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<center><h1>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary
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[<A HREF="MHC00000.HTM">Table of Contents</A>]<BR>
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Matthew Henry<BR><I>Commentary on the Whole Bible</I> (1721)
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<!-- (Begin Body) -->
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<CENTER>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=+3><B>M A T T H E W.</B></FONT>
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<BR>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=+2>CHAP. XV.</FONT>
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<HR SIZE=1 WIDTH=50>
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</CENTER>
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<FONT SIZE=-1>
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<P>
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In this chapter, we have our Lord Jesus, as the great Prophet teaching,
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as the great Physician healing, and as the great Shepherd of the sheep
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feeding; as the Father of spirits instructing them; as the Conqueror of
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Satan dispossessing him; and as concerned for the bodies of his people,
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providing for them. Here is,
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I. Christ's discourse with the scribes and Pharisees about human
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traditions and injunctions,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:1-9">ver. 1-9</A>.
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II. His discourse with the multitude, and with his disciples,
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concerning the things that defile a man,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:10-20">ver. 10-20</A>.
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III. His casting of the devil out of the woman of Canaan's daughter,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:21-28">ver. 21-28</A>.
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IV. His healing of all that were brought to him,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:29-31">ver. 29-31</A>.
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V. His feeding of four thousand men, with seven loaves and a few
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little fishes,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:32-39">ver. 32-39</A>.</P>
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</FONT>
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<A NAME="Mt15_1"> </A>
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<A NAME="Mt15_2"> </A>
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<A NAME="Mt15_3"> </A>
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<A NAME="Mt15_4"> </A>
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<A NAME="Mt15_5"> </A>
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<A NAME="Mt15_6"> </A>
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<A NAME="Mt15_7"> </A>
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<A NAME="Mt15_8"> </A>
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<A NAME="Mt15_9"> </A>
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<A NAME="Sec1"> </A>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
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<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Jesus Reproves the Scribes and Pharisees.</I></FONT></TD>
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<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
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</TABLE>
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<P>
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<FONT SIZE=+1>1 Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of
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Jerusalem, saying,
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2 Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?
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for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
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3 But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress
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the commandment of God by your tradition?
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4 For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and,
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He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
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5 But ye say, Whosoever shall say to <I>his</I> father or <I>his</I>
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mother, <I>It is</I> a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited
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by me;
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6 And honour not his father or his mother, <I>he shall be free.</I>
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Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your
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tradition.
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7 <I>Ye</I> hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
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8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and
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honoureth me with <I>their</I> lips; but their heart is far from me.
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9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching <I>for</I> doctrines the
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commandments of men.
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</FONT></P>
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<P>
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Evil manners, we say, beget good laws. The intemperate heat of the
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Jewish teachers for the support of their hierarchy, occasioned many
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excellent discourses of our Saviour's for the settling of the truth, as
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here.</P>
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<P>
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I. Here, is the cavil of the scribes and Pharisees at Christ's
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disciples, for <I>eating with unwashen hands.</I> The scribes and
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Pharisees were the great men of the Jewish church, men whose gain was
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godliness, great enemies to the gospel of Christ, but colouring their
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opposition with a pretence of zeal for the law of Moses, when really
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nothing was intended but the support of their own tyranny over the
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consciences of men. They were men of learning and men of business.
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These scribes and Pharisees here introduced were of Jerusalem, the holy
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city, the head city, whither <I>the tribes went up,</I> and where
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<I>were set the thrones of judgment;</I> they should therefore have
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been better than others, but they were worse. Note, External
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privileges, if they be not duly improved, commonly swell men up the
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more with pride and malignity. Jerusalem, which should have been a pure
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spring, was now become a poisoned sink. <I>How is the faithful city
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become a harlot!</I></P>
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<P>
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Now if these great men be the accusers, pray what is the accusation?
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What articles do they exhibit against the disciples of Christ? Why,
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truly, the thing laid to their charge, is, nonconformity to the canons
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of their church
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:2"><I>v.</I> 2</A>);
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<I>Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?</I>
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This charge they make good in a particular instance; <I>They wash not
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their hands when they eat bread.</I> A very high misdemeanor! It was a
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sign that Christ's disciples conducted themselves inoffensively, when
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this was the worst thing they could charge them with.</P>
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<P>
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Observe,
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1. What was the <I>tradition of the elders</I>--That people should often
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wash their hands, and always at meat. This they placed a great deal of
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religion in, supposing that the meat they touched with unwashen hands
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would be defiling to them. The Pharisees practiced this themselves,
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and with a great deal of strictness imposed it upon others, not under
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civil penalties, but as matter of conscience, and making it a sin
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against God if they did not do it. Rabbi Joses determined, "that to eat
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with unwashen hands is as great a sin as adultery." And Rabbi Akiba
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being kept a close prisoner, having water sent him both to wash his
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hands with, and to drink with his meat, the greatest part being
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accidentally shed, he washed his hands with the remainder, though he
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left himself none to drink, saying he would rather die than transgress
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the tradition of the elders. Nay, they would not eat meat with one that
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did not wash before meat. This mighty zeal in so small a matter would
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appear very strange, if we did not still see it incident to
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church-oppressors, not only to be fond of practising their own
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inventions, but to be furious in pressing their own impositions.</P>
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<P>
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2. What was the transgression of this tradition or injunction by the
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disciples; it seems, they did not wash their hands when they ate bread,
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which was the more offensive to the Pharisees, because they were men
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who in other things were strict and conscientious. The custom was
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innocent enough, and had a decency in its civil use. We read of the
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water for purifying at the marriage where Christ was present
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+2:6">John ii. 6</A>),
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though Christ turned it into wine, and so put an end to that use of it.
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But when it came to be practised and imposed as a religious rite and
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ceremony, and such a stress laid upon it, the disciples, though weak in
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knowledge, yet were so well taught as not to comply with it, or observe
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it; no not when the scribes and Pharisees had their eye upon them. They
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had already learned St. Paul's lesson, <I>All things are lawful for
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me;</I> no doubt, it is lawful to wash before meat; but I will not be
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brought under the power of any; especially not those who <I>said to
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their souls, Bow down, that we may go over.</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+6:12">1 Cor. vi. 12</A>.</P>
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<P>
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3. What was the complaint of the scribes and Pharisees against them.
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They quarrel with Christ about it, supposing that he allowed them in
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it, as he did, no doubt, by his own example; "<I>Why do thy disciples
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transgress</I> the canons of the church? And why dost thou suffer them
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to do it?" It was well that the complaint was made to Christ; for the
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disciples themselves, though they knew their duty in this case, were
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perhaps not so well able to give a reason for what they did as were to
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be wished.</P>
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<P>
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II. Here is Christ's answer to this cavil, and his justification of the
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disciples in that which was charged upon them as a transgression. Note,
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While we stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free,
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he will be sure to bear us out in it.</P>
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<P>
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Two ways Christ replies upon them;</P>
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<P>
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1. By way of recrimination,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:3-6"><I>v.</I> 3-6</A>.
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They were spying motes in the eyes of his disciples, but Christ shows
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them a beam in their own. But that which he charges upon them is not
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barely a recrimination, for it will be no vindication of ourselves to
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condemn our reprovers; but it is such a censure of their tradition (and
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the authority of that was what they built their charge upon) as makes
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not only a non-compliance lawful, but an opposition a duty. That human
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authority must never be submitted to, which sets up in competition with
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divine authority.</P>
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<P>
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(1.) The charge in general is, <I>You transgress the commandment of God
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by your tradition.</I> They called it the <I>tradition of the
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elders,</I> laying stress upon the antiquity of the usage, and the
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authority of them that imposed it, as the church of Rome does upon
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fathers and councils; but Christ calls it <I>their</I> tradition. Note,
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Illegal impositions will be laid to the charge of those who support and
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maintain them, and keep them up, as well of those who first invented
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and enjoined them;
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mic+4:16">Mic. iv. 16</A>.
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<I>You transgress the commandment of God.</I> Note, Those who are most
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zealous of their own impositions, are commonly most careless of God's
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commands; which is a good reason why Christ's disciples should stand
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upon their guard against such impositions, lest, though at first they
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seem only to infringe the liberty of Christians, they come at length to
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confront the authority of Christ. Though the Pharisees, in this command
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of washing before meat, did not entrench upon any command of God; yet,
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because in other instances they did, he justifies his disciples'
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disobedience to this.</P>
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<P>
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(2.) The proof of this charge is in particular instance, that of their
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transgressing the fifth commandment.</P>
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<P>
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[1.] Let us see what the command of God is
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:4"><I>v.</I> 4</A>),
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what the precept, and what the sanction of the law is.</P>
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<P>
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The precept is, <I>Honour thy father and thy mother;</I> this is
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enjoined by the common Father of mankind, and by paying respect to them
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whom Providence has made the instruments of our being, we give honour
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to him who is the Author of it, who has thereby, as to us, put some of
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his image upon them. The whole of children's duty to their parents is
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included in this of honouring them, which is the spring and foundation
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of all the rest, <I>If I be a father, where is my honour?</I> Our
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Saviour here supposes it to mean the duty of children's maintaining
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their parents, and ministering to their wants, if there be occasion,
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and being every way serviceable to their comfort. <I>Honour widows,</I>
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that is, maintain them,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Ti+5:3">1 Tim. v. 3</A>.</P>
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<P>
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The sanction of this law in the fifth commandment, is, a promise,
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<I>that thy days may be long;</I> but our Saviour waives that, lest any
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should thence infer it to be only a thing commendable and profitable,
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and insists upon the penalty annexed to the breach of this commandment
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in another scripture, which denotes the duty to be highly and
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indispensably necessary; <I>He that curseth father or mother, let him
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die the death:</I> this law we have,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+21:17">Exod. xxi. 17</A>.
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The sin of cursing parents is here opposed to the duty of honouring
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them. Those who speak ill of their parents, or wish ill to them, who
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mock at them, or give them taunting and opprobrious language, break
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this law. If to call a brother <I>Raca</I> be so penal, what is it to
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call a father so? By our Saviour's application of this law, it appears,
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that denying service or relief to parents is included in cursing them.
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Though the language be respectful enough, and nothing abusive in it,
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yet what will that avail, if the deeds be not agreeable? it is but like
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him that said, <I>I go, Sir, and went not,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+21:30"><I>ch.</I> xxi. 30</A>.</P>
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<P>
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[2.] Let us see what was the contradiction which the tradition of the
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elders gave to this command. It was not direct and downright, but
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implicit; their casuists gave them such rules as furnished them with an
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easy evasion from the obligation of this command,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:5,6"><I>v.</I> 5, 6</A>.
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You hear what God saith, <I>but ye say</I> so and so. Note, That which
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men say, even great men, and learned men, and men in authority, must be
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examined by that which God saith; and if it be found either contrary or
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inconsistent, it may and must be rejected,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+4:19">Acts iv. 19</A>.
