relieve them, but him they had not always; in fact, his departure was at hand, and the act for which they had heedlessly blamed her, being all she could do to honour him, was so acceptable and so excellent, that it would be mentioned to her praise wherever the good news of salvation should be proclaimed. He added, that in so doing, she had anticipated his funeral, drawing by the remark their attention to his approaching death, and hinting that they would not grudge the use of this costly spikenard, for the embalmment of a friend. Judas in anger retired from the entertainment, and made his bargain with the chief priests and rulers.

109. Jesus, riding on an ass's colt, proceeds in triumph to the temple, and weeps over Jerusalem. Matt. xxi. Mark xi. Luke xix. John xii.

OUR Lord now prepared to enter Jerusalem as a Sovereign, and to take, as it were, formal possession of the temple; but he came not to establish an earthly monarchy, but to offer himself as a victim for the sins of mankind; and no one action during the five days, from his entry to his apprehension, was inconsistent with his humble yet sublime character of a spiritual deliverer. He declared more distinctly than he had done hitherto that he was the Messiah. He assumes the office by clearing the temple, and more openly and strongly reproving the Scribes and Pharisees; but that the people might not attempt as before to make him by force a king, after teaching in the day, he retired from the city at night. This meek and lowly Monarch, and though meek and lowly

Notwithstanding the opinion of Lightfoot, Whitby, and Macknight, I believe with Michaelis and Doddridge, and with other approved commentators, that this anointing, and that recorded by Matthew xxvi. and Mark xiv. are the same; conceiving it more probable that they should introduce it into another part of their Gospels, than that within the compass of four days Jesus should have been anointed twice by a woman with the same costly ointments, that the same blame should have been cast upon the action, the same value assigned, and the same speech in vindication. I have here deviated from Newcome's arrangement to follow that of Doddridge.

yet a Saviour, entered his capital, as Zechariah (ix. 9.) had foretold four centuries before, riding upon the foal of an ass, and for this there was an especial reason; not only horses and chariots would have been unsuitable to his pacific character, but the kings of Israel had been forbidden to multiply them, because they were to trust in God alone in the day of battle". In the warmer climate of Palestine, the ass is a finer animal than in England; it is used by persons of distinction, and excites none of the contempt with which it is associated in our minds. He stopped at his frequent place of resort, the mount of Olives, and sent forward two disciples to procure an ass and its colt, pointing out precisely where they were to be found, and how they should settle with the owners. When brought, he mounted the unbroken" colt upon which no one had hitherto sat, which he rendered governable and steady; and the accompanying crowds spread their cloaks and palm branches along the road, as was usual on a triumphal entry, greeting him with hosannas, as the Messiah, the Son of David, their long expected King, and wishing him prosperity and length of days, in the words of the 118th psalm. It was the restoration of Lazarus to life that excited this transient popularity. As the season of his apprehension was so nigh, he no longer declined their homage; and when the Pharisees called upon him to silence them, he assured them, that if these refused to own him, some other method would be taken of declaring him King of Israel, as extraordinary as if the very stones were to speak his praise. As he approached Jerusalem, conscious though he was of the sufferings and death that there awaited him, no personal feeling affected him; but he wept over the infatuation of that cruel and ungrateful city, which had

g Sherlock's Dissertations, iv. p. 271.

h According to Matthew, it seems as if he rode by turns upon both animals, zava aurav; but Beza refers the pronoun to the nearer antecedent cloaks, iparía; others, who consider this construction as harsh, conceive that the plural is employed for the singular, as in Joshua vii. 1. Matt. ii. 20. xxvii. 44. Luke xxiii. 36. John xix. 29; and the same mode of expression occurs in the Iliad, x. 512. ἐπιβήσατο ἵππων.

neglected the season of his gracious visitation, and foretold its siege and destruction. The event corresponded most minutely with the prophecy; for Titus, to cut off all hope of safety by flight, encompassed it with a trench and mound, though a most laborious undertaking; for it measured almost five miles and we learn from the Jewish historian, vii. 18, that the Romans so levelled the city, that they who had not seen it before would not believe that it ever had been inhabited. Thus the Jews were literally encircled and pressed in on every side. This King of glory then, Jehovah, as foretold by Malachi, appeared suddenly in his temple, the Angel of the Covenant, where he cured all the lame and blind that came unto him, so as to excite the admiration even of the children, who joined in the general acclamation of Hosannah to the Son of David. The chief priests and scribes reprove him for accepting the homage of those who they conceived to be incompetent to form a judgment on the subject. He answers them by a citation from the eighth psalm, "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise," intimating thereby, that their tribute of admiration was his due, and that it justly rebuked the silence of those, who, from age and knowledge, ought to have been the first to acknowledge him.

