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57 Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?

58 When thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him; lest he hale thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison.

59 I tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence, till thou hast paid the very last mite.

CHAPTER XIII.

1 Christ preacheth repentance upon the punishment of the Galileans, and others. 6 The fruitless fig tree may not stand. 11 He healeth the crooked woman: 18 sheweth the powerful working of the word in the hearts of his chosen, by the parable of the grain of mustard seed, and of leaven: 24 exhorteth to enter in at the strait gate, 31 and reproveth Herod and Jerusalem.

1 THERE were present at that season some that told him of the Galilæans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

1 Matt. v. 25.

have discovered that this time was "the acceptable time" spoken of by the prophet, and "the day of salvation." For their diligent attention to matters of so little comparative moment as the kind of weather which should come on the morrow, and their carelessness to a subject of the highest import, they are here reproved as hypocrites, persons pretending to have extraordinary desires for the appearance of Messiah, and yet neglecting to investigate the signs of his coming.

Verse 57. Yea, and why even of yourselves ?—Independent of signs and wonders, why do ye not of yourselves, from comparing in your minds the doctrines I teach with those of your own scriptures, judge what is right, discern its conformity with all the principles of former revelations, and mark the extent and depth into which they are carried by my teaching, and acknowledge that it is from God? In our translation the paragraph mark connects this verse with what follows, instead of the preceding verses, to which it undoubtedly belongs

See Mark xii. 42.

Verse 58. When thou goest with thine adversary, &c.—See the notes on Matt. v. 25, 26, where the explanation of the terms and allusions of the parable will be found; but it was here spoken on a different occasion. It was, in fact, an exhortation to the Jews to be reconciled to their offended and rejected Saviour whilst the season of grace and salvation continued, drawn from the prudence of a debtor compromising matters with his creditor on the way to the magistrate, as the only means of escaping the harsh punishments inflicted in those days upon debtors, such as perpetual imprisonment till the debt was paid, with various torments. This is another instance of the same parable being spoken at different times, and to illustrate different morals.

CHAPTER XIII. Verse 1. The Galilæans, whose blood, &c.-As this incident is not mentioned by Josephus, it is impossible to ascertain the occasion of this slaughter. Pilate was a severe and cruel governor, aμeiklos, as Philo describes

2 And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilæans were sinners above all the Galilæans, because they suffered such things?

3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

4 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem ?

5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

6 He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.

* Or, debtors.

him, and ready to take severe and indiscriminate revenge when there was any approach to tumult. Such turbulent commotions did in fact frequently take place at the great feasts at Jerusalem, and especially the passovers; and it is not unlikely that in one of these Pilate fell upon a body of Galileans. The place of the slaughter must have been Jerusalem, and in the precints of the temple; because their blood is said to have been mingled with their sacrifices, that is, with the blood of their sacrifices. The conclusion to which the Jews probably had come was, that on account of this calamity being permitted to overtake them, they were in a peculiar sense sinners, sinners above others. They did not infer this from their tumultuous disposition; for to oppose the Roman authority was, in the estimation of the Jews, a virtue rather than a crime: but, as we may collect from the other example of the falling of the tower of Siloam, adduced by our Lord, it was the received notion that great calamities marked out the sufferers as special objects of the divine displeasure, and therefore as eminently sinners. Our Lord corrects this uncharitable and pernicious error. He does not deny that the suffering parties were sinners, or that all calamity is generally to be considered

the punishment of sin; but he discountenances the notion that they were sinners more than other inhabitants of Jerusalem, and that external sufferings are to be taken as the comparative measure of moral guilt; and further, on these circumstances he grounds the solemn warning, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. This threat has in it the nature of a prediction; for great numbers of impenitent Jews, at the siege of Jerusalem, perished in a similar manner. The temple was often the seat of conflict, and the sacred places were drenched with the blood of the priests, and those who had come

to

offer sacrifices; whilst the fall of the tower of Siloam, one of the towers of the city walls, near the fountain of Siloam, upon the eighteen victims, might be considered as emblematical of the fall of those towers and walls of their city, amidst the ruins of which the Jews perished. The parable which follows urges still further the necessity of immediate repentance.

Verses 6, 7. A fig tree planted in his vineyard. The union of vines and fig-trees in the same garden or plot of ground appears to have been quite customary; and one of the most beautiful images of rural tranquillity and prosperity is that of men 'sitting under their vines and fig-trees,"

7 Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?

8 And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it:

9 And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.

none making them afraid. Many of their orchards were planted with vines and fig-trees in alternate rows.

Came and sought fruit thereon.—The proprietor did this for three years, reckoning, no doubt, from the time when it had become mature, or capable of bearing fruit. The fig-tree is said not to bring forth edible fruit until it has been planted three years; but if so, there can be no allusion to this, since the planter well enough knew that it would be useless to seek fruit upon it the first or second year, and yet he is represented as having gone three years, seeking fruit. The three years, therefore, mark his care not to condemn a tree to the axe which might become fruitful; for the easterns are peculiarly careful of their fruit-trees, on which they depend for food more than we; and also his patience in waiting until the case became hopeless.

Why cumbereth it the ground?-More literally, Why does it make the ground idle? that is, to cease from bearing fruit; which it would do, if the same space were occupied by a good tree. Why does it uselessly take up room? Cut it down, and plant another tree. The word is rare in heathen authors, and is used but four times in the LXX. St. Paul, however, employs it six times; but chiefly in figurative applications. It is

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from ing from labour.