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Observe,</P>
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<P>
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<I>First,</I> What their tradition was; That a man could not in any
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case bestow his worldly estate better than to give it to the priests,
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and devote it to the service of the temple: and that when any thing was
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so devoted, it was not only unlawful to alienate it, but all other
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obligations, though ever so just and sacred, were thereby superseded,
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and a man was thereby discharged from them. And this proceeded partly
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from their ceremoniousness, and the superstitious regard they had to
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the temple, and partly from their covetousness, and love of money: for
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what was given to the temple they were gainers by. The former was, in
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pretence, the latter was, in truth, at the bottom of this
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tradition.</P>
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<P>
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<I>Secondly,</I> How they allowed the application of this to the case
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of children. When their parents' necessities called for their
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assistance, they pleaded, that all they could spare from themselves and
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their children, they had devoted to the treasury of the temple; <I>It
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is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me,</I> and
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therefore their parents must expect nothing from them; suggesting
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withal, that the spiritual advantage of what was so devoted, would
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redound to the parents, who must live upon that air. This, they taught,
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was a good and valid plea, and many undutiful, unnatural children made
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use of it, and they justified them in it, and said, <I>He shall be
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free;</I> so we supply the sense. Some go further, and supply it thus,
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"<I>He doth well, his days shall be long in the land,</I> and he shall
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be looked upon as having duly observed the fifth commandment." The
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pretence of religion would make his refusal to provide for his parents
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not only passable but plausible. But the absurdity and impiety of this
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tradition were very evident: for revealed religion was intended to
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improve, not to overthrow, natural religion; one of the fundamental
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laws of which is this of honouring our parents; and had they known what
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that meant, <I>I will have justice, and mercy, and not sacrifice,</I>
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they had not thus made the most arbitrary rituals destructive of the
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most necessary morals. This was <I>making the command of God of no
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effect.</I> Note, Whatever leads to, or countenances, disobedience,
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does, in effect, make void the command; and they that take upon them to
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dispense with God's law, do, in Christ's account, repeal and disannul
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it. To break the law is bad, but to <I>teach men so,</I> as the scribes
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and Pharisees did, is much worse,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+5:19"><I>ch.</I> v. 19</A>.
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To what purpose is the command given, if it be not obeyed? The rule is,
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as to us, of none effect, if we be not ruled by it. <I>It is time for
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thee, Lord, to work;</I> high time for the great Reformer, the great
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Refiner, to appear; for they have <I>made void thy law</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+119:126">Ps. cxix. 126</A>);
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not only sinned <I>against</I> the commandment, but, as far as in them
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lay, sinned <I>away</I> the commandment. But, thanks be to God, in
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spite of them and all their traditions, the command stands in full
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force, power, and virtue.</P>
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<P>
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2. The other part of Christ's answer is by way of reprehension; and
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that which he here charges them with, is hypocrisy; <I>Ye
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hypocrites,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:7"><I>v.</I> 7</A>.
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Note, It is the prerogative of him who searcheth the heart, and knows
|
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what is in man, to pronounce who are hypocrites. The eye of man can
|
|
perceive open profaneness, but it is only the eye of Christ that can
|
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discern hypocrisy,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+16:15">Luke xvi. 15</A>.
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And as it is a sin which his eye discovers, so it is a sin which of all
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others his soul hates.</P>
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<P>
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Now Christ fetches his reproof from
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+29:13">Isa. xxix. 13</A>.
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<I>Well did Esaias prophesy of you.</I> Isaiah spoke it of the men of
|
|
that generation to which he prophesied, yet Christ applies it to these
|
|
scribes and Pharisees. Note, The reproofs of sin and sinners, which we
|
|
find in scripture, were designed to reach the like persons and
|
|
practices to the end of the world; for they are not of private
|
|
interpretation,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Pe+1:20">2 Pet. i. 20</A>.
|
|
|
|
The sinners of the latter days are prophesied of,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Ti+4:1,2Ti+3:1,2,3:3">1 Tim. iv. 1;
|
|
2 Tim. iii. 1; 2 Pet. iii. 3</A>.
|
|
|
|
Threatenings directed against others, belong to us, if we be guilty of
|
|
the same sins. Isaiah prophesied not of them only, but of all other
|
|
hypocrites, against whom that word of his is still levelled, and stands
|
|
in force. The prophecies of scripture are every day in the
|
|
fulfilling.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
This prophecy exactly deciphers a hypocritical nation,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+9:17,10:6">Isa. ix. 17; x. 6</A>.
|
|
|
|
Here is,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) The description of hypocrites, in two things.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[1.] In their own performances of religious worship, v. 8, when they
|
|
<I>draw nigh to God with their mouth, and honour him with their lips,
|
|
their heart is far from him.</I> Observe,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>First,</I> How far a hypocrite goes; he draws nigh to God, and
|
|
honours him; he is, in profession, a worshipper of God. The <I>Pharisee
|
|
went up to the temple, to pray;</I> he does not stand at that distance
|
|
which those are at, who <I>live without God in the world,</I> but has a
|
|
name among the people near unto him. They honour him; that is, they
|
|
take on them to honour God, they join with those that do so. Some
|
|
honour God has even from the services of hypocrites, as they help to
|
|
keep up the face and form of godliness in the world, whence God fetches
|
|
honour to himself, though they intend it not to him. When God's enemies
|
|
submit themselves but feignedly, when <I>they lie unto him,</I> so the
|
|
word is
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+66:3">Ps. lxvi. 3</A>),
|
|
|
|
it redounds to his honour, and he <I>gets himself a name.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> Where he rests and takes up; this is done gut with his
|
|
mouth and with his lips. It is piety but from the teeth outwards; he
|
|
shows much love, and that is all, there is in his heart no true love;
|
|
<I>they make their voices to be heard</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+58:4">Isa. lviii. 4</A>),
|
|
|
|
mention the name of the Lord,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+48:1">Isa. xlviii. 1</A>.
|
|
|
|
Hypocrites are those that only make a lip-labour of religion and
|
|
religious worship. In word and tongue, the worst hypocrites may do as
|
|
well as the best saints, and speak as fair with Jacob's voice.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Thirdly,</I> What that is wherein he comes short; it is in the main
|
|
matter; <I>Their heart is far from me,</I> habitually alienated and
|
|
estranged
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eph+4:18">Eph. iv. 18</A>),
|
|
|
|
actually wandering and dwelling upon something else; no serious
|
|
thoughts of God, no pious affections toward him, no concern about the
|
|
soul and eternity, no thoughts agreeable to the service. God is <I>near
|
|
in their mouth, but far from their reins,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+12:2,Eze+33:31">Jer. xii. 2; Ezek. xxxiii. 31</A>.
|
|
|
|
The heart, with the <I>fool's eyes, is in the ends of the earth.</I> It
|
|
is a silly dove that is without a heart, and so it is a <I>silly
|
|
duty,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ho+7:11">Hos. vii. 11</A>.
|
|
|
|
A hypocrite says one thing, but thinks another. The great thing that
|
|
God looks at and requires is the heart
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Pr+23:26">Prov. xxiii. 26</A>);
|
|
|
|
if that be far from him, it is not a reasonable service and therefore
|
|
not an acceptable one; it is the sacrifice of fools,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ec+5:1">Eccl. v. 1</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[2.] In their prescriptions to others. This is an instance of their
|
|
hypocrisy, that <I>they teach for doctrines the commandments of
|
|
men.</I> The Jews then, as the papists since, paid the same respect to
|
|
oral tradition that they did to the word of God, receiving it <I>pari
|
|
pietatis affectu ac reverentiâ--with the same pious affection and
|
|
reverence.</I> Conc. Trident. <I>Sess.</I> 4. <I>Decr.</I>
|
|
|
|
1. When men's inventions are tacked to God's institutions, and imposed
|
|
accordingly, this is hypocrisy, a mere human religion. The commandments
|
|
of men are properly conversant about the things of men, but God will
|
|
have his own work done by his own rules, and accepts not that which he
|
|
did not himself appoint. That only cones <I>to</I> him, that comes
|
|
<I>from</I> him.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) The doom of hypocrites; it is put in a little compass; <I>In vain
|
|
do they worship me.</I> Their worship does not attain the end for which
|
|
it was appointed; it will neither please God, nor profit themselves. If
|
|
it be not <I>in spirit,</I> it is not <I>in truth,</I> and so it is all
|
|
nothing. That man who only <I>seems</I> to be religious, but is not so,
|
|
his <I>religion is vain</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jam+1:26">James i. 26</A>);
|
|
|
|
and if our religion be a vain oblation, a vain religion, <I>how great
|
|
is that vanity!</I> How sad is it to live in an age of prayers and
|
|
sermons, and sabbaths and sacraments, <I>in vain,</I> to <I>beat the
|
|
air in</I> all these; it is so, if the heart be not with God in them.
|
|
Lip-labour is lost labour,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+1:11">Isa. i. 11</A>.
|
|
|
|
Hypocrites sow the wind and reap the whirlwind; they trust in vanity,
|
|
and vanity will be their recompence.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Thus Christ justified his disciples in their disobedience to the
|
|
traditions of the elders; and this the scribes and Pharisees got by
|
|
their cavilling. We read not of any reply they made; if they were not
|
|
satisfied, yet they were silenced, and could not resist the power
|
|
wherewith Christ spake.</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_10"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_11"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_12"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_13"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_14"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_15"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_16"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_17"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_18"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_19"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_20"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec2"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>What Defileth a Man.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>10 And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and
|
|
understand:
|
|
11 Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that
|
|
which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.
|
|
12 Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou
|
|
that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?
|
|
13 But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly
|
|
Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.
|
|
14 Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if
|
|
the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
|
|
15 Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this
|
|
parable.
|
|
16 And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding?
|
|
17 Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the
|
|
mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?
|
|
18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth
|
|
from the heart; and they defile the man.
|
|
19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders,
|
|
adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
|
|
20 These are <I>the things</I> which defile a man: but to eat with
|
|
unwashen hands defileth not a man.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Christ having proved that the disciples, in eating with unwashen hands,
|
|
were not to be blamed, as transgressing the traditions and injunctions
|
|
of the elders, comes here to show that they were not to be blamed, as
|
|
having done any thing that was in itself evil. In the former part of
|
|
his discourse he overturned the authority of the law, and in this the
|
|
reason of it. Observe,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. The solemn introduction to this discourse
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:10"><I>v.</I> 10</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>He called the multitude.</I> They were withdrawn while Christ
|
|
discoursed with the scribes and Pharisees; probably those proud men
|
|
ordered them to withdraw, as not willing to talk with Christ in their
|
|
hearing; Christ must favour them at their pleasure with a discourse in
|
|
private. But Christ had a regard to the multitude; he soon despatched
|
|
the scribes and Pharisees, and then turned them off, invited the mob,
|
|
the multitude, to be his hearers: thus the poor are evangelized; and
|
|
the foolish things of the world, and things that are despised hath
|
|
Christ chosen. The humble Jesus embraced those whom the proud Pharisees
|
|
looked upon with disdain, and to them he designed it for a
|
|
mortification. He turns from them as wilful and unteachable, and turns
|
|
to the multitude, who, though weak, were humble, and willing to be
|
|
taught. To them he said, <I>Hear and understand.</I> Note, What we hear
|
|
from the mouth of Christ, we must give all diligence to understand. Not
|
|
only scholars, but even the multitude, the ordinary people, must apply
|
|
their minds to understand the words of Christ. He <I>therefore</I>
|
|
calls upon them to understand, because the lesson he was now about to
|
|
teach them, was contrary to the notions which they had sucked in with
|
|
their milk from their teachers; and overturned many of the customs and
|
|
usages which they were wedded to, and laid stress upon. Note, There is
|
|
need of a great attention of mind and clearness of understanding to
|
|
free men from those corrupt principles and practices which they have
|
|
been bred up in and long accustomed to; for in that case the
|
|
understanding is commonly bribed and biassed by prejudice.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. The truth itself laid down
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:11"><I>v.</I> 11</A>),
|
|
|
|
in two propositions, which were opposite to the vulgar errors of that
|
|
time, and were therefore surprising.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. <I>Not that which goes into the mouth defileth the man.</I> It is
|
|
not the kind or quality of our food, nor the condition of our hands,
|
|
that affects the soul with any moral pollution or defilement. <I>The
|
|
kingdom of God is not meat and drink,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+14:17">Rom. xiv. 17</A>.
