LORD and SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST. 129 The feaft of tabernacles nowapproached, when the males of the Jewifh nation, ca- pable of travelling, repaired to Jerufalem, and dwelt feven days in the tabernacles, or booths made of boughs of trees, in com- memoration of their fathers having had no other habitation during their forty years fojourning in the wildernefs. Some of the kinfmen of the bleffed Jesus, being about to take a journey to the capital on this occafion, they defired him to accom- pany them thither, and openly thew him - feif to the whole nation of the Jews. They did not believe, that he was really the Meffìah fo long expefied by their nation, and they condemned his conduR, as unna- tural and abfurd, from a petition who made fuch preteefions : they could not conceive what induced him to fpend fo much of his time in deferts, and remote parts of the kingdom, while he affumed fo public a characaeras that of the Redeemer of Ifrael. Jerufalem, the feat of power, the - habita- iion of the great :men of the nation, and the place of general refort, was, in their opinion, the propereft place for him to publifh his doarines andwork_his miracles in: thefe, they thought, being exhibited in public, before the great and learned men of the nation, might have a better ef- fecl, than being performed in obfcure re- treats amongft the ignorant and illiterate. The decifion of the dollars of the law, and the great men of the nation in his favour, they thought would increafe the number of his difciples, and be a means of inducing the whole nation to own him for the Mel- whether he were really that great per- fon or not : Depart hence, faid they, and go into Judea, that thy difciples afo may fee the works that 'thou doe ft: for there is no man that doeth any thing in feéret, and he himfelffeeketh to be known openly. If thou do thefe things, Phew thyfe f to the world. $ut our Lord was no hranger to the inhabitants of Jerufalem, and, therefore, he did not think proper to reticle amongft them any longer than was abfolutely ne- ceffary he well knew theirinveterate pre- No. 1. judices, their obflinacy and perverfenefs, and their prevailing unbelief; and was fully convinced, that they would not re- ceive his dolrines, nor be induced, by his miracles, to believe in him, but would be more likely to ufe all their power to deftroy him, before he had finned the work which he affumed our nature to perform: for which reafons, he did not choofe to accom- pany his relations to the feat, or go in a public manner to Jerufalem :. My time, faid our great Redeemer, to thefe unbelieving relations, is not yet come : butyour time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, becaufe I teflify of , it, that the works thereof are evil. Go ye up unto this _feall: I go not up yet unto this fea/i; for my time is not yetfull come. This was as though he had .faid, it is not expe- dient that I fhould go to Jerufalem before the feaft begins : you may advance to the city whenever you pleafe, there is nothing to make you afraid ; the Jews, are your friends, you have never offended them, nor have you done any thing to difpleafe them: but the purity of the dolrine I have preached amongfl them, and the plainnefs and freedom of fpeech with which I have oppofed their foolifh traditions, «and re- proved their hypocrify, and other enor- mous vices, have raifed their refentment and provoked their malice to the utmoft height; and, therefore, as the time of my fuffering is not yet come, it is not proper for to go fo Coon to Jerufalem. Perhaps there might be another reafon why our Redeemer did not choofe to ac- company his relations to the feaft of taber- nacles at this time : the vaft concourfe of people which annually attended this folem- nity, would fill all the roads to the capital, and thefe gathering around him, and at- tending him to Jerufalem, would have made a noife in the city, and have given frefh offence to his enemies, which might have exafperated them to that degree, that they might, as they had done before, have attempted his life, and their cruelty and rage might haveprevented his doarine I i and
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