THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 From the library of 
 Hugh Mackay Fletcher *26 
 Presented in 1932 
 By Mrs. Fletcher 
 
 &4?b 
 
COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL 
 ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW 
 
 By the REV. WILLIAM BRIJCE 
 
 UmvtnoU I Uf ILLIlMU 
 
 SECOND THOUSAND 
 
 i 
 
 FREDERICK PITMAN, PUBLISHER 
 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON 
 1868 
 
MUIR AND PATERSON, PRINTERS, 
 
 EDINBURGH. 
 
- 2 - 2 . 6. 2 
 
 £474 
 
 * 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 This Work has been written with the intention of supplying the 
 members of the New Church with a Commentary on the largest and 
 most comprehensive of the Gospels, suitable for private and family 
 reading. It is therefore almost purely explanatory and practical in 
 its character, all questions that have no direct tendency to edifica- 
 tion being as far as possible avoided. 
 
 The author is indebted for some of his materials to the unpublished 
 sermons of the late Rev. S. Noble. For the use of these manuscripts 
 of his revered friend and colleague, his thanks are due to the Society 
 of which Mr. Noble was so long the distinguished minister. To these 
 manuscripts he owes, besides one or two smaller items, the explanation 
 of almost the whole of chapters v. and vi., the greater part of chapter 
 xviii., verses 14-16 of chapter xxiv., and the parable of the talents, 
 in chapter xxv. 
 
 That the Work, such as it is, may, by the Divine blessing, contribute 
 to the spiritual improvement of those for whose use it is designed, is 
 the Author’s earnest prayer. 
 
 London-, December , 1866 , 
 
 8 i I 856 
 
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW 
 
 INTRODUCTION - . 
 
 The Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the most directly, 
 if not also the most deeply, interesting and instructive portion of the 
 Divine Word. It records the greatest of all earthly events — the 
 manifestation of God in the flesh. It unfolds the mystery of redemp- 
 tion, and shows us the way in which we must be saved. It brings to 
 light the immortality of the soul, and the nature of the future life. 
 It shows us our nearness to and connection with the eternal world, 
 and the influences which act upon us both from the kingdom of light 
 and the kingdom of darkness. It exhibits before us humanity in its 
 widest possible contrasts, in its greatest moral beauty in the person of 
 the Saviour, and in its greatest moral deformity in the persons of those 
 he came to seek and to save. It supplies us with the purest lessons 
 of spiritual wisdom and the highest example of practical goodness in 
 the teaching and life of our blessed Lord; in whose sufferings and 
 death we have the most perfect pattern of patient endurance and 
 forgiving love,, and in whose resurrection and ascension we have the 
 highest hope of spiritual life and eternal glory. 
 
 The word of the Old Testament is not silent on these all-important 
 subjects. Predictions of the Lord’s coming are numerous, and some 
 of them are unmistakably plain and singularly graphic. Still, like 
 every future event, his advent was seen as through a glass darkly. 
 So were all the subjects of the kingdom he came on earth to establish. 
 It is only when the light of the New Testament is shed back upon the 
 predictions and doctrines of the Old, that they stand out in their 
 proper distinctness, and that their high import is clearly and fully 
 understood. 
 
 The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, thus com- 
 bined, contain the knowledge of that great salvation which the Lord, 
 in his infinite mercy, has wrought out for, and now freely offers to all 
 his people. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and a life according to 
 his commandments, are the sum and substance of the Christian 
 
 J3 
 
2 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 religion, the essential means and conditions of salvation ; and these 
 are set before ns in the very letter with so much plainness that he 
 may run that readeth. 
 
 But within the literal there is a spiritual sense, which exalts all the 
 truths of the Word, and intensifies all the means of salvation. God 
 has stored up in his Wc/rd, as he has in his Works, inexhaustible 
 treasures of wisdom and knowledge; and has only, when the time has 
 come, to open the seals of his Sacred Volume, which is written 
 within and on the back side, and to unrol it before the nations, that 
 they may “ come and see ” the wonders which have lain hid in its 
 recesses, from the time of its revelation, till men were prepared, by a 
 higher development of their faculties, to perceive and acknowledge 
 them. 
 
 During the past ages of the church the Word has been understood 
 in its literal sense only. The existence of a spiritual sense has always 
 indeed been acknowledged in the church, although little success has 
 attended the numerous attempts that have been made to unfold it. 
 It was important that a belief in the existence of an inner sense in 
 the Scriptures should be preserved, though the time for its manifesta- 
 tion was not yet come. The literal sense was adapted to the genius 
 and adequate to the wants of the church of the Lord’s first advent; 
 the spiritual sense is revealed for the use of the church of his second 
 advent. His first coming was in feebleness and obscurity ; his 
 second coming is with power and great glory. As it is from the 
 literal sense of the Word that we acquire a knowledge of. the Lord’s 
 coming in the flesh, it is from the spiritual sense that we acquire a 
 knowledge of his coming in the spirit. The time of the Lord’s 
 second coming — a coming not in person but in power — having now 
 arrived, the spiritual sense of the Word, which reveals it, is now 
 made known, and may be understood, because the event and the 
 revelation are the correlatives of each other. 
 
 The use of this inner sense of the Holy Word consists chiefly in 
 its unfolding two great subjects — the glorification of the Lord’s 
 humanity, and the regeneration of man. These two works are 
 related to each other as cause and effect. The Lord’s glorification 
 is the origin and pattern of man’s regeneration. It is because the 
 Lord was glorified that man can be regenerated. By glorification the 
 Lord became a Saviour; by regeneration we become saved. Glori- 
 fication and regeneration are the same in their nature; they differ 
 only in degree. By glorification the Lord made his humanity 
 Divine; by regeneration he makes man spiritual. These two works, 
 
Chap. I.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 3 
 
 which are the beginning and the end of the Incarnation, are the 
 leading subjects of the inner sense of the Holy Word. The inmost 
 or celestial sense treats of the Lord’s glorification, the internal or 
 spiritual sense treats of man’s regeneration. As the subject of 
 regeneration has the nearest, because an immediate personal interest 
 for us, and comes more within the scope of our apprehension, it will 
 chiefly engage our attention, and will most conduce to our edification. 
 
 There is one other subject treated of in the inner sense of the 
 Word — the church or religious dispensation, whose states both o i 
 advancement and retrogression form the subject of “the internal 
 historical ” or “ proximate ” sense, which is nearest to the sense ot 
 the letter. 
 
 In explaining the Word it may be useful at times to consider it as 
 it refers to the Lord, or to man, or to the church, leaving the reader 
 to trace out its other applications, which he may readily do, since 
 there is a correspondence between them. 
 
 One word of caution for those who are not acquainted with the 
 spiritual interpretation of the Word. It may be supposed that the 
 spiritual sense supersedes the literal sense. This is by no means 
 the case. There are some parts of the Word that are not to 
 be literally understood. With the exception of these, the literal sense 
 is at least as much believed in and reverenced by us as .if no spiritual 
 sense existed. All doctrine is to be drawn from the literal sense of 
 the Word; and all spiritual truth rests upon it as its necessary 
 foundation. 
 
 It is only necessary to add, that as the Holy Word, in which the 
 fulness of wisdom dwells, is sufficient for the supply of all our spiritual 
 wants, we have only to go to it earnestly and in a teachable spirit, 
 looking to Him who is the Light itself for illumination, to derive 
 from its sacred pages whatever is most suitable to our spiritual states, 
 and most conducive to our eternal welfare. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Old Testament begins with “ the generations of the heavens and 
 the earth,” and the New Testament begins with “ the generation” of 
 him by whom the heavens and the earth were created. In the 
 Incarnation the Creator took upon himself by birth that nature which 
 had originally derived its birth from him. He by whom man was made 
 was himself made man. God assumed man’s nature to effect what 
 
4: 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. I. 
 
 man was designed but had failed to accomplish. As the world came 
 from God, it was designed to return to him again, and to return 
 through man, for whose sake it was created, and in whose spiritual 
 and eternal happiness alone the purpose of its creation would be 
 Realized. God could have no other end in view in creating the world 
 — the universe itself — than to form from the human race a heaven of 
 immortal beings, to whom he might impart a measure of his own 
 infinite blessedness, and in whose ever-increasing numbers and per- 
 fection he might behold a not unworthy image of his own immen- 
 sity and glory. The fall of man threatened the frustration of this 
 beneficent end. The catastrophe could only be averted and the 
 breach repaired by God becoming man, and in the humanity he 
 assumed restoring what man had lost in himself. In the Lord’s 
 humanity at the ascension creation returned to him from whom it 
 originally came. The link in the chain of connection between the 
 Creator and his creature was more than supplied by man’s Restorer. 
 By his Divine Humanity God has connected his creation in this and 
 all other worlds with himself; and by a new and living way, which 
 he has consecrated through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, man 
 has for ever access to him, and he to man. 
 
 The Incarnation was thus the beginning of a new creation. Jesus 
 is therefore called the Beginning of the creation of God; the First- 
 born of every creature. He is the beginning of that new and spir- 
 itual creation which is to consist of those who become “new 
 creatures;” he is the first-begotten and the head of that new 
 generation which is to consist of those who are “born again” of him. 
 The Lord has become the second Adam, the Father of a new and 
 endless race of regenerate beings. In him what was God’s imperfect 
 image has become man’s perfect Exemplar. 
 
 It is, in fact, this spiritual creation which the Genesis of the Word 
 describes — a creation which made primeval man a spiritual image and 
 likeness of his Maker. This image of the Divine properly con- 
 stitutes humanity, for we are truly human only so far as we are 
 images of God as to his moral perfections. It was this image that 
 was lost by the fall, and which the Creator came to restore by the 
 Incarnation, — that transcendently glorious event which forms the 
 theme of the Gospel of peace, the beginning of which announces the 
 birth of the Saviour, — the glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to 
 all people. 
 
 1-17. The booh of the generation of Jesus Christ comprehends in it 
 much more than an enumeration of his natural progenitors; and its 
 
Chap. I] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 purpose is much higher than to establish the historical tact that he 
 was the son of David, the son of Abraham. It is not our purpose to 
 enter into a consideration of its literal sense, nor to attempt to clear 
 up its historical difficulties. These will be found treated, in many 
 instances with care and ability, in commentaries devoted to tlfb 
 elucidation of the literal sense, of which we may particularize The 
 Critical English Testament. We have no doubt of the truth and con- 
 sistency of the sacred writers, and are convinced that a defective 
 knowledge of the times and circumstances in which the genealogies of 
 Matthew and Luke were produced, is the sole cause of their apparent 
 discrepancies and inconsistencies. Some of these we shall have 
 occasion to allude to in treating of their spiritual signification. 
 
 The Lord’s genealogy has far higher claims on our attention than 
 as a record of his natural descent. It is an inspired revelation for 
 conveying to us divine and holy truths relating to the great mystery 
 of the Lord’s incarnation and glorification, and, in a secondary sense, 
 to our own regeneration. In heaven, where the natural sense of the 
 Word does not exist, but where the Word is written in purely 
 spiritual language, and is understood in a purely spiritual sense, every 
 name in this table must be substituted by a purely spiritual truth, 
 conveying to the minds of angels a distinct and luminous idea. In 
 the natural world, where our views of divine and spiritual things are 
 necessarily much more general, and therefore much more obscure, we 
 must rest satisfied with a few leading ideas on such subjects as the 
 present, where a long array of names is presented before us. 
 
 In the spiritual sense of Scripture natural signify spiritual births, 
 and natural mean spiritual generations. Between the natural and the 
 spiritual there is an exact analogy. There is a common perception 
 of this. We all ascribe conception and birth to the mind as well as 
 to the body. Affections and thoughts are as truly the offspring of 
 the will and understanding as sons and daughters are of human 
 pairs; and there are successive generations of the one as well as of 
 the other. These are the births and generations to which the internal 
 sense of the Word relates. The Lord’s genealogy treats of the 
 successive conception and birth in him of divine affections and 
 thoughts, or, what is the same, of divine goods and truths. It was 
 by the successive birth of the Divine in the human that the human 
 became at length divine. This glorification of the Lord may be 
 illustrated by the regeneration of man, in which it may be seen as in 
 its image. The regeneration of man begins at his birth, and con- 
 tinues to the end of life, and, indeed, goes on to eternity. The Lord’s 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. T. 
 
 glorification commenced at Lis birth, and was only completed at his 
 resurrection and ascension. Let us endeavour to trace the greater in 
 the less. 
 
