Monday after Epiphany ( Jan. 4, 2027 ), or sometimes Jan. 7

CHAPTER 3

Ver. 22.And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him. Wh

Would someone please check the Psalm number in sentence formatted in blue in the 3rd note of

Ver. 3.And every spirit which dissolves (solvit) Jesus, is not of God. (Vulg.) It means that Jesus is composed of the Godhead and the manhood by the bond of the hypostatic union. He therefore who loosens this bond, by denying that Christ is God, as do the Arians, or that He is man, as other heretics, is not of God, but of the devil. For such deny that Christ the Son of God came from heaven in the flesh, and say that He is God only or man only. This is what is set forth to be believed in the Athanasian symbol concerning Christ. "For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man are one Christ;" where observe that the word as signifies union and unity, not the same but similar. For the rational soul and flesh make our composite being, our man. But the Godhead and the manhood united in Christ make one composite Being, not essentially, but substantially, or hypostatically. Nor indeed does the Godhead inform the Humanity in the same way that the soul informs the body, but subsists whole and immingled. It unites the Manhood to Itself in the same hypostasis of the Word. Wherefore Nestorius truly dissolves Christ, teaching that in Him are two Persons, as there are two Natures, and that therefore in Christ the man is diverse and distinct from God. Christ therefore as God in the Humanity is as the pearl in the shell, conceived and formed of virgin matter, and the dew of the Holy Ghost, most fair by the innocency of His life, most bright by the light of His wisdom, rounded by the possession of all perfection, having the weight of constancy, the polish of meekness, the price of blessedness. So Salmeron.

Observe: the Greek and Syriac read here, Every spirit which confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. So also reads S. Cyprian (l. 2. contr. Jud.), Tertullian (lib. de Carne Christ, c. 24), though they, instead of does not confess, read who denies. But the rest of the Latin Fathers have generally which dissolves, as above. So S. Leo (Epist. 10 c. 5), Tertullian also (lib. contr. Psych. c. 1), and Irenæus (lib. 3 c. 18), and S. Augustine on this passage, who also brings forward and explains the other reading. Moreover, in the Greek, instead of ὸμολογε̃ι, i.e., confess, it was formerly read α̉ναλύει, i.e., dissolves. This we learn from Didymus and S. Cyril (de Fide ad Regin.). And from him Socrates writes (l 7 c. 32), speaking of Nestorius, who denied that the Blessed Virgin was the Mother of God, as follows: "He was ignorant that in ancient copies of the Catholic Epistle of John, it is written, 'Every spirit which dissolves Jesus is not of God.' For those who wished to separate the Godhead from the dispensation of the Manhood took away this sentence out of the ancient codices."

Allegorically: he dissolves Christ, who by schism rends the Church, which is the Body of Christ. "Christ," says S. Augustine, "came to gather together: thou comest to dissolve. How dost thou not deny that He came in the flesh, when thou breakest in pieces the Church which He gathered together?"

And this is Antichrist: The Greek reads, And this is of Antichrist; the Syriac, This is from the false Christ himself. And S. Cyprian reads (contr. Jud. lib. 2 c. 7 vol. 8), He who denies that He is come in the flesh is not of God, but is of the spirit of Antichrist. In a similar manner, John the Baptist is called Elias, not in person, but in office and spirit.

Because he comes (Vulg.), i.e., will surely come.

And now already he is in the world, not in person, but in spirit; that is to say, in his forerunners. This is what Paul says, "The mystery of iniquity doth already work." (2Thess 2:7.) Thus Luther paved the way for Mahometanism, and consequently for Antichrist, by teaching, amongst other things, that the Turk ought not to be resisted. This he attempted to prove by the following sophistical argumentWe must not resist the scourge of God, for that is the same thing as resisting God scourging us. But the Turk is the scourge of God. Therefore the Turk ought not to be resisted. The same argument would prove that thieves and robbers ought not to be resisted, for they are all a scourge of God. But there are scourges that ought to be scourged by the magistrates, for they are not by the direct, but the permissive will of God. And what other effect would such an argument have but to subject all Christians to the Turks, and make them Turks? Wherefore when the Turkish Sultan Solyman asked the imperial ambassador how old Luther was, and received in reply that he was forty-eight, he said he was sorry that on account of his impending old age he would not be able to assist him as much in the time to come as he had done. Luther makes a boast of this Solyman's good opinion of him (lib. Symposiac), and glories in his entire good-will towards him.

Ver. 4.Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome him. Because ye, 0 Christians, are of God, who is the prime and eternal Truth, therefore ye have overcome him; namely, the spirit of Antichrist, the spirit of error and heresy. Hence the Greek and Syriac read them, i.e., ye have overcome the false prophets, and spirits of error. S. Cyprian (lib. de Simp. Prelat.) reads νικα̃τε, i.e., overcome them, as a voice exhorting to battle and victory. The present Greek text has νενικήκατα, ye have overcome them, the voice of congratulation on account of victory.

For greater is He that is in you, &c. He gives the reason of victory, namely Christ and His Spirit of truth, which rules the faithful, and who is greater than the devil, and his spirit of error, who rules over the world, i.e., worldly men, heretics and impious persons. He says this to impress humility upon the faithful, that they should ascribe their victory, not to their own strength, but to the grace of God.

The same principle may be extended to every temptation. Wherefore S. John says (Rev 12:11), "They overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony." And the Church sings in her hymn for martyrs, "Thou conquerest in the martyrs."

3. S. Ambrose (Hom. 1 de Elisæo) extends the same principle to hostile armies: "I remember that I have often said that we ought by no means to fear the warlike assaults of enemies, nor dread their numbers, however vast. For, as the Apostle says "greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world." Christ is more powerful to protect His servants than the devil is to urge their enemies on. For although the devil collects his multitudes, and arms them with cruel rage, yet are they soon destroyed, because the Saviour encompasses His people with better defenders. For the prophet says, "The Lord shall send His angel round about them that fear Him, and deliver them." But if the angel of the Lord rescues them that fear Him out of dangers, they who fear the Saviour cannot fear barbarians. Neither can he who keeps the precepts of Christ fear the attack of an enemy." He gives the reason, the arms of Christ. "The commands of Christ are the arms of Christians. And the fear of God drives out the enemies' fear. Our arms are those with which the Saviour has provided us, prayer, mercy, and fasting. Fasting is a better defence than a wall. Mercy more easily delivers than rapiers. Prayer hath a longer flight than an arrow." Then he confirms what he says by the example of Elisæus when he was encompassed by the hosts of Syrians. He said to his trembling servant, "Fear not, for more are they that are with us, than they that are with them."

4. S. Prosper (lib. 1 de Vocat. Gent.) extends it to the daily temptations of the faithful. He shows, in opposition to Pelagius, that there is need of the grace of God to overcome them. "The victory of the saints," he says, "is the work of God dwelling in the saints."

5. Some extend it to every arduous work, so that each Christian should animate himself by saying to himself, "Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world." And with S. Paul, "I can do all things through Him who strengtheneth me." And with S. Cyprian, "He who is greater than the world cannot desire anything of the world." (lib. 2, ep. 2). And he adds, "He becomes greater and stronger in might, so that with imperial authority he rises superior to all the hosts which attack him." "Let us despise therefore everything under heaven as vain and deceitful, and unworthy of our love." And with S. Hilary, "Let us be lowly in heart, but lofty in mind," for we bear upon our head the strength and omnipotence of Christ. I once saw in Belgium a colonel who said to the heretics who were menacing him, "I fear none of you, for I bear the crown of Spain upon my head." So let the Christian say, "I bear upon my head, not the crown of Spain, but the crown of God. Therefore I fear not all the power of men and devils; no, not all the might of hell. I challenge them all to battle." Thus did S. Athanasius challenge all the Arians and the whole world. For "if God be for us, who can be against us?" What great things by the power of God did S. Paul, S. Antony, S. Simeon Stylites, S. Francis, and all the virgins, heroes, and martyrs! We can do likewise through the same God "who triumphs," i.e., "who makes us to triumph in Christ." (2Co_2:14). And God Himself has made us this promise (Isa_58:24), saying, "I will lift thee up above the high places of the earth," so that like an eagle dwelling in heaven thou mayest there despise whatsoever is in the world. This Seneca saw as in a shadow, when he said, "We must seek for that which does not become more worthless day by day. And what is that? It is the mind. But this must be a mind right, and good, and great. And what else can you call this but God dwelling as a guest in a human body?" (Epist. 54.)

5. They are of the world, &c. For heretics are not of God but of the world, because they love the riches, honours, and pleasures of the world. Whence worldly people, who care only for what is of the world, gladly hear them. "A heretic," says S. Augustine (de util. credendi), "is he who for the sake of some temporal advantage, but especially of glory, and the pre-eminence which it gives, either brings forth or follows new and false opinions." "All heretics," says Tertullian, "are puffed up, all make profession of science." "What heretic," says S. Jerome, "does not swell with pride?" And again, S. Augustine says, "One mother, pride, hath brought forth all heresies, even as our own mother, the Catholic Church, all faithful Christians dispersed throughout the world."

Ver. 6.We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us, &c. Even as Christ saith, "He that heareth you, heareth Me: he that despiseth you, despiseth Me," We, i.e., all the faithful, who have been born again in baptism, and are endued with charity. We, viz. the predestinated.  3d. And last: We, i.e., the Apostles. For, as Œcumenius says to heresiarchs, who, he said, spoke of the world, and from the worldi.e., who teach worldly and carnal cupidityto them he opposes the Apostles, who being born of God, and imbued with heavenly doctrine, and being sent by God, teach men to covet things spiritual, divine, and heavenly. Wherefore he who practically knows God, i.e., he who loves Him, heareth us, i.e., me John, and the rest of the Apostles, and Apostolic men. But he who does not love God, and therefore is not of God, but of the world, this man heareth not us. Wherefore he adds, By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error; by this, namely, "because he that heareth us hath the spirit of truth, he that heareth not us hath the spirit of error," as S. Augustine saith. For heretics, who are led by the spirit of error, teach the things of the world: but the Apostles and Apostolic Doctors, who are born of God, teach things Divine.

We know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us. These words may be either referred to the body of the Church in general or to the apostles, or to every one in particular. It is certain that God gave his Spirit to his Church and to the apostles, by the coming of the Holy Ghost in a visible manner, and by the miraculous gifts bestowed upon the apostles; but every one in particular has only a moral certainty that he has the Spirit of God, and his sanctifying grace in his soul. (Witham)

Try the spirits; i.e. every doctrine that you hear: for now are many false teachers, false doctors, and false prophets. (Witham) --- Try, &c. viz. by examining whether their teaching be agreeable to the rule of the Catholic faith and the doctrine of the Church. For, as he says, (ver. 6) "He that knoweth God, heareth us: (the pastors of the Church) ...by this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error." (Challoner) --- The Church only, not every private man, hath to prove and discern spirits.

By this is the Spirit of God known. He gives the new converts first general mark, by which they might have good grounds to think that the teachers they met with in those days had a good spirit, were of God, if they confessed and acknowledged Jesus Christ to have come from heaven and to have been made flesh, or made man; i.e. to be truly God and truly man. But if (ver. 3) they met with teachers of such a spirit as dissolveth Jesus,[1] by denying him either to be the Messias or to be truly God, or to be a true man, they might conclude for certain that such men had not a true spirit, but were heretics, antichrists, and forerunners of the great antichrist. Such, even in St. John's time, was Simon the magician, who, according to St. Epiphanius, (hær. xxi. p. 55. Ed Petav.) pretended among his countrymen, the Samaritans, that he himself was God the Father, and among the Jews that he was God the Son, and that Jesus suffered death in appearance only. His disciple also, Meander, said he was sent from heaven for the salvation of men. See St. Epiphanius, hær xxii. p. 61. 3. Cerinthus, as also Carpocras, held that Jesus was a mere man, born of Joseph and Mary, and also different from Christ. See St. Epiphanius, hær. xxxvii. and xxix. p. 102. and 110. 4. Ebion held much the same. See the same St. Epiphanius, hær. xxx. p. 142. These heretics and divers of their followers divided Jesus, and destroyed the faith and mystery of the incarnation. (Witham) --- Every spirit which confesseth, &c. Not that the confession of this point of faith alone, is at all times and in all cases sufficient; but that with relation to that time, and for that part of the Christian doctrine, which was then particularly to be confessed, taught, and maintained against the heretics of those days, this was the most proper token by which the true teachers might be distinguished from the false. (Challoner)

Qui solvit Jesum. Greek: Kataluei is read in some manuscripts and must have been the reading which the Latin interpreter followed. We read the same in St. Irenæus, lib. 3. chap. xviii. p. 197. Ed. Feuardentii; in Tertullian, lib. 5. cont. Marcion. chap. xvi. p. 481. Ed. Rigaltii; in St. Augustine in his commentary on these words, trac. 6, p. 871.

That dissolveth Jesus, viz. either by denying his humanity or his divinity. (Challoner) --- This is antichrist;[2] i.e. such is the spirit of antichrist, of whom you have heard that he cometh, or is to come in the latter times. --- And he is now already in the world, not the chief and great antichrist, but his precursors, in whom he may be said to come. (Witham) --- And he is now already in the world. Not in his person, but in his spirit and in his precursors. (Challoner)

Et hic est antichristus, Greek: kai touto (pneuma) to tou antichristou. By the Greek hic cannot agree with the man, and so the construction in Latin must be, hic est ille spiritus antichristi.

You....little children, born anew in Christ by baptism, have overcome him, (i.e. every such antichrist) not by your own strength, but by the grace of Christ, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world; i.e. the Spirit of God in you is above all your enemies. (Witham)

They are of the world. Such antichrists and heretics are guided by a worldly spirit, teaching men to follow the corrupt customs and inclinations of the world and the flesh, therefore the world heareth them, and men are more easily seduced by them. (Witham)

We (Christians) are of God, have received the Spirit; we, the apostles of Christ, were lawfully sent by him. --- He that knoweth God, heareth us, &c. That is, they who love and serve God, and comply with the doctrine of his Son, Jesus Christ, hear and follow the doctrine which we were commissioned by him to teach. --- He that is not of God, heareth us not. The are not of God, who refuse to hear and obey the voice of the Church and those whom Christ appointed to govern his Church, as hath been observed elsewhere. --- By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Here St. John gives them the second general mark and rule, to preserve them and all Christians from errors and heresies to the end of the world. He that knoweth God, heareth us Apostles, whom he sent, and heareth our successors, invested with the same mission and authority, whom Christ sent, as his heavenly Father sent him, whom he appointed to govern his Church, and with whom he promised to remain to the end of the world. (Witham)

20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. 21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. 22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

The apostle, having intimated that there may be, even among us, such a privilege as an assurance or sound persuasion of heart towards God, proceeds here,

I. To establish the court of conscience, and to assert the authority of it: For, if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things, v. 20 . Our heart here is our self-reflecting judicial power, that noble excellent ability whereby we can take cognizance of ourselves, of our spirits, our dispositions, and actions, and accordingly pass a judgment upon our state towards God; and so it is the same with conscience, or the power of moral self-consciousness. This power can act as witness, judge, and executioner of judgment; it either accuses or excuses, condemns or justifies; it is set and placed in this office by God himself: the spirit of man, thus capacitated and empowered, is the candle of the Lord, a luminary lighted and set up by the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly, taking into scrutiny and viewing the penetralia—the private recesses and secret transactions of the inner man, Prov. xx. 27 . Conscience is God's vicegerent, calls the court in his name, and acts for him. The answer of a good conscience towards God, 1 Pet. iii. 21 . God is chief Judge of the court: If our heart condemn us God is greater than our heart, superior to our heart and conscience in power and judgment; hence the act and judgment of the court are the act and judgment of God; as, 1. If conscience condemn us, God does so too: For, if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things, v. 20 . God is a greater witness than our conscience, and knoweth more against us than it does: he knoweth all things; he is a greater Judge than conscience; for, as he is supreme, so his judgment shall stand, and shall be fully and finally executed. This seems to be the design of another apostle when he says, For I know nothing by myself, that is, in the case wherein I am censured by some. "I am not conscious of any guile, or allowed unfaithfulness, in my stewardship and ministry. Yet I am hereby justified; it is not by my own conscience that I must ultimately stand or fall; the justification or justifying sentence of my conscience, or self-consciousness, will not determine the controversy between you and me; as you do not appeal to its sentence, so neither will you be determined by its decision; but he that judgeth me (supremely and finally judgeth me), and by whose judgment you and I must be determined, is the Lord, " 1 Cor. iv. 4 . Or, 2. If conscience acquit us, God does so too: Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God ( v. 21 ), then have we assurance that he accepts us now, and will acquit us in the great day of account. But, possibly, some presumptuous soul may here say, "I am glad of this; my heart does not condemn me, and therefore I may conclude God does not." As, on the contrary, upon the foregoing verse , some pious trembling soul will be ready to cry out, "God forbid! My heart or conscience condemns me, and must I then infallibly expect the condemnation of God?" But let such know that the errors of the witness are not here reckoned as the acts of the court; ignorance, error, prejudice, partiality, and presumption, may be said to be faults of the officers of the court, or of the attendants of the judge (as the mind, the will, appetite, passion, sensual disposition, or disordered brain), or of the jury, who give a false verdict, not of the judge itself; conscience — syneidesis, is properly self-consciousness. Acts of ignorance and error are not acts of self-consciousness, but of some mistaken power; and the court of conscience is here described in its process, according to the original constitution of it by God himself, according to which process what is bound in conscience is bound in heaven; let conscience therefore be heard, be well-informed, and diligently attended to.

23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. 24 And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

The apostle, having mentioned keeping the commandments, and pleasing God, as the qualification of effectual petitioners in and with Heaven, here suitably proceeds,

I. To represent to us what those commandments primarily and summarily are; they are comprehended in this double one: And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment, v. 23 . To believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ is, 1. To discern what he is, according to his name, to have an intellectual view of his person and office, as the Son of God, and the anointed Saviour of the world. That every one that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, John vi. 40 . 2. To approve him in judgment and conscience, in conviction and consciousness of our case, as one wisely and wonderfully prepared and adapted for the whole work of eternal salvation. 3. To consent to him, and acquiesce in him, as our Redeemer and recoverer unto God. 4. To trust to him, and rely upon him, for the full and final discharge of his saving office. Those that know thy name will put their trust in thee, Ps. ix. 10 . I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day, 2 Tim. i. 12 . This faith is a needful requisite to those who would be prevalent petitioners with God, because it is by the Son that we must come to the Father; through his grace and righteousness our persons must be accepted or ingratiated with the Father ( Eph. i. 6 ), through his purchase all our desired blessings must come, and through his intercession our prayers must be heard and answered. This is the first part of the commandment that must be observed by acceptable worshippers; the second is that we love one another, as he gave us commandment, v. 23 . The command of Christ should be continually before our eyes. Christian love must possess our soul when we go to God in prayer. To this end we must remember that our Lord obliges us, (1.) To forgive those who offend us ( Matt. vi. 14 ), and, (2.) To reconcile ourselves to those whom we have offended, Matt. v. 23, 24 . As good-will to men was proclaimed from heaven, so good-will to men, and particularly to the brethren, must be carried in the hearts of those who go to God and heaven.

