fishers.

casting a net into the two brethren that were fishers, Simon, who was sea: for they were afterwards surnamed Peter, and Andrew his bro19 And he saith ther, a washing their nets upon the shore, Luke v. 2, unto them, Follow and having spent some time in discourse with them, me, and I will make or preaching to them, he went a little farther, and you fishers of men. saw two other brethren, James and John, with their 20 And they father Zebedee, all of the same trade, and they were straightway left their nets, and followed in their boats mending their nets, having newly washed them on the shore also, Luke v. 2, and now 21 And going on returned to their boats again. And soon after this, from thence, he saw other two brethren, having done a great miracle, set down distinctly, Luke James the son of Ze- V. 3, &c. (see note [a] on that chapter), he called all bedee, and John his the four, commanding them to follow him, promising brother, in a ship to make them fishers of men, or to instate them in a with Zebedee their calling (and endue them with powers) of gaining and father, mending their nets; and he called converting of men; and they all forsook their boats and trades, obeyed and followed him.

him.

them.

22 And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.

23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

:

24 And his fame went throughout all Syria and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were e lunatick, and those

e affected with any disease on which the changes

that had the palsy; of the moon had influence, whether madness or fall

and he healed them.

25 And there fol- ing sickness; see note [c] on ch. xvii.

lowed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judæa, and from beyond Jordan.

CHAP. V.

AND seeing the 1, 2. CHRIST now in a more eminent manner multitudes, he went sets upon his prophetic office, and there being a up into a mountain: and when he was great multitude present, he went up into a mounset, his [a] disciples tain, as a place of advantage to speak most aucame unto him: dibly, and there seating himself as a prophet or 2 And he opened his teacher, a company of his constant followers, all that mouth, and taught received and obeyed his doctrine, (not only the them, saying,

dom of heaven.

twelve, which were afterward chosen to be his apostles,) came close up, and communed with him, and to them he addressed his speech, saying (for the explication of this whole Sermon, see Pract. Catech. 1. 2. &c.),

3 Blessed are the 3. Blessed are all they that, how high soever their poor in spirit: for condition is in this world, are yet in mind, affection, their's is the king- and conversation humble and lowly, and they which, when they are in worldly poverty, bear it willingly, not only of necessity; for to these belong the riches, and those the greatest, even of a kingdom, and that of heaven, (see Luke vi. 20. Yours is the kingdom of heaven.)

that mourn :

forted.

4 Blessed are they a for they are of a fit temper and capacity to for receive that comfort which Christ and the Spirit offer they shall be com- to all that are capable of it; and accordingly their present sadness shall be repaired here, and moreover rewarded with future joys, Luke xvi. 25; whereas those that have most of the carnal jollities of this world, that have enjoyed all their good things here, have a sad arrear of mourning which expects them in another world.

5 Blessed are the

b the quiet-spirited persons, and they that live in meek: for they shall obedience to government; for they ordinarily shall inherit [6] the earth-live quietly, and receive the protection and benefit of

6 Blessed are they

government, and, invading no man's goods or life, shall generally enjoy long life and tranquillity in the earth. Or when the exercises of this virtue, in some singular conjunctures of time, bring losses or death upon them, they shall be richly rewarded in another world, and be made amends abundantly there for all that the practice of this virtue hath brought upon them.

whose appetites are removed from the meaner which do hunger inferior objects of our thirsts, (which may raise but and thirst after right- never satisfy our appetites,) from the worldling's importunate desires, ambitions and covetings, to the eager and impatient pursuit of the favour of God, and of piety of the highest kind, that way of salva

eousness for they shall be filled.

