Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Jesus was exposed to the reproach, so often thrown out," Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary'?"-John was distinguished in his raiment, peculiar in his diet, secluded in his habits:-but Jesus was conspicuous neither in dress, nor food, nor society. John was no less illustrious for the place of his birth :-but against Jesus the objection was immediately urged, -"Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?"

Such is the train of improbabilities, that attends the hypothesis of collusion: such the strange variety of gross discrepancies and palpable absurdities which it involves :-artifice exposing itself to suspicion, hastening into unnecessary dangers, gathering round it a crowd of obstacles, meeting discovery in every shape,-yet undiscovered, taking every means to frustrate success,-yet always successful.- Who can be so blinded by the infatuation of error, as not to perceive the finger of mysterious providence conducting its designs to accomplishment by paths, which, to our weak and finite minds, seem, as they wind their progress through the mazes of intricacy, to terminate in confusion and ruin?" My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord."

1 Matt. xiii. 55.

2 Isai. Įv. 8.

PART II.

E

ON THE OFFICE OF JOHN THE BAPTIST.

We have now examined the grounds, on which the truth of John's mission is established, and we have endeavoured to demonstrate, that the supposition of its falsehood is repugnant to every principle of right reasoning, that it contains a perplexing variety of difficulties entangled with difficulties, and that it vanishes before the steady pursuit of dispassionate inquiry ;—it remains, that we should consider the nature and the utility of his office of forerunner.

It were needless to dwell on its evident fitness. The distinction of a precursor had been allowed to none of the Prophets: it was the peculiar privilege of monarchs, and most suitably reserved for the Messiah,-the anointed of the Lord,' the 'Prince of the kings of the earth,' whose dominion is an everlasting dominion.'As it announced the approach, it displayed the greatness of his kingdom, and the exalted majesty

of his character.

Nor will its utility be less apparent, if we reflect on the state of the Jewish nation at that particular period. It was an age of the most extensive and the most deplorable depravity.-The

traces of devotion were nearly effaced; the restraints of true religion were broken down, and pride, cruelty, violence, baseness, treachery, — the collected evils of mental degradation,-rushed in, till iniquity seemed almost to have reached its ultimate point.-The chief priests and leaders, as well as the inferior ministers, combined the follies of ignorance with the ferocity of intolerance; and the multitude indulged with eagerness in those vices, which were fostered under the wide patronage of ruling corruption. They were a nation of hypocrites. Their sanctimonious exterior, and their ostentatious affectation of the most fervent piety, were accompanied by despicable subtilty, by hardened indifference, and by absorbing avarice. Jerusalem, the ancient sanctuary of holiness,was become the nurse of arrogance, exasperated by contempt, and of fanaticism, inflamed by disappointment. Her own historian has depicted her fallen state in the darkest colours: he has displayed a melancholy scene of the last stage of degeneracy, a hideous mixture of the semblance of virtue with the reality of vice,—of the highest self-estimation with the lowest moral debasement; -a disgusting picture of the rancour and the imbecility of factions, struggling for the miserable privilege of momentary superiority, lighting the flames of persecution at the altars of religion, breathing more deadly hatred against each other, than against the hostile armies that surrounded them, and disagreeing in all things, but the infatuated hope of transferring the yoke of oppression to the neck of the oppressor.-"This was

indeed a time most fertile in every manner of ini quity among the Jews, insomuch that no kind of evil was left unpractised.-No one could devise any new wickedness, which was not then committed. They were universally corrupt, both publicly and privately. They vied with one another, who should surpass in impiety towards God, and injustice towards their neighbour :—the powerful oppressing the multitude, and the multitude striving to destroy the powerful. The former ambitious of tyranny and power, and the latter of violence and plunder1." In another place he exclaims in the language of indignation and grief,

