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of the prophecies were such as could never have been understood, but for the accomplishment actually given to them by the mysteri ous person and character of Jesus Christ,They seemed to clash with one another, to involve contrarieties, and to pronounce impossibilities, The jews have therefore been driven to the hard necessity of inventing the supposition of two Messias, of contrary cha❤ racters, and opposite fortune in the world; though all the prophecies agree in speaking of Messiah as one person, and how well they agree in all other respects, by their accomplishment in Jesus Christ, almost the meanest christian can point out.

Our blessed Saviour was especially remarkable for that presence of mind, shall I call it? or rather that wisdom superior to every thing human, with which he seized every subject of conversation that arose, and turned it to the ad vantage and edification of his hearers. This was therefore an opportunity not to be neg. lected. It might be a happy means of softening down some of the strongest prejudices

of such persons as were at all of a candid and teachable disposition, ordained (or disposed) unto eternal life, as the gospel speaks. And thus it might greatly facilitate both the acceptance of John's future preaching of the approaching kingdom of heaven, and Christ's own personal ministry in opening it, by the delivery of a system of doctrine too pure and disinterested to be at all acceptable to that exceedingly corrupt age,

Here was cause enough, had there been no other, why "Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem," without giving notice to his parents of his intention, and even suffered them to make one whole day's progress on their journey homewards, and to feel the inexpressible pangs of parental terror and anxiety for the imagined loss of such a son. Neither did he at all attempt to soften their resentment, when, in so unlikely a situation for a child, they sought and found him. But in answer to their well founded complaints of his disregard to their sorrow on his account, and the pains they had bestowed in searching for him,

he replied "How is it that ye sought me ?" -it was with very little propriety surely, in persons who, by this time, might have been expected to have seen and understood something better of me :-"wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business ?"

If I am mistaken in imagining that there was such a design in this reproof, (for a reproof it was, though a mild one,) given by the child Jesus to his mother; that it might abate something of the superstitious reverence that would one day be paid her injuriously to her memory, and to the honor of God; there is one thing in which no mistake will be charged upon me. That the conduct and language of our divine Lord is not in all respects to be closely copied by us. A similar return to parental fondness and anxiety, in ordinary cases, would be deserving of severe reprehension in a child. Jesus, was well employed in this interval of his unpermitted absence, and even at that early age was possessed of a wisdom capable of confounding and instructing the learned and the aged, according

to the psalmist,*“I have more understanding than all my teachers; for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients; because I keep thy precepts.”—He was consequently a competent judge of all propriety in what concerned himself.

Another instance which has been remarked, as if a designed reproof was conveyed, in our translation of the passage does more, and implies a direct rudeness, which is perhaps not the real meaning of the original. There was a marriage at Cana of Gallilee, and Jesus and his disciples with the holy virgin were invited amongst the guests, as friends, or as some think as relatives of the entertainers. And thus they account for Mary's anxious desire to save appearances, and conceal the defect in the entertainment, when the wine began to run short. She privately suggested to Jesus that embarrassing circumstance, praying him no doubt, (but on an occasion not very suitable) to exert that fulness of power which was

* Psalm cxix. 99, 100.

to belong to the Messiah's office in working of miracles; and which Jesus might perhaps, in private exposition of the prophecies, have taught his pious friends one day to expect from him.

The request, in point of tenderness for the reputation of the parties concerned, was highly excusable; and it was so far even commendable, as it implied a strong faith in Fesus, that he was indeed the Son of God, to whom all things were possible. But what was the answer given ?" Woman, what have I ?to do with thee?"-which seems to imply a censure conveyed with peevishness as well as rudeness. But I conceive this not to be the best rendering of the words τί ἐμοι καὶ σοι yúval; quid mihi et tibi (rei est)` mulier? The word you seems to have been a familiar term of address to the female sex, as madam is in the higher classes, and mistress in the lower, at this day. For our Lord used the same word again to his mother, upon an occasion where no resentment or reproof could have any place, even in the most trying mo