his healing diseases, and drying up the barren fig-tree at his pleasure! Behold the MAN, in his being hungry! And behold the MESSIAH, in his riding on the ass's colt, amidst the loud Hosannas of the people, in his opening the eyes of the blind, in making the lame to walk, and in his being refused by the Jewish builders, according to ancient prophecies ! And yet how different were people's thoughts about him!-the SAVIOUR of ISRAEL! What are all pretences to religion, if the life contradict them? O how afraid should we be of a barren profession, or of stumbling at Christ! DR. GUISE. O Saviour! whether shall I more wonder at thy majesty or thy humility?—that Divine Majesty, which lay hid under so humble an appearance; or that sincere humility, which veiled so great a glory? Thou, O Lord, whose "chariots are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels," wouldst make choice of the silliest of beasts to carry thee in thy last and royal progress. How well is thy birth suited with thy triumph! Even that very ass, whereon thou didst ride, was prophesied of; neither couldst thou have made up those vatical predictions without this conveyance. O glorious and yet homely pomp! Thou wouldst not lose aught of thy right; thou that wast a King, wouldst be proclaimed so: but, that it might appear thy kingdom was not of this world, thou, that couldst have commanded all worldly magnificence, thoughtest fit to abandon it. Instead of the Kings of the earth, who, reigning by thee, might have been employed in thine attendance, the people are thy heralds. How gladly did they spend their breath in acclaiming thee! "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord !" Where now are the great masters of the synagogue, that had enacted the ejection of whosoever should confess Jesus to be the Christ? Lo, here, bold and undaunted clients of the Messiah, that dare proclaim him in the public road, in the open streets! In spite of all Jewish malignity, his kingdom is confessed, applauded, blessed. "O thou fairer than the children of men, in thy Majesty ride on prosperously, because of truth, and meekness, and righteousness: and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things !" In this princely, and yet poor and despicable pomp, doth our Saviour enter the famous city of Jerusalem, - - Jerusalem, noted of old for the seat of kings, priests, and prophets of kings, for there was the throne of David; of priests, for there was the temple; of prophets, for there they delivered. their errands, and left their blood. Thither would Jesus come, as a King, as a Priest, as a Prophet: acclaimed as a King; teaching the people, and foretelling the woeful devastation of it, as a Prophet; and, as a Priest, taking possession of his temple, and vindicating it from the foul profanations of Jewish sacrilege. Oft before had he come to Jerusalem, without any remarkable change, because without any semblance of state; now, that he gives some little glimpse of his royalty, "the whole city was moved." "the whole city was moved." When the sages of the East brought the first news of the " King of the Jews, Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him ;" and now that the King of the Jews comes himself, though in so mean a port, there is a new commotion, all saying, "Who is this ?" woman you, ❝ the "Who is this?" Ask Moses, and he shall tell you, "The Seed of the that "shall break the Serpent's head." Ask our father Jacob, and he shall tell you, "the Shiloh of the tribe of Judah." Ask David, and he shall tell you, "the King of Glory." Ask Isaiah, he shall tell you, "Immanuel, Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." Ask Jeremiah, and he shall tell Righteous Branch." Ask Daniel, he shall tell you, "The Messiah." Ask John the Baptist, he shall tell you, "The Lamb of God." If you ask the God of the prophets, he hath told you, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Yea, if all these be too good for you to consult with, the devils themselves have been forced to say, "I know who thou art, even that Holy One of God." On no side, hath Christ left himself without a testimony; and, accordingly, the multitude here have their answer ready, "This is Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth in Galilee." Ye undervalue your Master, O ye well-meaning followers of Christ. "A Prophet? yea, more than a prophet!" John Baptist was so; yet was but the harbinger of this Messiah ! This was that God, by whom the prophets were both sent and inspired. "Of Nazareth !" say you? Ye mistake him: Bethlehem was the place of his birth, the proof of his tribe, the evidence of his Messiahship! But oh, the wonderful hand of God, in the carriage of this whole business! The people proclaimed Christ first a King; and now they proclaim him a Prophet. Why did not the Roman bands run into arms, upon the one? Why did not the Scribes and Pharisees and the envious priesthood mutiny, upon the other? They had made decrees against him; they had laid wait for him; yet now he passes in state through their streets, acclaimed both a King and Prophet, without their reluctation. What can we impute this unto, but to the powerful and overruling arm of his Godhead? He that restrained the rage of Herod and his courtiers upon the first news of a King born, now restrains all the opposite powers of Jerusalem from lifting up a finger against this last and public avouchment of the Regal and Prophetical office of Christ. BISHOP HALL. We have here a compassionate lamentation in the midst of a solemn triumph. Our Lord's approach unto Jerusalem at this time carried some face of royal pomp, and some glimmerings only of that excellent Majesty, which both his Sonship and his Mediatorship entitled him unto. How little he was taken with this piece of state, is sufficiently seen: his mind is much more taken up in the foresight of Jerusalem's sad case; and therefore being come within view of it, in the descent of Mount Olivet, he beheld the city, and, it is said, “wept over it.” Two things concur to make up the cause of this sorrow: the greatness of the