|
|
|
|
That defiles the man, by which guilt is contracted before God, and the
|
|
man is rendered offensive to him, and disfitted for communion with him;
|
|
now what we eat, if we do not eat unreasonably and immoderately, does
|
|
not this; for <I>to the pure all things are pure,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Tit+1:15">Tit. i. 15</A>.
|
|
|
|
The Pharisees carried the ceremonial pollutions, by eating such and
|
|
such meats, much further than the law intended, and burdened it with
|
|
additions of their own, which our Saviour witnesses against; intending
|
|
hereby to pave the way to a repeal of the ceremonial law in that
|
|
matter. He was now beginning to teach his followers to <I>call nothing
|
|
common or unclean;</I> and if Peter, when he was bid to <I>kill and
|
|
eat,</I> had remembered this word, he would not have said, <I>Not so,
|
|
Lord,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+10:13-15,28">Acts x. 13-15, 28</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. <I>But that which comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.</I> We
|
|
are polluted, not by the meat we eat with unwashen hands, but by the
|
|
words we speak from an unsanctified heart; thus it is that <I>the mouth
|
|
causeth the flesh to sin,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ec+5:6">Eccl. v. 6</A>.
|
|
|
|
Christ, in a former discourse, had laid a great stress upon our
|
|
<I>words</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+12:36,37"><I>ch.</I> xii. 36, 37</A>);
|
|
|
|
and that was intended for reproof and warning to those that cavilled at
|
|
him; this here is intended for reproof and warning to those that
|
|
cavilled at the disciples, and censured them. It is not the disciples
|
|
that defile themselves with what they eat, but the Pharisees that
|
|
defile themselves with what they speak spitefully and censoriously of
|
|
them. Note, Those who charge guilt upon others for transgressing the
|
|
commandments of men, many times bring greater guilt upon themselves, by
|
|
transgressing the law of God against rash judging. Those most defile
|
|
themselves, who are most forward to censure the defilements of
|
|
others.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
III. The offence that was taken at this truth and the account brought
|
|
to Christ of that offence
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:12"><I>v.</I> 12</A>);
|
|
|
|
"<I>The disciples said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were
|
|
offended,</I> and didst thou not foresee that they would be so, <I>at
|
|
this saying,</I> and would think the worse of thee and of thy doctrine
|
|
for it, and be the more enraged at thee?"</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. It was not strange that the Pharisees should be offended at this
|
|
plain truth, for they were men made up of error and enmity, mistakes
|
|
and malice. Sore eyes cannot bear clear light; and nothing is more
|
|
provoking to proud imposers than the undeceiving of those whom they
|
|
have first blindfolded, and then enslaved. It should seem that the
|
|
Pharisees, who were strict observers of the traditions, were more
|
|
offended than the scribes, who were the teachers of them; and perhaps
|
|
they were as much galled with the latter part of Christ's doctrine,
|
|
which taught a strictness in the government of our tongue, as with the
|
|
former part, which taught an indifference about washing our hands;
|
|
great contenders for the formalities of religion, being commonly as
|
|
great contemners of the substantials of it.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. The disciples thought it strange that their Master should say that
|
|
which he knew would give so much offence; he did not use to do so:
|
|
surely, they think, if he had considered how provoking it would be, he
|
|
would not have said it. But he knew what he said, and to whom he said
|
|
it, and what would be the effect of it; and would teach us, that though
|
|
in indifferent things we must be tender of giving offence, yet we must
|
|
not, for fear of that, evade any truth or duty. Truth must be owned,
|
|
and duty done; and if any be offended, it is his own fault; it is
|
|
scandal, not given, but taken.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Perhaps the disciples themselves stumbled at the word Christ said,
|
|
which they thought bold, and scarcely reconcileable with the difference
|
|
that was put by the law of God between <I>clean</I> and <I>unclean</I>
|
|
meats; and therefore objected this to Christ, that they might
|
|
themselves be better informed. They seem likewise to have a concern
|
|
upon them for the Pharisees, though they had quarrelled with them;
|
|
which teaches us to forgive, and seek the good, especially the
|
|
spiritual good, of our enemies, persecutors, and slanderers. They would
|
|
not have the Pharisees go away displeased at any thing Christ had said;
|
|
and therefore, though they do not desire him to retract it, they hope
|
|
he will explain, correct, and modify it. Weak hearers are sometimes
|
|
more solicitous than they should be not to have wicked hearers
|
|
offended. But if we please men with the concealment of truth, and the
|
|
indulgence of their errors and corruptions, we are not the servants of
|
|
Christ.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
IV. The doom passed upon the Pharisees and their corrupt traditions;
|
|
which comes in as a reason why Christ cared not though he offended
|
|
them, and therefore why the disciples should not care; because they
|
|
were a generation of men that hated to be reformed, and were marked out
|
|
for destruction. Two things Christ here foretels concerning them.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. The rooting out of them and their traditions
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:13"><I>v.</I> 13</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be
|
|
rooted up.</I> Not only the corrupt opinions and superstitious
|
|
practices of the Pharisees, but their sect, and way, and constitution,
|
|
were plants not of God's planting. The rules of their profession were
|
|
no institutions of his, but owed their origin to pride and formality.
|
|
The people of the Jews were planted <I>a noble vine;</I> but now that
|
|
they are become the degenerate plant of a strange vine, God disowned
|
|
them, as not of his planting. Note,
|
|
|
|
(1.) In the visible church, it is no strange thing to find plants that
|
|
our heavenly Father has not planted. It is implied, that whatever is
|
|
good in the church is of God's planting,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+41:19">Isa. xli. 19</A>.
|
|
|
|
But let the husbandman be ever so careful, his ground will cast forth
|
|
weeds of itself, more or less, and there is an enemy busy sowing tares.
|
|
What is corrupt, though of God's permitting, is not of his planting; he
|
|
sows nothing but <I>good seed in his field.</I> Let us not therefore be
|
|
deceived, as if all must needs be right that we find in the church, and
|
|
all those persons and things our Father's plants that we find in our
|
|
Father's garden. <I>Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits;</I>
|
|
see
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+19:5,23:31,32">Jer. xix. 5; xxiii. 31, 32</A>.
|
|
|
|
(2.) Those that are of the spirit of the Pharisees, proud, formal, and
|
|
imposing, what figure soever they make, and of what denomination soever
|
|
they be, God will not own them as of his planting. <I>By their fruit
|
|
you shall know them.</I>
|
|
|
|
(3.) Those plants that are not of God's planting, shall not be of his
|
|
protecting, but shall undoubtedly be rooted up. What is not of God
|
|
shall not stand,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+5:38">Acts v. 38</A>.
|
|
|
|
What things are unscriptural, will wither and die of themselves, or be
|
|
justly exploded by the churches; however in the great day these tares
|
|
that offend will be bundled for the fire. What is become of the
|
|
Pharisees and their traditions? They are long since abandoned; but the
|
|
gospel of truth is great, and will remain. It cannot be rooted up.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. The ruin of them; and their followers, who had their persons and
|
|
principles in admiration,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:14"><I>v.</I> 14</A>.
|
|
|
|
Where,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) Christ bids his disciples <I>let them alone.</I> "Have no converse
|
|
with them or concern for them; neither court their favour, nor dread
|
|
their displeasure; care not though they be offended, they will take
|
|
their course, and let them take the issue of it. They are wedded to
|
|
their own fancies, and will have every thing their own way; let them
|
|
alone. Seek not to please a generation of men that please not God
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Th+2:15">1 Thess. ii. 15</A>),
|
|
|
|
and will be pleased with nothing less than absolute dominion over your
|
|
consciences. They are <I>joined to idols,</I> as Ephraim
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ho+4:17">Hos. iv. 17</A>),
|
|
|
|
the idols of their own fancy; <I>let them alone, let them be filthy
|
|
still,</I>"
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+22:11">Rev. xxii. 11</A>.
|
|
|
|
The case of those sinners is sad indeed, whom Christ orders his
|
|
ministers to let alone.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) He gives them two reasons for it. <I>Let them alone;</I> for,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[1.] They are proud and ignorant; two bad qualities that often meet,
|
|
and render a man incurable in his folly,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Pr+26:12">Prov. xxvi. 12</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>They are blind leaders of the blind.</I> They are grossly ignorant
|
|
in the things of God, and strangers to the spiritual nature of the
|
|
divine law; and yet so proud, that they think they see better and
|
|
further than any, and therefore undertake to be leaders of others, to
|
|
show others the way to heaven, when they themselves know not one step
|
|
of the way; and, accordingly, they prescribe to all, and proscribe
|
|
those who will not follow them. Though they were blind, if they had
|
|
owned it, and come to Christ for eye-salve, they might have seen, but
|
|
they disdained the intimation of such a thing
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+9:40">John ix. 40</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>Are we blind also?</I> They were confident that <I>they themselves
|
|
were guides of the blind</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+2:19,20">Rom. ii. 19, 20</A>),
|
|
|
|
were appointed to be so, and fit to be so; that every thing they said
|
|
was an oracle and a law; "Therefore <I>let them alone,</I> their case
|
|
is desperate; do not meddle with them; you may soon provoke them, but
|
|
never convince them." How miserable was the case of the Jewish Church
|
|
now when their leaders were blind, so self-conceitedly foolish, as to
|
|
be peremptory in their conduct, while the people were so sottishly
|
|
foolish as to follow them with an implicit faith and obedience, and
|
|
<I>willingly walk after the commandment,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ho+5:11">Hos. v. 11</A>.
|
|
|
|
Now the prophecy was fulfilled,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+29:10,14">Isa. xxix. 10, 14</A>.
|
|
|
|
And it is easy to imagine <I>what will be in the end hereof,</I> when
|
|
<I>the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their
|
|
means, and the people love to have it so,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+5:31">Jer. v. 31</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[2.] They are posting to destruction, and will shortly be plunged into
|
|
it; <I>Both shall fall into the ditch.</I> This must needs be the end
|
|
of it, if both be so blind, and yet both so bold, venturing forward,
|
|
and yet not aware of danger. Both will be involved in the general
|
|
desolation coming upon the Jews, and both drowned in eternal
|
|
destruction and perdition. The blind leaders and the blind followers
|
|
will perish together. We find
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+22:15">Rev. xxii. 15</A>),
|
|
|
|
that hell is the portion of those that <I>make a lie,</I> and of those
|
|
that <I>love</I> it when it is made. <I>The deceived and the
|
|
deceiver</I> are obnoxious to the judgment of God,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+12:16">Job xii. 16</A>.
|
|
|
|
Note, <I>First,</I> Those that by their cunning craftiness draw others
|
|
to sin and error, shall not, with all their craft and cunning, escape
|
|
ruin themselves. If <I>both fall together into the ditch,</I> the blind
|
|
leaders will fall undermost, and have the worst of it; see
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+14:15,16">Jer. xiv. 15, 16</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>The prophets shall be consumed first,</I> and then the <I>people to
|
|
whom they prophesy,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+20:6,27:15,16">Jer. xx. 6; xxvii. 15, 16</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> The sin and ruin of the deceivers will be no security
|
|
to those that are deceived by them. Though the leaders of this people
|
|
<I>cause them to err,</I> yet they that are <I>led of them are
|
|
destroyed</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+9:16">Isa. ix. 16</A>),
|
|
|
|
because they shut their eyes against the light which would have
|
|
rectified their mistake. Seneca, complaining of most people's being led
|
|
by common opinion and practice (<I>Unusquisque mavult credere quam
|
|
judicare--Things are taken upon trust, and never examined</I>),
|
|
concludes, <I>Indeista tanta coacervatio aliorum super alios
|
|
ruentium--Hence crowds fall upon crowds, in vast confusion.</I> De
|
|
Vitâ Beatâ. The falling of both together will aggravate
|
|
the fall of both; for they that have thus mutually increased each
|
|
other's sin, will mutually exasperate each other's ruin.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
V. Instruction given to the disciples concerning the truth Christ had
|
|
laid down,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:10"><I>v.</I> 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
Though Christ rejects the wilfully ignorant who care not to be taught,
|
|
he can have compassion on the ignorant who are willing to learn,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+5:2">Heb. v. 2</A>.
