, than that the fathers should confound the faithful followers of Jesus in Judea with those of the Jews, who favoured the extravagant sentiments of Simon, or apply to them the same common appellation. Permit me farther to remark, what has been hinted at already, that the real writer of the Hoynilies ascribed to Clement of Rome, cherished, in a great degree, the sentiments of the impostor Cerinthus, who was a disciple of Simon Magus. Hence we may perceive, that though his leading object was to expose the system of the Samaritan deceiver, while vet in open hostility to the christian cause, he holds in reality many opinions which were borrowed from him. One palpable error among these was, that several falsehoods respecting the Supreme Being, are inserted in the law of Moses and the prophets. See Horn. ii. 38. with Cotelerius's Annotation. * Some ancient commentators suppose, and the supposition 355 m whom yc trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me : for he is extremely probable, that our Lord referred to the following passage of Moses — " If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign of a wonder. And the sign or wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee ; Saying, Let us go after other Gods ,which thou hast not known, and let us serve them. 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;" Deut. xiii. i — 4. This commandment compared with the words of Jesus, places them in a point of light peculiarly forcible and pertinent. Moses in the name of Jehovah warns the Jews against an impostor, who should attempt to seduce them to the worship of another unknown God. To this warning voice of their lawgiver the Jews of our Saviour's time refused to pay attention, but fol- lowed a false prophet, who rose among them, to serve a God superior to Jehovah, and hitherto unknown to the Jewish people, and even to Moses and the prophets. How proper then, and how forcible was the language of our Lord, when he tells his perverse countrymen, that Moses would accuse them ? Again, the above commandment implies, that the Lord permitted false prophets to rise among his people in order to prove whether or not they had a real love for him ; that if they loved him with all their heart and with all their soul, they would not of course hearken unto the words of that prophet. This criterion serves to unfold the meaning of our Saviour in the following verses : "But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. I come in my Father's name and ye receive me not : If another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive;" 42, 43. Now the Jews rejected the claims of Jesus, from a pretended love for the character, and regard for the honour of God, whom they affected to consider as blasphemed and dishonoured by a man, who A A 2 356 wrote of me. But if ye believe not his ten- tings, how shall ye believe my words ;" 45, 46. Finally ; the Lord, when de- claring that he did not seek his own will, but the will of the Father, that sent him ; and that if he bore witness of himself, his witness* is not true; verses 30, 23. has a. represented himself as equal with him. To this pretence Christ adverts in the above paragraph, and his argument in exposing it is to this effect : "You attempt to justify your rejection of me, under the pretext of love towards your heavenly Father. But I know that this is not your true motive : For if you really loved him, yo-i would receive me, who come not in my own, but in his name, and act with his authority : Nor would you, as will be the case after my death, support the pretensions of an impostor, who will come in his own name, and who will im- piously blaspheme the God of your fathers as an evil being." * The whole verse is thus : " I£ I bear witness of myself my witness is not true." That is, If I alone, or if I be the only person that bears testimony of myself, then would my testimony be unworthy of credit. Every scholar knows that po-m in Greek znd solum in Latin are frequently left out, and that the corres- ponding adverb alone or only, in English , must be supplied in order to make out the sense. Take the following example from Mark ix. 37. " Whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, (that is receiveth not only me) but (also) him that sent me." Let my learned reader consult Longinus by Toupe, p. 4. 32. and the editor's notes. And will you forgive me, if, for once, I step aside to snatch a flower or two from classic grounds ? Horace, Epis. ii. 53. writes thus : Na^vius in manibus non est, et mentibus hasret. Critics all complain of the obscurity of this line ; nor has it received any illustration from the splendor of Bentley's genius : 365 born of known parents, they concluded that he was not the Christ; since it was generally believed, that the Messiah, when he would make his appearance, should spring from parents unknown*. This is a very singu- lar circumstance; and remarkable is the answer, which our Lord returns to then- objection: "Then cried Jesus in the temple, as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am, and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is * The Jews seem universally to have expected the Messiah to be born at Bethlehem. When, therefore, they say of him, Xoone/cnoueth whence he is, they refer not to the place of his birth but to the man that would be instrumental in giving him birth' Their argument then is this, " We know that this man is born of Joseph of Nazareth : he cannot therefore be the Christ, because no one will know who is to be his father." And this is the manner in which Grotius understands the clause „„™ o, V- «A« ^-Q"° p*™ natus sit-~ APud iuosdam Judseos fama invaluerat Messiae patrem indican non posse. At hujus patrem nosse sesibi persuaserant, Josephum Scilicet ; Grot in loco. And this is the way in wbic some of the ancient commentators explain their words ; See Theop. p. 667. Origen, however, interprets them thus, The Hierosolymites, when saying that they knew whence he is ; refer to his birth at Bethle- hem • Com. Vol. ii. 262. I cannot help suspecting indeed that Origen is here guilty of a wilful misrepresentation. He could not but know that the Jews, in this very chapter, refer his birth to the town of Nazareth, and ground upon that fact, au argument a.ainst his being the Messiah. See verse 42. Consult what Licditfoot has said on the above clause in his Horn Talmudicx. The explanation given by him is certainly not the true one. 366 (rue, whom ye know not ;" 28. As though he had thus replied, " You have, indeed, a personal knowledge of me, and my father and mother, but I have another real Father, who, in strict sonse, is the real Father of us all: — From this Father I am come; and this Father you do not know; and there- fore, on your own principle, I am the Christ, because no man among you knoweth whence I am." As they were assured that Jesus had re- ceived his birth at Nazareth in Galilee, they again objected, that he could not be the Christ, because the town of Bethlehem was to have the honour of giving birth to their expected Messiah. " Many of the people, therefore, when they heard this saying, said of a truth, This is the prophet. Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee ? Hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was ?" 40 — 43. So confident were the enemies of our Lord, that Galilee, and not Bethlehem, claimed the ho- nour, or, according to them, the infamy, of his birth, that they urged it as an objection to his claims, without the least fear of being 367 contradicted. When Nicodemus ' put the question, Doth our law judge any man before it hear him, and know what he doth ? their answer was, " Art thou also of Galilee ? Search and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet;" 5C2. " Upon his saying these things, many be- lieved on him. Then said Jesus to those lews who believed on him, If ye continue in this doctrine of mine, ye are truly my disciples. And ye will know the truth, and this truth will make you free. They answered, We are Abraham's race, and were never slaves to any one : how dost thou mean then that we shall be free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Every man that committeth sin is a slave of sin. Now the slave hath no settled abode in the family for ever. If, therefore, the Son shall make you free, ye will be free indeed. I know that ye are the race of Abraham; but ye are seeking to kill me, be- cause my doctrine thriveth npt in you. I speak what I have seen with my Father; and ye are also doing what ye have heard from your father. They answered, Abra- ham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would 36$ do the works of Abraham. But now y$ arc seeking what Abraham, would not have done, to kill me a man, who have spoken to you the truth from God. Ye do the works of your father. Then said they unto him, We were not born of fornication: we have but one Father, which is God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would have loved me: because I came forth from God, and am coming from him ; for I am not come of myself, but he sent me ;" chap. viii. 30 — 43. We have just seen, that our inspired Lord foresaw that the Jews, who accused him of violating the sabbath, and with whom he is here conversing, would, when become no- minal converts to the gospel, depart from its purity, and profess it as debased by Simon, Cerinthus, and others of the Samaritan and Egyptian schools. In consequence of this foreknowledge, he thus forewarns them on the present occasion: if ye continue in THTS DOCTRINE OF MINE, YE ARE MY DIS- CIPLES indeed; which means this, " When you, after having ranked nominally among my followers, shall reject my doctrine as not coinciding with your worldly views, and de- manding sacrifices to which your depravities 1 06$ also the number of its members, and bones, and veins, and arteries, and nerves; the several constitutions of body, hot and dry, cold and moist, and the tendencies of them ; how the soul operated upon the body ; what its varii ous sensations and faculties were ; the faculty of speaking, anger, desire ; and lastly, the manner of its composition and dissolution, and other things, which the understanding of no creature had ever reached. Then that philosopher arose and worshipped the Lord Jesus;" chap. 51, 52. This representation was intended, no doubt, to confer honour upon our Lord; but the honest John thought it an honour too dear to purchase at the expence of truth. He therefore produces the authority of his countrymen, who were the best judges of the matter, that he was perfectly uneducated in the school of human wisdom. "Now about the midst of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught. And the Jews marvelled, saying, how knoweth this man letters, having never learnt'" chap, vii. U, 15. Though our Lord silenced the Jews, when accusing him of violating the sabbath, 562 they did not relinquish the design of killing him : and he was obliged to leave Jerusalem in order to evade their diabolical purpose. He returns, however, about the middle of the least; and he went into the temple publicly to teach. The cure of the infirm man at the pool of Bethesda, and the interest- ing discourse which it occasioned, from the strong and lasting impression which they left upon both parties, became the im- mediate subject of their dispute. Perceiv- ing their hostile views painted in their countenances, our Lord asks them with seeming abrujptness, " Did not Moses give you the law : Yet none of you doeth the law. Why are ye seeking to kill me ;" 19, 20. As if he had said, " You accuse me of violating the law of Moses, because I healed a poor man, on the sabbath-day, while at the same time yourselves are grossly chargeable with that crime : For contrary to an express commandment of that law, you are endeavouring to deprive me of my life, and that not because I have done you any evil, but because I have done good to an helpless victim of disease and infirmity." He «;oes on ; " 1 did but one work on the sabbath, and ye all wonder at it. Moses gave you circumcision (not that circumci- 363 sion came first from Moses, but from the patriarchs) and ye circumcise a man on the sabbath-day. If a man receive circumci- sion on the sabbath, so that the law of Moses (by that act) is not broken, ought you to be enraged with me, because I made a man whole throughout on the sabbath-day." 21 — 24. Which argument is to this effect, "You think it no violation of the law, to cut and maim a man, on the sabbath ; but to restore health and vigour through the whole frame of a debilitated and long-neg- lected sufferer, is such a heinous transgres- sion, as should rouse your resentment, and prompt you to vengeance * ! ! ! Then said * This explanation will lead us to perceive the meaning of our Lord in the following incident, recorded by Mark, c. iii. I — 5. " And he went again into the synagogue. And a man with a withered hand was there. And they were maliciously observing, whether he would heal the man on the sabbath-day, that they might accuse him. And he saith to the man with the withered hand : Come forward into the midst. And he saith unto them : Is it right to do good, or to do evil on the sabbath-day ? to save life, or to destroy it." The pertinence and force of his questions lie in this : You on the sabbath-day plan means to take away my life, and yet you accuse me of breaking the sabbath, for saving the life of a poor infirm sufferer. The first question, Is it right to do good, or to do evil, on the sabbath-day ; our Lord knew to be too indefinite and general^ to convey his full meaning, and therefore to bring it home to their consciences, he subjoins the second, Is it right to save life, or to destroy it. His words, thus adapted to the guilt of his accusers, they immediately under- stood : and the justice of the retort struck them dumb. And 3tv$o<; means the same with h^varn?, the liar, and is the nominative case to \a,Xv, speaketh. B B 4 376 because his father too is a liar, But I speak the truth, and yet you do not believe me." As Jesus has the Samaritan impostor in his view through the whole context, we may safely conclude, that he was the person prin- cipally meant in the above paragraph*. The devil or serpent was his father, who commissioned him to disseminate false doc- trines, in opposition to the word of truth. Like his father, he was a man -slayer; like him too, he continued not in the truth ; that is, he apostatised from his master the Baptist, and the reason why he did not persevere in the truth, as taught by John was, that the truth was not in him; or, in other words, that he did not embrace, what he professed, with upright and sincere views, but from sinister and selfish purposes. Lastly, though this first-born of satan propagated nothing - * It js observable, that by the liar here described, Origen understood Antichrist, and it is easy to see, that when the ancient writers speak of Antichrist, they speak of it under the character of Simon Magus, its first founder. And this is no more than what is done by the Apostle Paul himself. Because Simon, as is said of him in the Acts, professed to be the power of the su- preme God, or of a God above the Creator of the world, Paul, describing Antichrist, thus says, " The son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped ;" 2 Thess. ii. 4. The words of Origen may, I fear, be applied to my own case. " Perhaps, says he, some will stumble at my saying, that the liar is Antichrist." Com, vol, ii. p. 309. 377 but falsehoods, the Jews, here addressed, affected to believe in him in preference tq the Son of Godo The character of Simon was notoriously marked by malice, cruelty, lust, and avarice. In every respect he exhibited a picture quite opposite to the meek and benevolent Jesus. The latter indeed could not but be sensible of the striking contrast, which subsisted be- tween him and the former ; and when, therefore, he was now describing his infa- mous character, he puts to his very enemies the triumphant question, Who among you can convict me of sin? The deceivers Dositheus and Simon, denied the immortality of the human soul, and the resurrection of the hu- man body. According to them, therefore, there was no hope either of surviving the stroke, or of being rescued from the domi- nion of death. In order, however, to suc- ceed in their project of deceiving men, they impudently pretended at other times to confer upon such as followed them, in preference to Jesus, an eternal exemption from natural death. Conformably to this doctrine, it was professed of course, that themselves should not die, but continue for ever superior to de- cay. And this is the idea held out by Simon, 378 when be speaks of himself as the standing power of God, and one that would never fall away in the body. Dosithcus appears to have made a similar profession; for his followers, even after his death, affected to believe that he did not really die. In testimony of this, hear- the words of Origen : " We must not be ignorant, that as Jesus rose among the Jews, who not only professed, but proved himself (to be the Messiah); so among the Samari- tans arose Dositheus, professing to be the pre- dicted Christ; And even at this time there arc some Dositheans, who hawk about books under his name, and relate certain fables of him ; namely, that he never tasted death, but still dwells somewhere among the liv- ing" *, Now the pretension of the impos- tors in this respect was a circumstance too singular and momentous to be left unnoticed, by our Lord, on the .present occasion. He therefore directly levels his language against it; and represents himself to be the teacher whose doctrine, if kept, would confer eter- nal life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, * This passage forms a part of Origen's comment on the following words of Jesus, addressed to the woman of Samaria, Yc ivorship ivhat ye knoivnot ; John iv. 22. and this shows that he understood our Snviour, as alluding to the unknown Gcd of Dositheus and Simon ; Com. Vol. ii. p. 219. 379 if any one keep the doctrine which I teach, he JJiall not see death for ever; 5 1 . That is, "It is I, and not the impostors of Samaria, that reveal the doctrine of eternal life; and the man, who will adhere to this my doctrine, and practise those virtues, to which it gives birth, shall be raised after death to a new and everlasting existence*." The objectors, understanding or affecting to understand these words in a literal sense, found fresh and more plausible materials for cavil. " Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets; and dost thou say, If any man keep my doctrine, he will never taste death \ * The original is thus : Ajj.w otjx.w Xsyw £/-"", £«" tjj tov Xo- yov tov Eju.ov Tngno'ri, ^avocrov ov jjw Viu^wn e*j tov ouuvot.' Here again, in the first clause, tov i/jlov are put after Xoyov, in order to place the opposition, which Jesus intended, in a stronger point of light. The last, which is rendered, he Jhall never fee death, should be translated conformably to the original, he shall not see death/or ever ; meaning, he shall no< be obnoxious to that death, which is eternal. Our Lord certainly did not mean to sav, though the Jews understood, or affected to understand him in that light, that the keeping of his doctrine, would exempt a person irom natural death. On the contrary his meaning is, that the man, who firmly perseveres in the profession of his gospel in all its purity, and reduces it to practice, shall not be the victim of eternal death, nor remain for ever prisoner of the tomb. Simi- lar to this is the signification, which he conveys by the words, Ov ij.y> a7ro\uvTat sis tov «»u/va* Chap. x. 26. They Jliall not remain under the eternal dominion of death. 380 Art thou greater than this Abraham, whq died, as the prophets also died? Whom makest thou thyself?" In answer to these queries, our Lord replies in effect, that he did not seek to be raised above Abraham, or the prophets, nor to procure glory for himself; that, if he sought his own glory, it would, like that of his impious rivals, be no- thing and end in nothing; that his Father, however, would glorify him in his resurrec- tion from the dead, as the basis of that eter- nal life, which he held out to his faithful followers: — " Jesus answered, If I give glory to myself, this glory is nothing : it is the Fa- ther who giveth me glory." He then hints that the grounds of Abra- ham's glory or exultation did not consist in any other privilege than in being enabled by the power of faith to foresee the day, in which he, as the Messiah, should appear in -the world. " Abraham your father exulted to see my days, and he saw it and was glad ;" 56. The words carry an obvious allusion to a man, who, standing on low ground, springs up in order to get a glimpse of an object, concealed from his eyes either by distance, or something intervening. They therefore cannot, without violence, be inter- 381 prered as asserting that Jesus really existed in the days of that patriarch. And yet so intent were the Jews upon perverting his language, that, when he said Abraham leapt up, as it were, to see the distant day of Christ, they construed his saying into a declaration that he saw Abraham. " Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abra- ham .?" Instead of exposing this artful mis- construction of his words, our Lord coolly proceeds to assert, that he was the personage whose day was anticipated not only by Abraham, but by others, before Abraham received his birth." Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was born, I am he." Observe carefully, our Lord does not say before Abraham was born I teas, but I am, that is, am the person meant when it was promised, that one should come into the world for the benefit of man-1 kind*. It should be remarked, that, as our divine Master holds himself up to be the * As the clause syw ;#p, is but an assertion, that he is the Messiah, Simon and Dositheus, having claimed that character, made use of it respecting themselves. The following is a strik- ing instance of this : Tov Si/xwvos ejtovtoj ETO EI?vi[, o Aaxftitoi Ixvrov yvovi ovk ovtk tov irora, ■mew ffjoa*sxuiwic"s* Horn. Clem. ii. 24. Compare this with what Jesus says, Mat. xxiv. v. 3 382 person whom the Jewish patriarchs foresaw, and in whose coming they rejoiced, and that, as his discourse is throughout levelled against those men, who he knew, would reject the Old Testament, as delivered hy a Christ different from the founder of Chris- tianity, his object in part was to preclude this absurd notion ; and to assert, on the contrary, the unity of the Jewish dispensa- tion with the christian, as having both pro- ceeded from the same great Author, and conspiring alike in the same happy end. Some observations have already been delivered on certain parts of the tenth chapter. There remains much more of what is very material to notice in it. " All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers ;" verse 8. In the number of those thieves and robbers, who came before Christ, Simon Magus, I have shewn, held a con- spicuous rank. This is a fact, which we are now able more satisfactorily to explain. Being a disciple of John the Baptist, he began his imposture while his Master was yet living : And we are told that he had al- ready become famous at Alexandria, for his skill in the arts of magic. On his return home, he set up a system of opposition to 383 the ministry of Jesus, and, though his arti- fices did not perhaps prove very successful Ut first in Judea, he made many converts in his own country, and among other nations, before the gospel was yet extended to the gentiles. This is a fact very probable in itself, and it is directedly attested by the author of the Homilies. For he repesents the apostle Peter, as using these words : " In this way we may easily see to which class, (that is to the evil or to the good) be- longs Simon, who came before me to- the gentiles. What renders this passage worthy of notice is the circumstance of the writer alluding seemingly to the above declaration of Christ*:' 'And 'hence he well illustrates the propriety of it, by asserting that the darkness of antichrist was diffused among the gentiles, ere any of them were yet illuminated by the light of the gospel. Simon then being in the number of the im- postors and perhaps the principal one of * 'O <7rs>» ejxoo »$ rx eSvw iz^toc j\9wv, Horn ii. 17. The words of Christ are these : iTavTs,- ocrcn tvpo zuov *ix9o>, chap. x. "S. In the spurious book, entitled The Apostolic Constitutions, it is also asserted, that Simon, with an associate of xhs name oC Cleobius, preached their heresy among the genii! ;, b 'ore thi true gospel was taught them by the apostle.*. See Cote] . vol. i. p. m.v 384/ those, whom our Lord here calls thieves and robbers, we are hence enabled to see the beauty and force of the contrast, which this chapter exhibits of them. Jesus was1 the shepherd, who entered into the sheep- fold by the door ; Simon was the thief, that Climbed up some other way; verses 1,2. The former was a native, and the flock knew his voice; the latter a foreigner, whose speech they did not know ; 4, 5. The one wished to feed and multiply the sheep, and to secure their lives from the destroyer ; the other aimed at destroying them and dimi- nishing their number; 10. Jesus superin- tended the flock, because he loved them, and wished to promote their good ; Simon because he was a hireling. 12. The good Shepherd gave even his life for the sheep : The hireling, when he saw the wolf coming took to flight, and the sheep were scat- tered. " But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep and fleeth : And the wolf catcheth them and scattereth the sheep ;" 12. If you reflect upon the persecution which first broke out in Rome, you will see much propriety in this representation; as it exhibits the hireling, and not the shepherd as being with the flock. 