says the Evangelist, because "he knew "all men, and needed not that any "should testify of man; for he knew "what was in man." Here we have an ample proof of the DIVINITY OF CHRIST; for, furely, the Evangelist would not have dared to have afcribed the attribute of Omniscience to any created being. We may cease to wonder, then, that our Lord did not unbosom himself to these believers: for as he knew the hearts of all men, he must have difcovered fome latent corruptions, unfavourable to himfelf and his doctrine, which disqualified them from receiving any further notices of the nature and design of his Miffion. What these corruptions were, may be gathered from Scripture without much difficulty. The long cefsation of miracles, doubtless, contributed to engage the attention of コ of the Jews to those which were wrought by JESUS CHRIST; especially, as they excelled the miracles of the Prophets, which they read of in their facred books, in many diftinguishing particulars. For our LORD wrought them in his own name; they were more in number than the prophetic, and altogether of the benevolent kind, adapted to the wants and exigences of human nature; whereas those of the prophets were generally alarming, and frequently distressing. All these circumstances conspired to convince them, that JESUS CHRIST must be, indeed, the promised MESSIAH. On the other hand, their false, but high raised expectations of a temporal kingdom, of worldly power, affluence, and grandeur, rendered their present belief vain and unprofitable. They fondly imagined, perhaps, that poor and humble as the BLESSED JESUs now appeared, he would ere long, by figns and wonders, make his way to the throne of David. Every afpiring politician among them began to flatter himself, that he should foon behold Cæfar suppliant at his feet. The Pharisees and doctors of the law hoped to fee the time, when the wisest and proudest of the Pagan priests and philofophers should deem it their highest honour to receive instructions from Mofes's chair, and become the pupils of fome learned Gamaliel. Poffefsed with such notions, filled with such carnal expectations as these, they were altogether unqualified to become Disciples of JESUS. His omniscient eye penetrated the inmost recesses of their hearts, and discovered those secret springs of corruption, which would ere long be set at work to oppose the spirituality of his kingdom. Had he given out, indeed, that he came to deliver them from the Roman yoke, and make all the nations of the world world their tributaries, the air would have refounded with "Hosannas to the "Son of David;" his steps, wherever he came, would have been strewed with palms, and triumphal arches erected in honour of his appearance. But let him once declare, that he comes to refcue them from the grievous yoke of fin, to fight against and overcome all their spiritual enemies, and to establish his kingdom in their hearts; you will foon find their Hosannas changed into dire imprecations, and "Away with him, away "with him-crucify him!" the best wishes their hearts can frame, the most respectful language that their tongues can utter. Had he been a blind zealot for the law; had he yielded an implicit obedience to the traditions of the elders; had he encouraged the populace to pay a greater regard to the decisions of the Rabbies, than to the writings of Mofes N 4 and and the prophets; had he propagated that popular doctrine of the Jews, that their Defcent from Abraham, according to the flesh, was sufficient for their juftification before God, and that not one of that holy nation should finally perish; had he refused to give a fingle crumb of the children's bread to dogs, to extend the bleffings of Ifrael to the poor benighted Gentiles; then, indeed, every tongue, every pen, every arm, would have been employed in his defence, and nothing but dire anathemas would have been thundered forth against his adverfaries. But let him once bear his teftimony against the unlawful impositions of the pharifees and scribes; let him call them the commandments of men, and encourage his hearers to throw off the cumbrous load of human traditions; let him declare, that he himself came to write the law in their hearts, and by his own redeeming power, to enable them to fulfil it, according to its true and |