|
|
|
|
If the Pharisees, who made void the law, be offended, let them be
|
|
offended: but this <I>great peace have they who love the law,</I> that
|
|
<I>nothing shall offend them,</I> but, some way or other, the offence
|
|
shall be taken off,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+119:165">Ps. cxix. 165</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Here is,
|
|
|
|
1. Their desire to be better instructed in this matter
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:15"><I>v.</I> 15</A>);
|
|
|
|
in this request as in many others, Peter was their speaker; the rest,
|
|
it is probable, putting him on to speak, or intimating their
|
|
concurrence; <I>Declare unto us this parable.</I> What Christ said was
|
|
plain, but, because it agreed not with the notions they had imbibed,
|
|
though they would not contradict it, yet they call it a parable, and
|
|
cannot understand it. Note,
|
|
|
|
(1.) Weak understandings are apt to turn plain truths into parables,
|
|
and to seek for a knot in a bulrush. The disciples often did so, as
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+16:17">John xvi. 17</A>.
|
|
|
|
Even the grasshopper is a burthen to a weak stomach, and babes in
|
|
understanding cannot bear and digest strong meat.
|
|
|
|
(2.) Where a weak head doubts concerning any word of Christ, an upright
|
|
heart and a willing mind will seek for instruction. The Pharisees were
|
|
offended, but kept it to themselves; hating to be reformed, they hated
|
|
to be informed; but the disciples, though offended, sought for
|
|
satisfaction, imputing the offence, not to the doctrine delivered, but
|
|
to the shallowness of their own capacity.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. The reproof Christ gave them for their weakness and ignorance
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:16"><I>v.</I> 16</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>Are ye also yet without understanding?</I> As many as Christ loves
|
|
and teaches, he thus rebukes. Note, They are very ignorant indeed, who
|
|
understand not that moral pollutions are abundantly worse and more
|
|
dangerous than ceremonial ones. Two things aggravate their dulness and
|
|
darkness.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) That they were the disciples of Christ; "Are <I>ye</I> also
|
|
without understanding? Ye whom I have admitted into so great a degree
|
|
of familiarity with me, are ye so unskilful in the word of
|
|
righteousness?" Note, The ignorance and mistakes of those that profess
|
|
religion, and enjoy the privileges of church-membership, are justly a
|
|
grief to the Lord Jesus. "No wonder that the Pharisees understand not
|
|
this doctrine, who know nothing of the Messiah's kingdom: but ye that
|
|
have heard of it, and embraced it yourselves, and preached it to
|
|
others, are ye also such strangers to the spirit and genius of it?"</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) That they had been a great while Christ's scholars; "Are ye
|
|
<I>yet</I> so, after ye have been so long under my teaching?" Had they
|
|
been but of yesterday in Christ's school, it had been another matter,
|
|
but to have been for so many months Christ's constant hearers, and yet
|
|
to be without understanding, was a great reproach to them. Note, Christ
|
|
expects from us some proportion of knowledge, and grace, and wisdom,
|
|
according to the time and means we have had. See
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+14:9,Heb+5:12,2Ti+3:7,8">John xiv. 9;
|
|
Heb. v. 12; 2 Tim. iii. 7, 8</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
3. The explication Christ gave them of this doctrine of pollutions.
|
|
Though he chid them for their dulness, he did not cast them off, but
|
|
pitied them, and taught them, as
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+24:25-27">Luke xxiv. 25-27</A>.
|
|
|
|
He here shows us,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) What little danger we are in of pollution from that which
|
|
<I>entereth in at the mouth,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:17"><I>v.</I> 17</A>.
|
|
|
|
An inordinate appetite, intemperance, and excess in eating, come out of
|
|
the heart, and are defiling; but meat in itself is not so, as the
|
|
Pharisees supposed. What there is of dregs and defilement in our meat,
|
|
nature (or rather God of nature) has provided a way to clear us of it;
|
|
<I>it goes in at the belly, and is cast out into the draught,</I> and
|
|
nothing remains to us but pure nourishment. So <I>fearfully</I> and
|
|
<I>wonderfully are we made</I> and preserved, and our souls held in
|
|
life. The expulsive faculty is as necessary in the body as any other,
|
|
for the discharge of that which is superfluous, or noxious; so happily
|
|
is nature enabled to help itself, and shift for its own good: by this
|
|
means nothing defiles; if we eat with unwashen hands, and so any thing
|
|
unclean mix with our food, nature will separate it, and cast it out,
|
|
and it will be no defilement to us. It may be a piece of cleanliness,
|
|
but it is not point of conscience, to wash before meat; and we go upon
|
|
a great mistake if we place religion in it. It is not the practice
|
|
itself, but the opinion it is built upon, that Christ condemns, as if
|
|
meat commended us to God
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+8:8">1 Cor. viii. 8</A>);
|
|
|
|
whereas Christianity stands not in such observances.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) What great danger we are in of pollution from that which
|
|
<I>proceeds out of the mouth</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:18"><I>v.</I> 18</A>),
|
|
|
|
out of the abundance of the heart: compare
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+12:34"><I>ch.</I> xii. 34</A>.
|
|
|
|
There is no defilement in the products of God's bounty; the defilement
|
|
arises from the products of out corruption. Now here we have,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[1.] The corrupt fountain of that which proceeds out of the mouth; it
|
|
comes from the heart; that is the spring and source of all sin,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+8:7">Jer. viii. 7</A>.
|
|
|
|
It is the heart that is so desperately wicked
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+17:9">Jer. xvii. 9</A>);
|
|
|
|
for there is no sin in a word or deed, which was not first in the
|
|
heart. There is the root of bitterness, which <I>bears gall and
|
|
wormwood.</I> It is the inward part of a sinner, that is very
|
|
wickedness,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+5:9">Ps. v. 9</A>.
|
|
|
|
All evil speakings come forth from the heart, and are defiling; from
|
|
the corrupt heart comes the corrupt communication.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[2.] Some of the corrupt streams which flow from this fountain,
|
|
specified; though they do not all <I>come out of the mouth,</I> yet
|
|
they all come out of the man, and are the fruits of that wickedness
|
|
which is in the heart, and is wrought there,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+58:2">Ps. lviii. 2</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>First, Evil thoughts,</I> sins against all the commandments.
|
|
Therefore David puts vain thoughts in opposition to the whole law,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+119:113">Ps. cxix. 113</A>.
|
|
|
|
These are the first-born of the corrupt nature, the beginning of its
|
|
strength, and do most resemble it. These, as the son and heir,
|
|
<I>abide in the house, and lodge within us.</I> There is a great deal
|
|
of sin that begins and ends in the heart, and goes no further. Carnal
|
|
fancies and imaginations are evil thoughts, wickedness in the
|
|
contrivance (<B><I>Dialogismoi poneroi</I></B>), wicked plots,
|
|
purposes, and devices of mischief to others,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mic+2:1">Mic. ii. 1</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Secondly, Murders,</I> sins against the sixth commandment; these
|
|
come from a malice in the heart against our brother's life, or a
|
|
contempt of it. Hence he <I>that hates his brother,</I> is said to be a
|
|
<I>murderer;</I> he is so at God's bar,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Jo+3:15">1 John iii. 15</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>War is in the heart,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+4:21,Jam+4:1">Ps. iv. 21; James iv. 1</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Thirdly, Adulteries and fornications,</I> sins against the seventh
|
|
commandment; these come from the wanton, unclean, carnal heart; and the
|
|
lust that reigns there, is conceived there, and brings forth these
|
|
sins,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jam+1:15">James i. 15</A>.
|
|
|
|
There is adultery in the heart first, and then in the act,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+5:28"><I>ch.</I> v. 28</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Fourthly, Thefts,</I> sins against the eighth commandment; cheats,
|
|
wrongs, rapines, and all injurious contracts; the fountain of all these
|
|
is in the heart, that is it that is <I>exercised in these covetous
|
|
practices</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Pe+2:14">2 Pet. ii. 14</A>),
|
|
|
|
that is set upon riches,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+62:10">Ps. lxii. 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>Achan coveted, and then took,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jos+7:20,21">Joshua vii. 20, 21</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Fifthly, False witness,</I> against the ninth commandment; this
|
|
comes from a complication of falsehood and covetousness, or falsehood
|
|
and covetousness, or falsehood and malice in the heart. If truth,
|
|
holiness, and love, which God <I>requires in the inward parts,</I>
|
|
reigned as they ought, there would be no false witness bearing,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+64:6,Jer+9:8">Ps. lxiv. 6; Jer. ix. 8</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Sixthly, Blasphemies,</I> speaking evil of God, against the third
|
|
commandment; speaking evil of our neighbour, against the ninth
|
|
commandment; these come from a contempt and disesteem of both in the
|
|
heart; thence <I>the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost</I> proceeds
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+12:31,32"><I>ch.</I> xii. 31, 32</A>);
|
|
|
|
these are the overflowing of the gall within.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Now <I>these are the things which defile a man,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:20"><I>v.</I> 20</A>.
|
|
|
|
Note, Sin is defiling to the soul, renders it unlovely and abominable
|
|
in the eyes of a pure and holy God; unfit for communion with him, and
|
|
for the enjoyment of him in the new Jerusalem, into which nothing shall
|
|
enter that defileth or worketh iniquity. The mind and conscience are
|
|
defiled by sin, and that makes every thing else so,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Tit+1:15">Tit. i. 15</A>.
|
|
|
|
This defilement by sin was signified by the ceremonial pollutions which
|
|
the Jewish doctors added to, but understood not. See
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+9:13,14,1Jo+1:7">Heb. ix. 13, 14; 1 John i. 7</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
These therefore are the things we must carefully avoid, and all
|
|
approaches toward them, and not lay stress upon the washing of the
|
|
hands. Christ doth not yet repeal the law of the distinction of meats
|
|
(that was not done till
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+10:9-16">Acts x.</A>),
|
|
|
|
but the tradition of the elders, which was tacked to that law; and
|
|
therefore he concludes, <I>To eat with unwashen hands</I> (which was
|
|
the matter now in question), <I>this defileth not a man.</I> If he
|
|
wash, he is not the better before God; if he wash not, he is not the
|
|
worse.</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_21"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_22"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_23"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_24"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_25"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_26"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_27"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_28"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec3"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>The Canaanite's Daughter Healed.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>21 Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre
|
|
and Sidon.
|
|
22 And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts,
|
|
and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, <I>thou</I> Son
|
|
of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
|
|
23 But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and
|
|
besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
|
|
24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost
|
|
sheep of the house of Israel.
|
|
25 Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
|
|
26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the
|
|
children's bread, and to cast <I>it</I> to dogs.
|
|
27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs
|
|
which fall from their masters' table.