 The earlier period of human life is employed by the Lord in effect- 
 ing in the mind a spiritual work preparatory to regeneration, and 
 without which actual regeneration in adult age would be impossible — 
 as impossible as a virtuous and intelligent manhood would be without 
 the educational stages of infancy, childhood, and youth. This work 
 consists in implanting the germs of principles and forming the rudi- 
 ments of states that are to constitute the new life in the regenerate 
 soul. These are spiritually meant iii the Word by the remnant which 
 is saved, and through which there is salvation (Isa. x. 20 ; i. 9). As 
 a remnant of holy persons must be left in every expiring church, to 
 form the neucleus of a new one (Rom. ix. 27 ; xi. 5) ; so must a 
 remnant of holy principles be preserved in the mind of every child of 
 fallen man, to form the initiament of the new or regenerate state, 
 which is the church or kingdom of the Lord in him. “ Remains are 
 truths and goods stored up by the Lord in man’s interiors; by 
 which he is prepared and initiated to receive the influx of good 
 and truth from the Lord, and thus to become regenerated.” That 
 man may acquire these remains, he is “ from first infancy to first boy- 
 hood introduced by the Lord into heaven, and indeed amongst the 
 celestial angels, by whom he is kept in a state of innocence; when - 
 the age of boyhood commences, he by degrees puts off the state of 
 innocence, but still is kept in a state of mutual charity towards his 
 like, a state which continues in some instances to youth : he is then 
 amongst spiritual angels. But as he has not yet acquired truths, the 
 good things of innocence and charity which he had received in those 
 two states have not yet been qualified, for truth gives quality to good, 
 and good gives essence to truth, on which account he is from this age 
 imbued with truths by instruction, and especially by his own thoughts 
 and consequent confirmations.” He is then amongst angels of the 
 ultimate heaven. Thus “ good things of a threefold kind are signi- 
 fied by remains, — the good things of infancy, the good things of 
 ignorance, and the good things of intelligence. The good things of 
 infancy are insinuated into man from his first nativity to the age in 
 which he begins to be instructed and to know something; the good 
 things of ignorance are what are insinuated when he begins to 
 be instructed and to know something; the good things of intelli- 
 gence are what are insinuated when he is capable of reflecting on 
 what is good and true. The good of infancy is insinuated from 
 
CilAP. I.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 7 
 
 infancy to the tenth year; the good of ignorance from the tenth to 
 the twentieth year ; from this year man begins to become rational, 
 and to have the faculty of reflecting on good and truth, and to 
 procure for himself the good of intelligence.” 
 
 As the human being descends through all the heavens, he thereby 
 acquires the faculty of “ ascending up where he was before,” to become 
 an inhabitant of that particular heaven for which he prepares himself 
 by actual regeneration. He thereby also acquires the germs of those 
 principles and the rudiments of those states which constitute the 
 kingdom of the Lord in the human soul. While amongst the celestial 
 angels he acquires the germ of the celestial principle, which is love 
 to the Lord; while amongst the spiritual angels he acquires the germ 
 of the spiritual principle, which is love to the neighbour; and while 
 amongst the angels of the ultimate heaven he acquires the germ of the 
 natural principle, which is use, as an intelligent manifestation of love 
 and charity. 
 
 The germination of the seeds thus sown in the mind forms the 
 commencement of regeneration, their growth its progress, and their 
 fructification its completion. As seeds may lie for a long period in 
 the bosom of the earth without their vitality being destroyed ; so may 
 the seeds of heavenly principles remain long undeveloped in the mind, 
 yet preserved by divine goodness for future use. And as seeds sown 
 in the earth begin to germinate whenever they come under the in- 
 fluence of the vernal sun, so do the seeds of the kingdom, whenever 
 they come under the influence of the Sun of Righteousness, which is 
 the case when man, like the earth in spring, turns himself to the 
 source of his life and the author of his salvation, to receive into his 
 heart the rays of divine love and light. Divine mercy and grace 
 have left nothing undone which may provide for this blessed con- 
 summation. They have from the first moment of the soul’s existence 
 been engaged in making all things ready, that man may, when he 
 arrives at adult age, enter into the heavenly marriage. 
 
 As in all things it behoved Jesus to be made like unto his 
 brethren — as the end for which the Lord was manifested in the 
 flesh, required that he should be glorified by the same process as 
 that by which man is regenerated — he had, from infancy, to pass 
 through all the states of preparation common to his rational crea- 
 tures. He had to be initiated into all human states and to make all 
 human acquisitions; and only differed from others in having acquired 
 and made them in greater fulness and perfection. “He increased 
 in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” Even in 
 
8 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. I. 
 
 this we see the “ goods of a threefold kind ” acquired, as remains, by 
 him as by others. The remains which he acquired were, however, 
 pure goods and truths from the Word, and were in themselves divine, 
 
 ■ — divine-celestial, divine-spiritual, and divine-natural. 
 
 To describe this representatively, the Lord’s progenitors are divided 
 into three groups of fourteen generations each. All the generations 
 from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David 
 to the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations ; and from 
 the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations. 
 The generations from Abraham are celestial remains, those from 
 David are spiritual remains, and those from the carrying away into 
 Babylon are natural remains. These are divided into three groups of 
 fourteen generations each, to signify that the remains which they 
 represented are most holy; for seven is a number which signifies 
 what is holy, and fourteen, which is twice seven, signifies what is 
 most holy. The Evangelist says all the generations of each of the 
 three groups are fourteen generations; yet it is well known that 
 several persons are omitted from this list, and in it David is num- 
 bered twice. Some commentators are of opinion that the compression 
 of the Lord’s progenitors into three times fourteen generations is only 
 a contrivance of Matthew’s for the sake of assisting the memory ! 
 What then becomes of his inspiration, and of the divinity of the 
 book 1 Is it not rather an evidence — and a very striking one — that 
 the mere literal form of the Scriptures is determined by a higher law 
 than literal accuracy, and that the literal sense is sometimes made to 
 yield to it, for the purpose of embodying and expressing a spiritual 
 truth ? Although it is not literally true that all the generations in 
 each series were fourteen, it is spiritually true that all the remains, of 
 every class, stored up in the mind of Jesus, were most holy and most 
 perfect; and three times fourteen were required to express this 
 important truth. 
 
 It is to be observed that in the first series of this genealogy the 
 actual and the formal numbers are the same, from Abraham to David 
 being actually fourteen generations; in the other two series they are 
 different. This no doubt points to a corresponding fact in regard to 
 the regenerate. Only in celestial things, and in the celestial man, is 
 there an exact correspondence between the essential and the formal, 
 or between the internal and the external. This was true even of the 
 Lord himself before he was fully glorified, and especially during that 
 period and in that state to which the genealogy of Matthew relates. 
 He acquired not only real, but also apparent truths; but these, as 
 
Chap. I.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 9 
 
 sucli, could not be appropriated as remains, and were therefore passed 
 by, as some persons were omitted in the genealogy. What was holy 
 was extracted from the entire series, as the three times fourteen were 
 taken out of the whole of the Lord’s progenitors. The genuine truths 
 contained in the apparent truths were, however preserved, and were 
 brought forth in the process of glorification, as persons omitted by 
 Matthew re-appear in the genealogy of Luke. 
 
 It was on account of the divine work of acquiring remains that 
 J esus did not enter on his public ministry till he was thirty years of J]/i 
 age. For “by thirty is signified a full state of remains; and sinccT 
 man cannot be regenerated, that is, admitted into spiritual^combats, 
 by which regeneration is effected, until he has received remains to the 
 full, it was ordained that the Levitt-should not perform work in the 
 sanctuary until he had completed thirty years. From these con- 
 siderations it is also evident why the Lord did not manifest himself 
 until he was thirty years of age, for he was then in the fulness of 
 remains; but the remains which the Lord had he procured to himself, 
 and they were divine, by which he united the human essence to the 
 divine, and made it divine.” 
 
 Such is the momentous truth contained in the Lord’s genealogy. 
 
 That it was intended to teach some higher truth than that which is 
 assigned to it in the letter, may appear from the fact that it does not 
 really prove Jesus to be the descendant of those whose names are 
 given as his progenitors, since the genealogy is not traced in the line 
 of Mary, whose son, according to the flesh, he was, but in the line 
 of Joseph, whose son he was not. But there is a spiritual reason 
 for his genealogy being traced in the line of the' husband of Mary. 
 Genealogies were traced in the male line because the male represents 
 the intellect and the truth which belongs to it, while the female repre- 
 sents the will and the good which it contains. And all spiritual 
 distinctions, and therefore all spiritual generations, owe their existence 
 to the intellect and to truth. Good in itself is one and the same ; 
 truths are many and various. Discriminations and distinctions, 
 degrees and series, thus individualities and generations, in one word, 
 all multiplications, are effected by truth. It is the intellectual 
 principle of the church that produces them. Joseph, the husband of 
 Maiy, represented that principle ; and therefore, though he was not 
 actually the father of Jesus, the genealogy of the Lord is traced 
 through his line, to express spiritually what was true of the principle 
 he represented. 
 
 There is one particular expression which occurs in this genealogy 
 
10 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. 1. 
 
 that is deserving of attention, as bearing on the present subject. 
 It is not said of the persons of the genealogy that they were born, 
 but that they were begotten. Their birth of course is understood ; 
 but the language of inspiration is in itself significative, and the literal 
 expression is often important, as forming the basis of the spiritual 
 sense. How the implanting of remains in the mind is rather a begetting 
 than a birth, rather an insemination than a growth and fructification. 
 Strictly speaking and spiritually understood, birth is the bringing of 
 the principles previously received in the mind into the outward life. 
 It is only then that they truly exist ; for no spiritual principle has 
 actual and permanent existence till it is “born into the world” in the 
 actions of a holy life. The remains that are laid up in the mind are 
 therefore goods and truths “ begotten ” and “ conceived,” to be after- 
 wards “brought forth” by actual regeneration. 
 
 It may not be irrelevant or uninteresting to notice here, and briefly 
 consider in its relation to that of Matthew, the genealogy of the Lord 
 as given by Luke. These differ on three main points. Matthew 
 traces the Lord’s genealogy downward, while Luke traces it upward ; 
 Matthew traces it down only from Abraham to Jesus, while Luke 
 traces it up from Jesus to Adam, and even to God : the genealogies 
 differ from each other. 
 
 As to the first point. The glorification of the Lord, like the regen- 
 eration of man, had both a downward and an upward progression. 
 From infancy to manhood the progression with every one is down- 
 ward. As we have seen, there is first the celestial state, then the 
 spiritual, and lastly the natural — that is, celestial remains are im- 
 planted and the rudiment of the celestial state is formed first, and 
 the others follow in succession. But when, in manhood, actual 
 regeneration commences, the progression is upward, from natural to 
 spiritual, from spiritual to celestial. By actual regeneration the 
 previously existing rudimentary states are developed in the inverse 
 order to that in which they were formed. This twofold order is 
 described in the two genealogies. The genealogy of Matthew describes 
 the downward progression from the higher to the lower : that of Luke 
 describes the upward progression from the lower to the higher, and 
 even to the highest. This last is especially applicable to the Lord, 
 to whose glorification the genealogies eminently refer. 
 
 As to the second point. Matthew begins his descending series of 
 the Lord’s progenitors with Abraham; but Luke ends his ascending 
 series with Adam, and finally with God. There is a profound truth 
 in this. Bemains, so far at least as they come to human conscious- 
 
Chap. I.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 11 
 
 ness, are implanted in the natural mind, though in its inmost part — 
 “in the interiors of the interior natural principle.” The implanting 
 and laying up of remains in the natural or ultimate degree of the 
 mind is treated of in the genealogy of Matthew. 
 