3S5 when the wolf made his first appearance. And tliis corresponds with the fact. When Se- janus and the Senate, the wolf here meant, worried the sheep of Christ, the Samaritan thief was, we have reason to believe, then in that city, endeavouring, as Lucian says of the impostor Alexander, to shear them of their brain and their wool. Simon and his associates were then compelled to seek security by flight, and all the converts were scattered over the whole world, by their banishment from Italy* " As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father : And I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold : Them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice : There shall be one fold and one shepherd ;" 15, 16". By other sheep, which he had, and which were not of that fold, Jesus seems to have principally meant those of the Samaritans, who, he foresaw, would embrace his religion. The audaciousness of the deceiver in breaking into his fold, and leading astray many of his sheep in Judea, appears to have led our Lord by a natural association to reflect on those, who in the impostors VOL, II, c c 386 own country, would be converted to the gos- pel, and ranked in the number of his sheep. Thus considered there seems much pro- priety in the last clause : 'f And there shall be one fold and one shepherd." That is, " Even those Jews and Samaritans, who had hitherto been inflamed against each other by religious animosities, and separated into distinct societies by party spirit, shall unite together in peace and harmony, forming one church, and acknowledging one Master." Simon, it is to be observed, farther, had the arrogance and impiety to maintain, that none but himself knew the unknown God. To this circumstance also the above words have an apparent allusion. " As the Father knoweth me ; even so know I the Father." That is, " As I, and not the Samaritan impostor have received commission from God, it is I, and not he, that have the knowledge of him." " Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself : I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father ;" 17,18. That Christ really 387 suffered and rose again, which were the great doctrines denied by the founders of the Gnostic school, are facts here antici- pated and attested by our Lord; and what is most worthy of . observation is, he re- presents his submission to death, so far from being an evidence of the divine displea- sure, or not forming any part of his com- mission, as the grounds of his Father's love to him, and the principal charge which was given him to execute. " And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter : and Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt ? If thou be the Christ tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not : the works, which I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice : And I know them, and ihey follow me ;" 22 — 28. The Jews, who surrounded our Lord on this occasion, seem to have been in part c c 2 388 the same with those, whom he addresses in the eighth chapter. There it is asserted hy the Evangelist, that many of them believed in him. Jesus, however, foreseeing that they would espouse the Samaritan system, apprizes them, that, if they departed from the purity of his doctrine, they would cease to be in reality what they professed — his disciples. And of this he assures them in direct terms, while now speaking in refer- ence to their deceiver. " But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you ;" 26. The severe reflections, which our Lord then made upon their con- duct and principles, threw them into rage, doubt, and perplexity. But they appear to have still entertained the secret conviction, that their reprover could be no other than the Christ. They therefore put to him the question in these strong terms, How long wilt thou take away our life (with doubt) *? If thou be the Christ tell us plainly ;" 24. * This is an expression no less peculiar than forcible. The use of it may be thus accounted for : Our Lord told his enemies that they would take away his life. The words thus uttered they picked up, and addressed them back to the speaker in a sense somewhat different from what he used them. As if they had said : " Thou sayest that we shall take away thy life, how long wilt thou take away ours with anxiety and doubt, whether or not thou be the Christ.'* 389 To this Jesus replied : " I told you and ye believed not : the works, that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me." He then subjoins this reason for their unbe- lief ; " But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me;" c26, 27. Which is as though he had spoken to this effect, " You have already expressed your faith in me. You belong not, however, to my fold, bur, as I told you, to that of a hireling. Being the disciples of an impostor, you have neither principles nor dispositions, which qualify you to exercise a firm faith in my mission, nor yield proper obedience to my words. They are really my followers, (and these divine wisdom hath enabled me to foreknow) who have power to obey my commands, and follow my example." He goes on, "And I give them eternal life, and they shall not perish eternally: And no one shall snatch them out of my hand ;" 28. As if he had thus said : " My impious antagonists promise, it is true, an eternal exemption from death to their deluded votaries*. * Menander, the immediate disciple of Simon, made this promise to his followers ; if so be, that they were baptized in CCS 390 But I am the person authorised to proclaim this unspeakable blessing. I promise not, indeed, to my faithful followers an indem- nity from natural death, but they shall not remain for ever captives of the king of terror. And these my sincere disciples, • who are prepared by proper dispositions for immortal felicity, no impostor will be able either by fraud or violence to snatch from my hand." Simon pretended to reveal a God un- known and superior to the God of the Jews. This seems to have been the chief artifice, by which he seduced many of that nation to espouse his system. And it is this which his name. — Resurrectionem per id quod est in eum baptisms accipere ejus discipulos, et ultra non posse mori, sed perseve- rari non senescentes et immortales ; Irenzeus p. 96. The same thing is thus attested of him by Tertullian : Sed Haeretici magi Menandri Samaritani furor conspuatur, dicentis mortem ad suos non modo non pertinere, verum nee pervenire ; in hoc scilicet sea superna et arcana potestate legatum, ut immortales et incorruptibiles, et statim resurrectionis compotes fiant, qui baptisma ejus induerint ; p. 301. D. This doctrine, or rather this impudent imposture of Menander did not originatewithhim, but was borrowed from Simon and Dositheus: both of whom, as the standing power of God, asserted that they should continue immortal in this life : And of course they promised a similar privilege to their deluded disciples. The notion of Cerinthus ■must have been also similar ; since he and his followers believed, that they should live a thousand years on the earth, 391 our Lord next has in view, and in opposition to it, he holds up his own Father, as being greater than all. " My Father, who gave them me, is greater than all, and NO ONE WILL BE ABLE TO SNATCH THEM from his hand ; 29. Another tenet in- culcated by the deceiver was, that Christ, as being not the Son of the Jewish Jehovah, did not derive his commission from him, and that he did not co-operate with him in the execution of it. To this absurd opinion the next words of Jesus, carry a direct reference : "/ and the Father are one;" Which may be thus paraphrased : " I act in conjunction with my heavenly Father. My object is the same with his. The scheme, which I proclaim, proceeded from his paternal affection for the human race ; it was his wisdom that contrived it, and his power alone enables me to execute it ; so that the supposition of my having no connection, no union with him, in accom- plishing the salvation of mankind, is false and impious." The Jews, who were bent upon finding out some fresh grounds for accusing him, affected to take his words in a literal sense, as if Jesus had asserted, that he was one and the same with Jehovah cc4 392 himself. " They, therefore, took up stones again to throw at him; and Jesus said unto them, Many good works have I shewn you from my Father; for which of those works would ye stone me ? The Jews answered, We are not stoning thee for a good work, but for a wicked speech ; because thou, who art a man, makest thyself God. Jesus answered, Is it not written in your law, I said, ye are gods ? If ye called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and this scrip- ture cannot be set aside ; do ye say that I, whom the Father sanctified for his apostle to the world, speak wickedly, because I called myself a Son of God?" 3 1 — 37. When our Lord, on a former occasion, was accused by his perverse countrymen of making himself equal to God, he repelled, we have seen, the accusation as false and groundless. Here we behold him assailed with a similar charge; and remarkably decisive is the manner in which he refutes it. His argument, as contained in the above extract, is to this ef- fect : "In your law those, who were sent from God, have the name of gods given them*. I therefore might, without incur-* * SeeExod.xxii. 28. Ps. Ixxxii. 6. From these texts It is evident, that it was usual with the Jews, as well as with (he gentiles, to give their rukrs the appellation of Gods. For this 393 ring the guilt of blasphemy, have assumed that title : But, though a far more import- ant commission is entrusted to me than to any other messenger of heaven, I never called myself God. I only profess to be the Son of God, and this my claim is substan- tiated by the works, which I do ; the reality of which you cannot yourselves deny." Thus does our Saviour himself, a second time, refute, in express terms, the doctrine of his divinity. Those men, who have hither- to embraced this as true, will do well to examine Jesus's own testimony. His autho- rity, for which they profess to have due regard, leaves them no room to hesitate for a moment, but that it is a doctrine which has no foundation in truth. The traitor Judas, it has already been observed, is considered, by some ancient reason, had our Lord claimed that name to himself, it would not follow, that he meant to represent himself to be a super- natural being. And this is obviously implied in the drift of his argument. It is as though he had said : " Every messenger from God, or any person acting with the authority of God, might be called God. But I in an eminent manner sustain that charac- ter; therefore I have an eminent claim to the honour of that denomination ; and had I availed myself of that claim it would mean no more than that I was the messenger of God." See, if you have leisure, the Recognitions, Lib. ii. 41, 42. What the author there says is very good and much (0 the purpose. 394; Writers, as the original founder of the Gnos- tic heresies. This, however, is an assertion, which cannot be strictly true; as Judas does not appear to have formed any new system of his own, or intended to oppose the claims of his Master, nor yet to place himself at the head of a party, by modifying the doctrine delivered by Jesus. But, inasmuch as he had perpetrated an act, which rendered him an object of abhorrence to the faithful dis- ciples ; inasmuch, too, as the first Gnostic resembled him in dispositions and character, and for this reason ranked, on his side, in opposition to the true believers, defended his cause, and affected to extol him, as surpassing in evangelical knowledge not only the apos- tles, but the founder of Christianity himself — for these reasons Judas might be considered as the father of all heresies. Nor is it im- probable that the Samaritan deceiver, while yet the disciple of John, was acquainted with the traitor, and that he instigated him. to the perpetration of the treacherous deed. The Gnostic heretics, as the advocates of Judas, appear to have maintained, that he did not betray his Master from any evil motive, or any suggestion of satan, but to display an act, which exhibited his superior mystic knowledge. This artful and specious no- . 395 lion appears to have led the evangelist John to be more explicit than any other of his brother-historians, in shewing that the mo- tive of the traitor was evil, and proceeded purely from the evil being. See chap. xii. 6\ xiii. 2, '26. It would be a matter of triumph no less to the pretended friends, than to the open enemies of the christian faith, if the apostate disciple had delivered its illustrious founder unawares to the chief priests. In order, however, to deprive them of all cause for exultation on this ground, John shews, with peculiar precision, that the treachery of Judas was an event, which his Master fore- saw, and even foretold *. " After Jesus had said these things, he was troubled within . * Our Lord went farther still ; and represents the treachery of Judas as but the fulfilment of an ancient prophecy. — " I speak not of you all, I know whom I have chosen : but that the scripture rriight be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me ;" John xiii. 18. This should be rendered he hath lifted up his heel upon vie. — arwty jtt' ijxt t*iv wrigmv awrov' The expression has an elegant allusion to the posture, which the ancients used when eating their meals. They so reclined, that the foot of the person above came near the head of the one below. Judas then, when his Master gave him and the other disciples the precedence, on this occasion had the ingratitude as well as cruelty to put his foot, as it were, upon his throat. 296 himself, and declared, saying, Verily, verily, I say unto you, one of you will deliver me up. Then the disciples kept looking at each other, doubting whom he meant. Now that disciple, whom Jesus loved, placed himself at the breast of Jesus; to him there- fore, Simon Peter beckoned, that he should ask Jesus, whom he meant. Then he, who was placed at the breast of Jesus, saith unto him, Master, which is it ? Jesus answered, It is he, to whom I shall give the piece I am going to dip. Then he dipt in the piece, and gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after this satan went into him;" 21 — 27. Whoever reads this pas- sage with due attention must, I am persuad- ed, if he possess any taste and judgment, be strongly impressed with the pathetic ten- derness which it breathes, and be convinced that the writer sustained a character very op- posite to that of an impostor; and that he copied not from his imagination, but faith- fully related a fact, previously imprinted upon his memory. After washing the feet of his disciples, Jesus tells them, " Now ye are clean, but not all;" xiii. 10. In this last clause he hints, as his manner was, when referring to 391 Future, or unknown events, at the one among them, that had an unclean heart. He then, as is above related, m^re clearly informed them, whom he meant, and Judas in conse- quence, presently withdrew. His departure gave rise to the following language, which Christ uttered in the course of this pathetic address: " Every branch in mc that beareth not fruit, he (my Father) taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth (pruneth), that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word xvhich I have spoken unto yon* ;" xv. 2, 3. The latter part of which signifies, if consider- ed in its primary application, that they were now all good and faithful ; the person, who was an exception, having, because of what he told them, gone away. Now since our Lord foresaw that the first heretics would class themselves with Judas * In chapxiii. 8. he tells his disciples, that unless he washed them, they should not, as being yet unclean, have any part with him. After he had washed them, he tells them, ye are clean , ver. \o. And here he says, they are made clean by his doctrine. From his words being thus compared together, they will appear to contain the following comparison : As your feet are nolo clean by my washing them, so are your hearts made clean by the instructions, motives, and consolations, xvhich 1 have in the course of my ministry communicated unto you. 598 Iscariot, as one of their chiefs, and affect to extol him, as superior to the other apos- tles, it was natural that after the traitor had withdrawn, he should advert to the senti- ments and conduct of his depraved parti- zans. And this, upon proper enquiry, we shall find to be fact. Immediately after the apostate disciple left them, Christ pro- ceeded to lay before his now desponding associates a series of exhortations, calculated partly to console them in his absence, but chiefly to confirm their faith in those funda- mental points, which, he knew, would be rejected by the impostors. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead, though the principal basis, on which the christian faith was found- ed, the Gnostic stubbornly denied ; and this grand principle is the first, which arrest- ed the attention of our divine Master after the departure of Judas. " Therefore when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall glo- rify him also in himself, and shall straightway glorify him*;" xiii. 31, 32. The glory * K«i Qhoj $o%xg"zi avrov zv Ixvtu' The position of the two last words shews that they were intended to be emphatic. They are generally considered as referring to God and not to Jesus; See Grotius on the place. He has only given the interpretation 399 here spoken of, means, no doubt, that glori- ous display of the divine power, which was speedily to be displayed in his resurrection from the grave. But remark carefully what is said in the last verse : " God will glorify him-, Eviaimj, in himself \ and will immediately glorify him." Which means, I conceive, that the divine glory would be soon signal- ised in that very person, whiclrsufTered death, and not as the deceivers maintained, in the CJirist, supposed to be a distinct being, and to have ascended to his original glory after the apprehension of the man Jesus. It was the event of his resurrection, which the Sa- viour intended principally to inculcate, of the ancient commentators, and particularly that of Theophy- iact. Mr. Wakefield, however, refers them to Jesus : but before he could give them any meaning, he was obliged to transpose them. In fact no ingenuity under heaven can annex to the clause any signification, that is easy and appro* priate, but that suggested above ; and that because they are levelled at the false notion there pointed out. Considered in this light nothing can be more expressive and appropriate. "The Son of man hath glorified God in the course of his ministry, asserted his supremacy, exhibited his character in the most amiable point of view, acknowledged his dependence upon him, and ascribed to him the glory resulting from the miracles which he perfarmed. For this reason God, in his turn, will soon glorify the Son of man himself." So that Jesus here asserts that the person who was soon to be glorified by the Deity, was the very same with himself, and not, as the im- postors maintained, some other being difFereut from, him, and supposed to reside in him. 400 when he thus speaks of himselfin the begin- ning of the fifteenth chapter : ■* I am the true vine, and my Father is the husband- man." For it is the property of that plant, after it had been so pruned, as apparently to be deprived of life for ever, to shoot up again, and produce, in consequence, richer and more abundant fruits. His divine Fa- ther was the husbandman, because it was his will that he should be cut off and wither unto death, and because it was his power that should cause him to shoot forth anew, and flourish with immortal life. The death of Christ was rejected by the impostors, as forming no part of his divine commission. This doctrine which he has before contradicted, he again refutes, on this solemn occasion, and speaks of his suf- fering, as a matter enjoined upon him by the Deity. " The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me : But that the world may know that I love the Fa- ther, and as the Father gave me com- mandment, even so I do: Arise, let us gq hence;" xiv. 30, 31. By the prince of this world, Jesus appears to have chiefly meant the Roman governor*, who tried him, and * Vie prince of this wor Id, means the evil principle in the 2 401 and pronounced him innocent. And it is remarkable, that he has used words nearly the same with those, which Pilate made use of when he declared his innocence to the Jews; See chap, xviii. 38. But if no fault could be found in him, why then did he submit to a cruel and ignominious death ? His own words furnish a satisfactory solution of the question, That the world may know (hat I love the Fatlier, Which may be interpreted thus : " Though innocent I willingly suffer, in order that all may see, that I am no abstract, but our Lord here applies it to those agents In the hands of the devil, who put him to death ; namely Pilate and the Jewish rulers. Crysostom understands the terms in this sense, and his paraphrase exactly accords with mine. " By the prince of the world, Jesus, writes he, means the devil, and thus he calls wicked men. Not that the devil rules heaven and earth ; since he overturns 3nd pulls down every thing : But he rules those who deliver themselves up to him. On this account he (Jesus) calls him the Prince of this world. What then ? Does the devil slay thee ? By no means : for he hath nothing in me. How then do they slay thee ? I voluntarily submit to death that the world might know, that I love the Father ;" Comment, on John, p. 869. See also Theophylact on the place, and particularly Giotius. It is worthy of observation that Jesus here says, that the adversary has nothing iii me, and not, has nothing against me. By this he insinuates, that his destroyers would closely examine him, and lay open, as it were, the inside of his character, in order to find some fault of which to accuse him ; Compare this idea with what our Lord told Simon Peter ; Luke xxii. 31. VOL. II. D D 402 impostor, actuated by interested motives ; but that I exercise such affection and confidence towards my heavenly Father, as to lay down my life in obedience to the commandment which he gave me." Simon and his immediate followers, being too proud to be deemed but branches of the true vine, separated from it, and the shoots, which they impudently stole from the vineyard of Christ, they went and planted in a nursery of their own. Hence though they admitted the divine mission of Christ, they pretended to be independent of him, and to claim an equality or even a superiority to him in power and wisdom *. * Dositheus professed to be the Messiah ; Simon the supreme power of God ; Menander to be the Saviour himself; (Theod. Haer. Fab. Lib. i. 2) ; Manes that he was the Holy Ghost, promised by Christ to his disciples; (Theod. H. F. Lib. i. 26). The arrogance of Carpocrates was such, that he said, that he and his followers might be equal, and even superior, to the Lord Jesus ; (Theod. H. F. Lib. i. 5). But permit me here to place before you a short section from Irenaeus, where he i» speaking of the impious presumption of these and the other im- postors : *' When they are refuted from the scriptures, they accuse the scriptures themselves, as if they were not right, or not authentic ; or contained various readings, or that the truth could not be found from them, excepting by such as are ac- quainted with Tradition: which is handed down not byre- cords, but by living voice : For this reason Paul said, We speak wisdom amongst the perfect, but not the wisdom of this world. ±03 This was a circumstance which our divine Master foresaw : and he foresaw, too, that his own Apostles, when the descent of the spirit should enable them to perform works equal to those, which Jesus himself per- formed, would be exposed to strong temp- tations to follow the example of the impos- tors ; or, in other words, to act in their own And every one of these men affirm, that this wisdom is in himself \ that hefindeth it of himself ; namely, the fiction* which he hath Invented: So that according to them, the truth is said to be, sometimes in Valentinus, sometimes in Marcion, sometimes in Cerinthus, and after that in Basilides. When agaia we appeal to that tradition, which is delivered from the Apostles, and which is preserved in the church by a succession of elders, they then turn against tradition ; saying, that being wiser than the elders, and even the Apostles, they found out themselves the pure truth ; that the Apostles mingled things of the law with the words of the Saviour ; that the Lord himself delivered discourses, dictated now by the Creator, (the lowest God) now by the intermediate, and now by the Supreme (divinity) : but that they knew the true mystery without doubt, and uncontaminated by impure mixture ;" Iren. Lib. iii. Cap. 24 p. 199. Should my reader be disposed to question the truth of this representation, I will pledge myself to confirm it hereafter from the writings of the Apostles. In the mean time let him attend to the following verse in which Paul contrasts their conduct, with those of the impostors : *■* We preach not our- selves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves to be your servants for Jesus's sake." The obvious meaning of which is; " We do not, like the deceivers, proclaim ourselves to be your lords, but proclaim Jesus to be the Lord, and profess to be our- selves only employed under him for your advantage ;" 2 Cor, »v. 5- D D 2 404 ?iamc, and not in subordination to the name of Jesus. Of the danger which thus awaited he here expressly warns them ; and he tells them : " I am the vine, ye are the branches;" xv. 5. : and again, "You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and have planted you ; so that you should go (back into the world), and bring forth fruit, and your fruit will remain ;" 15, 16. As a motive to persevere in their fidelity to Christ, and to beat down the ambition of being thought independent of him, he re- minds them, that as a branch when cut off from the parent trunk, whence it had hither- to derived life, support, and nutriment, is no longer able to bring forth fruit, but withers away; so they, if transplanted from the di- vine stem, in which they had been ingrafted, would no more be capable of exhibiting those miraculous works, which should attest their