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586

SECT.

CXV.

The gospel would occasion violent contentions;

SECT. CXV.

Christ observes the evils which would be occasioned by his coming, yet declares his desire to complete his work, and warns the Jews of the great danger of neglecting the short remainder of their time of trial. Luke XII. 49, to the end.

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OUR Lord farther added in his discourse to I are on the earth;

fire

his disciples and the multitude: After all and what will I, if is that I have said to promote humanity and cha- be already kindled? XII. 49. rity, yet it will in fact appear, that I am come to

Luke

send fire on the earth; so opposite is my doctrine to the prejudices and the lusts of men, and such are the violent contentions that my gospel will occasion, through the wickedness of those among whom it is preached and yet what do I wish? that the gospel might be suppressed? nay, but I rather say, Oh that this fire, fierce as it shall be, were already kindled by the universal propaga tion of a religion, whose blessings so abundantly counterbalance all the accidental evils which 50 can attend it! But I have indeed, in the mean time, a most dreadful baptism to be baptized with, and know that I shall shortly be bathed, as it were, in blood, and plunged in the most overwhelming distress: yet, far from drawing back on that account, how inexpressibly am I straitened and uneasy through the earnestness of my desire, till, terrible as it is, it be fully completed, and the glorious birth produced, whatever agonies may lie in the way to it!

51

But these benefits are to be secured in a very different manner from what some of you, my disciples, imagine: for do you now suppose that

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I

50 But I have a

baptism to be baptised straitened till it be ac complished!

with, and how am I

51 Suppose ye that I

easy to him; compare 2 Cor. v. 14.-Mr. Locke understands it of a kind of embarrassment which Christ was under to know, how faithfully to fulfil his ministry without giving such umbrage to the Roman power as would have drawn persecution and death upon him before the appointed time; (see Mr. Locke's Reasonableness of Christianity, p. 134): but this seems to me a very foreign and unnatural sense.-That, which I take it in, is also favoured by Luke xxii. 15, sect. 168: but if Grotius, whose sense I have hinted in the paraphrase, judge rightly of the particular force and beauty of the word vixquat, it may be illustrated by John xvi. 21, sect. clxxviii.

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And be followed, not with peace, but with division.

I am
peace on earth? I tell

division.

52 For from hence

forth there shall be five in one house di

three.

587

CXV.

come to give I am come to give peace on the earth, or imme- SECT. you, Nay; but rather diately to establish that temporal tranquility and cxv. prosperity which you expect should attend the Luke Messiah's kingdom? Nay, but considering how XII. 51. my gospel, notwithstanding all its tendency to peace, will be opposed, and how it will be perverted, I may say to you, that I am rather come to occasion the most unnatural division. For such 52 are the contentious heats and animosities that vided, Three against will attend the publication of the gospel, that, ere two, and two against long, five in one family shall be so divided, that there shall be three against two on the one side, 53 The father shall and two against three on the other: And this shall be divided against the be the case when those families consist of persons son, and the son against in the nearest relations to each other: the father, against the daughter, for instance, shall differ with the son, and the son and the daughter a- with the father; the fondest mother with the gainst the mother: the daughter, and the daughter with the mother; the her daughter-in-law, mother-in-law with her son's wife, and the daughand the daughter-in- ter-in-law with her husband's motherd; and so law against her mo- inveterate shall be their hatred against all that ther-in-law. embrace my gospel, that they shall break the bands of nature, as well as of friendship, to express it. (Compare Mat, x. 34, 35, P,

the father; the mother

mother-in-law against

54 And he said

also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straight

400.)