 There are reasons for this. One reason is, that the natural mind is 
 the seat of hereditary evil, by which it is entirely possessed; and 
 unless the remains of goodness and truth were stored up in fulness 
 here, reformation would be impossible. Another reason is, that the 
 natural mind is the ultimate and the common basis of the two higher 
 degrees, the spiritual and the celestial; and it is only as the lowest 
 degree of the mind is regenerated that the higher degrees can be 
 opened and perfected. In order that it may be such an ultimate and 
 basis, the natural mind itself consists of three degrees; and this is 
 according to the law of order, that all successive degrees exist simul- 
 taneously in the lowest degree. As the natural mind consists of three 
 degrees, so do the remains of goodness and truth, of which it is 
 receptive. Every good and truth that comes from God to man 
 descends through all the heavens, and consequently through all the 
 corresponding degrees of the human mind; and in the natural mind 
 all the successive degrees of good and truth exist simultaneously, as in 
 the Word all the higher degrees of revealed truth are contained in 
 and rest on its literal sense. 
 
 How the natural mind, or degree of the mind, was represented by 
 that dispensation of the church which commenced with Abraham. 
 For, viewing all the dispensations of the church which have existed 
 in this world as different manifestations of the one universal church, 
 the most ancient was celestial, the ancient was spiritual, and the 
 Israelitish was natural ; and this dispensation commenced with the 
 call of Abraham. But in the genealogy this dispensation is itself 
 divided into three periods, which we have called celestial, spiritual, 
 and natural, because the natural mind, being the ultimate and common 
 basis of the higher degrees, consists itself of three degrees. 
 
 In the early period of life, during which remains are being stored 
 up in the natural mind, the higher degrees of the spiritual mind are 
 yet unopened and undeveloped. And as these higher degrees corre- 
 spond to the ancient and most ancient dispensations of the church, the 
 genealogy of Matthew, which describes the storing up of remains in 
 the natural mind, begins with Abraham. But as in the upward and 
 inward progress of actual regeneration, not only the natural but the 
 spiritual and celestial degrees of the mind are opened and perfected, 
 the genealogy of Luke, which describes this upward progression, goes 
 
12 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. I. 
 
 up not only to Abraham, but to Noah and to Adam, and finally to 
 God, as the origin of all. In relation to the Lord, this is most signi- 
 ficant; for the Lord’s humanity was made not only spiritual and 
 celestial, but divine. He came from God, and went to God. He 
 ascended up where he was before, far above all heavens, into the light 
 that no man can approach unto. In a word, the Lord took man’s 
 nature upon him by birth of a human mother, and made that humanity 
 divine. 
 
 The third point relating to the genealogies is, that they differ from 
 each other. We have already alluded to the fact that some names 
 are omitted in Matthew which are given in Luke. That which we 
 here speak of is a difference of another kind. From David to Joseph, 
 the two evangelists trace the Lord’s genealogy in two different lines ; 
 and one calls Joseph the son of Jacob, while the other calls him the 
 son of Heli. This difference is accounted for in this way : — By the 
 Mosaic law, when a husband died without issue, his nearest kinsman 
 was required to marry his widow, to raise up seed to his “ brother.” 
 If, for instance, the mother of Joseph was in this way twice married, 
 the first husband would be his legal father, and the second his actual 
 father; and the name of the legal father might be given in one 
 genealogy, and the name of the actual father in the other. This dif- 
 ference might therefore alter the entire line from David downwards. 
 
 Even this part of the Mosaic law was fulfilled, or ultimated, in the 
 case of the Lord himself. He had a legal and an actual father. His 
 legal father was Joseph, his actual father was God. His genealogy is 
 also traced in the line of his legal father, which is entirely consistent 
 with the Jewish practice, and was no doubt required for the sake of 
 the literal sense of the word, as the basis of a spiritual meaning. 
 
 The spiritual sense is that which chiefly concerns us; and the 
 different lines in which the genealogies of the Lord are partly traced, 
 when understood spiritually, as descriptive of regeneration and glorifi- 
 cation, teach us that the downward differs from the upward pro- 
 gression. In the progress of the new life the regenerate man returns 
 not by the way which he went. This, at least, is the case in the more 
 external part of his spiritual progress. His first obedience is from 
 truth, his second is from good ; his first is from doctrine, his second is 
 from love. There is in the regenerate life an inversion of state ; but 
 while the second state, like the second progression, is the inverse of 
 the first, its character is different. The circle of regeneration returns 
 into itself; but it returns neither by precisely the same line, nor to 
 precisely the same point. True as this is of man, it was still more 
 
Chap. I] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 13 
 
 true of the Lord. Although he was glorified as man is regenerated, 
 his glorification infinitely transcended the highest degree of regenera- 
 tion to which any and every finite being can attain. Between his 
 states of humiliation and his states of glorification there was also a 
 much greater difference than between the corresponding states of man; 
 and in states of humiliation we include every state which is prepara- 
 tory, for every such state is comparatively one of servitude or pupilage, 
 and looks to a higher as its end. The Lord, as a son, learned 
 obedience by the things which he suffered. Made of a woman under 
 the law, in his first states he obeyed the law as one under subjection 
 to it ; but in his second and ascending states he acted by the law, and 
 not from it, except from it as the law of eternal righteousness and 
 order, which, as the Word, he in himself was, and which he became 
 as to the humanity he assumed and glorified, for the redemption and 
 salvation of the human race. This greatest of all events, the mani- 
 festation of God in the flesh, by birth of a human mother, comes now 
 to be considered. 
 
 18, 19. Now the birth of Jesus was on this wise , &c. If when 
 Moses approached the burning bush he was admonished by the Lord 
 out of the midst of it to put off his shoes from off his feet, for the 
 place whereon he stood was holy ground, so does the voice of God call 
 on us to remove every carnal feeling and unworthy thought when we 
 approach the subject of the miraculous conception; for here, indeed, 
 we stand on holiest ground. We may well go aside, and must 
 indeed go aside, out of the ordinary course of nature, to see this great 
 sight, the antitype of the burning bush, — how Divine Love, in its 
 ardour for the salvation of man, could be manifested in frail human 
 nature without consuming it, and out of the midst of that lowly 
 tabernacle could proclaim redemption to a captive race. This great 
 event should be contemplated with the profoundest reverence. By 
 none other could redemption be effected, but by One who was the 
 offspring of a divine Father and of a human mother. So the evan- 
 gelist is careful to record .the divine paternity of the child Jesus. 
 And not only was the incarnation of Jehovah necessary for redemp- 
 tion, but faith in Jesus as Jehovah is necessary for salvation. The 
 Lord works his salvation in us through our faith in him as the divine- 
 human Saviour. 
 
 By the leadings of Divine Providence Mary had been espoused to 
 Joseph. Whatever may have been the immediate purpose of this 
 providential arrangement, there were no doubt spiritual reasons both 
 for the betrothal of Mary to Joseph and for Joseph being legally 
 
14 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. I. 
 
 recognized as the father of Jesus, as well as for the Lord’s descent 
 being traced through his line, which all admit it is in one of the 
 genealogies at least. 
 
 Mary, the “highly favoured among women,” represented the church. 
 Joseph shared with her in this representation. Considered as husband 
 and wife, Mary represented the church as to good, and Joseph the 
 church as to truth. They were not, however, married, but espoused. 
 And espousals or betrothings represent the conjunction of good and 
 truth in the internal man, whilst marriage represents their conjunc- 
 tion in the external man also. But there was something peculiar in 
 the connection of Mary and Joseph in relation to Jesus. They stood 
 not in the ordinary connection of husband and wife, so far as respected 
 him. It was before they came together that Mary was found 
 ivith child of the Holy Ghost. The relation of Joseph to Mary, 
 in reference to the child Jesus, was like that of the dispensation to 
 the church. • By the church we mean the spiritual principles that 
 constitute vital religion in the soul; and by the dispensation we 
 mean the ecclesiastical form which these principles assume externally 
 in the world. The church is one; dispensations are various. The 
 one indivisible church has been embodied in several dispensations, 
 differing widely from each other. There have existed in this world 
 the Adamic, the Noetic, the Israelitish, and tlie Christian dispen- 
 sations. Each of these was the outward visible form of the one 
 invisible church, and was so far a church as the church was within 
 it. While dispensations pass away, the church remains. Were 
 the church to expire with the dispensation, there would be an 
 end of religion, and universal ruin would ensue. Divine mercy 
 provides that some remnant of the church shall be saved ; and 
 from this a new beginning is made. This remnant of the vital 
 element of religion is the church — the “woman” to whom the 
 promise was originally given, that her seed should bruise the 
 serpent’s head. This living principle, preserved in and descending 
 through all the ages, was represented by the Virgin, the second 
 Eve, whose seed was to bruise the serpent’s head. In relation 
 to this vital principle, which constitutes the church, and of which 
 the Virgin Mary was the symbol, Joseph represented the outward 
 dispensation with which it was connected. Hitherto the church 
 had been representative; now it was to be actual. Hitherto 
 the church had only been a virgin, a bride; now she was to 
 become also a wife. Mary, as the bride of Joseph, represented 
 that condition of the church. No true and completed marriage 
 
Chap. I.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 15 
 
 could exist between the Lord and the Church, nor between good 
 and truth in the human mind, until the Lord had effected the 
 marriage of divine good and truth in his humanity, and 
 thence the union of the Divine and the human in his own 
 person. Since the time of the Incarnation the church is both the 
 Bride and Wife of the Lamb. In Joseph’s espousals with Mary, 
 and his guardianship of her and of her infant son, we see a beautiful 
 type of the connection of the old dispensation with the new church, 
 while her doctrine is yet in its infancy. We therefore hear little 
 of Joseph after the early life of Jesus. He passes away from the 
 scene unnoticed. And as if to show that the old dispensation 
 had completed its appointed use in succouring the young church 
 with her “man-child,” and that the time had come when the 
 church should be placed under another and higher guardianship, 
 the Lord on the cross assigned Mary to the care of the beloved 
 Apostle John, “and from that hour that disciple took her to his 
 own house.” John was not, indeed, to be unto Mary as a husband, 
 but as a son. For when Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple 
 standing by whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, “Woman, 
 behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother.” 
 Beautiful is this display of tenderness, in the hour of his agony, by 
 the Lord towards his mother, Mary ! But while it affords a great 
 example, it has a high and holy significance. John represented 
 the good of charity — that grace by which the Christian church is 
 to be characterized. When the Lord consigned Mary to the care 
 of John, he instructed all succeeding ages, through a symbolical 
 act, that where the good of charity is, there is his living church. 
 And although Mary was consigned to the care of John as a mother 
 to her son, John thus representing the Lord rather than Joseph, 
 yet he supplied the place of both, since he afforded Mary that 
 home and protection which she had enjoyed as the wife of Joseph 
 and as the mother of Jesus. We need not say how lovingly and 
 tenderly the beloved disciple must have fulfilled the sacred charge 
 he had received from his dying Saviour, and how beautiful a type 
 his household must have presented of the church, when she has 
 found her dwelling-place in love to the Lord, as manifested in 
 charity to man. 
 