:

tion now proposed to men by Christ (see note [b] on Rom. i.): for these shall be sure to obtain what they pursue, and to be fully satisfied in the acquisition. 7 Blessed are the d they that are compassionate and pitifully affected merciful for they to the wants of other men, whether of their souls shall obtain mercy. or bodies, apt to relieve and to pardon, to give and to forgive; for as they shall deal with others, God shall deal with them; in their time of want and requests they shall have pity shown to them abundantly, Luke vi. 38.

f

8 Blessed are the

e

e

they, whose eye of their soul is not defiled by pure in heart for looking after fleshly or worldly lusts, nor polluted they shall [c]see God. with other foul mixtures; for by this purity they are fitted for that vision of God which none else can attain unto, Heb. xii. 14.

Blessed are

f peaceable, that love and labour for peace; for [d] the peacemak- they are like to God, as children to parents, and like ers: for they shall be the only-begotten Son of God, that great Peacemaker, and shall have the privileges that belong to such, the children's portion, that of grace in this life, and of the inheritance in another.

called the children of

God.

IO Blessed are they that suffer for the discharge of a good con5 which are persecut- science, for the constancy of their obedience to any of ed for righteousness' God's commandments; for their sufferings here shall sake: for their's is be hereafter rewarded with a kingdom; though they the kingdom of heaare opposed and persecuted by men, they shall be owned and crowned by God as his martyrs or confessors.

ven.

II Blessed are ye, h when ye shall be reviled and persecuted, and 1 when men [e] shall have all kind of evil reports calumniously raised revile you, and perse- against you, because you are professors of the faith of cute you, and shall say all manner of Christ; this was the condition of martyrs and conevil against you fessors in the Christian church, when Christianity it'falsely, for my sake. self was persecuted, (as ver. 10.) of all that constantly adhere to any part of Christian duty, and are not by any temptations of persecution, &c. moved out of it. 12 Rejoice, and 1 be exult or leap for joy; for God will reward exceeding glad for upon you, not only your integrity and your patience, great is your reward but their multiplied revilings and slanders, with a in heaven: for so multiplied recompense in another world. For thus persecuted they the prophets which were were the prophets before you dealt with, those that before you. came with commissions immediately from God, with whom if ye communicate in doing well, and suffering patiently, ye shall proportionably partake of reward with them.

:

1 Or, for righteousness' sake; for instead of evsóμevoi évekev éμoû, the Greek and Latin MS. reads, dikaioσúvns, propter justitiam.

Ye are the salt

with shall it be salt

13 13. You disciples, all sorts of true Christians, (see of the earth: but if note [a]), are the men, that by your doctrine and exemthe salt [f]have lost plary piety and charity, are to keep the whole land, his savour, where- the whole world from putrefying. But if your lives ed? it is thenceforth grow unsavoury or noisome, what means is there good for nothing, imaginable to repair or recover you? None certainly. but to be cast out, And then are ye (unsavoury Christians) the most unand to be trodden profitable refuse creatures in the world, and so shall under foot of men. be accounted of, (Mark ix. 50. Luke xiv. 34,) and dealt with accordingly.

14 Ye are the light 14. As a city set upon an high illustrious place is of the world. A city seen by all that travel near it, and by them inquired that is set on an hill after what it is, so the Christian church (which is a

cannot be hid.

most conspicuous society in respect of the difference of their lives from other men) cannot choose but be taken notice of by the rest of the world, and either attract them by their good, or discourage and deter them by their evil examples, Isa. lx. 11. Phil. ii. 15. 15 Neither do men 15. It is my design in you, (in the doctrine which put it undera bushel, ye are to preach, and the exemplary lives which you but on a candlestick; are to live) to set up a torch or eminent luminary, and it giveth light like the sun in the firmament, for all the world to be unto all that are in enlightened by it, and directed in the actions of their

light a candle, and

the house.

lives. Now ye know, it is not men's meaning, when they light a candle, to put it under that which will cover and shut up the light of it, but to set it up at the best advantage, so that it may dispense its light most freely to all that are within reach of it. And so must ye diffuse your doctrine and examples to all the heathen world, whose ignorance and sins render them 16 Let your light answerable to the dark parts of the house, which yet so shine before men, the candle, when it comes to them, doth illuminate. that they may see your good works, k honest, honourable, commendable actions, such and glorify your Fa- as are not practised by other men, ther which is in heaven.

