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    condary sense , a less apparent one , but more momentous / ' which may he designed in such actions : concerning which supposition it is sufficient to remark , that even if

    it be admissible , in regard to the prophetic language and communications , yet , from the nature and reason of the subject , it is not justifiable in our interpretation of an historical narrative ^ or a moral

    precept . Important as the lesson of humility and charity , given by Jesus to his disciples , in washing their f eet , is acknowledged to have been , and becoming his character- still ,

    we are asked , does it rise up to ihose ideas of importance which we are prepared to entertain of an action performed at such a time , and so awfully introduced ? —^^ tll

    which announces something beyond and above a common lecture of morality ; something which might be suitable to close the instructions of such a teacher . '' A

    common lecture of morality it , assuredly , was not : it was a lecture of sublime and evangelical morals , of morals unknown to the Jewish and Heathen world ; and it was a perfectly suitable close to the instructions of one who was

    emiliently a preacher of righteousness ? and whose discourses enforce the purest virtue and devotion , sanctioned by new and peculiarly engaging motives . I can

    little approve of the intimation that this fine lesson of Christian humility and benevolence was a common lecture of morality : Mich intimations are false *; incautious and of dangerous tendency ; but they are oftei ) m ^ ule by wri -

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    ters and preachers wUo refuse to take their views of the gospel from the New Testament alone . The solemn manner in which the narrative of this transaction is intro

    duced , will be sufficiently accounted for by a reference to the characters and situation of the parties .

    Bishop Hurd infers from the deportment and language of Peter , and from our Lord ' s reply to his question , that something more was meant by this incident than

    the history obviously discloses . When the fervent apostle , surprised at the condescension of his master , said to him , c ' dost thou wash my feet ? " Jesus , to remove i i tte i ' t i his scruples , answers , •* what 1 do , thou knowest not now . tut thou

    shalt know hereafter ; ' respecting which words it is observed , that they Cc are ambiguous , and may mean , thou shalt know immediately , from the explanation I am about to give of this action , or thou shalt know hereafter in

    (due time , and by other means , what the import of it is / ' Butin truth this ambiguity , as it is styled , is chargeable merely upon king James ' s translators : for the pas - sage ought to be rendered , * thou knowest not what I am doing now , but thou shalt know when I hare

    done" ( Compare verse 7 with 12 —16 , ) So that the explanation to || i& given is limited ^ to the-close Mtl&e transaction ; * ' tttfou shalt know when I have donfcV Nor docs this language convey any thing more ; however improperly it has sometimes been applied . * But the words , ' * If I wasli thee not , thou hast x \ o part with me , "

    * . That jctcr * ravrqt has the sense of Immediatel y ^ appears from Thucyd , JU ii . Sect . 40 , ,

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    Jesus washing the Feet of his Disciples * 441

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1809, page 441, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1739/page/27/