conduct through his ministry. He tempted not God, put his power to no proof, by rashly exposing himself to danger and death; but exercised the greatest prudence, avoiding peril when he could consistently with his duty, and never exercising that miraculous energy in his own behalf, which he so often and generously employed for the relief of others.

8. The third temptation is that of Ambition. Three great classes of enticements from duty are grouped together in this history of Jesus' temptations; those of Appetite, or the sensual nature; those of Vanity, or the gratification of Self-consequence; and those of Ambition, the love of fame and dominion, which Milton calls "the last infirmity of noble minds." It has been observed that this order is the natural order in the spiritual development of human nature. The first step is to subdue and keep the body under, the last to conquer the mind itself, and bring thought, hope, and the nobler powers all into captivity to Christ, which is true Freedom.Taketh him. See ver. 5.-All the kingdoms. The world with its crowns and sceptres passed before his mind. Mighty cities with all their magnificence stood present to his eye. Earth and her inhabitants, ber riches, and honors, and pleas. ures, lay at his feet. Going forth as the Messiah, would not his path lead directly to universal dominion? Were not the Jews ready to take him and make him King? How seductive was the blandishment thus spread before his mental vision!

9. If thou wilt fall down and worship me. Obeisance, and also religious worship, in the east, were performed partly by prostrating the body upon the ground. This was the base condition, on which Jesus might become the master of the world, and mightier than the Alexanders and Cæsars who had fought for its sovereignty. He must himself become the slave of Ambition. He must ignobly surrender up the birthright of the free, illimitable spirit, for the sake of this external rule over men. The great heroes of the earth, so reputed, have always been really as much in servitude, as the meanest follower in their retinue. Their spirits have been in "chains, slavery, and death." Their passions have ruled them with a cruel sway. They have "worshipped and served the creature." "Sin has reigned in their mortal bodies," and over their immortal spirits, and they have "obeyed the lusts thereof." Slaves they have been indeed, to the lowest point of degradation. Jesus saw the dazzling picture of worldly ambition, "the kingdoms, and their glory," and their bravery, but he saw also what he must fall down to worship, in order that the glittering prize might be secured. He knew that he came to be the Spiritual King of mankind, not the servant of his own appetites and passions. The glorious vision that had dazzled the imagination faded. The words of divine truth came to his memory. Ambition was foiled, and the Satan fled.

10. Get thee hence, Satan. Or, get thee behind me. An expression of

Far

rebuke and condemnation. from me be such wickedness. Mat. xvi. 23.-Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God. Deut. vi. 13. God is the supreme object of worship and service. All other things must be subsidiary to the soul's devotion to him. The Saviour felt this in entering upon his mission. He renounced himself, suppressed Appetite, Vanity, and Ambition, put to flight every seductive tempter that came into his mind, and surrendered himself up to the purposes of God without qualification or reservation; a living, spotless sacrifice, "he offered up himself" upon the altar of God for the sake of the world. Our admiration of this wonderful being will be more increased, the longer we dwell upon the perfect self-denial and self-sacrifice he exercised against the temptations which beset him at this period of his life.

11. Then the devil leaveth him. Luke, iv. 13, says that "he departed from him for a season," which implies that he returned again at some future period. Here is one circumstance which goes to corroborate the interpretations above presented. The devil leaves Jesus for a season, and returns again. But returns in what manner? in a bodily form? No; it is not so said, but in the same manner in which it comes to all spiritual beings; in desires, fears, imaginings. In the garden of Gethsemane, the evening before the crucifixion, the tempter came. It is not described as a person. It came in the shape of fear and reluctance at the terrible fate before him. The flesh was weak, though

