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extensively convincing of Christ's miracles, is recorded by all the evangelists. In computing the number fed, they do not speak by guess, for the disposition of the people in squares of a determinate length, enabled them to calculate with certainty. Jesus, though entirely free from worldly anxiety, did not think it beneath him to order his disciples to gather up the fragments. His reason that nothing may be lost, is eminently deserving of our attention, for it shews that he, to whom "the earth and the fulness thereof belongs," is no friend to a lavish waste of his gifts; and as by feeding these thousands he sets us an example of liberality, so by taking care of the fragments he teaches us, that frugality and charity should be united, and that there is an important difference between wastefulness and beneficence. The multitude exclaimed that he was the prophet who was to come, and they wished to force him to declare himself, perceiving that it was in his power to feed an army in a desert, and being convinced that every obstacle must give way before him.

64. As the apostles might be disposed to concur with them, Jesus constrained them to put to sea without him; and then dismissing the crowd, instead of resting after his fatigue, withdrew to a mountain to pray. He had no sins that needed pardon, but he had temptations and services before his view, and he had the cause of his disciples and his church to plead with his father.

Meantime the apostles encountered a tempest and a contrary wind; and three hours before sunrise, Jesus walked upon the sea to overtake them. At first they cried out from fear, supposing it to be an apparition, but as soon as he addressed them they took courage; and Peter, raised to a high degree of confidence, sought permission to come to him. His master suffered him, and as long as his faith was fixed upon his power, he was enabled to walk upon the waves; but the boisterous element soon drew off his attention, his faith staggered, and he began to sink. Yet in his extremity he still relied upon Jesus, who stretched forth his hand in answer to his cry, and kept him up, rebuking him at the same time for his distrust. They embarked, and the ship instantaneously reached the shore, John vi. 21. The apostles seem to have been more impressed by this than by any preceding miracle, for they worshipped him in consequence; not merely as a superior, but as the Son of God, nor did he decline the homage.

65. The next morning, the multitude, disappointed in his not returning to them from the mountain, took shipping, and came after him to Capernaum, where they ex

pressed their surprise, inquiring by what means he had arrived. Instead, however, of satisfying their curiosity, he blamed them for their motive in seeking him; which they did, not because his miracles had convinced them that he was a teacher of righteousness, but that they might make him a king, in order to enjoy secular advantages. He exhorts them, instead of labouring for the perishable food of the body, to labour for that food of the soul, which lasteth for ever. Finding that faith in him was the work that he required, and seeing that such doctrine had nothing congenial with their carnal expectations, their admiration began to die away, and suspicions to arise; and they asked what miracle he would work, that should induce them to believe in him; what evidence he could shew to convince them that he could bestow upon them eternal life. He had once fed, they allowed, some thousands in a desert, but what was he in comparison with their lawgiver, who had fed in a miraculous manner the whole nation of their

ancestors for forty years. In reply, he carries on their metaphor, describing himself as the real heavenly bread, which sustains the life of the soul. He then tells them, without a figure, that they do not believe in him; but still, though they deserted him, he should not be left without disciples, for all whom his Father had given to him would. come unto him, and he would reject none who came. None that seek salvation from him need ever fear to be cast out; for it is his Father's will, that will to accomplish which he came down from heaven, that whoever, bag, contemplateth the Son, and believeth in him, shall have everlasting life; and none can come unto him unless the Father draw him. He then shews the inferiority of the manna to the genuine living bread, which is of such a nature, that he that feedeth upon it shall live for ever; his soul will be nourished by it to everlasting life; and the death of the body will be to him no more than a sleep, that shall end in a glorious resurrection. This bread, he continues, is my flesh, that is his human nature taken into union with his Deity, that he might present it to his Father as an expiatory sacrifice for the sins of the world. Our Lord may be presumed to allude in this discourse to that commemoration of his death which he was afterwards pleased to institute; but to suppose that he will literally give us his flesh to eat, and to substitute for a spiritual union with him, the mere act of partaking of the Lord's Supper, is to pervert the Gospel, by substituting the forms for the substance of religion. Such is the error of the Roman Catholic, who deduces from this discourse, the dogma of the real

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presence of Christ in the Sacrament; but he cautions us against this interpretation, by giving us his own, "the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life;" and they likewise overturn every exposition that would inseparably connect the spiritual grace with the outward visible act, independent of the disposition and qualifications of the communicant. Others, again, who speak exclusively of feeding upon his words, that is, his doctrines, without any reference to faith in his atoning sacrifice of himself, only lead men by an opposite road from the fundamental truths of religion. That his doctrine should appear hard and incredible is not astonishing, for though instruction had been spoken of as the food of the soul, no teacher had yet called himself the bread of life.

