26 Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.

h

27¶ But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,

28 Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.

29 And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also.

30 Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.

k

31 And as ye would that men should do to to them likewise.

1

you, do ye also

32 For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them.

33 And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ? for sinners also do even the same.

m

ye

34 And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.

h Matt. v. 44.

were

j 1 Cor. vi. 7.

i Matt. v. 39. 1 Matt. v. 46. Verse 26. When all men speak well of you. There is no more reason to suppose that these words were spoken to the apostles, by way of hypothetic caution, than that the woes in the preceding verses were addressed to them. The Jewish priests and doctors are the persons still intended. They were universally popular; all men spake well of them; they "of the world," and the world in them "loved its own;" but this, says our Lord, only proved them to be deceivers, for so did their fathers to the false prophets. In a wicked age, only those who prophesy smooth things can be popular. Verso 27. Love your enemies, &c.—See note on Matɩ. v. 44. No man, says one justly, had ever lived who would have invented this precept. The strongest passions of the heart oppose it, the most inveterate prejudices of all nations and all climates disavow and contradict it. We

k Matt. vii. 12; Tobit iv. 16. m Matt. v. 42.

may regard it as an absolute certainty, therefore, that the invention of man would never have produced this precept; and less perhaps than any other a Jew, by whom hatred of some descriptions of enemies was supposed to be a principle of duty.

Verses 29-38. See the notes on the sermon on the mount in Matthew. There are, however, a few variations in expression, which may here be noticed.

Verse 32. What thank have ye ?-Xapis here includes the uolos, reward, as mentioned in the parallel places of Matthew. What praiseworthy act do you perform, and what reward shall you receive?

Verse 34. If ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive.-Either the interest of money lent, and then this is a traffic in money, and no favour; or under stipulation of some equivalent return in any other way. In either case the beneficent

35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.

36 Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.

37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:

38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

39 And he spake a parable unto them, ° Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch?

40 P The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master.

41 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

42 Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy

brother's eye.

43 For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

44 For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.

45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.

46 ¶And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

q Matt. vii. 3.

r Matt. vii. 16.

s Matt. vii. 21.

and in spirit and temper fully conformed to it, or what he himself, in another place, calls being "sanctified by the truth." That our Lord is here speaking of his own disciples, is clear from his saying, the disciple is not above his Master, meaning that it cannot be, it is a thing impossible; which would not be true of the disciples of a human master, for by them he might be excelled, however excellent. No disciple of Christ can, however, rise above his Master, who is introduced apparently for the express purpose of impressing us the more forcibly with the height of our POSSIBLE attainments through the grace of God; for every one that is perfect shall be as his Master. Καταρτίζειν is to compact or knit together, hence to make ready, to perfect; and, applied to teaching, fully to instruct. Every fully instructed disciple therefore shall be as his Master; in other words, the end

of our discipleship is to be made like Christ; and this shall be the glorious result, if we continue to follow him. "The mind that was in Christ" shall be in us; and it is only as we advance in this state of conformity to our Saviour that we approve ourselves as his true disciples. For as every perfectly instructed or prepared disciple thinks, wills, and acts in the same manner as his Master, so are we to THINK, WILL, and ACT like Christ.

Verse 41. The mote that is in thy brother's eye.-See the note on Matt. vii. 3.

Verses 43, 44. A good tree, &c.-See notes on Matt. vii. 16-18.

Verse 45. A good man out of the good treasure, &c.—See notes on Matt. xii 34, 35.

Verse 46. Lord, Lord.-See notes on Matt. vii. 21-23.

47 Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like :

48 He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house and could not shake it for it was founded upon a rock.

49 But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

CHAPTER VII.

1 Christ findeth a greater faith in the centurion a Gentile, than in any of the Jews. 10 healeth his servant being absent: 11 raiseth from death the widow's son of Nain: 19 answereth John's messengers with the declaration of his miracles: 24 testifieth to the people what opinion he held of John: 30 inveigheth against the Jews, who with neither the manners of John nor of Jesus could be won: 36 and sheweth by occasion of Mary Magdalene, how he is a friend to sinners, not to maintain them in sins, but to forgive them their sins, upon their faith and repentance.

1 Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum.

2 And a certain centurion's servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die.

a Matt. viii. 5.

Verses 47-49. To whom he is like, &c. -See notes on Matt. vii. 24-27.

CHAPTER VII. Verse 2. A certain centurion's servant.-As the preceding discourse of our Lord, though in part composed of passages in the sermon on the mount, appears to have been delivered at a different time and occasion, some have thought this account of the healing of the centurion's servant a different history from the very similar one recorded in Matthew, chap. viii. But the strong agreeIment of the circumstances and the speeches almost irresistibly demonstrate it to be the same miracle. Nor is there any necessity for connecting it with the preceding discourse. The first verse of this chapter may be considered as the conclusion of the narrative, in which the

discourse is introduced; and so this account of the centurion, as well as that of the following miracle, will be quite distinct, and in St. Luke's manner brought in without respect to the order of their occurrence. See the notes on this miracle, Matt. viii. 5, &c. St. Luke introduces the additional circumstance of the elders of the Jews interceding with Christ on his behalf. In St. Matthew, the centurion himself is said to come. He came by proxy; and, according to the Jewish saying, "every man's proxy is as himself. * and in the scriptures it is customary to make messengers speak as in the very words of those who send them. So James and John speak by their mother, Mark x. 35; Matt. xx. 20. And Abigail answers the messengers of David as if he were present himself, 1 Sam. xxv. 40, 41.

3 And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his

servant.

4 And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this: 5 For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue.

6 Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof:

7 Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.

8 For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.

9 When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

10 And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick.

11 ¶ And it came to pass the day after, that he went into a city called Nain; and many of his disciples went with him, and much people.

Verse 4. That he was worthy.—They did not necessarily mean that he deserved the favour; but that, being a pious worshipper of the true God, a lover of the nation as having the knowledge of the true God among them, the only ground on which a Roman could love a people generally despised by his countrymen,and one who had given proof both of his zeal and liberality, by building a synagogue at his own expense, he was a fit person to be favourably noticed; or there was great fitness in marking out such a man as a special object of regard; and our Lord allowed the force of the plea by going down immediately with them.

Verses 11-16. A city called Nain.-This city is fixed, both by Jerome and Eusebius, in Lower Galilee, about a mile south of Mount Tabor. This great and affecting miracle presents itself, in the account of St. Luke, under many interesting views. It was a very public one; for beside the persons attending the funeral, the disciples of Christ were with him, and much people. He was entering the gate of the city whilst the corpse was carried out to the place of burial without the walls; so that apparently it depended upon the mere accident of meeting it at the moment whether the dead should be raised to life, and the broken-hearted mother comforted.