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CHAPTER VI

The disciples pluck and eat the ears of corn on the Sabbath day, and the Pharisees find fault, 1, 2. Our Lord shows the true use of the Sabbath, 3-5. He heals the man with the withered hand, 6-11. He goes into a mountain to pray, and calls twelve disciples, 12-16. Multitudes are instructed and healed, 17-19. Pronounces four blessings, 20-23, and four woes, 24-26. Gives various instructions about loving our enemies, being patient, gentle, kind, grateful, and merciful, 27-36. Harsh judgments censured, and charity recommended, 37, 38. The parable of the blind leading the blind, 39. Of the mote in a brother's eye, 40-42. Of the good and corrupt tree, 43, 44. The good and evil treasure of the heart, 45. The parable of the two houses, one builded on the rock, and the other on the sand, 46-49.

NOTES ON CHAP. VI

Verse 1. "On the second Sabbath after the first" - en sabbatw deuteroprwtw, In the first Sabbath after the second. What does this mean? In answering this question, commentators are greatly divided. Dr. Whitby speaks thus: "After the first day of the passover, (which was a Sabbath, Exod. xii. 16,) ye shall count unto you seven Sabbaths complete, Lev. xxiii. 15, reckoning that day for the first of the first week, which was therefore called deuteroprwton, the first Sabbath from the second day of unleavened bread; (the 16th of the month;) the second was called deuterodeuteron, the second Sabbath from that day; and the third, deuterotriton, the third Sabbath from the second day; and so on, till they came to the seventh Sabbath from that day, i.e. to the 49th day, which was the day of pentecost. The mention of the seven Sabbaths, to be numbered with relation to this second day, answers all that Grotius objects against this exposition." WHITBY'S Notes.

By this Sabbath seems meant that which immediately followed the two great feasts, the first and last day of the passover, and was therefore the second after the proper passover day. The words in the Greek seem to signify, the second first Sabbath; and, in the opinion of some, the Jews had three first Sabbaths: viz. the first Sabbath after the passover; that after the feast of pentecost; and that after the feast of tabernacles. According to which opinion, this second first Sabbath must have been the first Sabbath after the pentecost. So we have the first Sunday after Epiphany; the first after Easter; the first after Trinity; and the first in Lent. Bp. PEARCE.

This was the next day after the passover, the day in which they were forbidden to labour, Lev. xxiii. 6, and for this reason was termed Sabbath, Lev. xxiii. 15; but here it is marked by the name, second first Sabbath, because, being the day after the passover, it was in this respect the second; and it was also the first, because it was the first day of unleavened bread, Exodus xii. 15, 16. MARTIN.

I think, with many commentators, that this transaction happened on the first Sabbath of the month Nisan; that is, after the second day of the feast of unleavened bread. We may well suppose that our Lord and his disciples were on their way from Jerusalem to Galilee, after having kept the passover. Bp. NEWCOME.