II. To represent to us the blessedness of obedience to these commands. The obedient enjoy communion with God: And he that keepeth his commandments, and particularly those of faith and love, dwelleth in him, and he in him, v. 24 . We dwell in God by a happy relation to him, and spiritual union with him, through his Son, and by a holy converse with him; and God dwells in us by his word, and our faith fixed on him, and by the operations of his Spirit. Then there occurs the trial of his divine inhabitation: And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us ( v. 24 ), by the sacred disposition and frame of soul that he hath conferred upon us, which being a spirit of faith in God and Christ, and of love to God and man, appears to be of God.

1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

The apostle, having said that God's dwelling in and with us may be known by the Spirit that he hath given us, intimates that that Spirit may be discerned and distinguished from other spirits that appear in the world; and so here,

I. He calls the disciples, to whom he writes, to caution and scrutiny about the spirits and spiritual professors that had now risen. 1. To caution: " Beloved, believe not every spirit; regard not, trust not, follow not, every pretender to the Spirit of God, or every professor of vision, or inspiration, or revelation from God." Truth is the foundation of simulation and counterfeits; there had been real communications from the divine Spirit, and therefore others pretended thereto. God will take the way of his own wisdom and goodness, though it may be liable to abuse; he has sent inspired teachers to the world, and given us a supernatural revelation, though others may be so evil and so impudent as to pretend the same; every pretender to the divine Spirit, or to inspiration, and extraordinary illumination thereby, is not to be believed. Time was when the spiritual man (the man of the Spirit, who made a great noise about, and boast of, the Spirit) was mad, Hos. ix. 7 . 2. To scrutiny, to examination of the claims that are laid to the Spirit: But try the spirits, whether they be of God, v. 1 . God has given of his Spirit in these latter ages of the world, but not to all who profess to come furnished therewith; to the disciples is allowed a judgment of discretion, in reference to the spirits that would be believed and trusted in the affairs of religion. A reason is given for this trial: Because many false prophets have gone out into the world, v. 1 . There being much about the time of our Saviour's appearance in the world a general expectation among the Jews of a Redeemer to Israel, and the humiliation, spiritual reformation, and sufferings of the Saviour being taken as a prejudice against him, others were induced to set up as prophets and messiahs to Israel, according to the Saviour's prediction, Matt. xxiv. 23, 24 . It should not seem strange to us that false teachers set themselves up in the church: it was so in the apostles' times; fatal is the spirit of delusion, sad that men should vaunt themselves for prophets and inspired preachers that are by no means so!

4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. 5 They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. 6 We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

22. we receive-- as a matter of fact, according to His promise. Believers, as such, ask only what is in accordance with God's will; or if they ask what God wills not, they bow their will to God's will, and so God grants them either their request, or something better than it.

because we keep his commandments-- Compare Psa 66:18 ; 34:15 ; 145:18 , 19 . Not as though our merits earned a hearing for our prayers, but when we are believers in Christ, all our works of faith being the fruit of His Spirit in us, are "pleasing in God's sight"; and our prayers being the voice of the same Spirit of God in us, naturally and necessarily are answered by Him.

23. Summing up of God's commandments under the Gospel dispensation in one commandment.

this is his commandment-- singular: for faith and love are not separate commandments, but are indissolubly united. We cannot truly love one another without faith in Christ, nor can we truly believe in Him without love.

believe-- once for all; Greek aorist.

on the name of his Son-- on all that is revealed in the Gospel concerning Him, and on Himself in respect to His person, offices, and atoning work.

as he-- as Jesus gave us commandment.

24. dwelleth in him-- The believer dwelleth in Christ.

and he in him-- Christ in the believer. Reciprocity. "Thus he returns to the great keynote of the Epistle, abide in Him, with which the former part concluded" ( 1Jo 2:28 ).

1Jo 4:1-21 . Tests of False Prophets. Love, the Test of Birth from God, and the Necessary Fruit of Knowing His Great Love in Christ to Us.

1. Beloved-- the affectionate address wherewith he calls their attention, as to an important subject.

every spirit-- which presents itself in the person of a prophet. The Spirit of truth, and the spirit of error, speak by men's spirits as their organs. There is but one Spirit of truth, and one spirit of Antichrist.

try-- by the tests ( 1Jo 4:2 , 3 ). All believers are to do so: not merely ecclesiastics. Even an angel's message should be tested by the word of God: much more men's teachings, however holy the teachers may seem.

because, &c.-- the reason why we must "try," or test the spirits.

many false prophets-- not "prophets" in the sense "foretellers," but organs of the spirit that inspires them, teaching accordingly either truth or error: "many Antichrists."

are gone out-- as if from God.

into the world-- said alike of good and bad prophets (2Jo 7). The world is easily seduced ( 1Jo 4:4 , 5 ).

2. Hereby-- "Herein."

know ... the Spirit of God-- whether he be, or not, in those teachers professing to be moved by Him.

Every spirit-- that is, Every teacher claiming inspiration by the Holy Spirit.

confesseth-- The truth is taken for granted as established. Man is required to confess it, that is, in his teaching to profess it openly.

Jesus Christ is come in the flesh-- a twofold truth confessed, that Jesus is the Christ, and that He is come (the Greek perfect tense implies not a mere past historical fact, as the aorist would, but also the present continuance of the fact and its blessed effects) in the flesh ("clothed with flesh": not with a mere seeming humanity, as the Docetæ afterwards taught: He therefore was, previously, something far above flesh). His flesh implies His death for us, for only by assuming flesh could He die (for as God He could not), He 2:9 , 10, 14 , 16 ; and His death implies His LOVE for us ( Joh 15:13 ). To deny the reality of His flesh is to deny His love, and so cast away the root which produces all true love on the believer's part (1Jo 4:9-11, 19). Rome, by the doctrine of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, denies Christ's proper humanity.

3. confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh-- Irenæus [3.8], Lucifer, Origen, on Mt 25:14 , and Vulgate read, "Every spirit which destroys (sets aside, or does away with) Jesus (Christ)." Cyprian and Polycarp support English Version text. The oldest extant manuscripts, which are, however, centuries after Polycarp, read, "Every spirit that confesseth not (that is, refuses to confess) Jesus" (in His person, and all His offices and divinity), omitting "is come in the flesh."

ye have heard-- from your Christian teachers.

already is it in the world-- in the person of the false prophets ( 1Jo 4:1 ).

4. Ye-- emphatical: Ye who confess Jesus: in contrast to "them," the false teachers.

overcome them-- ( 1Jo 5:4 , 5 ); instead of being "overcome and brought into (spiritual) bondage" by them ( 2Pe 2:19 ). Joh 10:8 , 5 , "the sheep did not hear them": "a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers."

he that is in you-- God, of whom ye are.

he that is in the word-- the spirit of Antichrist, the devil, "the prince of this world."

5. of the world-- They derive their spirit and teaching from the world, "unregenerate human nature, ruled over and possessed by Satan, the prince of this world" [Alford].

speak they of the word-- They draw the matter of their conversation from the life, opinions, and feelings of the world.

the world heareth them-- ( Joh 15:18 , 19 ). The world loves its own.

6. We-- true teachers of Christ: in contrast to them.

are of God-- and therefore speak of God: in contrast to "speak they of the world," 1Jo 4:5 .

knoweth God-- as his Father, being a child "of God" ( 1Jo 2:13 , 14 ).

heareth us-- Compare Joh 18:37 , "Every one that is of the truth, heareth My voice."

Hereby-- ( 1Jo 4:2-6 ); by their confessing, or not confessing, Jesus; by the kind of reception given them respectively by those who know God, and by those who are of the world and not of God.

spirit of truth-- the Spirit which comes from God and teaches truth.

spirit of error-- the spirit which comes from Satan and seduces into error.

(ver. 6). This is clearly spoken in the Person of the very Lord our Saviour Christ. But if Sion signify, as some interpret, beholding, we must not understand it of anything rather than of the Church, where daily is the desire raised of beholding the bright glory of God, according to that of the Apostle, "but we with open face beholding the glory of the Lord." Therefore the meaning of this is, Yet I am set by Him as King over His holy Church; which for its eminence and stability He calleth a mountain. "Yet I am set by Him as King." I, that is, whose "bands" they were meditating "to break asunder," and whose "yoke" to "cast away." "Preaching His decree." Who doth not see the meaning of this, seeing it is daily practised?

6. "The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art My Son, to-day have I begotten Thee"

(ver. 7). Although that day may also seem to be prophetically spoken of, on which Jesus Christ was born according to the flesh; and in eternity there is nothing past as if it had ceased to be, nor future as if it were not yet, but present only, since whatever is eternal, always is; yet as "today" intimates presentiality, a divine interpretation is given to that expression, "To-day have I begotten Thee," whereby the uncorrupt and Catholic faith proclaims the eternal generation of the power and Wisdom of God, who is the Only-begotten Son.

7. "Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance"

(ver. 9); that is, "Thou shalt break" in them earthly lusts, and the filthy doings of the old man, and whatsoever hath been derived and inured from the sinful clay. "And now understand, ye kings"

(ver. 10). "And now;" that is, being now renewed, your covering of clay worn out, that is, the carnal vessels of error which belong to your past life, "now understand," ye who now are "kings;" that is, able now to govern all that is servile and brutish in you, able now too to fight, not as "they who beat the air, but chastening your bodies, and bringing them into subjection." "Be instructed, all ye who judge the earth." This again is a repetition; "Be instructed" is instead of "understand;" and "ye who judge the earth" instead of "ye kings." For He signifies the spiritual by "those who judge the earth." For whatsoever we judge, is below us; and whatsoever is below the spiritual man, is with good reason called "the earth;" because it is defiled with earthly corruption.

9. "Serve the Lord with fear;" lest what is said, "Ye kings and judges of the earth," turn into pride: "And rejoice with trembling"

(ver. 11). Very excellently is "rejoice" added, lest "serve the Lord with fear" should seem to tend to misery. But again, lest this same rejoicing should run on to unrestrained inconsiderateness, there is added "with trembling," that it might avail for a warning, and for the careful guarding of holiness. It can also be taken thus, "And now ye kings understand;" that is, And now that I am set as King, be ye not sad, kings of the earth, as if your excellency were taken from you, but rather "understand and be instructed." For it is expedient for you, that ye should be under Him, by whom understanding and instruction are given you. And this is expedient for you, that ye lord it not with rashness, but that ye "serve the Lord" of all "with fear," and "rejoice" in bliss most sure and most pure, with all caution and carefulness, lest ye fall therefrom into pride.

10. "Lay hold of discipline, lest at any time the Lord be angry, and ye perish from the righteous way"

Thee. Chaldean weakens this text. (Haydock) --- "I love thee as my son, and look upon thee with the same affection, as if I had this day created thee;" which might be applied to David, now settled more firmly on the throne by his late victory. But it literally refers to Christ, either born in time, (ver. 1., St. Augustine; Calmet) or baptized; (St. Justin Martyr) or rather rising again, (Acts xiii. 33.) and born from all eternity, Hebrews i. 5. This shews him superior to the angels. The prophet had both these events in view. Eternity is always the same. (Berthier; Bossuet; Du Hamel) --- He to whom God may speak thus to-day, at all times, must be God also. (Robertson, Lexic.) (John v. 25.) --- To this Socinians can make no reply, without giving up the Epistle to the Hebrews or allowing that the apostle's arguments were inconclusive. (Berthier) --- The same text may thus have many literal senses. (Du Hamel) --- The eternal birth seems here to be the chief, as from that source the nativity, baptism, priesthood, (Hebrews xv. 5.) and miraculous resurrection of Christ, necessarily spring. (Haydock)

Ask. The Messias must be invested with human nature, and merit all graces for man. When did David ask for such an extensive dominion? (Berthier) --- But Christ's kingdom extends over the world. His Church cannot fail, as St. Augustine proved hence against the Donatists, and his arguments confute Protestants as well. (Worthington) --- Our doctors used to refer this psalm to the Messias, said R. Solomon; but it is better to apply it to David, on account of "Christians." (Du Hamel)

And. Here the prophet may address kings, unless the Father or the Messias continue to speak. It is evident these words are not to be understood of David's dominions alone. Fear and joy keep the Christian in proper order, Philippians ii. 12., and iii. 1. (Berthier) --- "The love of God pushes us forward, and the fear of God makes us take care where we walk." (St. Theresa [of Avila?]) --- The one guards us against despair, the other against presumption. Kings are here instructed to support the Church, for which some have been styled, "Most Christian," "Catholic," or "Defenders of the Faith." The Donatists falsely asserted, that they were ever found enemies to religion, because of Constantine, &c., attempted to repress their errors. But Julian favoured them, to increase dissensions. See St. Augustine, contra Pet. et contra Gaud. ii. 26. (Worthington)

Trembling, with reverential awe and humility, (1 Corinthians ii. 3.; Amama) as none is sure of salvation. (Bell.[Bellarmine?]) --- More are list by presumption than by trembling. (Amama)

Discipline. Chaldean, "doctrine." St. Jerome, "adore purely." Protestants, "kiss the Son, lest he be angry," &c. (Haydock) --- Houbigant, "adore the son, lest he be angry, and you perish. For he comes forward, and shortly his wrath will be enkindled." This version seems to be judicious: that of the Vulgate is less energetic, but come to the same end, as those who adore the Messias, must follow his doctrine. (Berthier) --- Lord and just is not in [the] Hebrew. (Haydock) --- The way or projects of sinners will perish; (Psalm i. 6.) they will be hurried before the tribunal, as soon as they are dead; (St. Hilary) and when they least expect it, 1 Thessalonians v. 2. (Calmet) --- Some fall from salvation, and God will bring them to judgment at the end of this short life. (Worthington) --- Hebrew, "Kiss purely." Kissing is often used in Scripture to express submission, love, and adoration. (St. Jerome, contra Ruf. i.) (Genesis xli. 40.) (Calmet) --- We testify our respect for God, by kissing the Bible, &c. (Haydock) --- But it cannot be shewn that bar means "a son," in Hebrew. (Calmet) --- Amama blames the Vulgate for withdrawing a text in favour of Christ's divinity. We must, however, submit to the law and faith of Christ with confidence and live, if we desire to escape his indignation and enter heaven, Acts iv. 12. Mr. Nightingale (Portrait of Cath. 1812. p. 117 and 332) may represent this doctrine as uncharitable and groundless, though he allows it has been maintained by most (p. 473) who have professed to be the true disciples of Christ, whether Catholics or Protestants. The principle is good, though some apply it wrong. If he and Lord Milton, (speech. 1812. to whom we must express our manifest obligations) had contented themselves with saying that they believed our doctrine was "unscriptural," &c., (p. 18) we should not have much wondered; as they could not consistently have said less, and remained out of the Catholic Church. But for any man who has read the Bible, to persuade himself that it is not necessary to profess the one only true religion, wherever it may be, after Christ has plainly declared, He that believeth not is already judged, and shall be condemned; (John iii. 18., and Mark xvi. 16.) and after the apostle has delivered over to satan those who only asserted that the resurrection was past, (2 Timothy ii. 17.) this fills us with astonishment. Not a single text can be produced in favour of the contrary system leading to indifference about religion; which, if true, would shew the preaching of the prophets and apostles was nugatory, and their blood shed in vain. All the "Scriptures" proclaim the necessity of faith and good works. We may observe, that the doctrine of the blessed Trinity seems to be no less objectionable to Mr. N. than the rest of our faith, p. 117, &c. Yet (Haydock) we must not refuse him the praise of liberality. (Catholic Review, &c., Jan. 1813.) (Haydock)

7 I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. 8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. 9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

We have heard what the kings of the earth have to say against Christ's kingdom, and have heard it gainsaid by him that sits in heaven; let us now hear what the Messiah himself has to say for his kingdom, to make good his claims, and it is what all the powers on earth cannot gainsay.

I. The kingdom of the Messiah is founded upon a decree, an eternal decree, of God the Father. It was not a sudden resolve, it was not the trial of an experiment, but the result of the counsels of the divine wisdom and the determinations of the divine will, before all worlds, neither of which can be altered—the precept or statute (so some read it), the covenant or compact (so others), the federal transactions between the Father and the Son concerning man's redemption, represented by the covenant of royalty made with David and his seed, Ps. lxxxix. 3 . This our Lord Jesus often referred to as that which, all along in his undertaking, he governed himself by; This is the will of him that sent me, John vi. 40 . This commandment have I received of my Father, John x. 18 ; xiv. 31 .

