392 SECT. lxxiv. Mat. The dreadful case of those that rejected them. hospitality and piety; for I would not have you who in it is worthy; and [LUKE, whatsoe endanger your own reputation, by taking up your ver house ye enter inlodging in any disreputable family: And what- to,] there abide, [till X. 11. ever house you thus enter into, continue there till ye depart from that you leave the place; that you may not seem to place.]-[MARK VI. 10. LUKE IX. 4.] have too great a regard to the little circumstances of domestic accommodation, which it is beneath your character as my ministers to be very solicitous about. 12 12 And when ye salute it: 13 And if the house peace come upon it: And, as an early intimation of the friendly intention of your visit, when you first enter into come into an house, any family, salute it in a courteous and religious manner, saying, according to the usual custom of friends when they enter the dwellings of each 13 other, "Peace be upon this house." And if the family be worthy the Divine regard, your good be worthy, let your wishes for its peace and prosperity shall come upon but if it be not worthy, it, and I will make the blessing that you pro- let your peace return nounce effectual: but if it be not worthy, even then your kind wishes for its peace and happiness shall not be lost, but shall return unto you in blessings on your own heads, as being the genuine workings of that pious and benevolent temper which God always approves and rewards. 14 15 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor in an obedient manner hearken to your words; as for such unhappy persons, when you come out of that house or city in which they dwell, shake off the very dust of your feet, as a testimony against them; or as a token that you look upon them as devoted by God to destruction, and therefore desire to separate yourselves entirely from them, that you may not be partakers of their plagues. (Compare Rev. xviii. 4, and Acts xviii. 6.) to you. 14 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words; when ye depart out of that house, or city, very] dust of your shake off the [LUKE, feet, [for a testin.ony against them.] [MARK VI. 11.-LUKE IX. 5.1 And indeed you have reason to do it: for 15 Verily I say unto verily I say unto you, That whatever profession you, It shall be more m Peace be upon this house.] This custom of saluting friends after this manner is still retained among the Turks and other eastern nations; and I thought it not improper to express it for the illustration of what follows. n Your peace shall come upon it.] This is one of those many passages in which (as the grammarians speak) the imperative is put for the future; that is, Let it come, for It shall come: (so 1 Cor. xvi. 22.) And perhaps many seeming imprecations in the Old Testament may most easily be accounted for, by such an explication, as prophetic predictions of what should happen to the enemies of God and his people. • Shake off the very dust of your feet, &c.] they tolerable The Jews thought there was something of so peculiar an holiness in the land of Israel, that when they came home from any hea then country they stopped at its borders and wiped the dust of it from their shoes, that the sacred inheritance might not be pol luted with it; nor would they permit herbs to be brought to them from their neighbours, lest they should bring any of the dust of their land upon them. So that the action enjoined to the apostles here was a lively intimation, that when the Jews had rejected the gospel, they were no longer to be regard ed as the people of God, but were on a level with heathens and idolators. See Mr. Flem ing's Christol. Vol. II. p. 160. Reflections on the mission of the twelve Apostles. rah, in the day of 393 lxxiv. Mat. tolerable for the land they may make of their regard to the true God, SECT. of Sodom and Gomor- and however they may continue to boast of their judgment, than for national privileges, it shall be more tolerable not that city. [MARK VI. only for the generality of Gentile sinners, in the x. 15. 11.] day of final judgment, but even for the natives of the land of Sodom and Gomorrah, those monsters of unnatural wickedness who were consumed with fire and brimstone from heaven, than for the inhabitants of that wretched city; for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah never sinned against such extraordinary light and such singular favours as they. IMPROVEMENT. WHAT abundant reason is there for humble thankfulness that Mat. the ambassadors of Christ were thus sent forth to preach the gospel, X. 1. and that at length their number was increased, and their commission enlarged; so that instead of their being thus confined to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, their instructive line is gone out through 5, 6. ail the