Luke iv. 28 — 30. And all they in- the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the
hill ivhereon their city ivas built, that they might cast him dovm headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way.
NOTHING is more uncertain or transient than popular applause. However just may be the grounds of any praise that is bestowed, the smallest circum- stance is sufficient to obliterate all remembrance of a person's merit, and to render him an object of general indignation. At the close of his life our Lord ex- perienced this in a most astonishing degree : for the very people, who but three days before had followed him with acclamations and hosannas, were instigated by their rulers to cry out with equal fervour, " Crucify him, crucify him." Scarcely inferior to this was the instance that occurred to him the very first time he preached at Nazareth. When his sermon was but half finished, his auditors were filled with admiration at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth : but before the close of it, they rose up in murderous rage in order to destroy him.
We shall consider,
I. The occasion of their wrath —
Our blessed Lord had preached to them in a kind but faithful manner —
[He had opened to them a passage from the prophet Isaiah, and informed them, that it was accomplished in him. This on the whole afforded general satisfaction : but yet he saw that there were some objections lurking in their minds, relative to his parentage and education ; and that they were displeased be- cause he had not given a preference to his own townsmen, and wrought his miracles there rather than at other places. These objections he anticipated, and proceeded to return an answer to them. He observed, Jirst, that prophets in general were not received in the place where they had been educated, because the people who had known them as equals or inferiors, did not like to submit to them in their prophetic character. Secondly, he shewed them, from different instances in the Scriptures, that God had always dispensed his favours in a sovereign manner, and had sometimes imparted them to the despised Gentiles in preference to his own peculiar people.
This was the immediate purport of what he spake ; but doubtless there was much more insinuated, than what was plainly expressed. His answer was intended to bring
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