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when hereafter he should send them abroad to preach the gospel; it would be like sending them to sea at this time with the wind in their teeth. They must expect to toil in rowing-they must work hard to strive against so strong a stream; they must likewise expect to be tossed with waves-to be persecuted by their enemies; and by exposing them now, he intended to train them up for such difficulties, that they might learn to endure hardness. The Church is often like a ship at sea-tossed with tempests, and not comforted. We may have Christ for us, and yet wind and tide against us; but it is a comfort to Christ's disciples in a storm, that their Master is in the heavenly mount, interceding for them.

Christ could have checked the winds where he was, or have sent an angel to their relief; but he chose to help them in the most endearing manner possible, and therefore came to them himself. He did not come till the fourth watch of the night-not till after three o'clock in the morning but then he came. If Christ's visits to his people be deferred long, yet at length he will come; and their extremity is his opportunity to appear for them so much the more seasonably. The sea now tossed with waves, and yet Christ came, walking upon it; for though the floods lift up their voice, the Lord on high is mightier. Psal. xciii. 3, 4. No difficulties can obstruct Christ's gracious appearances for his people, when the set time is come. He will either find or force a way through the most tempestuous sea, for deliverance. Ps. xlii. 7, 8. He would have passed them; that is, he set his face as if he would have gone farther, and took no notice of them. This he did, to awaken them to call to him. Providence, when it is acting designedly and directly for the succour of God's people, yet sometimes seems as if it regarded not their case. They thought he would, but we may be sure that he would not, have passed by them. They all saw him, and were troubled (ver. 50) thinking it had been an apparition, or evil genius, that haunted them, and raised this storm. We often perplex and frighten ourselves with phantasms-the creatures of our own fancy and imagination. He encouraged them, and silenced their fears, by making himself known to them. He talked familiarly with them, saying, Be of good cheer, it is I; be not afraid. We know not Christ till he is pleased to reveal himself unto us. "It is I-I, your Master-I, Friend-I, your your deemer and Saviour. It is I, that came to a troublesome earth, and now to a tempestuous sea, tô look after you."

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The knowledge of Christ as he is in himself, and near to us, is enough to make the disciples of Christ cheerful even in a storm, and no longer fearful. "If it be so, why am I thus?" If it is Christ that is with thee, be of good cheer, be not afraid. Our fears are soon satisfied, if our mistakes be but rectified, especially our mistakes concerning Christ. See Gen. xxi. 19; 2 Kings vi. 15-17. He went up to them into the ship. Let them but have their Master with them, and all is wel And as soon as he was come into the ship, the wind ceased. In the former storm that they were in, it is said, “He arose, and rebuked the winds, and said to the sea, Peace, be still" (chap. iv. 39); but here we read of no such formal command given; only, the wind ceased all of a sudden.-Our Lord Jesus will be sure to do his own work always effectually, though not always alike solemnly, and with observation. Though we hear not the command given, yet, if thus the wind cease, and we have the comfort of a calm, say, It is because Christ is in the ship, and his decree is gone forth. When we come with Christ to heaven, the wind ceaseth presently. There are no storms in the upper region.

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They were sore amazed in themselves—w -were in a perfect ecstasy; as if it were a new and unaccountable thing, as if Christ had never done the like before, and they had no reason to expect he should do it now. They ought to admire the power of Christ, and to be confirmed hereby in their belief of his being the Son of God. But why all this confusion about it? It was because they considered not the miracle of the loaves; had they given that its due weight, they would not have been so much surprised at this; for his multiplying the bread was as great an instance of his power as his walking on the water. They were strangely unthinking, and their heart was hardened, of else they would not have thought it a thing incredible that Christ should command a calm. It is for want of a right understanding of Christ's former works, that we are transported at the thought of his present works, as if there never were the like before.

When they came to the land of Gennesaret, which lay between Bethsaida and Capernaum, the people bid them very welcome. The men of that place presently knew Jesus (ver. 54), and knew what mighty works he did wherever he came what a universal Healer he was; they knew, likewise, that he used to stay but a little while at a place, and therefore they were concerned to improve the opportunity of this kind visit which he made them. They ran through that whole region round about, with all possible expedition, and began to carry about in beds those that that he might cure them, ver. 55. Let him go where he would, he was crowded with patients-in the towns, in the cities, in the villages about the cities. They laid the sick in the streets, to be in his way, and begged leave for them to touch if it were but the border of his garment; and as many

were

sick,

as touched were made whole. We do not find that they were desirous to be taught by him, but only to be healed. If ministers could now cure people's bodily diseases, what multitudes would attend them! But it is sad to think how much more concerned the most of men are about their bodies than about their souls.

