fixed on so comprehensive(16) a plan,(17) and especially while the immediate results were so inconsiderable as those which appeared during the life of Jesus (Matth. 13: 31–33.) Besides, a person of fanatical character would undoubtedly have seized, and by the aid of a glowing fancy have wrought still higher, the popular ideas concerning the Messiah ;(18) ideas so grateful to an enthusiastic mind, and so current among the Jews in the days of Jesus,(19) that notwithstanding he frequently and explicitly opposed them,(20) his very disciples could not relinquish them but with the greatest difficulty,(21) and only after the death of him whom they regarded as the Messiah (Luke 20: 25 -46)

ILLUSTRATIONS.

1 Illustration. The certainty, with which Jesus believed himself united with God, he expresses in these words yo oda οιδα I know, John 8:14. That an immediate and infallible consciousness of the divine agency in the soul of Jesus, was not impossible, is proved by Köppen, in his treatise entitled "The Bible a work of divine wisdom;" by Kleuker, in his "Examination and explanation of the principal evidences for the truth and divine origin of christianity;2 and by Flatt, in his dissertation entitled "Observationes ad comparandam Kantianam disciplinam cum doctrina Christiana pertinentes."3 This possibility, which is the sole object of present inquiry, is also admitted by Plank, in his Introduction to the theological sciences ;4 and by Schmid, in his Moral Philosophy.5

2 Illustration. John 5: 31, 36. (compare the work “On. the object of John's Gospel," p. 199 &c.) John 15: 24.

1 Pt. II. p. 389 &c. 2 ed. 1797-98. p. 416 &c. 3 Note 47.

4 Pt. I. p. 391.

2 Pt. II. p. 179 &c. 5 2 ed. p. 102.

3 Illustration. ὁ ζητων την δοξαν του πεμψαντος αυτον (in opposition to ὁ ζητων την δοξαν την ιδίαν) αληθης εστι, και αδι κια εν αυτῷ ουκ εστι he that seeketh the glory of him who sent him (in opposition to "he that seeketh his own glory") is true, and falsehood is not in him. John 7: 18.

4 Illustration. John 6: 15. Matth. 16: 20. 17: 9. Luke 12: 13 &c.

5 Illustration. John 5: 18. 6:60, 66. 10: 31-33. Matth. 26: 63-66.

6 Illustration. After Jesus had declared that his church should be invincible, he immediately apprised his disciples of the sufferings and death which awaited himself, Matth. 16:1823. and 21: 37-43. 26:11-13. He speaks of his death, and likewise of the extension of his gospel over the whole earth, John 3: 14-16. 6: 51. 10: 15, 16. 12: 24, 31, 32. 16: 7, 8. 17:19. And in John 8:28, he states that only when his enemies should have brought him to the cross (orav vywonte comp. 12: 33), when his life should be taken away, not by his own hands but by those of his enemies (8: 22), would the progress of his work make it appear more satisfactorily, that he had not been guided by caprice, which would necessarily cease to act at death; and in general, that he had not been acting for himself merely aq'savrov, but that it was the cause and the work of God in which he was engaged. Now the plans of God, the murderers of Jesus had not power to defeat; because he was able to raise Jesus from the dead, and to accomplish his divine predictions relative to his return to the Father (8: 14, 21) with all the important consequences of that return (16: 7. Matt. 24: 14 &c. comp. John 8: 24, 50 ), in a manner which would place the declarations of Jesus, that he acted under immediate divine influence, beyond all doubt. (John 8: 16, 13.)

The value of the argument in support of the claim of Jesus to a divine mission, which is afforded by his voluntary sacrifice

of himself, is shown by Schwartze, in his work On the death of Jesus, Leipsic, 1805, p. 87-107; and in Flatt's Magazine, vol. I. p. 83-87. Compare Flatt's dissertation in vol. XII, entitled, "Lässt sich die Ueberzeugung Jesu von der Gewissheit und moralischen Nothwendigkeit seines frühen Todes aus einem rationalistischen Gesichtspunkt betrachten ?"

7 Illustration. John 3: 32. 15: 20 &c. Matth. 11:16-24. 10:25.

8 Illustration. Matth. 16: 23. 17: 17. 26: 31-35, 41. Mark 6: 52. 7: 18. 8: 17—21. Luke 18: 34. 24: 11. John 16: 12, (ετι πολλα εχω λεγειν ύμιν, αλλ' ου δυνασθε βαστάζειν agrɩ I have still many things to tell you, but ye are not able to bear them yet). John 20: 9, 19, 25.

