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27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.

j John iii. 35.

the GOODNESS was as conspicuous as the wisdom, because whatever most accredits Christianity as of divine origin and authority heightens its influence and extends its blessings. To which may be added, that it is another affecting proof of the divine benevolence, that he has made simplicity and prayer, which all may attain and use, the gates to the knowledge of the deepest truths of religion; and not human learning and genius, which fall to the lot of few. Into what rich, hallowing, and consolatory views of the truth of the holy scripture are those led, who, though neither "wise nor learned," according to the world's estimate, look up with simplicity to the Fountain of inspiration himself, and read the sacred page with the sincere desire to Do as well as to KNOW" the good, and perfect, and acceptable will of God!" To all such, "the entrance of the word giveth light;" and "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him." See note on Luke x. 21.

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Verse 27. All things are delivered to me of my Father. Those who interpret this delivering of all things to Christ, of the universal " power given to him " as Mediator, break the connexion of the discourse, and bring in an entirely new subject without necessity. He had been speaking of the revelation of his doctrine by THE FATHER," but he here states that this revelation from the Father was not immediate or distinct from his own teaching, but made entirely through himself. Hence all things mean, all things contained in this revelation; and delivered is to be taken in the sense of being taught a doctrine; a meaning which Tapadovval frequently has. So Mark vii. 13, ing the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered," or taught. Christ, therefore, received his doctrine from the Father,

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k John vi. 46.

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and revealed it to his disciples; yet not as the prophets, not as a mere man might receive wisdom from God, by inspiration. This supposition he excludes by the important and deeply mysterious words which follow; words which indicate a relation between himself, THE SON, and the father, which places an infinite distance between him and the greatest of the prophets. No man knoweth the Son but the Father, which it would have been even absurd to say, had the Son been a merely human being, and therefore as comprehensible as any other human being. There is a mystery in the Son which the Father alone knoweth. "For no one," says Origen upon this very text, know him who is uncreated, and begotten before every created nature, as the Father who begat him, ws o yevνNσAS AUTOV ĦATNP.” And no man knoweth the Father but the Son, the persons in the Godhead alone being fully known to each other; and it is from this perfect and adequate knowledge of the Father which is possessed by the Son, that he is able to communicate with absolute clearness and certainty the will and counsels of the Father. Such is the basis of the infallibility of the teaching of Christ as THE DIVINE SON, he fully knows the divine Father; and of him and his designs he revealed all that was necessary to the salvation of men to his disciples, in order to its being taught to the world. It is therefore added, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him There is no true knowledge of God but through the Son; and he who is taught of Christ sees "light in his light." Instead of no man and any man, in this verse, the rendering ought to have been rather, no one or any one; for every created being, and not man only, is excluded here from the perfect comprehension of the Father and the Son

28 ¶ Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

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4 1 Jer. vi. 16.

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Verse 28. Come unto me, &c. qualified to be the infallible guide of souls, our Saviour utters this public and universal invitation to every weary and heavyladen spirit. The yoke is the instrument by which oxen are subjected to their labour; the burden is a weight laid upon beasts or men; and the allusion of each is to the traditions of the scribes and Pharisees, by which the people were subjected to a variety of onerous and superstitious observances, which oppressed and galled the sincere but ill-instructed seeker of salvation. Nothing indeed could so move the compassion of Christ, as the spectacle of many awakened souls, earnestly desirous of knowing what they must do to be saved, being directed only to those Pharisaic observances which, instead of giving them peace of mind, only cheated and deceived, and led to all the weariness of repeated disappointment. For what had these blind teachers to offer to troubled consciences? men who had given up the typical intent of their own sacrifices, by which it had been intended that faith in the great promised propitiation should always be maintained; and who had converted them into unmeaning and profitless ceremonies, besides multiplying the number of ritual observances beyond the requirements of their written law? They bound a harsh yoke upon the necks of their followers, and oppressed them with heavy burdens. Such are invited by Christ to come to him, and learn of him, to learn that which alone can meet their

m 1 John v. 3.