II. There is a declaration of that decree as far as is necessary for the satisfaction of all those who are called and commanded to yield themselves subjects to this king, and to leave those inexcusable who will not have him to reign over them. The decree was secret; it was what the Father said to the Son, when he possessed him in the beginning of his way, before his works of old; but it is declared by a faithful witness, who had lain in the bosom of the Father from eternity, and came into the world as the prophet of the church, to declare him, John i. 18 . The fountain of all being is, without doubt, the fountain of all power; and it is by, from, and under him, that the Messiah claims. He has his right to rule from what Jehovah said to him, by whose word all things were made and are governed. Christ here makes a tow-fold title to his kingdom:—1. A title by inheritance ( v. 7 ): Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. This scripture the apostle quotes ( Heb. i. 5 ) to prove that Christ has a more excellent name than the angels, but that he obtained it by inheritance, v. 4 . He is the Son of God, not by adoption, but his begotten Son, the only begotten of the Father, John i. 14 . And the Father owns him, and will have this declared to the world as the reason why he is constituted King upon the holy hill of Zion; he is therefore unquestionably entitled to, and perfectly qualified for, that great trust. He is the Son of God, and therefore of the same nature with the Father, has in him all the fulness of the godhead, infinite wisdom, power, and holiness. The supreme government of the church is too high an honour and too hard an undertaking for any mere creature; none can be fit for it but he who is one with the Father and was from eternity by him as one brought up with him, thoroughly apprized of all his counsels, Prov. viii. 30 . He is the Son of God, and therefore dear to him, his beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased; and upon this account we are to receive him as a King; for because the Father loveth the Son he hath given all things into his hand, John iii. 35 ; v. 20 . Being a Son, he is heir of all things, and, the Father having made the worlds by him, it is easy to infer thence that by him also he governs them; for he is the eternal Wisdom and the eternal Word. If God hath said unto him, " Thou art my Son, " it becomes each of us to say to him, "Thou art my Lord, my sovereign." Further, to satisfy us that his kingdom is well-grounded upon his sonship, we are here told what his sonship is grounded on: This day have I begotten thee, which refers both to his eternal generation itself, for it is quoted ( Heb. i. 5 ) to prove that he is the brightness of his Father's glory and the express image of his person ( v. 3 ), and to the evidence and demonstration given of it by his resurrection from the dead, for to that also it is expressly applied by the apostle, Acts xiii. 33 . He hath raised up Jesus again, as it is written, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. It was by the resurrection from the dead, that sign of the prophet Jonas, which was to be the most convincing of all, that he was declared to be the Son of God with power, Rom. i. 4 . Christ is said to be the first-begotten and first-born from the dead, Rev. i. 5 ; Col. i. 18 . Immediately after his resurrection he entered upon the administration of his mediatorial kingdom; it was then that he said, All power is given unto me, and to that especially he had an eye when he taught his disciples to pray, Thy kingdom come. 2. A title by agreement, v. 8, 9 . The agreement is, in short, this: the Son must undertake the office of an intercessor, and, upon that condition, he shall have the honour and power of a universal monarch; see Isa. liii. 12 , Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, because he made intercession for the transgressors. He shall be a priest upon his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both, Zech. vi. 13 . (1.) The Son must ask. This supposes his putting himself voluntarily into a state of inferiority to the Father, by taking upon him the human nature; for, as God, he was equal in power and glory with the Father and had nothing to ask. It supposes the making of a satisfaction by the virtue of which the intercession must be made, and the paying of a price, on which this large demand was to be grounded; see John xvii. 4, 5 . The Son, in asking the heathen for his inheritance, aims, not only at his own honour, but at their happiness in him; so that he intercedes for them, ever lives to do so, and is therefore able to save to the uttermost. (2.) The Father will grant more than to the half of the kingdom, even to the kingdom itself. It is here promised him, [1.] That his government shall be universal: he shall have the heathen for his inheritance, not the Jews only, to whose nation the church had been long confined, but the Gentiles also. Those in the uttermost parts of the earth (as this nation of ours) shall be his possession, and he shall have multitudes of willing loyal subjects among them. Baptized Christians are the possession of the Lord Jesus; they are to him for a name and a praise. God the Father gives them to him when by his Spirit and grave he works upon them to submit their necks to the yoke of the Lord Jesus. This is in part fulfilled; a great part of the Gentile world received the gospel when it was first preached, and Christ's throne was set up there where Satan's seat had long been. But it is to be yet further accomplished when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ, Rev. xi. 15 . Who shall live when God doeth this? [2.] That it shall be victorious: Thou shalt break them (those of them that oppose thy kingdom) with a rod of iron, v. 9 . This was in part fulfilled when the nation of the Jews, those that persisted in unbelief and enmity to Christ's gospel, were destroyed by the Roman power, which was represented ( Dan. ii. 40 ) by feet of iron, as here by a rod of iron. It had a further accomplishment in the destruction of the Pagan powers, when the Christian religion came to be established; but it will not be completely fulfilled till all opposing rule, principality, and power, shall be finally put down, 1 Cor. xv. 24 ; Ps. cx. 5, 6 . Observe, How powerful Christ is and how weak the enemies of his kingdom are before him; he has a rod of iron wherewith to crush those that will not submit to his golden sceptre; they are but like a potter's vessel before him, suddenly, easily, and irreparably dashed in pieces by him; see Rev. ii. 27 . "Thou shalt do it, that is, thou shalt have leave to do it." Nations shall be ruined, rather than the gospel church shall not be built and established. I have loved thee, therefore will I give men for thee, Isa. xliii. 4 . "Thou shalt have power to do it; none shall be able to stand before thee; and thou shalt do it effectually." Those that will not bow shall break.

10 Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. 11 Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. 12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

We have here the practical application of this gospel doctrine concerning the kingdom of the Messiah, by way of exhortation to the kings and judges of the earth. They hear that it is in vain to oppose Christ's government; let them therefore be so wise for themselves as to submit to it. He that has power to destroy them shows that he has no pleasure in their destruction, for he puts them into a way to make themselves happy, v. 10 . Those that would be wise must be instructed; and those are truly wise that receive instruction from the word of God. Kings and judges stand upon a level with common persons before God; and it is as necessary for them to be religious as for any others. Those that give law and judgment to others must receive law from Christ, and it will be their wisdom to do so. What is said to them is said to all, and is required of every one of us, only it is directed to kings and judges because of the influence which their example will have upon their inferiors, and because they were men of rank and power that opposed the setting up of Christ's kingdom, v. 2 . We are exhorted,

I. To reverence God and to stand in awe of him, v. 11 . This is the great duty of natural religion. God is great, and infinitely above us, just and holy, and provoked against us, and therefore we ought to fear him and tremble before him; yet he is our Lord and Master, and we are bound to serve him, our friend and benefactor, and we have reason to rejoice in him; and these are very well consistent with each other, for, 1. We must serve God in all ordinances of worship, and all instances of a godly conversation, but with a holy fear, a jealousy over ourselves, and a reverence of him. Even kings themselves, whom others serve and fear, must serve and fear God; there is the same indefinite distance between them and God that there is between the meanest of their subjects and him. 2. We must rejoice in God, and, in subordination to him, we may rejoice in other things, but still with a holy trembling, as those that know what a glorious and jealous God he is, whose eye is always upon us. Our salvation must be wrought out with fear and trembling, Phil. ii. 12 . We ought to rejoice in the setting up of the kingdom of Christ, but to rejoice with trembling, with a holy awe of him, a holy fear for ourselves, lest we come short, and a tender concern for the many precious souls to whom his gospel and kingdom are a savour of death unto death. Whatever we rejoice in, in this world, it must always be with trembling, lest we grow vain in our joy and be puffed up with the things we rejoice in, and because of the uncertainty of them and the damp which by a thousand accidents may soon be cast upon our joy. To rejoice with trembling is to rejoice as though we rejoiced not, 1 Cor. vii. 30 .

II. To welcome Jesus Christ and to submit to him, v. 12 . This is the great duty of the Christian religion; it is that which is required of all, even kings and judges, and it is our wisdom and interest to do it. Observe here,

1. The command given to this purport: Kiss the Son. Christ is called the Son because so he was declared ( v. 7 ), Thou art my Son. He is the Son of God by eternal generation, and, upon that account, he is to be adored by us. He is the Son of man (that is, the Mediator, John v. 27 ), and, upon that account, to be received and submitted to. He is called the Son, to include both, as God is often called emphatically the Father, because he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in him our Father, and we must have an eye to him under both considerations. Our duty to Christ is here expressed figuratively: Kiss the Son, not with a betraying kiss, as Judas kissed him, and as all hypocrites, who pretend to honour him, but really affront him; but with a believing kiss. (1.) With a kiss of agreement and reconciliation. Kiss, and be friends, as Jacob and Esau; let the quarrel between us and God terminate; let the acts of hostility cease, and let us be at peace with God in Christ, who is our peace. (2.) With a kiss of adoration and religious worship. Those that worshipped idols kissed them, 1 Kings xix. 18 ; Hos. xiii. 2 . Let us study how to do honour to the Lord Jesus, and to give unto him the glory due unto his name. He is thy Lord, and worship thou him, Ps. xlv. 11 . We must worship the Lamb, as well as him that sits on the throne, Rev. v. 9-13 . (3.) With a kiss of affection and sincere love: " Kiss the Son; enter into a covenant of friendship with him, and let him be very dear and precious to you; love him above all, love him in sincerity, love him much, as she did to whom much was forgiven, and, in token of it, kissed his feet," Luke vii. 38 . (4.) With a kiss of allegiance and loyalty, as Samuel kissed Saul, 1 Sam. x. 1 . Swear fealty and homage to him, submit to his government, take his yoke upon you, and give up yourselves to be governed by his laws, disposed of by his providence, and entirely devoted to his interest.

2. The reasons to enforce this command; and they are taken from our own interest, which God, in his gospel, shows a concern for. Consider,

(1.) The certain ruin we run upon if we refuse and reject Christ: " Kiss the Son; for it is at your peril if you do not." [1.] "It will be a great provocation to him. Do it, lest he be angry. " The Father is angry already; the Son is the Mediator that undertakes to make peace; if we slight him, the Father's wrath abides upon us ( John iii. 36 ), and not only so, but there is an addition of the Son's wrath too, to whom nothing is more displeasing than to have the offers of his grace slighted and the designs of it frustrated. The Son can be angry, though a Lamb; he is the lion of the tribe of Judah, and the wrath of this king, this King of kings, will be as the roaring of a lion, and will drive even mighty men and chief captains to seek in vain for shelter in rocks and mountains, Rev. vi. 16 . If the Son be angry, who shall intercede for us? There remains no more sacrifice, no other name by which we can be saved. Unbelief is a sin against the remedy. [2.] It will be utter destruction to yourselves: Lest you perish from the way, or in the way so some, in the way of your sins, and from the way of your vain hopes; lest your way perish (as Ps. i. 6 ), lest you prove to have missed the way to happiness. Christ is the way; take heed lest you be cut off from him as your way to God. It intimates that they were, or at least thought themselves, in the way; but, by neglecting Christ, they perished from it, which aggravates their ruin, that they go to hell from the way to heaven, are not far from the kingdom of God and yet never arrive there.

(2.) The happiness we are sure of if we yield ourselves to Christ. When his wrath is kindled, though but a little, the least spark of that fire is enough to make the proudest sinner miserable if it fasten upon his conscience; for it will burn to the lowest hell: one would think it should therefore follow, "When his wrath is kindled, woe be to those that despise him;" but the Psalmist startles at the thought, deprecates that dreadful doom and pronounces those blessed that escape it. Those that trust in him, and so kiss him, are truly happy; but they will especially appear to be so when the wrath of Christ is kindled against others. Blessed will those be in the day of wrath, who, by trusting in Christ, have made him their refuge and patron; when the hearts of others fail them for fear they shall lift up their heads with joy; and then those who now despise Christ and his followers will be forced to say, to their own greater confusion, "Now we see that blessed are all those, and those only, that trust in him. "

In singing this, and praying it over, we should have our hearts filled with a holy awe of God, but at the same time borne up with a cheerful confidence in Christ, in whose mediation we may comfort and encourage ourselves and one another. We are the circumcision, that rejoice in Christ Jesus.

7. The king thus constituted declares the fundamental law of His kingdom, in the avowal of His Sonship, a relation involving His universal dominion.

this day have I begotten thee-- as 2Sa 7:14 , "he shall be My son," is a solemn recognition of this relation. The interpretation of this passage to describe the inauguration of Christ as Mediatorial King, by no means impugns the Eternal Sonship of His divine nature. In Ac 13:33 , Paul's quotation does not imply an application of this passage to the resurrection; for "raised up" in Ac 13:32 is used as in Ac 2:30 ; 3:22, &c., to denote bringing Him into being as a man; and not that of resurrection, which it has only when, as in Ac 2:34 , allusion is made to His death ( Ro 1:4 ). That passage says He was declared as to His divine nature to be the Son of God, by the resurrection, and only teaches that that event manifested a truth already existing. A similar recognition of His Sonship is introduced in He 5:5 , by these ends, and by others in Mt 3:17 ; 17:5 .

8. The hopes of the rebels are thus overthrown, and not only so; the kingdom they opposed is destined to be coextensive with the earth.

heathen-- or, "nations" ( Psa 2:1 ).

and the uttermost parts of the earth-- ( Psa 22:27 ); denotes universality.

10-12. kings ... judges-- For rulers generally ( Psa 148:11 ), who have been leaders in rebellion, should be examples of penitent submission, and with fear for His terrible judgments, mingled with trust in His mercy, acknowledge--

verse 14 points in the same direction, And all the temptation being ended. Thus Euthymius, Jansen and Cajetan, Origen (Hom. 29 in Luc.), Bede (lib. I in Marc.), Augustine (lib. 2 de Consens. Evang. c. 4).

S. Luke, by using the present participle GG, which the Vulgate renders by the imperfect, was being tempted, seems to refer principally to the three celebrated temptations of Christ as the summing up as it were and the chief of them all. As Suarez rightly points out.

Of the devil, namely Lucifer, the prince of all the demons. And it was just that Christ should now contend with him, as He had afore contended with him in heaven, when He cast Satan ambitiously seeking the hypostatic union, and envious that He was about to become man, down to Tartarus, as some suppose. Lucifer therefore, at this time, came forth from hell, and taking the form of a manof a holy man, says Carthusianustempted Christ, (1) that he might make trial whether He were God's own Son in very deed, and (2) that he might entice Him to sin. As therefore Lucifer, through Eve, tempted Adam, and overcame him, so he tempted Christ, and was overcome by Him. We are here taught that when the devil foresees any one will be an illustrious doctor of the Church, he is accustomed to assail him with various temptations, that he may cast him down, and destroy the harvest of souls which he sees he may reap, that he may choke the fruit in the seed, as now he strove to strangle all Christians in Christ their Parent.

And when he had fasted. Christ, after the example of Moses and Elias, fasted forty whole days and nights, without taking any food or drink whatever. He fasted, not by natural but by supernatural strength; and not by strength received from without, as Moses and Elias, but by His own proper and intrinsic, that is to say, divine strength, as the Fathers teach, passim.

You ask for what reasons Christ fasted?

I answer, 1. That by prayer and fasting He might prepare Himself for His work of preaching, and teach us to do the same.

2. Objectively, that by the hunger consequent upon His fasting, He might afford the devil an opportunity of tempting Him; and by the same fasting might arm Himself, and teach us to arm ourselves against temptations. So S. Basil (Hom. I on Tempt.).

3. That by macerating His flesh, He might make satisfaction for Adam's eating the forbidden fruit, and for all the gluttony of his posterity.

4. That He might dispose Himself for holy contemplation, and show that fasting is as wings, whereby the soul is carried upward to celestial things. (S. Chrysostom, Hom. I in Gen.)

5. That He might teach us to despise corporal for the sake of spiritual delights; and that by the contemplation of divine things, and the joy which arises from that contemplation, the longing for carnal pleasures is quenched, and the thought of food and drink taken away. Whence the Abbot John, as Cassian testifies (Collat. 19. 4) was so fed with the pleasures of contemplation, that he could not remember whether he had eaten the day before or not.

6. And chiefly, that He might inaugurate the Lenten Fast, observed by Christians according to Apostolic tradition; that He might sanction, and, as it were, consecrate this fast by His example. So S. Ignatius (Epist. 7), and other Fathers, passim. The reason was, first, that we might give a tithe of all the days of the year to God. So S. Gregory (Hom. 16. in Evang.) "From this day until the gladness of Easter are six weeks, or forty-two days, from which, as six Sundays not to be given to fasting must be deducted, there remain only thirty-six days. Thus do we deny ourselves for six-and-thirty days, as giving the tenth of the 365 days of the year to God, that we, who have lived by the gift which we have received for ourselves, might, for the sake of our Maker, mortify ourselves by fasting in His own tithe of time. Whence, brethren most beloved, as ye are bidden by the law to offer the tithe of your substance, so also offer to God the tithe of your days." S. Ambrose gives another reason, that as the Israelites passed by forty-two stations through the desert to the Promised Land, so we too arrive by forty days of fasting at the longed-for feast and joy of Easter. Whence Tertullian, Cyprian, S. Ambrose (Epist. 25), and others call a fast a station. See in Peter Bongus much more concerning the mysteries contained in the number forty. See also S. Jerome (ad Præsid.) on the Paschal Candle.

We may add that the Lenten Fast is appointed for the spring, not only for the sanctity of the soul, but for the sanity of the body, as D. Viringas, Professor of Medicine at Louvain, in his book called Fasting, the Physician of the Church, says. In spring the blood breaks out in various humours, which produce fevers and various disorders, unless they are kept under by fasting and fish.

Mystically, S. Augustine, on Ps. cx. sub init., teaches us that the number forty, in connection with fasting, signifies the whole period of this present life, assigned by God to repentance and expiation of sins, by which we arrive at the Easter of a joyful resurrection, and at Pentecost, or the fiftieth day of eternal reward and glory.

Moreover, some of the ancient Christians, imitating the example of Christ, were very rigid in the observance of this fast, as Baronius shows (A.C. 57, c. 153). Whence Lucian (in Philopatro) testifies that the early Christians were so accustomed to fasting that they would spend ten whole days without food. More fully writes S. Gregory Nazianzen: (ad Hellen.), concerning the monks who live in the deserts of Pontus, that there were many of them who abstained from food twenty whole days, and as many nights, imitating Christ in one half of His fast. And S. Augustine writes (Epist. 86 ad Casulanum), that there were some in his time who kept a whole week's fast, and that he himself was acquainted with them. He adds, "It has been solemnly affirmed to us by brethren worthy of credit, that one kept a fast of forty whole days."

Afterwards he hungered. The most probable meaning is that Christ felt some sensation of hunger during the forty days, though not such hunger us He did when they were finished, and which incited Him to seek for food.

With Christ equally as with Moses and Elias, prayer and converse with God were the nourishment both of soul and body throughout the forty days; for they who wholly give themselves up to those things are so fed with their sweetness that they do not experience the pangs of hunger.

You will ask whether Christ by natural strength could live for forty days without food and drink?

I reply1. Both experience and physicians teach that such a thing is impossible to the power of nature. There is the à priori reason against it, that when aliment is withdrawn the vital heat languishes and dies, as the fire of a lamp is extinguished when oil fails.

You may say that Pliny (lib. 7, c. 2) tells us that the Indians at the sources of the Ganges live merely by inhaling the smell of fruits and flowers. Rondelivius also (lib. I de Piscibus, c. 13) relates that a certain person lived for forty years upon air alone. Robert Bacon relates that an English girl lived for twenty years in a similar manner. Simon Portius also says that a girl of Spires, about A.D. 1540, lived four years without food. A French priest lived for two years without food at Rome, in the time of Nicholas V. As to what Pliny says, it is fabulous. Odour refreshes the brain, but does not fill the stomach. The other instances were brought about either by divine power or by the devil's art, a wonderful example of which last, B. Prosper relates of an Indian girl. The young woman of Spires laboured under a disease of slow, viscous, and chilous phlegm, and so was kept alive. In a somewhat parallel manner Indians, by chewing the herb coca, and Scythians, by the herb hippice, can sustain hunger and thirst for twelve days. see Delrio (lib. 2, disquis. Magic. quæst. 21); and Coimb. (lib. I de Generat., c. 5, q. 7, art. 1 & 2).