divine mission, nor produce those unrivalled fruits of righteousness, which would abound and ripen in their conduct. " Continue in me, and I will continue in you. As th branch cannot bear fruit, unless it continu on the vine ; so cannot ye, unless ye con tinue in me. I am the vine, ye arc th branches. He that continueth in me, and I 405 in him, the same beareth much fruit; but separated from me, ye can bear no fruit at all;" 4 — 7. He then reminds them, that the same fate would await them, which ge- nerally awaited barren branches, if, by a de- viation from the purity of his doctrine, they ceased to produce those divine and human virtues, which it is calculated to generate; " Whosoever continued) not in me, will be thrown away like the withered branch; and such are gathered together, and cast into a fire to be burnt ;" 6. Our Lord, who fore- saw every circumstance, that concerned his gospel and its professors in future times, ap- pears to have had his eye on the magicians, whose baseness, notwithstanding their pro- fession of Christianity, provoked an edict from Tiberius, enjoining the pnefect of the provinces to seek out and destroy them. If this were the case, what force and propriety must the apostles have felt in the admonition here given, when they saw the destruction of many of those wretched impostors, whom ambition and other base passions had sepa- rated from the stem of Jesus Christ. To encourage his desponding apostles, Christ assures them, that their heavenly Fa- d d 3 406 ther would impart to them whatever they asked, provided they presented their peti- tions in the name of Jesus, and not in their own, or any other name ; that is, they should obtain of God all necessary aid, however extraordinary, upon condition, that they asked it in subordination to the prophet of Nazareth, and considered him, to the exclu- sion of themselves, and every other person, as ti:e Messiah, or the Saviour of the world. Hence we are able to perceive the meaning of the following declaration : " Verily, ve- rily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do, shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do, be-» cause I go unto my Father. And whatso- ever he shall ask in my name, I will do it;" xiv. 12, 13. Observe here how careful and expressive our divine Lord is in ascribing to his Father, and not to himself, as their proper source, the powers, which the apos- tles were afterwards to receive. He would do, he assures them, whatever they asked in his name, but for this the Father, and not the Son, was to be glorified or praised. He would enable them to perform greater works than those he wrought; but this ability he had not to give of himself, and he was to go unto the Father to receive it. 407 In order, farther, more effectually to ex^ elude the idea of his being the origin of those endowments, he tells his disciples, that, if in his name they would ask the Father, he would bestow them directly without the instrumentality of the Son. fi And in that day ye will have no need to ask me any thing; for verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. — These things have I spoken to you in dark speeches; but a time is coming, when I will no longer speak to you in dark speeches, but will tell you plainly of the Father. In that day ye will ask in my name; and I do not say that I will ask the Father for you; for the Father himself loveth you, because ye love me, and believe that I am come from God;"" xvi. 23 — 27. Here then we perceive the precise object, which Jesus had, in holding up to his disciples his own name, as the pro- per medium of presenting their addresses to God. It was to inculcate upon them the absolute necessity of acknowledging their subordination to Jesus, and to restrain them from imitating the impious conduct of the impostors, who, so far from praying to the Father, blasphemed him, and disclaimed all DD4 408 subordination to his Son Jesus Christ. This therefore, like many others, is a precept, which relates only to the peculiar circum- stances of the apostles; And it is far from authorising any one to conclude, that pray- ers offered with a becoming spirit, though not formally and specifically presented in the name of Jesus, would be rejected by the supreme Father. This is an important point to be attended to, and the truth of it is vir- tually asserted, in the above paragraph, by our Lord himself. All that he enjoins upon , his followers was to consider him as the sole Messiah, the true way of approaching the Deity, to the rejection of those false pro- phets who opposed his claims. They are to make use of his name in their supplica- tions to God, as an open confession of this simple but important belief. But he forbids them to suppose, that his name contained in itself any extraordinary efficacy, or that, when used by way of intercession, it had any avail in obtaining favours of the Deity, who, from motives of pure love, tis ever ready to hear the petitions of those who worship him in sincerity and in truth. There isone thing more to be here remarked : Christ, while be yet lived with his disciples, did not teach them to pray in his name; and in that beaut i- 409 ful form of prayer, which he left for the edifi- cations of his followers in every age and coun- try, his own name is not mentioned . And why then should he be so particular and solemn in enjoining upon his disciples to use his name in their addresses to the Father after his departure? The reason is now obvious: As long as they were with their divine Ma- ster there was no danger, lest they should set up claims in opposition to him, or follow any other impostor that did so. But when he had now left them, and when, in particular, they found themselves endow- ed with powers, which, though not entirely at their discretion, might tempt them, if not faithful and true, to seek their own inde- pendent gratifications, it was highly expedi- ent to bind them down to a form, which im- plied a continued acknowledgment of their dependence upon, and subordination to their divine Master, Superior knowledge, spiritual seed im- planted within them from above, some secret bias of nature in their favour, — these were deemed by the impostors to be the means of acceptance with God, and of being finally saved. To this false and pernicious standard, our divine Master, we have seen, elsewhere 410 opposes the fruits of virtue in the temper and conduct; and similar is the way, which he here lays down in opposition to the same men, of glorifying the supreme Father. *' In this is my Father glorified, when ye bring forth fruit, and ye shall then be my disciples;" xv. S. Which is to this effect: " As true honour is then reflected on the husbandman, when his fields are adorned with rich and plentiful crops, so my Father, which is in heaven, receives real glory, not from those who pretend to have more per- fect knowledge of him, or to be more assi- duous in offering him external acts of devo* tion, but from those, whose lives are crowned with the produce of those good principles, which my gospel has sown in them: And those only, who are thus distinguished, are in reality my disciples." The impostors who separated from Christ, the true vine, were far from exhibiting, in their behaviour, the delicious grapes of candour, meekness, forbearance, and bro- therly love. The reverse of these amiable vir- tues, were the passions, which marked their character; and that his chosen disciples might not indulge in dispositions so base and per- nicious in themselves, and so opposite to the 411 benevolent genius of his religion, he exhorts them again and again to cherish mutual love, and to carry this principle to such extent, as that all his followers might be known by this and by no other mark of distinction. " A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, as 1 have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another; xiii. 34-, 35. also xv. 12. Where he again repeats the same sentiment. There was no circumstance, which more widely distinguished the Gnostic teachers from the faithful disciples of Jesus, than that affectation of superior knowledge, in which they prided ; or that insolence, with which they treated those humble christians sup- posed to be less learned than themselves. Our Lord foresaw the prevalence of this haughty spirit in his false followers; and he appears particularly anxious to preclude or eradicate it in his true disciples : And in order to afford them the most impressive lesson of the opposite temper, he conde- scended, though their Lord and Master, to wash their feet. — " He rose from supper, and laid aside his garments, and took a towel and girded himself. After that he poured 412 water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. — So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments and was set down again, he said unto them, know ye what I have done to you, &c. I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you ;" xiii. 4 — 14. It was the pride of the Gnos- tics, and their stubborn reluctance to imi- tate his humility, meekness, and other vir- tues, that led them to reject our Saviour under the characters of Lord and Teacher. This dis- gustful trait in them Christ seems here to have in view : and he levels again!! it the following remarkable declaration : " Ye call me Teacher and Lord, and ye call me so rightly for I am (your Teacher and Lord,") xiii. 13. The followers of Judas, (for so the early impostors might be called), not only evaded persecution, for conscience sake, by equivo- cation and falsehood, but joined with the heathens, in vilifying and oppressing the vir- tuous professors of the gospel. This contrail, which subsisted between the true believer and the false, seems, with other causes, to have led our Lord, in this his last address, to 413 remind the apostles of the sufferings which awaited them : and he encourages them to perseverance, under their trials and afflictions, by placing before them his own example ; chap. xv. 18 — 22. The reference, which Jesus has to the deceivers throughout this pathetic address, will enable us to see the beauty and force of the following, much -disputed passage : " These words spake Jesus, and lift up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father ! the hour is come, glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth : I have finished the work, which thou hast given me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was;" xvii. 1 — 6". Here it is asserted, first, that our Lord had received from the Father, power over all flesh* ; which means that the Almighty, * The viordfesh often denotes, in the New Testament, 414 t>y raising his Son from the grave, would enable him finally to abolish death, or, sub- ject as mankind are at present to its ravages, to emancipate them in the end from its do- minion. Secondly, it is implied that this eternal life consisted in knowing the Father as the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent; that is, in acknowledging and obeying Jehovah, as the true and only God, and not the fictitious god, whom the impos- tors of Samaria affect to reveal and worship; and in embracing Jesus as the Christ, and not anathematizing him, as will be done by the heretics. Thirdly, it is implied, that our Lord did not possess power to glorify himself \ that is, to raise himself from the dead, but that he entirely depended for this glory upon the power of his supreme Father, which he obtained, like every other blessing, by hum- ble supplication. Finally, the passage affirms, that the glory which awaited Jesus, was with the Father before the world was, the same thing with man, (Mat. xvi. 17. xxiv. 22. and in many other places) but man, as a mortal and corruptible being in opposition to whatever is divine, immortal, and incor- ruptible. On this account the divine nature is represented by sacred and profane authors to be stvadnsj «y»*p.o?, u a?(C£XV Siyouusvos to ictv to, aXkoT^U) De Agesilas, Cap. ii. p. 89. edit. Simpson's. 426 stituted in their room *. Nov/ in order to preclude, or to do away this specious argu- ment, that the universal parent is a malevo- lent being, Jesus wisely subjoins to those sayings of Moses and his own improvement upon them, a testimony in favour of the divine benevolence, as displayed not through the medium of any human being, (whose authority might be disregarded or doubted), but in those provisions made to warm and to water the earth, the benevolent effects of which are felt and acknowledged by all. Lastly, in order to preclude every motive and every attempt in men to become virtu- ous and to improve in virtue, the impostors represented mankind as naturally prone f to * In attestation of this fact I refer my reader to Theodoret ; IJyrr. Fab. Lib. v. 16, 17. ; where in opposition to the heretics he rnaintains that a good and a just man is one and thesame; and that the New and Old Testaments claim the same divine author. See also Jerome on this place. •f The impostors, however, seem to have made an honourable exception in favour of themselves and their followers. The opinion which they held was, that some of the human race were good and others bad In/ nature. They classed themselves of course under the former division ; See, if you please, on this subject, Philo, p. 74. Irceneus, p. 96. Theod. rfer. Fab. Lib. i. De Suiurnilo, Origen PhilocaJ. p. 51,62. Contra Celsum, p. 153. Tertul. p. 261. B. The notion that certain human souls are de- praved by nature, flowed as an immediate and necessary conse- quence from the impious opinion, maintained by the Gnostics, that mankind are toe creatures of an exilbepig. 427 evil, and incapable of moral acquirements. In opposition to this vile and dangerous doctrine, our blessed Lord places the nature of man in the most noble and engaging point of light. The votaries of the gospel, he represents as advancing from one perfec- tion to another, until, in a moral view, they coalesce with the infinite perfection of God ; while those, who were deemed the most abandoned and profligate of the age, even in their natural state, or previously to their conversion to the faith, exercised, in a measure, the virtues of reciprocal benevo« lence and justice. As our Lord foresaw, that the facts of his having really suffered and risen the third day from the dead, would meet with universal opposition as well among his false friends, as his open enemies, wisdom re- quired that he should establish their reality by the most satisfacto ry evidences, and take such precautions as were best adapted to remove, in the estimation of sober reason, the objections that should be urged against them. Some of those precautions, which divine wisdom thus prompted him to take, I shall here cursorily notice. The specification 3 428 of every particular on the subject would require little short of a whole volume. The simple ordinance, enjoined upon his faithful followers to celebrate, he instituted as a perpetual memorial of his death, as a standing proof that he had a real body, con- tinually suggesting to them by visible sym- bols, that his flesh was really bruised, and his blood really shed. — " And as they were eat- ing, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat: This is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them; saying, drink ye all of it: For this is my blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins ;" Mat. xxvi. 26 — 28. Which may be thus paraphrased : " Flesh and blood, you know, are perishable in their nature, and form the mortal part of man. As then this bread is broken, and this wine poured out, so is my body to be bruised and my blood to be shed. You are therefore to regard these elements as symbols of my having a real body, and of that body being really pierced and lacerated. Nor presume to celebrate, in honour of my supposed divinity, a feast, by which I intend to perpetuate the belief of my simple huma- 429 nity and death*." Of the propriety and justice of this interpretation, my reader will be fully convinced hereafter, when it is seen^ that the first Gnostics classed the Eucharist with those solemnities, which the pagans instituted in honour of their gods; and fre- quented it in commemoration of the pre-^ tended divinity of its founder. This was a circumstance, which our Saviour foresaw, and it seems, that his words, related above, are levelled against it. That he had, how- ever, other objects in view, in the institution - * When we come to explain the words of Paul on this sub- ject, I will shew from a variety of passages that this paraphrase comprehends the real meaning of our Lord. I shall, however^ here observe, that some ancient writers considered the bread and wine, as figures intended to represent his real body and blood in opposition to the Gnostics. — Ut reprsesentaret, says Jerome on the place, veritatem corporis et sanguinis. The author cr authors of the Apostolic Constitutions evidently considered these aliments as intended to represent the same thing ; and the institution of the Eucharist by our Lord as designed to per- petuate the- belief of his having really died ; See Lib. vii. chap. a*. It is here not improper to remark, that the first converts made by the Apostles, daily participated of the sacrament, and one chief object of its frequent celebration was to keep alive, in their minds, the conviction of their Master's real death, and to bear down the sentiments of their impious antagonists. I had almost forgotten to observe that the author of the Harmony ascribed to Tatiun, which Lardner thinks to be genuine, repre- sents the principal object of the Eucharist to be the same a* is described above. His words you will find in Lardner, vol, ii. p. 428. 430 Of the sacrament, is what I readily allow. But as these do not coincide with my subject, I pass over them in silence. 2. The conduct of our Lord under his acute sufferings in the garden of Gethsemane, and the manner in which he caused that scene to be recorded , seem to have been de- signed by him and his biographers, as ever- lasting monuments of his real humanity and suffering. The reader, if he be capable of drawing j ust conclusions from the known ope- rations of the human mind in given circum- stances, must be convinced that the virtuous sufferer, had the prospect of the direful death which awaited him fully before his eyes. The horror of this fills him with anguish ; and he prays to his Father, if possible, to avert the impending hour. The in- firmity of human nature now sinking under the weight of anguish, is neverthe- less buoyed up by the dictates of a sublime resignation to the will of heaven. Thrice he returns to his disciples, and thrice he re- peats the same prayer : And the repetition of it was well adapted to impress upon their minds a deep recollection of the solemn scene, and thus to prompt them to the re- Cording of it, as a standing proof, that the in- 431 nocent victim had no feelings but those of a" man — a man indeed, whose frame was ex- quisitely susceptible by nature, whose heart was refined by the purest benevolence, and whose views were exalted by'the most rational piety. Without directly professing to foresee the fatal catastrophe, Jesus, by his agonies, evinces that he had a distinct, and lively foresight of the whole transaction. And hende the divine illumination that guided him, flashes with more convincing lustre, from the dark cloud which now encompassed our illustrious Lord. The disciples cherished the hope that, notwithstanding his own repeated declarations, his deliverance from the sentence of death, would be effected cither by his own discretionary power, or by the interposition of heaven. At this mis- taken notion he appears to glance in the following clause, and he insinuates by it, that his suffering would terminate in nothing short of death : " My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death ;" Mat, xxvi. 38. The peculiar manner, in which Luke has related the anguish of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, renders it necessary here to transcribe it : *' And when he was at the 4y2 place, he said unto them, pray that ye enter not into temptation. And he was with- drawn from them about a stone's cast; and he kneeled down and prayed, saying, Father ! If thou be willing, remove this cup from me : Nevertheless not my will but thine be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven strengthening him. And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly and his sweat>was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground ;" xxii. 40 — 45. The figure of wrestling with God in prayer was familiar with the Jews : And the very term, which usually expressed perseverance and steadiness in prayer, denotes* in its primary sense, exertion of bodily strength * . This figure was naturally re- called to the imagination of Luke in record- o ing the incident before us. And hence he paints his Master struggling with distress,- and supplicating his Father for succour, under the image of two men combating with * See Genesis xxxii. 24. The word to which I allude is $^K*g*E£t»' It signifies to cling to a thing by taking a firm hold of it. Metaphorically applied, it means to adhere stedt'astly to God by means of prayer ; SeeRom.xii. 13. Col. iv. 2. : And many other passages of the same kind may easily be pointed oat. 433 each other. When a pugilist sinks under the weight of his antagonist, and his breath is exhausted, he disengages himself in order to recruit his strength. And this is the representation given of Jesus : " And he separated himself from them, or more con- formably to the strong language of the origi- nal, he disengaged himself, fewr&rnwQ*)) from them about a stone's throw ;" 41. To the comba- tant when now apart from his opponent, his second usually comes, and administers to him support and refreshment. And here we read that a heavenly messenger was sent to second the Lord Jesus : " An angel from heaven appeared unto him, to strengthen him; 43. Which, divested of its figure, means no more than that extraordinary aid, which he derived from praying to his Fa- ther*. But farther, the disengaged pugilist, if he be animated with the hope of success, again renews the combat with redoubled vigour. And this was the case with our victorious champion of truth and virtue. * This is not remote from the explanation which Tatian in his Harmony gives of this clause. His words are the following : Protinus ex caslo vox angelica auditur, quas animum ac robur addidit; Apud. Lard. Vol. ii. p. 427. The author perhaps alludes to what we read in John, chap. xii. 29. VOL. II, F F Being (again) in the conflict* , he prayed ivith greater energy ; 44-. The contending parties frequently exhibit mutual marks of their skill and strength, in the blood which trickles down over them during the strug- gle. This is a circumstance, which did not escape the bold imagination of our Evangelist. And he therefore describes under an allusion to it, the profuse sweat, which the anticipation of the direful scene, and a tender concern for the interests of his cause and his followers, wrung from the delicate and susceptible frame of Jesus. * The original is thus : Kca ysvojUEvo, iv ayavto. e/.tsvs-e^oj w#03-w;g£TO*' The poet Sophocles in his Ajnx when representing that hero in a scene of great distress, puts into the mouth of the chorus words not unlike these of the Evangelist : — A?.A« O.VS4 £5 tOBCCVlOV 07TOV jUOHtgOtfltWi 1. 1 Do— 7* The scholium upon these w jrds is much to my purpose : — A>«r« ik Ti'v §gov«v. vxpo iro\\n Jfigww tripwrqv sv:-i5fif«j, TV. *■<■ tou ov^owov Tri/j.^&iia-cx.v e&TW uv^uiv, x.cci oloy, ;/xT'jjoi'ju.jko; vko rev 9r«0Wf, KAIENAmNIA IIOAAH ON* Compare this with what is said of Ajax again, in line 61 o. where the epithet tQtSgo; is given him, for the explanation of which, consult the Schoiia. In both these places, the hero is described as struggling with his distress under the figure of a pugilist thrown by his antagonist to the ground, and preparing again to combat the foe with stioneer exertions. 435 And his sweat was running down like drops <>j blood upon the earth. Such is the stile in which the sacred pen- man thought fit to delineate the agonies of our blessed Lord, when contemplating the closing scenes of his life. My readers per- haps may be offended with it as extrava- gantly bold and symbolical ; and for this reason be disposed to reject the interpreta- tion, which I have given of the passage. Let them, however, reflect that such a description, extravagant as it may appear to them, well suited the genius of an Eastern writer. Luke undoubtedly had his reason for giving such strong colouring to the narrative, and that reason, it appears to me, was to render prominent and memorable, the real sufferings of Jesus, and the inference implied therein that he was in truth a human being. 3. In order to render his suffering, his death, and resurrection credible in all ages and countries, our Lord delivered to his astonished disciples repeated and minute predictions of them; manifesting by that means, that he was inspired by the wisdom f f 2 436 of God ; that he was actuated by no inte- rested and sinister motives, and that he was far from being apprehended and condemned by surprize. These predictions, it should farther be ob- served, though in the earlier part of his mi- nistry they were no more than indirect hints*, he rendered more definite and in- * The very first time our Lord appeared at Nazareth after the commencement of his ministry, he hints at his future suffering, and predicts a remarkable circumstance, that would happen to him while hanging on the cross : " And he said unto them, ye will tell me, Physician, by all means heal thyself ;" Luke iv. 23. Now turn your eyes to chap, xxiii. 