case, that he was the true sacrifice for sin, that an entire trust in him, by securing the remission of their sins, would give rest to their souls, and that thus being delivered from guilty fears, and assured of the divine favour, and renewed in holiness, "his yoke," the yoke of his commandments, moral, spiritual, and practical, would be found easy, xpnsos, ‘benign, mild, and gracious;" and his "burden," whether of duties or restraints, founded in the nature and relations of man, and enjoining nothing but what is itself "good and profitable to men," would be "light." Thus are we taught, that he only can find "rest to his soul," who comes to Christ as the true propitiation for his sins, in entire trust in the infinite merits of his sacrifice and mediation and whoever has found this rest, runs with delight and joy the way of his commandments; which are so consonant with the holy principles that divine grace has planted within him, so commend themselves to enlightened reason, and so manifestly and powerfully promote the peace of families, and the happiness of society, that, though Christ also has his yoke, and requires subjection to his authority, and his burden too, since every inan must toil and labour in his service, yet conviction, love, and the strength of grace render the yoke easy and the burden light; and all his true disciples unite in the testimony, that his "service is perfect freedom."

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CHAPTER XII.

1 Christ reproveth the blindness of the Pharisees concerning the breach of the sabbath, 3 by scriptures, 9 by reason, 13 and by a miracle. 22 He healeth the man possessed that was blind and dumb. 31 Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall never be forgiven. 36 Account shall be made of idle words. 38 He rebuketh the unfaithful, who seek after a sign: 49 and sheweth who is his brother, sister, and mother.

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1 At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.

2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.

a Mark i. 23; Luke vi. 1; Deut. xxiii. 25.

CHAPTER XII. Verses 1, 2.—On the sabbath day through the corn, &c.—The plural oaßßao is used for the singular; so in the LXX. nw is rendered both σaßßalov, and σαββαλα. Through the corn, δια των σπου puwv, through the corn-fields, which often had public paths along or through them. The action itself of plucking the ears of corn was lawful, as appears from 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 unto thy neighbour's standing corn." The question then simply was, whether this action of the disciples was lawful on the sabbath, which the Pharisees denied. They regarded plucking, as it would appear from Maimonides, as a kind of reaping, which, being servile work, was utterly prohibited on the sabbath. Very numerous and oppressive indeed were the regulations as to the observance of the sabbath which the Jewish teachers had superstitiously grafted upon the original law; and our Saviour takes frequent occasion to show his disregard of them, in order to place the duty of observing the sabbath upon its true ground, and thus the more forcibly to commend it to the convictions of reason and the regards of a true piety. As it stood in the decalogue, he came "not to destroy but to fulfil it;" but the other regulations re

specting it, which the political laws of Moses contained, passed away with the Jewish polity itself; and as to those additions which were founded on mere human traditions, Christ by his own example has taught us, that the sabbath of the Lord, which is 66 a delight and honourable," is not to be converted into "a yoke of superstitious bondage.” But, on the other hand, it is to be remarked, that the example of Christ guards with equal care the true limit of Christian liberty. It is not liberty to apply the sabbath to secular purposes, or to spend it in sloth or pleasure. He himself devoted it to religion by teaching in the synagogues on the sabbath, and was probably on this occasion travelling from synagogue to synagogue with his disciples, when they, from mere hunger, plucked the ears of corn. Thus he has taught us to apply the leisure of the sabbath to its sacred end, the worship of God, and attendance upon public instruction. Nor is there any instance of his giving the slightest sanction to worldly labour or listless recreation on that sacred day. Works of NECESSITY, such as supplying the demand of hunger, and drawing a beast out of a pit, are the only examples of exception to which he refers for the justification of his own conduct; and works of MERCY, such as healling the sick, when actually present before him, are the only instances in which he

3 But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him;

4 How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?

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5 Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?

6 But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.

b 1 Sam. xxi. 6. c Exod. xxix. 33; Lev. viii. 31; xxiv. 9.

suffered his own example to be pleaded for any seeming departure from its strict observance, instances which only confirm the sanction of its hallowed character, and universal obligation.

Verses 3, 4.-What David did when he was an hungred.-The example to which our Lord here refers in order to silence the Pharisees shows that the case of the disciples was one of real hunger, not to be sustained without faintness and being unfitted for duty, as was that of David and his companions; and the argument is, that the law, rightly understood, never did exclude the consideration of such instances of necessity, and was therefore to be interpreted according to the intention of the Legislator. "The shewbread" taken by David and his followers, consisted of twelve cakes, which were placed upon the altar of shewbread every sabbath, the old cakes being at the same time removed and eaten by the priests "in the holy place."