"I cannot forbear declaring what the regret I feel dictates to me:—it is my opinion, that, if the Romans had delayed to come against these wretches, the city would have been ingulphed by an earthquake, or overwhelmed by a deluge, or consumed by such thunders as destroyed the country of Sodom for it bore a generation of men more impious than those, that suffered such punishments." And again,-" to give a detailed relation

1 Εγένετο γὰρ πῶς ὁ χρόνος ἐκεῖνος παντοδαπῆς ἐν τοῖς Ιουδαίοις πονηρίας πολυφόρος, ως μηδὲν κακίας ἔργον ἄπρακτον καταλιπεῖν, μηδ' εἴ τις ἐπινοίᾳ διαπλάττειν ἐθελήσειεν ἔχειν ἄν τι καινότερον ἐξευρεῖν· οὕτως ἰδίᾳ τε καὶ κοινῇ πάντες ἐνόσησαν, καὶ πρὸς ὑπερβαλεῖν ἀλλήλους ἐν τε ταῖς πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν ἀσεβείαις, καὶ ταῖς εἰς τοὺς πλησίον ἀδικίαις, ἐφιλονείκησαν· οἱ μὲν δυνατοι τὰ πλήθη κακοῦντες, οἱ πολλοὶ δε τοὺς δυνατοὺς ἀπολλύναι σπεύδοντες· ἦν γὰρ ἐκείνοις μὲν ἐπιθυμία τοῦ τυραννεῖν, τοῖς δὲ τοῦ βιάζεσθαι καὶ τὰ εὐπόρων διαρπάζειν.—De Bell. Jud. lib. vii. cap. 8. §. 1.

2 Οὐκ ἂν ὑποστειλαίμην εἰπεῖν, ἅ μοι κελεύει τὸ πάθος· οἶμαι Ρωμαίων βραδυνόντων ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀλιτηρίους, ἢ καταποθῆναι ἂν

[ocr errors]

of every instance of their villainy, is impossible : but, in a word, never did any city suffer such calamities; nor was there ever a generation more fruitful in wickedness than this was, from the beginning of the world'."

Nor were their opinions on religious subjects less erroneous than their practice was detestable". Their own desires were the mould in which they formed the image of the expected Deliverer, and their own devices were the interpreters of the prophecies which described his character. Before persons, whose minds were thus alternately irritated by long discontent, and blinded by brilliant hopes, could be so softened and regulated as to receive, in humbleness of heart, him that should be "despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," it was necessary, by some powerful means, to remove the mass of prejudice and vice, that obstructed the passage of a pure and spiritual religion, and to infuse that spirit of placid resignation, which raises the im

ὑπὸ χάσματος, ἢ κατακλυσθῆναι τὴν πόλιν, ἢ τοὺς τῆς Σοδομηνῆς μεταλαβεῖν κεραυνούς πολὺ γὰρ τῶν ταῦτα παθόντων ἤνεγκε yevεav ålewτéρav. De Bell. Jud. lib. v. xiii. §. 6.

And again :

Πᾶν κακίας ἔργον ἐξεμιμήσαντο, μηδ' εἴ τι πρότερον προϋ παρχθὲν ἡ μνήμη παραδέδωκεν αὐτοὶ παραλιπόντες ἀζήλωτον. K. T. \.-Ibid. lib. vii. cap. 8. §. 1.

· Καθέκαστον μὲν οὖν ἐπεξιέναι τὴν παρανομίαν αὐτῶν, ἀδύνατον· συνελόντα δ ̓ εἰπεῖν, μήτε πόλιν ἄλλην τοιαῦτα πεπονθέναι, μήτε γενεὰν ἐξ αἰῶνος γεγονέναι κακίας γονιμωτέραν. Ibid. lib. v. cap. 10. §. 5.

2 See also Matt. iii. 7. xii. 39. xxiii. 5-23. John iii. 19. v. 44, viii. 40-44. &c. Lardner's Credibility, &c. Vol. I. Pt. I. B. 1.

« AnteriorContinuar »