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SECTION VI.

Chap. ii. ver. 13-22.

LEVI IS CALLED, AND GIVETH A FEAST: WHY CHRIST'S DISCIPLES DO NOT FAST.

13. And he went forth again by the sea side; and all the multitude resorted unto him, and he taught them.

Your coming hither to hear his word, is resorting to him. If it is in sincerity, for a blessing. He is wherever his word is, and will make you know the power of his teaching.

14. And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphæus sitting at the receipt of custom,

This was Matthew himself, attending upon the profitable trade of a publican, farmer, or collector of the public

taxes.

14. And said unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him.

Be astonished here. This was a greater miracle than the former. Matthew, who was such a worldling as to prefer gain to credit, (for the employment in which he was engaged was hateful among the Jews, more especially in a Jew,) at the call of Christ, had a new heart given him, and was changed into another man. Nevertheless, the same miracle must be wrought in every one of us. Neither do we want our call, yea many calls, but alas! the world, and for the most part, a little of it, a bare livelihood in it, effectually stops our

ears, and hardens our hearts against it.

15. And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples for there were many, and they followed him.

Sometimes the more open and notorious sinners come to true repentance, faith in Christ, obedience to the gospel,

and to a godly, righteous, and sober life, when the outwardly decent, in the pride of their hearts, turn from Christ and his pardoned disciples, with disdain. Beware, lest you dash against this rock, and so make shipwreck of your salvation.-Ed.

16. And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?

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If he was not thus condescending to sinners, what would become of us all? Shut him not out of selves, and the foulness of them will not. it so effectually as thinking them clean, as the Pharisees did. To the question they put, he in effect returns answer, because he came into the world to save sinners, and his business was, and always is, with sinners. He disdains none as being sinners, if they are not so righteous in their own eyes as to despise him, and reject his help.

17. When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician,

Who is there amongst us so whole? Or who is so great a sinner, as that Christ cannot make him whole? that is, by cleansing him from the guilt of sin, and turning his will against it. No power however, even in God, can make an unrelenting sinner whole, so as to save him from punish

ment.

17. But they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

The self-righteous, as such, cannot hear this call; and therefore it is the same thing to them, as if they had it not. If you are ever so great a sinner, you have it in these words, and you may hear it but then mark, it is to repentance. Never think of coming to Christ without a sense of sin, and a purpose to forsake it. Suppose any of you should hear him saying, I came not to call thee, would it strike cold to your hearts? You do hear it now from his own

And oh what mercy,

mouth, if you will not repent. what love, that he should come himself from heaven to teach, and require it; and to make it effectual to our salvation!

18. And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast and they come and say unto him, Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not?

Probably they laid a great stress upon it, and made it a considerable part of their religion, in the room of better things.

19. And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? as long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

20. But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.

Fasting is good; and verily there is a time for it. Christ says, When the bridegroom is taken from us. In the time of sickness and calamities; and especially when sin takes hold of us, we shall not make so light of this way of humbling ourselves before God, as we are wont to do.

21. No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment; else the new piece that filled it up, taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse.

A piece of new, stiff cloth, if put on a garment old and thin, would tear itself out, and so the rent would be made

worse.

22. And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred but new wine must be put into new bottles.

Bottles, made of skins, which being old and stiff, would be apt to burst with the fermenting liquor. Christ knows perfectly how to condescend to our weakness, and here teaches us to suit our instructions to the condition and capacity of our hearers. But then he does not intend we should always continue weak.

VOL. II.

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SECTION VII.

Chap. ii. ver. 23—28.

CHRIST TREATS OF THE SABBATH-DAY.

23. And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn.

The act of Christ's disciples was sanctioned by the divine law, and therefore could not be found fault with; for so it is written, Deut. xxiii. 25, "When thou comest into the standing corn of thy neighbour, then thou mayest pluck the ears with thine hand; but thou shalt not move a sickle into thy neighbour's standing corn.”—Ed.

24. And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?

This was man's law, and one of those traditions which the Jews had invented to help them to a high conceit of themselves.

25. And he said unto them, Have ye never read what David did when he had need, and was an hungred, he, and they that were with him?

26. How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the shewbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him?

The whole relation is given in 1 Sam. xxi. 1-9. " Ahimelech was high priest when David took the shew-bread; but Abiathar his son, was chief priest under him, and probably superintended the tabernacle and its stated concerns.”— Scott.-Ed.

27. And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath :

For man's use and benefit, as a day of bodily rest, and of

spiritual labour; but not intended to bind him up to any such strictness as would be hurtful to health or life.

28. Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.

Certainly Christ had as good a right as David, or any other man, to dispense with it in cases of necessity. And farther, as God, who first appointed it, he had power to make what alteration he pleased concerning it.*

The Pharisees charge the disciples with breach of the sabbath in a small matter, Christ reproves them for it; and withal establishes this rule in the case, that the sabbath may give way to necessity. But then let the necessity be evident. Christ has not here laid in any excuse for needless journeys, visiting, or sports, or any other way of idly or unprofitably spending the sabbath. We are not apt to overdo in point of strictness; but need more to be cautioned against breaking or neglecting it. The sabbath was appointed not only that we might rest from bodily labour, but to be a day of sacred employment; that we might be at leisure to worship God in public, to read his word. and pray in private, to improve ourselves and families in religious knowledge, to take off our minds and wean our hearts from the world, to think upon and prepare for heavenly rest. Did you ever keep one such sabbath? If you have not kept many such, what have you been doing in the world? and what must convince you of sin, and bring you to God in repentance, if the notorious breach of this commandment does not?

* The law of the sabbath is obligatory because of the author of it: that which commands love to God is founded in the nature of things, the former may be altered, not the latter.-Ed.

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