2. Vehement and protracted attention of the mind to other things, such as mathematical, philosophical, or theological speculations, is able to keep a man without food for some time, but not for forty days. And so, contemplation alone would not have enabled Christ to live without food for forty days.

3. The fasts of Christ, Moses, Elias, Simeon Stylites, and such as they fasting for forty days, was supernatural, arising from a singular providence of God. God in their case suspended for forty days the action of natural heat, and sustained and nourished them internally, so that they lived and flourished during the time, just as even at this present time Enoch and Elias are living well and strong without food for so many thousands of years in the terrestrial Paradise, where they feed only upon the spiritual delights of prayer and contemplation.

Hungered. God, who had for forty days stayed this hunger by His intervention, afterwards withdrew that intervention, and gave up the body of Christ to the suffering of hunger1. That He might declare Christ to be true man. As S. Chrysologus says: "To feel and to conquer hunger is a work of human labour, not to hunger at all is the result of Divine power." (Serm. II.) Secondly, as S. Ambrose says, "That the Lord's hunger might be a pious fraud upon the devil," that the devil being allured by the appearance of hunger, might tempt Christ as if He were a man, knowing not that He was God. In c. 4 S. Luc.: "The lowly God-man hungered, that the lofty Man-God might not be made known to the enemy," says a certain holy person.

And when the tempter camecame, i.e., in human form, and with an audible voice. For this temptation of Christ, like that of Adam and Eve, in their state of innocence, was effected by the external suggestion of the voice, not by internal cogitations and movements of the fancy, rising up against reason and the Spirit. For in Adam, and much more in Christ, was original righteousness, which kept in subjection to the reason all motions of the soul and imagination, so that in Him was no unlawful thought, no motion of concupiscence that could be stirred up by the devil, such as is stirred up in us since Adam's sin. For by it we have lost original righteousness, and are vexed by concupiscence. So Damasc. (lib. 3, de Fide, c. 20), and from him theologians, passim. Whence S. Gregory (Hom. 16): "By suggestion Christ could be tempted; but His mind the delectation of sin wounded not, and therefore all that temptation of the devil was without, not within."

The tempter. Not because he is the only tempter, but because he is the first and chief among tempters. For they mistake who say that all temptation comes from Satan. Some temptations arise out of our own carnal will and frailness, and some from the world, i.e., from worldly and carnal men. So S. Chrysostom (Hom. 54 in Acta), "Many sin without the devil. He does not do everything: many things even come of our slothfulness alone." The devil, however, often rouses concupiscence in us by representing to the imagination things to be lusted after, and thus inflaming the sensual appetite. In the same way he stirs up the world, i.e., worldly and carnal men, to tempt us by persecuting us, or by enticing us to their follies. So he is called the tempter, κατ έ̉ξοχήν. Note here the craft of the devil, how he tempts every one by that to which he has a propensity, or in which he is weak. As fowlers and hunters lay in snares for wild birds and beasts various sorts of food such as each prefer, so also the devil offers the pleasures of the table to such as are prone to gluttony, to those who are full he offers ease and sloth, to the proud he offers honours, to the contentious lawsuits and strifes, to the avaricious usury, fraud, iniquitous bargains, and so on. (S. Gregory, lib. 14, Moral. c. 7.)

If thou be, &c. The devil had heard the Father's Voice at the Baptism of ChristThou art my beloved Son; yet forasmuch as he saw Him in some respects like a poor, weak, ordinary mortal, and being for that reason in doubt whether He were the very Son of God by nature, the WORD itself of the Father, or only a very eminent Son of God by adoption, he tempts Christ, and asks Him to turn stones into bread, that by His performance of the miracle, or inability to perform it, he might determine what kind of Son of God he was. For as by the Word of God all things had been created in the beginning, so by the same Word might stones be suddenly and instantly converted into bread. If therefore Christ had done this, the devil would have believed that He was the WORD of God.

Angels indeed are able to turn stones into bread, but not suddenly and directly, but by degrees and indirectly, by applying active energies to passive objects, with many previous actions, alterations, and conversions; but if Christ could not have done what He was asked, and had said that He could not, and that this was a Divine work, and peculiar to God, the devil would have urged, "Then thou art not the WORD of God, nor His Son by nature." It is a probable opinion of many theologians that the sin and pride of Lucifer in heaven were, that when God revealed to him that the Son of God would assume man's nature, and bade him submit himself to Christ as man, he became envious of Christ, that a man forsooth should be preferred to himself, who was the most glorious angel, and that a man should be taken up into hypostatic union with the WORD. Of this honour he was himself ambitious, and so rebelled against Christ and God. When therefore he saw this man called the Son of God by John the Baptist and the Father, he wished to find out if He were really God's Son, that he might pour out upon Him his pristine envy, fury, and indignation. So Suarez. This was Satan's cross, gnawing and tormenting his proud mind. But he conceals all this, veils it beneath the cloak of charity, that he wished to succour Christ in His hunger. Wherefore it is probable that the devil did not abruptly and without preface say to Christ, If thou be, &c., but first saluted Him kindly, and insinuated himself by some such bland words as these, "What, my lord, are you doing here alone? I saw you baptized of late in Jordan: I heard a voice come down to you from heaven, This is my Son. I should be glad to know whether you are truly the Son of God by nature, or only His adopted Son by grace. I observe also that you are utterly spent with hunger after your fast of forty days. If then you are the Son of God, relieve your hunger, convert these stones into loaves of bread. This for you were most easy."

Wherefore what S. Chrysostom says in this place is not so probablethat the devil endeavoured to tempt Christ to unbelief. Somewhat as though he had said thus:"It is true you heard a voice at your baptism, This is my Son, but do not imagine yourself to be the Son of God, or, if you are, turn these stones into bread." For it would have been folly to try to persuade Christ to believe that He was not the Son of God, if He was indeed His Son, and knew that He was.

The devil wished also, by this temptation, to entice Christ to make a vain boast of his power, and to distrust the aid of God His Father. "Your Father has for forty days been unmindful of you; He has not given you food. Now then, take care of yourself."

There was also a temptation to gluttony. For the temptation to gluttony, in this case, would have been, on account of hunger to yield to the devil, to acquiesce in his persuasions, and work a miracle. For this were directly contrary to religion, which forbids all commerce with Satan. Indirectly, it were contrary to temperance. Calvin, therefore, is wrong in denying that Christ was tempted to gluttony. Hear S. Gregory (Hom. 16 in Evang.), where He teaches that Christ was assailed by a threefold temptationviz., gluttony, vain glory, and avaricebecause Adam had been attacked and vanquished by the same temptations: "He tempted him to gluttony when he showed him the fruit of the forbidden tree, and persuaded him to eat. He tempted him to vain glory when he said, 'Ye shall be as gods.' He tempted him to covetousness when he added, 'knowing good and evil.' For avarice is not only of money, but also of greatness. For that is rightly called avarice where loftiness above measure is ambitiously desired. Christ was assailed by the same temptations, but overcame them: by gluttony, when the devil said, 'Turn these stones into bread;' by vain glory, 'If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down;' by covetousness of magnificence, when he showed Him all the kingdoms of the world."

But he answered, &c. The Greek and the Vulgate have, in every word. This is by enallage of the preposition, in every, for from every, as the Vulgate translates in Deu_8:3, the passage which Christ here quotes. The Hebrew is, "upon every thing which goeth forth from the mouth of the Lord shall man live"that is to say, on whatsoever thing the Lord shall command, or order for the sustentation of life, man shall live and be nourished, as He fed the Jews for forty years without bread, with manna from heaven (the discourse in Deu_8:3 is upon this manna), and fed Moses, Elias, and Christ for forty days by His word, and by His power, preserving nature. Thus, too, God nourished the Abbot John for three years with the Eucharist alone, which he was accustomed to receive every Lord's day, when an angel said to him, "Christ is thy true food." Palladius (in Lausiaca, c. 61) attests this. So, too, God nourished S. Mary of Egypt, for nearly forty-seven years, in the desert, without earthly food, feeding her with tears and heavenly joys. So He fed the Magdalen with nothing save angelic music, seven times a day repeated.

Of this Petrarch sings

"As pass the weary hours away,

Seven times is sung the angels' lay,

Seven times in each revolving day."

So the great S. Sabas, says the author of his life, kept abstinence through all times of fasting, tasting no food whatever, save that on Saturdays and Sundays he received the holy sacrament.

Mystically, every faithful Christian lives by every word of God:1. By receiving Christ, who is God's Eternal Word, and who, being made man, nourishes us by His doctrine, His grace, and His example. And we, by receiving Himself, by receiving His Flesh, receive His Godhead in the Eucharist. 2. God gives the words of sacred Scripture, which feed by illuminating and inflaming the mind. 3. He feeds us by prayers and holy inspiration.

Tropologically, S. Gregory (Hom. 16 in Evang.) here admires the meekness of Christ. "Consider how great is the patience of God, and how great our impatience. If we be injured, or provoked by any wrong, we are moved with wrath, and either revenge ourselves as far as we can, or threaten when we are not able. Behold, the Lord endured the onset of the devil, and answered him nothing save words of meekness. He endures him whom He might have punished."

Then the devil took him up into the holy city, i.e. Jerusalem. The word, then, signifies that the devil, having been conquered by Christ in the first temptation to gluttony, immediately subjected Him to a second, vain glory. You may inquire why S. Luke places this temptation third instead of second. The reason is that S. Luke in this place, as in many others, disregards the chronological order of the temptations, which Matthew accurately observes. Whence the latter says in the eighth verse, Again the devil took him. And this is a natural and congruous sequence of temptation, to pass from gluttony to vain glory. So SS. Chrysostom, Jerome, Hilary, and others. For when the devil sees any one despise the pleasures and allurements of the flesh, he raises up against him the spiritual temptation of vanity and presumption.

Taketh him. The first opinion we will here notice is that of S. Cyprian (Sermon on the Fast and Temptation of Christ). He thinks that the devil's taking Christ up was not real but only imaginary, like the visions seen by Ezekiel, and such as are the translations of sorcerers, who seem to themselves to be transported by the devil to a feasta grand assembly, when in reality they are not transported, but the devil is playing tricks with their imagination, somewhat like the illusions of dreams. But we cannot suppose that the devil thus played false with the imagination of Christ, especially since the devil had no power over Christ's inner man. The whole of this temptation was effected by means of an external voice, not through interior suggestion, as I have already said from S. Gregory.

2. Euthymius and Maldonatus think that Christ was led by the devil upon His feet up to the pinnacle of the Temple; and that Satan did this, lest by carrying Him through the air he should betray himself. So likewise Anselm and Origen, Hom. 31 in S. Luc. But from the desert of Quarantana to Jerusalem is a long journey, greater than could well have been accomplished in a day.

3. And most probably, Christ was taken upi.e., was carried through the air to the pinnacle of the Temple. So SS. Jerome, Gregory, Author Imperfecti, the Gloss, S. Thomas. Nor is it wonderful, says S. Gregory, that Christ should suffer the devil to deal with Him in this manner, since He suffered Himself to be crucified by the devil's membersthe wicked Jews. Nor did the demon betray himself by this, because he might have transported Christ in the guise of an angel of light. Or, indeed, he cared little now about betraying who he was, since he already suspected and feared that he was thoroughly known. Whence in the third temptation he boldly threw off all disguise of an angel of light, and unveiled his Satanic arrogance.

The Author Imperfecti, and from him S. Thomas, here observe that although the devil thus took up Christ so that Christ might be seen of all, and be supposed to have commerce with Satan and be thought a magician, Christ so wrought unseen that He should be beheld of none, though the devil knew it not.

So Christ made the devil suffer an illusion, who had intended to play falsely with Him. For the demon thought that if Christ were the Son of God, He would not allow Himself to be taken up and carried through the air, and by this would know whether He were the Son of God or not; but Christ, by suffering this, frustrated the demon's plan, and left him still in doubt. Whence S. Chrysostom was of opinion that the devil supposed that he carried Christ through the air to the pinnacle of the Temple against His will, and because He was not able to resist him.

Upon The pinnacle. It is probable that this pinnacle was the ridge or extreme point of the roof of the porch of that part of the Temple which was called the Sanctuary, or the Holy of Holies, for this part of the Temple alone had a roof (the Court of Israel was open to the sky), and like a tower overtopped the whole edifice. It was 120 cubits high. ? If Christ had fallen down from thence, He would have fallen into the court of the priests, between the porch just spoken of and the altar of burnt offering. The devil therefore suggested to Christ that He should cast Himself down from this pinnacle into the court of the priests, using some such arguments as these: "Cast thyself down, and show thyself to the priests and the other worshippers of God, and to all the people (for they, from the Court of Israel, were able to behold the sacrifices which were offered in the court of the priests), show thyself, I say, by miraculously gliding down unhurt, to be the Son of the True God, of Him whom in this court all are worshipping, and to whom they are offering sacrifices." For by this temptation Satan wished Christ to make a vain show of Himself and His glory. So Franc. Lucas, Toletus, and others.

Jansen and Maldonatus understand the passage in another way. They observe that the houses and the Temple of the Jews did not have steep roofs, but flat like a table, so that men could walk, dine, and even sleep upon them, as is plain from Josh. ii. 6; Matt. x. 27, &c. They add that this flat roof was surrounded on every side by a low wall, or parapet, to prevent persons from falling down, according to the command of God, Deut. xxii. 8. And it is probable that in this parapet there were some parts higher than the rest, as for instance at the corners, just as we see in quadrilateral buildings at the present day. And they think that Satan placed Christ upon one of these angular turrets, which are called in Gr. πτερύγια, in Heb. כנפים, kenaphim, i.e. "wings," because they towered aloft, and were like expanded wings floating in the air. So Angelomus, Eucherius, Lyra, &c.

By a similar temptation, as Cassian relates, Collat. 2, cap. 4, the devil overthrew Hero. For when he had lived upon bread and water only, he persuaded him that he was so holy, and so dear to God and the angels, that they would bear him up, if he were cast down from on high. Wherefore he threw himself down headlong into a well, and there miserably perished.

Moraliter. The devil, who fell down from heaven into Tartarus, strives to cast or drag others down with him. Wherefore when he persuades any one to sin, he causes him to cast himself down. As Christ saith to the perverse Jews, "You are from beneath, I am from above." (S. Joh_8:23.) Again, Christ, studiously concealing from the devil that He was the Son of God, eluded all his arts and devices, and kept him in doubt and suspense, so that he should not know in what way he might tempt Him. Wherefore learn not to make known to every one the secrets of thy soul, lest thou be hindered of the devil. In battles, the crown of victory is his who can conceal his own plans, and discover those of the enemy. A Christian learns by frequent experience that heroic acts of virtue are easily accomplished, if the determination of them be kept secret in the mind, and they are suddenly brought out into the sphere of action, before the demon has been able to get scent of them and oppose them. This is the art of deluding the demon.

For it is written, &c. A citation of Psa_91:2. The angels in this place mean properly men's guardian angels, though any other messengers whom God sends in various ways to help and save men may be understood. Whence SS. Chrysostom, Jerome, Hilary on this passage, Origen (Hom. 24 in Luc.), Nazianzen (Orat. in S. Baptisma.), think that the devil here wrongly cites Holy Scripture; that the Psalmist in the passage in question speaks of mere men, not of Christ, who was the God-man. For He had not, like other men, a guardian angel; the Divinity Itself was the Guardian of His Humanity.

On the contrary, S. Ambrose (in cap. 4 Luc.), and Remigius (on Ps. xci.), think that the devil did not wrest this passage of the Psalms, but applied it rightly to Christ; for although He had not any stated guardian angel, He had all the angels at His call, all deputed to minister unto Him. The devil did, however, wrest the text so far as this, that he used it for an evil purpose, namely, to make Christ cast Himself down. For God hath promised this guardianship of the angels to the righteous who act prudently and piously, not rashly and presumptuously, after the manner of those who tempt God. Hear S. Bernard, on Psalm Qui habitat, Ser. 14. "What has he commanded? Surely what follows in the Psalm, 'That they may keep thee in all thy ways.' Does he say in precipices, in such a way as casting thyself headlong from the pinnacle of the Temple? That is not a way but a destruction, a downfall. Or if it be a way, it is thine own, not God's."

Moraliter, the same S. Bernard (on Ps 91 Serm. 12): "He has commanded His angels concerning thee. Wonderful condescension! And, indeed, great affection of His love! For to whom, concerning whom, and what hath He commanded?" After some other remarks, "How great reverence ought these words to instil into you! What devotion! What trust! reverence for their presence, devotion for their kindness, confidence for their protection. Walk then warily, as one to whom the angels are nigh Whithersoever thou mayest go apart, in every corner have thine angel in reverence. Dare not to do in his presence that which thou wouldst not dare to do if I saw thee." "As often as any very fierce temptation is seen to oppress thee, or vehement tribulation to threaten thee, invoke thy Guardian in those due times of trouble. Call upon him and say, 'Lord, save us, we perish.' He neither slumbereth nor sleepeth."

In their hands shall they bear thee. So of S. Benedict it was said by S. Bernard, that at a certain time, when he appeared to have his eyes intently fixed upon a refulgent light, he saw the soul of S. Germanus, Bishop of Capua, borne by the angels in a globe of fire into heaven.

Jesus said to him: It is written again, &c. For he tempts God who asks for a miracle without necessity, such as this would have been, for Christ might have descended from the pinnacle by means of the stairs.

In necessity, however, say for the sake of avoiding a worse destruction, it would be lawful to cast oneself from a precipice if no other way of escape appeared. Thus many holy virgins, that they might escape from the hands of sinners who sought to defile them, have cast themselves headlong into rivers, preferring to die as martyrs rather than be violated as virgins. For greater is the wreck of virginity than of life. For as the honour of the one is greater than that of the other, so also is the disgrace. This is what S. Pelagia, a virgin of Antioch, fifteen years of age, did, together with her mother and sisters. "Who," as S. Ambrose says (lib. 2, de Virgin.), "when the persecutors were following hard, and a river torrent shut them off from flight, but shut them up for the crown, cried out, 'What are we afraid of? Behold the water! What doth hinder us to be baptized? Let the water receive us, the water which makes virgins, which opens heaven, covers hell, hides death, creates martyrs.' When they had repeated these words, they join their hands, as though they were leading a dance, and advanced into the middle of the stream. You might have seen the pious mother twining their hands together. 'These victims, O Christ,' she said, 'I immolate to Thee, presidents of virginity, leaders of chastity, comrades of Thy Passion.'"