calamity: Jerusalem, once so dear to God, was to suffer, not a scar, but a ruin; and the lost opportunity of preventing it. His large and comprehensive mind could take the compass of this sad case. Our thoughts cannot reach far, yet we can consider Jerusalem as the city of the great King, where were the palace and throne of the Majesty of heaven, vouchsafing to "dwell with man on earth." Here the Divine light and glory had long shone: here was the sacred Shechinah, the dwelling place of the Most High, the symbols of his presence, the seat of his worship, the mercy seat, the place of receiving addresses, and of dispensing favours; "The house of prayer for all nations." To his own people this was the city of their solemnities, "whither the tribes were wont to go up, the tribes of the LORD, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the LORD." He that was so great a lover of the souls of men, how grateful and dear to his heart had the place been where, through the succession of many by-past ages, the great God did use to unfold his kind propensions towards sinners, to hold solemn treaties with them, to make himself known, to draw and allure souls into his own holy worship and acquaintance ! The opportunity of prevention was quite lost. Had Israel received him, O how joyful a place Jerusalem would have been! How glorious had the triumphs of the love of God been there, had they repented, believed, obeyed! These were the "things that belonged to their peace:" this was their opportunity, their "day of visitation !” "If thou hadst known !" O that thou hadst known! I wish thou hadst. His sorrow must have been proportionable to his love. They that were anciently so over-officious as to rase those words, " and wept over it," out of the canon, as thinking it unworthy so divine a person to shed tears, did greatly err, not knowing the Scriptures, which elsewhere speak of our Lord's weeping, nor the power of Divine love, now become incarnate, nor indeed the true perfections and properties of human nature: otherwise they had never taken upon them to reform the gospel, and reduce not only Christianity, but Christ himself, to the measures and square of their stoical philosophy. Whatever of tender compassions might be expected from the most perfect humanity and benignity, could not be wanting in him, upon the foresight of such a calamity as was coming upon that place and people. But yet, what was the sacking of a city, the destroying of pompous buildings that were all of a perishable material, the mangling of human flesh, over which the worm was otherwise shortly to have dominion, to the alienation of men's minds from God, their disaffection to the only means of their recovery and reconciliation to him, and their subjection to his wrath and curse for ever! Shall not the Redeemer's tears move thee? Consider what these tears import. They drop from an intellectual and most comprehensive eye, that sees far, and pierces deep into things. The Son of God did not weep vain and causeless tears: he knows the value of souls, the weight of guilt, and how low it will press and sink them; the severity of God's justice, and the power of his anger. They signify the sincerity of his love and pity, the truth and tenderness of his compassion. And remember that he who shed tears, did, from the same fountain of love and mercy, shed blood too! Thou makest thyself some very considerable thing, indeed, if thou thinkest the Son of God counted it worth his while to weep, and bleed, and die, to Ideceive thee into a false esteem of him and his love. But if his tears were sincere and inartificial, the natural genuine expressions of undissembled benignity and pity, consider that if thou perishest through sinning, it is under such guilt as the devils themselves are not liable to, who never had a Redeemer bleeding for them, nor weeping over them! REV. JOHN HOWE. "And a superscription also was writtten over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KIng of the Jews.' Consider the character or description of Christ contained in that writing. He is described by his kingly dignity, "This is the King of the Jews." The very office, which but a little before they had reproached and derided, bowing the knee to him in mockery, saying, " Hail, King of the Jews!" the providence of God so orders it, that therein he shall be vindicated and honoured. "This is the King of the Jews;" or, as the other evangelists complete it," This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." Moreover it was a predicting and presaging title, evidently foreshowing the propagation of Christ's kingdom, and the spreading of his name and glory among all kindreds, nations, tongues, and languages; and that Greeks, Hebrews, and Latins should be called to the knowledge of him. Nor is it a wonder that this should be predicted by wicked Pilate, when Caiaphas himself, a man every way as wicked as he, had prophesied to the same purpose; for, "being high-priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.John xi. 51-52. The Jews endeavoured, but could not persuade Pilate to alter it. To all their importunities he returns this resolute answer, "What I have written, I have written;" as if he should say, Urge me no more; I have written his title; I cannot, I will not alter a letter thereof." Surely the constancy of Pilate at this time can be attributed to nothing but Divine special Providence. Most wonderful! that he, who before was as inconstant as a reed shaken by the wind, is now as fixed as a pillar of brass. And yet more wonderful, that he should write down that very particular in the title of Christ, "This is the King of the Jews," which was the very thing that so scared him but a little before, and was the very consideration that moved him to give sentence. What was now become of the fear of Cæsar? that Pilate dares to be Christ's herald, and publicly to proclaim him, “The King of the Jews." Pilate was far enough from designing that which the He was a wicked man, pen thus to write a fair wisdom of Providence aimed at in this matter. REV. J. FLAvel. |