Verse 8. Till I shall dig about it and dung it. That these means were not necessary to produce fertility in fig-trees, is evident from their growing and bearing fruit often by the waysides; and therefore these words of the vine-dresser denote the application of extraordinary means of conquering the barrenness. If, however,

they were used in the cultivation of figtrees in enclosures, as appears from the classical quotations adduced by Wetstein, then the meaning of our Lord is, that it should be dug about and manured for another season; but still the words imply something extraordinary in the care and attention which were to be bestowed upon it.

Verse 9. If it bear fruit, well.-The well is supplied by the translators, but it properly and emphatically fills up the sense. Similar ellipses occur in the best Greek writers, as Kypke and Wetstein have shown. Euthymius supplies the ellipse by ευ έχει. As to the meaning of the parable, nothing can be more obvious, or more instructive. The fig-tree certainly represents the Jewish nation, planted by the hand of God himself, and favoured with special culture in his own vineyard, in order that it might yield the fruits of religion and piety. Nor does there seem any good reason why the three years, in which he is coming seeking fruit, should not have respect to the three years of our Lord's public ministry, although some would take them for an indefinite time. Certainly, as "where much is given much is required," the privilege of our Lord's great and attested ministry laid the nation under additional obligation to bring forth the fruits of righteousness, and these were actually in a proportionate measure required from them. The three years' delay before the sentence was pronounced, shows the calm and patient manner in which God governs the world; for he is "slow to anger, though great in power." The vinedresser represents our great Mediator. By his intercessions a longer space was obtained for the Jewish nation, and mul

10 And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.

11 ¶ And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.

12 And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.

13 And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.

14 And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.

15 The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?

tiplied means of salvation by the effusions of the Spirit, and the preaching of the apostles; so the final execution of the sentence could no more be questioned on the ground either of justice or mercy, than the cutting down of a fig-tree, after a delay of four years from the period of maturity, and the use of all means to render it fruitful. In this parable the Jews were solemnly warned of the necessity of instant repentance; and both the long-suffering and righteousness of God in his dealings with them were illustrated. If this be the natural and obvious primary sense of the parable, the pious use which has often been made of it in sermons to rouse both nations and individuals to a sense of the necessity of IMMEDIATE REPENTANCE, may be fully justified against the cavils of some commentators. The PRINCIPLES involved in the parable are doubtless those on which Almighty God acts in the case of all, who like the Jews are favoured with peculiar religious advantages. Towards them he will exercise " long-suffering; " all will find a pleading, pitying Intercessor; but mercy has its limit, mediation its boundary; and persevering unfruitful

ness will bring "the axe to the root of the tree." These things were not spoken to the Jews only, but to us.

Verse 11. A spirit of infirmity.-That is, an evil spirit producing infirmity, for this follows from what is stated verse 16, "This woman, whom Satan hath bound;" so that the πνευμα ασθένειας is not, as some pretend, a Hebrew idiom for the disease. She had been contracted or bent double by Satan; and, at the healing touch of our Lord, she was made straight, stood upright, and glorified God. This is a fine emblem of his raising the souls of men bent to earth, and fixed only on worldly pursuits, inspiring them with heavenly affections, teaching them to look upward, and thus to glorify God. On our Lord's healing on the sabbath-day, see the notes

on Matt. xii. 1—12.

Verse 15. Thou hypocrite.-This affec tation of regard to the sabbath, to the neglect of the exercise of mercy when they had no interest at stake, and yet practising it when their property was con cerned, as in the case of the care they took of their beasts on the sabbath, was manifest hypocrisy, as being done under the influence of mercenary motives.

THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE

ROMANS.

CHAPTER I.

18 God is angry with all

1 Paul commendeth his calling to the Romans, 9 and his desire to come to them. 16 What his gospel is, and the righteousness which it sheweth. manner of sin. 21 What were the sins of the Gentiles.

1 PAUL, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, ⚫ separated unto the gospel of God,

a Acts xiii. 2.

CHAPTER I. Verse 1. Paul.· - - The Jews did not scruple to take Greek or Roman names, or to alter their own so as to be like them. Some hold that he took the name of Paul upon the conversion of Sergius Paulus the Roman governor, Acts xiii. 12.

to

A servant.—▲ovλos does not always mean a slave; but sometimes, as with us, a servant. So the master in the parable is represented as ordering the servant, douxos, indebted to him, to be sold pay the debt; which would have been of no advantage had he been already the absolute property of his lord. It is not therefore, as some suppose, in the oriental sense that St. Paul calls himself the dovλos of Jesus Christ, and that Christians are called dovλot; and it is not without reason that the translation, "Paul, a SLAVE of Jesus Christ," would sound offensively. Not that all Christians are not the absolute property of Christ as purchased by him; but they are his also by rational and affectionate choice; and there is a manliness and a freeness in the spirit in which they serve him, which is inconsistent with the idea of slavery. Indeed, St. Paul, being a Jew, was not likely to use the term slave in the oriental sense; for no Hebrew was allowed to be held in perpetual bondage, which was a state regarded with the utmost ab

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Called to be an apostle.-St. Paul in his epistle not only asserts his apostleship, as do other apostles in their epistles, but usually with some emphatic addition. His general formula is, "by the will of God:" here it is, called to be an apostle, that is, called specially, not when the twelve were called, nor in the same manner; but in a manner so remarkable, so miraculous indeed, called by our Lord himself in his glory, as to stamp his mission with the strongest authority. It was the more necessary for St. Paul to keep his apostolic character and authority prominently before the churches, because the corrupting teachers of the perpetual obligation of Judaism, and those who wished to bring the Gentile believers under the yoke of the law, endeavoured to lower the authority of this great champion of Gentile liberty, and probably because he was not of the original number of the apostles chosen during the life of our Lord. That his apostleship was sometimes questioned by these perverse men, is certain; and on what other ground, it is difficult to conceive.

Separated unto the gospel of God.Here too he has respect to his vocation

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