Moraliter. Learn here that the devil in the same way that he tempted Christ to cast Himself headlong, tempts Christians by raising the fancy, the blood, black bile, so that they may have sad, horrible, sanguinary, despairing, blasphemous thoughts, such as had never come into their minds before. Let them comfort themselves by the example of Christ, how God permitted His temptation for His greater virtue and merit. The advice which Scipio Nasica gave the Romans not to destroy Carthage when it was conquered, lest the Roman youth should become enervated by ease, for that Carthage, raising war, would be a perpetual spur to their courage, you might apply to the struggle which the saints endure through frequent temptations. Thus S. Paul, though almost an angel upon earth, said, "Lest the abundance of the revelations should puff me up there was given me a thorn in the fleshthe messenger of Satan to buffet me." The remedy is constancy of mind, fortitude, and firm confidence in God, by which you will manfully overcome temptations of every sort, however dreadful and abominable they may be. Yea, you will despise them, and proceed with a great heart in the course of virtue in which you have entered.

The devil formerly came to S. Anthony complaining that all men spake ill of him. "And very properly," said the saint, "for it is your own fault, since you vex and distress all men." The demon answered, "I do nothing; I have no power against him who is unwilling. Men vex themselves and one another. It is their own consent to my suggestions which makes them the authors of evil." He who consents not to the devil when he tempts him, but resists him, overcomes him, and triumphs over him.

Again the devil, &c. In descriptions of the Holy Land, this mountain is said to be near the desert of Quarantana. "The devil's mountain is distant two miles from Quarantana. It is to the south of Bethel and Hai. Up it Christ was led by Satan, when he showed Him all the kingdoms of the word." So Adrichomius.

You will ask, in what way did the devil show to Christ all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and that "in a moment," as S. Luke adds? Observe, God alone is able to do this absolutely; for, in the first place, God is able so to strengthen the power of sight in men that they are able to see any object, however remote, and that even through rocks and walls, so that they see things as they are in themselves, without visible appearance. In this manner He strengthens the mind of the blessed with the light of glory, so that it beholds God's essence without any appearance. So S. Anselm saw with his bodily eyes things which were done on the other side of a wall, as his "Life" records. In a similar manner God is able to make us here in Rome see with our bodily eyes things done in the bedchamber of the King of China. 2nd. God is able to multiply visible appearances in such wise that they are dispersed through places dark and dense, and even far distant and remote. 3. He is able, not only to draw forth the appearance from an object, but to prolong it to any place whatever. Thus, God showed the whole of the promised land to Moses from Mount Abarim; thus, He set the whole world before the eyes of S. Benedict in a round globe, as S. Gregory relates (lib. 2 Dial., c. 35). The devil can do none of these things.

How, then, did he present all kingdoms before the eyes of Christ? 1. Origen understands kingdoms mystically, as the reign of the devil, in which he rules in some men by anger, in others by pride, in others by gluttony, and so on. Listen to Origen: "The devil showed Him innumerable multitudes of men whom he held in his dominion, and said unto Him, 'I know that Thou art come to fight against me, and take my subjects from under my sway. I ask You not to contend with me. You need not trouble Yourself to fight. One thing only do I ask, that Thou shouldst fall down and worship me, and then receive all my empire.'" But this is mystical, not literal.

2. Some think that the devil flew with Christ through all the kingdoms of the world, and in this manner showed them to Him; but the language used will not admit of this interpretation. It was from their position on the mountain that Satan showed Christ the kingdoms.

3. S. Cyprian (Tract. de Tentat. Christi) is of opinion that they were not shown to the senses, but to the imagination. But I have already shown (on

verse 3) that this whole series of temptations was external, not internal, and that the devil had no power over the imagination of Christ.

4. Others suppose that the demon, by means of many mirrors reflecting from one to the other, gathered together the appearances of all the kingdoms of the world, and presented them to the eyes of Christ by art similar to that, by which Socrates is said to have seen a dragon in a far distant mountain devouring men, which no one else was able to see. Similarly we now behold very distant objects by means of a nautical telescope. But to have done this, the demon must have filled the whole atmosphere with mirrors, and even then they would not have sufficed for seeing all things.

5. And with more probability, Euthymius and others, with S. Thomas (3 p., q. 41, art. 4) say that the devil took Christ up on a lofty mountain, that he might show Him, at least in a confused way, the situation of each kingdom, as by saying thus: "There in that direction is Asia; there is Europe, here is Syria, there is Italy"and all this in a moment, as Luke says, that is, in an extremely brief space of time. And because from this mountain the devil showed Christ not only all kingdoms, but the glory of them, we may add with Theophilus, Jansen, and others, that the demon, like a painter, represented in a compendious manner pictures of all kingdoms in the air by varied refractions of the rays of the sun, as is done in the case of the rainbow, and so, as it were, painted them as to cause whatsoever was glorious and splendid in all lands to be set before the eyes of Christ. Thus did the same demon make dense the air and so work upon it, that he pictured many spectres of lions, wild beasts, serpents, and monsters, and brought them before the eyes of S. Anthony that he might terrify him, as S. Athanasius asserts in his Life of S. Anthony. If the demon is able to picture such things to the fancy, why not in the air? Various colours are depicted in the rainbow. In the time of the Maccabees, squadrons of soldiers were seen fighting in the air, with other portents.

And said to him, &c. You ask, how did the devil dare to make such an impious proposal to Christ? I answer that he is so ambitious that even from the beginning he wished to be God, and envied Christ, as man, the Divinity which He had by means of the Hypostatic Union. Ambition, therefore, and envy blinded him so that he treated Christ as his rival. 2. Because when he saw Christ once and again declining to work a miracle, he made himself more and more certain that He was not the Son of God. 3. Because from Luke iv. 6 we learn that the devil added, "For to me they are delivered, and to whom I will I give them," from whence it is plain that he pretended to be the Son of God and God, and consequently an object of worship, as S. Hilary says. The devil then, from Christ's patiently suffering Himself to be transported from the pinnacle of the temple to the mountain, and growing bold by Christ's modest silence, suspected that He was not the Son of God, but a mere man; and so he here demands the Divine honours which he had formerly coveted in heaventhat they should be rendered to him by Christ as well as by all other men. For this ambition of being a god is, as it were, innate in him, and blinds him, says the Gloss. And therefore he introduced idols, that by them he might be worshipped. Satan, moreover, by this solicitation of worship, wished to make still further trial whether or not Christ were the Son of God.

In the two previous temptations he made trial directly whether Christ were the Son of God, but in this third temptation his direct object was to tempt to avarice, ambition, and idolatry, and indirectly to find out if He were the Son of God.

Observe the arrogance of the devil. He does not care for any mere adoration, but such only as is accompanied by falling down and prostration. Hear what S. Irenæus says upon this expression, fall down. "The devil himself confesses that to worship him and do his will is to fall from the glory of God." He therefore sells us vain honours at the price of our own destruction. Irenæus adds, "Not even these things which he has promised will he give to him who has fallen."

S. Luke adds that the devil gave a reason why he made this offer to Christ, but in so doing he told a double falsehood. He said "All these things have been delivered unto me," i.e., by God, but he withholds mention of the Divine Name, both because it is hateful to him and because he himself wished to be accounted and worshipped as God. And God has not given into his power the kingdoms of the world. "For the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof." Secondly, because it is false that the devil gives them to whom he will. He did not intend to give the kingdoms of the world to Christ, neither would he have given them, even though Christ had worshipped him. The devil therefore here betrays himself, as Toletus observes, because this his promise was false, arrogant, and deceitful. We have seen why it was false. It was deceitful because he exchanges the present for the future. "I will give," he says, but he would have the adoration now. By a similar fraud the devil endeavours to persuade men to give their youth and time present to pleasures and himself, but to give the future and old age to repentance and God: though old age is uncertain, and ill adapted for penance, as S. Gregory warns us.

Lastly, observe how Christ, by His examples and answers, teaches us that the first temptation of the flesh and hunger is to be overcome by hoping in God and His providence; the second, of pride and presumption, is to be vanquished by the fear of God; the third, to avarice and ambition, must be driven away by greatness of soul and contempt of the world. B. Peter Damian suggests three efficacious incentives to bring this to pass. "The conqueror of the demons is made the companion of angels; the exile of the world is the heir of Paradise; the denier of himself is the follower of Christ."

Then Jesus saith to him: Begone, Satan. The Syriac adds, behind me. Jesus spake thus in righteous anger and indignation; and so the devil, despairing of victory, fled away in confusion. Whence let Christians learn bravely to repel the suggestions of the devil and to rebuke him, and he will flee from them.

It is written, &c. For thou shall worship, the Hebrew has תירא tira, "thou shalt fear." For the Hebrews by the word 'fear' signify reverence, adoration, the whole worship of God. As Statius says, "Fear first made gods to be in the world." The word only is not in the Hebrew, but it is understood in the pronoun Him. Thou shall worship, I say, Him alone, Him, thy Creator. Thou shalt serve Him with latria. For the Greek is λατρεύσεις; since latria is rendered to God alone, dulia to the saints, according to S. Augustine (de Civ. Dei, lib. 10, c. 1), to the Blessed Virgin hyperdulia.

Moraliter. Christ here teaches us the answer we should give to the devil when he tempts us to avarice or any other sin. All temptation tends to this, that we should prefer the creature to the Creator, and make it, as it were, our idol, and worship it. Thus, the idol which the devil sets before the covetous man is Plutus, mammon, riches, kingdoms; the idol of the proud man is honour, ambition; of the glutton, his belly; of the wanton, Venus. With Christ we must answer Satan, "I worship God, not Plutus or Venus." For as S. Cyprian says (Tract. de Spect.), "He casts himself down from the vantage ground of his nobility who is able to admire anything in comparison with God." For what is the whole world, what are all its kingdomsall creaturescompared with God, but as a point compared with the universe? What is all time in respect of eternity, but as a moment? What are all pleasures, honours, riches, compared with the riches and honours of eternity, but vanities and shadows, yea, but dust and ashes? Despise them, therefore, for God's sake, and cleave close to Him; and then, last, overcome all temptation. As the Psalmist says, "It is good for me to hold me fast by God." And again, "My soul is firmly stayed upon God." As S. Cyprian (de Orat. Domin.) says, "Since of God are all things, to him who hath God nothing will be wanting, if he be not wanting to God."

In like manner, if the devil threaten you with the fear of infamy, poverty, disease, death, join thyself to God, worship Him with constant hope and prayer. S. Cyprian (in Exhort. Martyr.) shows that some fell away from martyrdom because they had respect to the fierceness of the torments, not to the strength and help of God, and that those stand fast and conquer who turn away their minds from the torments and fix them upon God, and say, "I can do all things through Him who strengtheneth me." God is greater than the torments. So S. Agnes, fixing all her hopes and love upon Christ, vanquished all the torments of the tyrant. For God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the strong, and He wills to show to the whole world His strength in our weakness. For God cannot forsake those who hope in Him, call upon Him, and worship Him.

Wherefore, S. Cyprian (Tract. de Mortal.) says, "Adversity does not withdraw us from the power of faith, but confirms us." Of this S. Anthony had experience, who, on the testimony of S. Athanasius, was wont to say that "the best remedy for overcoming all the temptations of the devil is spiritual joy and the love of Christ, from one sign of whose cross he flies away vanquished."

Then the devil, &c. Rightly Anon. (in Catenâ) says, "The end of contests is found when the adversary yields to his victor of his own will, or is vanquished by a threefold fall according to the rules of pugilism." For he who has thrice overcome his antagonist is plainly his superior.

Then the angels approached Christ in His human form which He had assumed, and congratulated him, and brought Him food, and rendered Him other offices of their service, as their Creator and their Lord.

Learn from hence that he who bravely conquers the devil is rewarded by the ministry, the strengthening, and the consolation of the angels. For the conqueror of Satan becomes, as it were, one of the angels.

Origen (Hom. 31 in Luc.) and Abulensis are of opinion that when the devil tempts a person to some particular sin, and has been by him thoroughly vanquished, he does not tempt him any more in the same way. Salmeron, the Jesuit, thinks the same. But it is more probable that the devil having been once thoroughly vanquished either by Christ or Christians, only departs from them for a season, as S. Luke says, and returns whenever another occasion offers to try them by a similar, or even by the same temptation. For so S. Anthony was often tempted in the same way; and S. Paul was frequently, and of long continuance, tempted by the same thorn in the flesh.

Let us hear S. Ambrose (lib. 4. in c. 4 Luc.,

ver. 13): "Rightly are these three temptations of Christ shown to be the fountains of all sins. Nor would Scripture have said that all the temptation was ended, unless there were in these three the material of all offences, the seeds of which must be avoided in their origin. The end of temptations is the end of desires, because the causes of temptations are the causes of desires. The causes of desires are the pleasing of the flesh, the show of glory, the greed of power." And after a little, "You see, then, that the devil is not persevering in his zeal; that he is accustomed to yield to true courage. And though he does not leave off to envy, he ceases to attack, because he has often fled away when triumphed over." After much more, S. Ambrose thus concludes: "Therefore, He who wishes to give a crown suggests temptations. Whenever thou art tempted, know that a crown is being prepared."

Ver. 12.When Jesus had heard, &c. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all omit the embassy of the Jews to John the Baptist, asking him if he were the Messiah. To this first year of Christ's ministry pertain also the turning water into wine, the driving the buyers and sellers out of the temple, and the discourse with Nicodemus. These all took place before the imprisonment of the Baptist, and are related only by S. John. For before his imprisonment Christ had committed to John the work of preaching, but now He took that office upon Himself. Moreover, when Christ heard of John's imprisonment, He departed out of Judæa into Galilee, because He fled from Herod, that he might not imprison Him as he had done John. In Galilee, therefore, he began solemnly to preach, that He might fulfil Isaiah's prophecy, of which more presently.

You may sayHerod reigned in Galilee, not in Judæa. Why then did Christ, to avoid Herod, flee into Galilee? I reply, because John, preaching in Judæa, near Jericho, and gathering together the multitudes, was accused to Herod, probably by the Scribes and Pharisees. For they had been sharply rebuked by John, and called "a brood of vipers." In their anger they suggested to Herod, who they knew was hostile to John, that he should apprehend him, lest he should make a tumult, and incite the people to rebellion. Josephus (Ant., lib. 18, c. 7), says that Herod slew John through fear of a rising of the people who flocked to John. The same Scribes and Pharisees were, it is probable, hostile to Christ, who had been pointed out by John, and who was wont, equally with John, freely and publicly to rebuke their vices. And although John had baptized in Judæa, he had perhaps passed into the neighbouring Peræa, which was subject to Herod. When Christ therefore heard of John's apprehension, He fled from Judæa into Galilee, lest He should be delivered by the same Scribes and Pharisees, with the connivance of the Roman governor, to Herod. But Jesus was not afraid of Herod himself, because He had not offended him personally, as John had, by reproving his adultery. This Herod Antipas was the son of Herod of Ascalon, the murderer of the innocents.

This was the second departure of Christ from Judæa into Galilee. The first is related in John i. 43, and is the same which is referred to by S. Mar_1:14, S. Luke (Luk_4:14), and S. John (Joh_4:3, Joh_4:43.)

Ver. 13.And leaving his own city, &c. Leaving i.e., passing it by. Jesus did not wish to enter Nazareth, although it was His own city, to begin His preaching there. S. John gives the reason ( Joh_4:44), "A prophet hath no honour in his own country." Therefore He went to Capharnaum, and set up there His Chair of preaching.

Observe, there were two Galilees, one, Lower Galilee in the tribes of Issachar and Zabulon, in which was Nazareth: and Upper Galilee in the tribes of Aser and Nephtali, in which was Capharnaum, and which was called Galilee of the Gentiles, because it bordered upon Phoenicia, and was largely peopled by Gentiles. A considerable portion of it was given by Solomon to Hiram, king of Tyre. (See 1Sa_9:11.)

Capharnaum, which is by the sea. Because it was near the Jordan, where it flows into the Sea of Galilee. From its situation it became a most celebrated emporium for merchandise, and the metropolis of Galilee. In wealth, luxury, and beauty it far surpassed all the other cities of Galilee, and thence derived its name. For Capharnaum is as though כפר caphar נעים naim, i.e., "the field of pleasantness or delight," as S. Jerome says on Hebrew names.

In this city then, Christ began to preach the kingdom of God, and to rebuke the luxury and vices of its citizens, and to call them away from earthly goods, from wealth and pride, to the heavenly riches. This He did both by His preaching and His miracles. It was here that He healed the paralytic man, who was let down through the roof upon a bed. In Capharnaum He restored to sight two blind men, and healed the dumb man who was possessed of a devil. Here, whilst walking in the street, He cured the palsied servant of the centurion. Here He healed the woman with an issue of blood, who touched the fringe of His garment. Here He raised from death Jairus' daughter.

But when its inhabitants, swelling with pride and luxury, gave no heed either to His words or His miracles, and would not be moved to repentance, at last He pronounced upon them the sentence, "And thou, Capharnaum," &c., chap. xi. 23.

That it might be fulfilled, &c. There is an apposition here. 1. There is the land of Zabulon and Naphtali, which is by the way of the sea. 2. There is the country across the Jordan. And the whole district was called Galilee of the Gentiles. This land, I say, was illuminated by Christ making known the light of the Gospel to them that dwelt therein. The word Gentiles here denotes that Christ was about to transfer the Kingdom of God from the Jews, because of their unbelief, to the Gentiles. So S. Chrysostom.

The people that sat in darkness, &c. I have expounded this prophecy at length in Isa_9:1: which see.

From that time Jesus began, &c. This was the sum and the scope of the preaching of Christ, to invite men to repentance, to change their course of action, and lead them to a holy life. For this is true wisdom, this our end, our goal, our good, our happiness. Truly says the Gloss, "To the Gospel pertains the promise of blessedness, the remission of sins, adoption, resurrection, the heavenly inheritance, the society of angels. By the Gospel, kings are made and a kingdom given, not earthly and transitory, but heavenly and eternal."

Wherefore Babylas, the play-actor, who had two concubines, hearing these words of the Gospel read, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, being touched by the finger of God, learned wisdom, and shut himself up in a cell, to do penance for the rest of his life. He left his riches to his concubines, but they too, pricked with compunction by his example, also shut themselves up in cells, and did continual penance. (See John Moschus, Spiritual Meadow, c. 32.) Verily the word of the Gospel is quick and powerful. (Heb_4:12.)