The Vulgar Latin renders deuteroprwton, secundoprimum, which is literal and right. We translate it, the second Sabbath after the first, which is directly wrong; for it should have been the first Sabbath after the second day of the passover. On the 14th of Nisan, the passover was killed; the next day (the 15th) was the first day of the feast of unleavened bread; the day following (the 16th) the wave sheaf was offered, pursuant to the law, on the morrow after the Sabbath: Lev. xviii. 11. The Sabbath, here, is not the seventh day of the week, but the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, let it fall on what day of the week it would. That and the seventh day of that feast were holy convocations, and therefore are here called Sabbaths. The morrow, therefore, after the Sabbath, i.e. after the 16th day of Nisan, was the day in which the wave sheaf was offered; and after that seven Sabbaths were counted, and fifty days completed, and the fiftieth day inclusively was the day of pentecost. Now these Sabbaths, between the passover and pentecost, were called the first, second, &c., Sabbaths after the second day of the feast of unleavened bread. This Sabbath, then, on which the disciples plucked the ears of corn, was the first Sabbath after that second day. Dr. Lightfoot, has demonstrably proved this to be the meaning of this sabbaton deuteroprwton, (Hor. Hebraic. in locum,) and from him F. Lamy and Dr. Whitby have so explained it. This Sabbath could not fall before the passover, because, till the second day of that feast, no Jew might eat either bread or parched corn, or green ears, (Lev. xxiii. 14.) Had the disciples then gathered these ears of corn on any Sabbath before the passover, they would have broken two laws instead of one: and for the breach of these two laws they would infallibly have been accused; whereas now they broke only one, (plucking the ears of standing corn with one's hand, being expressly allowed in the law, Deut. xxiii. 25,) which was that of the Sabbath. They took a liberty which the law gave them upon any other day; and our Lord vindicated them in what they did now, in the manner we see. Nor can this fact be laid after pentecost; because then the harvest was fully in. Within that interval, therefore, this Sabbath happened; and this is a plain determination of the time, according to the Jewish ways of reckoning, founded upon the text of Moses's law itself. Dr. WOTTON'S Miscellaneous Discourses, &c., vol. i. p. 269.

The word deuteroprwtw, the second first, is omitted by BL, four others, Syriac, later Arabic, all the Persic, Coptic, AEthiopic, and three of the Itala. A note in the margin of the later Syriac says, This is not in all copies.

The above MSS. read the verse thus: It came to pass, that he walked through the corn fields on a Sabbath day. I suppose they omitted the above word, because they found it difficult to fix the meaning, which has been too much the case in other instances.

Verse 2. "Which is not lawful" - See on Matt. xii. 2-8.

Verse 3. "What David did" - See on Mark ii. 26, 27.

Verse 4. After this verse, the Codex Bezae and two ancient MSS. quoted by Wechel, have the following extraordinary addition: th auth qeasamenov tina ergazomenon tw sabbatw, eipen autw, anqrwpe, ei men oidav ti poieiv makariov ei: ei de mh oidav epikataratov, kai parabathv eitou nomon. On the same day, seeing one working on the Sabbath, he said unto him, Man, if indeed thou knowest what thou dost, blessed art thou; but if thou knowest not, thou art cursed, and art a transgressor of the law. Whence this strange addition proceeded, it is hard to tell. The meaning seems to be this: If thou now workest on the Jewish Sabbath, from a conviction that that Sabbath is abolished, and a new one instituted in its place, then happy art thou, for thou hast got Divine instruction in the nature of the Messiah's kingdom; but if thou doest this through a contempt for the law of God, then thou art accursed, forasmuch as thou art a transgressor of the law. The Itala version of the Codex Bezae, for parabathv, transgressor, has this semi-barbaric word, trabaricator.

Verse 6. "Whose right hand was withered." - See on Matt. xii. 10, &c.

The critic who says that xhran ceira signifies a luxated arm, and that the stretching it out restored the bone to its proper place, without the intervention of a miracle, deserves no serious refutation. See on ver. 10.

Verse 7. "Watched him" - parethroun, They maliciously watched him.

This is the import of the word, chap. xiv. 1; xx. 20, and in the parallel place, Mark iii. 2. See Raphelius on the last- quoted text, who has proved, by several quotations, that this is the proper meaning of the term.

"An accusation against him." - Instead of kathgorian auton, his accusation, several eminent MSS. and versions add kata, against, which I find our translators have adopted.

Verse 9. "I will ask you one thing" - I will put a question to you. See on Mark iii. 4, 5.

Verse 10. "Whole as the other." - Many MSS., both here and in the parallel place, Mark iii. 5, omit the word ugihv, whole. Griesbach leaves it out of the text. The hand was restored as the other. But had it only been a luxated joint, even allowing, with a German critic, that the bone regained its place by the effort made to stretch out the arm, without the intervention of a miracle, it would have required several weeks to restore the muscles and ligaments to their wonted tone and strength. Why all this learned labour to leave God out of the question?