earth, and their words have resounded even to the end of the world; (Psal. xix. 4) May the purport of their message be seriously attended to! since it will so certainly be a savour of life or of death, of eternal salvation or aggravated condemnation and ruin. Let us tremble to think, that it will be more tolerable for Sodom 15 and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for those by whom the gospel is rejected: and let us earnestly pray that Divine Grace may enable us to receive it in the love of it, and to obey the truth, that we may be saved; (2 Thess. ii. 10.) They who have the honour in this respect to succeed the apostles as ministers of this gospel, may learn most useful instructions from this discourse of our Divine Master. Let them speak and act as the messengers of peace and the friends of mankind, who cor- 12, 13 dially wish well to all around them; and gratefully acknowledge the kindness which, as faithful labourers, they have justly deserved. 10 Let them shew a true greatness of mind in an apparent superiority to temporal interests and present gratifications; easy in whatever accommodations they find where Providence leads them; and forgetting themselves, to remember their Master, and the souls he has committed to their care. Let them faithfully warn all around them of the importance of their eternal concerns, and of the unutterable danger of receiving the grace of God in vain, that, whether men will hear or forbear, they may be clean from their blood. And, while we preserve such a temper and conduct, we may cheerfully hope that God will be with us in the way that we go, and, how precarious soever our circumstances may seem, will give us food to eat, and raiment to put on. May 9, &c. 394 Christ warns them of the dangers they would be exposed to. 1xxiv. SECT. May we all have this token for good, that God will take care of our interests; even the consciousness of our being faithfully engaged to promote his glory, and our joyful readiness to spend and be spent for the service of souls! (2 Cor. xii. 15.) SECT. lxxv. Mat. X. 16. SECT. LXXV. Our Lord faithfully warns his apostles of the danger and opposition they might expect to encounter in his service. Mat. X. 16—28. MAT. X. 16. WHEN our Lord had thus instructed his apostles as to their behaviour and office in general, he went on faithfully to lay before them the difficulties and trials they were to expect in the execution of it; and added, Behold, I send you out as so many innocent and defenceless sheep, in the midst of a whole multitude of fierce and ravenous wolves, who will not fail to watch every opportunity to attack and even devour you: be ye therefore continually on your guard against them, and labour to approve yourselves prudent as serpents, in avoiding unnecessary dangers; but far from imitating the malignity and revengeful nature of that animal, maintain at all times a holy simplicity of soul, and be harmless and inoffensive as doves, those gentle creatures 17 who are innocent and loving to a proverb. But be upon your guard against the men of the world with whom you converse, that you do not by any inadvertency give them advantage against you: for they will seek occasions of mischief, and betray you to the councils, and deliver you up to the sanhedrim and other inferior courts of judicature, and will also scourge you in their synago18 gues. And, in some cases, the pers cution shall be carried yet farther; for you shall be brought before governors and kings on my account, for a a As sheep in the midst of wolves.] So frankly did our Lord warn his apostles of the hardships and dangers with which they should be surrounded. Nothing could be more fair; nothing more generous. b Prudent as serpents.] Pliny has given us some very remarkable stories of the sagacity of serpents, some of which, I confess, have the air of fables: (see Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vii. cap. 23, 27.) But it is certain there is a peculiar vivacity in their eyes; so that to be as sharp-sighted as a serpent was a proverb both among the witness Greeks and Romans. See Erasm. Adag. p. 580. C Scourge you in their synagogues 1 Compare Mat. xxiii. 34. and Acts xxii. 19. This is a sort of discipline which has long since been used in their synagogues, where they keep their courts; and which the wretched Acosta tells us he himself underwent. See Acost. de Vit. Hum, ed ́n. Limborch Coll. p. 349; Wits. Vit. Poli, sect. 1. §19-21; and Vitring. de Synagog. Vet. lib. iii. par. 1, cap. 11. d Before governors and kings, &c.] Accordingly They must expect to be hated of men for his sake. 395 lxxv. sake, for a testimony witness to them, and to the heathen, as this will SECT. against them and the give you an opportunity of testifying my gosGentiles. pel more solemnly both to Jews and Gentiles. 