to take any thing from the law and the prophets, i. e. the rule of duties toward God and man in 17¶Think not that I am come to 3 de- force among the Jews, to loose mankind from the stroy the [g]law, or obligations that formerly lay upon them, (v. 18, 19. the prophets: I am and note [f]); to permit, much less to cause any one not come to destroy, moral command to be evacuated, but to repair and but [h]to fulfil.

make up whatsoever is any way wanting, to restore whatsoever hath been taken from it by false interpretations of those which have striven to evacuate some parts of it, to require more explicitly what was obscure before, and where there is any need to increase and add unto the law.

2 become insipid: HAMMOND, VOL. I.

3 dissolve, or pull asunder, kaтaλÛσαι.

C

4

perfect, fill up.

18 For verily I say Till hea- to

unto you,

in Till the world be destroyed and all things come an end, no one least particle shall depart from ven and earth pass, the law, or be taken away, or lose its force or oblione [i]jot or one

5

tittle shall in no wise gation.

pass from the law,

n by his practice and doctrine evacuate any one till all be fulfilled. of the least commands of the law, or which I shall 19 Whosoever therenow deliver to you, he shall be the least, (see note on fore shall 7" break one of these least ch. viii. [k]) i. e. be despised and rejected by God in commandments, and the day of judgment, (which is called God's kingdom, shall teach men so, 2 Tim. iv. 1. Matt. xxv. 1,) or, he shall be cast out of he shall be called the the church, be thought unworthy of having his name least in the kingdom retained in the catalogue of Christians here, or saints soever shall do and hereafter, (as among the Jews he that did teach and teach them, the same do contrary to the determination of the consistory, i. e. shall be called great who, being a doctor of the law, did teach any thing in the kingdom of to be lawful which the determination of the con

of heaven: but who

heaven.

sistory made to be unlawful, he was looked upon as a rebellious elder, and was by law to be put to death.) But whosoever shall himself practise and teach others to practise all, not neglecting the very least of them, shall be rewarded in an eminent manner here and at the day of judgment, shall be a principal Christian 20 For I say unto here and saint hereafter, advanced to the dignity of you, That except your righteousness judging others, and to the glory attending it in heaven. • shall exceed the • shall abound more above the ordinary practice righteousness of the of men than the actions or righteousness of the scribes and Phari- scribes and Pharisees abounds. sees, ye shall in no

case enter into the

P delivered by Moses in the law to the Jews, kingdom of heaven. that they should commit no murder, and that he that 21 ¶ [k] Ye have did so should be liable to be tried for his life, pleadaheard that it was said ble in the lesser sanhedrim, (the house of twenty8by them of old time, three men, who had the cognizance in capital and and whosoever shall greater matters,) obnoxious to capital punishment, kill shall be in dan- that particularly of the sword.

Thou shalt not kill;

ger of the judgment:

9 for a light cause, or above the proportion of 22 But I say unto the cause, or immoderately for any cause, he shall be you, That whosodeemed to deserve that punishment which is answerever is angry with his brother 10 with- able to capital, viz. the loss of eternal life, (except reout a cause shall be pentance prevent it, and relief from the death of our in danger of the High Priest;) but he that shall call his brother, empty judgment: and who- worthless fellow, that shall vilify, deride, and scoff his brother, []Raca, other men, shall be liable to the great senate of sevenshall be in danger of ty-two, where the punishment is stoning, severer than

soever shall say to

7 loose, or dissolve to, 11 liable to,

5 iota, ἰῶτα. 6 until all things be done, ἕως ἂν πάντα γένηται. one of the least of these commandments, λύση μίαν τῶν ἐντολῶν τούτων τῶν ἐλαχίστων. τοῖς ἀρχ. 9 liable to, ἔνοχος τῇ. 10 rashly, vainly, unseasonably, eikî. ἔνοχος τῇ.