9 Illustration. Luke 22: 32. John 14: 16, 26. 15: 26. 16: 5-15. 17:9-17.

10 Illustration. Matth. 13: 31-33. 10: 18. 24: 14. compare Illust. 6.

11 Illustration. John 6: 26, 60, 66. 8: 30 &c. Luke 14: 25 &c.

12 Illustration. Luke 11: 53 &c. (compare v. 39-52). 20: 19 (compare v. 17, 18). Matth. 15: 12-14 (comp. v. 11). 22: 15-22.

13 Illustration. Compare Dissert. III. in Libror. N. Test. aliquot locos, p. 16. (in Opuscula academica, Vol. II. p. 209 &c.) where it is remarked, that in the injunction recorded Mark 10: 12, Jesus had a reference to nations not Jewish.

14 Illustration. Although the plan of Jesus embraced every nation on earth, yet he would not himself commence its accomplishment among the heathen, nor suffer his disciples, when they were first sent out, to go among the heathen or Samaritans. Matth. 10: 5 &c. 15: 24. comp. John 10: 11-15.

15 Illustration. Matth. 15: 37 &c. ó de aygos ɛotw ỏ xooMos the field is the world.

16 Illustration. Matth. 13: 30, 39-43, 47-50.

17 Illustration. See Reinhard "On the plan which the founder of the christian religion devised;" 4th ed. 1798.

18 Illustration. Compare Acts 5:36. and Less, On Religion, Pt. II. p. 539.

19 Illustration. See the Dissertation, De notione regni coelestis, § II. where it is shown from passages of the New Testament, what false and worldly ideas of the Messiah and of his kingdom, were entertained by the Jewish people, at the time of Jesus. Compare Hess' work entitled, "The doctrines, actions and sufferings of our Lord," new edit. 1805. Pt. I. p. 387.

20 Illustration. John 6: 15, 26 &c. where Jesus opposes the carnal views of those who wished to make him king because he had fed them, and at the same time points them to the object of that miracle, and to the spiritual nourishment which they might expect from the Messiah.1 In Matth. 5: 3-12, Jesus endeavours to rectify the current opinions of the Jews relative to the kingdom of God, by representing the happiness of this kingdom as a heavenly happiness (v. 12), as a union with God, and a likeness to him (v. 8, 9), as a freedom from moral evil (v. 6), as a happiness which does not remove the afflictions of the present life (v. 4, 10, 11), and which can be attained, not by force and by overbearing, but by meekness (v. 5), humility (v. 3), and a pacific disposition (v. 9).2 Mark 9: 9-13. Luke 9: 43, 44. 14: 25 &c. Matth. 20: 22-28. Luke 19:11 &c. where Jesus by his parable (v.12-27 ) contradicts the opinion, that the solemn appearance of his kingdom was very near, (v. 11). Luke 19: 29-40. comp v. 41-44. Here, by his mournful and affecting lamentation over the impending calamity

1 See Dissertat. III. in Libror. N. Test. histor. aliquot locos, p. 42-46. (in Opusc. academ. Vol. III. p. 239 &c.)

2 See Dissert. I. in Lib. N.Test. historicos, p. 13, 14. (Opusc. acad.Vol. III. p. 12 &c.)

of Jerusalem, Jesus gave an immediate refutation of every false construction, which the Jews in accordance with their prejudices concerning the Messiah, could put upon his entrance into their city.

The reader may consult Hess' Bibliotheca of sacred history, Pt. II. p. 320 &c. Rau, ad illustrandam Evangelistarum de solemni J.C. in urbem Hierosolymarum ingressu. 1798; & Harras, on the last entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, in Eichhorn's Biblioth. of Bibl. literature, Vol. X. p. 189--242.

21 Illustration. Matth. 16: 22, 23. 20: 21. Luke 9: 45. 18: 34, 31-33. 24: 21.

Note to this §. On the character of Jesus, the reader is referred to Hess' Doctrines, actions and sufferings of our Lord, Pt. II. 1806. p. 196-205. and Bogue's Essay on the divine authority of the New Testament, p. 19 &c.

$8.

Evidence of the truth of the professions of Jesus continued. II. FROM HIS MIRACLES.

But the principal evidence for the divinity of the mission and doctrines of Jesus, is that derived from those deeds of his which are termed miracles(1, 2). As these miracles, whose historical truth(3) has been proved (§ 5), are of such a nature that they could not be produced by human art(4), or be a mere accidental coincidence of events with the wishes and predictions of Jesus(5); they are occular proofs [onuaia] of the fact, that the man Jesus who produced these effects, was not left to himself; but that he was under the influence of a superior Being, and of that very Being(6), to whom he ascribed all his declarations, as well as these actions of his which so manifestly transcended all human pow