The text sets forth his innocence in two particulars ; "he did no violence, neither was there any deceit in his mouth." Deceit and violence are the fruits of wisdom and power when abused : and alas ! wisdom is but too often employed in devising mischief, as power is in executing it. Our Lord was endued with wis- dom ; for " in him were hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge:" and he was possessed of power ; for all nature, animate and inanimate, was under his control : but he never abused either for the purposes of deceit or violence. On the contrary, he employed his wisdom in confounding his captious adversaries, and in explaining the mysteries of his kingdom to his followers : and his power he exerted in working miracles upon the bodies of men, and in effecting the conversion of their souls. Who can read any of his discourses without acknowledging, as they did of old, that " he spake as never man spake ? " who that hears him commanding the unclean spirits with authority, and rebuking the winds and the sea, must not immediately confess, that " no man could do these things except God were with him ?" Some- times indeed he answered differently from what we might have expected ; as when he told the young man to " enter into life by keeping the commandments :" but this he did, because he knew that the young man's heart was proud of his great attainments, at the same time that it was glued to his earthly possessions. This therefore was the way, not to deceive, but to undeceive him, by discovering to him the sinfulness of his heart : whereas, if he had told him at once, that the way to enter into life was by believing in him, he would in- deed have given a more explicit answer to the ques- tion ; but he would have left him wholly ignorant of his own corruptions, and would have exposed him thereby to the tenfold danger of making, like Judas, an hypocritical profession. So our Lord may appear to have done violence when he beat the armed men backward to the ground by his word. But this was done in pity to their souls : it was the very way to convince them, that they were about to seize the
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