53

And he said also to the people, This perverse- 54 ness already shews itself in your overlooking so many proofs of the Messiah's appearance among you, while you discover such a sagacity in your observations with respect to other things: for when you see a cloud arising out of the west, or coming from the Mediterranean sea, you present

Or immediately to establish that temporal tranquility, &c.] There are so many prophecies of the peaceful state of the Messiah's kingdom (compare Psal. Ixxii. 7; Isa. ii. 4; xi. 6-9; Ixv. 25), that it is hard to say how Christ could completely answer the character of the Messiah if he should never give peace on earth: but the error of the Jews lay in supposing he was immediately to accomplish it; whereas the prophecies of the New Testament, especially in the book of Revelation, shew, and those of the Old Testament most plainly intimate, that this prosperous state of his kingdom was not only to be preceded by his own sufferings, but by a variety of persecutions, trials, and sufferings, which should in different degrees attend his followers, before the kingdoms of the earth became, by a general conversion, the kingdoms of the Lord, and of his Christ (Rey. xi. 15),

ly

See Dr. Leland's Answer to the Moral Phi
losopher, p. 353–366.

dThe mother-in-law with her son's wife,
and the daughter-in-law with her husband's
mother.] The original words, weyoga, and
run, are exactly expressed in this transla-
tion. The English words mother-in-law, and
daughter-in-law, are more extensive, and
rather, though not necessarily, lead us to
think of [noverca, ualquia,] a step-dame, or
father's second wife, and her husband's
daughter.-Our Lord might mention this
relation, because, in consequence of the
obligation which the Jewish children were
under to maintain their aged parents, a
young man might, when he settled in the
world, often take his mother, if a widow,
into his family, and her abode in it might
occasion less uneasiness than that of a mo-
ther-in-law in any other sense.

A

cvii.

Luke

heat; and it cometh to

56 Ye hypocrites,

ye can discern the face earth: but how is it that you do not discern this time?

of the sky, and of the

388 They are inexcusable in not discerning him to be the Messiah. SECT. ly say, A heavy shower is coming; and it is so. straightway ye sav, And when [you find] the south-wind blowing from There cometh a show. er; and so it is. the desert of Arabia, and other hot climates, you 55 And when ye sea XII. 55. say, There will be sultry heat; and so according the south wind blow, 56 ly it comes to pass. Ye hypocrites, that pretend ye say, There will be to ask for farther signs, as if you were really desirous to know, whether I be or be not a Divine Teacher; you know how by such remarks as these to distinguish the face of the earth and of the heavens, so as to foretell the changes in the weather before they come; but how is it that you do not discern and judge of the much more evident signs of this time, which are attended with such manifest and unparalleled tokens of the Messiah's coming? (Compare Mat. xvi. 2, 3, Yea, why is it you do not even 57 P. 456.) of yourselves judge what is fit and right, and judge ye not what is gather from such obvious premises, how you right? ought in reason and conscience to treat so extraordinary a Person as I appear to be from the whole series of my doctrine and conduct, instead of disregarding all the proofs that shew me to be sent from God?

58

57 Yea, and why even of yourselves

58 When thou goes! with thine adversary

This, however you may thoughtlessly neglect it, is a matter of the utmost importance: I must to the magistrate, as therefore enforce the exhortation I formerly gave thou art in the way, you (Mat. v. 25, 26, p. 209), and press give diligence that you to endeavour, with the greatest diligence, thou mayest be delivered from him; lest that the controversy may immediately be made up between God and your souls. For you count it a rule of human prudence, when you go to the magistrate with your adversary, who has a suit against you, to use your utmost endeavour to make up the affair with him while you are yet

e A heavy shower is coming.] Oupas properly signifies a heavy shower; and xavswv, in the next verse, sultry or scorching heat.

f Why is it you do not even of yourselves, &c.] The phrase aq'rawy does not seem here to signify, " From the like principles of good sense which you use in common affairs, or in matters relating to yourselves;" but it seems an advance on that thought, as if our Lord had said, "Even though I had not so expressly drawn the consequence, yet, from the tenor of my doctrine and character, as well as from my miracles, you might have discerned, your selves, that it must be a very wrong and very dangerous thing to reject and slight me."-Castalio and Grotius connect this verse with the two following, I think, without any reason.

on

he

Use your utmost endeavour to make up the affair with him.] Theophylact intimates, and Salmasius, and after him, La Cene, largely insist upon it, that dog syaclav signifies "Pay the interest, as well as the principal of thy debt, in order to procure deliverance." But Luke inake use of another word [rox] for usury (Lukę xix. 23), which I think a considerable argument for the common rendering, which is also more extensive.—Annλλaxdal sig. nifies, not merely any kind of deliverance, but such an agreement as secures thè defendant from any farther danger of prose cution; as Elsner accurately shews, Observ. Vol. I. p. 237.—It is well known that avidin properly signifies a prosecutor, or one who has a suit at law against ano ther, whether in a civil or criminal case.