Many of his disciples forsook him in consequence of this discourse, and he seems to have been left alone with the twelve. He asked if they also would depart, intimating that he wished for no reluctant followers: Peter, in the name of all, declared his full persuasion that Jesus was the Messiah, and that he had the words of eternal life. To this confession he only thought fit to reply that one of them was a false accuser, dans, thus checking presumptuous self-confidence, and hinting to them that they might fall.

LECTURES

ON

THE DIATESSARON.

PART V.

66. THE report of our Lord's miracles gave such uneasiness to the Scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem, that some of them came down to Galilee to watch his conduct. Not finding that he and his disciples broke the law, they objected to them their disregard of the traditions. The Pharisees maintained that these precepts had been handed down through successive generations from Moses, to whom they had been orally communicated in the mount by God himself, when he delivered to him the written law; and neither they nor modern rabbis have scrupled to prefer them to the former.* Jesus being asked why his disciples did not, according to one of these traditions, wash their hands before meals, he, without answering their question, accused them of hypocrisy, applying to them the words of Isaiah, "This nation honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." He continued, that their enforcing human ordinances rendered their very worship vain and unprofitable; for they not only did not themselves keep, but had explained away the positive commands of God, that they might observe their traditions. As an instance of this he cites the fifth commandment, but only as an instance, for he adds, "and many like things you do.' This commandment orders children to maintain (a) their parents if they need it, as well as to honour them. But according to those casuists, if a child should say to father or

"The words of the Scribes are lovely above the words of the law," is the saying of a Jewish Rabbi, in Whitby, who has several similar citations.

mother, Whatever I have that would support you has been consecrated by me to holy uses; he not only was free from any obligation, but might not hereafter, if he repented of his unnatural conduct, assist them, his property being henceforth corban, or a gift to the temple; to which he was now bound to give what otherwise he might have bestowed upon them. The extant writings of Jews prove that the same unhappy perversion of morality has survived their polity; and, incredible as it may seem, it would be too easy to find in the works of Christian divines, a no less decisive, though perhaps a less avowed, preference of human traditions to the word of God. This tendency of tradition to make the law of God of none effect, which the Roman church unhappily so abundantly exemplifies, explains our Lord's strong protest against it.

He then called the people to him and said, Attend ye all to me, and understand; and told them in plain terms, that it was not the outward pollution of the person, but the inward impurity of the heart, that is, the thoughts and desires, that defile a man. Peter afterwards, in private, asked him the meaning of this saying; we are surprised at his dulness, but we forget, that the explanation which has been familiar to us from childhood, was then new, and that the Jews, who rested satisfied in the performance of outward ablutions, had lost sight of the purity of heart which they denoted.

67. After this offence given to the Pharisees, Jesus retired to the most remote northern extremity of the land, on the confines of Tyre and Sidon. Here a woman, descended from the ancient Canaanites, but evidently from her addressing him as the Son of David, no longer an idolater, though she probably had been, besought him to deliver her daughter from demoniacal possession. He heard her in silence, and with apparent indifference, intending thereby to prove and manifest the strength of her faith. The apostles, pitying her distress, or rather wearied with her importunity, requested him to grant her petition; but he replied, in her hearing, that he was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; this speech, however, was so far from offending or discouraging her, that she pleaded the more earnestly, and instead of disdaining the comparison to a dog, and leaving him in indignation, she meekly submitted to the mortifying distinction, which by a happy ingenuity she even

* "A man may be so bound by vows that he cannot without great sin do what God hath in his law required to be done, so that in such cases the vow must stand, and the law be abrogated." Pococke, Miscell. p. 415...

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