37. and you will meet with the event, to which Jesus, I conceive, refers: " And they mocked him, saying, If thou be king of the Jews save thyself." Observe, that in this version I have joined sravfwi with S^aTswrov, and not with e§e»t« ; and hence appear the force and propriety of it. Annexed to the latter it seems to me incapable of any appropriate signification. I readily admit that the evangelist Luke considered the above saying as having an immediate reference to the request, which the Jews made to Jesus, to work such miracles in his own country, as they heard he had performed in Capernaum. But the use of the verb ££ju$arov *) Xi/jj/aevov « t»jxoju.6vov n d*«j§Eoy, Disser. xv. p. 163. Because the demons had not flesh and blood they were; said not to eat any thing. > Ov yct% crnov toovcr , ov •zwova afioiroc ojvov Touve/C avaijuovE,- s»ctj, y.oa ccOavwroi xccaeovtcu* Iliad, v. 340. As the demons never ate, to shew that he was no demon, 451 convinces them, by eating with them, by shewing them his flesh and his bones, by reminding them that he had foretold those things, and that it was necessary his cru- cifixion and death should take place, as the fulfilment of what had been written con- cerning him in the law and the prophets. Thomas was not present at this inter- view. When he found that his Master was really risen, it was natural that he should have fallen into the same erroneous conclu- sion. And this seems to have been the case : " After eight days, again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them, then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said ; Peace be unto you. Then said he to Thomas, reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless but believing ;" John xx. 26, 27. Thomas on being thus unex- pectedly addressed, and perceiving that it was the voice of Jesus, felt, doubtless, the same alarm and confusion, with the other our Lord thus said to his disciples : " Have ye any thing here to eat ? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and some honey-comb ; and he took of these and ate before them.'' GG 2 452 disciples when they first saw him. Actuated by emotions of fear and astonishment, he applies to his Master a title, expressive of that superior or divine nature, which, at the moment, he supposed him to possess : And Thomas answered and said unto, him, My Lord, and my God, The evangelist John, perceiving that some might construe this address of Thomas, which, was the effect of terror and astonishment, into a testimony for the divinity of Jesus, subjoins to it a clause, in which he defines, what it is that we should believe concerning Jesus Christ; and what were the sentiments, the inculcating of which was his object in writing the gospel under his name. " These (signs) are written, that ye might believe, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name;" &x. 31. Here we are informed by apostolic authority what those points are, which, as christians, we are called upon to believe, and the belief of which it was the design of the Evangelist to enforce, in publishing his gospel. — They are, then, simply these : That Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; in other words, That the per- son, who suffered, died, and rose again, and whom the impostors blasphemed and re~ 453 jected, is the Messiah ; that he was not, as Thomas and the other disciples at first hastily- supposed, a supernatural being, or, as the de- ceivers maintained, a demon, ceon, or god; but the Son of God; that in the belief of these two principles, we should look forward to a new life in his name, and not in the name of any other teacher, who opposed his claims, or who inculcated doctrines different from them. When our Lord first appeared to Mary- Magdalene, the warm affection which she cherished for him, the surprise which she must now have felt on seeing him again, and above all, the apprehension forced upon her mind by his superiority to death, that he had something supernatural about him, led her instantly to cling to him, and address to him that homage, which was due only to God. Hence he tells her, " Cling not to me : For I am not yet ascended to my Fa- ther;" xx. 17. As though he had said, " Lay not thus your hands on me ; I am not the proper object of such devout prostra- tions. My rising from the dead is not the result of my own power. I possess nothing of myself, though I am indeed to be invested with all power and authority. But this will g g 3 454 not take place till I ascend to my Father." To prevent the disciples from falling into the error with which Mary is here charge- able, and to preclude the inference, which, he knew, they would draw, on seeing him risen from the dead, he sends by her a mes- sage to apprise them, that, though he now proved triumphant over the king of terror, yet he was but their brother, a being possess- ing their nature and constitution, on an equa- lity with them with respect to God, and bearing a common relation towards him as their Father : " Go unto my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God;" chap. xx. 17. In the last affecting address, which he delivered to his disciples, our Lord assured them, that as the afflictions of a woman in labour, are exchanged for joy, on first see- ing her born child, so would their sorrows in a little while be turned into gladness, when they should see him again restored to life. " Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy; A woman, when she is in travail, hath sorrow, because 455 her hoiir is come: But, as soon as she is delivered of die child, she remembereth no more her anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world; xvi. 2l, 22. By this im- pressive comparison, he enforces upon their attention these three things : — 1 . That his subsequent resurrection would consist not in a recovery of the vital principle, but in being endued with a new life ; — i2. That, when thus endued, so as to occasion them to rejoice, he would be in nature a man, though raised above the imperfections of human kind ; — 3. That, in coming again to life, he would be as passive as the child, that is brought into the world ; and that, consequently, the energy of his Father, and no power of his own, would effect his re- surrection from the dead. Having at length finished those remarks, which I had to make on the four Gospels, I proceed to those parts, which relate to my subject in the Acts of the Apostles. And the first thing, which solicits our attention, is, the death of Judas, as related by Luke. The fishermen of Galilee, however poor g g 4 456 and obscure in a worldly view, yet oc- cupied, as the chosen disciples and apostles of Christ, an eminence which far surpassed all human grandeur. Our Lord himself has given us a high notion of the distinction which they thus enjoyed, by comparing them to two of the most striking objects in nature — to a city erected on a hill, and to that luminary which dispenses ligjit and life to the world. The Apostate Judas, while faithful, held the same honourable and conspicuous rank. But when he be- trayed his Master, though he had his ad- vocates among the Gnostic teachers, who for that act affected to extol him even above the other disciples, he sunk into the lowest depth of ignominy : and his former high elevation served only to aggravate the infamy of his fall. Now the historian, in order to convey, in opposition to the malicious de- fenders of Judas, a strong idea of his degra- dation and guilt, describes that death, which he incurred in consequence of his treachery, under allusion to a person falling from some high eminence, and bursting while he fell to the depth below. " Now this man obtained a field with the reward of his iniquity and falling headlong he burst in the middle; and his bowels gushed out;" chap. i. 18. Which, 457 I conceive, may be thus otherwise expressed, " With the reward given to Judas was procur- ed a piece of ground. Into this as into a pit his iniquity hurled him from the exalted station which he before occupied. AVhile precipitating, his middle opened with a loud crash and all his entrails rushed out." Divest this of its strong figure, and you will have the following simple meaning : So sensible became the traitor of the distinguished rank which he forfeited, and of the deep disgrace into which he precipitated himself by betraying his innocent Lord, that he was seized with, such violent grief as occasioned the rupture of his bowels, and ended in suffocation and death : and his unrighteous reward served only to procure him a piece of ground for his grave*. * If my readers should think this language too bold and hyperbolical to be taken in a figurative sense, their scruple will perhaps be removed by observing that this very writer has recorded things equally bold and metaphorical, which yet admit of no other construction than a figurative one. In proof of this assertion I refer them to the history of our Lord's temp- tation and of his agony in the garden of Gethsemane. But it may be fit to produce one example more specific and indisputable. When our Lord anticipated the removal of those obstacles, which the prejudices and vices of mankind opposed to the progress of his religion, he thus expressed himself: " And he said unto the seventy ; I was beholding Satan fall, Itke lightning from heaven. Lo ! I give you authority to trample upon serpents and scorpions : and nothing in any wise shall hurt you ;" Luke x. ig. But whatever objection may be made to the interpretation given of this passage, it contains in 458 The Gnostic teachers, in order to evade the force of those numerous passages, which its self a sufficient proof that it is penned in a style unusually strong and figurative. It seems to be a circumstance, which has escaped the attention of learned men, that Judas was buried in the field purchased with the reward of his iniquity. And yet this appears to me a real fact : It is implied in the following words of our historian: 'Outoj zx.tyiua; : This person possessed himself of a field ivith the reward of his iniquity. Here then the simple idea of a man being buried in a spot of land, procured by money which he had unjustly obtained, is described under allusion to a person who goes to reside on an estate, which he had lately purchased in the vicinity; but who, while he is going, falls down headlong over a precipice ; and thus the seat which he intended for his resi- dence becomes his grave and his monument. This allusion is carried on still farther, by the Apostle Peter, wben he says: — "To take the lot of this service of an Apostleship, which Judas left to go to his own seat." This is evidently the lan- guage of breathing irony and burning indignation. The figure, which describes a person buried, as th possessor of the place where he is deposited, is thus put by Sophocles into the mouth of Ajax addressing Ades whither he was going: Which Milton has thus imitated: -And thou profoundest hell, Receive thy new possessor ■ Horace in one place em ploys an image very congenial to thee representation here given of Judas : Tu secanda marmora Locas sub ipsum funus, etSepuIchri Immemor, struis domos ; Lib. ii. Od. 18. The general meaning of which is: — You hire artists to hew 459 our Lord had levelled against them in the course of his ministry, endeavoured to throw- over them the dark and ambiguous veil of allegory. And this is the artifice to which they appear to have had recourse in order to conceal the turpitude of Judas's conduct. According to them his treachery was a mystic act, containing under it a lesson of superior and divine wisdom* : But as his marbles for your mansion, which unexpected death renders necessary to be hewn for your monument. Unmindful, however, of your approaching dissolution you build up houses. If this be the true sense of the poet, the last line but one should be read thus, Locas IN ipsum funus, AT, sepulchri ; i. e. Locas marmora secanda in ipsum funus. * The following are the words of Irenaeus respecting the abettors of Judas : Et haec Judas proditorem diligenter cogno- visse dicunt, et solum prae ceteris cognoscentem veritatem, perfecisse mysterium proditionis ; p. 113. To say that the traitor had a more complete knowledge of the truth than the other disciples, or that his treachery in delivering up his Master contained under it som mystic signific at ion, were assertions so impudent, and groundless as, at first view, to excite indignation ; and yet if we examine the matter closely, they will appear to have some speciousness, though nothing of truth in them. The leading principle in the system of those men was, that the Christ was an angel or aeon, which descended into the man Jesus. Of this they appear to have maintained that Judas was aware : but of which the other disciples were ignorant ; and that his motive in delivering Jesus to be crucified was to prove by this ignominious death, that the celestial being within him, and not he, constituted the Christ. Now the ground, which they had for this representation is, that Judas, in giving 460 death was an event which little accorded with their allegorical construction, they up his Master, had a full conviction that he would use his power in rescuing himself from their hands. And this is a fact, in my opinion, founded in truth. My reasons for this opinion are the following :— The excessive grief, which he displayed after he saw Jesus condemned, demonstrates to my mind, that that event was unforeseen and unexpected by him . His repentance proves that he was not actuated by inveterate and determined malice towards the sufferer ; And the established laws of the hu- man mind exclude the very possibility that a man, who could be so devoid of every principle of honour, every tender emotion, and every generous feeling, as to give up for the express purpose of being executed, his innocent Lord, should immediately after the commission of that act, be overwhelmed by a remorse which could occasion the very dissolution of his frame. — That Judas ex- pected that Jesus would miraculously rescue himself from the hands of his enemies, in the same manner as he had done before that time, may be inferred from the following words, which he addres- sed to the soldiers, jcgarnc-avTEj ati-rov x.ui aKctyayiTt a.cr$f.\tD<; '. As if he had said, Make yourselves sure of him, and by all means lead him away, if indeed you be able so to do, for it will not be a very easy matter to seize and take away by -violence a person, who is armed with a power, that controuls even the elements, and can suspend the laws of nature— If then this statement be just, the sole motive which influenced him in betraying his Master was avarice. He perceived that the Pharisees had used very unfair means to get Jesus into their hands, and he thought it but fair to turn upon themselves their own arts, and cheat them of a little money. The consequence, he perhaps fondly imagined, so far from being injurious, would prove advantageous to the sufferer ; as the circumstance of the case would compel him to display his divine authority, and thus convince his foes of the impracticability of putting him to death. It is of consequence to remark, that many of the ancients, sanction by their opinion the statement here given of the motive which influenced Judas in betraying our Lord. Hear the words of Theophylact.: 461 probably denied it altogether, or, at least, denied that it was the consequence of his "Some say that Judas, being a lover of money, supposed that he should gain silver in betraying Christ ; that Christ would not be killed, but would escape the Jews as he had often done before ;" Com. on Mat. p. 170. C. In the number of these was the learned Origen, See his book against Celsus, p. 65, 66. If then the traitor really expected that Jesus would elude, when seized, the grasp of his assailants, how natural was it, that the impostors, who patronised the cause of Judas, should pretend, that he evinced by that act, a superior wisdom, and that this wisdom consisted in the belief that the Christ, which inhabited Jesus, would leave him as soon as apprehended ? Nor does it appear to me improbable, that the traitor did actually suppose that the Spirit, which descended on Jesus, was a real being, and that this being constituted the Christ. Mark has recorded an incident, from which it may be inferred, that this notion was cherished by some, while our Lord was yet engaged in his mini- stry. For there it is said, that a man preached Christ, though, when called upon to follow the disciples, he blasphemed the man Jesus. That the impostor, to which I refer, considered Christ as existing in the person whom he anathematised, is evident from the remark, which our Lord makes on that occasion. See chap. ix. 39. Now the circumstance that Judas did entertain a similar notion, will account for some things worthy of notice, which our Lord said and did in reference to the apostate disciple. In order to impress the idea on the mind of Jesus, that he did not come with hostile views in delivering him up, he gave him a kiss incompliance, perhaps, with a command given in the second Psalm, Kiss the Son lest he be angry. On his conduct in this respect our Saviour instantly thus animadverted : Judas, Betray- est thou the Son of man with a kiss; Luke xxii. 48. Here you see the meek Sufferer enforcing on the attention of his unworthy associate, that he was the Son of man, a human being, possessing 462 guilt. This, however, is a fact, which Luke attests, and that he might render it in- controvertible, he appeals to an incident, which was notorious among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and which still existed as a monument of its truth : " And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem, insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, the field of blood;" 19. Attend to this verse; and, I think, you will allow, that the writer appears, by the remarkable manner in which he makes the above appeal, to have in view some persons, who either evaded or denied the subject of his narrative. •' Wherefore of these men, which have accompanied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, be- the same feelings and constitution with other men. Again our Lord has connected the treachery of Judas, with the institution which was to perpetuate the belief of his simple humanity, his suffering, and resurrection. And what could be his reason for deferring to develope the design of the traitor till he was now establishing that ordinance? Does not this suppose, that his conduct had some alliance with those false sentiments, which Jesus, by the establishment of it, had in view to refute? It is remarkable, that the institution of the Eucharist, and the trea- chery of Judas, appear to have gained a firm association in the mind of our Lord long before those events took place. See John Cbapvi. 50 — 70. 463 ginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness of his resur- rection;" 21, 22. Here are three circum- stances deserving of our notice ; namely, that the testimony of the apostles respecting their Master was not to extend farther back than the baptism of John ; that they were ordained to be witnesses of his resurrection; and lastly, that they were to acknowledge, as their Lord, not a supernatural being supposed to have descended upon him at his baptism, but the man Jesus, whom the heretics re- jected and blasphemed. In this place, then, we are assured by this writer, in the very commencement of his history, that no re- cords respecting Christ, ever came from the hands of his apostles antecedent to his baptism; and that the chief points, which they were commissioned to attest, in preaching the gos- pel, were the humanity of their Lord, and his resurrection from the dead." Let us next consider a part of Peter's address to the Jewish and other nations when assembled at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. Here we shall find every article of the Samaritan creed contradicted in direct and unequivocal language: — "Ye men of 464 Israel, bear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by mi- racles, wonders, and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know. Him, being delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands ye have crucified and slain. Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible he should be holden of it;" ii. 22 — 25. In this pas- sage we see the apostle declaring to the house of Israel, that Jesus came from Naza- reih ; that he was a man ; that he was betray- ed, and that he really suffered; that the power of God enabled him to perform signs and wonders, and that after he was slain by wicked hands, God raised him from the dead. The Apostle, in the next place, asserts, that he descended from the race of David, and that his resurrection was foretold by -that patriarch; verses 25 — 32. Our Lord, in his last discourse to the disciples, promised to send them the Comforter, or the Holy Ghost, which might enable them to do things, more wonderful even than those which they saw him doing, And the descent of the Spirit upon them, he taught them to consider and to represent as the sure and final pledge, that 1 465 God had raised up the man Jesus, and ex- alted him to his right-hand. Accordingly our Apostle assures the Jews, that the shed- ding of the Holy Ghost upon them* so as to enable them thus to speak in unknown tongues* was both a confirmation and the consequence of Jesus having been raised from the dead ; of his having ascended into heaven* and received from the Father all power in heaven and earth. " This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all wit- nesses*" Peter then assures the jews, that the holy Spirit, the effects of which they now saw and heard, was promised to the disci- ples in corroboration of the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus : " Being therefore raised to the right-hand of God, and having re- ceived from the Father the Holy Spirit promised (to us), he poured out this which ye now see and hear." He next insists that the very man whom they crucified, and not as the deceivers maintained, a superior Being within him, constituted the Christ, and as such was authorised of God to be their Lord : " Therefore let the house of Israel VOL. II. H H 466 iinow assuredly that God hath mad? soth Lord and Christ this very Jesus, WHOM YE HAVE CRUCIFIED ;" 36\ The effect of this address was the conversion of three thousand souls : and the historian says of them, that "they continued in laying a firm hold of the doctrine of the Apostles, it* partaking of bread, and in breaking it and in prayers." That isr they sted lastly ad- hered to the doctrine taught by the Apostles in opposition to that of the deceivers; and in order to bear down the opinion of the latter, that the Christ, as being distinct from the man Jesus, did not suffer and rise again, they incessantly held out to view the symbols of his humanity and death. "And all the believers continued to- gether and had all things common ; and were selling their possessions and goods, and distributing them to all,* as each had need. And they continued daily witlr one mind in the temple, and at home, breaking bread and partaking of it with gladness and a guileless heart, praising God and having favour with all the people." This is a beautiful and interesting description of the ii rst christian converts. But what gives it a claim to our attention, is the circumstance 467 that it is levelled by the writer against the character of the impostors and their fol- lowers. The faithful believers gave proof of the sincerity of their profession by selling their possessions and distributing them to all such as were in want. They cherished that brotherly lovej that peace and harmony. Which disposed them to have one common heart, as well as common property. They every day celebrated the institution which was intended to perpetuate the belief of their Master's suffering, and they partook of it with chearfulness and a perfect freedom from those sinister and base views, which actuated the deceivers, when in the night they met to commemorate the festival of christian love* Though they cherised high veneration and love for their divine Lord, they imitated not the false brethren in affecting to worship him as a superior Being, but gave the praise, for the wonders that were exhibited in him, to God alone : and their conduct in this, as in other respects, procured them the fa- vour of the people. The men, with whom the true believers are here contrasted, introduced themselves into the christian H H 2 m church. But the Lord of that church, — he who by his authority was building it up, — rejected them on account of their vices, as being perishable materials and unworthy of a place in this holy edifice. He, however, enlarged and reared it up by adding to it those men whose sincere and stable repent- ance qualified them for composing, and for being; preserved in its sacred structure. And this is the meaning of the historian in the last verse : " And the Lord daily super- added to the church (TOyf ^o^o^) such as were preserved in it." Jesus spent his last hour m consoling his desponding disciples with the assurance, that the Comforter would come unto them after his departure. But as he was to come in his name, they were hence instructed to regard* and to profess themselves as only the delega- ted servants of Jesus. With what scruple and fidelity they conformed to this in- struction, may be seen from the following incident : " When he (the lame man) saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, be asked an alms : And as they both fast- ened their eyes upon him, Peter said, look towards us; and he gave heed unto them, A69 expecting to receive something from them. Peter said, Silver and gold have I none, but what I have that I give thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk;" iii. 3 — 7. Here you will observe, that the apostle attaches the power, which cured the cripple, to the name of Jesus; and lest that should not he definite enough, he adds, of Nazareth. As, however, the people saw that Peter was the only ostensible agent in the transaction, it was natural enough in them to ascribe to him the merit of the miracle ; and consequently to think that he acted not in subordination to any other, but with an authority immediately derived from God. This mistake, of which any person that was not actuated by strict integrity would have availed himself, our honest apostle hastens to correct. " Then Peter, seeing this, said unto the people : Ye men of Israel, why wonder ye at this ? As if by our own power or ability we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers hath glorified his servant Jesus*, whom ye deli* * The Jews, as generally believing in the existence and H H 3 470 vered up, and rejected in the presence of Pilate, who had determined to let him go : but ye rejected that holy and righteous man, and asked a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed the Author of life ; him whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses : And by faith in his name hath he given strength to this man, whom ye see and know : that name, I say, and that faith therein hath given him this perfect soundness in the sight of you all;" hi. 12-- 17. From this passage we see, that the spectators looked with astonishment on the wondrous cure done before them ; and they considered the apostle as alone under God entitled to the praise of it. He, however, acknowledges that he did it by faith only in the name of Jesus. And, in order to render his language more impressive and decisive, he repeats the same assertion ; namely, that faith in the name of Jesus, and not any virtue of his own. agency of superior beings, evil as well as good, might be disposed to ascribe the resurrection, no less than the miracles of Jesus, to some inferior divinity unfriendly to the Jewish nation. This conclusion the apostle Peter here has in view ; and he precludes it by asserting, that the Being, who glorified the Lord Jesus, was no other than the God of the Jewish patriarchs — The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of vur Fa- thers hath glorified his servant Jesus, 471 was the cause of the miracle. And that all /night understand how such efficacy came to be connected with a name deemed so mean and ignominious, he explains to them, that Jesus was the servant of God ; that after being put to death, though pronounced innocent by his judge, he was glorified, that is, raised from the dead, and invested with divine au- thority by his heavenly Father ; that of his resurrection and ascension they were eye- witnesses, and that the miraculous power, which they now displayed, was wisely an- nexed to the name of their Master, in cor- roboration of the facts which they attested. By an explanation thus fair and explicit, the error of the people was at length dissipated : and they no longer considered the apostles as acting with an independent authority, but with an authority derived from, and subordi- nate to the Lord Jesus. Hence we may perceive the real meaning of the following verse : " And after this no one joined himself to them (the apostles), though the people magnified them, but rather believers in the Lord were superadded (to the church) ;" That is, The people, though they still con- tinued to revere the apostles as the servants HH 4« 472 of Jesus, no longer adhered to them as prin- cipals, but believed in the Lord Jesus as the illustrious head of the christian church ; and thus were superadded to it multitudes of men and women ; chap. v. 13*. The Sadducees, seeing the apostles thus attesting the resurrection of the man Jesus, and through him the resurrection of all man- kind, were induced by a bigotted zeal for their distinguishing tenet to oppose and per- secute them : '* They set Peter and John in the midst, and asked, by what power and what name did ye this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we are now examined about the welfare of the infirm man, by what he is become well, be it known to you all, and all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom Go4 * Ananias, who sold his property, and sequestered a part of it, fell into the same error with the rest of the people ; namely, that the apostles acted in their own name, and did not hold them- selves in subjection to Jesus as their Master. Hence the crime, which he committed, extended, he naturally supposed, no higher fhan the apostles themselves. And to his fatal mistake in th^s respect Peter thus refers : Ovk t-^ivau «vSf«7ro»s u\\cc n» Sew, Tfiou hast not lyed unto men but unto God; chap, v. 4. 