directed against the worst of men masked under the appearance of superior sanctity. Christ was an inspired prophet, and a searcher of the reins and heart : and those whom he reproved sought to murder him: and blasphemed the Holy Spirit, contrary to intuitive evidence. His rebukes were stern, but just; indignant, but dictated by virtuous indignation; earnest and vehement, but the grave language of insulted majesty, of perfect goodness detesting vice, and of perfect knowledge penetrating all its disguises and aggravations. The 'men and their vices were distinguished; and their punishment was tenderly deplored while it was denounced. с b Let us now observe how our Lord's censures of his disciples were circumstanced. When Peter, in the name of the other apostles, asked him about the position which he had advanced, "Not that which entereth into the mouth defileth a man, but that which goeth out of the mouth;" he replied, "Are ye also still without understanding;" after so long an intercourse with me, and such repeated instructions? It was expedient to quicken their attention; lest, like the Jews, hearing they should not hear, and seeing they should not see. When our Lord foretold his many sufferings, and Peter rebuked him, Jesus turned himself about, and when he had surveyed his disciples in such a manner as to fix their attention, he thus sharply & animadverted on Peter, Remove from my sight, thou adversary of God and man: thou art an impediment to the reception of my religion: for d thy conceptions are not suitable to the plan of God's providence, but to the expectations of worldly minded men. It was necessary to teach the apostles not to be ashamed of a crucified Saviour, to correct their prejudices in an awakening manner, and to check the ambitious desire of secular pre-eminence which clave to them so strongly. But this was an exercise of authority without anger: for, six days after, Jesus distinguished Peter by admitting him among the witnesses of his & transfiguration, and of the voice which addressed him from the excellent glory. Again on the evening of his resurrection our Lord appeared to the eleven, and "h upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not those who had seen him after he was risen." And he thus began his reply to the two disciples who went to Emmaus on the day of his resurrection; "O1 inconsiderate, and slow of heart to believe all which the prophets have spoken!" But our Lord's censures of his friends and of his enemies were wholesome admonitions or authoritative corrections and were uttered by one who had a supernatural knowledge that they were deserved. A prophet is sent for reproof as well as instruction; and can alone give both unerringly. f Mark viii. 38. b Mark xvi. 14. 8 Matt. xvii. 1. 2 Pet. i. 16-18. i Luke xxiv. 25. Tillotson renders árérta by unwise, Serm. cxxxvi. p. 230: and our translation should also be soften. ed, Gal. iii. 1, 3. SECTION VII. OF OUR LORD'S HUMILITY. a "HE that humbleth himself shall be exalted," is among our Lord's favourite maxims: and he has declared that "b whosoever shall humble himself as a little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." We shall obtain a right idea of Christian humility by observing that the sacred writers oppose it to * pride and d vain glory; that it consists in not thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, and disposes us to prefer one another in honour, and to maintain such sobriety in our self love and such candour towards others, as readily to esteem wise and good men wiser and better than ourselves. h g This eminent Christian virtue is rarely recommended in heathen writers; though its opposite vices © James iv. 6. & Phil. ii. 3. xviii. 14. Matt. xxiii. 12. d Phil. ii. 3. b Matt. xviii. 4, e Rom. xii. 3. i ib. v. 10. h Ea omnia quæ proborum, demissorum, non acrium, non pertinacium, non litigiosorum, non acerborum sunt, valde benevolentiam conciliant. Cic. de oratore ii. § 43. Sit apud vos modestiæ locus, sit demissis hominibus perfugium, sit auxilium pudori. Pro Muræna. § 40. Probus quis Nobiscum vivit, multum demissus homo ? Illi HOR. Sat. iii. 56, 7, 8. See Bentley and Sanadon. Dacier in his Life of Plato has referred us to the following passage, as a proof that the heathens knew this virtue. Ης [δίκης] ὁ μὲν ευδαιμονήσειν μέλλων ἐχόμενος, ξυνέπεται ταπεινὸς και κεκοσμημένος· ὁ δέ τις ἐξαρθεὶς ὑπὸ μεγαλαυχίας, ἢ χρήμασιν επαιρόμενος, are often condemned. Our Lord was himself an i And "let the same mind illustrious example of it. be in us which was also in Christ Jesus: who, having been [originally] in the form of God, did not covet to be like God, [and seize on the divine resemblance as a prey] but emptied himself [of his heavenly glory,] and took on him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man; and, when found in fashion as a man, humbled himself [still more,] and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." And in another place our Lord's act of humiliation in leaving the bosom of his Father is thus beautifully used as an argument for a liberal relief of the Jewish Christians by the church of Corinth : "Ye know the [abundant] bounty [and munificence] of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich [in his pre-existing state,] yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich." ἢ τιμαῖς, ἢ καὶ σώματος εὐμορφία, -καταλείπεται ἔρημος Θέα. “ He who would be happy adheres to justice, and follows her humble and composed but he who is elated by pride, or elevated by wealth, honour or beauty, is left destitute of the Deity." And humility is in fact the virtue described by Aristotle, as rightly disposing us with respect to inferior honours; and which he praises as sober, manly and elegant. Its extremes are an undue love of such honours as are dispensed in common life, and an undue neglect of them and be observes that it had no name. Tames and its derivatives denoted at that time an abject mind, not a lowly one. See Eth. Nicom. 1. ii. c, vii. l. iv. c. iv. i Phil. ii. 5-8. * 2 Cor. viii. 9. But let us particularly consider our Lord's humility, after that wonderful instance of it which he gave by his assumption of human nature. m 1 Though a descendant of king David, he was born of obscure parents; and though the place of his nativity was Bethlehem, the city of David, yet he dwelt so long in Nazareth as to be called the inhabitant of a city which was held in mean estimation, and was in a "province out of which arose no prophet. "He grew up as a root out of a dry ground; he had no form nor comeliness, that we should behold him ; nor appearance, that we should desire him." When he entered on his ministry, "he chose the foolish things of the world to confound wise men, and the weak things of the world to confound the things which were mighty." His apostles were men of inferior birth and occupations. And for this choice many wise reasons are discoverable: but at present I mean only to observe that it illustrates our Lord's lowliness of mind; who thus characterized his gospel, that it was preached to the poor; and who repeatedly made it a ground of thanksgiving to God, that his converts were men of an humble class; not scribes and teachers of the law, who were wise and prudent in their own conceit and in the eye of the world, but m John i. 46. ૧ 'Mark xiv. 67. n ib. vii. 52. • Isai. liii. 2 P1 Cor. i. 27. See Miscellanea sacra, v. ii. p. 129, ed. 1770. Span heim dub. Evang, part iii. dub. lxxiii. Neque verò non vero simillimum videtur, numero eos tam exiguo fuisse, nomine & dignitate tam exili atque abjecta, nequa forte suboriretur suspicio rebus eos novandis stu dere posse, aut factiosum quidquam & seditiosum audere atque moliri Concio ad clerum Prov. Cantuar, a G. Cooke Decano Eliensi. Matt. xi. 5. |