 This is the internal historical sense. We now come to the strictly 
 spiritual meaning. We have already spoken of the conception as a 
 divine and holy event, having for its object the redemption of the 
 world. We now speak of it as it is realized in the experience of 
 
16 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. I. 
 
 those to whom the Lord comes as a Saviour. Jesus, as the supreme 
 good and truth, is still conceived in the heart of every regenerate one ; 
 and this is the beginning of the new life. And the same law presides 
 over the less as over the greater. Every living spiritual principle 
 that is begotten in the soul has a divine Father and a human mother : 
 it has its soul from God as a Father, and its body from the church as 
 a mother. The soul of life, which is love, comes from God ; the body 
 of truth, by which that soul is clothed, is derived from the church. 
 And this body, which the church provides as a covering for the 
 heaven-derived soul, is at first, like the Lord’s maternal humanity, 
 frail and imperfect, and subject to trial, suffering, and death. The 
 Saviour begotten and born in us still goes through the trials and 
 temptations of the personal Christ, and must die in us, and in us rise 
 again, before regeneration is completed. And that in the Lord which 
 was tempted and which suffered is that which is tempted and which 
 suffers in us. Truth was that in the Lord which was tempted; not 
 truth in its divine state, but truth finited by reception in finite 
 minds, as in Jesus divinity was clothed with finite and imperfect 
 humanity. This was the Son of Man, the name always given to the 
 Lord in the gospels when his temptations and sufferings are spoken 
 of. Good in him was above all temptation: and this was the Holy 
 Thing, the Son of God, or that in him which he iuherited from the 
 Father. So with us. The truth which we derive from the church 
 as our spiritual mother, as we at first comprehend it, is external and 
 imperfect, and therefore open to assault, and even subject to death, 
 and must die to make way for the rising into life of that which has 
 been conceived in us by our Father in heaven. In this individual 
 and practical sense, the woman — the virgin — is love in the heart, and 
 her seed — her son — is faith; and it is faith derived from love that 
 crushes in us the dominion of evil, which is the head of the serpent. 
 
 19. But the living principle begotten in the heart is not at first 
 acknowledged by the understanding, nor is it intellectually accepted 
 till after doubt and temptation. These are the trials of Joseph. 
 Mary’s conception was Joseph’s temptation. When he became aware 
 that his betrothed was with child, he resolved to put her away ; and 
 the only favour he intended to show to his supposed unfaithful bride 
 was to do it privily. How wonderful are the ways of the Most 
 High ! She who carried in her womb the future Messiah, the Holy 
 Thing, the Saviour of the world, is exposed to the suspicion, even by 
 her betrothed husband, of being an adulteress, and is in danger of 
 being sent forth into the world with the brand upon her forehead of 
 
Chap. I.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 17 
 
 the deepest infamy that can fall to the lot of woman ! But such are 
 the ways of God’s dealing with his children. Whom he loves he 
 rebukes and chastens. His truth begotten in them exposes them to 
 chastisement. It brings into manifestation their deep hereditary 
 corruptions, from which suspicion springs, and conflict is the only 
 means by which they can be overcome. 
 
 20. But he who permits the trial opens a door of escape. But 
 while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared 
 unto him in a dream, saying , Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to 
 take unto thee Mary thy wife : for that which is conceived in her is 
 of the Holy Ghost. Human wisdom may suggest that this message 
 might have been sent, and this assurance given, before the dark 
 suspicion had clouded the mind of the just and seemingly injured 
 Joseph, and saved him all the perplexity and mental agony he 
 endured. But here we have another instance of God’s way of dealing 
 with his creatures. He sees not as man sees, and therefore acts not 
 always as man would act. He knows the times and the seasons when 
 suffering should be permitted and when relief should come. He 
 suffers us to be tempted, because he knows the necessity and use of 
 temptation; but he suffers us not to be tempted above that we are 
 able to bear, and with the trial he provides a way of escape. The 
 door — not of hope, but of assurance — was opened to Joseph, and will 
 be opened in the heaviest trials to every “just man.” 
 
 The assurance came to him in sleep — was embodied in a dream ; 
 and that dream was inspired by an angel, who appeared to him in it, 
 and conveyed to him a message of peace from the God of consolation. 
 That which comes in a dream is spiritually that which enters the 
 mind, not in the clear light of direct perception, but in the dim 
 twilight of indirect apprehension — in an obscure state. The angel 
 salutes him as a son of David. David represented the Lord as to 
 divine truth, and a son of David is one who is born of the Lord’s 
 truth — that is, one who is born of the good of truth, by doing what 
 truth teaches him to do. And this did Joseph. The angel tells him 
 to fear not to take unto him Mary his wife, for that which is con- 
 ceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. This is just what the under- 
 standing, from its natural side, when the world acts upon it, rebels 
 against; but when the Lord enters the mind by an internal way, 
 through heaven, and acts upon it, then, from its spiritual side, it sees 
 and acknowledges that which the Spirit of God produces in the 
 heart. 
 
 21. The angel further instructs Joseph that Mary, who had 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. I. 
 
 thus conceived, shall bring forth a son , and thou shalt call his name 
 JESUS : for he shall save his people from their sins. Conception 
 is the reception of a principle in the mind, and birth is the 
 bringing forth of that principle into the life. When brought 
 forth into the life it first exists actually. When Mary brought 
 forth her first-born son, Joseph was to name him. The function 
 of the understanding is to know and acknowledge, and also to 
 give a quality to that which belongs to the will — and all this 
 is implied in giving a name. Adam gave names to all creatures, 
 spiritually to teach us that man in his primeval state knew, as 
 man in a regenerate state knows, the quality of all his own affections. 
 The church gives the Lord his name when she sees and acknowledges 
 him in his true character, and embodies the truth as it is in Jesus, 
 not only in true doctrine, but in a holy life. Yet the name, as 
 well as the instructions on whom he was to bestow it, came from 
 heaven. That name was JESIJS — the highest, the holiest, the 
 most beloved name that angels can pronounce or men can utter. And 
 the reason for calling the child by this name, as it was proclaimed 
 in heaven, is worthy of being echoed upon earth — “for he shall save 
 his people from their sins.” The name expresses the purpose 
 and the work on the part of God, and the deliverance to be ex- 
 perienced on the part of man. Sin is the curse, the root of all 
 disorder and misery both in this world and in the next. What 
 deliverance can compare with this? Deliverance from sin, not merely 
 from the guilt or the punishment of sin, but from sin itself, is 
 that which is promised. And, indeed, what else could be promised ? 
 How is it possible that guilt and suffering can be severed from 
 sin? The supposed possibility arises from the notion that sin is 
 from ourselves, and its punishment is from God, and that if God 
 will but remit the punishment, the sinner will be safe. But 
 God is not the author of punishment. The punishment of sin is 
 in the sin itself, and flows from it as an effect from its cause, 
 as bitter waters from a bitter fountain. There is no salvation, 
 therefore, but salvation from sin. If the remission of punish- 
 ment had been all that was required, there would have been no 
 need for the >Lord to have come into the world, for he is infinite 
 in mercy, and desires the happiness of all his creatures, even of 
 those who are in hell. Nor is there any obstacle arising from his 
 attribute of justice. The theological scheme of God finding out 
 a way of reconciling his mercy and his justice, by laying the 
 guilt and the punishment of sin on Jesus as a substitute for sinners, 
 
Chap. I.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 19 
 
 is merely an ingenious device of school logic for solving a difficulty 
 of man’s own creating. The divine attributes of mercy and justice 
 can never be at variance. And if they were, they never could 
 be reconciled by any such artificial means as that which human 
 wisdom has proposed. How can God satisfy his justice by that 
 which is in itself unjust? But supposing the demands of justice 
 were set aside, infinite mercy could not save sinners from misery 
 without saving them from sin. This salvation was the purpose 
 of God’s coming into the world, and the incarnation was the only 
 means by which he could effect it. 
 
 The angel limits this salvation to the people of the Lord. In 
 one sense, all people are included in this promise, in accordance 
 with the words of the angels to the shepherds, who proclaimed 
 tidings of great joy which should be to all people. But the Lord’s 
 ; people , in a restricted, or in the internal sense, are the spiritual, 
 as distinguished from the celestial, who are meant by nations. 
 And the Lord came to save the spiritual, or those who had fallen 
 from the celestial state, in which man was created. We become the 
 Lord’s saved people when we receive him as the Truth and Good 
 of spiritual life; or, he is Jesus, our Saviour, and we are his people, 
 saved from our sins, when we receive his love in his truth. Eor 
 Jesus is the Lord’s name as Love itself, as Christ is his name as the 
 Truth itself; and his people are those who receive his love by his 
 truth. Truth itself does not save, but the reception of the Lord’s 
 love in his truth saves. In brief, those who are in the knowledge 
 of his truth are his people, and when these receive his love they 
 are saved from their sins. 
 
 22, 23. We are told that all this was done, that it might be fulfilled 
 which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin 
 shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his 
 name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. This 
 famous prophecy received its accomplishment in the Lord’s being 
 born of a virgin mother. There is nothing said in the prophecy of 
 the virgin being overshadowed by the power of the Highest, but the 
 divine agency is implied in the fact of a virgin conceiving and giving 
 birth to a son. The fact itself is all-important. Without it there 
 could have been no redemption. A mere man could not have 
 redeemed the world. And it is to be considered that Jesus, even as 
 to his humanity, was, by conception, entirely different from any other 
 man. He was not different, as some suppose, by being without hereditary 
 evil, but by inheriting a divine principle from the Divinity, by whom 
 
20 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. I. 
 
 the humanity was begotten. It was by virtue of the humanity being, 
 as to the internal man, derived from God, and being divine, that God 
 could be actually and personally manifested in the person of Jesus 
 Christ, and be truly and savingly therein Emmanuel, God with us. 
 
 By assuming our nature God came near to us, and so became our 
 Redeemer and Saviour. This nearness is not of space, for in this 
 respect God’s presence is ever the same. By incarnation God came 
 savingly near to us as fallen human beings, near to our thoughts and 
 affections. This is not identical with the Lord’s sensible presence, 
 as in the days of his flesh. His nearness to us was increased, instead 
 of being diminished, by his resurrection and ascension. For by his 
 glorification the Lord became more, instead of less, human; and the 
 more perfectly human his humanity became, the more intimately 
 present was he, and is he, with his creatures. In his divine humanity 
 he is, intimately and savingly, God with us. Jesus was not actually 
 named Emmanuel, but in Scripture names were given to express the 
 character of those who bore them : and therefore, when prophecy says 
 that Jesus was to be called Emmanuel, it means that he was to be 
 Emmanuel, or God with us. It is a matter of no consequence to us 
 that Jesus was not called by this name ; but it is a matter of the 
 greatest consequence to us, and to all men, that he was what the name 
 expresses. The peculiar importance and blessedness of the incarnation 
 consists in it making Jehovah God with us — not simply God on our 
 side, as some interpret the name, but God present with us in his 
 divine humanity. The name may be understood to express both these 
 meanings. 
 
 Literally fulfilled as this prophecy was in the birth of the Lord, it 
 is capable of being spiritually accomplished in every one of us. The 
 virgin is the emblem of the pure affection, in the minds of the faithful, 
 through which the Lord’s divine truth can descend and be manifested 
 as their Emmanuel. Love in the heart is that by which the truth is 
 conceived and brought forth. But what in our individual experience 
 are the promise and the fulfilment ? Knowledge is promise, life is 
 fulfilment ; the states formed in us in early life are prophetic of states 
 to be accomplished in us by regeneration. Hope is promise ; possession 
 is fulfilment. In us, indeed, the promise may fail. Many who give 
 early promise of a virtuous and religious manhood never fulfil it. 
 Failure is the result of our own faithlessness. The Lord cannot fail. 
 If we trust in him, and work together with him, he will bring it to 
 pass. 
 
 24. Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord 
 
Chap. I.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 21 
 
 had hidden him, &c. Sleep is a natural state, waking is a spiritual 
 state; sleep is a state of the external man, waking is a state of the 
 internal man. The reason of this signification of sleep is, that when 
 the external man is active, the internal, which is the real man, is as if 
 asleep. When eagerly engaged in the business or pleasures of the 
 world, sensuous affections and thoughts are awake, but the spiritual 
 are asleep. These alternations of state are necessary and useful. 
 Even in our state of spiritual sleep the angel of the Lord is with 
 us, telling us what we should do ; and we fulfil his commands if, 
 when we are raised from sleep, we do as the instructing angel bids us. 
 