Appositely did Christ preach repentance in Galilee because Galilee is the same as transmigration, say S. Gregory and others, from the root נלה galah, "he migrated." For in Galilee Christ taught men in mind, and affection, and love, to migrate from earth to heaven. Wherefore also He chose for apostles none but Galilæans, i.e., migrators, men who were but pilgrims upon earth and citizens of heaven.

This transmigration is accomplished by penitence. How strict, and of how long duration, was the penance upon bread and water in former times! This appears from the Roman Pœnitential, and from the Penitential Canons of SS. Basil, Gregory Nyssen, and Bede, of Rabanus Maurus, and Burchardus, which are still extant. In Spain, the sick and those about to die did penance, clothed in the monastic habit, and received the tonsure, by which they made profession of a monastic life; and if they afterwards recovered they were bound not to return to the world, but to pass the rest of their life in a monastery. This appears from the Twelfth Council of Toledo, cap. 2. Wamba, king of Spain, a great example to posterity, did this about A.D. 674. (See Mariana, and Baronius, tom. 8, A. D . 680, in fine.) For this reason the Pontifical Penitentiaries at Rome carry a rod in their hands, because they are apostolic judges in the tribunal of conscience. For a straight rod is borne before a judge as an emblem of the rectitude of justice, according to that which is said of Christ, Psa_45:7, "The sceptre of thy kingdom is the sceptre of uprightness." (Vulg.); because also in grave and public offences, especially those to which excommunication was annexed, the Penitentiaries, reciting the Psalm Miserere, used to beat the guilty person with a rod; and thus they gave absolution, as is appointed even now in the ancient ritual of the Church, sanctioned by the canons, in solemn absolution from excommunication. Thus S. Anno, Archbishop of Cologne, sharply whipped the emperor Henry II. as a penance, A.D. 1056, as can be seen in his life in Surius. And the use of this discipline, as it is commonly called, by rods, inflicted, either by the penitent himself, or by the Penitentiary, was very common in the time of blessed Peter Damian, who flourished A.D. 1040, as is plain from many of his Epistles, also from the life of S. Dominic Loricatus, where he says that a hundred years' penance is performed by reciting the whole Psalter twenty times, accompanied by constant flagellation, for one Psalter so said is equal to five years of penance.

Thus Henry II., King of England, because he had given occasion for the murder of S. Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, came as a penitent, with bare feet, to the

The people that sat in darkness, &c. I have expounded this prophecy at length in Isa_9:1: which see.

From that time Jesus began, &c. This was the sum and the scope of the preaching of Christ, to invite men to repentance, to change their course of action, and lead them to a holy life. For this is true wisdom, this our end, our goal, our good, our happiness. Truly says the Gloss, "To the Gospel pertains the promise of blessedness, the remission of sins, adoption, resurrection, the heavenly inheritance, the society of angels. By the Gospel, kings are made and a kingdom given, not earthly and transitory, but heavenly and eternal."

Wherefore Babylas, the play-actor, who had two concubines, hearing these words of the Gospel read, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, being touched by the finger of God, learned wisdom, and shut himself up in a cell, to do penance for the rest of his life. He left his riches to his concubines, but they too, pricked with compunction by his example, also shut themselves up in cells, and did continual penance. (See John Moschus, Spiritual Meadow, c. 32.) Verily the word of the Gospel is quick and powerful. (Heb. iv. 12.)

Appositely did Christ preach repentance in Galilee because Galilee is the same as transmigration, say S. Gregory and others, from the root נלה galah, "he migrated." For in Galilee Christ taught men in mind, and affection, and love, to migrate from earth to heaven. Wherefore also He chose for apostles none but Galilæans, i.e., migrators, men who were but pilgrims upon earth and citizens of heaven.

This transmigration is accomplished by penitence. How strict, and of how long duration, was the penance upon bread and water in former times! This appears from the Roman Pœnitential, and from the Penitential Canons of SS. Basil, Gregory Nyssen, and Bede, of Rabanus Maurus, and Burchardus, which are still extant. In Spain, the sick and those about to die did penance, clothed in the monastic habit, and received the tonsure, by which they made profession of a monastic life; and if they afterwards recovered they were bound not to return to the world, but to pass the rest of their life in a monastery. This appears from the Twelfth Council of Toledo, cap. 2. Wamba, king of Spain, a great example to posterity, did this about A.D. 674. (See Mariana, and Baronius, tom. 8, A. D . 680, in fine.) For this reason the Pontifical Penitentiaries at Rome carry a rod in their hands, because they are apostolic judges in the tribunal of conscience. For a straight rod is borne before a judge as an emblem of the rectitude of justice, according to that which is said of Christ, Ps. xlv. 7, "The sceptre of thy kingdom is the sceptre of uprightness." (Vulg.); because also in grave and public offences, especially those to which excommunication was annexed, the Penitentiaries, reciting the Psalm Miserere, used to beat the guilty person with a rod; and thus they gave absolution, as is appointed even now in the ancient ritual of the Church, sanctioned by the canons, in solemn absolution from excommunication. Thus S. Anno, Archbishop of Cologne, sharply whipped the emperor Henry II. as a penance, A.D. 1056, as can be seen in his life in Surius. And the use of this discipline, as it is commonly called, by rods, inflicted, either by the penitent himself, or by the Penitentiary, was very common in the time of blessed Peter Damian, who flourished A.D. 1040, as is plain from many of his Epistles, also from the life of S. Dominic Loricatus, where he says that a hundred years' penance is performed by reciting the whole Psalter twenty times, accompanied by constant flagellation, for one Psalter so said is equal to five years of penance.

Thus Henry II., King of England, because he had given occasion for the murder of S. Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, came as a penitent, with bare feet, to the tomb of S. Thomas, and prostrate on the earth, confessed his sin with tears at the feet of the bishops, and, baring his shoulders, received from them five flagellations, and from each of the monks, who were eighty in number, he received three strokes of the rod. This was about A.D. 1170. What does our delicateness say to this? What has become of the ancient penance?

Let us hear what S. Jerome says of S. Paula in her epitaph. "She did not sleep upon a bed, but upon sackcloth spread upon the bare ground, if, indeed, that could be called sleep which was interrupted by almost continual prayers, day and night, fulfilling the words of the Psalm, "Every night wash I my bed, and water my couch with my tears." You might have thought she was possessed of a fountain of tears; so did she weep over her trifling faults, that you might have imagined her guilty of the most dreadful crimes. Often did we admonish her to have mercy upon her eyes, and preserve them for the reading of the Gospel. But she said, "It is meet that this face should be defiled, which so often, against the command of God, has been adorned with cosmetics and vermilion. It is meet that this body should be afflicted which indulged in so many luxuries. A long laughter shall be recompensed with constant weeping. Soft kerchiefs and precious silks shall give place to rough sackcloth. I who pleased my husband and the world now desire to please Christ." See the same Epistle (30), graphically describing the rare penance of Fabiola.

And Jesus walking by the sea, &c. It is not the first vocation of Peter and Andrew which is here recorded. This is related by S. John (i. 36), among the events of the first year of Christ's ministry. The second vocation of Peter and Andrew was after the Baptist's imprisonment, when they surrendered themselves at Christ's call to become His disciples; when they constantly cleave to Him, and never return to their former occupations. This second calling of these Apostles is related both by Matthew and Luke; by the former, compendiously; whilst S. Luke, after his wont, narrates the particulars of the history more at length. So S. Chrysostom.

Walking, not by chance, not merely for recreation, but that He might call to Him Peter and Andrew, James and John. Let Christians, especially priests and religious, strive to imitate Christ, and do nothing aimlessly, but seek fruit in all things.

By the sea of Galilee. Capharnaum, where Christ had chosen a house for receiving His disciples was near this lake.

Simon, this is from the Hebrew שמע soama, "hearing," "obeying." See what I have said on Gen. xxix. 33.

Andrew is a Greek name, which the Jews after the time of Alexander the Great took from the Greeks, together with such names as Jason, Lysimachus, Menelaus. (See 1 Mac. 4, &c.) Andrew means strong, brave. And such indeed S. Andrew was upon his cross.

Casting a net. We must supply from S. Luke, chap. 5, that Christ went up into Peter's ship, and taught the multitudes from thence, that after that He bade Peter cast a net into the sea, which immediately caught a vast number of fishes, so that the net brake, that by this miracle Peter was converted, together with Andrew, James, and John, that then Christ said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men," as S. Matthew here records.

Fishers of men. For Christians are like fishes swimming in the waters of baptism.

"There are merchandise and nets and ropes:

Death the reward, virtue the prow, the keel is health above;

Faith the ropes, true godliness the mast,

The sail is hope, the oars are grace, the captain is true love."

This is the ship of Christ's Church in which we sail to heaven. I have noticed nineteen analogies between fishes and men, upon Habakkuk i. 14, which if you please you may consult.

Hence Christ is called by the early Christians ΙΧΘΥΣ, a Fish, because its initial letters make this acrostic, Ιησοϋς Χριστὸς Θεοϋ Υίός Σώτηρ, or Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Saviour; on which there is extant a verse of the Erythræan Sibyl in S. Augustine (Civ. Dei, 18. 23.) See Tertullian (de Bapt.), and Prosper (part. prædict. 2. 39).

S. Luke says, "From henceforth thou shalt catch men," Gr. ζωγρϋν, i.e. take them alive, catch them for life. S. Ambrose translates, "make them live." As though Christ had said, "Fishermen take fishes for death, that they may kill them, but thou, O Peter, shalt catch men unto life, that they may begin a new life, and live unto God in holiness."

Well does S. Augustine say (Tract, 7 in Joan.), Christ, wishing to break the nets of the proud, sought not the fisherman by means of the orator, but from the fisherman he gained the emperor. Great is Cyprian the orator, but first was Peter the fisherman. In this was fulfilled the prophecy of Jer_16:16, "Behold, I will send many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish you."

Leaving their nets. Under the term nets understand also ships, houses, occupation, servants, parents, relations, and all other things whatsoever, according to that saying of S. Peter to Christ, "Lo! we have left all things and followed thee." When then we read that after Christ's death the Apostles went a-fishing (Joh_21:3), we do not understand that they again betook themselves to their old vocation, but only did it to pass the time, and to divert their minds from the affliction which they were enduring at the loss of their Master.

Wisely does S. Bernard say to those who fear to follow God's call to high and arduous things, "Why dost thou fear? Why dost thou hesitate? The Angel of great counsel calls thee. No one is wiser than He is; no one is stronger; no one is more faithful."

Tropologically, the scholiast on S. Jerome says, "Let us leave the spiders' nets which are the vanities of the world in which we are held.

And going on from thence, &c. James, in Hebrew Jacob, a supplanter; for he supplanted the world, and all worldly things, that he might follow Christ.

Zebedee, i.e., liberal, munificent. For though he was an old man he willingly gave to Christ his two sons, who were the staff of his old age. זבד zabad, means to give, to bestow.

John, the grace of God, for Christ poured His grace upon John more abundantly than upon the rest of the Apostles. "By this apostolic chariot of four horses we are carried to heaven; on these four corner-stones the Church was first built."

Ver. 22.They straightway, &c. Observe Luk_5:11 rolls the vocation of these four Apostles into one; but S. Matthew relates the particulars of the calling: 1, of Andrew and Peter; 2, of James and John. The historical sequence is as followsChrist having been carried in Peter's boat, and having landed on the shore, then called Peter and Andrew. Going on a little further, he saw James and John mending the nets which had been broken by the miraculous draught of fishes; then He called these two, saying, "Follow me." They, being moved by the miracle, and the example of their partners, straightway left their father and all things, and followed Christ. So S. Augustine (de Consens. Evan. lib. 2, c. 17).

And Jesus went about, &c. SicknessGreek, νόσος,an habitual, organic, or incurable disease, says Euthymius. DiseaseGreek, μαλακίονi.e., languor, infinity, failure of strength.

And his fame. Greek, α̉κοὴi.e., rumour, report. Torments (Gr. βασάνοις). This word means, properly, examination under torture, when an accused person was tormented on the little horse, to make him confess his crime and accomplices. Lunatics are sick persons, who suffer from the changes of the moon, either by sickness, or delirium, or madness, especially epilepsy. Tho. Valesius (Sac. Philos. c. 71) denies that the moon has any such effect.

And healed them. From none of these did Christ require faith, says S. Chrysostom, for He had not yet manifested His power; and those who came from far had as yet but small faith in Him. But afterwards He required faith on the part of the sick, as will appear in the sequel. "Clouds of miracles," says S. Chrysostom, "does S. Matthew pass over in few words, a few of which he afterwards relates more at length."

Mystically, lunatics are mutable and inconstant persons, who at one time serve God and religion, at another the devil and their lusts, according to the words in Ecclus. 27:12"A holy man continueth in wisdom as the sun, but a fool is changed as the moon."

Followed him. Hear S. Bernard (Serm. I de omnibus Sanc.): "From the cities and villages the people followed the preaching of the Lord. He saved their souls; He healed their bodies. They clave to Him, being delighted both by the sight of Him and by His words. His voice was sweet, His face was comely, as it is written, 'Thou art fairer than the children of men; full of grace are thy lips.' Such is He whom we follow, to whom we adherewho is altogether desirable, upon whom not the people only, but the holy angels themselves desire to look."

Decapolisi.e., the region of ten citiesfrom δέκα ten, and πόλις a city. The names of these ten cities, according to Burchard, were Tiberias, Saphet, Asor, Kedesh, Cæsarea Philippi, Capharnaum, Jotapata (which Josephus defended against the Romans), Bethsaida, Corozaim, and Beth-shan, or Scythopolis.

Beyond the Jordani.e., in respect of Galilee, which was on this side Jordan. These regions were Gilead, Trachonitis, Abilene, Seir, Cœlosyria, and Batanæa, the ancient Bashan, formerly the dominions of King Og.

Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, He departed into Galilee;13. And leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim:14. That is might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaeas the prophet, saying,15. "The land of Zabulon, and the land of Naphthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;16. The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.

Matthew having related the forty days’ fast, the temptation of Christ, and the ministry of Angels, proceeds, "Jesus having heard that John was cast into prison."

By God without doubt, for none can effect any thing against a holy man, unless God deliver him up. "He withdrew into Galilee," that is, out of Judaea; both that He might reserve His passion to the fit time, and that He might set us an example of flying from danger.

It is not blameworthy not to throw one’s self into peril, but when one has fallen into it, not to endure manfully. He departed from Judaea both to soften Jewish animosity, and to fulfil a prophecy, seeking moreover to fish for those masters of the world who dwelt in Galilee.

Note also how when He would depart to the Gentiles, He received good cause from the Jews; His forerunner was thrown into prison, which compelled Jesus to pass into Galilee of the Gentiles.

He came as Luke writes to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and there entering into the synagogue, He read and spoke many things, for which they sought to throw Him down from the rock, and thence He went to Capernaum; for which Matthew has only, "And leaving the town of Nazareth, He came and dwelt at Capernaum."

Nazareth is a village in Galilee near Mount Tabor; Capernaum a town in Galilee of the Gentiles near the Lake of Gennesaret; and this is the meaning of the word, "on the sea coast."

He adds further "in the borders of Zabulon and Naphtali," where was the first captivity of the Jews by the Assyrians. Thus where the Law was first forgotten, there the Gospel was first preached; and from a place as it were between the two it was spread both to Jews and Gentiles.

He left one, viz. Nazareth, that He might enlighten more by His preaching and miracles. Thus leaving an example to all preachers that they should preach at a time and in places where they may do good, to as many as possible. In the prophecy, the words are these - "At that first time the land of Zabulon and the land of Naphtali was lightened, and at the last time was increased the way of the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles." [ Isa 9:1 ]

They are said at the first time to be lightened from the burden of sin, because in the country of these two tribes, the Saviour first preached the Gospel; "at the last time" their faith "was increased," most of the Jews remaining in error.

By the sea here is meant the Lake of Gennesaret, a lake formed by the waters of the Jordan, on its shores are the towns of Capernaum, Tiberias, Bethsaida, and Corozaim, in which district principally Christ preached.

Or, according to the interpretation of those Hebrews who believe in Christ, the two tribes Zabulon and Naphtali were taken captive by the Assyrians, and Galilee was left desert; and the prophet therefore says that it was lightened, because it had before suffered the sins of the people; but afterwards the remaining tribes who dwelt beyond Jordan and in Samaria were led into captivity; and Scripture here means that the region which had been the first to suffer captivity, now was the first to see the light of Christ’s preaching.

The Nazarenes again interpret that this was the first part of the country that, on the coming of Christ, was freed from the errors of the Pharisees, and after by the Gospel of the Apostle Paul, the preaching was increased or multiplied throughout all the countries of the Gentiles.

But Matthew here so quotes the passage as to make them all nominative cases referring to one verb. The land of Zabulon, and the land of Naphtali, which is the way of the sea, and which is beyond Jordan, viz. the people of Galilee of the Gentiles, the people which walked in darkness. Gloss. ord.: Note that there are two Galilees; one of the Jews, the other of the Gentiles. This division of Galilee had existed from Solomon’s time, who gave twenty cities in Galilee to Hyram, King of Tyre; this part was afterwards called Galilee of the Gentiles; the remained, of the Jews.

Or we must read, "beyond Jordan, of Galilee of the Gentiles;" so, I mean, that the people who either sat, or walked in darkness, have seen light, and that not a faint light, as the light of the Prophets, but a great light, as of Him who in the Gospel speaks thus, "I am the light of the world."

Between death and the shadow of death I suppose this difference; death is said of such as have gone down to the grave with the works of death; the shadow of such as live in sin, and have not yet departed from this world; these may, if they will, yet turn to repentance.

Otherwise, the Gentiles who worshipped idols, and daemons, were they who sat in the region of the shadow of death; the Jews, who did the works of the Law, were in darkness, because the righteousness of God was not yet manifested to them.

But that you may learn that he speaks not of natural day and night, he calls the light, "a great light," which is in other places called "the true light;" and he adds, "the shadow of death," to explain what he means by darkness. The words "arose," and "shined," shew, that they found it not of their own seeking, but God Himself appeared to them, they did not first run to the light; for men were in the greatest miseries before Christ’s coming; they did not walk but safe in darkness; which was a sign that they hoped for deliverance; for as not knowing what way they should go, shut in by darkness they sat down, having now no power to stand. By darkness he means here, error and ungodliness.

