18

cxviii.

Christ laments over Jerusalem.

out devils, and I do

cures to-day and tomorrow, and the third

day I shall be perfected.

33 Nevertheless I

to-morrow, and the

SECT. wicked, and voracious prince, Behold, I cast out demons, and perform cures in thy dominions Luke to-day and to-morrow, and carry on my work a XIII. 32. little while longer, and the third day I shall be perfected; for the appointed time will quickly come when I shall finish my course, and have 33 done all that I intend here. In the mean while he may well allow me a license to stay in his must walk to-day and territories so long, at least on such kind and gra- day following: for it cious designs: or howsoever he may be unwilling cannot be that a proto allow it, yet, nevertheless, I must go on in this phet perish out of Je leisurely progress (as I just now said) to-day, and to-morrow, and the third day, till the deter mined season comes in which my ministry shall be fulfilled: nor do I fear the effects of Herod's malice; for it cannot be supposed that a prophet should perish, or be put to death, any where out of Jerusalem; that unhappy city, the seat of the supreme court, challenging, as it were, to itself the sad prerogative of being the slaughterhouse of the messengers of God.

34

rusalem.

34 O Jerusalem, Je

rusalem, which killest

And upon this, turning, in thought at least,
towards Jerusalem, though it lay at the distance
the prophets, and
of so many miles, he took up a most affectionate stonest them that are
lamentation over it, and said, O Jerusalem, Je- sent unto thee; how
rusalem, thou guilty and miserable city! who, gathered thy children
though thou hast been distinguished by Divine together, as a hen doth
favours beyond any place on earth, yet with the gather her brood under
utmost ingratitude and cruelty slayest the pro- would not?
her wings, and ye

phets, and stonest, as the vilest malefactors, those
who are sent unto thee as the ambassadors of God!
How often would I have gathered thy children
together unto myself, with all the tenderness of
parental love, and have sheltered, comforted,
and cherished them, even as a hen [gathers] her
little brood of chickens under her wings? yet you
were still regardless of the offers of my grace,
and would not be persuaded to hearken to my

g And the third day I shall be perfected.] Many suppose, and I think very reasonably, that our Lord is not to be understood as speaking exactly of three days, but of a little period of time: see Hos. vi. 2. and compare the original of Gen. xxxi. 2. Exod. iv. 10. Deut. xix. 4. Josh. iii. 4. 1 Sam. xix. 7. and I Chron. xi. 2. in all which places yesterday and the third day signifies lately, or a little while ago.-On this interpretation the word that, I shall be perfected, may refer to Christ's finishing the work of redemption, and being by death consecrated to his office as the great

call,

High-Priest and Captain of our Salvation, } as the word is used Heb. ii. 10. v. 8, 9, 10. vii. 27, 28.

h It cannot be supposed that a prophet, &c.] John the Baptist had lately perished in Galilee; so that the expression ex eydex elas can import no more than this version expresses, which Elsner has shewn to be its proper sense; (Elsner Observ. Vol. I. p. 242)

Drusius, Grotius, Knatchbull, and many other eminent critics refer this to the right which the sanhedrim alone had to punish a person as a false prophet,

Reflections on the necessity of striving for heaven.

35 Behold your call, and to accept my favour. And now, alas, SECT.

house is left unto vou behold with awful dread, and remark the pre- cxviii.

desolate and verily

the time come when

19

I say unto you, Ye diction and event, your house is left unto you Luke
shall not see me, until desolate; and the hour is just at hand, when XIII. 35
ye shall say, Blessed your children, whom I would have gathered to
is he that cometh in myself, shall perish, and your temple shall be
the name of the Lord. utterly destroyed: and, in the mean time, I

assuredly say unto you, That I will quickly cease
my labours among you, and retire in such
righteous displeasure, that you shall see me no
more, till the time come when, taught by your
calamities, you shall be ready and disposed to
say, Blessed [be] he that cometh in the name of
the Lord, and shall in vain wish for the succour
of him whom you now despise. (Compare
Mat. xxiii. 37-39, sect. clviii.)

IMPROVEMENT.

AND who would not welcome such a Saviour, when he appears Ver. on so kind a design! who would not bless him that cometh in the 35 name of the Lord, to gather our souls with the tenderest care and to shelter us from wrath and ruin! that Saviour, whose bowels 34 yearned over us, and whose heart poured forth its blood for us! Too many reject him, and will not hearken to the kindest calls of his compassionate voice. Unhappy creatures! the time will come, when they too late will be convinced of their fatal error.