CHAPTER VII.

1 The Pharisees find fault at the disciples for eating with unwashen hands. 8 They break the commandment of God by the traditions of men. 14 Meat defileth not the man. 24 He healeth the Syrophenician woman's daughter of an unclean spirit, 31 and one that was deaf, and stammered in his speech.

THEN

a

HEN came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem. 2 And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with || defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault. 3 For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. 4 And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not.

*

с

And many

other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brazen vessels, and of tables. 5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands? 6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, "This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. 8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups and many other such like things ye do. 9 And he said unto them, Full well ye §reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. 10 For Moses said, "Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: 11 But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is 'Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. 12 And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; 13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye. 14 ¶ And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. 16 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. 17 'And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. 18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; 19 Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats? 20 And he said, That which

a Matt, xv. 1. Or, common.
tarius is about a pint and an half Or, beds.
Deut. v. 16; Matt. xv. 4. e Exod. xxi. 17;
Matt. xv. 16.

Or, diligently in the original, with the fist: Theophylact, up to the elbow. + Sexb Matt. xv. 2. c Isa. xxix. 13; Matt. xv. 8. Or. frustrate. d Exod. xx. 12; Lev. xx. 9, Prov. xx. 20. ƒ Matt. xv. 5, xxiii. 18. g Matt. xv. 10. A Matt. xl. 187

cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. 21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: 23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

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One great design of Christ's coming was, to set aside the ceremonial law which God made, and to put an end to it; to make way for which he begins with the ceremonial law which men had made, and added to the law of God's making, and discharges his disciples from the obligation of that; which here he doth fully, upon occasion of the offence which the Pharisees took at them for the violation of it. These Pharisees and scribes with whom he had this argument, are said to come from Jerusalem down to Galilee (fourscore or a hundred miles), to pick quarrels with our Saviour there, where they supposed him to have the greatest interest and reputation. Had they come so far to be taught by him, their zeal had been commendable; but to come so far to oppose him, and to check the progress of his gospel, was great wickedness. It should seem that the scribes and Pharisees at Jerusalem pretended not only to a pre-eminence above, but to an authority over, the country clergy; and therefore kept up their visitations, and sent inquisitors among them, as they did to John when he appeared. John i. 19.

Now, in this passage we may observe,

I. What the tradition of the elders was. By it all were enjoined to wash their hands before meat; a cleanly custom, and no harm in it—but they placed religion in it, and would not leave it indifferent, as it was in its own nature. People were at their liberty to do it, or not to do it; but they interposed their authority, and commanded all to do it, upon pain of excommunication. This they kept up as a tradition of the elders. The Papists pretend to a zeal for the authority and antiquity of the Church and its canons, and talk much of councils and fathers, when really it is no thing but a zeal for their own wealth, interest, and dominion, that governs them; and so with the Pharisees.

it Was

I

We have here an account of the practice of the Pharisees, and all the Jews, vers. 3, 4. They washed their hands oft-they particularly washed before they ate bread; that is, before they sat down to a solemn meal; for that was the rule-they must be sure to wash before they ate the bread on which they begged a blessing. "Whoever eats the bread over which they recite the benediction, 'Blessed is he that produceth bread,' must wash his hands before and after," or else he was thought to be defiled. They took special care, when they came in from the markets, to wash their hands from the judgment-halls-so some; it signifies any place of concourse where there were people of all sorts, and, it might be supposed, some heathens or Jews under a ceremonial pollution, by coming near to whom they thought themselves polluted; saying, "Stand by thyself, come not near me, am holier than thou." Isa. lxv. 5. They say, the rule of the rabbies was, That if they washed their hands well in the morning, the first thing they did, it would serve for all day, provided they kept alone; but if they went into company, they must not, at their return, either eat or pray they had washed their hands; thus the elders gained a reputation among the people for sanctity, and thus they exercised and kept up an authority over their consciences. They added to this the washing of cups, and pots, and brazen vessels, which they suspected had been made use of by hea thens, or persons polluted; nay, and the very tables on which they ate their meat. many cases in which, by the law of Moses, washings were appointed; but they added to them, and enforced the observation of their own impositions as much as of God's institutions.