|
|
28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great <I>is</I>
|
|
thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter
|
|
was made whole from that very hour.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
We have here that famous story of Christ's <I>casting the devil out of
|
|
the woman of Canaan's daughter;</I> it has something in it singular and
|
|
very surprising, and which looks favourably upon the poor Gentiles, and
|
|
is an earnest of the mercy which Christ had in store for them. Here is
|
|
a gleam of that <I>light</I> which was <I>to lighten the Gentiles,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+2:32">Luke ii. 32</A>.
|
|
|
|
Christ <I>came to his own, and his own received him not;</I> but many
|
|
of them quarrelled with him, and were offended in him; and observe what
|
|
follows,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:21"><I>v.</I> 21</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. <I>Jesus went thence.</I> Note, Justly is the light taken from those
|
|
that either play by it, or rebel against it. When Christ and his
|
|
disciples could not be quiet among them, he left them, and so left an
|
|
example to his own rule
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+10:14"><I>ch.</I> x. 14</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>Shake off the dust of your feet.</I> Though Christ endure long, he
|
|
will not always <I>endure, the contradiction of sinners against
|
|
himself.</I> He had said
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:14"><I>v.</I> 14</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>Let them alone,</I> and he did so. Note, Wilful prejudices against
|
|
the gospel, and cavils at it, often provoke Christ to withdraw, and
|
|
<I>to remove the candlestick out of its place.</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+13:46,51">Acts xiii. 46, 51</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. When he went thence, he <I>departed into the coasts of Tyre and
|
|
Sidon;</I> not to those cities (they were excluded from any share in
|
|
<I>Christ's mighty works,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+11:21,22"><I>ch.</I> xi. 21, 22</A>),
|
|
|
|
but into that part of the land of Israel which lay that way: thither he
|
|
went, as Elias <I>to Sarepta, a city of Sidon</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+4:26">Luke iv. 26</A>);
|
|
|
|
thither he went to look after this poor woman, whom he had mercy in
|
|
reserve for. While he went about doing good, he was never out of his
|
|
way. The dark corners of the country, which lay most remote, shall have
|
|
their share of his benign influences; and as now <I>the ends of the
|
|
land,</I> so afterward <I>the ends of the earth, shall see his
|
|
salvation,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+49:6">Isa. xlix. 6</A>.
|
|
|
|
Here it was, that this miracle was wrought, in the story of which we
|
|
may observe,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. The address of the woman of Canaan to Christ,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:22"><I>v.</I> 22</A>.
|
|
|
|
She was a Gentile, <I>a stranger to the commonwealth of Israel;</I>
|
|
probably one of the posterity of those accursed nations that were
|
|
devoted by that word, <I>Cursed be Canaan.</I> Note, The doom of
|
|
political bodies doth not always reach every individual member of them.
|
|
God will have his remnant out of all nations, chosen vessels in all
|
|
coasts, even the most unlikely: she came out of the same coasts. If
|
|
Christ had not now made a visit to these coasts, though the mercy was
|
|
worth travelling far for, it is probable that she had never come to
|
|
him. Note, It is often an excitement to a dormant faith and zeal, to
|
|
have opportunities of acquaintance with Christ brought to our doors, to
|
|
have the word nigh us.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Her address was very importunate, she <I>cried</I> to Christ, as one in
|
|
earnest; cried, as being at some distance from him, not daring to
|
|
approach too near, being a Canaanite, lest she should give offence. In
|
|
her address,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) She relates her misery; <I>My daughter is grievously vexed with a
|
|
devil,</I> <B><I>kakos daimonizetai</I></B>--<I>She is
|
|
ill-bewitched,</I> or <I>possessed.</I> There were degrees of that
|
|
misery, and this was the worst sort. It was common case at that time,
|
|
and very calamitous. Note, The vexations of children are the trouble of
|
|
parents, and nothing should be more so than their being under the power
|
|
of Satan. Tender parents very sensibly feel the miseries of those that
|
|
are pieces of themselves. "Though vexed with the devil, yet she is my
|
|
daughter still." The greatest afflictions of our relations do not
|
|
dissolve our obligations to them, and therefore ought not to alienate
|
|
our affections from them. It was the distress and trouble of her
|
|
family, that now brought her to Christ; she came to him, not for
|
|
teaching, but for healing; yet, because she came in faith, he did not
|
|
reject her. Though it is need that drives us to Christ, yet we shall
|
|
not therefore be driven from him. It was the affliction o her daughter,
|
|
that gave her this occasion of applying to Christ. It is good to make
|
|
the afflictions of others our own, in sense and sympathy, that we may
|
|
make them our own, in improvement and advantage.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) She requests for mercy; <I>Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of
|
|
David,</I> she owns him to be the Messiah: that is the great thing
|
|
which faith should fasten upon, and fetch comfort from. From the Lord
|
|
we may expect acts of power: he can command deliverances; from the Son
|
|
of David we may expect all the mercy and grace which were foretold
|
|
concerning him. Though a Gentile, she owns <I>the promise made to the
|
|
fathers</I> of the Jews, and the honour of the house of David. The
|
|
Gentiles must receive Christianity, not only as an improvement of
|
|
natural religion, but as the perfection of the Jewish religion, with an
|
|
eye to the Old Testament.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Her petition is, <I>Have mercy on me.</I> She does not limit Christ to
|
|
this or that particular instance of mercy, but mercy, mercy is the
|
|
thing she begs: she pleads not merit, but depends upon mercy; <I>Have
|
|
mercy upon me.</I> Mercies to the children are mercies to the parents;
|
|
favours to ours are favours to us, and are so to be accounted. Note, It
|
|
is the duty of parents to pray for their children, and to be earnest in
|
|
prayer for them, especially for their souls; "I have a son, a daughter,
|
|
grievously vexed with a proud will, an unclean devil, a malicious
|
|
devil, led captive by him at his will; <I>Lord, help them.</I>" This is
|
|
a case more deplorable than that of a bodily possession. Bring them to
|
|
Christ by faith and prayer, who alone is able to heal them. Parents
|
|
should look upon it as a great mercy to themselves, to have Satan's
|
|
power broken in the souls of their children.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. The discouragement she met with in this address; in all the story of
|
|
Christ's ministry we do not meet with the like. He was wont to
|
|
countenance and encourage all that came to him, and either <I>to answer
|
|
before they called,</I> or <I>to hear while they were yet speaking;</I>
|
|
but here was one otherwise treated: and what could be the reason of it?
|
|
|
|
(1.) Some think that Christ showed himself backward to gratify this
|
|
poor woman, because he would not give offence to the Jews, by being as
|
|
free and forward in his favour to the Gentiles as to them. He had bid
|
|
his disciples <I>not go into the way of the Gentiles</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+10:5"><I>ch.</I> x. 5</A>),
|
|
|
|
and therefore would not himself seem so inclinable to them as to
|
|
others, but rather more shy. Or rather,
|
|
|
|
(2.) Christ treated her thus, to try her; he knows what is in the
|
|
heart, knew the strength of her faith, and how well able she was, by
|
|
his grace, to break through such discouragements; he <I>therefore</I>
|
|
met her with them, <I>that the trial of her faith might be found unto
|
|
praise, and honour, and glory,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Pe+1:6,7">1 Pet. i. 6, 7</A>.
|
|
|
|
This was like God's tempting Abraham
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+22:1">Gen. xxii. 1</A>),
|
|
|
|
like the angel's wrestling with Jacob, only to put him upon wrestling,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+32:24">Gen. xxxii. 24</A>.
|
|
|
|
Many of the methods of Christ's providence, and especially of his
|
|
grace, in dealing with his people, which are dark and perplexing, may
|
|
be explained with the key of this story, which is for that end left
|
|
upon record, to teach us that there may be love in his face, and to
|
|
encourage us, therefore, <I>though he slay us, yet to trust in
|
|
him.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Observe the particular discouragements given her:</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[1.] When she cried after him, <I>he answered her not a word,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:23"><I>v.</I> 23</A>.
|
|
|
|
His ear was wont to be always open and attentive to the cries of poor
|
|
supplicants, and his lips, which dropped as the honeycomb, always ready
|
|
to give an answer of peace; but to this poor woman he turned a deaf
|
|
ear, and she could get neither an alms nor an answer. It was a wonder
|
|
that she did not fly off in a fret, and say, "Is this he that is so
|
|
famed for clemency and tenderness? Have so many been heard and answered
|
|
by him, as they talk, and must I be the first rejected suitor? Why so
|
|
distant to me, if it be true that he hath stooped to so many?" But
|
|
Christ knew what he did, and <I>therefore</I> did not answer, that she
|
|
might be the more earnest in prayer. He heard her, and was pleased with
|
|
her, and <I>strengthened her with strength in her soul</I> to prosecute
|
|
her request
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+138:3,Job+23:6">Ps. cxxxviii. 3; Job xxiii. 6</A>),
|
|
|
|
though he did not immediately give her the answer she expected. By
|
|
seeming to draw away the desired mercy from her, he drew her on to be
|
|
so much the more importunate for it. Note, Every accepted prayer is not
|
|
immediately an answered prayer. Sometimes God seems not to regard his
|
|
people's prayers, like a man asleep or astonished
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+44:23,Jer+14:9,Ps+22:1,2">Ps. xliv. 23;
|
|
Jer. xiv. 9; Ps. xxii. 1, 2</A>);
|
|
|
|
nay, to be angry at them
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+80:4,La+3:8,44">Ps. lxxx. 4; Lam. iii. 8, 44</A>);
|
|
|
|
but it is to prove, and so to <I>improve,</I> their faith, and to make
|
|
his after-appearances for them the more glorious to himself, and the
|
|
more welcome to them; for <I>the vision, at the end, shall speak, and
|
|
shall not lie,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+2:3">Heb. ii. 3</A>.
|
|
|
|
See
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+35:14">Job xxxv. 14</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[2.] When the disciples spake a good word for her, he gave a reason why
|
|
he refused her, which was yet more discouraging.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>First,</I> It was some little relief, that the disciples interposed
|
|
on her behalf; they said, <I>Send her away, for she crieth after
|
|
us.</I> It is desirable to have an interest in the prayers of good
|
|
people, and we should be desirous of it. But the disciples, though
|
|
wishing she might have what she came for, yet therein consulted rather
|
|
their own ease than the poor woman's satisfaction; "<I>Send her
|
|
away</I> with a cure, <I>for she cries,</I> and is in good earnest;
|
|
<I>she cries after us,</I> and is troublesome to us, and shames us."
|
|
Continued importunity may be uneasy to men, even to good men; but
|
|
Christ loves to be cried after.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> Christ's answer to the disciples quite dashed her
|
|
expectations; "<I>I am not sent, but to the lost sheep of the house of
|
|
Israel;</I> you know I am not, she is none of them, and would you have
|
|
me go beyond by commission?" Importunity seldom conquers the settled
|
|
reason of a wise man; and those refusals are most silencing, which are
|
|
so backed. He doth not only not answer her, but he argues against her,
|
|
and stops her mouth with a reason. It is true, she is a <I>lost
|
|
sheep,</I> and hath as much need of his care as any, but she is not
|
|
<I>of the house of Israel,</I> to whom he was first sent
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+3:26">Acts iii. 26</A>),
|
|
|
|
and therefore not immediately interested in it, and entitled to it.
|
|
Christ was <I>a Minister of the circumcision</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+15:8">Rom. xv. 8</A>);
|
|
|
|
and though he was intended for <I>a Light to the Gentiles, yet the
|
|
fulness of time</I> for that <I>was</I> not now <I>come, the veil
|
|
was</I> not yet <I>rent,</I> nor <I>the partition-wall taken down.</I>
|
|
Christ's personal ministry was <I>to be the glory of his people
|
|
Israel;</I> "If I am sent to them, what have I to do with those that
|
|
are none of them." Note, It is a great trial, when we have occasion
|
|
given us to question whether we be of those to whom Christ was sent.