 The expression, to rise from sleep, is significative ; for to pass from 
 an external to an internal, or from a natural to a spiritual state, is to 
 experience an actual elevation of the thoughts and affections above 
 the things of time and sense, and thus to become awake to the con- 
 cerns of eternity and the requirements of the spiritual life. Being 
 raised from sleep, Joseph did as the angel of the Lord had hidden him; 
 dismissing his suspicions, he took unto him Mary his wife. In states 
 of temptation, such as J oseph had experienced, truth is as if separate 
 from good ; but when the temptation is ended, truth, which has been 
 tempted, and tempted to suspect and reject good, takes that good to 
 itself as its true partner in the heavenly marriage, but enters not into 
 full conjunction with it till the first-born comes into the world. It is 
 important to consider what, in relation to the Lord, is meant by the 
 first-born. In Jesus as the first-born was realized all that had been 
 represented by the first-born in the representative church of the 
 Israelites. A peculiar sanctity and importance attached to the first- 
 born, both of man and animals, and even to the first-fruits of the 
 earth. Every first-born son was to be holy unto the Lord, every beast 
 that opened the womb was to be sacrificed to him, and the first-fruits 
 were to be presented to him. All these represented the Lord as the 
 first-born. But this cannot be merely in reference to Jesus as the 
 son of Mary ; for he is called the first, as well as the only, begotten of 
 God: “I will make him my first-born (or begotten), higher than the 
 kings of the earth;” and he is “the first-begotten from the dead.” 
 We have already indicated that Jesus was the first-born of every 
 creature, as being the first of every creature spiritually born, and the 
 first-fruits of the resurrection from the death which the fall had 
 brought upon the human race. It is similar with him as the first-born 
 son of Mary and of God. In the supreme sense the first-born among 
 the Israelites represented the Lord as to divine love, or essential 
 goodness ; the Lord was therefore the first-born in the divine sense 
 
22 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. I. 
 
 when his humanity was fully glorified, and made divine goodness itself. 
 In respect to man, his first-born in the regeneration is the principle of 
 goodness, which, indeed, is first both in the order of time and of rank. 
 “ With infants the Lord first infuses the good of innocence, by virtue 
 of which man is man.” Innocence is the first-born quality in man; 
 the Lord was the first-born, as innocence itself. The innocence of 
 infancy, which is the first, is also the last; for by regeneration man 
 returns into the innocence of his infancy, perfected by knowledge and 
 experience, by which the innocence of ignorance becomes the innocence 
 of wisdom. The good of innocence is therefore twice born; and this 
 was the case with the Lord as well as with man. He was the first- 
 born of Mary by nativity, and the first-born of God by glorification; 
 in him innocence was the first and the last. 
 
 25. The historical fact respecting J oseph and Mary, that he knew her 
 not till she had brought forth her first-born son , contains the spiritual 
 truth, that complete union of the will and understanding is effected, 
 not by the conception, but by the birth of the living principle. They 
 are united in their fruits. Charity and faith are united in good works. 
 Their union is indeed necessary to produce them; but only in good 
 works, and especially in that work meant by the first born is their 
 union complete and permanent. 
 
 The infant Saviour born into the world, Joseph called his name 
 Jesus. Luke, in relating this circumstance, adds, “which was so 
 named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” 
 
 The record of an act previously commanded or announced is 
 intended to express effect, and in this all previous ends and efforts 
 are comprehended. Hence, in the naming of the holy child, God 
 and the church in heaven and the church on earth were acting 
 in unison; as the purpose of the Lord’s becoming what the name 
 Jesus implied, the Saviour, was to bring all things in heaven and 
 earth into harmonious action with himself. 
 
 The Lord’s advent into the world, which we have now considered, 
 is one of the loftiest and holiest themes that can engage the attention 
 of man. The birth into the world of one who is to repair the ruin 
 brought upon mankind by the fall, must be regarded as an event 
 of unspeakable importance and transcendent glory. The promise 
 of the Most High, repeated by the prophets in a thousand forms, 
 heightened by the brightest imagery and most glowing descriptions, 
 and the hopes of the faithful cherished through a thousand genera- 
 tions, are at last to be realized. The seed of the woman, who 
 is to bruise the head of the serpent, is now born into the world. 
 
Chap. I.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 23 
 
 The peculiar condition of the infant Saviour is marvellous in itself, 
 and wonderfully adapted to the purpose for which the Lord is 
 manifested. Man had fallen, and his sins had separated between 
 him and his God. The separation of man from the Supreme 
 Good and Truth had produced darkness, disorder, and misery in 
 the world. In the Saviour, begotten of a Divine Father and born 
 of a human mother, the divine and human natures, so long and 
 so completely estranged, are again brought together, and in him 
 they are to be reconciled and united into one, by the divine be- 
 coming human and the human divine. The union of the divine 
 and the human in the person of the Lord is the grand central 
 truth of Christianity. The reconciliation of man to God is the 
 purpose of the incarnation, and the aim of Christianity. The 
 reconciliation of the human to the divine is first to be effected in 
 the person of Christ, and this constitutes the great work of 
 At-one-ment. This work of atonement, first accomplished in the 
 person of the Saviour, is the means by which we receive the atone- 
 ment, and become reconciled to God; for the reconciliation, effected 
 once for all in the person of the Lord himself, may now be effected 
 in us. But this great work of reconciliation or atonement is yet 
 before the infant Saviour. In the first-born son of Mary the union 
 of the divine and human exists only potentially, or in its germ. 
 They are now, indeed, one person, but they have not yet become one 
 essence. Jesus is even now God and man, but he has yet to become 
 God-man. He is divine and human, but he has to become divine- 
 human. He is the first-born of Mary, but he has yet to become the 
 first-born of God. In one word, his humanity, now natural and 
 finite, has to be glorified, and made divine and infinite. The painful 
 process by which this glorification is to be effected is yet to come. 
 The infant, so feeble, is to become a man of war; so peaceful, is to 
 become a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. The wilderness, 
 and Gethsemane, and the cross are still before him. He is to be 
 tempted in all points as we are, yet, unlike us in our temptations, he 
 is to be without sin ; he is to pour out his soul unto death, that he 
 may overcome him that has the power of death, and make death 
 the gate of life, not only to himself, but to all who will follow him 
 in the regeneration. Born in human weakness of a frail human 
 mother, he is yet to be declared the Son of God with power by the 
 resurrection from the dead. Such is the child born, such is his great 
 work, and such its glorious end. To reconcile us unto himself is 
 the beneficent purpose of his incarnation, the end of his labours, his 
 
24 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. II. 
 
 sufferings, his triumphs. He was born into the world that he might 
 be bom in us; he was tempted that he might succour us in our 
 temptations; he died that we might become dead indeed unto sin; 
 he rose that we might rise from the dead, become new creatures, and 
 walk with him in newness of life; and he ascended into heaven that 
 he might elevate us to the mansions he has prepared for us, that 
 where he is, there we may be also. Well may we hail his coming in 
 the words of the angels’ song, “ Glory to God in the highest, and on 
 earth peace, good will toward men.” 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 1. How when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The birth of the Lord 
 in Bethlehem was accidental, yet providential ; it took place where it 
 was neither intended nor expected, but where prophecy had fixed it. 
 “ But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the 
 thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that 
 is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, 
 from everlasting ” (Micah v. 2). But the Lord’s birth took place in 
 Bethlehem, not merely to fulfil a divine prediction, but to teach a 
 spiritual truth. In Scripture place signifies state; for the reason 
 that in the spiritual world place is determined by state; so that 
 heaven is a place of happiness because it is the abode of those who 
 are in a state of happiness. To present this truth representatively 
 upon earth, Canaan was chosen as a type of heaven, and every spot 
 in the holy land became the symbol of some particular state or 
 principle that enters into the general state. 
 
 This signification of Bethlehem appears from the first circumstance 
 recorded in connection with it. As Jacob journeyed from Bethel to 
 Mamre, to go to his father Isaac, he passed through Ephratah, 
 where Rachel gave birth to Benjamin. This journey signified 
 progression from a less to a more perfect state, Ephratah represent- 
 ing an intermediate state, through which it is necessary to pass from 
 one to the other. In particular, it signified the progression of the 
 external man, who is Jacob, towards union with the internal man, 
 who is Isaac ; and Benjamin, who was born in the way, represented 
 the principle which serves as a uniting medium between them. 
 Bethlehem and Benjamin have, therefore, the same general significa- 
 tion. The representative character of Benjamin was exemplified at 
 a later period in his being the medium through whom Joseph and 
 
Chap. II.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 25 
 
 his brethren were reconciled to each other, or rather, through whom 
 the loving and forgiving Joseph reconciled and united his unmerciful 
 brethren to himself. Bethlehem was also the birth-place of David, 
 of whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, and who was a type of 
 the Lord in his regal character, as the Buler who was to bring all 
 things into harmonious subordination to himself. David therefore 
 uttered the prediction, “ I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or 
 slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, 
 an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. Lo, we heard of it 
 at Ephratah : we found it in the fields of the wood ” (Ps. cxxxii. 
 4-7). The signification of Bethlehem is further indicated by its 
 situation. It was in the land of J udah, but on the border where it' 
 was connected with the land of Benjamin ; and as Judah and 
 Benjamin, when they formed the kingdom of Judah, represented the 
 internal and external of the celestial church, and of the celestial man, 
 Bethlehem signified the uniting medium between them. As a 
 uniting medium, Bethlehem represented, in an exalted sense, the 
 written Word, as the medium for uniting God and man. And 
 here we see the significance of its name — the house of bread — the 
 Word being the store-house of the bread of heaven, which feeds 
 the soul. 
 
 Everything, therefore, conspired to make Bethlehem the appro- 
 priate birth-place of the Saviour, with whom all that was historical 
 was also representative. J esus was born in Bethlehem to represent 
 that he was the Word made flesh, the Mediator between God and 
 man, the true Bread that came down from heaven, to give life unto 
 the world. The human nature which the Divine assumed and 
 glorified in the world is the very form of God, the medium through 
 which he reconciles his rebellious children to himself, the fountain 
 from which he imparts to them of his love, which is life. 
 
 Understood in reference to the Lord, there is a deep significance 
 in the name of his birth-place being changed from Ephratah to 
 Bethlehem, and in the name of Bach el’s son, born there, being 
 changed from Benoni to Benjamin. Bethlehem (the house of bread) 
 is spiritually distinguished from Ephratah (fruitful) in this, that 
 bread is more expressive of the divine good as it is in the Lord's 
 humanity, adequate to the wants and accommodated to the reception 
 of fallen man. The change of name in the case of Benjamin, as a 
 type of the Lord, is not less significant. The name Benoni (son of 
 my sorrow), given him by his mother, is expressive of the state 
 of humiliation incident to the Lord as the son of Mary, for it was in 
 
26 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. II. 
 
 respect to the maternal humanity that he was the man of sorrows; 
 while the name Benjamin (son of my right hand), given him by his 
 father, is expressive of the Lord’s state of exaltation, which belongs 
 to him as the Son of God, or to the divine humanity, which exaltation 
 is expressed in the gospel by the Son sitting at the right hand of 
 the Father. 
 
 While Bethlehem represented the Lord’s humanity as the great 
 medium of communion and conjunction between God and man, it 
 signified in a more particular sense that which served as a medium for 
 uniting the divine and the human in the person of the Lord himself. 
 The Lord inherited by birth the principle and power by which that 
 union was effected. In this respect he differed from all other men. 
 
 “ All men whatsoever are born natural, with the ability to become 
 spiritual or celestial, but the Lord alone was born spiritual- celestial. 
 From his birth he had a propensity to good and a desire for truth, 
 every other man being naturally inclined to evil and falsity.” The 
 reason of this is obvious; every man derives his ruling love from his 
 father, and this in fallen humanity is nothing but evil. But the Lord 
 had not a human but a divine Father; and therefore he had those 
 inclinations in favour of good and truth of which all others are 
 naturally destitute. The Lord alone was thus the true Bethlehemite. 
 
