42 destructive. And this mode of using terms which have a softer import, and of expressing less than is meant, is a common figure in all languages. It should be observed that the following words are a parable: "When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours: lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." The passage immediately preceding, and which is remarkably analogous to this, is called a parable: "When thou art bidden of any man to a marriage feast, sit not down in the highest room," &c. and the introductory words to the place under consideration, "Then said he also to him that bade him," intimate that the parabolical style is continued. It must likewise be remarked that another parable instantly succeeds. Our Lord therefore may be understood as saying, Let your beneficence be free and disinterested: let your conduct resemble preparing a table for the poor, who can make no return; and not for the rich, who can make an ample one. After having thus settled the meaning of the passage, I found the following remark in Leland's view of the Deistical writers: " Chubb interprets דיק כ * aviona signifies which are highly unbecoming and sinful. So p p. 26. is vacuus and nequam. Luke xiv. 12-14. Luke. xiv. 7—10. gi. 327, Lond. 1754. Posthumous Works, i. 24. See Bishop Law's Considerations, &c. p. 311. ed. 5. what our Lord saith in a parabolical way, Luke xiv. 12, 13. concerning inviting the poor, the blind, and the lame, (and which, as may be gathered from the context, by comparing v. 7, &c. was designed to rebuke the vanity of expensive and ostentatious entertainments, whilst the poor and indigent were neglected,) as if it were his intention that all Christians should deny themselves the pleasure of entertaining or being entertained by friends, relations, and those of their own rank, and were to confine themselves wholly to the company, conversation, and friendship of the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind. Though it is very evident, from his own practice, that our Lord was far from discouraging an agreeable intercourse and conversation among friends, and the offices and entertainment of social life." When our Lord says, "Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth unto everlasting life," his meaning is, that the Jews were not to labour so much for their temporal subsistence as for their eternal well being. As multitudes attended our Lord on his way to Jerusalem, he turned and said to them: "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." He had before told his immediate followers, "He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me: and he that ¡John vi. 27. The degree of comparison is sometimes thus expressed in the Hebrew language. Jer. vii. 22, 23. Hos. vi. 6. See 1 Cor. i. 17. and Bishop Pearce's note: who quotes John xii. 44. 1 Cor. x. 24. Eph. vi. 12. Col. iii. 2. and many other places. * Luke xiv. 26, 27. ! Matt. x. 37. loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me." And he had likewise said to all his disciples, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” By "hating our Lord does not mean the passion of the mind so called, but an inferior consideration and regard; such a forsaking of the nearest relations, and such an exposing of life to the rage of persecution, as resembled the effects of hatred. All must perceive that this sacrifice of worldly connections, this severe self denial, and daily danger of death, were peculiar to the times when the rancour of the Jews and heathens was so hot against the first preachers of the gospel. When our Lord said to the young man, who had kept the law from his youth and asked what he yet wanted, "One thing thou wantest; if thou wilt be perfect, go, sell all that thou hast, and distribute to the poor; and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow me ;" the words refer to the greatest perfection that could be attained while Christ was on earth, which consisted in attending his person, in preaching the gospel with an entire reliance on Providence for daily subsistence, and in readily laying down life itself for the truth. And when the young man departed sorrowful, because he had civil authority and great possessions, our Lord went on to observe how difficult it was for the rich, or, as he explained himself, for Luke ix. 23. xxix. 30, 31. Mal. i. 2, 3. ib. 21. and p. p. "No de amore dicitur paulo remissiore. Gen. • Matt. xix. 20. Castelli Lex. 9 Luke xviii. 18. those who 'trusted in riches, to become his disciples at a time when belief in him so essentially affected men in their secular concerns: nay, he compared this difficulty to a natural impossibility, if human means only were considered. God, however, was able to effect their conversion, by the illustrious evidence to the gospel which from time to time he would vouchsafe. When our Lord girded himself, washed the feet of his disciples, and gave them this exhortation, "If I, 'your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet;" his action derived its particular propriety from eastern customs, and his precept, though immediately addressed to the apostles, was designed to teach all his disciples in general lowliness and condescension to their fellow creatures: agreeably to his admonition in another place, "Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:" which is in like manner addressed to the Twelve with peculiar pertinency; and the truth conveyed by it, "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted," will be verified among all Christians both in this world and the next. I have only one observation more to suggest on this topic of unreasonable commands. When our Lord, at the last paschal supper, gave this advice to his disciples, ""Now, he that hath a purse let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no : Mark x. 24. ⚫ John xiii. 14. xxii. 36. Matt. xx. 26, 27. " Luke sword, let him sell his upper garment, and buy one;" he meant to signify that distress and danger approached, and that it behoved each of them to provide for his subsistence and safety in such a way as prudence directed. In their circumstances men usually procured swords: and therefore he expressed their situation by saying, that, in the common course of human affairs, such weapons would be considered as necessary. The disciples mistook the tendency of his words, when they answered, "Behold, here are two swords:" with which they were probably furnished for security on their journey either * from robbers or wild beasts. Our Lord replied, "It is enough :" intimating that the Apostles were not to understand him as requiring that they should employ force in his defence or their own and this he plainly declared when he immediately subjoined that his being numbered among the transgressors must needs be accomplished in him, and also when he commanded Peter to sheath the sword which he had rashly drawn, with this remarkable admonition, that "all who take the sword should perish by the sword." * Grot. in loc. y Matt. xxvi. 52. Chubb, in his posthumous Works, v. 1. 9-26. has objected to most of the precepts here explained particularly to Matt. v. 34-7, 39, 44, 45. vi. 19-28, 34. xix. 21-24. Luke xiv. 12, 13. xxii. 35, 36. And Bolingbroke says : "Of the second sort [directed more immediately to Christ's disciples] are certain duties enjoined in this sermon, and in other parts of the gospel, which seem fit enough for a religious sect, or order of men like the Essenians, but are by no means practicable in the general society of mankind. To resist no injury, to take no care for the morrow, tò neglect providing for the common necessaries of life, and to sell all to |