Let each of us be solicitous for himself. Away with those vain 23 curiosities, which serve only to amuse and distract our thoughts. Let us call, and fix them down to the great concerns of our own salvation and, if we would secure it, let us prepare to encounter 24 difficulties, and strive, as for our lives, to break through all the opposition of our enemies, and resolutely to enter in at the strait gate. How many have sought it, when the door has been barred? and how soon may the great Master of the house arise and shut it 25 for ever against those who are yet trifling!

i You shall see me no more, till-you shall say, Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord.] Some supposing these words refer to the congratulations which Christ received on his entrance into Jerusalem, (Mat. xxi. 9. Mark xi. 10. Luke xix. 58. and John xii. 13. sect. cxlvi.) urge them as a reason for placing this section after the 9th and 10th chapters of John, or between the feast of the dedication and his last passover. But, as our Lord repeats these words again, after his triumphant entry, (Mat.

Let

xxiii. 39, sect. clviii.) they must be ca-
pable of another interpretation, and there-
fore can afford no such argument; nor is
there any intimation of his return into Ga-
lilee between these two feasts.-It does not
imply they should ever see Jesus at all; but
only that they should earnestly wish for
the Messiah, and, in the extremity of their
distress, be ready to entertain any one
who might offer himself under that cha-
racter. Compare Luke xvii. 22, 23,
sect. cxxviii,

As

20 Christ eats bread at the house of a Pharisee on the sabbath-day.

SECT.

Let not hypocrites trust in vain words. The workers of iniquity cxviii. shall be disowned by Christ at last, though they may have eaten and Ver, drank in his presence. But oh, who can express the disappoint26, 27 ment, the rage, and despair, of those who fall from such tower28, 29 ing hopes, and plunge, as from the very gates of heaven, into the lowest abyss of darkness and horror! Their hearts will endeavour to harden themselves in vain; their doleful cries shall be distinguished in that region of universal horror! but they shall not penetrate the regions of the blessed, nor interrupt the delight, with which even the dearest of their pious relatives shall sit down in the kingdom of God:

31, 33

If we through grace have more substantial hopes, let us imitate the zeal and courage of our Divine Leader; and, whatever threatenings or dangers may oppose, let us go on day after day, till our work be done, and our souls at length perfected in glory. But let us carefully distinguish between those things, in which our Lord meant himself as our Pattern, and those which were peculiar to his office as a Prophet sent from God. That extraordinary office justified him in using that severity of language, when speaking of wicked princes and corrupt teachers, to which we have no call; and by which we should only bring scandal on religion, and ruin on ourselves, while we irritated, rather than convinced or reformned, those whom we undertook so indecently to rebuke.

SECT.

cxix.

SECT. CXIX.

Our Lord being invited to dine with a Pharisee, cures a man who had a dropsy, cautions them against an affectation of precedence, and urges them to works of charity. Luke XIV. 1—14.

LUKE XIV. 1.

LUKE XIV. 1.

as he went into

AND ND it came to pass that, just as our Lord was AND it came to pass, finishing his journey through Herod's do- the house of one of minions, he went into the house of one of the chief the chief Pharisees to XIV. 1. Pharisees", who was a magistrate of great dis

Luke

a As he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees.] As all that follows from the beginning of this xivth chapter to chap. xvii. 10, is placed by Luke before the account of his journey through Samaria to Jerusalem; and, as I find no other event in any of the evangelists before the feast of dedication to which I conclude that journey refers, I am obliged (by the rule I lay down to myself of never changing the order without apparent reason) to take

tinction,

eat

Christ cures a man that had the dropsy,

eat bread on the sab- tinction", by whom he was invited to eat bread, bath-day, that they that is, to dine with him on the sabbath-day;

watched him.

2 And, behold, there

SECT.

cxix.

21

and many of the Pharisees were present there; Luke and, as their usual custom was, they were nar- XIV. 1. rowly watching him, to make the most invidious. observations on his conduct.

And, behold, there was a certain man before 2 was a certain man be him that had a dropsy, who, having heard that Jesus was to dine there, had conveyed himself thither, in hope of cure c.

fore him, which had the dropsy.

3 And Jesus, answering, spake unto the lawyers and Pha

risces, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the

sabbath-day?

4 And they held their peace.

And he took him,

let him ago:

And Jesus, answering to the secret reasonings 3
which he discerned in their minds on this occa-
sion, said to the doctors of the law and other Pha-
risees who were then present, What do you
think now of this case? Is it lateful to heal a
distempered person on the sabbath-day? or can
there be any thing in so benevolent an action
inconsistent with the sacred rest which is re-
quired on that day?