Verse 11. "They were filled with madness" - Pride, obstinacy, and interest, combined together, are capable of any thing. When men have once framed their conscience according to their passions, madness passes for zeal, the blackest conspiracies for pious designs, and the most horrid attempts for heroic actions. QUESNEL.

Verse 12. "In prayer to God." - Or, in the prayer of God: or, in the oratory of God, en th proseuch tou qeou. So this passage is translated by many critics; for which Dr. Whitby gives the following reasons: As the mountain of God, Exod. iii. 1; iv. 27; the bread of God, Lev. xxi. 17; the lamp of God, 1 Sam. iii. 3; the vessels of God, 1 Chron. xxii. 19; the altar of God, Psa. xliii. 4; the sacrifices of God, Psa. li. 17; the gifts of God, chap. xxi. 4; the ministers of God, 2 Cor. vi. 4; the tabernacle of God, 2 Chron. i. 3; the temple of God, Matt. xxi. 12; the synagogues of God, Psa. lxxiv. 8; are all things consecrated or appropriated to God's service; so proseuch tou qeou must, in all reason, be a house of prayer to God; whence it is called topov proseuchv, a place of prayer, 1 Mac.

iii. 46; and so the word is certainly used Acts xvi. 13; and by Philo, in his oration against Flaccus, where he complains that ai proseucai, their houses for prayer were pulled down, and there was no place left in which they might worship God, or pray for Caesar; and by Josephus, who says the multitude was gathered eiv thv proseuchn, into the house of prayer: and so Juvenal, Sat. iii. v. 296, speaks to the mendicant Jew:-

Ede ubi consistas; in qua te quaero proseucha? In what house of prayer may I find thee begging? See on Acts xvi. 13. But on this it may be observed, that as the mountains of God, the wind of God, the hail of God, the trees of God, &c., mean very high mountains, a very strong wind, great and terrible hail, very tall trees, &c., so proseuch tou qeou, here, may be very properly translated the prayer of God; i.e. very fervent and earnest prayer; and though dianuktereuwn may signify, to lodge in a place for a night, yet there are various places in the best Greek writers in which it is used, not to signify a place, but to pass the night in a particular state. So Appian, Bell. Pun. en toiv oploiv dienuktereuve meqÆ apantwn-He passed the night under arms with them all. Idem, Bell. Civ. lib. v. dienuktereuon-They passed the night without food, without any regard to the body, and in the want of all things. See more examples in Kypke, who concludes by translating the passage thus: He passed the night without sleep in prayers to God. Some of the Jews imagine that God himself prays; and this is one of his petitions: Let it be my good pleasure, that my mercy overcome my wrath. See more in Lightfoot.

Verse 13. "He chose twelve" - eklexamenov apÆ autwn, He chose twelve OUT of them. Our Lord at this time had several disciples, persons who were converted to God under his ministry; and, out of these converts, he chose twelve, whom he appointed to the work of the ministry; and called them apostles, i.e. persons sent or commissioned by himself, to preach that Gospel to others by which they had themselves been saved. These were favoured with extraordinary success: 1. Because they were brought to the knowledge of God themselves. 2. Because they received their commission from the great Head of the Church. And 3. Because, as he had sent them, he continued to accompany their preaching with the power of his Spirit. These three things always unite in the character of a genuine apostle. See on Matt. x. 1-4.

Verse 15. "Called Zelotes" - Some Jews gave this name to themselves, according to Josephus, (War, b. iv. c. iii. s. 9, and vii. c. viii. s. 1,) "because they pretended to be more than ordinarily zealous for religion, and yet practised the very worst of actions."But this (says the judicious Bp.