the spirit was willing. But the tempter was again met and put to flight, and Jesus submitted to do and suffer all his Father's holy will. The impersonality of the tempter in the last case, taken in connection with Luke's language, chap. iv. 13, furnishes a considerable presumption in favor of the theory advanced in this chapter, that the devil here spoken of is a personification of evil, not a conscious being-Angels came and ministered unto him. Either divine messengers appeared, and satisfied his wants, or the cheering thoughts and happy feelings which sprang up in his own bosom at having resisted temptation successfully, and held fast his integrity, ministered as it were to him, satisfying his wants, Upon another occasion, when weary and thirsty, he stopped for refreshment at Jacob's well in Samaria, He was so spiritually exhilarated in his interview with the woman there, that hunger and thirst vanished, and when his disciples returned and pressed him to eat, he replied: "I have meat to eat that ye know not of. My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." "When the great struggle was over, and the tempter had fled, and the bosom of Jesus, no longer darkened by evil shadows, was filled with the serene triumph of moral victory, and endowed with new force wrought out by the recent strife, then the ineffa ble light of God, beaming within, irradiated every thing around him, and the desert smiled, and the sun grew brighter in the heavens, and grace and beauty invested the

meanest things, until they overflowed with a divine presence and spirit, and seemed to be living, speaking ministers of God. In this divine frame he quitted the desert, and returned in the power of the spirit to Galilee." Luke iv. 14. The temptation of Jesus proves that he was not God, for "God cannot be tempted with evil.” James i. 13.

12-25. For the parallel passages, see Mark i. 14-20. Luke iv. 14. v.1-11. An interval of several weeks, or months, elapsed between the Temptation and the events related in verse 12. Many important incidents of Christ's ministry, occurring at this time, are related in the first nine chapters of John, excepting the sixth.

12. John was cast into prison. For an account of John's imprisonment, and its causes and results, see Mat. xiv. 3-12. Mark vi. 17-29. Luke iii. 19, 20. This event was a reason why Jesus should leave the country of Judea and withdraw into Galilee, then under the jurisdiction of Philip, where he could pursue his work. with less molestation from the Scribes and Pharisees, who had become highly excited against him, and gather around him a band of disciples, who should be the preachers of his religion to the world. The ministry of his Forerunner was completed, and he now pursues his own with more activity, and makes preparation to perpetuate it after his death, through the instrumentality of the Apostles.

13. Leaving Nazareth, dwelt in

Capernaum. Though Jesus had lived there many years with his parents, yet the unbelief of the people, and their abusive treatment of him personally, probably induced him to remove and fix his abode at Capernaum. Mat. xiii. 58. Luke iv. 16-30.-Dwelt, that is, made it his principal abode; yet he was absent much. Perhaps his mother and family moved thither. It was afterwards called his city. Nazareth lay near the middle of Lower Galilee. Capernaum was situated on the north-western shore of the Sea of Galilee. Its precise situation cannot now be determined.Which is upon the sea-coast, i. e. the shore of the Sea of Galilee.In the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim. In the Hebrew language, these tribes of Israel are called Zebulun and Naphtali. Gen. xlix. 13, 21. The portion of country assigned to them was located west and north-west of the Sea of Galilee, according to the division made by Joshua. Josh. xix. 10-16, 32 39.

The word borders here

means boundaries.

14. Fulfilled. Verified.-Esaias the prophet, i. c. Isaiah. See Is. ix. 1, 2. The prophet wrote during the irruption of the king of Assyria, and a short time before the ten tribes were carried away captive to Babylon. Looking beyond the dark present, he predicts the golden age of the Jews, when the oppressed and benighted would be enlighten-. ed and redeemed by the Messiah. Matthew quotes the passage probably by way of accommodation, rather than of literal accomplishment.

18

The quotation is not exact, and seems to have been made from memory, but the sense is mainly preserved.

15. By the way of the sea. Lying along the sea-coast.-Beyond Jordan. This signifies in the vicinity of Jordan, on or along that river; not the country on the east side, as the words usually mean.- Galilee of the Gentiles. This province was divided into two parts, Upper and Lower. Upper Galilee was inhabited in a considerable measure by the Gentiles, or other people than the Jews, and hence was called Galilee of the Gentiles. This mixture of a foreign population was occasioned by Solomon giving to Hiram, in consideration of services done by him, twenty cities in the land of Galilee. 1 Kings ix. 11–13. These towns were in the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon, and were peopled by Phoenicians, Egyptians, and Arabians.

