things, can apprehend my words and obtain faith in me. As I said unto you, your carnal sense is the source of your misunderstanding and unbelief."

(4.) Sifting of the Disciples.-Peter's Confession.

Then followed a sifting of the disciples. [From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.] As this was the natural result of his relations to them, he rather furthered than checked it; it was time that the crisis that had been preparing in their hearts should manifest itself outwardly. And the departure of the unworthy was to test the genuine disciples, and make them conscious of the true relation in which they stood to Christ. He wished them, therefore, in that critical moment, to prove their own selves; for there was one among them already upon the point of turning away, who might yet, by heeding Christ's injunction, have saved himself from the destruction that awaited him.

Peter,

He said to the twelve, "Will ye also go away?" speaking, as usual, for the rest, bore testimony to their experience in his fellowship: "Lord, to whom can we go?" and confirmed Christ's words by his own consciousness, in whose depths he had felt the flow of their life-giving fountain: "Thou hast the words of eternal life." And, therefore, he was able to confess in the name of all the rest, from a conviction founded in personal knowledge and experience, that Jesus was Messiah (v. 69). But Christ warned them that there was one among them who did not share this conviction, although included in Peter's confession. He had chosen them-drawn them to himself-he said, and yet one of them had the heart of an enemy. These words, showing to Judas that his inmost thoughts lay bare before Christ, might, had he been at all open to impression, have brought him to repent and open his heart to the Saviour, seeking forgiveness. Failing this, they could only strengthen his enmity.

CHAPTER X.

JESUS IN NORTH GALILEE, AND ON THE WAY TO CESAREA PHILIPPI.

§ 179.-Reasons for the Journey.

WE have said that Christ desired to obtain an opportunity for private intercourse with the disciples, in order to hear the report of their mission journey, and to prepare their minds for the stormy times that were approaching. As it seemed impossible to secure this in the neighbourhood of Tiberias, he

determined to go to some distance from that region of country, a purpose which other circumstances soon hastened.

This

Herod Antipas, who then reigned in Galilee, hearing of the fame of Jesus, became personally desirous to see him. wish was probably dictated by mere curiosity, or by a desire to test Christ's power to work miracles; certainly it arose from no sense of spiritual need. As such a meeting could lead to no good result, Christ must have desired to avoid it. This formed an additional motive for withdrawing himself into North Galilee; and perhaps beyond, into Paneas, or Cesarea Philippi, the domain of the Tetrarch Philip. The first stage of the journey took him to Bethsaida Julias, on the west side of the Sea of Genesareth.

§ 180.-Cure of the Blind Man at Bethsaida.-Peter's Second Confession.— The Power of the Keys. (Mark viii.; Matt. xvi.)

At Bethsaida a blind man was brought to Christ, who took him out of the town to avoid public notice; and then performed on him the cure whose successive steps are so graphically described by Mark. He then forbade him for the time being to tell of what had been done, as notoriety would have been inconsistent with his purpose above mentioned.b

When left alone with the disciples, he questioned them about their travels, and concerning the opinions generally prevalent in regard to himself. Peter renewed, in a different form, the confession which he had before made on a similar occasion. In contrast with those who saw in Jesus only a Prophet, he said, "Thou art the Messiah;" certainly implying more than was included in the ordinary Jewish sense; although he must have felt more than he could unfold in definite thought when he added, "the Son of the living God."

Thus had Peter, on two distinct occasions, given utterance to the same confession, drawn from the depths of his inward 2 Cf. Luke xxiii. 8. In view of the character of Herod, there is more internal probability in Luke ix. 7, than Matt. xiv. 1, 2.

We infer the direction which Christ took with his disciples from comparing Matt. xv. 21 ; xvi. 13; Mark vii. 24; viii. 27; Luke ix. 10-18. b This suits well with the point of time here assigned to it.

In all the Gospels this event is closely connected with the miraculous feeding, which confirms our view of the historical connexion of the facts. True, it is possible that Peter's confession, as recorded by John, is the same as that recorded by Matthew, and nothing essential would be lost if it were But we may certainly suppose that, at so critical a period, Christ could have questioned his disciples thus closely on two different occasions in regard to their personal convictions, which were soon to undergo s vere a trial.

80.

experience; in the first instance, in opposition to those whose hearts were wholly estranged from Christ; and in the second, to those who had obtained only an inferior intuition of the person of Christ. The Saviour, therefore, thought him worthy of the following high praise: "Blessed art thou, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." Peter's conviction was the result of no human teaching, no sensible impression or outward authority; but of an inward revelation from GOD, whose drawing he had always followed- -a Divine fact, which comes not to men from without; which no education or science, how lofty soever, can either make or stand in stead of.d

In view of this conviction of Peter, thus twice confessed, in regard to that great fact and truth which forms the unchangeable and immoveable basis of the eternal kingdom of God, Christ called him by the name which at an early period, with prophetic glance, he had applied to him (John i. 42), the man of rock, on whom he declared that he would build his Church, that should triumph over all the powers of death, and stand to all eternity.

e

This promise was not made to Peter as a person, but as a faithful organ of the Spirit of Christ, and his steadfast witness. Christ might have said the same to any one, who, at such a moment, and in such a sense, had made the same confession; although Peter's uttering it in the name of all the twelve accorded with his peculiar xápiopa, which conditioned the post that Christ assigned to him.