 While the Lord was born in the town of Bethlehem, he was born 
 in the days of Herod the king. Lie who was born King of the J ews 
 was born in the days of one who disputed his claim to that title, and 
 endeavoured by the most diabolical means to prevent his making his 
 way to the throne. How fitting an agent was this cruel and un- 
 scrupulous king of the power of hell, whose dominion was threatened 
 by the coming of the Lord ! How natural a symbol of the powers of 
 the church and the world, that had made a covenant with death, and 
 with hell were at agreement ! (Isa. xxviii. 15.) 
 
 The days of the wicked Herod represented the states of the Jews 
 at the time the Lord was born. The Lord had come to restore the 
 government of truth and righteousness in the earth, and it is evident 
 how much the world stood in need of his interference. He had come 
 as a Lamb in the midst of wolves, as innocence in the midst of the 
 foulest corruption, and it is not surprising that his infancy was one of 
 danger and his life one of persecution. 
 
 In those days there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem. The 
 visit of these Orientals is a very interesting feature in the history of 
 our Lord’s birth into the world. It shows that a knowledge of 
 ancient prophecy respecting the coming of the Messiah had been 
 
Chap. II.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 27 
 
 preserved in regions distant from the land of Israel. We need not 
 suppose that these wise ones among the nations had derived all their 
 knowledge of the Lord’s coming from the Jews, or the Jewish Scrip- 
 tures. It may, in part, have descended to them from a more ancient 
 and widely diffused revelation, from which portions of our present 
 Word have been derived, some of the principles and facts of which were 
 embodied in the mythologies of the nations of antiquity, and traces 
 of which are still found in almost every corner of the earth. In the 
 time of that ancient Word, a clearer knowledge of divine truth and 
 of spiritual things prevailed. Men knew the true nature of inspira- 
 tion, and saw in revelation spiritual truth clothed in natural images 
 as their corresponding and expressive forms. It was some remnant 
 of this knowledge that enabled the wise men to recognize in the new- 
 born star a sign of the birth of the promised Saviour. They knew a 
 star to be a symbol of the knowledge of truth, and eminently of him 
 who is the truth itself. The star, we may infer, was a spiritual 
 object, and their spiritual sight was opened to behold it. It was a 
 star that shone out in the heaven of angels, not in the heaven of men. 
 Hone on earth, so far as appears from the gospel, beheld it but the 
 magi, whose spiritual discernment enabled them to interpret its 
 meaning. 
 
 The wise men among the Gentiles, and the shepherds among the 
 Jews, were the only ones who received any outward intimation of 
 the Saviour’s birth, and were the only ones who came to salute the 
 Lord at his coming. The wise men represented those out of the 
 church who possess spiritual intelligence, the shepherds, those within 
 the church who are principled in spiritual charity. The means by 
 which they were directed to the infant Saviour correspond to their 
 different characters and circumstances. The shepherds were directed 
 by the audible voice of the angels, the wise men by the silent 
 language of the star; the one by hearing, the other by sight. Both 
 announcements came to them by night, for the day of the church 
 had closed, and the whole world lay in darkness. There is another 
 difference. The angels directed the shepherds to Bethlehem; the star, 
 if it guided the magi at all, led them to Jerusalem. Those within 
 the church receive direct information respecting the Lord, and can 
 go directly to him ; those who are without must first be led into the 
 church, to be initiated into its doctrines, before they can come to the 
 Lord and worship him, not in spirit only, but in truth. The wise 
 men had come from the East, which has a high signification. The 
 East, in the highest sense, is an emblem of the Lord, and of love to 
 
28 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. II. 
 
 him; but, as here, of the Lord in his rising, when religious light first 
 dawns in the heart. And to come from the East to Jerusalem is 
 spiritually to advance from the first general perception of divine 
 truth to its distinct and certain knowledge, thence to proceed to the 
 practical attainment of the greatest and highest of all truths — that 
 the Lord is our Saviour. 
 
 Were it not that some higher signification is involved in this 
 circumstance, we can hardly suppose but that the star would have 
 led the magi at first, as it did at last, to Bethlehem. According to 
 all human appearance another advantage would have resulted from 
 their being led directly to the Lord’s birth-place. The jealousy and 
 wrath of Herod would not have been excited, and the innocents of 
 Bethlehem would have been spared. But here again we must 
 acknowledge the hand of an over-ruling providence; and here again 
 we may see revelation proving its own spirituality. 
 
 2. Come to Jerusalem, the magi inquired, Where is he that is born 
 King of the Jews ? They did not ask if the Saviour was born; of 
 this they were convinced; they only inquired where he was to be 
 found. This is the first time that the Lord is spoken of in the 
 gospels as a king. The Lord, we have seen, is a king as Divine 
 Truth, which is his regal principle; for by this he rules in his 
 kingdom. But the question of the magi, Where ? is an important 
 one even to us. What with them was a question of place, with us is a 
 question of state. This is the moral meaning of ivhere in Scripture. 
 When God called to Adam, and said, Where art thou? it was to demand 
 of fallen man where, morally, his disobedience had placed him. More 
 hopeful is the question respecting him who was born to restore the 
 kingdom of righteousness. It is a question that every one has to 
 ask for himself. As the kingdom of God is within us, so is its king, 
 who must be born within us, that the throne of his dominion may be 
 established in our hearts. If our desire to know where the Lord is 
 born be, that we may come and worship him , we may learn where he 
 is to be found. But there are discouraging effects which this inquiry 
 produces, and its object cannot be attained without tribulation. 
 This knowledge we obtain by the doctrines of the Word, as the magi 
 did through the priests in Jerusalem. 
 
 3. When Herod heard of the coming of the magi, and of their 
 object, he was troubled , and all Jerusalem with him. In this we see 
 the beginning of the hostility of the J ewish nation to the Lord. The 
 jealousy of Herod was excited, and his wrath was provoked by the 
 remote probability, perhaps the bare possibility, of a rival claimant 
 
Chap. II.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 29 
 
 to his throne. Whether we regard Herod as a sample or a symbol of 
 the people he reigned over, his feelings, like his conduct, are highly 
 significant. They exhibit, we cannot say an awakened conscience, but 
 a sense of guilt, and that indescribable fear which often arises from a 
 too certain but yet hidden cause. But we do not need to look back 
 to the events of eighteen centuries ago to study this problem. We 
 have the ground of this fear in our own hearts, and can trace it in 
 our own experience. In the little world within there is, if we are 
 converted, not only a Bethlehem, but a Jerusalem, and not only the 
 magi and the shepherds, but a Herod and a compliant hierarchy. 
 In our own selfhood there are all the evils and falsities that have 
 ever been exhibited by the worst of men ; and if they have not come 
 out in our conduct, they slumber in our hearts, though we may be 
 little aware of their existence till they are aroused by something 
 opposed to their ends and inimical to their rule. But it is for our 
 good that they are excited; and in this fact we may see the 
 wisdom of Providence in guiding the wise men to Jerusalem, which 
 troubled Herod and all connected with him. Indeed, we see in this, 
 as in many other instances in the Word, that the mere presence 
 of good arouses evil, as in the world and in the church, so in the 
 human heart. It is expedient that it should. How else could evil 
 be cast out ? It is not enough that we receive good ; the good must 
 overcome and disinherit the evil, for without this, good itself would 
 be disinherited, or, what is still worse, corrupted. In this trouble of 
 Herod and all Jerusalem, we have therefore a representation of the 
 trouble our own corrupt selfhood experiences when the day star that 
 nshers in the sun of righteousness has risen in our hearts, and we 
 desire to see the fulness of its glory. The disturbance and excite- 
 ment both of the evils of the will and of the falses of the understand- 
 ing is here meant ; for evil in the will is meant by Herod, and falses 
 in the understanding by Jerusalem, the people of the city being 
 understood. 
 
 4. Herod complied with the wish of the wise men. He gathered all 
 ilie chief priests and scribes of the people together , and demanded of them 
 where Christ should be born. God makes the wrath of man to praise 
 him. Evil men for selfish ends can perform good uses ; of which 
 Herod is an example. 
 
 The natural man for natural ends employs sacred agencies and 
 means to compass his evil ends. The chief priests and scribes of the 
 people are the interpreters of the Word, and abstractly the interpreta- 
 tion itself, by which its doctrines are known, especially those relating 
 
30 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. II. 
 
 to the Lord, which the righteous use to promote his glory, and the 
 wicked to advance their own. The wise men call J esus the King of 
 the Jews, but Herod calls him Christ. This name, “Anointed,” is 
 expressive of the Lord as the Truth anointed with the “holy oil” of 
 the Divine love; but when used by the evil, as by Herod, it expresses 
 in their minds the Lord’s truth separate from his love, and thus 
 opposed to it. 
 
 5. In answer to Herod’s demand where Christ should be born, the 
 priests say unto him , In Bethlehem of Judea. We have already seen 
 the meaning of Bethlehem in reference to the Lord himself, who was 
 born there; but it is symbolical of the Lord’s birth-place as respects 
 the regenerate. Whether we speak of the birth within us of Jesus, 
 as the object of faith, or the birth of the faith of which Jesus is the 
 object, it amounts to the same; for the Lord dwells in us by faith; 
 nay, in the very truths which we believe, for these are from himself. 
 Bethlehem within us is faith derived from charity, or, what is the 
 same, truth derived from good. The faith which is not of charity, 
 the truth which is not of good, is not yet actual and living. Faith 
 is new bom when it first begins to live from charity. This is Beth- 
 lehem, where Jesus is born within us as the Saviour of our souls. 
 The Lord has a still more interior habitation within us, to which the 
 star, if it has risen in our hearts, will finally conduct us. 
 
 6. The priests cited the prophet, by whom the Lord’s birth had 
 been foretold. And thou Bethlehem , in the land of Juda , art not the 
 least among the 'princes of J uda : for out of thee shall come a Governor , 
 that shall rule my people Israel. The explanation of this verse has 
 been anticipated, and need not be repeated. But there is a difference 
 between the prediction as it occurs in the prophet and as given by 
 the evangelist, which, as one of several similar divarications, it may 
 not be without interest or instruction to notice. It may be presumed 
 that the difference in such cases is that which exists between a truth 
 in its first reception, and in its complete development. In the pre- 
 sent case, in the prophet Bethlehem is said to be little among the 
 thousands of J udah ; here it is said to be not the least among its 
 princes. Commentators have remarked that there is no real dis- 
 crepancy in these two statements, since a place may be little and 
 yet not the least. But it is a poor compliment to an inspired book 
 to be able to say that two different statements are not contradictory : 
 we should be able to see that the difference is instructive, and this, 
 we think, may be seen to be the case in the present instance. 
 
 (1.) In the prophet the place of the Lord’s birth is called Beth- 
 
Chap. II.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 31 
 
 lehem-Ephratah ; in the gospel it is called Bethlehem in the land of 
 J uda. Bethlehem and Ephratah are two different names of the same 
 place j they therefore signify the same principle : but Ephratah, as 
 already remarked, signifies the principle in an earlier and less perfect 
 state. In the gospel Ephratah is left out ; and instead of Bethlehem- 
 Ephratah we have Bethlehem in Juda. Bethlehem, instead of being 
 joined to a less, is joined to a more perfect name, and therefore 
 describes a more perfect and elevated state. (2.) In the prophet, 
 Bethlehem is said to be one among the thousands of Judah j in the 
 gospel it is said to be one among the princes (or rulers) of Juda. 
 Eulers present the idea of superior principles that govern ; thousands, 
 that of inferior principles that are governed. Here again we have a 
 more exalted idea in the gospel than in the prophet. (3.) In the 
 prophet, Bethlehem is called little ; in the gospel it is said to be not 
 the least. Little expresses the positive idea of what is small; not the 
 least expresses the comparative idea of what is greater than some 
 others: Altogether, then, the gospel version of the passage seems to 
 exalt the sense of that given in the prophet, as if to express the fact 
 that Jesus had magnified the prophets as well as the law. The 
 prophet adds, that as governor the Lord should rule his people Israel. 
 To rule means also, here as elsewhere, to feed. The Lord’s govern- 
 ment, of the faithful at least, who are his people Israel , is not only 
 over them but in them. His love and truth rule in their affections 
 and thoughts, which they also feed. He rules as a shepherd, who at 
 once pastures and protects his flock. 
 
