Thus we see the devoutness of his mind in his frequent retirement to
solitary prayer; (Matt. xiv. 23. Luke ix. 28. Matt. xxvi. 36.) in his
habitual giving of thanks; (Matt. xi. 25. Mark viii. 6. John vi. 23. Luke
xxii. 17.) in his reference of the beauties and operations of nature to
the bounty of Providence; (Matt. vi, 26--28.) in his earnest addresses to
his Father, more particularly that short but solemn one before the
raising of Lazarus from the dead; (John xi. 41.) and in the deep piety of
his behaviour in the garden on the last evening of his life:(Matt. xxvi.
86--47.) his humility in his constant reproof of contentions for
superiority:(Mark ix. 33.) the benignity and affectionateness of his
temper in his kindness to children; (Mark x. 16.) in the tears which he
shed over his falling country, (Luke xix. 41.) and upon the death of his
friend; (John xi. 35.) in his noticing of the widow's mite; (Mark xii.
42.) in his parables of the good Samaritan, of the ungrateful servant,
and of the Pharisee and publican, of which parables no one but a man of
humanity could have been the author: the mildness and lenity of his
character is discovered in his rebuke of the forward zeal of his
disciples at the Samaritan village; (Luke ix. 55.) in his expostulation
with Pilate; (John xix. 11.) in his prayer for his enemies at the moment
of his suffering, (Luke xxiii. 34.) which, though it has been since very
properly and frequently imitated, was then, I apprehend, new. His
prudence is discerned, where prudence is most wanted, in his conduct on
trying occasions, and in answers to artful questions. Of these the
following are examples:--His withdrawing in various instances from the
first symptoms of tumult, (Matt. xiv. 22. Luke v. 15, 16. John v. 13; vi.
15.) and with the express care, as appears from Saint Matthew, (Chap.
xii. 19.) of carrying on his ministry in quietness; his declining of
every species of interference with the civil affairs of the country,
which disposition is manifested by his behaviour in the case of the
woman caught in adultery, (John viii. 1.) and in his repulse of the
application which was made to him to interpose his decision about a
disputed inheritance:(Luke xii. 14.) his judicious, yet, as it should
seem, unprepared answers, will be confessed in the case of the Roman
tribute (Matt. xxii. 19.) in the difficulty concerning the interfering
relations of a future state, as proposed to him in the instance of a
woman who had married seven brethren; (Matt. xxii. 28.) and more
especially in his reply to those who demanded from him an explanation of
the authority by which he acted, which reply consisted in propounding a
question to them, situated between the very difficulties into which they
were insidiously endeavouring to draw him. (Matt. xxi. 23, et seq.)
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