16. Darkness, light. These terms are frequently used in Scripture for ignorance and knowledge of true religion, respectively. As the people were heathen who dwelt in this part of the country, they were involved in that moral darkness, which might without exaggeration be called the region and shadow of death, i. e. the darkest shadow. This was a vivid figure to describe the desperate moral condition of the land. "A shadow is caused by an object coming between us and the sun. So the Hebrews imagined death as standing between these re

gions and the sun, and casting a long, dark, and baleful shadow abroad on the face of the nation, denoting their great ignorance, sin, and woe. It denotes a dismal, gloomy, and dreadful shade, where death and sin reign, like the chills, damps, and horrors of the dwellingplace of the dead." Job x. 21. Psalms xxiii. 4. Jer. ii. 6.

17. Jesus began to preach. He had already for a considerable time been laboring in Judea, but he now began to preach in Galilee. John, being imprisoned, was now unable to carry forward the reformation of the people, and prepare them for the kingdom of the Messiah. Jesus takes up the great subject where he left it, and thus points out to the people that he was acting in conjunction with John, and was the person whom the Baptist had predicted. Jesus did not immediately declare himself as the Messiah in his preaching; for the popular feeling, he would thus have aroused, would have brought the Jews into immediate collision with the Romans. By his labors and instructions he sought to open their prejudiced minds to the important fact that the Messiah was to be a spiritual, not a temporal King. See note on chap. iii. 7.

18. Sea of Galilee. This body of water went under the names of the Sea of Galilee, Sea of Tiberias, Lake of Gennesareth, or Cinnereth. It is included in Lower Galilee, and is situated east of north from Jerusalem, at the distance of seventy

miles. The shape of the lake is oval, its length about sixteen miles, its breadth about six. Its waters are pure and sweet, and abound in fish. It is situated among high, steep hills, and is therefore subject to severe and sudden gusts of wind. Many flourishing cities once stood on its romantic shores, as Tiberias, Bethsaida, Capernaum, Chorazin, and Hippos. The Jordan flows with so strong a current through the lake, that its course can be seen. -Two brethren. It is an interesting circumstance, that several of the Apostles were related to each other, and also to Jesus, thus adding the ties of kindred to the sympathies of religion, and securing union and harmony.-Simon called Peter, and Andrew. Peter is the same as Cephas in Hebrew, and signifies a rock. Mat. xvi. 18. John i. 42. They were the sons of John, or Jona. They were already acquainted with Jesus, as appears from John i. 35-42. This was a kind of second call.-Net. A seine, or large drag net. The original word is not the same as that translated nets in verse 21. The fishery of this lake afforded a subsistence to a large number of persons.

19. Follow me. Equivalent to saying, "Become my disciples." Mat. viii. 22. ix. 9.-Fishers of

men.

You shall collect men into the kingdom of the Messiah, from the Jews and Gentiles. This promise was abundantly fulfilled in the multitudes which were converted by the Apostles. This instance is in harmony with Christ's general method of teaching, by which he

John his brother, in a ship with

employs events, trades, objects around him, to illustrate and enforce spiritual truth. In classical authors, terms of hunting and fishing are often used in relation to acquiring adherents and disciples. Jesus calls not the rich, learned, refined, or powerful, resorts not to the schools of Jerusalem, but to the fishing boats of Galilee, to obtain his disciples and Apostles. Fishermen could better endure hardships. They had not been so deeply corrupted by worldliness, or spoiled by vain philosophy. They would, being uneducated men, also make it more apparent to the world that their doctrine was from heaven, not of men.-Almost all great movements in society begin in the humbler walks of life.

20. Straightway. They obeyed the invitation without seeking to excuse themselves, or waiting till a more convenient season.-Followed him. They were probably ignorant to some extent, at this time, of the spiritual character of their Master.

21. James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother. James received the title of James the Elder, or Greater, to distinguish him from James called the Less. John was the Evangelist, designated as the disciple whom Jesus loved. They had probably seen Jesus at Jerusalem, or elsewhere, for he was evidently no stranger to them.-Ship. Better, boat, or fishing vessel, or craft, such as were used on this inland water.-Mending their nets. These, according to the original, were small casting nets, and unlike that used by Simon and Andrew,