Seven, and a few little fishes.

35 And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.

36 And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave

thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.

37 And they did all eat, and were 10 filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full.

38 And they that did eat were four thousand men, beside women and children.

39 And he sent away the multitude, and took ship, and came into the coasts

of [i] Magdala.

CHAP. XVI.

THE Pharisees 1. Not being satisfied with his former answer of also with the Sad- the sign of Jonas, ch. xii. 39, they again require ducees came, and some farther sign from him, to testify that the God tempting desired him that he would shew of heaven hath sent him.

heaven.

2

them a sign from a ye hypocrites, ye have skill enough to expound and interpret the appearances of the sky, and can He answered and prognosticate what kind of weather it will be, by said unto them, When it is evening, what at the present ye observe in the colour of the ye say, It will be clouds: and when my preaching in these words, fair weather: for the Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand, and my sky is red. adding miracles of all sorts to enforce belief on you, 3 And in the morn- do not yet work on you, is it not strange that you ing, It will be foul weather to day: for cannot discern what is coming upon you? Can there the sky is red and be any more certain prognostic of approaching delowring. Oye struction than this? and are not you much more hypocrites, ye can nearly concerned herein than in rain or fair weather the sky; but can ye ye can be? Why should not your sagacity in other not discern the signs things extend to this also?

discern the face of

of the times?

4. It is an argument of great perverseness and 4 A wicked and falseness in you, that when so many miracles have adulterous genera- been wrought, and repentance so long preached sign; and there shall among you, ye now require a sign from heaven to 10 satisfied, ἐχορτάσθησαν.

tion seeketh after a

nas.

no sign be given evidence that I am a true prophet: this ye would unto it, but the sign never do if ye were not bent against all reformation. of the prophet JoAnd he left And since ye are so, all that I shall farther add is to them, and departed. put you in mind of Jonas's preaching to Nineveh, 5 And when his and to assure you, that if ye do not now repent ye disciples were come shall suddenly be destroyed. And having said this to the other side, he departed from them.

they had forgotten

to take bread.

6

said

Take special heed of the Pharisees and SadThen Jesus ducees, a sour and a proud sort of people, and so not unto them, fitter compared to any thing than to a piece of sour Take heed and dough, that diffuseth itself to the whole lump of beware of the [a]lea- bread with which it is mixed, as their disposition and of the Sadducees, doth to all their sect.

ven of the Pharisees

7 And they rea- 7. And they understood not his meaning, but from soned among them- the mention of leaven grossly conceited that the selves, saying, It is occasion of his speech was because they had fortaken no bread. gotten to bring bread along with them.

because we have

8 Which when Je

sus perceived, he

с

said unto them, O • What a piece of infidelity is this, thus to apply ye of little faith, why my speech to the want of bread!

reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no

bread?

9 Do ye not yet 9. Will you never lay to heart, or consider? understand, neither Have you so soon forgot how easily I am able to relieve remember the five your want of bread? Ye have had two competent loaves of the five evidences of this very lately afforded you, five thouthousand, and how sand men fed with five loaves, and yet twelve baskets many baskets ye took up? of fragments to spare after they were satisfied. IO Neither the seven 10. And so four thousand fed with seven loaves, loaves of the four and seven baskets of fragments remaining.

took up?

thousand, and how 11. How then could ye be guilty of so gross an inmany [6] baskets ye fidelity as to think me still unable to provide neces11 How is it that saries for myself and you, and consequently to speak ye do not under- of bread when I bid you beware

it not to you con

Sadducees?

stand that I spake 12. Then they understood their mistake, how that cerning bread, that he had not spoken of bread or leaven literally, but ye should beware that he foretold them what kind of people all the of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees were, and all that were Pharisees and of the leavened or taught, or received infusions from them, viz., that all the whole tribe of them were a sort of stood they how that hypocrites, Luke xii. 1, who pretended much piety he bade them not be- and love of the truth, and so inquired after signs ware of the leaven from heaven, ver. 1, but were indeed most perversely of bread, but of the and maliciously bent against Christ and his doctrine, risees and of the and would prove the most virulent persecutors both

12 Then under

doctrine of the Pha

Sadducees.

of him and them, ch. x. 17.

1 Look, and take heed, ópâтe kai πроσéαетε.

13 When Jesus 13. And being on his way (Mark viii. 27.) to came into the coasts Cæsarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, What opinion of [c] Cæsarea Philippi, he asked his have the multitude, Luke ix. 18, of me? do they disciples, saying, take me for an ordinary man? or a prophet, or what Whom do men say else?

that I [d] the Son of man am?

e

some old prophet of the Old Testament, either risen from the dead, (as it is clear they expected Elias 14 And they said, Some say that thou should come again,) or else that the soul of one of art John the Baptist: them was by way of transmigration (which the Pharisome, Elias; and sees had borrowed from the Pythagoreans) come into others, Jeremias, his body. See note [a] on John ix.

e

or one of the pro

phets.