The

Reflections on the regard we should shew to the gospel.

deliver thee to the off

thee into prison.

shalt not depart thence

very last mite.

529

SECT.

CXV.

Luke

he hale thee to the on the way; lest he force thee before the judge, judge, and the judge and the judge, having found thee to be indeed cer, and the officer cast accountable, deliver thee to the custody of the serjeant, and the serjeant throw thee into prison. XII. 58. 59 I tell thee, thou It will not then be in thy power to compound 59 till thou hast paid the the matter upon gentler terms, or to get free from thy confinement; but I tell thee that, when he has thee at such an advantage, thou shalt not be able to come out from thence till thou hast paid the very last mite of the debt thou owest ". And thus if you are regardless of the proposals of God's mercy while the day of life and grace is continued, nothing is to be expected from the tribunal of his justice, but a severe sentence, which will end in everlasting confinement and punishment.

IMPROVEMENT.

To what a lamentable degree is human nature corrupted, that Ver. so noble a remedy as the gospel, so well adapted to the cure of a 49. malevolent and contentious disposition, should in so many instances only irritate the disease! and that a scheme so full of love and goodness, and so well suited to promote peace and harmony in those, who cordially embrace it, should be opposed with all the violence of persecution, and be the means of introducing strife and division!

How monstrous is it, that any should hate their neighbours, yea, and their nearest relatives, for that disinterested piety, and regard to conscience, which might recommend strangers to their esteem and affection! Yet let not those, who meet with such injurious treatment, be discouraged; knowing they have a Father and a Saviour in heaven, whose love is ten thousand times more than all nor let others be offended, as if Christianity had been the occasion of more evil than good; for such is the nature of eternity, that the salvation of one immortal soul will be more than an equivalent for the greatest and most lasting temporal evils, which the greatest number of persons can suffer for conscience sake.

51, 53

Let this awaken our zeal to save souls, however great and ter- 50 rible the sufferings are, to which it may expose us, in proportion

The very last mite of the debt thou owest.] The mite [lor,] was the least valuable of their coins (see Mark xii. 42), containing no more than half of their least kind of farthing, or of their xodpaving, or quadrans; which was itself but the fourth

VOL. VI.

to

part of the as, or accaptov, or of the larger
farthing, mentioned Mat. x. 29. and Luke
xii. 6; so that the mite was but little more
than the third part of an English farthing,
and a sparrow was reckoned worth four of
them.

4 C

590

CXV.

Reflections on the regard we should shew to the gospel.

SECT. to the rage, with which the enemy is endeavouring their destruc-
tion. May we be animated in it by the example of the blessed
Luke Jesus, who, with a view to this, even longed for those sufferings,
XII. 50. which innocent nature could not but regard as the object of strong

aversion!

54, 56 May we at all times be so wise as to discern the evidences, and to comply with the purposes, of the gospel, else our knowledge in natural things, should it extend not only to the most common, but the most curious appearances on the face of the earth or the heavens, will turn to no other account but to shame and condemn us!

58 If we have any reason to fear that, through obstinate impenitence, the blessed God is still an adversary to us, let us make it our first and greatest care, that, by an humble submission of soul to him in the methods of his gospel grace, that strict scrutiny of his justice may be prevented, and that sentence of his wrath averted, which would otherwise plunge us into endless ruin and misery; for when could we pretend to have paid the last farthing of the debt of ten thousand talents, which we have been daily contracting, and which is charged to our account in the book of his remembrance.

13

END OF THE SIXTH VOLUME.

E. BAINES, PRINTER,

LEEDS.

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