Pearce) Josephus says of the zealots, at the time when Vespasian was marching towards Jerusalem. They probably were men of a different character above forty years before; which was the time when Jesus chose his twelve apostles, one of whom had the surname of the Zealot." It is very probable that this name was first given to certain persons who were more zealous for the cause of pure and undefiled religion than the rest of their neighbours; but like many other sects and parties who have begun well, they transferred their zeal for the essentials of religion to nonessential things, and from these to inquisitorial cruelty and murder. See on Matt. x. 4.

Verse 17. "And stood in the plain" - In Matt. v. 1, which is supposed to be the parallel place, our Lord is represented as delivering this sermon on the mountain; and this has induced some to think that the sermon mentioned here by Luke, though the same in substance with that in Matthew, was delivered in a different place, and at another time; but, as Dr. Priestly justly observes, Matthew's saying that Jesus was sat down after he had gone up to the mountain, and Luke's saying that he stood on the plain when he healed the sick, before the discourse, are no inconsistencies. The whole picture is striking. Jesus ascends a mountain, employs the night in prayer; and, having thus solemnly invoked the Divine blessing, authoritatively separates the twelve apostles from the mass of his disciples. He then descends, and heals in the plain all the diseased among a great multitude, collected from various parts by the fame of his miraculous power. Having thus created attention, he likewise satisfies the desire of the people to hear his doctrine; and retiring first to the mountain whence he came, that his attentive hearers might follow him and might better arrange themselves before him-Sacro digna silentio mirantur omnes dicere.HORACE.

All admire his excellent sayings with sacred silence. See Bishop Newcome's notes on his Harmony of the Gospels, p. 19.

Verse 20. "Blessed be ye poor" - See the sermon on the mount paraphrased and explained, Matt. 5, 11, 7.

Verse 22. "They shall separate you" - Meaning, They will excommunicate you, aforiswsin umav, or separate you from their communion. Luke having spoken of their separating or excommunicating them, continues the same idea, in saying that they would cast out their name likewise, as a thing evil in itself. By your name is meant their name as his disciples. As such, they were sometimes called Nazarenes, and sometimes Christians; and both these names were matter of reproach in the mouths of their enemies. So James (James ii. 7) says to the converts, Do they not blaspheme that worthy name by which ye are called? So when St. Paul (in Acts xxiv. 5) is called a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes, the character of a pestilent fellow, and, that of a mover of sedition, is joined to it; and, in Acts xxviii. 22, the Jews say to Paul, As concerning this sect, we know that every where it is spoken against; and this is implied in 1 Pet. iv. 14, when he says, If ye be reproached for the NAME of Christ, i.e. as Christians; agreeably to what follows there in 1 Pet. iv. 16, If any man suffer as a Christian, &c. In after times we find Pliny, Epist. x. 97, consulting the Emperor Trajan, whether or no he should PUNISH the NAME ITSELF, (of Christian,) though no evil should be found in it. NOMEN IPSUM, etiam si flagitiis careat, PUNIATUR. See PEARCE.

Verse 23. "Did-unto the prophets." - See 1 Kings xviii. 4; xix. 20; 2 Chron. xxiv. 21; xxxvi. 16; Neh. ix. 26.

Verse 24. "- 26. But wo unto you that are rich!" - The Pharisees, who were laden with the spoils of the people which they received in gifts, &c.

These three verses are not found in the sermon, as recorded by Matthew.

They seem to be spoken chiefly to the scribes and Pharisees, who, in order to be pleasing to all, spoke to every one what he liked best; and by finesse, flattery, and lies, found out the method of gaining and keeping the good opinion of the multitude.

