JESUS WORKS NEW MIRACLES--ELECTION OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES.
As soon as Jesus was safe from the malice of his enemies, and found that
he was among persons of more favourable dispositions than the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, he again commenced working miracles. His
experience convinced him, that to gain the capital, it was necessary to
augment his forces in the environs, and procure, in the country, a great
number of adherents, who might, in due time and place, aid him in
overcoming the incredulity of priests, doctors, and magistrates; and put
him in possession of the holy city, the object of his eager desires.
These new prodigies, however, produced no remarkable effect. The Jews,
who had been at Jerusalem during the passover, on returning home,
prepossessed their fellow-citizens against our missionary. If he found
the secret of gaining the admiration of the people in the places he
passed through on leaving the capital, he had the chagrin to find
opponents in the Pharisees and doctors. The following fact shows to what
a degree the people were influenced:--On a Sabbath, Jesus entered the
synagogue of a place, the name of which has not been preserved. He there
found a man who had, or said he had, a withered hand. The sight of the
diseased, who was, probably, some noted mendicant and knave, and the
presence of the physician, excited the attention of the doctors. They
watched Jesus closely--"Let us see, (said they, one to another) if he
will dare to heal this man on the Sabbath day." But observing that Jesus
remained inactive, they questioned him as to the Sabbath, for which he
had, on so many occasions, shown but little respect. It was apparently
one of the principal points of his reform, to abrogate a number of
festivals. The doctors asked him, "Master, is it lawful to heal on this
day?" He was frequently in the habit of answering one question by
another: Logic was not the science in which the Jews were most
conversant. Jesus replied, "Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath day,
or to do evil--to save life, or to take it away?" This question,
according to Mark, confounded the doctors. Nevertheless, there is reason
to believe, unless we suppose the Jews to have been a hundred times more
stupid than they really were, that this question was ill timed. They
were prohibited from applying to servile occupations only, but must have
been permitted to discharge the most urgent duties of morality even on
the Sabbath day. It is to be presumed, that a midwife, for example, lent
her ministry on that day, as on any other. It is stated in the Talmud,
that it was permitted to annoint the sick with oil on the Sabbath. The
Essenians observed the Sabbath with so much rigor, that they did not
allow themselves to satisfy the most pressing wants of life. This,
perhaps, gave occasion to the reproaches with which this sect loaded
Jesus, who had by his own authority reformed this ridiculous custom.
Jesus continued his questions, and asked them, if when a sheep fell into
a ditch on the Sabbath, they would not draw it out? Hence, without
waiting for an answer, he very justly concluded that it was permitted to
do good on that day. To prove it, he said to the sick, whom he had,
perhaps, suborned to play this part in the synagogue, "Arise, stand up,
and stretch forth thy hand;" and immediately his hand became as the
other. But Jesus, finding this prodigy produced no change in their
minds, darted a furious look on the assembly, and, boiling with a holy
choler, instantly forsook the detestable place. Matt. xii. Mark xii. 6.
Jesus acted wisely; for these naughty doctors immediately took counsel
with the officers of Herod, "how they might destroy him." Informed of
every thing by his adherents, he gained the sea shore, where it was
always easy for him to effect his escape. His disciples, several of whom
understood navigation, followed him. A number of people, more credulous
than the doctors, resorted to him on the noise of his marvels. There
came hearers from Galilee, from Jerusalem, from Idumea, from the other
side of Jordan, and even from Tyre and Sidon. This multitude furnished
him with a pretext for ordering his disciples to hold a boat in
readiness, that he might not be too much thronged, but, in truth, to
escape, in case it should be attempted to pursue him.
On this shore, favorable to his designs, Jesus performed a great number
of miracles, and cured an infinity of people. We must piously believe it
on the word of Matthew and Mark. These wonders were performed on the
sick, and especially on the possessed. The latter, at whatever distance
they perceived the Saviour, prostrated themselves before him, rendered
homage to his glory, and proclaimed him the "Christ;" whilst he, always
full of modesty, commanded them with threats not to reveal him; the
whole to accomplish a prophecy, which said of him, _He shall not
dispute, nor cry, nor make his voice be heard in the streets_; a
prophecy, which, however, was frequently contradicted by his continual
disputes with the doctors and Pharisees, and by the uproar he occasioned
in the temple, in the streets of Jerusalem, and in the synagogues.
Nothing is more astonishing than the obstinacy of the devil in
acknowledging Jesus, and confessing his divinity, and the stubbornness
of the doctors in not recognizing him, in spite of his cares to make the
one silent to convince the others. It is evident, that the son of God
has come with the sole intent of preventing the Jews from profiting by
his coming, and acknowledging his mission. It may be said that he has
shown himself merely to receive the homage of satan; at least we
perceive only the devil and his disciples proclaiming the character of
Jesus.
When he had preached much, cured much, and exorcised much, our
missionary wished to be alone to reflect on the situation of his
affairs. With a view to enjoy more liberty, he ascended a mountain,
where he spent the whole night. The result of his solitary reflections
was, that although he required assistants, he could no longer, without
giving umbrage to the government, continue marching up and down with a
company so numerous as that of the idlers who composed his suite.
When day appeared, he called those of his disciples whom he judged most
worthy of confidence, and selected twelve to remain near his person.
This is what Luke says; but Mark insinuates that he chose his twelve
apostles on purpose to send them on a mission. As Jesus, however,
assures us, that he chose them _to be near him_, and as the apostles,
content with begging and making provision for themselves and their
master, did not perform any mission during his life, at least out of
Judea, we shall adhere to the first opinion. The names of these apostles
were Simon Peter, Andrew, Matthew, Simon-Zelotes, James, Philip, Thomas,
Jude, John, Bartholomew, another James, and Judas Iscariot, the
treasurer.
As Jesus had no money to give his disciples, he told them no doubt to go
and push their fortune. He, however, took care to impart to them his
secret; to teach them the art of miracles, to cure diseases, and to cast
out devils. He also gave them the power of remitting sins, and to bind
and unbind in the name of Heaven; prerogatives, which, if they did not
enrich the apostles, have been worth immense treasures to their
successors. To them the roughest staff has become a _crosier_, a staff
of command, making its power felt by the mightiest sovereigns of the
earth. The _bag_ or _wallet_ of the apostles has been converted into
treasures, benefices, principalities and revenues. Permission to beg has
become a right to exact tithes, devour nations, fatten on the substance
of the wretched, and enjoy, by _divine right_, the privilege of
pillaging society, and disturbing it with impunity. The successors of
the first missionaries of Jesus, though professing to be mendicants,
enjoyed the prerogative of coercing all who refused to bestow charities
on them, or to obey their commands. Many have imagined, that Jesus never
concerned himself about the subsistence of the ministers of the church;
but if we examine attentively the gospel, especially the Acts of the
Apostles, we shall find the basis of the riches, grandeur, and even
despotism of the clergy.