what would have been considered rebellion, (which is not probable):

2. Or, they must have brought upon themselves great danger, and on Him the punishment of death; not at the peculiar time and place he appears to have contemplated, nor, probably, the same death which he had obliquely predicted he should suffer; for, whether Herod or the Romans had interfered, he would (according to human probabilities) have been exposed, in a tumultuary movement, to other kinds of death. A most surprising miracle is now related of him; that he followed his disciples by walking over the sea which draws from them the exclamation, "Of a truth thou art the Son of God," i. e. the Messiah." If we examine the terms of this ejaculation, we shall perceive that it is the expression of a sentiment of belief which appears to have been for some time gaining ground in their minds, and which this last fact is recorded to have elicited. I notice it because, as yet, Jesus of Nazareth had not directly, in words, declared himself to be that great personage".

On the other side of the lake (of Galilee) he is met by crowds of applicants for relief from bodily ailments; and is speedily overtaken by the multitude from which he had withdrawn himself. He

n I except of course the peculiar cases mentioned page 7, note m ̧

upbraids them with following him in the hope of being constantly fed by him, and would lead them to seek rather for spiritual benefits; making use, in the synagogue at Capernaum, of expressions which excited, not unnaturally, the cavils of those who heard him, as being of what I venture to term a very uncompromising ambiguity; but which, in the Christian sense, are plainly prophetic of his death, and the spiritual effects which Christians attribute thereto: e. g. (John vi, 51) " And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

These declarations (and probably also the refusal to work a perpetual miracle for their subsistence) had offended many of his nominal followers; not, however, Simon Peter; who openly, and without any question preceding, acknowledges him to be the Messiah whom they looked for. He says this in the most emphatic manner, and says it of his companions as well as himself: "Then said Jesus unto the twelve, will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God." John vi, 67, 68, 69.

• In ver. 62, he intimates his future Ascension. We shall have occasion to remark several passages wherein His future sufferings are mentioned in connection with their final end, the Atonement.

In answer to this confession, which, as we see, the words of Peter make common to all his companions, i. e. the Apostles; Jesus replies that of that chosen number there was one who should prove his betrayer P. (John vi, 70).

This is the first occasion on which we find Jesus to have predicted an important circumstance connected with his death, namely, his betrayal: a prediction which is subsequently often repeated by him.

After this, though it was now near the time of the third Passover mentioned in our Histories, he continues in Galilee, and avoids proceeding into Judæa; on account of the enmity of the Jews, properly so called, or the inhabitants of Judæa Proper.

We have now arrived at the period of the third Passover, and, by this time we find:

That Jesus of Nazareth had not announced

Καὶ ἐξ ὑμῶν εἰς διάβολός ἐστιν.” The English translation does express the sense.

The repeated declaration that He should be betrayed which we find our Lord to have made; and that by one of His immediate and chosen followers; appears mercifully calculated to remove the possibility of objections which might otherwise have been urged against His knowledge of the character of those whom he chose; and consequently against the truth of His own divine character, and of His mission.

a John vi, 4.

F

himself to be the Christ (except in very peculiar instances) otherwise than by actions characteristic of that Personage, according to the prophecies current among his countrymen; and by expressions denoting the highest degree of spiritual authority in him who used them.

That he avoided any concourse of his followers when their minds were exalted by sudden devotion to him.

That he habitually discouraged any open proclamation of the miracles he is reported to have performed, especially of those which were characteristic of the Messiah.

That he both indirectly and directly declared to those about him, in very expressive words, that they were engaged in a service of the greatest personal peril and hardship.

That in various ways, and on repeated occasions, he expressed himself in terms predictive of his own death, and even pointedly descriptive of the manner of it; while at the same time these expressions (when they were such as might have been understood previously to the event) were not addressed to the multitude at large, but to individuals, or to his own more immediate and chosen disciples:

Lastly, that by this time he predicted his betrayal also.

END OF PART FIRST.

OUR LORD'S CONDUCT

CONSIDERED.

PART II.

These things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you. But now I go my way to him that sent me." John xvi, 4, 5.

NOTWITHSTANDING the enmity Jesus had excited among the Pharisees, we find him, subsequently to the Third Passover, not backward in setting before them and their adherents, on several occasions, the hypocrisy of their pretensions. He passes into the remote neighbourhood of Sidonia; and on his return thence, through the district of Decapolis, he is stated to have wrought another of those miraculous cures which were predicted as characteristic of the expected Messiah', in the case of a deaf man, who had also an impediment in his speech. In this instance he took the man apart from the multitude (Mark vii, 33); and (as on so many other occasions) charged those

Isaiah (quoted above p. 24) xxxv, 4, 5.