473 raised from the dead, by him, I say, doth this man stand restored before you. This Jesus is that stone, which was despised by you the builders, but is become the Head of the corner. And by no other is such re- storation to soundness: Neither is there any other name under heaven given among men, by which we can be saved;" 5 — 13. In this passage Peter, you see, bears be- fore the rulers the same consistent and un- daunted testimony, which he delivered to £he people. He tells them, that the man Jesus of Nazareth, whom they had cruci- fied, was the immediate source of the mira- cle exhibited in the impotent man : but lest they should conclude, that he possessed such power inherent in himself, and independent of God, he ascribes, in explicit terms, his re- surrection and exaltation to the energy of the Almighty. It has already been observed, that the enemies of our Lord adopted, as the most effectual means of undermining the doctrine of the divine mission of Jesus, the Gnostic hypothesis, that a supernatural being de- scended upon him at his baptism, and left 474 him on his apprehension *. Without this supposition they were unable to account with any degree of plausibility for the mira- cles, which, during his ministry, he per^ formed, and his appearing after crucifixion to the disciples. Our Lord distinctly fore- i * The Gnostic hypothesis that a God descended into the man Jesus, enabled him to perform miracles, and left him when put to death, was avowed without any scruple by some of the hea- then philosophers. In proof of this assertion, I will here cite the well-known words of Amelius, a disciple of Plotinus, and the in- timate friend of the malignant Porphyry : — Kat a; o-u^a. snw? TEiy x«t (fa^r.x EvdWa^svov, $«vTa£WQat avQguvov' jazt» axi tou Tmixccvra aUKwav ms (fyo-sa^ to fjaycckuov, ccjaiXh xva ava\v§-VT<% waXiv axoSsoua-cJat, xai inv crx^/.oc xcu rov a.v9§&!Toy xaTa^Snvoa, Euseb. Evan. Praep. lib. xi. ig. That is, This God descended into a body, and clothed himself with flesh, and appeared a mail ; and, after displaying the greatness of his nature, disengaged him- self (from human flesh), again became a God, and is a God, as he nas before he came dozen into the body and flesh of a man. In this paragraph we see a pagan philosopher asserting, that a divine principle, which from the evangelist John he calls the Logos, in- habited the body of a man, namely of Jesus ; that the miracles, which Jesus performed, were but the display of the divfhity within him ; and tint this divinity, after being disengaged from the human bodv which it animated, reassumed its original pure nature. Now, does it not appear from the testimony and example of this learned heathen, that a Jew or a gentile might adopt the Gnostic system without necessarily becoming a christian ; — that, on the contrary, the adoption of it was well calculated to counteract the efficacy and undermine the very foundation of the christian doctrine ? For this reason indeed it was, that the apos- tolic teachers not only classed the first heretics with unbelievers, but represent them as the worst species of unbelievers which the gospel had. 475 saw the subterfuge, to which his adversaries and his pretended friends would in this re- spect have recourse. Accordingly, he furnished his apostles with instructions and powers to defeat it : And remarkable are the precision and the emphasis with which Peter in this, as in his other addresses, has guarded against that supposition. He tells them, that the person who restored to health the infirm man, was Jesus — Jesus of Na-? zareth — whom they crucified — xvhom God raised — that this Jesus, the stone rejected by the builders, became the head of the corner. And he adds, " Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved ;" 12. As though he had said, " Despicable as this Jesus is in your views, he is the mean, which has healed the malady of this man, and must be the only mean of healing the maladies under which you and all others labour in order to be saved : And vain is your attempt to substi- tute any other as the medium of salvation, either by maintaining, that some other per- son is the Christ, or by absurdly supposing, that he is a superior being, which, for a while, inhabited the man Jesus." Such an union of prudence, moderation and firmness. 476 accompanied with a superior power in illiterate men, excited the astonishment, though it could not subdue the prejudices of their adversaries. The consequence was, that they were dismissed with an injunction not to preach any more in the name of Jesus. The Apostles however nobly preferred to obey the voice of God rather than men : And when their persecutors again arraigned them, a man of high reputation delivered in their behalf the following speech : — " Ye men of Israel, take care what ye do against these men. For not long ago Theudas rose up pretending to be some great person, to whom about four hundred men joined them- selves : but he was slain, and all that had been persuaded by him were scattered abroad and came to nothing. After this man rose up Judas of Galilee, in die days of the registering, and drew aside much people after him : he also perished : and all that had been persuaded by him were dispersed. And I advise you on this occasion, have nothing to do with these men, but let them alone : for if the c< ntivance of this business be of men, it will i e destroyed, but if it be of God, you will be unable to destroy it, and may be found also fighters against God ;" chap. v. 36 — 40. 47? On this passage I observe, First, that one motive which induced Gamaliel to deliver this wise advice in favour of the Apostles, was the circumstance of their preaching the resurrection of the dead, a doctrine which the Pharisees always maintained, though on different grounds, in opposition to the Sad- ducees. This is a conclusion which, I con- ceive, is warranted by what we read in chap, xxiii. 8. where the Pharisees on a similar occasion, acted a similar part. And this, doubtless, is the reason why the historian is so particular in stating that the persecutors were Sadducees, but that their illustrious advocate was a Pharisee. Secondly, Orte is authorised from the above speech, if minutely examined, to infer that the Jew- ish doctor felt at this time a decided convic- tion of the divine authority, with which the Apostles were invested : For when he sup- poses that their scheme originated with men, his words are hypothetical; while in laying down the opposite alternative that it proceed- ed from God, he uses positive terms : "If this scheme or this work be of men, it will come to nothing : But since it is from God YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO FRUSTRATE IT*. * F.xi *i e| kvQjwzm 'y $ovKv 'avrn *i to (gym tvbto kxt&?.v- 478 It must however be allowed that, though Gamaliel was convinced of the divine mis- sion of Christ and his Apostles, there is reason to believe that he never made an open declaration of his faith, or professedly classed with the followers of Jesus*. Hence OjjiT£T«i" EI AE EK ©EOT EZTI ov $vva.o-Qz xaraXiKxai \a,vrc, V. 38, 39. That the conjunction si, when connected with a verb in the indicative mood, signifies since, is well known to every scholar. The reason isj that the verb then conveys an assertion unconditional and certain. What grammarians say of conjunctions governing sometimes an indicative, and some- times a subjunctive mood, is sufficiently absurd; The fact is* that when the writer or speaker expresses a positi re signification, lie uses the former; when a conditional or hypothetical sense, lie employs the latter mood. The sense of the verb then go- verns the conjunction, and not the conjunction the mood of the verb. I forbear to illustrate this position by examples^ as it Is too well known to need illustration. * The author of the Recognitions asserts; that Gamaliel was a convert to the faith ; but that he continued among the Pharisees by the advice of the apostles, in order, by this means, to defend them when any accusation was brought against them before the rulers, and to give them 3ecret inform- ation in ense their enemies should adopt any plan to destroy them. He represents Peter as using this language respecting the Jewish Doctor — Qui latenter frater noster erat in fide, sed concilio nostro inter eos erat. On this saying Cotelerius thus justly remarks: Vulpinum hoc consilium Apostolis indignum est; lib. i. 65. This is one of the very exceptionable things in this spurious, yet, in my opinion, important book. With respect to Gamaliel, it is well known, that his name has de- scended to posterity in the number of the Jewish converts. It is true, indeed, that the writers of the Mishna, make an honourable 479 it may be inferred that he was one of those Pharisees, who embraced the gospel without publicly avowing their conviction of its truth, and who for this reason are censured by the evangelist John, chap. xii. 43. Nor ought it to be forgotten that the writer of the Acts presently adds, that a great multitude of the priests became obedient to the faith. In the num- ber of these, it is probable, he included the Jewish Doctor. One of the principal objects, which the Gnostic system had in view, was to accommodate the new religion to the prepossessions of unbelievers and to screen its professors from that obloquy, shame, and distress, which it brought on those who embraced it in all its purity. Hence all the learned and opulent Jews, whose pre- vious habits had disqualified them to make those sacrifices, which the Gospel required mention of him as one of those illustrious rabbis that lived in the times of Jesus. But the only conclusion that can be drawn from tfnVis, that he never avowed his belief in the gospel. It should not be forgotten, that John the baptist was held in the high- est estimation by many of those Jews, who cherished the bitterest enmity against Christ and his disciples ; and yet, John not only believed in Jesus, but bore him the most signal testimony as the Messiah. See Lard. vol. vii. p. i ig, 146. Some ancient writers affirm, that Gamaliel not only believed in Christianity, but was baptised by Peter and John; Tillemont, vol. i. p. 268. Cry- sostom says, that his speech was the means of converting th« jriesta mentioned by Luke in the subsequent chapter. 480 of its faithful votaries, favoured the senti- ments of Simon Magus. And it appears that Gamaliel himself was not at this time free from the apprehension, that Jesus, who suffered an ignominious death, and the Christ, that dwelt in him, were two distinct beings. And this was perhaps the circumstance that led our historian thus to subjoin : " And they went from the presence of the council, glad to be accounted worthy of suffering shame for the name of Jesus, and ceased not every day, in the temple and at home, teaching this gospel, that jesus is the Christ ; chap. v. 41, 42. A notion derived either from a mistaken interpretation of certain passages of the Jew- ish scriptures, or from oral tradition, gene- rally prevailed among the Jews, that their Messiah, when he should appear, would establish an eternal empire on the earth, and confer upon his subjects an everlasting ex- emption from death. This expectation, flattering and pernicious as it was, the cru- cifixion of the Saviour was well calculated to rectify ; yet we find traces of its being fondly cherished by the faithful disciples after the descent of the Spirit had enlarged their views, and confirmed their faith, That Ga- 481 maliel should have fallen into an error, universally prevalent among his country- men, cannot be deemed improbable. He had just seen the apostles miraculously deli- vered from the hands of their enemies. As he obviously discerned, in the shield of di- vine power encompassing them, that grand criterion of the coming age superiority to death, he naturally inferred that they were the auspicious heralds of the Messiah's reign, and that the persons, who sought to destroy them, were impiously impugning not only the will, but the energy of God. Considered in this view, his speech will ap- pear full of force and decision. It maybe paraphrased thus; "Theudas pretended to be that great personage, who shall confer on the Jewish nation the privilege of eternal life on the earth. But his speedy dissolu- tion evinced the falsehood of his claims. The fate of the impostor of Galilee also prov- ed, that he was neither himself immortal, nor had he the power of conferring immor- tality on others. The destruction of these deceivers affords us a fair criterion to judge of the pretensions of the men before us. Unlike Theudas and the Galilean Judas, they seem superior to all opposition from men. Your united strength and wisdom VOL, II, I I 482 are not able to take away their lives, to frustrate their views, or to scatter their fol- lowers. Leave them therefore to their fate ; any farther interference on your part would be but an impious resistance to the will of heaven." Now it is remarkable that, unless the address of the Jewish rabbi be considered in this point of light, the in- stances adduced were calculated rather to encourage, than to dissuade the persecution of the Sadducees. For they are instances of suc- cessful opposition, made by the state, to those who pretended to be divinely commissioned. The persons among the Jews most for- ward to embrace the Gnostic heresies, were those, who, having received their birth and education in Gentile countries, and being for this reason called Hellenists, had imbib- ed the Gentile philosophy. Of these notice is taken in the following passage : " And in those days, as the disciples multiplied, the Grecians complained against the Hebrews, that their widows were neglected in the daily distribution of alms ;" vi. 1. From the manner these Grecian or Hellenistic Jews are here mentioned it is evident, that they ranked with the disciples of Jcsuss though the turbulent and discontented tern- 48 3 per, which they display, little resembles the meek spirit of the apostolic converts. But the following paragraph places their charac- ter in a light far more odious : " And some of the synagogue of the Libertines and Cy- renians and Alexandrians, and thev of Cili- cia and Asia rose up to dispute with Stephen. But they were not able to withstand the wisdom of that Spirit, which spoke in him. Then they suborned men to say, We have heard him speak wicked words against Mo~ ses and God;" vi. 9 — \c2. Now the men, who here disputed with Stephen, were, I conceive, in the number of those Helenistio Jews mentioned in the first verse as converts to the faith. This may be inferred from the topics of the controversy which Stephen had with them. The notions, which they appear to have maintained in opposition to him, were these — That the divinity resident in Jesus, and not Jesus himself, constituted the Christ, and that the ceremonies of the Mosaic law were not to be superseded by a practical faith in the Gospel. This virtuous defender of the truth insisted, it seems, that the very same Jesus, whom the Jews had crucified, and whom God, having raised him from the dead, exalted to his right-hand, foretold the destruction of the temple, and H2 48* would evince the truth of his resurrection and exaltation in the accomplishment of that prediction. And this is what apparently gave rise to the false testimony borne against him before the council. " We have heard him say, that Jesus the Nazarene, this (same person) will destroy this place, and change the customs, which Moses delivered unto us;" 14. As though they had said : " We have heard him saying, that the self same Jesus, who was born at Nazareth, and crucified at Jerusalem — that this Jesus, and not the divinity resident in him, would do these things;"*. That a distinction of this * The original is as follows : Axtutoa/ufv ya£ aurou Xfyovro? on Mtrow; o Na£w£aJO, Ivto; xaraXucm tov T07rov tovtov' Here the false witnesses annex to the name Jesus the place of his birth, to spe- cify who was meant in opposition to any other of the same name. And in order farther to distinguish him personally from the being supposed to have resided in him, they subjoin the definitive outo,-, and that they might impress the distinction more fully on the minds of their hearers, they put gutoj last; The language, which the apostle Peter uses above, when assert- ing that the person, whom God made Lord and Christ, was the very same with the crucified Jesus, and not any other supposed to be in him, is if possible still more definite and specific; Ac^eXw; ow ytyvuxTKirui was oix.oq Io-^ariX on xat Ki/fioy xat Xfirov ctVTov o ©eoj ETroiWs tovtov tov Irierouv, ov t/xEjj £ raugciwaTE. What a crowd of definitives are here employed? — uvtov — toutov — « tov — ov— all qualifying the name JesUs. Half of them would fcavebeen superfluous, had it not been the intention of the apostle 485 kind was intended, is to me obvious from the specific terms here used, and from the singular manner in which they are arranged. The false brethren no less than the Jews denied, that either the history of the patri- archs, or the predictions of the prophets, had any reference to the circumstances of Jesus. In order to refute this opinion, Ste- phen selects the leading events in the case of Abraham, of Joseph* and of Moses, and shews that they bore such resemblance to those, which distinguished our Lord and his followers, as that the former were intended by the wisdom of providence to have a typical reference to the latter* Thus — Did God command Abraham to leave his own coun- try and kindred I This presignified the fate of the expected Messiah;" chap. vii. 2 — 5. Was the Jewish patriarch foretold that his posterity would sojourn in a strange land under bondage and ill-treatment? The pre- diction, in its ultimate reference, was accom- plished in the ill-usage and hardships, which to preclude the artifice, which the Jewish rulers seem in ge- neral to have adopted in order to account for the miracles of our Lord and his appearing after death to his disciples, by sup* posing that a supernatural being inhabited him distinct from the person of Jesus. 113 486 the followers of Jesus, the true posterity of Abraham, received from their countrymen; G — 8. Was Joseph sold by his brethren-, carried into slavery, falsely imprisoned by Pharaoh, and afterwards raised to the go- vernment of Egypt ? — These were events symbolical of the conspiracies, which the Jewish people formed against the prophet which God should raise among them like unto Moses, and of his subsequent exaltation to the right-hand of God; 9 — 11. Did the Israelites, after God had delivered to them the doctrines of life by his servant Moses, refuse them obedience, and turn back in their hearts unto Egypt; saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us? In a simi- lar manner acted the Jews of our Saviour's days : They rejected that gospel, which brought life and immortality to light, and they were now following an impostor to the worship of strange gods; 37 — 42. Fi- nally, were the Israelites carried beyond Ba- bylon, because they took up the tent of Mo- loch, and the star of their god Rephan, that is, a divinity worshipped by the Egyptians? This unhappy fate also awaited the Jewish people, because they forsook Jehovah, and espoused the idolatry of Simon Magus and his Egyptian disciples ; 42 — 44. 487 That the main design of our apologist might not pass unfelt or misapprehended, he concludes his ingenious address with this general application of it : — " Ye stirT-necked men of uncircumcised heart and ear, ye are always opposing the Holy Spirit : As your fathers did, so do ye * ; 5 1. He then alludes to the apostacy of the Jews, from the law of Moses at the instigation of the false bre- thren : " Who have received the law by the ministry of angels, but do not defend itf. * The expression men of uncircumcised heart and ear, is founded upon the blind zeal with which the opponents of Ste- phen urged the necessity of circumcising the body while they neglected that metaphorical circumcision of the heart and under- standing, of which the literal was but a symbol — Ye are always opposing the Holy Spirit. That is, As your fathers have ever acted contrary to the will of God, so do you now resist the Spirit of God, which is exerted in the performance of those miracles wrought by the apostles in attestation of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. ■j* 'Omvsj e;\ in this doctrine. Observe, secondly, that in very emphatic terms he denies the claims of that impostor to the christian character, — Thou hast neither part nor lot in this doctrine. That is, thou hast no concern either as a professor or a teacher, in the gospel which we teach. Cease therefore to class thyself any longer with the followers of Christ, and to advance falshoods of thine own invention as branches of that doctrine which we preach." Remark, lastly, that Peter describes the character of Simon under figures borrowed from the serpent, whose dirinity he affected to extol in opposition to the Jewish Jehovah, — Thy heart is not straight bejore God: Which is to this effect; "Though by thy baptism and seeming repentance thou hast put on a fair appearance in the sight of men, y< t to the eyes of that Being, who discernetn the thoughts, thou appearest to resemble the insidiousness, the cunning, the obliquities 496 of the serpent. Thou art entwined around with habits of inveterate guilt as with the scaly contortions of that animal, and thy temper is bitter and virulent like the poison under its tongue.'* The gospel as it originated in the wis- dom of heaven, and was far from coinciding with the prepossessions, or flattering the vices of men, is stiled by the Apostolic teachers the doctrine of God. This title they never fail to give it, whenever they oppose the Gnostic impostors, whose systems were but heterogeneous compositions of Jewish tra- ditions, of the pagan philosophy, and the christian doctrine, so blended indeed as to meet the prejudices and gratify the bad passions of those whom they deceived. And thus the historian designates the gospel twice on this occasion; See verses 14, 25. One leading point in this doctrine of the Lord, which Peter and John taught in opposition to Simon, was the death of Jesus as predicted by the Jewish prophets. |The discussion of this point forms the next step in the narrative before us : And remark- able is the incident, which providence called forth in the interview between Philip 491 and the Ethiopian eunuch, in order to fur- nish future ages with additional evidence for its truth. After reading the beautiful passage in which the evangelical Prophet predicts the silence and meekness of the Messiah during his trial, and the cruel man- ner in which his life was taken away, the latter thus asks the former : " I pray thee, of whom doth the prophet say this ? Of him- self, or of some other man ? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began from this scripture, to preach unto him Jesus. And as they were going along the road, they came to some water; And the eunuch saith : See, here is water, why may not I be bap- tised ? And Philip said : if thou belie vest with all thy heart, thou mayest : And he answered : I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God;" 34 — 38. If you consider this passage in reference to the above history of Simon Magus, you will see that it incul- cates, in opposition to that impostor, that the Jewish prophets foretold the sufferings. and death of the Messiah ; that Jesus, and not a divine being within him, was the Christ, and that as such he was but the Son of God, or the anointed king of the Jews ; and, finally, that the eunuch might be bap- vol. ii. k K 498 tised, on condition of his believing these points/row his heart, that is, with unfeigned simplicity and sincerity, and not, as the deceivers did, from sinister purposes. In the tenth chapter it is recorded, that the apostle Peter was directed by the Holy Spirit to instruct Cornelius in the principles of the christian faith. Now as this wa3 the express purpose for which he went, and as the person, who wanted this instruction, was a pagan and a stranger to the gospel, we may well expect that the Apostle should not omit any essential branch of it, but state all its fundamental points with precision and clearness, and place them too in such a light as to exclude the sentiments of Simon Magus, with whom, if we may believe the author of the Recognitions, the centurion was not unacquainted. To remove the prejudices, that had hitherto divided the Jews and gentiles, Peter wisely opens his discourse with asserting, that God regarded no personal distinction among men, but accepted every person of whatever nation, who feared him and worked righteousness ;. ver. 34<. In a bold and personified language lie then informs them, that the doctrine* which the Apostles taught, was not of human 499 invention, but revealed from God ; that It was first revealed to the children of Israel ; that the knowledge and influence of it would in the end universally prevail, and unite the discordant nations of the world in peace and harmony; 36". In the next place, Peter specifies the country, in which this divine commission was first announced, and this country was Galilee. He then defines the time, in which it was first made known, and that was after the baptism of John : " That doctrine, you know was published through- out all Judea, and began from Gali- lee, AFTER THE BAPTISM WHICH JOHN PREACHED." Peter, after this, describes who the per- son was, whom God appointed to be his messenger to mankind : — " God anointed Jesus — him from Nazareth — with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good, and healing all that were op- pressed of the devil : for God was him ;" 38. That they might not conclude that these miracles were artifices, which had no foundation in truth, he asserts that he and his fellow-disciples witnessed all the things Jesus had done in the land of Judea, and in KK2 500 Jerusalem ; 39. The crucifixion of Jesus by the Jews, his resurrection from the dead on the third day, his appearing to the disciples after death, the commandment which he then gave them to preach him as the person ordained of God to be the Judge of all mankind — these were the next leading principles, which our Apostle enforces on the attention of liis hearers : Nor does he omit reminding them that the ancient prophets bore witness to him as the Messiah, and that whosoever believeth in the name of Jesus shall receive the pardon of his sins; 39 — 44. The history concludes with saying, that this statement of Peter was corroborated by an immediate descent of the Holy Spirit upon those who heard him. Here, then, you see what Appstolic authority holds up to our views as the only principles which christians are called upon to believe. These principles are the divine mission of Jesus, his being a man come from Nazareth, but en- dowed with supernatural power and wisdom, his death on the cross, his resurrection from the dead, his coming again to judge the liv- ing and the dead, and finally, a prac- tical faith in his name. Whatever arti- 501 cles are enjoined upon us as necessary to salvation beyond these, have origi- ginated in the ignorance of some, and in the bad passions of others in ancient times : and they constitute that wood, hay, stubble, erected upon the foundation of Christ and his Apostles, which one day shall most assur- edly be destroyed by the fire of truth. The passage, which next demands our attention, occurs in chap. xiii. 6— 13. " And after passing over the island of Cyprus as far as Paphos, they found a certain magi- cian, a false teacher, a Jew, named Bar- jesus, in the train of the deputy-governor, Sergius Paulus a man of understanding, who called to him Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word of God. But the magician, otherwise called Elymas, opposed them, endeavouring to turn aside the gover- nor from the faith. Then Saul, who was called Paul also, full of the Holy Spirit, set his eyes upon him and said : O ! full of all guile and of all craftiness ! son of the devil ! enemy of all righteousness ! wilt thou not cease making crooked the strait ways of the Lord ? Behold ! therefore the hand of the K k 3 502 Lord is now against thee ; and thou wilt be blind without seeing the sun for a season. And immediately a mist and a darkness fell upon him ; and he was going about in search of a guide. Then the governor, upon see- ing that, believed in astonishment at this doctrine of the Lord." Now my object is to shew that this is one of those magicians, who professed the christian religion, and cor- rupted it so as to render it subservient to their bad passions. That before this in- terview with our Apostle, he was a pretended believer in Jesus is obvious from hence : — 1. Paul addresses him as a person continually employed in perverting the new faith to his own sinister purposes : " Wilt thou not cease making crooked the strait ways of the Lord ?" —2. The historian informs us that he was a false teacher ; by which he means that he blended with the christian doctrine false- hoods invented by men. — 3. Paul accosts him as an enemy of all righteousness: That is, while he professed himself the friend, he was in reality the worst foe of the gospel ; he was one who concealed, under a fair and external profession, a heart full of guile. ■ — 4. The impostor called himself Barjesus, which in Hebrew signifies the son or sue? 503 lessor of Jesus *. By putting this con- struction on his name, he appears to insi- nuate that the powers, with which Jesus was invested were transferred to him, as his lawful successor. In allusion to his im- pious arrogance in this respect, Paul, seemingly, denominates him son of the devil, that is, son of the evil one, and not of the holy and benevolent Jesus ; 5. The im- piety of this impostor, in making the profes- sion of Christianity the cloak of evil pas- sions, was the circumstance, which ren- dered it expedient to inflict upon him a sig- nal punishment, and thus to exhibit his fate as an awful warning to those bad men who acted a similar part. The mist, which fell upon his eyes and made them blind to * An apposite instance, which may illustrate this remark, occurs in the life of Josephus, p. 2. Havercamp's edition. w Having heard," says he, " That a man named Banoun tarried in the wilderness, using for raiment the foliage of trees, and spontaneous vegetables for food, and that he often both day and night bathed in cold water for purification, I became his zealous follower ; and after spending with him three years, I returned into the city :" Now from the description which Josephus here gives of this Banoun it is evident, that he professed himself the successor of John Baptist, and the charac- ter, sustained by him in this respect, he described by the very name he assumed : which being thus written in Hebrew, ^33, signifies a son or successor oj John. K K 4 504 the light of the sun, conveyed to the gover- nor, and to those, who had hitherto been duped by him, an impressive symbol of that ignorance and depravity, under which he laboured, while he blasphemously claim- ed superior power and wisdom *. " Now some, who came down from Judea were teaching the brethren, Except ye circumcise yourselves after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. As, there- fore, Paul and Barnabas differed with them in opinion, and could not settle the dispute, the brethren determined, that Paul and Bar- nabas with some of their number should go up to Jerusalem to the Apostles and elders about this question ;" xv. 1 — 4. The dispute between the men here * As the blindness, which fell on this magician, was sym- bolical of the moral blindness that darkened the eyes of his mind ; and as it was inflicted only for aj'eajon, we may infer that the removal of it, so as to enable him again to see the mate- rinl sun, was accompanied with that repentance andreformation, which qualified him to discern the Sun of Righteousness in its native lustre, and no more to tarnish it with the dark clouds of fraud and falsehood. And this fact, deducibleas it is from the passage before us, is directly attested by Origen. In his Commen- taries on Exodus, p. 22. he thus writes: Jla.v\o<; $e tov avv rta K^uirccrti) Ee£yio>n«uAw tw Xoyu tv$>.m harm irovui tmr% ?ej e| eASovte-j irx%ot%%v vjacl<; Xoyoi,- avxa-;tEua£ovT£f ra.i •^u^aj ipuvSojne having gone out (from among us) have confounded you with their doctrines, wringing your fouls. The allusion is to beasts of prey, which, having come upon a flock of sheep, throw them into alarm, disorder, and confusion, and seize them by the throat in order to devour them. To men of this descrip- tion the apostle Paul alludes in the second chapter of the Epistle to the Calaiians, He stigmatises them as false brethren who clandestinely introduced themselves into the church as spies to deprive the gentile converts of their liberty in Christ. 510 circumcision and other ritual observances i " And certain believers of the sect of the Pharisees rose up and said it was proper to circumcise the gentiles, and to command them to keep the law of Moses;"*. 5. These Pharisees, it appears to me highly probable, were the same with those who our Lord foresaw, would embrace his religion, as modified by Simon Magus and other disci- ples of John. When on a certain occasion they came to Jesus and put the question : " Why do not thy disciples fast?" he anticipated their false zeal for the rites and ceremonies of the law in these remarkable words: — "No one putteth a patch of new cloth to an old * There is something perplexing in this verse! as it implies that the Pharisees rose up, and spoke against the Apostles and elders, before they were yet met to consider the matter. IJut this perplexity will be removed, if we reflect that the opposition which they made to Paul and Barnabas, was made in the assembly of the Apostles and elders and people^ into which, on their arrival in Jerusalem, they were introduced. The business perhaps would at once have been terminated, had it not been for the opposition of the Pharisaical converts. The number, rank and bigotry of these gave the dispute a serious form, and rendered it impracticable to be settled at that time. It was become, therefore necessary to appoint a subsequent day for the discussion of the subject. The sixth verse begins with an account of the assembly, that was then formed, and of the speeches made by Peter and others. The obscurity arose from the studied brevity of the writers who wished to bring this narrative into as small a compass as possible. 511 garment : for it taketh away from the entire- ness of the garment, and a worse rent is made. Neither is new wine put into old bottles ; if so, those bottles burst, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles are destroyed : but new wine is put into new bottles? and they are preserved together ;" Mat. ix. 16, 17. This contains a direct but obscure reply to the question. The old garment and the old bottles were those ritual observan- ces to which the Jews were attached. The Baptist was not the person authorised to throw aside that thread-bare garment, those rotten vessels. It would not, therefore have been right in him to put a new patch to the one, or infuse new wine into the other. That is, his office, as it consisted solely in pointing out the Messiah to his country- men required, that he should not attempt to introduce any amendment in the Jewish institutions, but conform to them as he found them. For this reason, as if he said, John permitted you his disciples to fast and keep the other customs of the law : but with my d^ciples the case is different. I, as being the bridegroom, shall invest my fol- lowers with new manners, and instil into their minds new doctrines. That they may, therefore, be enabled to wear the former, 512 and preserve the latter, it is necessary that they should lay aside their former customs, and inure themselves, for the future, to dif- ferent habits. Unless they thus discontinue old observances, and undergo a thorough change in their practices, they will be unable to retain those lessons of piety, benevolence, and self- government which I deliver to them. From this beautiful and wise admonition the dis- ciples of John and the Pharisees derived no advantage, but imported into the new reli- gion, notwithstanding the warnings which the Saviour here and elsewhere admini- stered to them, a blind attachment to cere- monial observances, together with other notions which took their rise in the school of the Baptist. And may we not infer from the conduct of the Pharisaical converts in sending their agents to Antioch, that they sent missionaries also to other places, in or- der to oppose the apostolic teachers ; and that they endeavoured even to pre-occupy the Jews in their favour by teaching their principles in those cities, which the gospel in its purity had not yet reached ? Now if we take a retrospective view of Paul's address to the Jews at Antioch in Pisidia, we shall find that the disciples of 513 the Baptist, and the Pharisaical believers had already disseminated their distinguishing tenets among them ; and that the influence of these deceivers formed the chief impe- diment in the way of the true gospel at that place. As those Jews were acquainted with the baptism of John and acknowledged his authority, the apostle, just before he en- ters upon the leading principles of Christi- anity as taught by him, cites the testimony which the Baptist bore to the Messiahship of Jesus. " And when John finished his course, he asked whom think ye me to be ? I am not he, but behold ! One cometh after me, the sandal of whose feet I am not worthy to loosen ;" xiii. 25. When the followers of the Baptist with their Pharisaical brethren were compelled by their Master's own testimony, and his subsequent death, to abandon the favourite hope that he was the Christ, they had recourse, from motives of spite and malice towards the true claim- nant to that character, to the absurd suppo- sition that a superior being, which came down from heaven andjentered into him at his baptism, and not Jesus personally, consti- tuted the Messiah. Observe now, how our Apostle cuts up this notion by the roots; VOL. II. IT, 514 " Men, my brethren, descendants of the race of Abraham, and those (of any other race) among you who fear God, to you the Logos of this salvation is sent : For this (Logos) the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and their rulers have through ignorance condemned ; thus having fulfilled the cries of the prophets, every sabbath read unto you ;" 26, 27. Here you see Paul calls the commission, which his Master publicly received at his baptism by the name of Logos or divine Commissioner; and lest his hearers should infer, that this personified Commissioner was a real being, possessing a spiritual and immortal nature, and therefore distinct from Jesus of Nazareth, he instantly trans- fers the term to the latter ; and thus holds up the very man, that had expired on the cross, as alone constituting the messenger of heaven. The impostors, in consequence of having distinguished between the man Jesus and the Christ within him, were led of course to deny, that the latter was of the- race of David ; that he really suffered ; that God raised him from the dead ; and that the things which befel him were foretold by the Jewish prophets. To these notions, which were rejected by the Jewish as well as 515 by the gentile Gnostics, the Apostle adverts ♦ and he enforces the truth of them, in a lan» guage singularly plain, simple and emphatic. Read from verse 22d to verse 38th. Nor is this all. Being now opposed by men, who professed the same sentiments with the Pharisaical missionaries at Antioch, he main-* tains that a practical faith in the crucified and exalted Jesus, and not the ceremonies of the law, was the means of securing the remission of sins ; verses 38, 39. The anti- apostolic teachers of course insisted, that the converts should conform to the injunctions of Moses, before they should be invested with the privileges of the christian faith. But Barnabas and Paid persuaded them to re* main in the favour of God ; 43. That is, They exhorted the proselytes not to listen to those self-commissioned teachers, who sought to impose upon them useless and burden- some ceremonies, but to abide in that gra- cious exemption from ritual obligations, which God dispensed to them , in conse- quence of believing the truth, and practis- ing the virtues of the gospel. I propose next to examine a part of Paul's LL2 516 celebrated speech before the Athenian phi- losophers. " Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his mind was provoked within him at seeing the city so full of images. Moreover, lie was constantly rea- soning with the Jews, and with the gentile proselytes in the synagogue, and every day in the market-place with those that came in his way. And some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers happened to meet with him, some of whom said, What doth this babbler mean to say ? And others : He seemeth to be a strange publisher of new demons ! because he was preaching to them Jesus and the resurrection;" xvii. 16 — 19. Here we see what were the grand and fundamental topics, on which the apostle Paul first insisted, when explaining to stran- gers the nature of that doctrine which he preached. These were the man Jesus, his resurrection from the dead, and through him the resurrection of all mankind. And yet the philosophers concluded that he pub- lished some new demon. To prevent the reader from falling into a similar error, the historian immediately subjoins the reason, which led them to that conclusion. " Be- cause he was preaching to them Jesus and the resurrection, that is, the resurrection of Je- 517 sus." This inference of the philosophers, though false, was natural with their prepos- sessions ; Since in the conception of a hea- then, superiority to death is the chief cir- cumstance which constitutes a God *. * That my reader may see what reason the philosophers had for supposing that the Apostle was a publisher of new demons, let him attend to the following statement. Many of the ancient philosophers supposed, that the souls of men emanated, like rays of light, from the Supreme Luminary, and existed before their incorporation. When immersed in hu- man forms, as being then in a state of debasement, and subject to the contagion of noxious matter, they were said to be dead, or to use the language of Philo — tov ixitiz cruiJ-otruiv aTroQvtjo-Kav /3to», p. 1 153. to lead a dead life with bodies. For this reason hu- man souls were sometimes stiled $eo» Ovrjrot, because according to Hierocles, they are banished from that blessed existence which they had before enjoyed in the presence of the Deity. 'Hi uvoQwio-iiovcrxi 7T£o; rnv Ssiav tv^viav rn utto Geou (f vyn* ffier in Aur Cartn. p. 18. This appellation was given them also by Heraclitus. See Clem. Alex. Paed. Lib. 3. Cap. 1. The soul being now imprisoned, as it were, in a dark and nar- row cell, its perceptions were obscured, and its faculties en- feebled. So says Plutarch, EvtvQXovtm ha. t»v -r^ to yiu$t$ avctK^amv tov a-u^ara^ vol, ii. p 43 1. When however released from the bondage of flesh and blood, she was said to have risen from the dead, that is, to have recovered the happy state which $he had lost. In this exalted condition she was now described as, ' ' ASavaros, S^o?, aju/S^oroi, ot/x et» Owtoj* If, farther, during her incorporation the soul kept herself free from the pollution of the body, if she continued mindful tf her high original, and if in particular she proved beneficial L L 3 618 To introduce a new God, or a strange demon, unauthorised by the laws, was deemed, it is well known, in Greece and in Rome, a capital crime. With this crime the Apostle is here charged by the Epicu- reans and Stoics i and in order to enforce it, they conducted him to the Areopagus or the chief seat of justice. Here then our vener- able teacher is summoned in the most solemn manner to maintain and defend the divinity of Jesus, if so be that he indeed taught that doctrine ; or to repel the accusation brought against him as groundless and unjust. Now It is curious to observe which alternative Paul to mortal men while on the earth, she kad, on her emancipation, the honour of ranking under the name of a demon among the tutelar gods of this lower world, whom Hesiod calls, Ayvot tTn^poviot and am acquainted with Paul : but who are ye ? Then the man, in whom the evil spirit was, leapt on them, and overpowered them so much as to make them flee from that house naked and wounded." xix. 13 — 17. The devotion of these men to the arts of Magic, is a presumption that they ranked with other Pharisees among the followers of the Samaritan impostor ; and the train of the historian's ideas leads us to infer, that they were those men, who had initiated the con- verts spoken of above into the baptism of John. Be this however as it may, it is ob- vious from the narrative before us that, on seeing the miracles done by the hands of Paul, they came over in name to the true 52S faith, and that they not only professed to be^ lieve in the Lord Jesus, but even to cast out demons in his name. Hence are discernible the wisdom and justice of Providence in the event which befel them : as it was a signal proof to all around them of their presump- tion and wickedness in pretending to be the disciples of a master, whose name and gospel they disgraced by their behaviour. With the character of Jesus these men, in common with the unbelieving Jews, had associated ideas of odium and disgrace : and, even after they embraced the Samaritan imposture, they still continued to blaspheme his vene- rable name. Now, what could be so well adapted to rescue our blessed Lord from an ignominy so unjust and a blasphemy so impious, as the glorious lesson now exhibited to the world; namely, that the power which the Almighty had connected with the name of Jesus, was to be employed only by good men, and for beneficent purposes, and never by bad men for evil purposes ? And to the happy consequence resulting from this lesson our historian thus adverts : " And this be- came known to all both Jews and Greeks, inhabitants of Ephcsus, and fear fell upon all. And the name of the Lord Jesus WAS MAGNIFIED ;" 17. 