The mere inventions of men in religion, though they come under the specious pretext of traditions, are at best but frivolous; and when they are substituted in the place of better things, or interfere with plain commands, they are of all deceits the most dangerous. Look carefully whether you lay aside the commandment of God, and wherein. If you do in any one instance, the world itself cannot furnish you with an excuse; nothing will stand you in any stead.

9. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.

He charges them with a very serious fault, in setting up a false pretence for rejecting the commandment of God. Christ indeed here comes home to them, and shows them what sad work they made of a plain commandment.

10. For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Whoso curseth father and mother, let him die the death:

Here perhaps some of you would congratulate yourselves, and say that you never spoke evil of your father or mother; meaning the cursing them in words. But observe, that in God's account, who sees the heart, not honouring them in thought, word and deed; and especially not succouring them in their need, is cursing them; and death is our desert! O! what shall we do with these hearts of ours, when he enters into judgment with us in this, and in other respects.

Observe, therefore, that Christ here opens the fifth commandment in its full extent, and goes to the root of sin in the heart. We are deplorably short-sighted in both these respects; and from hence it comes to pass that we continue ignorant of our state. We are content to observe only the outside, or bare letter of the commandment, and do not look for sin in ourselves, where God does.

11. But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free.

As if a man should say, I have already given it to God;

or, I am under a vow not to give it to thee, and therefore can no more do it than if I had devoted it to God; so making the breach of a command a plain matter of conscience, and yielding it over with a show of sanctity. What pretence shall we find either for hoarding or spending in an extravagant manner, that which the wants of father or mother demand.

12. And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother;

How could they curse them more effectually?

13. Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered and many such like things do ye.

Not only they, but we, in some respect or other. Do not think yourself unconcerned in what you read, and put all

off to others.

Ver. 1-13. In this passage we learn how apt men are to deal deceitfully with God and their souls; and to pride themselves in doing some trifling things of their own invention, instead of having a conscientious, sincere regard to his holy commands. Thus the Pharisees thought it a high point of religion to wash their hands before meat, without considering what a foul inside they had; and to devote some part of their substance to God, though in so doing they left father and mother to starve. You may not offend just in the same particulars, but the same kind of deceit lies lurking at the hearts of all men; and you may in other respects mock God, and cheat yourselves with the shadows of piety, instead of the substance. So if a man should say, I have been baptized; I go to church; I say my prayers; I give alms; and these are things which are more than many can say yet all this may be, and men never know the work of a true repentance, nor come to that faith which purifies the heart. Men may be just such Pharisees and such self-deceivers as these of which we have been reading.

SECTION XXIV.

Chap. vii. ver. 14-23.

WHAT DEFILES A MAN.

14. And when he had called all the people unto him,

You may think that when you are assembled on the Sunday by the minister of Christ, that Christ hath, as it were, called you, and that you are assembled to listen to

his instructions.

14. He said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand:

And we have need of the exhortation; for though what Jesus says in the following verses is very awakening, and it nearly concerns our souls, we are naturally blind to it, and dull of understanding.

15. There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him, can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.

A little soil in eating, brings no religious defilement. The things which come out of a man are those which defile him, and what they are Christ will tell us to our great astonishment.

16. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.

Let him hearken to that which it concerns every man so greatly to understand. But it is to be supposed that Christ had a further meaning: he wished to intimate that few would hear and understand.

17. And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable.

18. And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also ?

We should be ready to think that what Christ had said

was plain enough. But nothing is understood until it is received into the heart. Do you understand, or do you not? Not only hearing and thinking with yourselves, this is plain; but considering, believing, digesting, and laying it to heart. Observe also the mildness of Christ's reproof, and condescension to their slowness; but observe too that they showed a desire to learn.

18. Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;

19. Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?

It is to the heart! the heart, that God looks! God looks nowhere else, hardly any man looks there enough; and

most men never.

20. And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.

21. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,

22. Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:

23. All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

Do you think Christ only means that these things, wherever they are, came first out of the heart? This is true; but then he means a great deal more, namely, that they are in the hearts and souls of all men, though they do not know it: this is their nature, till it has been brought before God in repentance, and in some measure purged by his holy Spirit. Unless you first learn this lesson from Christ, you will learn nothing else from him. What a foul sink of pollution, and all manner of wickedness, is the heart of man! And what need have we all of forgiveness and cleansing !

Ver. 14-23.

We have seen that that which makes us polluted in God's sight is within; and we are naturally full of it, far beyond what we can conceive or imagine.

SECTION XXV

Chap. vii. ver. 24-37.

A CANAANITES' DAUGHTER AND DEAF-MAN HEALED.

Ver. 24-30. In this woman we have a lively representation of the workings of a penitent soul in distress: it comes hungering and thirsting to Christ, knows its wants, pleads hard for relief, trusts in him for it, and will take no denial.

24. And from hence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into a house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid.

25. For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet:

26. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.

How will the coming of this woman to Christ, upon the hearing concerning him, condemn us, if, after all our reading and hearing of him in the scripture, we do not come to him in faith!

Think also what need you have to fall down at his feet; all depends upon this discovery. And after that which you have read in this chapter of the heart of man, do not suppose that have no devil to cast out. you He has surest hold of us when he lies quietly within us.

27. But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the

dogs.

By children, Christ means the Jews. The remark which the Saviour made was a hard saying from the mouth of one possessed of so much goodness. But what did she do? She did not turn away from him in scorn and anger, as we do, when the truth is told us.