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MAT. iv. 12, 17.
Now when Jesus had heard that

John was cast into prison, he de-
parted into Galilee, &c. From that
time Jesus began to preach.

11.

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JOHN, iii. 3, 22, 23. Christ preached to Nicodemus. And after these things Jesus cometh, &c. where John also was baptizing in Enon.

John asserts that Christ began his preaching before John the Baptist was cast into prison; Matthew that he began not till after John was cast into prison.

John's account relates to our Lord's private preaching; Matthew's to his preaching publicly in the temple or syna

gogue.

Matthew, Mark, and the Apostle Peter, do all witness that Christ began not to preach, that is publicly, before John was imprisoned, and this preaching began first in Galilee after the baptism of John. Acтs, x. 37. And the Evangelist Luke informs us what his first text was, from which he there preached (LUKE, iv. 17), and says, that he preached now in the synagogue; as if he said he never ventured to preach in the synagogue before. It seems plain then that all these actions, in Cana, where he told his mother that his time, meaning for the public manifestation of himself, was not yet come, were private; for John was yet in prison. The conversation with Nicodemus was by night. As for the public preaching, Jesus never took the office upon him before John had finished his testimony of him.

MAT. iv. 18.

Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, &c.; and said to them, Follow me.

III.

JOHN, i. 40-42.

Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, first findeth his brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias; and he brought him to Jesus.

How can these things agree about the calling of these brethren? One evangelist says they were called by the seaside, the other in Christ's own chamber, for they followed him home to see where he dwelt; and there Christ gave Peter his new name, Cephas.

John's account relates to their previous acquaintance with Christ; Matthew's to their being called to follow him in the ministry of the Gospel.

Peter and Andrew were John's disciples before they were Christ's, and were directed by John to Christ. Ver. 36, 57. Then they followed him to his home to have some acquaintance: and three days after, Christ and they were invited to a wedding. JOHN, ii. 1. Christ had not as yet called any to follow him, for his time, as he told his mother (JOHN, ii. 4),

was not yet come, because John had not completed his testimony; but as soon as Jesus heard that John was in prison, he immediately went to these his friends and acquaintance, and called them first to follow him, whom he found busy on board their ships in the sea of Tiberias, or Galilee, or Gennesaret; for it is the same sea, though it has several namès.

MAT. v. 16.

Let men see your good works.

IV.

MAT. vi. 1.

Give not thine alms to be seen of men.

It is one thing to have men to see our good works, that God may have the glory; another thing to do them, that they may gain glory to ourselves.

It is as if Christ had said, The works which are visible must either be good or bad. You may sin as much in doing good works as bad, if you do them with the same view as the Pharisees do them, to get applause, proclaiming them as it were with a trumpet at thy gate. Therefore be sure that God have all the glory, and then let them be seen of all the world.

MAT. v. 17.

I come not to destroy the law.

V.

ROM. vii. 6.

We are free from the law. Christ refers to the moral, Paul to the ceremonial law.

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The first passage relates to the members of the body in a metaphorical sense; the other in a natural, or literal, sense.

Christ must not be understood otherwise but thus:-That whereas the right eyes, or right hands, of men are not so dear to them as their darling sins are, that a man could as well part with the one as the other, "truly thou must," says Christ, "cut off the dearest things thou hast in the world, rather than lose heaven."

MAT. v. 39.

Resist not evil.

VII.

JAMES, iv. 7.
Resist the devil.

Christ speaks only of the evil dealings of our enemies, when they offer us injuries, that we are not to revenge them, which opposes not at all the other text, to resist the devil, and the evil of sin.

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Much babbling in prayer is one thing; the spirit of con tinual praying is another.