3 529 Numbers of the Jews and Egyptians expelled from Italy, came, we shall here-i after see, to Ephesus. While yet in the metropolis their leaders composed, with other spurious books, certain oracles which they ascribed to the Sibyl and which after examination were burnt by the emperor Tiberius. On seeing the treatment which the sons of Sceva received from the demoniac, many of the impostors were led to a sense of their guilt, and confessed their former wicked practices : " And a good many magicians brought together their books and burnt them in public, and the value of them altogether was reckoned to be (ifty thousand pieces of silver." The writer then subjoins this remark : — " In such a manner did the Logos (word) of God grow up and prevail ;" As though he had said, ■» The divine Logos, descended on Jesus, and entrusted by him to the Apostles to be educated under their paternal care, flourished with all the bloom of health and vigour : and when this celestial youth was now brought to combat; with men, who under the mask of friend- ship had disgraced and injured him, he triumphed over them by this signal display of power." VOL, II, MM 530 The circumstance of some of the im- postors here noticed having come from Rome, and the burning of their books as was done by the emperor Tiberius, appear to have excited in the mind of Paul the idea of that city, and hence led him to express the following resolution : — " Now after these things were completely settled, Paul resolved in his mind, when he had passed through Achaia and Macedonia to go to Jerusalem ; saying : after I have been there, / must see Rome also ; 21. The passage, above explained, serves to throw much light upon a discourse, which our Lojgd once had with the Pharisees : — " Then a blind and dumb man, a de- moniac, was brought to him, and he healed him ; so that the blind and dumb man both spake and saw. And all the multitudes were amazed, and said : Is not this the Son of David ? But when the Pharisees heard it, they said : This man could not cast out these demons, but through Beelzebub the prince of the demons ;" Mat. xii. C2C2 — c25. Now I propose to shew that the Pharisees, who had recourse to this disingenuous artifice, joined in after-times with the dis- ciples of John in espousing the Samaritan 531 system; and that the Saviour, foreseeing this, blended with a refutation of their cavils a series of remarks all levelled at the new character which they afterwards would assume as his pretended disciples. Let us then examine his words : " If by Beelzebub I cast out demons, by whom do your chil- dren cast them out ? They therefore shall be your judges ?" l21. Here it is implied, that the sons of some among the Pharisees were employed in exorcising demons, and that these would condemn the subterfuge adopt- ed on this occasion by their fathers. But suppose the matter was then referred to their arbitration, would they have con- demned the cavillers and justified the divine authority of Jesus ? They certainly would not have done this. Our Lord knew that they wrould not ; and therefore refers to a future time, when they should thus con- demn their fathers. f They will be your judges." Now Luke in the Acts has re- lated the incident to which Jesus appears to have referred : The sons of Sceva, the Chief Priest, with other Phariseesdid, in aban- doning their former art of exorcising demons, and attempting to do these things by means of the divine power connected with the M M 2 532 name of Jesus, openly acknowledge that he acted with the authority of God. That our divine Master had his eves fixed on those impostors mentioned by Luke, appears evi- dent from what he subjoins on this occasion : "When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seek- ing rest and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house whence I came out ; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there : and the last state of that man is worse than the first, Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation ;" 43 — 46". Under the veil of Jewish mytho- logy, if I may so speak, Christ has here conveyed a beautiful lesson concerning the nature of evil habits. But he applied the parable to the men whom he was then addressing. And in what did the propriety of this application consist ? These Pharisees together with the sons of Sceva, would, he knew, receive the new religion. This, change in their sentiments would doubtless induce some of them, for a season, to relin- quish their former evil ways. They, how- ever, soon exchanged the word of God, 533 which worketh reformation, for doctrines of human invention which favoured the gros- sest indulgences. Under the influence of these pernicious doctrines they sunk in depravity and crimes seven-fold deeper than those into which they had plunged them- selves, while they were yet the open enemies of Christ and his cause. Luke has subjoined the above paragraph to the appeal which Jesus makes to the children of the Pharisees: and this circumstance, together with his particularity in specifying the seven sons of Sceva, affords a presumption that he intend- ed to impress upon his readers the inference which his Master had to them. Our Lord, foreseeing that these men would, after his resurrection, rank in the number of his disciples, and by their wicked conduct bring disgrace upon them and their cause, availed himself of an incident, that at the moment occurred, to assure them that even his own nearest relatives would not be acknowledged by him as his followers, would not be considered as bearing any affinity to him, unless they acted conform- ably to the will of his heavenly Father : — "Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven. — This (and not MM3 534 he that merely professes to be my follower, or affects to honour me by ascribing to me attributes and praise which belong only to God) is my brother, sister, and mother;" 50. That a resemblance in temper and Conduct, a practical obedience to his laws, formed the only alliance, which could subsist between Christ and his disciples, was a lesson which he was anxious to impress on his hearers. He therefore repeats it in a different form, and in a language still more re- velant to those, who, after embracing, would widely deviate from the purity of his gospel. A certain woman of the company, struck at the promptitude with which he ex- posed the subterfuge of his adversaries, pronounced that mother blessed, who had the honour of giving birth to so illustrious a prophet. To this he instantly replies : u Yea, rather blessed are they that hear THE WORD OF GOD AND KEEP IT j" Luke xi. 38. That is, Happy are they, who attend to the doctrine, which I now teach as come down from Cod ; retain it in its primitive purity, and refuse to listen to those false tenets respecting my nature and birth, which will originate with deceitful men *. » These Gnostic impostors, who maintained that Jesus was 535 In reference to those Pharisees, who, though convinced of his divine mission, would not have the magnanimity to avow their conviction or to class with his professed followers, our Lord delivered on this occasion the following maxim : " He that is not with me is against me ; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad;" a man only in appearance, that is, had neither mother nor father, appear to have understood the above passages as levelled by the Saviour against their sentiments. Accordingly, they endeavoured as usual to take away their force by putting upon them a construction favourable to their own tenets. This circumstance opened the eyes of the orthodox commenta- tors; and they place in consequence the meaning of Jesus in its proper light. Theophylact, in commenting on the congratu- lation of his mother by the woman, puts this question : "Where now are those, who say that the Lord only appeared to exist: for, behold ! it is here attested of him that he sacked the breast. But he pronounces those to be blessed, who keep the doctrine of God : not that he excludes from this blessedness his own mother, but only shews that it will be of no avail to her to have borne and given suck to him, unless she possess every other virtue." And may it not with equal propriety be asked ; Where now are those, who affect to honour Mary for having given birth to the Son of God, or to extol Jesus as having received his birth in a supernatural manner ? The declaration of Christ, that those who did the will of his Father which is in heaven were his mother, gave the Egyptian deceivers a handle for saying that he rejected Mary under that relation. This subterfuge Jerome repels by putting on the words a just interpretation. Non juxta Marcionem^ac Manich- aeum matrem negavit, ut natus de phantasmate putarctur, sed Apostolos Cognationi praetulit ; Com, in loco. M M 4 53(5 •I. if \»i. 30. The secondary and more obvious meaning of which is to this effect : "The man, who doth not openly take my part, taketh in effect, whatever may be his sentiments^ the part of the adversary : And he, who by his example and exhorta- tion endeavours not to form societies of men in my name, is by such timid behaviour, the cause of eventually dispersing many more widely in vice and error." Jesus next anticipates the blasphemy, which the men before him would, as the followers of Simon Magus, throw on his name, and in allusion to it thus subjoins : — " Wherefore I say unto you, all manner of sin and blas- phemy shall be forgiven unto men ; but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him : but whosoever speaketh against the Holy -Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the age to come." Mat.xii. 31, 32. As though he had said : " Those of you, that now vilify mc as a magician casting out demons by the assistance of Beelzebub, or will here- after anathematise mc as being i lie Son of man, as being one of the human race and dif- ferent from the Christ within me, shall upon 537 repentance be forgiven. But if you asperse with impious imprecations that Holy Spirit, which, having descended in my name upon my faithful disciples, will enable them to demonstrate the truth of my resurrection and exaltation by miracles, you will have sunk in a depravity and guilt which shall meet its due punishment in the present age; and exclude you moreover from the privileges of that dispensation which I am to introduce and establish in the coming age." " But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thine own words thou shalt be justified, and by thine own words thou shalt be condemn- ed;" 3(5,37. Idle word («?y0v p^a, or a$yoc *oyoj) are dialectic terms*, which signify a sophis* * I rest this assertion on the authority of Origen. His Words are what follows : Hujusmodi est sophismaillud vocatutrt a^yogXoyoc, quod aegrotum sophistice dehortatur, ne sanitatis causa utatur medico hoc pacto, si tibi fatale est, e morbo resurges, siveaccersas medicum sive non : itidem, si fatale tibi est e morbo non resurgere, non resurges, sive accersas eum sive non : ergo sive in fatis est te resurgere, sive in fatis est te non resurgere, frustra accersis medicum ; 73, 74. It is to be observed, that what our Lord here calls a,$yov (vpoc. is called by taul juvoiXoyot, when describing the vain and sophistical arguments of the impostors; Ephes. v. 6. They were xsvo*, because they had the empty appearance without the solidity of 53$ tical argument or a false syllogism, contrived for the purpose of evasion. Our Lord by the use of this phrase immediately refers to the above subterfuge of the Pharisees. But he appears to have also an eye to those barbarous subtleties, equivocal language, evasive con- structions, and mystic interpretations, to which, he foresaw, some of the men before him would have recourse in support of their heresies. And to their being advocates for opinions, which .they believed in their hearts to be false he alludes, when saying they shall be acquitted or condemned by their own words ; that is, they shall be tried upon no other principles than those, which themselves allow to be true respecting Christ. The men, that had this dialogue with our Lord, composed in after- times the followers of Cerinthus, who seems to have been a principal and successful agent in seducing the Jewish people into the errors of Simon Magus. As his followers they maintained, truth, -\-iv$os ytze ec*» *»* of* aXnO??, «XXa <£>«ivop.Evov hx.oc, koci, tv ovhyia, zixiY> This is a good description of ajyov p'njua Aris. De Rhetor. Lib. ii. Cnp. 20. Ad finem. Chrysostom defines it thus ijAoyov di, to /xYi *.ot.TV, •iraa.yfjLOt.To; xf»ju.£voy, to -^EU^Hi, to eti' The poet Aeschylus expresses the same idea by pxTVAcc yXu&aH.* 539 that the Christ was a God though resident in the man Jesus yet distinct from him ; that the latter did not rise from the dead ; that the Jewish prophets did not predict the sufferings of the Messiah, and that the holy- city would not he destroyed. Now the Saviour, in reply to a request they presented him on this occasion, places hefore them the truth of those events in a language then indeed unintelligible, but sufficiently clear after they had come to pass : and he holds up too one of the prophets as bearing in his history a symbolical and prophetic refer- ence to his own mission and character : " But he answered, a wicked and ungodly race* seeketh a sign : but no sign shall be given it, except the sign of Jonah the pro- phet. For as Jonah was in the belly of the * The Jews, whom our Saviour addressed, were even then infected with idolatrous notions. For this reason he calls them ytvict, -ao^a. v.ou po^aTuj, « depraved and idolatrous race. After their pretended conversion to Christianity they espoused the worship of the serpent, and on this account received the title of Ophitee. The anticipation of this circumstance led the Saviour to characterise them on this occasion as offspring oj ripers (ytvvn^ccroc, E;^va>v) that is, children not of Abraham, as they pretended to be, but of a divinity which opposed itself to the God of Abraham : Compare with this what the Baptist said to this very people ; Chap. iii. 7 — 10. and also what Jesus told them ; John viii. 3-9 — 45. The ancient writers understood our Lord in this light ; and they are supported by the authority of Grotius. 540 fish three days and three nights ; so also will the Son of man be three days and. three nights in the heart of the earth. Men of Nineveh will rise up in the place of judgment with this race of men, and will condemn it : for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold one greater than Jonah is here ;" 39 — 42. The chief objection, which the learned in Judea as well as in other countries had to the divine mission of Jesus, was his being uneducated in the school of human wisdom. To supply the want of philosophic learning which so obviously distinguished his doc- trine, such of the reputed wise as em- braced it had recourse to the pagan systems, whose jarring tenets and profane mysteries they borrowed and imported into the christian church. The guilt they incurred in shutting their eyes against the supernatural light displayed in the discourses of Jesus — in forsaking the ever-living oracles of God — in overlooking these sublime lessons respecting the su- preme Being and moral duty, which arc supplied by the divine philosophy of Moses, by the inspiration of the prophets and the wis- 541 dom of Solomon, and in substituting in their room the vain fictions of men, seems to be the circumstance which led our Lord, in thenextplacc, thus to remark : "The queen of the south will rise up in the place of judgment with this generation, and will condemn it : for she came from the extre- mities of the earth to hear the wisdom of. Solomon : and behold one greater than Solomon is here ;" 42, He next glances at the practice, which the impostors before him in common with their Gnostic brethren would adopt, of veil- ing the light of the gospel with mysteries ; and by a simple but impressive comparison he exposes the absurdity of withholding from the people a doctrine, the knowledge of which was intended to enlighten and re- form them. " No one, when he hath light- ed a candle, putteth it in a secret place, nei- ther under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light;" Luke xi. 33. Here, too, seems to be an anticipation of the custom, adopted by the impostors, of removing the lights when met to celebrate their nocturnal orgies. He then reminds them, that the true origin of this base practice was their having evil eyes, that 3 542 " is, evil desires*; that when the desires of the heart are pure, the actions of the body are not concealed from the light of day ; that if they be impure, they necessarily seek grati- fication under the covert of darkness; Luke xi. 34 — 37. The Jewish people in general, there is * The light of the body is the eye, therefore when thine eye is single thy whole body is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body aloo is full of darkness." That is, " Reason is a light within thee ; as long as this remains unpervei ted by base desires, thy words and actions will be ever open and ingenuous, court- ing rather than avoiding the eyes of men ; but when it is become depraved by vicious passions, it ceases then to throw its lustre around thee, and thou seekest to screen thy conduct and princi- ples from the public view by darkness, duplicity and mystery. Our Lord in this place signifies by o^a.}^;, not only the principle of reason, but also that passion of lust or of avarice, which is excited in the mind when the corresponding object presents itself through the medium of this organ. In confirma- tion of this read the following examples : " But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath com- mitted adultery with her already in his heart." And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from rhee ;" Mat. v. 28, 29. — Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. — The light of the body is the eye. — Ye cannot serve God and mammon ;" vi. 21 — 25. Here it is obvious that to have a single eye is synonimous with having a heart free from the love of money, and that to have an evil eye means the same thing with serving mammon^ or with being avaricious. The exact meaning of the Saviour then, is that if they should be free from lust and avarice, they would not, as his pretended disciples have recourse to the practice of concealing the truths of the gospel under mystical representations, or of putting out the lights in their nocturnal assemblies. 543 reason to believe, were become in the times of our Lord, unusually degenerate. But the degeneracy which characterised the higher orders, was, beyond comparison, more flagrant and notorious than that of their inferior neighbours. Actuated by avarice, pride, luxury, and lust, they sought to conceal their vices under the veil of su- perior sanctity ; and, in proportion as they neglected the cultivation of genuine morali- ty, they affected a greater zeal for the exter- nal ordinances of religion. For this reason it was, that when the preacher of righteousness proclaimed the kingdom of heaven in the wilderness of Judea, after baptising the peo- ple on confessing their sins, he addressed the Pharisees in language of severe re- prehension, and reminded them of the necessity of reformation as well as repentance, of a thorough change in their conduct no less than in their principles in order to avoid the coming evil. When Nicodemus came to Jesus, he candidly confessed, that he and his brethren (for he speaks in the name of the Pharisees) to whatever artifices they had recourse for evading his claims, yet in their hearts were convinced that the author of such miracles must have come from God. In reply to this our divine Master, well knowing the evil propensities and inveterate 544- habits of those men, assures the Jewish teacher, in positive and solemn language, that unless they were born again, that is, unless they underwent a complete renovation both in principle and in conduct, they should not even see, much less should they enter into the kingdom of God. This awful admonition, though repeated in different forms and on different occa- sions, did not produce the desired reforma- tion. Their divine Instructor, indeed, who knew what was in man, was well aware, that those unhappy sons of darkness had cherished habits too inveterate to be re- generated, however they might assent to the truth or assume the name of his reli- gion. It became him therefore, as a teacher sent from God, to describe before their face, and expose to the world, the enor- mities of those Scribes and Pharisees, who would embrace his gospel without exhibit- ing in their tempers and conduct the happy fruits of it : and thus hold them up as exam- ples to all ages and countries to prove, that the christian lawgiver regarded with abhor- rence, and rejected with indignation, all those, however distinguished by rank or for- tune, who, under a pretended zeal for t,he 515 glory of God cherished dispositions, incord* patible with the happiness of men. And this is what he has done on the present occa- sion. Being now surrounded by numbers of the Pharisees and lawyers, he arraigns them as guilty of hypocrisy, extortion, and avarice ; of being zealous for external ablu- tions while they neglected internal purity ; of their being punctual in performing trifling forms of the law, when at the same time they omitted the great duties of love towards God and justice to men. After this, he turns to his own disciples, and delivers to them a series of admonitions, calculated to secure them from the principles and vices of the Gnostic impostors. In the first place, he cautions them against the insidious insin- cerity of the men whose vices he had been exposing : — " Whilst an innumerable mul- titude was gathered together so that they trod upon each other, Jesus began to say unto his disciples : Above all things beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy;" Luke chap. xii. 1. As though he had said : " These men, whom I have now arraigned, finding themselves unable by open violence to destroy you and your cause, will have recourse to artful means in order VOL. II. nn 546 the more effectually to answer this end. They will, therefore, pretend to become your friends, rank themselves with you as my followers, and affect to feel concern for tlje interests of my religion. But he upon your guard against their treacherous arts. The sole object of their pretended con- version will be, under the mask of friendship, to gain your confidence, and then betray you to your open enemies ; or to seduce you into vice and error, and thus bring dis- grace on your character and profession ; or to make your generosity and simplicity the instruments of gratifying their own ava- rice*." Jesus then assures his faithful fol- * The representation here given is confirmed in a remark- able manner by Philo. In the beautiful and eloquent apology which he published in behalf of the followers of Jesus in Judea, he thus describes their sufferings : " Many powerful men, distin- guished by natural and acquired endowments, rise up at seasons in their own country in opposition to them. Some of these being eagerto surpass the untameable fierceness of wild beasts, omit nothing that may gratify their cruelty, and cease not to sacrifice whole flocks of those within their power, or like butchers to tear in pieces while yet living their limbs and members ; until themselves are brought into the same calamities by that justice which inspects the affairs of men. Others (of these persecutors) cause their snarling fury to assume a different form. Indulging a spirit of unrelenting asperity, they nevertheless address (their victims) with gentknefs, display their intolerant temper in their affected mildness of speech, resembling thobe 347 lowers that the measures, which the Pha- risees would adopt to answer these base ends, however artfully contrived or secretly con- ducted, would be brought to light and defeated : — " There is nothing covered up that will not be uncovered, and hid that will not be known ;" ver. c2. After this, he commands them not to follow the example of their false brethren in making their doctrines mysterious or in keeping the knowledge of them from the people*, but dogs which fawn when going to inflict envenomed wounds. Thin they become the cause of irremediable evils, leaving behind them throughout whole communities, monuments of their im- piety and hatred to men, in the ever memorable calamities of the sufferers;" p. 878. Par. edition. * I shall here lay down what Irenzeus says of the followers of Basilides, in respect to the practices of concealing their doc- trines from others. " As the Son, say they, was unknown to all, so it is fit that they should be known by none, but that, while themselves should know all and pass through all, they should be invisible and unknown to all. Do thou, (inculcate they), know all, but let no body know thee. Therefore they are always prepared to deny what they are : nor are they indeed able to suffer for the (christian) name, while they assimilate themselves to every description of men. The multitude (they pretend) are not capable to comprehend their mysteries, except- ing one in a thousand or two in myriads : they ought there- fore by all means not to divulge them, but to keep them in secrecy and silence ;" p. 99. For which reason this impostor required of his followers the trial of five years before he regarded them as his legitimate disciples. This w33 a circum- ' N N 9 548 always to make known to others whatever discussions they might have in private ; to have no secrets, to use no equivocal lan- guage but to speak as they thought on every subject : " Therefore, whatsoever ye have said in darkness shall be heard in the light, and whatever ye have whispered in the closet shall be published aloud on the house- tops *. stance which did not escape the notice of the} Evangelical writers. And in order to impress upon their readers a strong sense of the contrast which his conduct, in this respect, exhi- bited to the Samaritan deceivers, they represent their divine ■ Master as receiving the chosen disciples into his confidence and friendship without any loss of time : — " And, as he was walk- ing by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea ; for they were fishers : And he saith unto them, Come with me, and I will make you fishers of men, and immediately they left the nets and went with him: And going forward thence, he saw two other brethren, James the son of Zebedee aud John his brother. — And he called them: and i mmedi ateiy they left the vessel and their father, and went with him ; Mat. iv. 18 — 23. MaTk in relating this incident uses the adverb (ei/9eo>?) immediately three times, and he makes the opposition between Jesus and the impostors more pointed by saying that A* tailed them immediately ; i. 20. It is remarkable that Luke represents the Saviour as choosing his disciples in the day time, on the top of a hill in the presence of the multitude, and from the number of those around Mm : And all these particulars he has stated in so transient and indirect a manner as to seem to an inattentive reader to mean nothing by them ; vi. 12 — 14. * The Apostles complied with scrupulous fidelity to this 549 In the next place, he glances at the timidity of the false believers in refusing to suffer for the sake of their Master : And he assures his sincere disciples, that they alone, who had the virtue to act a different part, were regarded by him as his friends: — * And I say unto you who are my friends fear not them that kill the bo- dy, and after this can do no more ;" &c. 4. A principal argument, which the impos- tor used to prove the supposed impotence or malevolence, of Jehovah, was that he refus- ed, or that he was unable to avert the sufferings of those who were devoted to him as the supreme God. This specious blas- phemy, our Saviour in the next step re- pels by insinuating, that God exercised a providential care over those who feared him; and that their hardships would not pass important injunction of their upright Lord. Hence Irenaeus thus- speaks with justice and truth of their conduct : " The doctrine of the Apostles was open and decisive and in no respect disguised, — They did not represent things one way in private, another way in public. — He then adds respecting the impostors with whom he is here contrasting the Apostolic teach- ers : Hoc enira fictorum (fingentium),et prave seducentium, et hypocritarum est molimen. Hi enim ad multitudinem — inferunt sermones, per quos capiunt simpliciores, et illiciunt eos, &x. p. 237, NN 3 550 unrewarded : '■' Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings? Yet even one of these is not forgotten before God ; but the very- hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore ; ye are better than many spar^ rows;" 6 — 8. As the Gnostic believers did not scruple, when apprehended or accused of being christians, to deny Christ, Jesus subjoins a solemn assurance, that such per- sons would not be acknowledged by him, in the presence of the angels of God ; 8 — 10. After which he adverts to their cus- tom of rejecting the man Jesus, while they affected to acknowledge the Christ resident in him \ and of blaspheming the Holy Spi- rit which corroborated the truth of the Apostolic declaration, that the Son of man rose from the dead and ascended to heaven ! He next enjoins upon them not to pre- meditate, as was done by the impostors, what apologies they should offer for themselves when arrested by the hand of violence, and brought before synagogues, and rulers, and magistrates; 11 — 13. The Creator of the world, being, according to the deceivers, evil and impotent, was both unable and un«^ willing to exercise a kind providence over the works of his hands. This animating 551 doctrine which of course was rejected by the Gnostics, our Lord, (after a short di- gression occasioned by one of his hearers 13 — 22. soliciting his interference) here took an opportunity to enforce and illus- trate : And this he does in a language in- imitably simple and eloquent; 22 — 32. Those of the Pharisees, who favoured the doctrines of Ccrinthus and Simon, de- clined to evince the sincerity of their profes- sion by dispensing with their substance for the use of the poor. On the contrary, their great object was to acquire riches as the prin- cipal means of entering unto that temporal kingdom of which they were in expectation. Our Lord, in the next place warns his true followers, for whom, few and humble as they were, the kingdom would be given, against acting in a similar manner ; 32 — 35. It has already been shewn, that the wicked servant who began to beat his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken, primarily applied, meant the Samaritan impostor, and that the joolish virgins designated those among the Jews who espoused his system. The truth of that representation is confirmed by what follows in the narrative of Luke : N N4 55'2 For according to this historian, our Saviour, when now instructing his true disciples in reference to the deceivers, cautions them against that servant and his followers. And what is remarkable he places in a prominent light the apostle Peter, the successful an- tagonist of Simon Magus ; 35 — 49. Let us now return to the Acts of the Apostles. One passage more invites our attention, and we shall then close this vo- lume : " And now behold ! I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befal me there ; save that the Holy Ghost witnesscth in every city, saying : that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself; so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. And now behold ! I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall sec my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men : For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the council of God. Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the 553 flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his blood. For I know this that after my de- parting shall grievous wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking per- verse things to draw away disciples after them. Therefore, watch and remember that by the space of three years, I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. And now brethren, I recommend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them, which are sanctified. I have coveted no man's silver or gold, or apparel. Yea, you yourselves know, that these hands have ministered un- to my necessities, and to them that were with me. I have shewn you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus ; how he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive ;*' chap. xx. 22—36. In this pathetic and interesting passage, it is clearly asserted by the Apostle, that im- postors would come and infest the church 554< after his departure. The description, which he gives of them, leaves us no room to doubt who they were. They arc said to be ivokes that would not spare the flock. This is the very language, which our Lord has used respecting Simon Magus and his followers. See Mat. vii. John x. We may infer, there- fore, that these were the persons here meant by Paul : And this inference is corroborated by the author of the Recognitions, who in-r forms us that Simon, after his defeat by the Apostle Peter, went to, and spent some time at Antioch. And if we examine the words of Paul with attention, we shall find that they are levelled against the principles and the practices of the Samaritan impostors and his disciples : — 1. He bears his testimony to the man Je- sus as the Lord, who claimed his obe- dience and that of all others professing his religion ; ver. 24. 2. Secondly, He describes the doctrine, which he preached, as being a gospel of the grace of God, that is, a doctrine, which God revealed through Christ, containing the glad tidings of salvation to mankind, and not a fiction of human invention, having 555 no other object in view, than the interest of those who preached it; a doctrine that held out the gift of eternal Hfe, on the sole con- dition of repentance and reformation, with- out the necessity of complying witli bur- densome rites and ceremonies; ver. Llik» 32. 3. The Apostle preached the kingdom of God, that is, he inculcated in opposition to the deceivers, that God governs the world ; that he will vindicate his moral attributes by the future distribution of rewards and punishments, and that the kingdom, which he is to establish on the earth by means of Christ, is not carnal or temporal, as the Pharisaical converts supposed, but consists in the universal prevalence of truth, virtue, and happiness; ver. 25. 4. The guilt of those among the vulgar who favoured the Gnostic heresies, lay, for the most part, at the door of their teachers, who concealed the gospel by throwing over its doctrines the air of incomprehensible mystery, and who tempted them to act con- trary to its precepts by their own examples and exhortations. With their conduct in this respect Paul here contrasts his own beha- viour during his stay at Antioch. " Where- 556 fore I declare unto you this very day, that I am pure from the blood of you all ; for I forbore not to tell you the whole will of God ;" 26, 27. The first heretics belonged to no chris- tian society. Such were their crimes, in- deed, that they could not remain long in the same situation, without being detected and expelled. They, therefore, roved like vagabonds from place to place, actuated by the fear of punishment where they were known, and by the hope of successful deception in places where they were not known. In opposition to the character which they thus sustained, the faithful believ- ers are, in the writings of the Apostles and of succeeding ecclesiastical authors, stiled the church of God, that is, an assembly of people separated from the vices and bad practices of the world, and devoted to the cultivation of those divine, social, and per- gonal virtues, which rendered them the sons of God, and the lit heirs of immortality. * * The apostTe Paul uses the phrase church of God, eleven times, it' not more, in his epistles; and where the use of it occurs, it menus, in most instances, a body of people sanctified to God by the ixercise of faith and virtue, and that in opposition to those men, who, like beasts of prey, went about to destroy and scatter the flofk of Christ, lrenaeus, Tertullian, Epiphanius, and other early writers, characterise the catholic believers by the 557 Our Apoftlc adds, that he (meaning Jesus) secured, hedged or fenced this church term church or the cJ/urch of God, and that in opposition to the Gnostic heretics. It would be an endless task to illustrate the truth of this assertion by examples. One passage of Origen, however, as it coincides with the description 1 have given above, of the church of God, shall here be subjoined : " And God," says he, " who sent Jesus, having defeated all the artifices of demons, has so ordered it, that the gospel of Jesus should prevail every where for reforming mankind ; and that there should be every where teachers governed by laws different from the churches of superstitious, intemperate, and unrighteous men : For such are the manners of most of those who belong to the churches of the cities. But the churches of God instructed by Christ, compared with the churches of the people among whom they live, are as lights in the world; Mat. v. 14. Phil. ii. 15, And who is there, who must not acknowledge, that the worst of those, who are in the church, and are inferior to the rest, are better than most of those who are in the churches of the people. For instance, the church of God at Athens is quiet, mild, and well-behaved, being desirous to approve itself to God who is over all. But the church of the Athenians is turbulent, and by no means comparable to the church of God there. The same, you must also acknowledge of the church of God at Corinth, and the church of the people of the Corinthians; as you must also allow of the church of God at Alexandria, and the church of the people of the Alexandrians. Every one who is candid, and dili- gently attends to those things with a mind open to conviction, will admire him who farmed this design and has accomplished it that there should be every where churches of God, dwelling together with the churches of the people in every city. And if you will observe the senate of the church of God, and the senate in every city, you will find some senators of the church, worthy to govern in the city of God, all over the world, if there were such a thing. And on the other hand, you will find, that the senators of the cities hav<* nothing in their behaviour to render them worthy of the distinction allotted them. And if you 558 with his blood *; By which are inculcated these three propositions : namely, that should compare the presidents of the churches of God, with the presidents of the people in the cities, you will find the senators and governors of thechurches> though some may he inferior to others who are more perfect ; nevertheless, you will find them to excel in virtue the senators and governors of the cities." This charming passage, charming because it contains a delight- ful and important truth, I have given in the words of Lardner, vol. viii. p. 49, 50. It is taken from the book against Celsus* p. 128, 129. No writer among the ancients has borne a more decisive, a more eloquent testimony to that reformation in- the morals of men, otherwise irremediably diseased by inveterate depravities, which was effected by the Son of God, than is done by the immortal Philo. In a fragment of his preserved by John Damascene, he thus speaks of the church of God, BovXg&stf 0 $eoj Tri,- 'jEtaj ccgiTri; aw ovectwv y.KTtx.Tn^-^a.i tvjv ukovx, eij tr,v ynv, at tXsov tou ysvou," "iijuwv^ 'iva ju.ri at-rvx'4'yn a^E»»ovo; «|u.oi£C6s" *ai awo- Xoi/cr«^.EVov t«. x.a.rcce-jTO'AvovTO!, tov a9Xtcv zca §va"*.\ua,; yBjMvra, j3*ov, That is, The God of divine virtue decreed to se?id doivn from heaven his Image (his Logos) to the earth, that in mercy on our race zve might be raised to a better state ; which (Logos) hath washed the pollutions of a life (that is, the life of those ivho formed the members of his church) miserably depraved (previously to their conversion) and laden with infamy. * The original Word is wsfiEwoiwaTo, which, literally taken^ signifies to cause one thing to surround another ; such as to make a hedge round a field, a wall round a town, or a furrow round a piece of land marked out for building. Hence it signifies to procure, to appropriate, to fence, toprotect. The allusion, un- der which the term is here used by the apostle, is borrowed from the custom of drawing a furrow about those spots of land* which were destined for religious and other distinguished edifiees. The ground upon which holy men assembled for the purpose of devoting themselves to God, was inclosed, it seems, on every side by, the blood of Jesus. 559 Christ was not {aw^m) or without fle/Ii and blood, which some of the impostors represented him to be, as being a man only in appear- ance ; that in order, as it were, to lay the foundation, to consecrate the ground, to form the cement, to fence around the church of God, Jesus did in reality shed hisrown blood, that is, he suffered and died in fa6t as well as in appearance ; that the death of Christ formed the great line of distinction between the true and the false believers, be- tween those who in truth were his disciples, and those who were so only in name. The former, like an innocent peaceful flock, are inclosed on every side within its benign cir- cumference, the latter excluded and kept without, like rapacious beafts, seeking to break down the barrier of their faith, and to seize the unsuspecting victims of their fraud and violence. Finally, To the covetous and rapacious dispositions of those men, and to their cus- tom of living on those fruits, which their fraud and extortion wrung from their mis- taken and abused followers, the great Apos- tle of the Gentiles thus gloriously opposed his own behaviour: " I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel : Yea, you 560 yourselves know, that these hands have ministered to my necessities and to them that were with me. I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring, ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive." APPENDIX. NOTE OPPOSITE PAGE 294. IjOME Commentators have asserted with unqualified con- fidence, that the true reading of John iii. 25. is lovSouov t»»o,-% instead of ^ntx. lovSouuv, as it is written in the comm on text. A regard to the authority of those critics induced me to adopt their opinion, and to erect upon it a supposition which I now retract as false, that the certain Jew, there mentioned, was Dositheus. I am glad, however, to have this opportunity to acknowledge my error, and to demonstrate the truth and propriety of the vulgar reading. In various places it is, I trust, satisfactorily proved, that the Pharisees, from motives of envy and malice towards our Lord, joined with the disciples of John, and that, when they were deprived, on the death of the latter, of every pretence for adhering to him as the Messiah, they adopted the scheme of Simon Magus, and other Samaritans who classed with the followers of the Baptist. This feature in the character of the Pharisaical teachers was anticipated by the inspiration of Jesus, who in his conversation with Nicodemus has levelled his language in the most pointed manner against the wild theory they would espouse, and the base conduct they would pursue as his pretended followers. Now the evangelist John, after having related the circumstances of the interview between his Lord and the Jewish teacher, and thus refuted by the highest authority the sentiments of the Gnostic impostors, proceeds to state the unnatural coalition that subsisted between the Pharisees and the disciples of John, as the advocates of the vql. n. 00 562 Samaritan system. And there ivas an enquiry made by the disciples of John, with the Jews t concerning purification, That is, The disciples of John, accompanied with certain men who were Jews, went to him in order to know, whether his baptism or that of Jesus was to be regarded as the baptism of the Messiah. The disciples, who made this enquiry of their Master, were, it is natural to suppose, the leading disciples, and these were no other than Dositheus and Simon Magus. Hence appears the propriety of the Evangelist describing the Phari- sees who joined with the Baptist's disciples as Jens, in op- position to the latter who were' Samaritans. Hence too we perceive, that John, in reply to the question proposed to him, was called, as being a faithful witness to the truth, to direct his words in part against the Samaritan deceivers. If any of my readers be disposed to question the justice of the interpretation, which I have put upon his words, let him attend to the following queries : Did John receive his commission from heaven or from the earth ? Or did he teach a doctrine which was inspired by the wisdom of God, or suggested by the prejudices of men ? Jesus himself has solved these questions. See Mat. xi. g. xxi. 25. John v. 33. The Baptist then could not have meant himself when he thus speaks : He that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth ; John iii. 31. Again, was it with himself or with some self-commissioned teachers, who pro- pagated sentiments of human origin, that he thus contrasts the doctrines inculcated by the Son of God. He ivhom God hath sent speaketh the words of God ? 34. Moreover," the Baptist in the next verses represent Jesus to be the Son of the Universal Father and the person, through whom eternal life is to be attained. Is not this representation levelled at the pretensions of the Samaritan impostors, who inculcated that the Christ was not the Son of the Creator but a God superior to him, and that eternal life was to be conferred by them? This testimony which the Baptist bore against the Samaritan imposture compelled his apostate disciples after his death to acknowledge, that he did not countenance their peculiar sentiments. They solicited, indeed, his concurrence ; but as his love of truth did not permit him, even for his own advan- 563 tage, to sanction falsehoods, they vilified him as the man of an&evil divinity, unacquainted with the new and Supreme God, A»8?»7rof Ai/xiougyou «&* W k«w»V Seot.t*. Finally, that the Baptist had his views fixed on the Samaritan impostors may be presumed from the conduct of the evangelist John For the latter, after stating the testimony of the former, proceeds to illus- trate the divine inspiration of his Master, and thus to bear down the claims of his impious antagonists. NOTE OPPOSITE PAGE 494. Much has been written by modern divines on the subject of baptism. And yet the principal reason, why the apostolic teachers enjoined this ceremony on those who embraced the taitb, seems to have escaped their attention. The first preachers of Christianity required this rite of the initiated asthemeansot declaring to the world, that they received the christian doctrine, and received it too as taught by Christ and his apostles, and not as it was modified by the Simaritan or [Egyptian impostors. This assertion might be confirmed by a variety of passages in the New Testament and other ancient writings; and these it serves in return to explain and illustrate. One passage of this kind I shall here produce : " Go ye, therefore, and make dis- ciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit;" Mat. xxvm. 19. The meaning of which injunction is simply this: Go, and preach the gospel to all nations, to all descriptions of men without any distinction. Teach them to believe in my Father as the supreme God; in me as his Son ; in the Holy Spirit as a power given you to work miracles in attestation of my resurrection and ascension. Let these be the fundamental principles of the gospel which you preach ; and encourage those, who shall embrace it, to make an open avowal of their faith by being publicly baptised. Now, if this were the real meaning of our Lord, it is manifest that his words are levelled against the Gnostic system. Fot that system inculcated, that a God existed superior to the Creator of the world ; that the Christ was not the Son of the latter, but a God surpassing him in power and beneficence ; and, finally, it blasphemed the Holy Spirit which evinced the resurrection 00a »64 and exaltation of the man Jesus. In confirmation of the above interpretation, let itfaither be remarked that the anti-apostolic teachers understood the language of Christ, as directed against their peculiar tenets. My evidence for this assertion is the following : Those of the impostors, who classed themselves under the denomination of Cainists or Opldtce, rejected and vilified the ceremony of baptism as administered by the Apostles in compliance with the command of their Master. This is attested by Tertullian in his treatise De IJaptismo ; p. 224; by Jerome in his Epistle to Oceanus, and by Irenaeus ; p. gi ; Others of the Gnostic teachers, however, administered to their followers the rite of baptism, and connected with it a formulary of faith, which, in their turn they levelled against the Apostolic doctrine. That formulary Irenaeus thus records — O* ^= ayowt <

«««5 X HE Publication of the First Volume has been delayed for the following reason: From a careful perusal of its contents, the Author became sensible, that the Argument was not pursued to an extent sufficient to engage the attention, much less to con- vince the judgment of enquiring men. This deficiency he has endeavoured to supply, by preparing a Second Volume to be publifhed with it. The subject, it is to be feared, still lies within a com- pass too narrow for the public to form a very decisive opinion. It was indeed the design of the Writer when beginning the last impression to comprise in it all that related to his argument within the New Testament. But this he found impracticable, since materials, and those very important ones, opened to his views as he advanced ; and he found himself under the necessity of closing with the Acts of the Apostles. His inability to proceed any farther will, it is apprehended, leave the reader in doubt as to the truth of some facts stated in the First Volume. With those facts the Epistle to the Romans has an intimate connection ; and he hopes that when analysed it will remove all hesitation to receive them as true. This circunv 566 stance will serve to render the Third Volume more important than the Second, though nothing can ex- ceed in importance the materials contained in this if indeed they be founded in truth. As the Epistles abound with matter that affects his subject, the Author intends giving a regular and complete analysis of each in order. The latitude of his scheme, therefore, renders Two Volumes more necessary to finish his explanation of the New Testament. The work thus far finished will be com- plete ; and it will secure the Subscribers from disappointment or loss, should it be carried to no greater extent. His intention, however, is without delay to proceed in his enquiry into the writings of those, \»ho, whether the friends or the foes of the Christian Doctrine, flourished in the first two centuries. The result of his enquiries, he fondly hopes, will be a general conviction, that the wisdom of Providence has so over-ruled the events of ancient times, as to furnish, and to keep in reserve, for this and future ages, evidences, hitherto undiscovered, in favour of the Divine Mission of Jesus Christ, which in the end shall render his gospel an universal rule of faith and practice in the world. Every competent judge, indeed, on the subject of christianily, will readily aliow, that it comes recommended to the reception of mankind by a body of arguments, which infidels can never refute and which they in vain attack : Yet it must at the same time be admitted, that something nevertheless is wanting to ensure it a complete success over superstitious notions on one hand, and sceptical depravities on the other. And is it too much to presume that, if Christianity has originated in the wisdom, and was formerly supported in a special man- 567 ner by the power of heaven, such a deficiency, resulting, as it is, from the constitution of man and the present situation of society, shall finally be sup- plied. The investigation, which the Writer of these Volumes has already made, inspires him with the hope, that treasures, though yet unknown, really exist adequate to answer this desirable end. And he doubts not that, if the Facts developed by him be founded in truth, he will meet with encouragement, at least from the rational friends of truth and virtue, in acause so novel honourable and useful. The prosecution of a project like this is impracticable without such encouragement. The difficulty of obtaining books, the expence of publication, and the necessary abstraction from almost all other engagements, place it beyond the reach of any person, however able and industrious, who does not possess time and property at his command. The progress of this work, therefore, will entirely depend upon the assistance which its Author receives from the public. In case of a favourable reception the Volumes shall rapidly succeed each other. Any person may, at pleasure, withdraw his name from the list of subscribers : and as the work must compre- hend in its progress topics unconnected, the value of the preceding Volumes will not necessarily depend on those that follow. There is one thing more to be noticed : — The learned reader will perceive with regret the page often defaced by typographical errors. Errors, circumstanced as the writer was, could not well be avoided. The greatest part of the materials, contained in the latter part of the first, and in the whole of the Second Volume, were collected and arranged the last summer. The sheets passed suc- cessively from under the pen to the printing-office — That office was in a distant place, and the proof-sheets were corrected, for the most part, in those hours when 568 the attention of the corrector was engaged in the instruction of youth. He hopes that these incon- veniences will in future be removed, and that the succeeding Volumes will be free from many faults and inaccuracies, that tarnifh those which are now offered to the attention and candour of the public. END OF THE SECOND VOLUME. »RINTED BY E. BAl.VfcS, LEEDS. '* 1 " &£>■ Jv> / V'X^ ?^s V t