But they were silent; as not being able, with 4
any face, to deny the legality of the action, and
yet unwilling to say any thing which might seem
to authorize or countenance those cures which
Christ performed on the sabbath-day as well as
at other times; and which, in the general, they
had been known to censure.

When Jesus therefore found that they would and healed him, and make him no reply, he extended his compassion to the poor man; and, taking him [by the hand]", he miraculously heated him before them all, and dismissed him perfectly well, restored at once to his full strength, and reduced in a moment to his proper shape and bulk.

5 And answered

And, more fully to convince them how justi- 5 them, fiable such an action was, even upon their own principles,

b A magistrate of great distinction.] If (as Dr. Whitby supposes) the person who gave the invitation was indeed one of the grand sanhedrim, he might nevertheless have a country seat in Galilee; as the higher courts never fail of allowing some recess to the members. So that Grotius's argument for transposing this story till Christ's arrival at Jerusalem seems inconclusive.

e Had conveyed himself thither, &c.] I cannot think (as some suppose) that he was one of the family: because it is said that Christ dismissed, or let him go, when he was cured; ver. 4.

d Taking him by the hand.] I know some have imagined that Christ led him aside to avoid ostentation: but the words do not express this; and, as our Lord speaks of

the cure both immediately before and after
it, there can be no room to imagine he
intended to conceal it. Probably the cir-
cumstance of taking him by the hand is men-
tioned as an instance of his cor descension;
and shews that there was nothing in the
manner of the cure which could be object-
ed to as a servile work.

e Reduced to his proper shape and bulk.]
If any ask how this could be, I answer, He
that at once could cure the dropsy with a
touch, could, if he please, annihilate the
excess of water that caused it; and it is
reasonable to believe the cure was wrought
in such a manner as would make the rea-
lity and perfection of it immediately ap-
parent.

22

SECT.

CXIX.

The parable of them that chose the highest seat.

day?

principles, as he saw they were secretly cavill- them, saying, Which of you shall have an ing at it, he said in answer to them, Which of you ass or an ox fallen into Luke if he have but an ass or an ox, that shall happen a pit, and will not XIV. 5. to fall into a pit, will not immediately draw him straightway pull him out without any scruple, even on the sabbath- out on the sabbathday f, though that is a much more laborious action, and the life of one of those animals is so much less important than the health of a man ? And can you then, without the greatest injustice, condemn me for what I have now done? And they were all so confounded at the force and evidence of what he said, that they were not not answer him again able to answer him again to these things, though they had not the candour to acknowledge themselves convinced by them.

6

6 And they could

to these things.

7 And he put forth to a parable those which were bidden, when he marked how the they chose out chief rooms; saying unto them,

than thou be bidden of him;

And he spake what may in one sense of the word be called a parable, that is, a grave, concise, and memorable sentence (sce note, Vol. VI. p. 339), to those who were invited to dinner, when he observed how they chose and contended for the chief seats at the table; and, to reprove them for their pride, and recommend humility, 8 he said unto them, There is one thing I would 8 When thou art on this occasion address to every one in the bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not company, namely, When thou art invited by down in the highest any friend to a wedding-feast, or any other great room; lest a more entertainment, remember the hint which Solo- honourable man mon has given (Prov. xxv. 6, 7), and do not sit down in the uppermost place, lest another of more honourable rank in life than thee should happen to be invited by him. And he that invited you both should come and say to thee, Thou must give and say to thee, Give place to this person; and thou shouldst then, to this man place; and avoid a second disgrace of this nature, begin with thou begin with shame shame to take the very lowest place, as conscious to take how much thou hast exposed thyself by so haugh10ty and foolish a behaviour. But rather, on 10 But when thou the contrary, when thou art thus invited, go and art bidden, go and sit sit down at first in the lowest place thou canst find 3. room; that when he that when he that invited thee comes into the that bade thee cometh, room, he may say to thee, My friend go up high

9

If he have but an ass or an ox, &c.] Our Lord had used the same reason before, almost in the same words, when vindicating the cure of the man whose hand was withered (Mat. xii. 11, Vol. VI. p. 273); and at another time had urged an argument in effect the same with regard to the cure of the crooked woman: (Luke xiii. 15, sect. cxvii.) Which may serve, among a variety of other instances, to vindicate se

er :

9 And he that bad thee and him come

room.

the lowest

down in the lowest

he

veral repetitions which must be supposed, if we desire to assert the exact and circumstantial truth of the sacred historians.-See Wotton's Miscell. Vol. II. p. 27.

g Sit down at first in the lowest place.] It is most probable that Christ himself, as illustrious a person as he was, had accordingly done thus, and sat down among them in the lowest place at the table.

h Invite