The first is that which Christ condemns, namely, vain repetitions, affected words, but not well-affected hearts. nifies not how short our prayers be, so that our desires be lasting. And this was Paul's way of praying for Timothy, without ceasing, night and day. He was, like Christ, all night in prayer. "When I wake up," says David, "I am still with thee." This was Paul's injunction to Christians, Pray without ceasing (1 THES. v. 17); that is, take all opportunities, pray upon all occasions. Let every thing thou dost put thee in mind of this; for the life of a true Christian is a continued prayer, in spirit, though not in word.

MAT. vi. 25.

Take no thought.

IX.

2 COR. vii. 11.

Lo, what care!

Distrustful care about earthly provision is one thing; provident care, both spiritual and civil, is another.

The former Christ forbids, the latter Paul commands as the most excellent fruit of repentance. Among other graces, O what care a true penitent has that he fall not again into transgression!

MAT. vii. 1.

Judge not.

X.

1 Cor. vi. 2. The saints shall judge.

Rash and censorious judging is one thing; spiritual convincing judgment is another.

Christ forbids the former. The latter is that which the saints shall do in judging the world, not by pronouncing sentence, but by convincing the conscience when they shall rise in judgment against them.

MAT. ix. 30.

See that no man know it.

XI.

MARK, v. 19.

Go and tell what great things God hath done for thee.

Why are Christ's patients enjoined these contrary commands? Sometimes they must speak of their cures, at other times not. It is one thing to speak of Christ's cures to his prejudice, another to speak of them to his praise.

Two several occasions may very well bear two several commands, without contradicting themselves. The charge he gave the two blind men, in the first place, not to speak, was to convince them that he affected not applause in the world, which they understanding spread his fame the more. Ver. 31. Again, the charge he gave the possessed man in Mark was to show that it is the duty of all to give God the glory for all the good we enjoy.

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MAT. 1. 34, 35

I came not to send pease, wit

sword. For I am come to set a ma

at variance against his fatuer.

Christ, in this text, represents fue e

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passions of men; as if he had said, Trough a se vahva and exhortation tend to enforce good wil, anong establish among them the most firm aut sing not that this will be the effect: for, furougt tu wickedness of mankind, it will prove the o animosity and variance." By the word soo

are not to understand war, but division: for it was the office of the sword to divide and separate, as well as to kill. Accordingly, in the parallel passage in Luke, it is, "Suppose ye that I am come to send peace on earth? I tell you nay; but rather division." It is obvious to remark, that by sending a sword we are not to understand the design of Christ, all whose counsels and wishes tend to peace and concord, but rather the

event.

Christ brought divisions no otherwise than Paul himself did, when he preached the resurrection; the congregation were divided upon it, being half Pharisees and half Sadducees. ACTS, xxiii. 7. The Gospel is the Gospel of peace, and such are to be marked that come purposely to sow strife and contention in the Church of Christ.

XVI.

MAT. xi. 14.

This is Elias, which was for to

come.

JOHN, i. 21.
I am not Elias.

John speaks naturally and literally in declaring that he was not Elias; Christ speaks metaphorically in calling him Elias. Christ very properly compared John to Elias. They were both preachers in the wilderness; they were habited alike; and they both prepared the way of the Lord, or the way for the true worship of the Lord.

MAT. xii. 35.

XVII.

A good man out of the good

treasure of his heart, &c.

MAT. xix. 17.
None good but God.

None essentially good but God, and all goodness in creatures proceeds from him.

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Her nation is one thing, her condition another. The former Matthew describes, and Mark the latter. She was a Canaanite; but of what quality, or in what part of Canaan brought up, we knew not, before this evangelist named her a Syrophenician; that is, in the place where Syria and Phenicia meet, upon the very border between them, yet within the confines of the land of Canaan; for, where Syria and Phenicia joined together, the people that dwelt there took their name from it, and were called Syrophenicians.

Also whereas the Evangelist St. Mark says she was a Greek, he does not mean by nation a Greek, but Greek by condition of life, being no Jewess: for they used to call all the world Greeks, if they were not Jews. 1 COR. i. 24.

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