In allegory, John and the rest of the Prophets were the voice going before the Word. When prophecy ceased and was fettered, then came the Word, fulfilling what the Prophet had spoken of it, "He departed into Galilee," i.e. from figure to verity.

Or, into the Church, which is a passing from vice to virtue. Nazareth is interpreted ’a flower,’ Capernaum, ’the beautiful village;’ He left therefore the flower of figure, (in which was mystically intended the fruit of the Gospel,) and came into the Church, which was beautiful with Christ’s virtues.It is "by the sea-coast," because placed near the waves of this world, it is daily beaten by the storms of persecution.

John relates in his Gospel the calling of Peter, Andrew, and Nathanael, and the miracle of Cana, before Jesus’ departure into Galilee; all these things the other Evangelists have omitted, carrying on the thread of their narrative with Jesus’ return into Galilee. We must understand then that some days intervened, during which the things took place concerning the calling of the disciples which John relates.

But this should be considered with more care, viz. that John says that the Lord went into Galilee, before John the Baptist was thrown into prison. According to John’s Gospel after the water turned into wine, and his going down to Capernaum, and after his going up to Jerusalem, he returned to Judaea and baptized, and John was not yet cast into prison. But here it is after John’s imprisonment that He retires into Galilee, and with this Mark agrees. But we need not suppose any contradiction here. John speaks of the Lord’s first coming into Galilee, which was before the imprisonment of John. He speaks in another place of His second coming into Galilee [ Joh 4:3 ], and the other Evangelists mention only this second coming into Galilee which was after John’s imprisonment.

It is related that John preached the Gospel almost up to the close of his life without setting forth any thing in writing, and at length came to write for this reason.

The three first written Gospels having come to his knowledge, he confirmed the truth of their history by his own testimony; but there was yet some things wanting, especially an account of what the Lord had done at the first beginning of His preaching. And it is true that the other three Gospels seem to contain only those things which were done in that year in which John the Baptist was put into prison, or executed. For Matthew, after the temptation, proceeds immediately, "Hearing that John was delivered up;" and Mark in like manner. Luke again, even before relating one of Christ’s actions, tells that "Herod had shut up John in prison." The Apostle John then was requested to put into writing what the preceding Evangelists had left out before the imprisonment of John; hence he says in his Gospel, "this beginning of miracles did Jesus."

From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, "Repent: for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand."

Christ’s Gospel should be preached by him who can control his appetites, who contemns the goods of this life, and desires not empty honours. "From this time began Jesus to preach," that is, after having been tempted, He had overcome hunger in the desert, despised covetousness on the mountain, rejected ambitious desires in the temple.

Or from the time that John was delivered up; for had He begun to preach while John was yet preaching, He would have made John be lightly accounted of, and John’s preaching would have been though superfluous by the side of Christ’s teaching; as when the sun rises at the same time with the morning star, the star’s brightness is hid.

For another cause also He did not preach till John was in prison, that the multitude might not be split into two parties; or as John did no miracle, all men would have been drawn to Christ by His miracles.

In this He further teaches that none should despise the words of a person inferior to Him; as also the Apostle, "If any thing be revealed to him that sits, let the first hold his peace." [ 1Co 14:14 ]

He did wisely in making now the beginning of His preaching, that He should not trample upon John’s teaching, but that He might the rather confirm it and demonstrate him to have been a true witness.

Shewing also thereby that He was Son of that same God whose prophet John was; and therefore He says, "Repent ye."

He does not straightway preach righteousness which all knew, but repentance, which all needed. Who then dared to say, ’I desire to be good, but am not able?"

For repentance corrects the will; and if ye will not repent through fear of evil, at least ye may for the pleasure of good things; hence He says, "the kingdom of heaven is at hand;" that is, the blessings of the heavenly kingdom. As if He has said, Prepare yourselves by repentance, for the time of eternal reward is at hand.

And note, He does not say the kingdom of the Canaanite, or the Jebusite, is at hand; the "the kingdom of heaven." The law promised worldly goods, but the Lord heavenly kingdoms.

Also observe how that in this His first address He says nothing of Himself openly; and that very suitably to the case, for they had yet no right opinion concerning Him. In this commencement moreover He speaks nothing severe, nothing burdensome, as John had concerning the axe laid to the root of the condemned tree, and the lie; but he puts first things merciful, preaching the glad tidings of the kingdom of heaven.

Mystically interpreted, Christ begins to preach as soon as John was delivered to prison, because when the Law ceased, the Gospel commenced.

And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.24. And His fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto Him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and He healed them.25. And there followed Him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan.

Kings, when about to go to war with their enemies, first gather an army, and so go out to battle; thus the Lord when about to war against the Devil, first collected Apostles, and then began to preach the Gospel.

An example of life for doctors; that they should not be inactive, they are instructed in these words, "And Jesus went about."

Because they being weak could not come to their physician, He as a zealous Physician went about to visit those who had any grievous sickness. The Lord went round the several regions, and after His example the pastors of each region ought to go round to study the several dispositions of their people, that for the remedy of each disease some medicine may be found in the Church.

That they should not be acceptors of persons the preachers are instructed in what follows, "the whole of Galilee." That they should not go about empty, by the word, "teaching." That they should seek to benefit not few but many, in what follows, "in their synagogues."

(ed. note: A passage is here inserted in Nicolai’s edition which is not in the original. It is of no doctrinal importance.) By which too He shewed the Jews that He came not as an enemy of God, or a seducer of souls, but as consenting with his Father.

That they should not preach error nor fable, but sound doctrine, is inculcated in the words, "preaching the Gospel of the kingdom." ’Teaching’ and ’preaching’ differ; teaching refers to things present, preaching to things to come; He taught present commandments and preached future promises.

Or, He taught natural righteousness, those things which natural reason teaches, as chastity, humility, and the like, which all men of themselves see to be goods. Such things are necessary to be taught not so much for the sake of making them known as for stirring the heart.

For beneath the prevalence of carnal delights the knowledge of natural righteousness sleeps forgotten. When then a teacher begins to denounce carnal sins, his teaching does not bring up a new knowledge, but recalls to memory one that had been forgotten. But He preached the Gospel, in telling of good things which the ancients had manifestly not heard of, as the happiness of heaven, the resurrection of the dead, and the like.

Or, He taught by interpreting the prophecies concerning Himself; He preached by declaring the benefits that were to come from Himself.

That the teacher should study to commend his teaching by his own virtuous conduct is conveyed in those words, "healing every sort of disease and malady among the people;" maladies of the body, diseases of the soul.

Or, by disease we may understand any passion of the mind, as avarice, lust, and such like, by malady unbelief, that is, weakness of faith.

Or, the diseases are the more grievous pains of the body, the maladies the slighter. As He cured the bodily pains by virtue of His divine power, so He cured the spiritual by the word of His mercy.

He first teaches, and then performs the cures, for two reasons. First, that what is needed most may come first; for it is the word of holy instruction, and not miracles, that edify the soul. Secondly, because teaching is commended by miracles, not the converse.

We must consider that when some great change is being wrought, as the introduction of a new polity, God is wont to work miracles, giving pledges of His power to those who are to receive His laws.

Thus when He would make man, He first created a world, and then at length gave man in paradise a law. When He would dispense a law to the holy Noah, he shewed truly great wonders; and again when He was about to ordain the Law for the Jews, He first shewed great prodigies, and then at length gave them the commandments. So now when about to introduce a sublime discipline of life, He first provided a sanction to His instructions by mighty signs, because the eternal kingdom He preached was not seen, by the things which did appear, He made sure that which as yet did not appear.

Because preachers should have good testimony from those who are without, lest if their life is open to censure, their preaching be contemned, he adds, "And the fame of him went abroad through all Syria."

Syria here is all the region from Euphrates to the Great sea, from Cappodocia to Egypt, in which is the country of Palestine, inhabited by Jews.

Observe the reserve of the Evangelist; he does not give an account of any one of the various cases of healing, but passes in one brief phrase an abundance of miracles, "they brought to him all their sick."

’Sickness’ means a lasting ailment; ’torment’ is an acute pain, as pleurisy, and such like; they "who had daemons" are they who were tormented by the daemons.

’Lunatics’ are so called from the moon; for as it waxes in its monthly seasons they are tormented.

Not really smitten by the moon, but who were believed to be so through the subtlety of the daemons, who by observing the seasons of the moon, sought to bring an evil report against the creature, that is might redound to the blasphemy of the Creator.

Daemons are enticed to take up their abode in many creatures, (created not by themselves but God,) by delights adapted to their various natures; not that they are animals, drawn by meats; but spirits attracted by signs which agree with each one’s taste.

Paralytics are those whose bodies have their nerves slackened or resolved from a Greek word, signifying this.

In some places it is, "He cured many;" but here, "He cured them," meaning, ’all;’ as a new physician first entering a town cures all who come to him to beget a good opinion concerning himself.

He requires no direct profession of faith from them, both because He had not yet given them any proofs of His miraculous power, and because in bringing their sick from far they had shewn no small faith.

The crowds that followed Him consisted of four sorts of men. Some followed for the heavenly teaching as disciples, some for the curing of their diseases, some from the reports concerning Him alone, and curiosity to find whether they were true; others from envy, wishing to catch Him in some matter that they might accuse Him.

’ or ’a wheel;’ that is, the Devil and the world; the Devil is both proud and always turned round to the bottom; the world in which the fame of Christ went abroad through preaching: the daemoniacs are the idolaters; the lunatics, the unstable; the paralytics, the slow and careless.

The crowds that follow the Lord, are they of the Church, which is spiritually designated by Galilee, passing to virtuousness; Decapolis is he who keeps the Ten Commandments; Jerusalem and Judaea, he who is enlightened by the vision of peace and confession; and beyond Jordan, he who having passed the waters of Baptism enters the land of promise.

Or, they follow the Lord "from Galilee," that is, from the unstable world; from Decapolis, (the country of ten towns,) signifying those who break the Ten Commandments; "and from Jerusalem," because before it was preserved unhurt in peace; "and from Jordan," that is, from the confession of the Devil; "and from beyond Jordan," they who were first planted in paganism, but passing the water of Baptism came to Christ.

Jesus then left the wilderness, and passed a few day on the banks of the Jordan, affording his holy precursor an opportunity of bearing repeated testimony of him and of his divine mission, as we read in the first chap. of St. John, and then retired into Upper Galilee to avoid the fury of the Jews. There were two Galilees, that of the Jews and that of the Gentiles; this latter was given by the king of Tyre to king Solomon. (St. Jerome) This conduct of Jesus Christ, shews that on some occasions it is not only lawful, but advisable, to flee from persecution. (St. John Chrysostom) --- Jesus Christ enters more publicly on his mission, and about to occupy the place of his precursor, the baptist, he chooses Galilee for the first theatre of his ministry, the place assigned by the ancient prophets. The Pharisees had prevailed upon Herod to arrest the baptist, nor could their hatred be less to Jesus Christ, who drew a still greater concourse of disciples after him.

Nazareth was situated in Lower Galilee; and Capharnaum, a maritime town, in Higher Galilee. According to the historian, Josephus, it did not belong to Herod, the tetrarch, who sent the baptist to confinement, but to Philip, the tetrarch, his brother. (Calmet) --- He leaves Nazareth for good and all, and retires to Capharnaum, a very flourishing and much frequented emporium, both for the Jews and Gentiles. Here he makes his chief residence, a place well calculated for his preaching, being on the limits of both Galilee, although he made frequent excursions through Galilee to disseminate his doctrines. (Syn. crit.)

St. Matthew has omitted in this place part of the prophecy, (Isaias ix.) because it was not to his purpose. He has likewise given us the mystical, though still true, interpretation of the prophecy, which was written in the first instance to foretell the deliverance of Jerusalem from Senacherib, in the time of Ezechias. (1 Kings, xix.) (Jansenius)

And a light is risen, &c. This light, foretold by the prophet Isaias, (chap. ix, ver. 1,) was our Saviour Jesus Christ, the light of the world, who now enlightened them by his instructions, and by his grace. (Witham) --- Thus when the morning star has gone by and disappeared, the sun rises and diffuses its light to mortals, who rejoice that the darkness of night is removed from the earth. (Jansenius)

Jesus began not to preach till St. John had announced his coming to the world, that the dignity of his sacred person might thus be manifested, and the incredulous Jews be without excuse. If after the preaching of St. John, and his express testimony of the divinity of our Redeemer, they could still say: thou givest testimony of thyself; thy testimony is not true: what would they not have said, if, without any precursor, he had, all on a sudden, appeared amongst them. He did not begin to preach till St. John was cast into prison, that the people might not be divided. On this account also St. John wrought no miracle, that the people might be struck with the miracles of our Saviour, and yield their assent to him. (St. John Chrysostom, hom. 14.) --- It may here be remarked, how different were the motives of the prophets from those which the baptist and Christ made use of to exhort to repentance. The former menaced evil, and held out a promise of good, but the good or evil was temporal. St. John begins his exhortations with the threat of eternal punishment --- but Christ sweetens the hardships of penance by reminding us of the reward. "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Jansenius)

The synagogues were religious assemblies with the Jews, wherein they met on the sabbath and festival days, to pray, to read and hear expounded the word of God, and to exercise the other practices of their law. (Calmet)

Many came to Christ to beg to be cured of their corporal infirmities; nor do we read o fa single one here, who came to be delivered from spiritual sickness. Our blessed Savior nevertheless, bearing with their imperfection, condescends to heal them, that he might thence take occasion of exciting their faith, and preparing them for their spiritual cure. (Jansenius) --- It is much to be regretted, that the conduct of Christians at the present day, is not more reasonable than that of the Jews here mentioned. If the Almighty, says the eloquent Masillon, had not the power or will of dispensing goods and evils, how small would be the number of those who would ever retire to the temple to present their petition to Him. (Haydock) --- Our Saviour asks not, if they believed, as he did on other occasions; they had given him sufficient proof, by bringing their sick from distant parts. (St. John Chrysostom, hom. xiv.)

12 Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee; 13 And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: 14 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, 15 The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; 16 The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. 17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

We have here an account of Christ's preaching in the synagogues of Galilee, for he came into the world to be a Preacher; the great salvation which he wrought out, he himself began to publish ( Heb. ii. 3 ) to show how much his heart was upon it, and ours should be.

Several passages in the other gospels, especially in that of St. John, are supposed, in the order of the story of Christ's life, to intervene between his temptation and his preaching in Galilee. His first appearance after his temptation, was when John Baptist pointed to him, saying, Behold the Lamb of God, John i. 29 . After that, he went up to Jerusalem, to the passover ( John ii. ), discoursed with Nicodemus ( John iii. ), with the woman of Samaria ( John iv. ), and then returned into Galilee, and preached there. But Matthew, having had his residence in Galilee, begins his story of Christ's public ministry with his preaching there, which here we have an account of. Observe,

I. The time; When Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, then he went into Galilee, v. 12 . Note, The cry of the saints' sufferings comes up into the ears of the Lord Jesus. If John be cast into prison, Jesus hears it, takes cognizance of it, and steers his course accordingly: he remembers the bonds and afflictions that abide his people. Observe, 1. Christ did not go into the country, till he heard of John's imprisonment; for he must have time given him to prepare the way of the Lord, before the Lord himself appear. Providence wisely ordered it, that John should be eclipsed before Christ shone forth; otherwise the minds of people would have been distracted between the two; one would have said, I am of John, and another, I am of Jesus. John must be Christ's harbinger, but not his rival. The moon and stars are lost when the sun rises. John had done his work by the baptism of repentance, and then he was laid aside. The witnesses were slain when they had finished their testimony, and not before, Rev. xi. 7 . 2. He did go into the country as soon as he heard of John's imprisonment; not only to provide for his own safety, knowing that the Pharisees in Judea were as much enemies to him as Herod was to John, but to supply the want of John Baptist, and to build upon the good foundation he had laid. Note, God will not leave himself without witness, nor his church without guides; when he removes one useful instrument, he can raise up another, for he has the residue of the Spirit, and he will do it, if he has work to do. Moses my servant is dead, John is cast into prison; now, therefore, Joshua, arise; Jesus, arise.

II. The place where he preached; in Galilee, a remote part of the country, that lay furthest from Jerusalem, as was there looked upon with contempt, as rude and boorish. The inhabitants of that country were reckoned stout men, fit for soldiers, but not polite men, or fit for scholars. Thither Christ went, there he set up the standard of his gospel; and in this, as in other things, he humbled himself. Observe,

1. The particular city he chose for his residence; not Nazareth, where he had been bred up; no, he left Nazareth; particular notice is taken of that, v. 13 . And with good reason did he leave Nazareth; for the men of that city thrust him out from among them, Luke iv. 29 . He made them his first, and a very fair, offer of his service, but they rejected him and his doctrine, and were filled with indignation at him and it; and therefore he left Nazareth, and shook off the dust of his feet for a testimony against those there, who would not have him to teach them. Nazareth was the first place that refused Christ, and was therefore refused by him. Note, It is just with God, to take the gospel and the means of grace from those that slight them, and thrust them away. Christ will not stay long where he is not welcome. Unhappy Nazareth! If thou hadst known in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace, how well had it been for thee! But now they are hid from thine eyes.

But he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which was a city of Galilee, but many miles distant from Nazareth, a great city and of much resort. It is said here to be on the sea coast, not the great sea, but the sea of Tiberias, an inland water, called also the lake of Gennesaret. Close by the falling of Jordan into the sea stood Capernaum, in the tribe of Naphtali, but bordering upon Zebulun; hither Christ came, and here he dwelt. Some think that his father Joseph had a habitation here, others that he took a house or lodgings at least; and some think it more than probable, that he dwelt in the house of Simon Peter; however, here he fixed not constantly, for he went about doing good; but this was for some time his head quarters: what little rest he had, was here; here he had a place, though not a place of his own, to lay his head on. And at Capernaum, it should seem, he was welcome, and met with better entertainment than he had at Nazareth. Note, If some reject Christ, yet others will receive him, and bid him welcome. Capernaum is glad of Nazareth's leavings. If Christ's own countrymen be not gathered, yet he will be glorious. "And thou, Capernaum, has now a day of it; thou art now lifted up to heaven; be wise for thyself, and know the time of thy visitation."