 7. When Herod had ascertained where Christ should be born, he 
 privily called the wise men , and inquired of them diligently what time 
 the star appeared. Place and time both signify state ; but place 
 signifies state in relation to good, and time, state in relation to truth. 
 The inquiry of Herod, whose secret object — meant by his privily 
 calling the wise men — was the destruction of the infant Saviour, 
 implies that the ungodly desire the extinction both of the Lord’s 
 goodness and truth. Although as regards the Lord himself this 
 is beyond their power, though not beyond their desires, they seek to 
 destroy these principles in themselves and others. And the better 
 to effect this, they endeavour to trace the knowledge of divine 
 things to its beginning, as Herod wished to know when the star first 
 appeared. 
 
 8. When the king sent the magi to Bethlehem, he said, Go, and 
 search diligently for the young child, and when ye have found him, 
 bring me word again, that I may come amd worship him also. He 
 
32 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. II. 
 
 desired to learn from them where in Bethlehem the infant king was 
 to be found. Particulars which illustrate general truths are com- 
 municable only to the good : they are hid from the worldly wise and 
 prudent, who, if they possessed them, would use them to destroy 
 everything good and true, root and branch. By Divine Providence, 
 that which Herod above all things desired to know was hid from him. 
 The magi were led to the spot where the Saviour was, without any of 
 that diligent search which Herod had so earnestly enjoined. 
 
 9. When they heard the king they departed; and, lo , the star, 
 which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over 
 where the young child was. The re -appearance of the star at the 
 moment when its encouragement and direction were needed shows 
 that it was not a natural but a supernatural object, sent to conduct 
 them to the very spot where the infant Saviour was. 
 
 This star in the heavens symbolizes knowledge respecting the Lord. 
 Its second appearance is an instructive circumstance, considered in 
 relation to its first. The first knowledge is general, the second is 
 particular. Particular illustrates general knowledge, and guides to 
 the object which we desire and are in search of. The star, when it 
 first appeared, indicated the birth of the Saviour ; at its second 
 appearing it conducted them to where the young child was. When 
 the day star first arises in our hearts, its presence is a kind of general 
 dictate; but when it appears to us after instruction, it is an open 
 vision and manifest revelation. 
 
 10. No wonder that the magi, when they saw the star, rejoiced with 
 exceeding great joy. The internal perception of truth — especially the 
 greatest of all truths, that which relates to the Lord as their Saviour — 
 is a source of the highest and purest joy to the hearts of those who 
 have earnestly desired life, and are eager to pursue the path which 
 leads to it. 
 
 11. And, when they were come into the house, they saw the young child 
 with Mary his mother. In speaking (v. 5) of Bethlehem as spiritually 
 meaning the faith of charity, we mentioned that the Lord had a still 
 more interior habitation than that in the regenerate mind. That 
 more interior habitation is charity itself, which is within faith as its 
 soul or vital principle. The faith which is from charity being signi- 
 fied by Bethlehem, the charity which is in faith is signified by the 
 house. Faith is as a city, and charity is as a house within it. The 
 Lord dwells with us in our faith, but our charity is his habitation. 
 It is over here where the star of heavenly knowledge stands, and tells 
 us to enter. Nor is this part of the narrative without an instructive 
 
Chap. II.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 33 
 
 lesson to us. We too must come into the house. The journey of the 
 wise men is a history of our spiritual progress, and the last step not 
 less significant than the rest. We must not only advance from know- 
 ledge to faith, but from faith to charity; and we must enter into and 
 be in charity itself, before we can be in the actual presence of the 
 Lord, and worship him as our King and Saviour. Let us see in what 
 his true worship consists. 
 
 When the wise men had entered into the house, and saw the young 
 child, they fell down and worshipped him : and when they had opened 
 their treasures , they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense , 
 and myrrh . Before we explain, let us pause to contemplate those 
 pious heathens, from whose conduct we may learn wisdom. 
 
 Out of the church, which possessed the oracles of God, and with 
 nothing but the dim light of tradition to guide them, they had yet a 
 sufficient knowledge of, and a strong enough faith in, the promise of the 
 Lord’s coming, to give them a perfect reliance on its accomplishment, 
 and to enable them to look forward to it as an event in which they had 
 a deep and personal interest. Their knowledge of the correspondence 
 between natural and spiritual things enabled them at once to recognize 
 in the celestial messenger an announcement of the event for which 
 they were eagerly looking. When the joyful tidings came, with what 
 readiness did they set out in their long and arduous journey, carrying 
 with them the most costly gifts as an offering to the infant King ! 
 And when they found him, not in a splendid palace, surrounded with 
 regal pomp, but in an obscure dwelling, cradled in his mother’s arms, 
 they had no misgivings or repugnances, but prostrated themselves in 
 profound homage before him, and presented him their precious gifts, 
 the symbols of a far more precious adoration. How much may we 
 learn from their example ! Do they not teach us to love the Lord for 
 his own sake, independent of external considerations'? May their 
 conduct not justly lead us to inquire how far our devotion to the 
 Saviour is influenced by the popularity of his cause, the pomp of his 
 service, the dignity and wealth that his name confers? Nations now 
 own his sway, and kings bow down before him. How deserving of 
 honour, how worthy of imitation, those who worshipped him when he 
 had neither name nor power ! True, our eye is not attracted by a star, 
 nor our ear by a choir of angels ; but we have the constant testimony 
 of still more eminent witnesses in the written Word of God, and only 
 require to look and listen, to find ourselves in the presence of mes- 
 sengers proclaiming the same glad tidings, and inviting us to render 
 the same homage to our King and Saviour. 
 
34 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. II. 
 
 But let us attend to the purely spiritual wisdom which the incidents 
 teach us. We spiritually fall down before Jesus when we abase our 
 self-hood : we worship him when we exalt his love and truth in our 
 hearts : we open our treasures when we open our hearts, in which we 
 have received and in which we have treasured up the riches of the 
 Divine mercy and grace; and we present unto our Saviour gifts when, 
 in humble and grateful acknowledgment, we return to him, as their 
 Donor, the blessings which in his bounty he has bestowed upon us. 
 The gifts offered by the magi were gold, frankincense, and myrrh — 
 the offerings of love, faith, and obedience. These are the spiritual 
 treasures which the truly wise in all lands seek after and prize, and 
 which they offer to the Lord in worship — not only in the worship of 
 their lips or in the service of the temple, but in the love of their hearts 
 and the service of their lives. The man who employs the talents which 
 Divine Providence has bestowed upon him, to promote the glory of 
 God in the happiness of men, offers gifts more precious in the Divine 
 estimation than the incense of oral praise. 
 
 12. The wise men no doubt intended to return and give Herod 
 information respecting the young child; but being warned of God in 
 a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their 
 own country another way. God frequently revealed his will to men in 
 dreams : no doubt for one reason, that in sleep they were more pas- 
 sively recipient of heavenly monitions. Hence dreams signify revela- 
 tions given in an obscure state. The magi were warned not to return 
 to Herod, This would have represented the immersing of what is 
 holy in what is profane, which would have been the destruction of 
 innocence, as it would have enabled Herod to destroy Jesus. The 
 magi therefore departed into their own country another way. This 
 returning by another way is mentioned in another part of the Word. 
 The prophet sent to denounce the altar which had been idolatrously 
 erected by Jeroboam in Bethel, was commanded not to return by the 
 same w T ay that he came (1 Ki. xiii. 9). This teaches us an interesting 
 and important lesson relating to the regenerate life. 
 
 In Scripture a way is the symbol of truth and faith ; for truth leads 
 to good and faith to charity. Now, there is a truth that leads to good 
 and a truth that is derived from good — a faith which leads to charity 
 and a faith which is derived from charity; but the one is essentially 
 different from the other. We have first of all to learn the truth; 
 and the truth teaches us what good is, and how to attain it. This 
 truth, therefore, looks and leads to good as something out of and above 
 itself. But when we have acquired the good which truth had taught 
 
Chap. II.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 35 
 
 us to esteem and strive after, the good enters into the truth, and acts 
 out its beneficent and useful purposes by means of it. Truth is 
 first the pioneer, and then the minister of goodness; so is faith of 
 charity. The way by which we return is another way than that by 
 which we go up. We go up by the way of instruction, and sorrow, 
 and conflict; we return by the way of intelligence, and joy, and 
 triumph. We have seen the king in his beauty; we have worshipped 
 at his footstool ; we have presented our gifts ; and we depart to our 
 own country by a new way which the Lord himself has commanded. 
 
 13. The warning of the wise men in a dream not to return to 
 Herod, was not the only means Divine Providence employed to pre- 
 vent the evil which the wicked king meditated. When they were 
 departed , behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream , 
 saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee 
 into Egypt. The flight into Egypt is one of the many memorable 
 incidents in the Lord’s life which have fixed themselves in the 
 imagination as well as in the heart of Christendom, and the ideal 
 of which Christian poetry and art have done their utmost to embody 
 in images of tenderness and forms of beauty. It is, moreover, an 
 incident which possesses internal evidence of some higher purpose 
 than that which it bears on its front. For why this flight into Egypt 
 to save the holy child from the wrath of an earthly potentate? He 
 who in manhood could have procured for his protection more than 
 twelve legions of angels, which is nothing less than omnipotence, 
 could have been surrounded with such a sphere of protection that the 
 power neither of earth nor of hell could injure him. The flight into 
 Egypt has a spiritual meaning, and one of great interest and im- 
 portance. The historical event, so prominently set before us in the 
 Old Testament, of Israel going down into Egypt and sojourning there 
 affords the key-note to the meaning of the Lord’s flight into that land 
 of Israel’s nurture as well as of his deliverance. Israel’s deliverance 
 from Egypt is generally admitted to have been typical of the Christian’s 
 deliverance from the bondage of sin; but seldom is his journey thither 
 thought of as having any reference to Christian experience. Yet the 
 one is as significant as the other. According to that great system of 
 correspondence which mapped out the ancient world, so far as it found 
 a place in sacred history, of which Canaan was the centre and the 
 surrounding countries the circumference, Egypt represented, as it cul- 
 tivated, science, — not only natural, but spiritual science, — understand- 
 ing by it the knowledge which comes from without, especially such as 
 is suited to the faculties of a child, or to the mind in the early states 
 
36 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. II. 
 
 of the religious life. Our Lord was carried down to Egypt when a 
 child, to represent his initiation into external knowledge, not merely 
 the knowledge of external things. As the Lord came into the world 
 to save man by first perfecting man’s nature in himself, he assumed 
 human nature as it is in other men, that he might pass through all 
 human experience. Like every other man, he was born in ignorance, 
 and had to acquire knowledge in the ordinary way. 
 
 It may seem that if the Lord was God manifest in the flesh, he 
 could have no need of human instruction, but must have had all 
 knowledge and wisdom directly imparted to him by the Divinity that 
 dwelt within. We know from the gospel history that this was not 
 the case. The fact, as it was, is consistent with the nature, and was 
 necessary for the purpose, of the Incarnation. The divine was in the 
 human, in the person of Christ, as the soul is in the body in the 
 person of man. The soul does not inspire the body — or rather the 
 external man, which includes the body — with knowledge, but only 
 gives him the faculty of acquiring it. Nor does the soul manifest its 
 powers in and through the body, till the body, or rather the external 
 man, is prepared, by growth “ in wisdom and in stature,” to become a 
 suitable instrument for its use. Reason and liberty are faculties of 
 the soul ; but without knowledge, rationality would not be able to 
 judge nor liberty to choose. Knowledge is the body of which reason 
 is the soul ; and reason can no more act without knowledge than the 
 soul can act without the body — a natural body in the natural world, 
 a spiritual body in the spiritual. As in all respects the Lord was 
 truly man, so was he in all that may be called learning. 
 