Verse 29. "Thy cloak-thy coat" - In Matt. v. 40, I have said that COAT, citwna, signifies under garment, or strait coat; and CLOAK, imation, means upper garment, or great coat. This interpretation is confirmed by the following observations of Bishop Pearce. The citwn was a tunica, or vestcoat, over which the Jews and other nations threw an outer coat, or gown, called a cloak, Matt. v. 40, (which is meant by imation,) when they went abroad, or were not at work. Hence the common people at Rome, who did not usually wear, or had no right to wear, the toga, are called by Horace tunicatus popellus, Epist. i. 7, 65. This account of the difference between the citwn and the imation appears plainly from what Maximus Tyrius says, The inner garment which is over the body they call citwniskon, and the outer one the imation. And so Plutarch, (in NUPT.

p. 139, ed. Fran. 1620,) speaking of a man who felt the heat of the sun too much for him, says that he put off, ton citwna, tw imatiw, his vestcoat also with his cloak.

Verse 30. "Ask them not again." - Or, Do not beg them off. This probably refers to the way in which the tax-gatherers and Roman soldiers used to spoil the people. "When such harpies as these come upon your goods, suffer the injury quietly, leaving yourselves in the hand of God, rather than attempt even to beg off what belongs to you, lest on their part they be provoked to seize or spoil more, and lest you be irritated to sue them at law, which is totally opposite to the spirit and letter of the Gospel; or to speak bad words, or indulge wrong tempers, which would wound the spirit of love and mercy." Of such as these, and of all merciless creditors, who even sell the tools and bed of a poor man, it may be very truly said:-Tristius haud illis monstrum, nec saevior ulla Pestis et ira deum Stygiis sese extulit undis:-Diripiunt dapes, contactaque omnia faedant Immundo:-VIRG. AEn. iii. ver. 214 "Monsters more fierce offended heaven ne'er sent From hell's abyss, for human punishment:-They snatch the meat, defiling all they find." DRYDEN However, it is probable that what is here spoken relates to requiring a thing speedily that had been lent, while the reason for borrowing it still continues. In Ecclus. xx. 15, it is a part of the character of a very bad man, that to-day he lendeth, and tomorrow will he ask it again. From chap. vi. 27 to ver. 30 our blessed Lord gives us directions how to treat our enemies.

1. Wish them well. 2. Do them good. 3. Speak as well of them as possible.

4. Be an instrument of procuring them good from others; use your influence in their behalf. 5. Suffer patiently from them contempt and ill treatment. 6. Give up your goods rather than lose your meekness and charity towards them. The retaliation of those who hearken not to their own passion, but to Christ, consists in doing more good than they receive evil. Ever since our blessed saviour suffered the Jews to take away his life, it is by his patience that we must regulate our own. Quesnel.

Verse 32. "For sinners also love those that love them." - I believe the word amartwloi is used by St. Luke in the same sense in which telwnai, tax-gatherers, is used by St. Matthew, Matt. v. 46, 47, and signifies heathens; not only men who have no religion, but men who acknowledge none. The religion of Christ not only corrects the errors and reforms the disorders of the fallen nature of man, but raises it even above itself: it brings it near to God; and, by universal love, leads it to frame its conduct according to that of the Sovereign Being. "A man should tremble who finds nothing in his life besides the external part of religion, but what may be found in the life of a Turk or a heathen." The Gospel of the grace of God purifies and renews the heart, causing it to resemble that Christ through whom the grace came. See the note on chap. vii. 37.

Verse 34. "Of whom ye hope to receive" - Or, whom ye expect to return it.

"To make our neighbour purchase, in any way, the assistance which we give him, is to profit by his misery; and, by laying him under obligations which we expect him in some way or other to discharge, we increase his wretchedness under the pretense of relieving it."

Verse 35. "Love ye your enemies" - This is the most sublime precept ever delivered to man: a false religion durst not give a precept of this nature, because, without supernatural influence, it must be for ever impracticable.