2. The prophecy that was fulfilled is this, v. 14-16 . It is quoted from Isa. ix. 1, 2 , but with some variation. The prophet in that place is foretelling a greater darkness of affliction to befal the contemners of Immanuel, than befel the countries there mentioned, either in their first captivity under Benhadad, which was but light ( 1 Kings xv. 20 ), or in their second captivity under the Assyrian, which was much heavier, 2 Kings xv. 29 . The punishment of the Jewish nation for rejecting the gospel should be sorer than either (see Isa. viii. 21, 22 ); for those captivated places had some reviving in their bondage, and saw a great light again, ch. ix. 2 . This is Isaiah's sense; but the Scripture has many fulfillings; and the evangelist here takes only the latter clause, which speaks of the return of the light of liberty and prosperity to those countries that had been in the darkness of captivity, and applies it to the appearing of the gospel among them.

The places are spoken of, v. 15 . The land of Zebulun is rightly said to be by the sea coast, for Zebulun was a haven of ships, and rejoiced in her going out, Gen. xlix. 13 ; Deut. xxxiii. 18 . Of Naphtali, it had been said, that he should give goodly words ( Gen. xlix. 21 ), and should be satisfied with favour ( Deut. xxxiii. 23 ), for from him began the gospel; goodly words indeed, and such as bring to a soul God's satisfying favour. The country beyond Jordan is mentioned likewise, for there we sometimes find Christ preaching, and Galilee of the Gentiles, the upper Galilee to which the Gentiles resorted for traffic, and where they were mingled with the Jews; which intimates a kindness in reserve for the poor Gentiles. When Christ came to Capernaum, the gospel came to all those places round about; such diffusive influences did the Sun of righteousness cast.

Now, concerning the inhabitants of these places, observe, (1.) The posture they were in before the gospel came among them ( v. 16 ); they were in darkness. Note, Those that are without Christ, are in the dark, nay, they are darkness itself; as the darkness that was upon the face of the deep. Nay, they were in the region and shadow of death; which denotes not only great darkness, as the grave is a land of darkness, but great danger. A man that is desperately sick, and not likely to recover, is in the valley of the shadow of death, though not quite dead; so the poor people were on the borders of damnation, though not yet damned-dead in law. And, which is worst of all, they were sitting in this condition. Sitting in a continuing posture; where we sit, we mean to stay; they were in the dark, and likely to be so, despairing to find the way out. And it is a contented posture; they were in the dark, and they loved darkness, they chose it rather than light; they were willingly ignorant. Their condition was sad; it is still the condition of many great and mighty nations, which are to be thought of, and prayed for, with pity. But their condition is more sad, who sit in darkness in the midst of gospel-light. He that is in the dark because it is night, may be sure that the sun will shortly arise; but he that is in the dark because he is blind, will not so soon have his eyes opened. We have the light, but what will that avail us, if we be not the light in the Lord? (2.) The privilege they enjoyed, when Christ and his gospel came among them; it was as great a reviving as ever light was to a benighted traveller. Note, When the gospel comes, light comes; when it comes to any place, when it comes to any soul, it makes day there, John iii. 19 ; Luke i. 78, 79 . Light is discovering, it is directing; so is the gospel.

It is a great light; denoting the clearness and evidence of gospel-revelations; not like the light of a candle, but the light of the sun when he goes forth in his strength. Great in comparison with the light of the law, the shadows of which were now done away. It is a great light, for it discovers great things and of vast consequence; it will last long, and spread far. And it is a growing light, intimated in that word, It is sprung up. It was but spring of day with them; now the day dawned, which afterward shone more and more. The gospel-kingdom, like a grain of mustard-seed or the morning light, was small in its beginnings, gradual in its growth, but great in its perfection.

Observe, the light sprang up to them; they did not go to seek it, but were prevented with the blessings of this goodness. It came upon them ere they were aware, at the time appointed, by the disposal of him who commandeth the morning, and causes the day-spring to know its place, that it may take hold of the ends of the earth, Job xxxviii. 12, 13 .

III. The text he preached upon ( v. 17 ): From that time, that is, from the time of his coming into Galilee, into the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, from that time, he began to preach. He had been preaching, before this, in Judea, and had made and baptized many disciples ( John iv. 1 ); but his preaching was no so public and constant as now it began to be. The work of the ministry is so great and awful, that it is fit to be entered upon by steps and gradual advances.

23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. 24 And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. 25 And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan.

See here, I. What an industrious preacher Christ was; He went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Observe, 1. What Christ preached— the gospel of the kingdom. The kingdom of heaven, that is, of grace and glory, is emphatically the kingdom, the kingdom that was now to come; that kingdom which shall survive, as it doth surpass, all the kingdoms of the earth. The gospel is the charter of that kingdom, containing the King's coronation oath, by which he has graciously obliged himself to pardon, protect, and save the subjects of that kingdom; it contains also their oath of allegiance, by which they oblige themselves to observe his statutes and seek his honour; this is the gospel of the kingdom; this Christ was himself the Preacher of, that our faith in it might be confirmed. 2. Where he preached— in the synagogues; not there only, but there chiefly, because those were the places of concourse, where wisdom was to lift up her voice ( Prov. i. 21 ); because they were places of concourse for religious worship, and there, it was to be hoped, the minds of the people would be prepared to receive the gospel; and there the scriptures of the Old Testament were read, the exposition of which would easily introduce the gospel of the kingdom. 3. What pains he took in preaching; He went about all Galilee, teaching. He might have issued out a proclamation to summon all to come to him; but, to show his humility, and the condescensions of his grace, he goes to them; for he waits to be gracious, and comes to seek and save. Josephus says, There were above two hundred cities and towns in Galilee, and all, or most of them, Christ visited. He went about doing good. Never was there such an itinerant preacher, such an indefatigable one, as Christ was; he went from town to town, to beseech poor sinners to be reconciled to God. This is an example to ministers, to lay themselves out to do good, and to be instant, and constant, in season, and out of season, to preach the word.

II. What a powerful physician Christ was; he went about not only teaching, but healing, and both with his word, that he might magnify that above all his name. He sent his word, and healed them. Now observe,

1. What diseases he cured—all without exception. He healed all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease. There are diseases which are called the reproach of physicians, being obstinate to all the methods they can prescribe; but even those were the glory of this Physician, for he healed them all, however inveterate. His word was the true panpharmacon—all-heal.

Three general words are here used to intimate this; he healed every sickness, noson , as blindness, lameness, fever, dropsy; every disease, or languishing, malakian , as fluxes and consumptions; and all torments, basanous , as gout, stone, convulsions, and such like torturing distempers; whether the disease was acute or chronical; whether it was a racking or a wasting disease; none was too bad, none too hard, for Christ to heal with a word's speaking.

Three particular diseases are specified; the palsy, which is the greatest weakness of the body; lunacy, which is the greatest malady of the mind, and possession of the Devil, which is the greatest misery and calamity of both, yet Christ healed all: for he is the sovereign Physician both of soul and body, and has command of all diseases.

2. What patients he had. A physician who was so easy of access, so sure of success, who cured immediately, without either a painful suspense and expectation, or such painful remedies as are worse than the disease; who cured gratis, and took no fees, could not but have abundance of patients. See here, what flocking there was to him from all parts; great multitudes of people came, not only from Galilee and the country about, but even from Jerusalem and from Judea, which lay a great way off; for his fame went throughout all Syria, not only among all the people of the Jews, but among the neighbouring nations, which, by the report that now spread far and near concerning him, would be prepared to receive his gospel, when afterwards it should be brought them. This is given as the reason why such multitudes came to him, because his fame had spread so widely. Note, What we hear of Christ from others, should invite us to him. The queen of Sheba was induced, by the fame of Solomon, to pay him a visit. The voice of fame is "Come, and see." Christ both taught and healed. They who came for cures, met with instruction concerning the things that belonged to their peace. It is well if any thing will bring people to Christ; and they who come to him will find more in him than they expected. These Syrians, like Naaman the Syrian, coming to be healed of their diseases, many of them being converts, 2 Kings v. 15 , 17 . They sought health for the body, and obtained the salvation of the soul; like Saul, who sought the asses, and found the kingdom. Yet it appeared, by the issue, that many of those who rejoiced in Christ as a Healer, forgot him as a Teacher.

Now concerning the cures which Christ wrought, let us, once for all, observe the miracle, the mercy, and the mystery, of them.

(1.) The miracle of them. They were wrought in such a manner, as plainly spake them to be the immediate products of a divine and supernatural power, and they were God's seal to his commission. Nature could not do these things, it was the God of nature; the cures were many, of diseases incurable by the art of the physician, of persons that were strangers, of all ages and conditions; the cures were wrought openly, before many witnesses, in mixed companies of persons that would have denied the matter of fact, if they could have had any colour for so doing; no cure ever failed, or was afterwards called in question; they were wrought speedily, and not (as cures by natural causes) gradually; they were perfect cures, and wrought with a word's speaking; all which proves him a Teacher come from God, for, otherwise, none could have done the works that he did, John iii. 2 . He appeals to these as credentials, ch. xi. 4, 5 ; John v. 36 . It was expected that the Messiah should work miracles ( John vii. 31 ); miracles of this nature ( Isa. xxxv. 5, 6 ); and we have this indisputable proof of his being the Messiah; never was there any man that did thus; and therefore his healing and his preaching generally went together, for the former confirmed the latter; thus here he began to do and to teach, Acts i. 1 .

(2.) The mercy of them. The miracles that Moses wrought, to prove his mission, were most of them plagues and judgments, to intimate the terror of that dispensation, though from God; but the miracles that Christ wrought, were most of them cures, and all of them (except the cursing of the barren fig tree) blessings and favours; for the gospel dispensation is founded, and built up in love, and grace, and sweetness; and the management is such as tends not to affright but to allure us to obedience. Christ designed by his cures to win upon people, and to ingratiate himself and his doctrine into their minds, and so to draw them with the bands of love, Hos. xi. 4 . The miracle of them proved his doctrine a faithful saying, and convinced men's judgments; the mercy of them proved it worthy of all acceptation, and wrought upon their affections. They were not only great works, but good works, that he showed them from his Father ( John x. 32 ); and this goodness was intended to lead men to repentance ( Rom. ii. 4 ), as also to show that kindness, and beneficence, and doing good to all, to the utmost of our power and opportunity, are essential branches of that holy religion which Christ came into the world to establish.

(3.) The mystery of them. Christ, by curing bodily diseases, intended to show, that his great errand into the world was to cure spiritual maladies. He is the Sun of righteousness, that arises with this healing under his wings. As the Converter of sinners, he is the Physician of souls, and has taught us to call him so, ch. ix. 12, 13 . Sin is the sickness, disease, and torment of the soul; Christ came to take away sin, and so to heal these. And the particular stories of the cures Christ wrought, may not only be applied spiritually, by way of allusion and illustration, but, I believe, are very much intended to reveal to us spiritual things, and to set before us the way and method of Christ's dealing with souls, in their conversion and sanctification; and those cures are recorded, that were most significant and instructive this way; and they are therefore so to be explained and improved, to the honour and praise of that glorious Redeemer, who forgiveth all our iniquities, and so healeth all our diseases.

12. Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison-- more simply, "was delivered up," as recorded in Mt 14:3-5 ; Mr 6:17-20 ; Lu 3:19 , 20 .

he departed-- rather, "withdrew."

into Galilee-- as recorded, in its proper place, in Joh 4:1-3 .

13. And leaving Nazareth-- The prevalent opinion is that this refers to a first visit to Nazareth after His baptism, whose details are given by Luke ( Lu 4:16 , &c.); a second visit being that detailed by our Evangelist ( Mt 13:54-58 ), and by Mark ( Mr 6:1-6 ). But to us there seem all but insuperable difficulties in the supposition of two visits to Nazareth after His baptism; and on the grounds stated in Lu 4:16 , &c., we think that the one only visit to Nazareth is that recorded by Matthew ( Mt 13:53-58 ), Mark ( Mr 6:1-6 ), and Luke ( Lu 4:14-30 ). But how, in that case, are we to take the word "leaving Nazareth" here? We answer, just as the same word is used in Ac 21:3 , "Now when we had sighted Cyprus, and left it on the left, we sailed into Syria,"--that is, without entering Cyprus at all, but merely "sighting" it, as the nautical phrase is, they steered southeast of it, leaving it on the northwest. So here, what we understand the Evangelist to say is, that Jesus, on His return to Galilee, did not, as might have been expected, make Nazareth the place of His stated residence, but, "leaving [or passing by] Nazareth,"

he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the seacoast-- maritime Capernaum, on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee; but the precise spot is unknown. (See on Mt 11:23 ). Our Lord seems to have chosen it for several reasons. Four or five of the Twelve lived there; it had a considerable and mixed population, securing some freedom from that intense bigotry which even to this day characterizes all places where Jews in large numbers dwell nearly alone; it was centrical, so that not only on the approach of the annual festivals did large numbers pass through it or near it, but on any occasion multitudes could easily be collected about it; and for crossing and recrossing the lake, which our Lord had so often occasion to do, no place could be more convenient. But one other high reason for the choice of Capernaum remains to be mentioned, the only one specified by our Evangelist.

in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim-- the one lying to the west of the Sea of Galilee, the other to the north of it; but the precise boundaries cannot now be traced out.

14. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet-- ( Is 9:1 , 2 or, as in Hebrew, Isaiah 8:23, and 9:1).

saying-- as follows:

15. The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea-- the coast skirting the Sea of Galilee westward--beyond Jordan--a phrase commonly meaning eastward of Jordan; but here and in several places it means westward of the Jordan. The word seems to have got the general meaning of "the other side"; the nature of the case determining which side that was.

Galilee of the Gentiles-- so called from its position, which made it the frontier between the Holy Land and the external world. While Ephraim and Judah, as Stanley says, were separated from the world by the Jordan valley on one side and the hostile Philistines on another, the northern tribes were in the direct highway of all the invaders from the north, in unbroken communication with the promiscuous races who have always occupied the heights of Lebanon, and in close and peaceful alliance with the most commercial nation of the ancient world, the Phoenicians. Twenty of the cities of Galilee were actually annexed by Solomon to the adjacent kingdom of Tyre, and formed, with their territory, the "boundary" or "offscouring" (Gebul or Cabul) of the two dominions--at a later time still known by the general name of "the boundaries (coasts or borders) of Tyre and Sidon." In the first great transportation of the Jewish population, Naphtali and Galilee suffered the same fate as the trans-jordanic tribes before Ephraim or Judah had been molested ( 2Ki 15:29 ). In the time of the Christian era this original disadvantage of their position was still felt; the speech of the Galileans "bewrayed them" by its uncouth pronunciation ( Mt 26:73 ); and their distance from the seats of government and civilization at Jerusalem and Cæsarea gave them their character for turbulence or independence, according as it was viewed by their friends or their enemies.

16. The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up-- The prophetic strain to which these words belong commences with the seventh chapter of Isaiah, to which the sixth chapter is introductory, and goes down to the end of the twelfth chapter, which hymns the spirit of that whole strain of prophecy. It belongs to the reign of Ahaz and turns upon the combined efforts of the two neighboring kingdoms of Syria and Israel to crush Judah. In these critical circumstances Judah and her king were, by their ungodliness, provoking the Lord to sell them into the hands of their enemies. What, then, is the burden of this prophetic strain, on to the passage here quoted? First, Judah shall not, cannot perish, because Immanuel, the Virgin's Son, is to come forth from his loins. Next, one of the invaders shall soon perish, and the kingdoms of neither be enlarged. Further, while the Lord will be the Sanctuary of such as confide in these promises and await their fulfilment, He will drive to confusion, darkness, and despair the vast multitude of the nation who despised His oracles, and, in their anxiety and distress, betook themselves to the lying oracles of the heathen. This carries us down to the end of the eighth chapter. At the opening of the ninth chapter a sudden light is seen breaking in upon one particular part of the country, the part which was to suffer most in these wars and devastations--"the land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee and the Gentiles." The rest of the prophecy stretches over both the Assyrian and the Chaldean captivities and terminates in the glorious Messianic prophecy of the eleventh chapter and the choral hymn of the twelfth chapter. Well, this is the point seized on by our Evangelist. By Messiah's taking up His abode in those very regions of Galilee, and shedding His glorious light upon them, this prediction, He says, of the Evangelical prophet was now fulfilled; and if it was not thus fulfilled, we may confidently affirm it was not fulfilled in any age of the Jewish ceremony, and has received no fulfilment at all. Even the most rationalistic critics have difficulty in explaining it in any other way.

17. From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand-- Thus did our Lord not only take up the strain, but give forth the identical summons of His honored forerunner. Our Lord sometimes speaks of the new kingdom as already come--in His own Person and ministry; but the economy of it was only "at hand" until the blood of the cross was shed, and the Spirit on the day of Pentecost opened the fountain for sin and for uncleanness to the world at large.

Calling of Peter and Andrew James and John ( Mt 4:18-22 ).

23. And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues-- These were houses of local worship. It cannot be proved that they existed before the Babylonish captivity; but as they began to be erected soon after it, probably the idea was suggested by the religious inconveniences to which the captives had been subjected. In our Lord's time, the rule was to have one wherever ten learned men or professed students of the law resided; and they extended to Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, and most places of the dispersion. The larger towns had several, and in Jerusalem the number approached five hundred. In point of officers and mode of worship, the Christian congregations are modelled after the synagogue.

and preaching the gospel of the kingdom-- proclaiming the glad tidings of the kingdom,

and healing all manner of sickness-- every disease.

and all manner of disease among the people-- every complaint. The word means any incipient malady causing "softness."

24. And his fame went throughout all Syria-- reaching first to the part of it adjacent to Galilee, called Syro-Phoenicia ( Mr 7:26 ), and thence extending far and wide.

and they brought unto him all sick people-- all that were ailing or unwell. Those

that were taken-- for this is a distinct class, not an explanation of the "unwell" class, as our translators understood it.

with divers diseases and torments-- that is, acute disorders.

and those which were possessed with devils-- that were demonized or possessed with demons.

and those which were lunatic-- moon-struck.

and those that had the palsy-- paralytics, a word not naturalized when our version was made.

and he healed them-- These healings were at once His credentials and illustrations of "the glad tidings" which He proclaimed. After reading this account of our Lord's first preaching tour, can we wonder at what follows?

25. And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis-- a region lying to the east of the Jordan, so called as containing ten cities, founded and chiefly inhabited by Greek settlers.

and from Jerusalem, and from beyond Jordan-- meaning from Perea. Thus not only was all Palestine upheaved, but all the adjacent regions. But the more immediate object for which this is here mentioned is, to give the reader some idea both of the vast concourse and of the varied complexion of eager attendants upon the great Preacher, to whom the astonishing discourse of the next three chapters was addressed. On the importance which our Lord Himself attached to this first preaching circuit, and the preparation which He made for it, see on Mr 1:35-39 . CHAPTERS 5-8

Sermon on the Mount.