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There were

II. What the practice of Christ's disciples was. They knew what the law was, and the common usage; but they understood themselves so well that they would not be bound up by it-they ate bread with defiled, that is, with unwashen hands, ver. 2. Eating with unwashen hands, they called eating with defiled hands; thus men keep up their superstitious vanities, by putting every thing int an ill name that contradicts them. The disciples knew (it is probable) that the Pharisees had their eye upon them, and yet they would not humour them by a compliance with their traditions, but took their liberty, as at other times, and ate bread with unwashen hands; and herein their righte ousness, however it might seem to come short, did really exceed, that of the scribes and Pharisees. Matt. v. 20.

censurea

III. The offence which the Pharisees took at this. They found fault (ver. 2); they them as profane, and men of a loose conversation; or rather, as men that would not submit to the power of the Church to decree rites and ceremonies, and were therefore rebellious, factious, and schismatical. They brought a complaint against them to their Master, expecting that he should

check them, and order them to conform; for they that are fond of their own inventions and impositions are commonly ready to appeal to Christ, as if he should countenance them, and as if his authority must interpose for the enforcing of them, and the rebuking of those that do not comply with them. They do not ask, Why do not thy disciples do as we do? though that was what they meant-coveting to make themselves the standard; but, Why do not they walk according to the tradition of the elders? ver. 5. To which it was easy to answer, that, by receiving the doctrine of Christ, they had more understanding than all their teachers; yea, more than the ancients. Psal. exix. 99, 100.

IV. Christ's vindication of them; in which he argues with the Pharisees concerning the authority by which this ceremony was imposed; and they were the fittest to be discoursed with concerning that, who were the great sticklers for it. But this he did not speak of publicly to the multitude (as appears by his calling the people to him, ver. 14), lest he should have seemed to stir them up to faction and discontent at their governors; but addressed it as a reproof to the persons concerned. He reproves them for their hypocrisy in pretending to honour God, when really they had no such design in their religious observances, vers. 6, 7. They honour me with their lips-they pretend it is for the glory of God that they impose those things, to distinguish themselves from the heathen; but really their heart is far from God, and is governed by nothing but ambition and covetousness. They would be thought hereby to appropriate themselves as a holy people to the Lord their God, when really it is the farthest thing in their thought. They rested in the outside of all their religious exercises, and their hearts were not right with God in them, and this was worshipping God in vain; for neither was he pleased with such sham devotions, nor were they profited by them.

He reproves them for placing religion in the inventions and injunctions of their elders and rulers. They taught for doctrines the traditions of men. When they should have been pressing upon the people the great principles of religion, they were enforcing the canons of their Church, and judged of people's being Jews or no, according as they did or did not conform to them-without any consideration had, whether they lived in obedience to God's law or no. It was true, there were divers washings imposed by the law of Moses (Heb. ix. 10), which were intended to signify that inward purification of the heart from worldly, fleshly lusts, which God requires as absolutely necessary to our communion with him; but instead of providing the substance, they presumptuously added to the ceremony, and were very nice in washing pots and cups; and observe, he adds, Many other such like things ye do, ver. 8.-Superstition is an endless thing. If one human invention and institution be admitted, though seemingly ever so innocent, as this of washing hands, behold, a troop comes-a door is opened for many other such things.

He reproves them for laying aside the commandment of God, and overlooking it; not urging it in their preaching, and in their discipline conniving at the violation of it, as if that were no longer of force, ver. 8. It is the mischief of impositions, that too often they who are zealous for them, have little zeal for the essential duties of religion, but can contentedly see them laid aside. Nay, they rejected the commandment of God, ver. 9. Ye do fairly disannul and abolish the commandment of God; and even by your traditions make the Word of God of none effect, ver. 13. God's statutes shall not only lie forgotten, as antiquated obsolete laws, but they shall, in effect, stand repealed, that their traditions may take place. They were intrusted to expound the law, and to enforce it; and, under pretence of using that power, they violated the law, and dissolved the bonds of itdestroying the text with the comment.

He gives them a particular instance of this, and a flagrant one-God commanded children to honour their parents, not only by the law of Moses, but antecedent to that, by the law of nature, and whoso revileth, or speaketh evil of, father or mother, let him die the death, ver. 10. Hence it is easy to infer, that it is the duty of children, if their parents be poor, to relieve them, according to their ability; and if those children are worthy to die that curse their parents, much more those that starve them. But if a man will but conform himself in all points to the tradition of the elders, they will find him out an expedient by which he may be discharged from this obligation, ver. 11. If his parents be in want, and he has wherewithal to help them, but has no mind to do it, let him swear by the corban; that is, by the gold of the temple, and the gift upon the altar, that his parents shall not be profited by him—that he will not relieve them; and if they ask any thing of him, let him tell them this, and it is enough; as if, by the obligation of this wicked vow, he had discharged himself from the obligation of God's holy law. It is said to be an ancient canon of the rabbin, That vows take place in things commanded by the law, as well as in things indifferent; so that, if a man make a vow which cannot be ratified without breaking a commandment, the vow must be ratified and the commandment violated. Such doctrine as this the Papists teach, discharging children from all obligation to their parents by their monastic vows, and their entrance into religion, as they call it. He concludes, And many such like things do ye. Where will men stop,