|
|
But, blessed be God, no room is left for that doubt; the distinction
|
|
between Jew and Gentile is taken away; we are sure that he <I>gave his
|
|
life a ransom for many,</I> and if for many, why not for me?</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Thirdly,</I> When she continued her importunity, he insisted upon
|
|
the unfitness of the thing, and gave her not only a repulse, but a
|
|
seeming reproach too
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:26"><I>v.</I> 26</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>It is not meet to take the children's bread and to cast it to
|
|
dogs.</I> This seems to cut her off from all hope, and might have
|
|
driven her to despair, if she had not had a very strong faith indeed.
|
|
Gospel grace and miraculous cures (the appurtenances of it), were
|
|
children's bread; they belonged to them <I>to whom pertained the
|
|
adoption</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+9:4">Rom. ix. 4</A>),
|
|
|
|
and lay not upon the same level with that rain from heaven, and those
|
|
fruitful seasons, which God gave to the nations whom he suffered <I>to
|
|
walk in their own ways</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+14:16,17">Acts xiv. 16, 17</A>);
|
|
|
|
no, these were peculiar favours, appropriated to the peculiar people,
|
|
the garden enclosed. Christ preached to the Samaritans
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+4:41">John iv. 41</A>),
|
|
|
|
but we read not of any cures he wrought among them; <I>that salvation
|
|
was of the Jews:</I> it is not meet therefore to alienate these. The
|
|
Gentiles were looked upon by the Jews with great contempt, were called
|
|
and counted <I>dogs;</I> and, in comparison with the house of Israel,
|
|
who were so dignified and privileged, Christ here seems to allow it,
|
|
and therefore thinks it not meet that the Gentiles should share in the
|
|
favours bestowed on the Jews. But see how the tables are turned; after
|
|
the bringing of the Gentiles into the church, the Jewish zealots for
|
|
the law are called <I>dogs,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Php+3:2">Phil. iii. 2</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Now this Christ urgeth against this woman of Canaan; "How can she
|
|
expect to eat of the children's bread, who is not of the family?" Note,
|
|
|
|
1. Those whom Christ intends most signally to honour, he first humbles
|
|
and lays low in a sense of their own meanness and unworthiness. We must
|
|
first see ourselves to be as dogs, <I>less than the least of all God's
|
|
mercies,</I> before we are fit to be dignified and privileged with
|
|
them.
|
|
|
|
2. Christ delights to exercise great faith with great trials, and
|
|
sometimes reserves the sharpest for the last, that, <I>being tried, we
|
|
may come forth like gold.</I> This general rule is applicable to other
|
|
cases for direction, though here used only for trial. Special
|
|
ordinances and church-privileges are children's bread, and must not be
|
|
prostituted to the grossly ignorant and profane. Common charity must be
|
|
extended to all, but spiritual dignities are appropriated to the
|
|
household of faith; and therefore promiscuous admission to them,
|
|
without distinction, wastes the children's bread, and is the <I>giving
|
|
of that which is holy to the dogs,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+7:6"><I>ch.</I> vii. 6</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>Procul hinc, procul inde, profani--Off, ye profane.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
3. Here is the strength of her faith and resolution, in breaking
|
|
through all these discouragements. Many a one, thus tried, would either
|
|
have sunk into silence, or broken out into passion. "Here is cold
|
|
comfort," might she have said, "for a poor distressed creature; as good
|
|
for me to have staid at home, as come hither to be taunted at and
|
|
abused at this rate; not only to have a piteous case slighted, but to
|
|
be called a <I>dog!</I>" A proud, unhumbled heart would not have borne
|
|
it. The reputation of the house of Israel was not now so great in the
|
|
world, but that this slight put upon the Gentiles was capable of being
|
|
retorted, had the poor woman been so minded. It might have occasioned a
|
|
reflection upon Christ, and might have been a blemish upon his
|
|
reputation, as well as a shock to the good opinion, she had entertained
|
|
of him; for we re apt to judge of persons as we ourselves find them;
|
|
and think that they are what they are to us. "<I>Is this the Son of
|
|
David?</I>" (might she have said): "Is this he that has such a
|
|
reputation for kindness, tenderness, and compassion? I am sure I have
|
|
no reason to give him that character, for I was never treated so
|
|
roughly in my life; he might have done as much for me as for others;
|
|
or, if not, he needed not to have <I>set me with the dogs of his
|
|
flock.</I> I am not a dog, I am a woman, and an honest woman, and a
|
|
woman in misery; and I am sure it is not meet to call me a <I>dog.</I>"
|
|
No, here is not a word of this. Note, A humble, believing soul, that
|
|
truly loves Christ, takes every thing in good part that he saith and
|
|
doeth, and puts the best construction upon it.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
She breaks through all these discouragements,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) With a holy earnestness of desire in prosecuting her petition.
|
|
This appeared upon the former repulse
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:25"><I>v.</I> 25</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>Then came she, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.</I>
|
|
|
|
[1.] She continued to pray. What Christ said, silenced the disciples;
|
|
you hear no more of them; they took the answer, but the woman did not.
|
|
Note, The more sensibly we feel the burthen, the more resolutely we
|
|
should pray for the removal of it. <I>And it is the will of God that we
|
|
should continue instant in prayer, should always pray, and not
|
|
faint.</I>
|
|
|
|
[2.] She improved in prayer. Instead of blaming Christ, or charging him
|
|
with unkindness, she seems rather to suspect herself, and lay the fault
|
|
upon herself. She fears lest, in her first address, she had not been
|
|
humble and reverent enough, and therefore now <I>she came, and
|
|
worshipped him,</I> and paid him more respect than she had done; or she
|
|
fears that she had not been earnest enough, and therefore now she
|
|
cries, <I>Lord, help me.</I> Note, When the answers of prayer are
|
|
deferred, God is thereby teaching us to pray more, and pray better. It
|
|
is then time to enquire wherein we have come short in our former
|
|
prayers, that what has been amiss may be amended for the future.
|
|
Disappointments in the success of prayer, must be excitements to the
|
|
duty of prayer. Christ, in his agony, <I>prayed more earnestly.</I>
|
|
|
|
[3.] She waives the question, whether she was of those to whom Christ
|
|
was sent or no; she will not argue that with him, though perhaps she
|
|
might have claimed some kindred to the house of Israel; but, "Whether
|
|
an Israelite or no, I come to the Son of David for mercy, and <I>I will
|
|
not let him go, except he bless me.</I>" Many weak Christians perplex
|
|
themselves with questions and doubts about their election, whether they
|
|
are of the house of Israel or no; such had better mind their errand to
|
|
God, and continue instant in prayer for mercy and grace; throw
|
|
themselves by faith at the feet of Christ, and say, <I>If I perish, I
|
|
will perish here;</I> and then that matter will by degrees clear
|
|
itself. If we cannot <I>reason</I> down our unbelief, let us
|
|
<I>pray</I> it down. A fervent, affectionate <I>Lord, help me,</I> will
|
|
help us over many of the discouragements which are sometimes ready to
|
|
bear us down and overwhelm us.
|
|
|
|
[4.] Her prayer is very short, but comprehensive and fervent, <I>Lord,
|
|
help me.</I> Take this, <I>First,</I> As lamenting her case; "If the
|
|
Messiah be sent only to the house of Israel, the <I>Lord help me,</I>
|
|
what will become of me and mine," Note, It is not in vain for broken
|
|
hearts to bemoan themselves; God looks upon them then,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+31:18">Jer. xxxi. 18</A>.
|
|
|
|
Or, <I>Secondly,</I> As begging grace to insist her in this hour of
|
|
temptation. She found it hard to keep up her faith when it was thus
|
|
frowned upon, and therefore prays, "<I>Lord, help me;</I> Lord,
|
|
strengthen my faith now; <I>Lord, let thy right hand uphold me,</I>
|
|
while my soul is <I>following hard after thee,</I>"
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+63:8">Ps. lxiii. 8</A>.
|
|
|
|
Or, <I>Thirdly,</I> As enforcing her original request, "<I>Lord, help
|
|
me;</I> Lord, give me what I come for." She believed that Christ could
|
|
and would help her, though she was not of the house of Israel; else she
|
|
would have dropt her petition. Still she keeps up good thoughts of
|
|
Christ, and will not quit her hold. <I>Lord, help me,</I> is a good
|
|
prayer, if well put up; and it is pity that it should be turned into a
|
|
byword, and that we should take God's name in vain in it.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) With a holy skilfulness of faith, suggesting a very surprising
|
|
plea. Christ had placed the Jews with the children, <I>as olive-plants
|
|
round about</I> God's <I>table,</I> and had put the Gentiles with the
|
|
dogs, under the table; and she doth not deny the aptness of the
|
|
similitude. Note, There is nothing got by contradicting any word of
|
|
Christ, though it bear ever so hard upon us. But this poor woman, since
|
|
she cannot object against it, resolves to make the best of it
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:27"><I>v.</I> 27</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs.</I> Now, here,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[1.] Her acknowledgment was very humble: <I>Truth, Lord.</I> Note, You
|
|
cannot speak so meanly and slightly of a humble believer, but he is
|
|
ready to speak as meanly and slightly of himself. Some that seem to
|
|
dispraise and disparage themselves, will yet take it as an affront if
|
|
others do so too; but one that is humbled aright, will subscribe to the
|
|
most abasing challenges, and not call them abusing ones. "<I>Truth,
|
|
Lord;</I> I cannot deny it; I am a dog, and have no right to the
|
|
children's bread." David, <I>Thou hast done foolishly, very foolishly;
|
|
Truth, Lord.</I> Asaph, Thou <I>hast been as a beast before God; Truth,
|
|
Lord.</I> Agur, Thou art <I>more brutish than any man; Truth, Lord.</I>
|
|
Paul, Thou hast been <I>the chief of sinners, art less than the least
|
|
of saints, not meet to be called an apostle; Truth, Lord.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[2.] Her improvement of this into a plea was very ingenious; <I>Yet the
|
|
dogs eat of the crumbs.</I> It was by a singular acumen, and spiritual
|
|
quickness and sagacity, that she discerned matter of argument in that
|
|
which looked like a slight. Note, A lively, active faith will make that
|
|
to be for us, which seems to be against us; will fetch <I>meat out of
|
|
the eater, and sweetness out of the strong.</I> Unbelief is apt to
|
|
mistake recruits for enemies, and to draw dismal conclusions even from
|
|
comfortable premises
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jdg+13:22,23">Judges xiii. 22, 23</A>);
|
|
|
|
but faith can find encouragement even in that which is discouraging,
|
|
and get nearer to God by taking hold on that hand which is stretched
|
|
out to push it away. So good a thing it is to be of <I>quick
|
|
understanding in the fear of the Lord,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+11:3">Isa. xi. 3</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Her plea is, <I>Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs.</I> It is true, the
|
|
full and regular provision is intended for the children only, but the
|
|
small, casual, neglected crumbs are allowed to the dogs, and are not
|
|
grudged them; that is to the dogs under the table, that attend there
|
|
expecting them. We poor Gentiles cannot expect the stated ministry and
|
|
miracles of the Son of David, that belongs to the Jews; but they begin
|
|
now to be weary of their meat, and to play with it, they find fault
|
|
with it, and crumble it away; surely then some of the broken meat may
|
|
fall to a poor Gentile; "I beg a cure by the by, which is but a crumb,
|
|
though of the same precious bread, yet but a small inconsiderable
|
|
piece, compared with the loaves which they have." Note, When we are
|
|
ready to surfeit on the children's bread, we should remember how many
|
|
there are, that would be glad of the crumbs. Our broken meat in
|
|
spiritual privileges, would be a feast to many a soul;
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+13:42">Acts xiii. 42</A>.
