We are told that, at this time, on the occasion of the cure of a person blind and dumb, the mul

of madness, the Jews made it impossible, humanly speaking, that He should convert them from their error, and pardon them their sin. If a man be prepared to entrench himself behind this supposition, that our Divine Master was-(what a Christian hardly dares to write)insane; I do not know of any appeal, short of the direct and miraculous influence of God, which could turn him from his unbelief: and the New Testament furnishes abundant proof that even in the case of those possessed with physical infirmities our Lord would not (the expression is "could not") work a miracle in opposition to their settled and deliberate unbelief.

I may be permitted to remark, by the way, that there is a coincidence between the Evangelists who record the transaction which appears deserving of notice. St. Matthew says; "But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them,” etc.; xii, 24, 25. St. Luke: " But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils. But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them," etc.; xi, 15, 17. St. Mark, on the other hand, without saying that our Lord was conscious of their thoughts, implies it by the circumstances of his narrative: "And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth He out devils. And he called them unto Him, and said unto

titude are struck by the coincidence of the circumstance with the declarations of their prophetic Scriptures, and exclaim: "Is not this the son of David?" i. e. "the Christ;" Matt. xii, 22, 23. The question is met by a cavil on the part of the Pharisees, to which he replies on their own principles"; using in the course of his answer this expression, "Then is the kingdom of God come unto you."

The same party make the demand of a sign, (probably some celestial phenomenon, of which, as of the star related to have preceded the birth of

them,” etc.; iii, 22, 23. His answer implying His knowledge of their thoughts; which, nevertheless, St. Mark does not take occasion to assert.

n The reader who has leisure may do well to examine the progress of our Lord's reasoning in this instance. He proposes to them a dilemma; one case of which is the supposition of the Pharisees, that He effected his cures by the agency of Beelzebub, involving the absurdity that Satan should act against himself. The other case is, that He wrought them by the power of God; which would bring them to the conclusion that the expected time of the kingdom of God had come (eplaσev) -come suddenly upon them, and when they did not look for it. This, of course, was the conclusion to which He would draw them; but it is observable that he does it rather through their own observation and reasoning, than by openly and expressly declaring it. I have had occasion to remark a similar conduct before.

Jesus, they may have had an anticipation), to prove his title to the high authority which his words implied. In answer, he tells them that the sign afforded them should be the verification of the sign or type of the prophet Jonas: "For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Matt. xii, 40°.

His subsequent expressions declare that he was a personage superior to the prophet of whom he had been speaking, and greater even than their most powerful and celebrated king, Solomon. Other instances of the same assertion of the highest dignity, notwithstanding the simplicity of his life and birth, I have referred to before. p. 18, and note.

See

On being requested by one of the powerful sect who opposed him, to dine with him, we find that he does not refuse; but having excited astonishment and displeasure by his neglect of a form they all observed, of previously washing his hands, he is not withheld by regard for his host from setting in a strong light the hypocrisy and pride of that

• As these Pharisees and their party came from Jerusalem (Mark iii, 22), they may have reported there this saying; and this, possibly, may have strengthened the anticipation entertained of such an event. Matt. xxvii, 63.

party; and, when addressed by a Lawyer present with the remark, that by thus speaking he accused them also, he pronounces a like condemnation of that other numerous and influential body: provoking, of course, thereby, their common hostility P.

After this, the number of those about him being very great (Luke xii, 1), he began more expressly to inform his disciples, in particular, of the dangers in which their belief would involve them, beginning by instructing them whom alone they ought to fear-GOD; assuring them that they would be the objects of His providence, and pointing out to them what their conduct should be when they should be accused and endangered. He declares that he himself has a baptism' to

P On this occasion (Luke xi, 49, compared with Matt. xxiii, 34) He declares that those He addressed should persecute to the death His followers also. The same is broadly announced by Him in various places, particularly Matt. x, 16, to the end of the chapter.

¶ "In particular:" This appears from ver. 1: "He began to say unto his disciples first of all," etc.; and, besides other passages, from the question of Peter, ver. 41: "Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even unto all?" Compare these with ver. 54: "And he said also unto the people," etc.

There can be no doubt as to the meaning of the prophetic word Baptism; compare Matt. xx, 22; "But

undergo (Luke xii, 50), till which should be ac complished he was "straitened ""—i. e. urgently pressed by the shortness of the time and the much he had to do.

These expressions evidently announced his approaching death. This to his disciples.

After these declarations to his more immediate followers, he calls the attention of the multitude at large to the signs of the times, i. e. to the signs which denoted that the kingdom of the Messiah had now commenced; Luke xii, 54; "And he said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say there cometh a shower; and so it is, etc. Ye can discern the face of the sky, and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?"

We may observe upon these different intimations, that the declaration of approaching danger to his disciples is made by Jesus, for the first time, consecutively, forcibly, with great clearness, and at some length: while to the people at large is given only a general intimation that they

Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?"-and the context.

s "Straitened," uvéxous: the English margin has also the translation "pained;" but perhaps the French word pressé may better express the Greek.