In the same sense he confided to Peter the "keys of the kingdom of Heaven," which was to be revealed and spread abroad among men by the community founded by him; inasmuch as men were to gain admittance into that kingdom by appropriating the truth to which he had first testified, and which he was afterward to proclaim. This was to be the key by which the kingdom was to be opened to all men. And with it was intrusted to him the power, on earth, "to bind and loose" for heaven; since he was called to announce ford Cf. p. 147.

• The "Gates of Hades," in Matt. xvi. 18 (cf. Isa. xxxviii. 10; 1 Cor. xv. 55), designate rather the kingdom of death than of Satan. In this view the passage means, that "the Church should stand for ever, and that its members, partakers of the Divine life, should fear death no more"-of course implying, however, that she should be victorious over all hostile powers.

giveness of sins to all who should rightly receive the Gospel he was to proclaim, and the announcement of pardon to such as received the offered grace had necessarily to be accompanied by the condemnation of those who rejected it.f

§ 181.-The Disciples prohibited to reveal Christ's Messianic Dignity.-The Weakness of Peter rebuked. (Matt. xvi. 20-28; Mark viii. 30.)

Thus Christ confirmed the Apostles in their confession of his Messianic dignity. But he knew, at the same time, that their minds were still tinctured with the ordinary ideas and expectations of a visible kingdom to be founded by Messiah; and he therefore gradually taught them that it was by his own. sufferings that the kingdom of GOD was to be established. [Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man thạt he was Jesus the Christ. From that time he began to show to his disciples how that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things, &c.]

The prohibition was doubtless given with a view to prevent them from diffusing the expectations of Messiah which they then entertained, and thus leading the people to political undertakings, and the like, in opposition to the objects of Christ. The words that immediately follow the prohibition confirm this view of it. But Christ's declarations that sufferings lay before him was too far opposed to the disciples' opinions and wishes to find easy entrance to their minds. "Be it far from thee, Lord," said Peter; an exclamation inspired, indeed, by love, but a love attaching itself rather to the earthly manifestation of Christ's person, than to its higher one; a love in which natural and human feelings were not as yet made sufficiently subordinate to GOD and his kingdom. And as the Saviour had just before exalted Peter so highly, when he testified to that which had not been revealed to him by flesh and blood, but by the Father in heaven; so now he reproved him as severely for an utterance inspired by a love too much debased by flesh and blood. Human considerations were more to him than the cause of GOD; he sought, by presenting them, as far as in him lay, to prevent Christ from offering the sacri

This view of the "binding and loosing" power is sustained by John xx. 23. The same thing is expressed in other words in Matt. x. 13; 2 Cor. ii. 15, 16. The difference between the figure of "the keys" and that of binding and loosing" need cause no difficulty; they refer to different conceptions; the former, to reception into, and exclusion from, the kingdom of Heaven; the latter, to the means of reception and exclusion, viz. the pardon of sin and the withholding of pardon

fice which his Divine calling demanded; and his disposition was rebuked with holy indignation.h

Christ then turned to his disciples, and gave them a lesson directly opposed to Peter's weak unwillingness to sacrifice everything to the one holy interest. He impressed upon them a truth pre-eminently necessary to the fulfilment of their calling, viz. that none but those who were prepared for every species of self-deniali could become his disciples, and enter into the kingdom of GOD, whose foundations he was about to lay. Finally, he announced to them that many among them would live to see the kingdom of GOD come forth in glorious victory over all its foes. It is true, they were not at that time able fully to comprehend this; only at a later period, by the illumination of the Holy Ghost, and by the course of events, the best commentary on prophecy, were they to be brought completely to understand it.

§ 182.-Monitions of Christ to the Apostles in regard to Prudence in their Ministry.-(1.) The Wisdom of Serpents and Harmlessness of Doves. (Matt. x. 16.)—(2.) The Parable of the Unjust Steward. (Luke xvi. 1-13.) (3.) "Make to yourselves Friends of the Mammon of Unrighteousness," &c.

(1.)

To this period, in which Christ conversed with his disciples in regard to their first missionary tour, and gave them cautions for their future and more difficult labours, doubtless belong many advices of the same tenor, found in different places in the Gospels. We, therefore, join together several sayings of this kind here; if not chronologically, at least according to the substantial connexion.

The alternations in Peter's feelings, and his consequent desert of praise or blame from the Master, within so short a time, are so easily explained from the stand-point which he then occupied, that I cannot find anything strange in Christ's expressing himself thus oppositely to him, as Schleiermacher does (Werke, ii. 107). And, therefore, I see no internal ground for believing that the passage is not properly connected with the narrative here.

This helps to fix the right point of view for understanding Christ's previous declaration and promise to Peter; and the two addresses to him, taken together, attest the fidelity of the narrative as uncorrupted by a later ecclesiastical interest.

i It was naturally necessary for Christ to impress this truth frequently upon the disciples; Matt. xvi. 24; Mark viii. 34, 35; Luke ix. 23, 24; · and, therefore, the occurrence of similar passages, e. g. Matt. x. 38; John xii. 25, 26, proves nothing against the originality of the discourses there recorded; although it is possible that his sayings to this effect on one occasion may have been combined with those uttered on another to the game tenor.