|
|
|
|
Observe here,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>First,</I> Her humility and necessity made her glad of crumbs. Those
|
|
who are conscious to themselves that they deserve nothing, will be
|
|
thankful for any thing; and <I>then</I> we are prepared for the
|
|
greatest of God's mercies, when we see ourselves less than the least of
|
|
them. The least of Christ is precious to a believer, and the very
|
|
crumbs of the bread of life.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> Her faith encouraged her to expect these crumbs. Why
|
|
should it not be at Christ's table as at a great man's, where the dogs
|
|
are fed as sure as the children? Observe, She calls it their
|
|
<I>master's</I> table; if she were a dog, she was <I>his</I> dog, and
|
|
it cannot be ill with us, if we stand but in the meanest relation to
|
|
Christ; "Though unworthy to be called children, yet <I>make me as one
|
|
of thy hired servants:</I> nay, rather let me be set with the dogs than
|
|
turned out of the house; for <I>in my Father's house there is not only
|
|
bread enough, but to spare,</I>"
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+15:17-19">Luke xv. 17-19</A>.
|
|
|
|
It is good lying in God's house, though we lie at the threshold
|
|
there.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
4. The happy issue and success of all this. She came off with credit
|
|
and comfort from this struggle; and, though a Canaanite, approved
|
|
herself a true daughter of Israel, who, <I>like a prince, had power
|
|
with God, and prevailed.</I> Hitherto Christ hid his face from her, but
|
|
now <I>gathers her with everlasting kindness,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:28"><I>v.</I> 28</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>Then Jesus said, O woman, great is thy faith.</I> This was like
|
|
Joseph's making himself know to his brethren, <I>I am Joseph;</I> so
|
|
here, in effect, <I>I am Jesus.</I> Now he begins to speak like
|
|
himself, and to put on his own countenance. <I>He will not contend for
|
|
ever.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) He commended her faith. <I>O woman, great is thy faith.</I>
|
|
Observe,
|
|
|
|
[1.] It is her faith that he commends. There were several other graces
|
|
that shone bright in her conduct of this affair-wisdom, humility,
|
|
meekness, patience, perseverance in prayer; but these were the product
|
|
of her faith, and therefore Christ fastens upon that as most
|
|
commendable; because of all graces faith honours Christ most, therefore
|
|
of all graces Christ honours faith most.
|
|
|
|
[2.] It is the greatness of her faith. Note, <I>First,</I> Though the
|
|
faith of all the saints is alike precious, yet it is not in all alike
|
|
strong; all believers are not of the same size and stature.
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> The greatness of faith consists much in a resolute
|
|
adherence to Jesus Christ as an all-sufficient Saviour, even in the
|
|
face of discouragements; to love him, and trust him, as a Friend, even
|
|
then when he seems to come forth against us as an Enemy. This is
|
|
<I>great faith! Thirdly,</I> Though weak faith, if true, shall not be
|
|
rejected, yet great faith shall be commended, and shall appear greatly
|
|
well-pleasing to Christ; for in them that thus believe he is most
|
|
admired. Thus Christ commended the faith of the centurion, and he was a
|
|
Gentile too, he had a strong faith in the power of Christ, this woman
|
|
in the good-will of Christ; both were acceptable.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) He cured her daughter; "<I>Be it unto thee even as thou wilt:</I>
|
|
I can deny thee nothing, take what thou camest for." Note, Great
|
|
believers may have what they will for the asking. When our will
|
|
conforms to the will of Christ's precept, his will concurs with the
|
|
will of our desire. Those that will deny Christ nothing, shall find
|
|
that he will deny them nothing at last, though for a time he seems to
|
|
hide his face from them. "Thou wouldst have thy sins pardoned, thy
|
|
corruptions mortified, thy nature sanctified; <I>be it unto thee even
|
|
as thou wilt.</I> And what canst thou desire more?" When we come, as
|
|
this poor woman did, to pray against Satan and his kingdom, we concur
|
|
with the intercession of Christ, and it shall be accordingly. Though
|
|
Satan may <I>sift</I> Peter, and <I>buffet</I> Paul, yet, through
|
|
Christ's prayer and the sufficiency of his grace, <I>we shall be more
|
|
than conquerors,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+22:31,32,2Co+12:7-9,Ro+16:20">Luke xxii. 31, 32;
|
|
2 Cor. xii. 7-9; Rom. xvi. 20</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
The event was answerable to the word of Christ; <I>Her daughter was
|
|
made whole from that very hour;</I> from thenceforward was never vexed
|
|
with the devil any more; the mother's faith prevailed for the
|
|
daughter's cure. Though the patient was at a distance, that was no
|
|
hindrance to the efficacy of Christ's word. <I>He spake, and it was
|
|
done.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_29"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_30"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_31"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_32"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_33"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_34"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_35"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_36"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_37"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_38"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt15_39"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec4"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Four Thousand Men Fed.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>29 And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea
|
|
of Galilee; and went up into a mountain, and sat down there.
|
|
30 And great multitudes came unto him, having with them <I>those
|
|
that were</I> lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast
|
|
them down at Jesus' feet; and he healed them:
|
|
31 Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb
|
|
to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind
|
|
to see: and they glorified the God of Israel.
|
|
32 Then Jesus called his disciples <I>unto him,</I> and said, I have
|
|
compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now
|
|
three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them
|
|
away fasting, lest they faint in the way.
|
|
33 And his disciples say unto him, Whence should we have so
|
|
much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude?
|
|
34 And Jesus saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? And they
|
|
said, Seven, and a few little fishes.
|
|
35 And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.
|
|
36 And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave
|
|
thanks, and brake <I>them,</I> and gave to his disciples, and the
|
|
disciples to the multitude.
|
|
37 And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of
|
|
the broken <I>meat</I> that was left seven baskets full.
|
|
38 And they that did eat were four thousand men, beside women
|
|
and children.
|
|
39 And he sent away the multitude, and took ship, and came into
|
|
the coasts of Magdala.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Here is,
|
|
|
|
I. A general account of Christ's cures, his curing by wholesale. The
|
|
tokens of Christ's power and goodness are neither scarce nor scanty;
|
|
for there is in him an overflowing fulness. Now observe,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. The place where these cures were wrought; it was <I>near the sea of
|
|
Galilee,</I> a part of the country Christ was much conversant with. We
|
|
read not of any thing he did in the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, but the
|
|
casting of the devil out of the woman of Canaan's daughter, as if he
|
|
took that journey on purpose, with that in prospect. Let not ministers
|
|
grudge their pains to do good, though but to few. He that knows the
|
|
worth of souls, would go a great way to help to save one from death and
|
|
Satan's power.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
But <I>Jesus departed thence.</I> Having let fall that crumb under
|
|
table, he here returns to make a full feast for the children. We may do
|
|
that occasionally for one, which we may not make a constant practice
|
|
of. Christ steps into the coast of Tyre and Sidon, but he <I>sits down
|
|
by the sea of Galilee</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:29"><I>v.</I> 29</A>),
|
|
|
|
sits down not on a stately throne, or tribunal of judgment, but on a
|
|
mountain: so mean and homely were his most solemn appearances in the
|
|
days of his flesh! He <I>sat down on a mountain,</I> that all might see
|
|
him, and have free access to him; for he is an open Saviour. He sat
|
|
down there, as one tired with his journey, and willing to have a little
|
|
rest; or rather, as one waiting to be gracious. He sat, expecting
|
|
patients, as Abraham at his tent-door, ready to entertain strangers. He
|
|
settled himself to this good work.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. The multitudes and maladies that were healed by him
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:30"><I>v.</I> 30</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>Great multitudes came to him;</I> that the scripture might be
|
|
fulfilled, <I>Unto him shall the gathering of the people be,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+49:10">Gen. xlix. 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
If Christ's ministers could cure bodily diseases as Christ did, there
|
|
would be more flocking to them than there is; we are soon sensible of
|
|
bodily pain and sickness, but few are concerned about their souls and
|
|
their spiritual diseases.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Now,
|
|
|
|
(1.) Such was the goodness of Christ, that he admitted all sorts of
|
|
people; the poor as well as the rich are welcome to Christ, and with
|
|
him there is room enough for all comers. He never complained of crowds
|
|
or throngs of seekers, or looked with contempt upon the vulgar, the
|
|
<I>herd,</I> as they are called; for the souls of peasants are as
|
|
precious with him as the souls of princes.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) Such was the power of Christ, that he healed all sorts of
|
|
diseases; those that came to him, brought their sick relations and
|
|
friends along with them, and <I>cast them down at Jesus' feet,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:30"><I>v.</I> 30</A>.
|
|
|
|
We read not of any thing they said to him, but they laid them down
|
|
before him as objects of pity, to be looked upon by him. Their
|
|
calamities spake more for them than the tongue of the most eloquent
|
|
orator could. <I>David showed before God his trouble,</I> that was
|
|
enough, he then left it with him,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+142:2">Ps. cxlii. 2</A>.
|
|
|
|
Whatever our case is, the only way to find ease and relief, is, to lay
|
|
it at Christ's feet, to spread it before him, and refer it to his
|
|
cognizance, and then submit it to him, and refer it to his disposal.
|
|
Those that would have spiritual healing from Christ, must lay
|
|
themselves at his feet, to be ruled and ordered as he pleaseth.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Here were <I>lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others,</I> brought to
|
|
Christ. See what work sin has made! It has turned the world into a
|
|
hospital: what various diseases are human bodies subject to! See what
|
|
work the Saviour makes! He conquers those hosts of enemies to mankind.
|
|
Here were such diseases as a flame of fancy could contribute neither to
|
|
the cause of nor to the cure of; as lying not in the humours, but in
|
|
the members of the body; and yet these were subject to the commands of
|
|
Christ. <I>He sent his word, and healed them.</I> Note, All diseases
|
|
are at the command of Christ, to go and come as he bids them. This is
|
|
an instance of Christ's power, which may comfort us in all our
|
|
weaknesses; and of his pity, which may comfort us in all our
|
|
miseries.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
3. The influence that this had upon the people,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:31"><I>v.</I> 31</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) They <I>wondered,</I> and well they might. Christ's works should
|
|
be our wonder. <I>It is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+118:23">Ps. cxviii. 23</A>.
|
|
|
|
The spiritual cures that Christ works are wonderful. When blind souls
|
|
are made to see by faith, <I>the dumb to speak</I> in prayer, <I>the
|
|
lame to walk</I> in holy obedience, it is to be wondered at. <I>Sing
|
|
unto the Lord a new song, for</I> thus <I>he has done marvellous
|
|
things.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) <I>They glorified the God of Israel,</I> whom the Pharisees, when
|
|
they saw these things, blasphemed. Miracles, which are the matter of
|
|
our wonder, must be the matter of our praise; and mercies, which are
|
|
the matter of our rejoicing, must be the matter of our thanksgiving.