16. To this question Simon Peter particularly rend15 He saith unto ered an answer, Thou art the Messias, even the Sonthem, But whom say this faith of thine is not built upon human testiye that I am? 16 And Simon Pe-mony, but upon the miracles and doctrines which thou hast heard and seen, which are the testimonies said, Thou art the of God himself, whereby he hath testified of me to Christ, the Son of thee, and such as thou art, Matt. xi. 25. See note [d] the living God. on ch. xv.

ter answered and

swered and said un

17 And Jesus an- 18. And seeing thou hast so freely confessed me to him, Blessed art before men, I will also confess thee, Thou art &c., thou, Simon Bar- that is, The name by which thou art styled and jona: for [e] flesh known by me is that which signifies a stone or rock, and blood hath not and such shalt thou be in the building of the church, revealed it unto thee, which accordingly shall be so built on thee, founded but my Father which in thee, that the power of death or the grave shall not 18 And I say also get victory over it; the Christian church, now to be unto thee, That thou planted, shall never be destroyed.

is in heaven.

art Peter, and upon

2

19. And I will give thee (as afterwards to all the this [f] rock I will build my church; twelve, ch. xviii. 18, and more distinctly John xx. 23.) and the gates of the keys of the gate of this court or kingdom, the [9] hell shall not church, of which every one of you is to be the prevail against it. steward, (as the keys of the court were given to 19 And I will give Eliakim, Isaiah xxii. 22, in token of his being stewunto thee the [h] keys of the kingdom of ard of the house, to admit and exclude whom he heaven and what- pleased,) that is, both power and ensign of power, Apoc. iii. 7, to exercise censures, and by them to be bound in heaven: exclude men in case of their impenitence, either by and whatsoever thou laying some restraints on them in the church, or to shalt loose on earth turn them out of the gates of this city, and upon shall be loosed in repentance to receive them into the church again. And what you do here, as you ought to do, shall be valid in heaven.

soever thou shalt

bind on earth shall

heaven.

20 Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.

20, 21. The disciples knowing that he was the Messias, and having told him so, ver. 16, he commands that this be not publicly disclosed (till after

2 hades.

sus to shew unto his

21 From that his resurrection, at which time in his wisdom he time forth began Je- thought it most seasonable) telling them that it was disciples, how that necessary that Christ should be put to death, by the he must go unto Je- instance of the Jewish sanhedrim. See note [b] on rusalem, and suffer chap. viii.

many things of the

elders and chief

God forbid, or avert this from thee; or as the priests and scribes, Syriac reads, Be propitious to thyself, Lord: thisand be killed, and ia snare or stumblingblock, moving me to that be raised again the which were a sin if I should yield to it, and conthird day. trary to the will, course, and commandment of God my Father: (see note [c] on ch. xi.) for thou

23 But he turned.

me,

for thou savourest

22 Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, kAnd not only I, but all that have a mind to be [] Be it far from my disciples and followers (as you profess to be) thee, Lord: this shall must deny their own human will of sparing themnot be unto thee. selves, indulging and favouring themselves, and in and said unto Peter, preparation of mind take up that cross; and indeed Get thee behind when I the same afflictions which befall me am gone, [*]Satan: thou art shall pursue them. But yet of this state of theirs an offence unto me: this will be observable, that perseverance in the faith not the things that will be the only way to relieve and rescue them out be of God, but those of their pressures; for they that by persecutions shall that be of men. be brought to apostatize and join with the Jews shall 24 Then said with them be certainly destroyed in that great slaughJesus unto his dister of them, and he that shall hold out and venture ciples,* If any man the utmost for the confession of the truth shall be most let him [] deny him- likely to be delivered when they are destroyed self, and take up his (unless when his suffering death is more behoveful, cross, and follow me. as mine is now, and then he shall, for that enduring, 25 For whosoever be raised again to an endless life): see note [h] on lose it: and whoso- ch. x. 22, and note [e] on 2 Peter í. 16.

will come after me,

will save his life shall

find it.

26 For what is a

ever will lose his life 26. Nay, if by denying me a man should gain some for my sake shall advantage at the present, what a pitiful bargain would he make of it, although he should gain the man profited, if he whole world, as long as life, (ver. 25,) especially shall gain the whole eternal life, were lost by it! And what price is there world, and [m] lose imaginable to buy that back again if it be lost? or his own soul? or what what is there that a man would not willingly give shall a man give in for it? exchange for his soul?

27. For there shall be a solemn visitation among 27 For the Son of the Jews, a time of judgment on them (see note [m]), man shall come in the wherein there shall be a visible discrimination be[] glory of his Fatween those which cleave fast to Christ and those which do not, and so likewise on all mankind, either ward every man ac- in particular visitation upon kingdoms or at the day cording to his works. of doom.

ther with his angels;

and then he shall re

unto you, There be

28 Verily I say 28. And of this coming of mine against my enesome standing here, mies, and to the relieving of them that adhere to me, which shall not taste I tell you assuredly that some that are here present,

of death, till they John by name, shall live to see it, that is, that he see the Son of man shall not die till that remarkable coming of Christ in [o] coming in his kingdom. judgment upon his crucifiers, the visible destruction of the Jewish state.

a

AND after six

days Jesus taketh

Peter, James, and

CHAP. XVII.

a those three of his disciples which had many John his brother, singular favours afforded them above the rest of and bringeth them the twelve, Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and up into an high leaving all the rest behind, bringeth them up into an 2 And was trans- high mountain.

mountain apart,

figured before them:

changed into another form or manner of appearand his face did shine ance (expressed in the following words, his counteas the sun, and his nance shined &c.) before—

raiment was white as

4 Then answered

4.

Then Peter said to Jesus, Lord, let us abide here,

Peter, and said unto and not consort any more with those beneath us: and Jesus, Lord, it is

good for us to be to that end build three booths, one for thee and us.

here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.

5 While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom

d whatsoever he shall teach is that which you are

I am well pleased; to receive as my good pleasure, before any either of d hear ye him. the law or prophets, Moses or Elias then appearing, And when the according to that prediction of Moses himself, Deut. disciples heard it, they fell on their Him shall ye hear.

xviii.

15,

face, and were sore 6. And when Peter and James and John heard that voice from heaven, they were amazed and as

afraid.

7 And Jesus came tonied for fear, and fell down prostrate. and touched them,

and said, Arise, and be not afraid.

8 And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only.