PP

when once they have made the Word of God give way to their tradition? These eager imposers of such ceremonies at first only made light of God's commandments in comparison with their traditions, but afterward made void God's commandments if they stood in competition with them. All this, in effect, Isaiah prophesied of them; what he said of the hypocrites of his own day was applicable to the scribes and Pharisees, ver. 6.—When we see, and complain of, the wickedness of the present times, yet we do not inquire wisely of that matter, if we say that all the former days were better than these. Eccles. vii. 10. The worst of hypocrites and evil doers have had their predecessors.

He instructs the people concerning the principles upon which this ceremony was grounded. It was requisite that this part of his discourse should be public, for it related to daily practice, and was designed to rectify a great mistake which the people were led into by their elders; he therefore called the people unto him (ver. 14), and bid them hear and understand. When Christ would run down the tradition of the Pharisees about washing before meat, he strikes at the opinion which was the root of it; for corrupt customs are best cured by rectifying corrupt notions.

Now, that which he goes about to set them right in, is, what the pollution is by which we are in danger of being damaged, ver. 15. Not by the meat we eat, though it be eaten with unwashen hands-that is but from without; but it is by the breaking out of the corruption that is in our hearts. The mind and conscience are defiled, guilt is contracted, and we become odious in the sight of God by that which comes out of us; our wicked thoughts and affections, words and actions, these defile us, and these only. Our care must therefore be, to wash our hearts from wickedness.

He gives his disciples, in private, an explication of the instructions he gave the people. They asked him, when they had him by himself, concerning the parable (ver. 17); for to them, it seems, it was a parable. Now, in answer to their inquiry he reproves their dulness :-" Are ye so without understanding also? Are ye dull also—as dull as the people that cannot understandas dull as the Pharisees that will not? Are ye so dull?" He doth not expect they should understand every thing-"But are ye so weak as not to understand this?" He explains this truth to them, that they might perceive it, and then they would believe it; for it carried its own evidence along with it. Some truths prove themselves, if they be but rightly explained and apprehended. If we understand the spiritual nature of God and of his law, and what it is that is offensive to him, and unfits us for communion with him, we shall soon perceive, that that which we eat and drink cannot defile us, so as to call for any religious washing-we shall soon perceive, that it is that which comes out from the heart, the corrupt heart, that defiles us, ver. 21. From within, out of the heart of men, which they boast of the goodness of, and think is the best part of them, thence that which defiles proceeds, thence comes all the mischief. As a corrupt fountain sends forth corrupt streams, so doth a corrupt heart send forth corrupt reasonings, corrupt appetites and passions, and all those wicked words and actions which are produced by them. Divers particulars are specified, as in Matthew. We had one there which is not here, and that is, false witness-bearing; but seven are mentioned here, to be added to those we had there. 1. Covetousness; immoderate desires of more of the wealth of the world, and the gratifications of sense, and still more-still crying, Give, give. Hence we read of a "heart exercised with covetous practices." 2 Pet. ii. 14. 2. Wickedness; malice, hatred, and ill-will-a desire to do mischief, and a delight in mischief done. 3. Deceit; which is wickedness covered and disguised, that it may be the more securely and effectually committed. 4. Lasciviousness; that filthiness and foolish talking which the apostle condemns the eye full of adultery and all wantonness. 5. The evil eye; the envious eye, and the covetous eye, grudging others the good we give them or do for them (Prov. xxiii. 6), or grieving at the good they do or enjoy. 6. Pride; exalting ourselves in our own conceit above others, and looking down with scorn and contempt upon others. 7. Foolishness; imprudence, inconsideration; some under stand it especially of vain-glorious boasting, which St Paul calls "foolishness" (2 Cor. xi. 1, 19), because it is here joined with pride; we rather take it for that rashness in speaking and acting which is the cause of so much evil. Ill-thinking is put first, and unthinking last. Of all these he concludes (ver. 23), that they come from within, from the corrupt nature, the carnal mind, the evil treasure in the heart. Justly is it said that "The inward part is very wickedness;" it must needs be so, when all this comes from within. That they defile the man; they render a man unfit for communion with God, they bring a stain upon the conscience; and, if not mortified and rooted out, will shut men out of the new Jerusalem, into which no unclean thing shall enter. 24 And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and

"Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid. 25 For a certain woman, whose young daughter

Matt. xv. 21.

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