|
|
Those that were healed, glorified God; if he heal our diseases, all
|
|
that is within us must bless his holy name; and if we have been
|
|
graciously preserved from blindness, and lameness, and dumbness, we
|
|
have as much reason to bless God as if we had been cured of them; nay,
|
|
and the standers-by glorified God. Note, God must be acknowledged with
|
|
praise and thankfulness in the mercies of others as in our own. <I>They
|
|
glorified</I> him as <I>the God of Israel,</I> his church's God, a God
|
|
in covenant with his people, who hath sent the Messiah promised; and
|
|
this is he. See
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+1:68">Luke i. 68</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>Blessed be the Lord God of Israel.</I> This was done by the power of
|
|
the God of Israel, and no other could do it.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. Here is a particular account of his feeding <I>four thousand
|
|
men</I> with <I>seven loaves, and a few little fishes,</I> as he had
|
|
lately fed <I>five thousand with five loaves.</I> The guests indeed
|
|
were now not quite so many as then, and the provision a little more;
|
|
which does not intimate that Christ's arm was shortened, but that he
|
|
wrought his miracles as the occasion required, and not for ostentation,
|
|
and therefore he suited them to the occasion: both then and now he took
|
|
as many as were to be fed, and made use of all that was at hand to feed
|
|
them with. When once the utmost powers of nature are exceeded, we must
|
|
say, <I>This is the finger of God;</I> and it is neither here nor there
|
|
how far they are outdone; so that this is no less a miracle than the
|
|
former.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Here is,
|
|
|
|
1. Christ's pity
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:32"><I>v.</I> 32</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>I have compassion on the multitude.</I> He tells his disciples this,
|
|
both to try and to excite their compassion. When he was about to work
|
|
this miracle, he called them to him, and made them acquainted with his
|
|
purpose, and discoursed with them about it; not because he needed their
|
|
advice, but because he would give an instance of his condescending love
|
|
to them. He called them not <I>servants,</I> for <I>the servant knows
|
|
not what his Lord doeth,</I> but treated them as his friends and
|
|
counsellors. <I>Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do?</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+18:17">Gen. xviii. 17</A>.
|
|
|
|
In what he said to them, Observe,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) The case of the multitude; <I>They continue with me now three
|
|
days, and have nothing to eat.</I> This is an instance of their zeal,
|
|
and the strength of their affection to Christ and his word, that they
|
|
not only left their callings, to attend upon him on week-days, but
|
|
underwent a deal of hardship, to continue with him; they wanted their
|
|
natural rest, and, for aught that appeared, lay like soldiers in the
|
|
field; they wanted necessary food, and had scarcely enough to keep life
|
|
and soul together. In those hotter countries they could better bear
|
|
long fasting than we can in these colder climates: but though it could
|
|
not but be grievous to the body, and might endanger their health, yet
|
|
<I>the zeal of God's house thus ate them up,</I> and they esteemed the
|
|
words of Christ more than their necessary food. We think three hours
|
|
too much to attend upon public ordinances; but these people staid
|
|
together three days, and yet snuffed not at it, nor said, <I>Behold,
|
|
what a weariness is it!</I> Observe, With what tenderness Christ spoke
|
|
of it; <I>I have compassion on them.</I> It had become them to have
|
|
compassion on him, who took so much pains with them for three days
|
|
together, and was so indefatigable in teaching and healing; so much
|
|
virtue had gone out of him, and yet for aught that appears he was
|
|
fasting too: but he prevented them with his compassion. Note, Our Lord
|
|
Jesus keeps an account how long his followers continue their attendance
|
|
on him, and takes notice of the difficulty they sustain in it
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+2:2">Rev. ii. 2</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience:</I> and it shall
|
|
<I>in no wise lose its reward.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Now the exigence the people were reduced to serves to magnify.
|
|
|
|
[1.] The mercy of their supply: he fed them when they were hungry; and
|
|
then food was doubly welcome. He treated them as he did Israel of old;
|
|
<I>he suffered them to hunger, and then fed them</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+8:3">Deut. viii. 3</A>);
|
|
|
|
for that is <I>sweet to the hungry soul,</I> which <I>the full soul
|
|
loathes.</I>
|
|
|
|
[2.] The miracle of their supply: having been so long fasting, their
|
|
appetites were the more craving. If two hungry meals make the third a
|
|
glutton, what would three hungry days do? And yet <I>they did all eat
|
|
and were filled.</I> Note, There are mercy and grace enough with
|
|
Christ, to give the most earnest and enlarged desire an abundant
|
|
satisfaction; <I>Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. He
|
|
replenisheth even the hungry soul.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) The care of our master concerning them; <I>I will not send them
|
|
away fasting, lest they should faint by the way;</I> which would be a
|
|
discredit to Christ and his family, and a discouragement both to them
|
|
and to others. Note, It is the unhappiness of our present state, that
|
|
when our souls are in some measure elevated and enlarged, our bodies
|
|
cannot keep pace with them in good duties. The weakness of the flesh is
|
|
a great grievance to the willingness of the spirit. It will not be so
|
|
in heaven, where the body shall be made spiritual, where <I>they rest
|
|
not, day and night, from praising God,</I> and yet faint not; where
|
|
<I>they hunger no more, nor thirst any more,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+7:16">Rev. vii. 16</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Here is,
|
|
|
|
2. Christ's power. His pity of their wants sets his power on work for
|
|
their supply. Now observe,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) How his power was distrusted by his disciples
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:23"><I>v.</I> 23</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness?</I> A proper
|
|
question, one would think, like that of Moses
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Nu+11:22">Num. xi. 22</A>).
|
|
|
|
<I>Shall the flocks and the herds be slain to suffice them?</I> But it
|
|
was here an improper question, considering not only the general
|
|
assurance the disciples had of the power of Christ, but the particular
|
|
experience they lately had of a seasonable and sufficient provision by
|
|
miracle in a like case; they had been not only the witnesses, but the
|
|
ministers, of the former miracle; the multiplied bread went through
|
|
their hands; so that it was an instance of great weakness for them to
|
|
ask, <I>Whence shall we have bread?</I> Could they be at a loss, while
|
|
they had their Master with them? Note, Forgetting former experiences
|
|
leaves us under present doubts.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Christ knew how slender the provision was, but he would know it from
|
|
them
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:34"><I>v.</I> 34</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>How many loaves have ye?</I> Before he would work, he would have it
|
|
seen how little he had to work on, that his power might shine the
|
|
brighter. What they had, they had for themselves, and it was little
|
|
enough for their own family; but Christ would have them bestow it all
|
|
upon the multitude, and trust Providence for more. Note, it becomes
|
|
Christ's disciples to be generous, their Master was so: what we have,
|
|
we should be free of, as there is occasion; <I>given to
|
|
hospitality;</I> not like Nabal
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Sa+25:11">1 Sam. xxv. 11</A>),
|
|
|
|
but like Elisha,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+4:42">2 Kings iv. 42</A>.
|
|
|
|
Niggardliness to-day, out of thoughtfulness for to-morrow, is a
|
|
complication of corrupt affection that ought to be mortified. If we be
|
|
prudently kind and charitable with what we have, we may piously hope
|
|
that God will send more. <I>Jehovah-jireh, The Lord will provide.</I>
|
|
The disciples asked, <I>Whence should we have bread?</I> Christ asked,
|
|
<I>How many loaves have ye?</I> Note, When we cannot have what we
|
|
would, we must make the best of what we have, and do good with it as
|
|
far as it will go; we must not think so much of our wants as of our
|
|
havings. Christ herein went according to the rule he gave to Martha,
|
|
not to be <I>troubled about many things, nor cumbered about much
|
|
serving.</I> Nature is content with little, grace with less, but lust
|
|
with nothing.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) How his power was discovered to the multitude, in the plentiful
|
|
provision he made for them; the manner of which is much the same as
|
|
before,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+14:18"><I>ch.</I> xiv. 18</A>,
|
|
|
|
&c. Observe here,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[1.] The provision that was at hand; <I>seven loaves, and a few
|
|
fishes:</I> the fish not proportionable to the bread, for bread is the
|
|
staff of life. It is probable that the fish was such as they had
|
|
themselves taken; for they were fishers, and were now near the sea.
|
|
Note, It is comfortable to <I>eat the labour of our hands</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+128:2">Ps. cxxviii. 2</A>),
|
|
|
|
and to enjoy that which is any way the product of our own industry,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Pr+12:27">Prov. xii. 27</A>.
|
|
|
|
And what we have got by God's blessing on our labour we should be free
|
|
of; for <I>therefore</I> we must labour, <I>that we may have to
|
|
give,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eph+4:28">Eph. iv. 28</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[2.] The putting of the people in a posture to receive it
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:35"><I>v.</I> 35</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.</I> They saw
|
|
but very little provision, yet they must sit down, in faith that they
|
|
should have a meal's meat out of it. They who would have spiritual food
|
|
from Christ, must sit down at his feet, to hear his word, and expect it
|
|
to come in an unseen way.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[3.] The distributing of the provision among them. He first <I>gave
|
|
thanks</I>--<B><I>eucharistesas</I></B>. The word used in the former
|
|
miracle was <B><I>eulogese</I></B>--<I>he blessed.</I> It comes all to
|
|
one; giving thanks to God is a proper way of craving a blessing from
|
|
God. And when we come to ask and receive further mercy, we ought to
|
|
give thanks for the mercies we have received. He then <I>broke the
|
|
loaves</I> (for it was in the breaking that the bread multiplied)
|
|
<I>and gave to his disciples, and they to the multitude.</I> Though the
|
|
disciples had distrusted Christ's power, yet he made use of them now as
|
|
before; he is not provoked, as he might be, by the weakness and
|
|
infirmities of his ministers, to lay them aside; but still he gives to
|
|
them, and they to his people, of the word of life.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[4.] The plenty there was among them
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:37"><I>v.</I> 37</A>).
|
|
|
|
<I>They did all eat, and were filled.</I> Note, Those whom Christ
|
|
feeds, he fills. While we labour for the world, we labour for that
|
|
which satisfieth not
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+55:2">Isa. lv. 2</A>);
|
|
|
|
but those that duly wait on Christ shall be <I>abundantly satisfied
|
|
with the goodness of his house,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+65:4">Ps. lxv. 4</A>.
|
|
|
|
Christ thus fed people once and again, to intimate that though he was
|
|
called Jesus of Nazareth, yet he was <I>of Bethlehem, the house of
|
|
bread;</I> or rather, that he was himself <I>the Bread of Life.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
To show that they had all enough, there was a great deal left--<I>seven
|
|
baskets full of broken meat;</I> not so much as there was before,
|
|
because they did not gather after so many eaters, but enough to show
|
|
that with Christ <I>there is bread enough, and to spare;</I> supplies
|
|
of grace for more than seek it, and for those that seek more.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[5.] The account taken of the guests; not that they might pay their
|
|
share (here was no reckoning to be discharged, they were fed gratis),
|
|
but that they might be witnesses to the power and goodness of Christ,
|
|
and that this might be some resemblance of that universal providence
|
|
that <I>gives food to all flesh,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+136:25">Ps. cxxxvi. 25</A>.
|
|
|
|
Here were four thousand men fed; but what were they to that great
|
|
family which is provided for by the divine care every day? God is a
|
|
great Housekeeper, on whom <I>the eyes of all the creatures wait, and
|
|
he giveth them their food in due season,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+104:27,145:15">Ps. civ. 27; cxlv. 15</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[6.] The dismission of the multitude, and Christ's departure to another
|
|
place
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+15:39"><I>v.</I> 39</A>).
|
|
|
|
He <I>sent away</I> the people. Though he had fed them twice, they must
|
|
not expect miracles to be their daily bread. Let them now go home to
|
|
their callings, and to their own tables. And he himself departed by
|
|
ship to another place; for, being the <I>Light of the world,</I> he
|
|
must be still <I>in motion, and go about to do good.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
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