"In these words of our blessed Lord we see the tenderness, sincerity, extent, disinterestedness, pattern, and issue of the love of God dwelling in man: a religion which has for its foundation the union of God and man in the same person, and the death of this august being for his enemies; which consists on earth in a reconciliation of the Creator with his creatures, and which is to subsist in heaven only in the union of the members with the head: could such a religion as this ever tolerate hatred in the soul of man, even to his most inveterate foe? Lend, hoping for nothing again" - mhden apelpizontev. The rabbins say, he who lends without usury, God shall consider him as having observed every precept. Bishop Pearce thinks that, instead of mhden we should read mhdena with the Syriac, later Arabic, and later Persic; and as apelpizein signifies to despair, or cause to despair, the meaning is, not cutting off the hope (of longer life) of any man, neminis spem amputantes, by denying him those things which he requests now to preserve him from perishing.

Verse 36. "Be ye therefore merciful" - Or, compassionate; oiktirminev, from oiktov, commiseration, which etymologists derive from eikw to give place, yield, because we readily concede those things which are necessary to them whom we commiserate. As God is ever disposed to give all necessary help and support to those who are miserable, so his followers, being influenced by the same spirit, are easy to be entreated, and are at all times ready to contribute to the uttermost of their power to relieve or remove the miseries of the distressed. A merciful or compassionate man easily forgets injuries; pardons them without being solicited; and does not permit repeated returns of ingratitude to deter him from doing good, even to the unthankful and the unholy. See on Matt. v. 7.

Verse 37. "Judge not" - See on Matt. vii. 1. "How great is the goodness of God, in being so willing to put our judgment into our own hands as to engage himself not to enter into judgment with us, provided we do not usurp the right which belongs solely to him in reference to others!" Condemn not] "Mercy will ever incline us not to condemn those unmercifully whose faults are certain and visible; to lessen, conceal, and excuse them as much as we can without prejudice to truth and justice; and to be far from aggravating, divulging, or even desiring them to be punished." Forgive] The mercy and compassion which God recommends extend to the forgiving of all the injuries we have received, or can receive. To imitate in this the mercy of God is not a mere counsel; since it is proposed as a necessary mean, in order to receive mercy. What man has to forgive in man is almost nothing: man's debt to God is infinite. And who acts in this matter as if he wished to receive mercy at the hand of God! The spirit of revenge is equally destitute of faith and reason.

Verse 38. "Give, and it shall be given" - "Christian charity will make no difficulty in giving that which eternal truth promises to restore. Let us give, neither out of mere human generosity, nor out of vanity, nor from interest, but for the sake of God, if we would have him place it to account.

There is no such thing as true unmixed generosity but in God only; because there is none but him who receives no advantage from his gifts, and because he engages himself to pay these debts of his creatures with an excessive interest. So great is the goodness of God, that, when he might have absolutely commanded us to give to our neighbour, he vouchsafes to invite us to this duty by the prospect of a reward, and to impute that to us as a desert which he has a right to exact of us by the title of his sovereignty over our persons and estates." Men live in such a state of social union as renders mutual help necessary; and, as self-interest, pride, and other corrupt passions mingle themselves ordinarily in their commerce, they cannot fail of offending one another. In civil society men must, in order to taste a little tranquillity, resolve to bear something from their neighbours; they must suffer, pardon, and give up many things; without doing which they must live in such a state of continual agitation as will render life itself insupportable. Without this giving and forgiving spirit there will be nothing in civil society, and even in Christian congregations, but divisions, evil surmisings, injurious discourses, outrages, anger, vengeance, and, in a word, a total dissolution of the mystical body of Christ. Thus our interest in both worlds calls loudly upon us to GIVE and to FORGIVE.

Bosom.] kolpon, or lap. Almost all ancient nations wore long, wide, and loose garments; and when about to carry any thing which their hands could not contain, they used a fold of their robe in nearly the same way as women here use their aprons. The phrase is continually occurring in the best and purest Greek writers. The following example from Herodotus, b.

vi., may suffice to show the propriety of the interpretation given above, and to expose the ridiculous nature of covetousness. "When Croesus had promised to Alcmaeon as much gold as he could carry about his body at once, in order to improve the king's liberality to the best advantage, he put on a very wide tunic, (kiqwna megan,) leaving a great space in the BOSOM, kolpon baqun, and drew on the largest buskins he could find. Being conducted to the treasury, he sat down on a great heap of gold, and first filled the buskins about his legs with as much gold as they could contain, and, having filled his whole BOSOM, kolpon, loaded his hair with ingots, and put several pieces in his mouth, he walked out of the treasury, &c." What a ridiculous figure must this poor sinner have cut, thus heavy laden with gold, and the love of money! See many other examples in Kypke and Raphelius. See also Psa. cxxix. 7; Prov. vi. 27; xvii. 23.