19 But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak; for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. 20 For it is not ye that speak, but the spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. 21 And the brother shall deliver up the Mat. But when they shall accuse you with the utmost X. 19. virulence, and deliver you up to appear before such high personages, be not anxiously solicitous about your defence there, how you shall answer for yourselves, or what you shall speak: but cheerfully throw yourselves upon the Divine assistance which shall be abundantly sufficient for you; for it shall be given you in that very hour what you shall speak; proper thoughts and words shall be suggested to you, and your minds shall be maintained in that composure and diguity which is necessary for the honour of the cause you assert. For indeed, when you appear on 20 these occasions, and are called to answer for yourselves, it is not [so much] you that speak, as the spirit of your Father that speaketh in you, in defence of that gospel which it is his peculiar office to promote in the world. Nevertheless, all the wisdom and justice of 21 brother to death, and your apologies, though divinely inspired, will the father the child; not disarm the malice of your unreasonable eneand the children shall mies, which shall prevail to such a degree as even rise up against their to triumph over natural affection, and break parents,and cause them to be put to death. asunder the strictest bonds of social life: for one brother shall betray another, not only to some slighter punishment, but even to a violent and tormenting death; and the father shall thus become the murderer, instead of the guardian and protector of the son; and children, on the other hand, forgetting all the obligations of filial duty and affection, shall rise up as witnesses against their own parents, and cause them to be put to 22 And ye shall be death. And you, my apostles, notwithstanding 22 my name's sake: but all the humanity of your character, and the behe nevolent design of your office, shall be the objects hated of all men for of such general aversion, censure and persecu- 396 lxxv. Mat. They should be faithful still in preaching the gospel. end, shall be saved. SECT. men for the sake of my name'; when your call- he that endureth to the ing yourselves by it shall appear, to your enemies themselves, the only crime chargeable upon X. 22. you: but be not discouraged at these trials; for he that courageously endures to the end, shall on the whole be saved; and whatever extremities he may suffer in this world, God will not only deliver him from the destruction that shall come upon the wicked, but will amply repay his fidelity in the next. (Compare Mat. xxiv. 13. and 23 Rev. ii. 10. may, 23 But when they persecute you in this city, fee ye into anunto you, Ye shall not and when have gone other: for verily I say But I say not this to encourage you to rush over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be cone. 24 The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above 24 And as for the unkind usage I have warned f You shall be hated of all men for the sake of my name.] They who believed the testimony of the aposties, as multitudes did, could not but ardently love them, as their fathers in Christ: (see Gal. iv. 15.) This therefore is plainly one of those many scriptures in which the universal term all is to be taken with great restrictions. See John xii. 32. Phil. ii. 21. and Rom. v. 18. As there seems in this text a peculiar emphasis in the phrase, for the sake of my name, I chuse in this edition to render it more literally than in the first ; though (as I had there observed) it is apparent that the name of a person is sometimes put for the person himself. See note I on John ii. 23. sect. xxiv. g Until the Son of man shall come.] I do not find that the apostles met with any persecution in this first progress, from which It teacher 25 It is enough for as his master and the servant they soon returned to Christ, and told him all that they had done, (see Mark vi. 50. and Luke ix. 10. sect. lxxviii.) and therefore, as well as for many other reasons, I cannot understand the coming of the Son of man to signify his overtaking them in this journey before they came to the end of it: nor does it appear natural, with Dr. Sykes (in his Essay on the Truth of Christianity, p. 85, & seq.) to refer it to Christ's coming to judgment. It is rather, as Mr. Whiston observes (in his discourse of Prophecy, p. 63), to be explained of their being driven out of Judea by persecution, so that they had not time to visit all the parts of it be fore the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, which is often called the coming of the Son of mun. See Mat. xxiv. 27, 37, 39, 44. and Luke xviii. S. b Cannol |