house to partake of refreshment.* Here a woman of dissolute life found her way into the chamber where the feast was held; she sate at his feet, anointing him, according to Eastern usage, with a costly unguent, which was contained in a box of alabaster; she wept bitterly, and with her long locks wiped away the falling tears. The Pharisees, who shrunk not only from the contact, but even from the approach, of all whom they considered physically or morally unclean, could only attribute the conduct of Jesus to his ignorance of her real character. The reply of Jesus intimates that his religion was intended to reform and purify the worst, and that some of his most sincere and ardent believers might proceed from those very outcasts of society from whom pharisaic rigour shrunk with abhorrence. After this Jesus appears to have made another circuit through the towns and villages of Galilee. On his return to Capernaum, instigated, perhaps, by his adversaries, some of his relatives appear to have believed, or pretended to believe, that he was out of his senses; and, therefore, attempted to secure his person. This scheme failing, the pharisaic party, who had been deputed, it should seem, from Jerusalem to watch his conduct, endeavour to avail themselves of that great principle of Jewish superstition, the belief in the power of evil spirits, to invalidate his growing authority.† On the occasion of the cure of one of those lunatics, usually called * Luke, vii. 36-50. Luke, xi. 14-26. + Matt. xii. 22-45.; Mark, iii. 19-30. V. CHAP. dæmoniacs*, who was both dumb and blind, they accused him of unlawful dealings with the spirits Dæmoniacs. of evil. It was by a magic influence obtained by a secret contract with Beelzebub, the chief of the powers of darkness, or by secretly invoking his all-powerful name, that he reduced the subordinate dæmons to obedience. The answer of Jesus struck them with confusion. Evil spirits, according to their own creed, took delight in the miseries and crimes of men; his acts were those of the purest benevolence: how gross the inconsistency to suppose that malignant spirits would thus lend themselves to the cause of human happiness and virtue. Another more personal argument still farther confounded his adversaries. The Pharisees were pro * I have no scruple in avowing my opinion on the subject of the dæmoniacs to be that of Joseph Mede, Lardner, Dr. Mead, Paley, and all the learned modern writers. It was a kind of insanity, not unlikely to be prevalent among a people peculiarly subject to leprosy and other cutaneous diseases; and nothing was more probable than that lunacy should take the turn and speak the language of the prevailing superstition of the times. As the belief in witchcraft made people fancy themselves witches, so the belief in possession made men of distempered minds fancy themselves possessed. The present case, indeed, seems to have been one rather of infirmity than lunacy: the afflicted person was blind and dumb; but such cases were equally ascribed to malignant spirits. There is one very strong reason, which I do not remember to have seen urged with sufficient force, but which may A depar have contributed to induce Jesus to V. fessed exorcists*; if, then, exorcism, or the ejection CHAP. of these evil spirits, necessarily implied unlawful dealings with the world of darkness, they were as open to the charge as he whom they accused. They had, therefore, the alternative of renouncing their own pretensions, or of admitting that those of Jesus were to be judged on other principles. It was, then, blasphemy against the spirit of God to ascribe acts which bore the manifest impress of the divine goodness in their essentially beneficent character, to any other source but the Father of Mercies; it was an offence which argued such total obtuseness of moral perception, such utter incapacity of feeling or comprehending the beauty either of the conduct or the doctrines of Jesus, as to leave no hope that they would ever be reclaimed from their rancorous hostility to his religion, or be qualified for admission into the pale and to the benefits of the new faith. The discomfited pharisees now demand a more Pharisees public and undeniable sign of his Messiahship†, the satisfaction of finding myself to have arrived at the same conclusion as Neander. The rebuking subordinate dæmons, by the invocation of a more powerful name, is a very ancient and common form of superstition. The later anti-Christian writers among the Jews attribute the power of Jesus over evil spirits to his having obtained the secret, and dared to utter the ineffable name, "the Sem-ham-phorash." To this name wonderful powers over the whole invisible world are attributed by the Jewish Alexandrian writers, Artapanus and Ezekiel, the tra- + Matt. xii. 38-45. demand a V. CHAP. which alone could justify the lofty tone assumed by Jesus. A second time Jesus obscurely alludes to the one great future sign of the new faith - his resurrection; and, refusing further to gratify their curiosity, he reverts, in language of more than usual energy, to the incapacity of the age and nation to discern the real and intrinsic superiority of his religion. The followers of Jesus had now been organised into a regular sect or party. Another incident distinctly showed that he no longer stood alone; even the social duties, which up to this time he had, no doubt, discharged with the utmost affection, were to give place to the sublimer objects of his mission. While he sate encircled by the of Jesus to multitude of his disciples, tidings were brought Conduct his rela tives. that his mother and his brethren desired to approach him. But Jesus refused to break off his occupation; he declared himself connected by a closer tie even than that of blood, with the great moral family of which he was to be the parent, and with which he was to stand in the most intimate relation. He was the chief of a fraternity not connected by common descent or consanguinity, but by a purely moral and religious bond; not by any national or local union, but bound together by the one strong but indivisible link of their common faith. On the increase, the future prospects, the final destiny of this community, his discourses now dwell, with frequent but obscure allusions.† His * Matt. xii. 46-49.; Mark, iii. 31-35. + Matt. xiii.; Mark, iv. 1-34. ; Luke, viii. 1-18. V. language more constantly assumes the form of CHAP. parable. Nor was this merely in compliance with the genius of an Eastern people, in order to convey his Parables. instruction in a form more attractive, and therefore both more immediately and more permanently impressive; or by awakening the imagination, to stamp his doctrines more deeply on the memory, and to incorporate them with the feelings. These short and lively apologues were admirably adapted to suggest the first rudiments of truths which it was not expedient openly to announce. Though some of the parables have a purely moral purport, the greater part delivered at this period bear a more or less covert relation to the character and growth of the new religion; a subject which, avowed without disguise, would have revolted the popular mind, and clashed too directly with their inveterate nationality. Yet these splendid, though obscure, anticipations singularly contrast with occasional allusions to his own personal destitution, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head." For with the growth and organisation of his followers he seems fully aware that his dangers increase; he now frequently changes his place, passes from one side of the lake to the other, and even endeavours to throw a temporary concealment over some of his most extraordinary miracles. During one of these expeditions across the lake, he is in danger from one of those sudden and vio * * Matt. viii. 18-27.; Mark, iv. 35-41.; Luke, viii. 22-25. |