110. Certain Greeks request to see Jesus. John xii.

SOME Greeks applied to Philip to procure them an interview with Jesus; and as they came up to attend the feast, they must have believed in the God of Israel, though probably, from the difficulty they seem to have found in coming to him, they were not avowed proselytes. It is not said whether their request was granted, nor are their motives mentioned; yet from the following speech of our Lord, whether only reported to them, or spoken in their presence, (which I think most probable,) we may infer, that, like his disciples, they expected that he was about to establish a

temporal kingdom. He declares that the hour for his glorification is arrived, but he intimates that he must pass to it through death, and that therefore it must be of a spiritual nature. He might have continued to enjoy his original glory, without condescending to take the manhood into his Godhead, or he might now resume it without suffering; but then the whole human race must perish, and the noblest of his works, formed for an immortality of happiness, and for whose sake this earth had been fitted up, that they might there praise and serve him, would have been created in vain. His philanthropy, therefore, "his delight in the sons of men," made him submit to death; that as the seed which germinating in the earth brings forth a large increase, so he by dying might give eternal life to his people. He added, that he who loved his life should lose it, and he who hated it in this world should preserve it in that which will last for ever, calling upon those who would serve him, to follow him; and assuring them, in return, that they should be where he was, and be rewarded by his Father. He thereby insinuated that these Greeks would be disappointed, if their wish to see him proceeded from the hope of any earthly advantage. He confessed that the prospect before him distressed him, and that if he yielded to the emotions of nature he should pray to be saved from it, (for being a man, he was tempted like unto his brethren,) but he checked his natural aversion to suffering; he remembered that it was the very object for which he came into the world; and as his death would glorify God by exhibiting to the admiration of the universe the union of infinite justice and mercy, which could thus alone be reconciled, he declared his entire acquiescence in his Father's will. The declaration was followed by the Father's own approving voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified my name, and I will glorify it again; referring to God's name having been glorified just before Jesus entered into the temple, among the hosannahs of the people. According to Lightfoot, Christ was attested from heaven in his three offices; at his baptism, when he entered on his ministry, as

the great High Priest; at his transfiguration, as the Prophet, whom all must hear; and now as King, when he had fulfilled the prophecy," Rejoice, O Sion, behold thy King cometh." This audible voice of God, was generally accompanied, as in this instance, and in that of St. Paul's conversion, with thunder. The Jews, who knew by reading that their fathers were thus accustomed to receive communications from God, said, an angel spake the Greeks, who were not so well instructed, only thought that it thundered. He then intimates the nature of his death, and its happy and glorious result in the salvation both of Jew and Gentile. The figurative expression, If I be lifted up, was understood by his auditors to signify his death; but this they could not reconcile with their preconceived idea of the Messiah. He answers their question by another figure, by which he directs them to make use of the light of his teaching while they had the opportunity, that they might correct their erroneous notions. He is now said to have concluded his public teaching; yet another short discourse follows, separated from this only by a remark of the Evangelist. Some commentators consider it as a part of the former, but as it does not appear to me likely that St. John would have interrupted it to insert his own words, I agree with those who take it as a repetition of what Jesus had said before. The remainder of the chapter then will contain John's judgment of his Master's ministry, and as showing that neither his miracles or his doctrines induced the Jews to believe in him. In reporting the former, he reminds the reader that this result had been foretold by Isaiah, and in applying the passage he unequivocally asserts the divinity of Jesus. His words are memorable, Isaiah said this when he saw his glory. Now if we turn to the sixth chapter, from which he cites, we shall find that the person, whom the prophet saw upon a throne, was the Lord of Hosts, Jehovah Sabaoth, that is, the everlasting Deity, Creator, and Governor of the world. Let the Unitarian meditate upon this apostolical declaration, and when he refuses to worship Jesus, consider what satisfactory explanation he can offer of