was known that the Messiah was to be born at Beth- lehem0. But, had that been the case, I conceive that the answer would rather have been, " Can the Messiah come out of Nazareth?" and not, " Can any good thing come out of Nazareth ?" For, though Beth- lehem was to give birth to the Messiah, it was not the only city from whence any good could proceed. I rather imagine, therefore, that it was to the general bad character of Nazareth that Nathanael referred ; intimating, that, so far from giving birth to the Mes- siah, it was scarcely possible that any good whatever should proceed from it. This prejudice was not altogether without foundation ; for Nazareth was deservedly infamous even in Galilee, the whole pro- vince of which was considered as less honourable than any other part of Judaead. The conduct of the Nazarenes, both at the first opening of our Lord's ministry there6, and on a subsequent occasion f, clearly shewed, that they were a blind and wicked people. Yet that was no reason why nothing good should come forth from thence. And, if this prejudice had not been corrected, it might have terminated in a continued ignorance of Christ, and a consequent lost of his salvation.
Let me then, from this history, shew you,
I. The evil of prejudice —
Prejudice is deeply rooted in the heart of fallen man: and it is productive of most injurious effects,
1. To those who are the objects of it — [Prejudice has always some ground. It may indeed be founded on error, as well as on truth : but the very existence of it supposes that the person exercising it beholds, in his own opinion at least, something blame-worthy in him who is the object of it : and it usually operates most forcibly in those who have taken the least pains to ascertain the truth. Nicodemus no sooner heard of the Lord Jesus as belonging to Nazareth, than he concluded, from that very circumstance, that he could not be the true Messiah : and he even appealed to Philip, whe- ther any good thing could come out of Nazareth ; insinuating, that on so plain a point, there could not be any reasonable
c Matt. ii. 4 — 6. d John vii. 52.
e Luke iv. 22, 23, 28—30. f Matt. xiii. 54 — 56.