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to him, he left Judea and departed into Galilee,' where their influence was not so great, in order to avoid their envy'.

It might be apprehended, on the other hand, that the line of conduct which our Lord pursued in maintaining this occasional reserve, would expose him to a charge of a different kind, which, however frivolous, would be not less prejudicial to the object of his mission and dangerous to his personal safety. His enemies might allege, with some colour of plausibility, that he taught one doctrine in private, and another in public; and that although he prudently forebore to bring forward invidious. topics when surrounded by numerous witnesses, his communications to his followers when free from observation were of a very different cha

racter.

That an accusation of this nature would have been entertained without difficulty, had

7 John, iv. 3.

Christ afforded the slightest pretence for it, is abundantly certain from the odium which in the first ages of Christianity attached to the primitive believers on account of the love feasts. But not even Judas, the familiar companion of our Saviour's retirements, who would have gladly treasured up in his memory any unguarded expression which had escaped from his lips in the moments of privacy, dared to breathe against his master an imputation which would have been so much at variance with the uniform prudence of his behaviour. Against the possibility of such an allegation our Lord protected himself by the openness and boldness with which he taught, not avoiding the tables of his enemies, generally choosing opportunities when the greatest crowds might profit by his ministrations, and never willingly affecting secrecy and concealment. Hence, when the High Priest asked Jesus of his disciples and of his doctrine, he confidently appealed to the notoriety of the matter of his teaching, and to the number of his Jewish hearers. I spoke openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple whither the

Jews always resort, and in secret have I said nothing 8.

Nor was the obligation to secrecy which he imposed on the cleansed leper', and in some other instances, an exception to this conduct. On the contrary, the injunction, as Dr. Hales has well observed, was founded in consummate prudence. 'For the purposes of his divine mission it was necessary that he should perform many miracles to command attention, and hold many discourses to instruct the multitude, and discipline or train his disciples for their future functions. Hence, in the beginning of his ministry especially, he was obliged to keep himself as private as its nature would admit, in order to avoid giving umbrage to the ruling powers by a premature celebrity '.'

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II. We are told by St. John, that Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples.

8 John, xviii. 19, 20.

9 Matt. viii. 4. ix. 30. xii. 16, &c.

There

See also Mant's Bible. Notes at Matt. viii. 4, and Mark, i. 44.

2 John, iv. 2.

must have been some particular reason for his abstaining from the celebration of a rite to which he submitted in his own person, and for which he himself prescribed an express form of words. This reason may be found with great seeming probability in the dictates of that wise prudence which Christ possessed so abundantly. Had he acted otherwise, prejudices might have arisen which it would have been difficult to obviate. The converts might have considered the agent by whom the rite was conveyed, rather than the rite itself. Distinctions would have been likely to be taken between those whom Christ had admitted himself, and those whom his apostles and ministers baptized afterwards. Some superior degree of perfection would perhaps have been attributed to one class, and doubts might have been insinuated respecting the satisfactory initiation of the other. Something of this kind seems actually to have occurred at Corinth; when jealousies arose among the followers of the several teachers, in conse quence of which Paul declared his joy that he

could recollect but a few whom he had himself

baptized in person 3.

III. Our Lord's prudence was very conspicuous in another particular. As a preacher of righteousness to a corrupt generation, faithfulness in his ministry would expose him to give great offence to those who could not bear to have their faults openly represented without extenuation. If there was any mode by which this obstacle to his usefulness could be lessened or removed, it would be of obvious advantage to adopt it; or if he could engage on his side any authority to which his hearers would defer from habitual reverence, a great point would be gained towards their conviction.

This mode was discovered, in some degree, through the medium of the Jewish Scriptures. Christ used the weapons of their own armoury against themselves, and often instructed or reproved them out of their own law. When he

3 1 Cor. i. 14–16.

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