"The same measure that ye mete withal, it shall be measured to you again." - The same words we find in the Jerusalem Targum on Gen. xxxviii. 26. Our Lord therefore lays down a maxim which themselves allowed.

Verse 39. "Can the blind lead the blind?" - This appears to have been a general proverb, and to signify that a man cannot teach what he does not understand. This is strictly true in spiritual matters. A man who is not illuminated from above is utterly incapable of judging concerning spiritual things, and wholly unfit to be a guide to others. Is it possible that a person who is enveloped with the thickest darkness should dare either to judge of the state of others, or attempt to lead them in that path of which he is totally ignorant! If he do, must not his judgment be rashness, and his teaching folly?-and does he not endanger his own soul, and run the risk of falling into the ditch of perdition himself, together with the unhappy objects of his religious instruction?

Verse 40. "Every one that is perfect" - Or, thoroughly instructed, kathrtismenov:-from katartizw, to adjust, adapt, knit together, restore, or put in joint. The noun is used by the Greek medical writers to signify the reducing a luxated or disjointed limb. It sometimes signifies to repair or mend, and in this sense it is applied to broken nets, Matt. iv. 21; Mark i. 19; but in this place, and in Hebrews xiii. 21; 2 Tim. iii. 17, it means complete instruction and information. Every one who is thoroughly instructed in Divine things, who has his heart united to God, whose disordered tempers and passions are purified and restored to harmony and order; every one who has in him the mind that was in Christ, though he cannot be above, yet will be as, his teacher-holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.

"The disciple who perfectly understands the rules and sees the example of his master, will think it his business to tread exactly in his steps, to do and suffer upon like occasions, as his master did: and so he will be like his master." WHITBY.

Verse 41. "And why beholdest thou the mote" - See this explained on Matt. vii. 3-5.

Verse 43. "Corrupt fruit" - karpon sapron, literally, rotten fruit: but here it means, such fruit as is unfit for use. See on Matt. vii. 17-20.

Verse 45. "A good man" - See on Matt. xii. 35.

Verse 46. "Lord, Lord" - God judges of the heart, not by words, but by works. A good servant never disputes, speaks little, and always follows his work. Such a servant a real Christian is: such is a faithful minister, always intent either on the work of his own salvation, or that of his neighbour; speaking more to God than to men; and to these as in the presence of God. The tongue is fitly compared by one to a pump, which empties the heart, but neither fills nor cleanses it. The love of God is a hidden spring, which supplies the heart continually, and never permits it to be dry or unfruitful. Quesnel.

Verse 47. "I will show you" - Æupodeixw, I will show you plainly. I will enable you fully to comprehend my meaning on this subject by the following parable. See this word explained Matt. iii. 7.

Verse 48. "He is like a man, &c." - See on Matt. vii. 24-27.

Verse 49. "The ruin of that house was great." - On this passage, father Quesnel, who was a most rigid predestinarian, makes the following judicious remark. "It is neither by the speculations of astrologers, nor by the Calvinian assurance of predestination, that we can discover what will be our portion for ever: but it is by the examination of our heart, and the consideration of our life, that we may in some measure prognosticate our eternal state. Without a holy heart and a holy life, all is ruinous in the hour of temptation, and in the day of wrath." To this may be added, He that believeth on the Son of God, hath the WITNESS in HIMSELF: 1 John v. 10.