multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of
their infirmities; and he withdrew himself into the wilderness and
prayed." With these quotations compare the following from Saint John:
Chap. v. 13. "And he that was healed wist not who it was, for Jesus had
conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place."

Chap. vi. 15. "When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and
take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain
himself alone."

In this last instance, Saint John gives the motive of Christ's conduct,
which is left unexplained by the other evangelists, who have related the
conduct itself.

V. Another, and a more singular circumstance in Christ's ministry, was
the reserve which, for some time, and upon some occasions at least, he
used in declaring his own character, and his leaving it to be collected
from his works rather than his professions. Just reasons for this
reserve have been assigned. (See Locke's Reasonableness of Christianity.)
But it is not what one would have expected. We meet with it in Saint
Matthew's Gospel (chap. xvi. 20): "Then charged he his disciples that
they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ." Again, and upon a
different occasion, in Saint Mark's (chap. iii. 11): "And unclean
spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying,
Thou art the Son of God: and he straitly charged them that they should
not make him known." Another instance similar to this last is recorded
by Saint Luke (chap. iv. 41). What we thus find in the three
evangelists, appears also in a passage of Saint John (chap. x. 24, 25):
"Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost
thou make us to doubt: If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly." The
occasion here was different from any of the rest; and it was indirect.
We only discover Christ's conduct through the upbraidings of his
adversaries. But all this strengthens the argument. I had rather at any
time surprise a coincidence in some oblique allusion than read it in
broad assertions.

VI. In our Lord's commerce with his disciples, one very observable
particular is the difficulty which they found in understanding him when
he spoke to them of the future part of his history, especially of what
related to his passion or resurrection. This difficulty produced, as was
natural, a wish in them to ask for further explanation: from which,
however, they appear to have been sometimes kep