Verse 5. The priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless. This was another argument from necessity as connected both with piety and charity. Had the law of the sabbath been interpreted as rigidly as the Pharisees would have it understood; if "doing no manner of work," which evidently means work for secular advantage, was to be taken to signify an almost absolute cessation from bodily exertion; then the temple service must have been interrupted; the shewbread could not have been "set in order;"

d Num. xxviii. 9.

and the regular sacrifices, which were doubled on the sabbath, could not have been offered. This was an argument which the Pharisees could not resist; for, first, our Lord appeals to the law, "Have ye not read in the law," that sacrifices are commanded to be offered on the sabbath by the priests? who must therefore profane the sabbath; that is, do that which but for this authority, and in respect of the end for which it was done, would have been a profanation; and yet, for these reasons, are blameless. And, second, as they no doubt held the opinion of their more recent doctors, that "the servile works which are done about holy things are not servile;" and that, as Maimonides expresses it, "there is no sabbatism at all in the temple;" so upon their own principles it followed, that every work done on the sabbath was not unlawful. The natural objection which the Pharisees would raise to this argument as intended to justify the disciples, would be, that the priests were exempted from the rest of the sabbath in the temple, under the authority of Him who was greater than the temple, even God; for they esteemed nothing more holy and venerable than the temple, save God himself. This objection our Lord evidently anticipates in

the next verse.

Verse 6. In this place is one greater than the temple.-Some мss. read μcišov instead of μeiswv, which makes the answer of our Lord to be, "a greater work" than the work of the temple is

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7 But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.

8 For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.

9 And when he was departed thence, he went into their synagogue:

10 | And, behold, there was a man which had his hand e Hosea vi. 6; Matt. ix. 13.

that in which my disciples are employed; and they are therefore entitled to be exempted, as well as the priests, from a strict sabbatical observance. This makes a plausible sense; but the Mss. in which the reading occurs are not of the first authority, and it does not accord with the context. The common reading is therefore to be preferred, and is established indeed by what follows,-" for the Son of Man is Lord even of the sabbath-day." Taking these passages together, they amount to a declaration, that Christ, being greater than the temple, was the Lord of the temple; and therefore God ; and, as such, was the "Lord of the sabbath-day," having authority to institute it, to prescribe the rules of its observance, and to limit and relax them according to his sovereign pleasure. This conclusive argument therefore, fully exhibited, is, that as you, the Pharisees, acknowledge, that only he who is greater than the temple could relax the sabbatical law as to the service of the temple, and on this ground justify the servile works of the priests; I am

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greater than the temple," and, as the "Lord of the sabbath," have the right to permit my disciples to pluck the ears of corn and eat them on the sabbathday; and they, as acting under my authority, like the priests of the temple, are "blameless." So explicitly does our Lord assert his divinity! It is, however, to be observed, that our Lord argues here on the concession that the disciples had violated the strict rule of the sabbath, as charged upon them by the Pharisees. Granting even that, he pronounces them "guiltless," as acting under his authority as "the Lord of the sabbath," the Law

f Mark iii. 1; Luke vi. 6.

giver himself; and he seems to have chosen thus to put the argument to give him an opportunity of asserting, in the midst of his lowliness and humility, the glory of his Divine Majesty : but the fact was, that, rightly interpreted, they had not violated the law at all, as he shows by justifying them on the principle, first, of necessity, from the example of David, and then of mercy, by his quotation from Hosea vi. 6, "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice;" so that on either ground he defended them from the inculpation.

Verse 7. I will have mercy, and not sacrifice. That is, when the claims of the one come into competition with those of the other. The last argument was peculiarly reproving to the Pharisees, who shamefully relaxed the laws of morality by their subtle interpretations, and set themselves at liberty to commit acts of rapacity and cruelty under the colour of sanctity and zeal, whilst they gave a proportionably rigid interpretation to every rule which respected external and ceremonial observances. This is an hypocrisy in which they have been often followed; for many in all churches and in all ages have been found zealous for forms just in proportion as they have been regardless of practical holiness. Such are "the refuges of lies" into which the wilfully deluded consciences of men often fly for shelter; but from all which they must sooner or later be dragged by the "light which makes all things manifest." See notes on Mark ii. 23—28.

Verse 10. Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath-day?—This was a question debated among the Jews; and many distinctions were set up as to the cases in which me

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