 He was therefore carried down into Egypt, that his outward his- 
 tory might represent the progress of his inward life. The conduct of 
 this sacred journey was confided to the faithful Joseph, who was again 
 instructed in a dream , to arise, and take the young child and his mother, 
 and flee into Egypt. Arising, spiritually, is elevation of mind — rising 
 above the things of time and sense; and fleeing is the eager pursuit of 
 the object that is set before us. In this instance it is also fleeing from 
 danger, which the Omniscient saw and his wisdom provided against. 
 The child and his mother are the Lord and the church, whose security 
 is to be provided for. But, in the particular sense, the young child is 
 the Lord as essential innocence, and Mary his mother, who is also his 
 nurse, is the affection by which that innocence is nourished, and from 
 which science or knowledge is acquired. When they were sent down 
 to Egypt, they were to remain there till the angel brought Joseph 
 word. For as this instruction in the scientifics of the Church was of 
 
Chap. II.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 37 
 
 divine appointment, so it was to be continued till tlie Divine Wisdom 
 saw its completion. In fine, this ruling by the angel of all the 
 particulars connected with the journey was designed to instruct us 
 that the process itself, from beginning to end, was wholly under the 
 Divine direction and guidance. A reason is given for the flight — 
 for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. To bruise the 
 serpent’s head, he required to have the wisdom of the serpent as well 
 as the harmlessness of the dove, and the strength of the lion as well 
 as the innocence of the lamb. As, then, the Lord when a child was 
 carried down into Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod, so he was 
 initiated into the science of heavenly things as a defence against all 
 his diabolical enemies. Innocence is not a sufficient protection 
 against ingenious wickedness; cunning must be met by wisdom, and 
 wisdom must begin from knowledge. 
 
 14. Joseph, in obedience to the heavenly vision, arose, and took 
 the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt. 
 This was done by night, to represent both the spiritual night of the 
 church and the mental darkness from which Jesus commenced the 
 journey of his momentous life, that he might advance by degrees 
 from the innocence of ignorance to the innocence of wisdom. 
 
 15. And was there until the death of Herod. The death is here 
 mentioned by anticipation. The death of Herod represents, not 
 simply the end of the representation which that king sustained, but 
 the death or removal of the particular evil of which Herod was the 
 type. The prophecy which was fulfilled by the Lord’s return from 
 Egypt is also mentioned by anticipation ; but as it is not repeated, we 
 may here consider it. Like several other prophetic declarations 
 relating to the Lord, this had had a previous fulfilment. It was ful- 
 filled in the deliverance of Israel. “ When Israel was a child, then I 
 loved him, and called my son out of Egypt” (Hos. xi. 1). But Israel 
 and his deliverance were typical, and therefore prophetical; for types 
 are the shadows of coming events. In the supreme or inmost 
 sense of the Holy Word, all historical persons and events were 
 representative of the Lord and of his glorification. Both in his 
 going down into Egypt and in his coming up, Israel represented the 
 Lord and his redeeming work. -4- s ^ ie Israelites came up out of 
 Egypt enriched with all its spoils, Jesus enriched his mind with all 
 the wealth of knowledge; and as the Israelites gave their gold and 
 silver to furnish and adorn the tabernacle, the Lord sanctified all 
 knowledge of goodness and truth, by using it to enrich and adorn the 
 temple of his humanity, as the habitation of his eternal Divinity. 
 
38 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. II. 
 
 1 6. But while the young child was in Egypt, concealed and secure 
 from the wrath of Herod, a scene was enacted by that remorseless 
 tyrant which has for ever coupled his name with one of the most 
 atrocious deeds that darken the page of history. This was the mas- 
 sacre at Bethlehem. But this inhuman act, though historical, is also 
 representative. Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the 
 wise men , was exceeding wroth. The evil are never so gratified as 
 when they can make wisdom or goodness subservient to their own 
 diabolical ends, and are never so wroth as when they elude their 
 grasp, and disappoint them of their prey. Wrath in Scripture is 
 expressive of the greatest contrariety of state, and, in relation to the 
 wicked, of the deepest malignity against those whom they believe to 
 mock them. So of Herod. He sent forth, and slew all the children 
 that were in Bethlehem, and all the coasts thereof. Infants are the 
 emblems of innocence; but those mentioned here were infant boys, 
 and represented spiritual truths in which there was innocence. The 
 slaughter of the innocents by Herod was a sign that when the Lord 
 came into the world there was not any spiritual truth reaming. 
 Bethlehem, we have seen, signified the Word; and to slay all the 
 children in it and in its coasts, is to destroy all the truths of 
 the Word, both internal and external, so far as the knowledge 
 and power of the evil extend ; but that knowledge can only 
 be acquired by them from others who are in a state of good, is inti- 
 mated by its being said, according to the time which he had 
 diligently inquired of the wise men. The children slain being from 
 two years old and under, means, in the language of inspiration, all 
 the truths of the Word which were in any conjunction with good, 
 of which union the number two is a symbol. Thus in the Jewish 
 church every pure truth was destroyed, and nothing remained to it 
 but the dead, because perverted, letter. 
 
 17, 18. The evangelist declares this slaughter to have been a fulfil- 
 ment of what was written in Jeremiah (xxxi. 15). This reference of 
 the event to that particular passage is very instructive. It shows 
 that even the historical parts of the Old Testament are prophetical, or 
 what is the same thing, typical. The passage in the prophet relates 
 to the carrying away of the children of Judah and Benjamin into 
 Babylon ; and Bachel, the mother of Benjamin, is represented as 
 bewailing her sons when carried away captive. Ramah, too, was a 
 city of Benjamin, being one of those originally given to the Benjamites 
 (Josh, xviii. 25) when the land was divided among the tribes. It was 
 to this place also that Jeremiah was “taken, being bound in chains 
 
Chap. II.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 39 
 
 among all that were carried away captive of Jerusalem and Judah 
 into Babylon” (Jer. xl. 1). It is exceedingly appropriate and affect- 
 ing, historically, to make Rachel weep for the fate of her unhappy 
 descendants, and to make the voice of her lamentation come from 
 Hamah. But if the narrative is beautiful historically, much more 
 so is it spiritually. Of the two wives of Jacob, Rachel represented 
 the spiritual, and Leah the natural affection of truth ; and Ramah, 
 a city of Benjamin, represented spiritual truth from a celestial 
 origin. The captivity of Babylon, with the destruction of the temple, 
 and of Jerusalem (2 Kings xxv. 9, 10), typified the consummation of 
 the Jewish church, which took place at the time our Lord came into 
 the world. It is on this account that Matthew applies circumstances 
 connected with the captivity to an event connected with the Lord’s 
 incarnation. Well, therefore, might Rachel weep; for the spiritual 
 affection of truth was indeed bereaved of her children : for the off- 
 spring of that affection are the truths of innocence, which the infants 
 slain in Bethlehem represented. In whatever mind any remains of 
 such an affection survived, there would be lamentation, and weeping, 
 and great mourning. 
 
 But amidst that destruction a seed was preserved, from, which there 
 should spring a higher and more enduring race. He whose death was 
 intended escaped the hand of the destroyer. Several instances occur 
 in the Word of one escaping from what was intended as a complete 
 slaughter, as in Judges ix., 2 Kings xi. In all such instances, and 
 especially in the case of our Lord, a consolatory truth is contained. 
 In all human destruction the Divine Providence conceals and preserves 
 a remnant for salvation. The infant Saviour was preserved as the 
 seed and the beginning of all perfection. In him was the comforting 
 exhortation and promise addressed to Rachel to be realized : “ Refrain 
 thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears; for they shall come 
 again from the land of the enemy.” 
 
 19, 20. The king did not long survive the massacre of the infants. 
 But when Herod was dead , behold, an angel of the Lord appear eth 
 in a dream to Joseph , saving, Arise , and take the young child 
 and his mother, and go into the land of Israel ; for they are dead 
 which sought the young child's t life. Herod’s death represented 
 the end of the particular state, or of the predominance of the 
 particular principle, which he represented. Not that it was alto- 
 gether extinguished; for, as we shall see, the same evil rises up in 
 another form. But the particular state, with the activity of the 
 principle he represented, was ended; and with it therefore came a 
 
40 ST. MATTHEW. [Chap. II. 
 
 change of state in Jesus himself, implied by his going up to the land 
 of Israel. 
 
 This land, as distinguished from the land of Egypt, was a type of 
 the church itself, instruction in its truths being represented by the 
 Lord’s going up and residing there. The reason for this removal was, 
 because they are dead which sought the young child's life. Herod’s 
 desire to destroy the infant Messiah must have been instigated by, as 
 it represented, an effort of the lowest hell, which is diametrically 
 opposed to innocences, and by which the Lord was infested and 
 tempted in his childhood; and as, even then, no temptation could 
 prevail against him, but ended in the defeat of the tempting power, 
 this was indicated by the death of Herod ; and the Lord’s progress in 
 glorification, as a result of his conquest, was represented by Joseph 
 again arising, and going with him into the land of Israel. 
 
 22. When J oseph went up out of Egypt into the land of Israel, it 
 was his intention to proceed at once to Judea. But here a second 
 Herod awaited and deterred him. When he heard that Archelaus did 
 reign in Judea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go 
 thither. He was relieved by divine aid from a state of doubt and 
 perplexity. Being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the 
 parts of Galilee. In this turning aside into Galilee, which, naturally 
 considered, owes its origin to a natural cause, there is an important 
 spiritual sense. At this period the “ land of Israel” was divided into 
 three regions — Judea, Samaria, and Galilee — which represented the 
 celestial, the spiritual, and the natural principles of the church. It is 
 easy to see in this a similarity to the temple. The temple consisted 
 of the inmost, or holy of holies, the middle, or holy place, and the 
 court. The inmost of the temple was analogous to Judea, the middle 
 to Samaria, and the court to Galilee. There is a still further simi- 
 larity. The court of the temple was divided into two, called the 
 inner and outer court, the outer being also called the court of the 
 Gentiles. So was Galilee divided into two, called Upper and Lower 
 Galilee, Upper Galilee being called Galilee of the Gentiles. These 
 divisions are not without a meaning in reference to New Testament 
 history. We find, for instance, that the Lord was born in Bethlehem 
 of Judea, and that, in returning from Egypt, he passed through 
 Samaria to Nazareth, in Lower Galilee, where he abode till the time of 
 his baptism, after which he came and dwelt in Capernaum, in Upper 
 Galilee (iv. 1 3) ; his change of place thus representing change of state, 
 from the inmost of the celestial to the outermost of the natural. He 
 abode during his public ministry in Upper or Gentile Galilee, also 
 
Chap. II.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 41 
 
 to represent that he was about to raise up his church among the 
 gentiles. But the land of Israel, and the temple also, represented 
 heaven as well as the church, and the regenerate mind as the epitome 
 of both. The whole heaven consists of three lesser heavens, — the 
 highest, or celestial, the middle, or spiritual, and the lowest, or natural; 
 and as the lowest heaven is the ultimate of the two others, it consists 
 of angels of two distinct characters, called celestial-natural and 
 spiritual-natural. While the universal heaven is distinguished into 
 three heavens, it is also distinguished into two kingdoms. The 
 celestial angels of the highest heaven, with the celestial-natural in the 
 lowest heaven, form the celestial kingdom ; and the spiritual angels of 
 the middle heaven, with the spiritual- natural angels of the lowest 
 heaven, form the spiritual kingdom. This twofold distinction of 
 heaven did not exist actually until the time of the incarnation. The 
 distinction of heaven into two kingdoms had been typified by the 
 division of the kingdom of Israel, commenced with Saul, into the two 
 kingdoms of Israel and Judah, in the reign of Rehoboam ; and this 
 division of the kingdom of Israel into two kingdoms originated the 
 division of the land of Canaan, as we find it spoken of in the Hew 
 Testament. Both these changes, therefore, were providential. The 
 kingdom, originally one, was rent into two ; and the land, originally 
 one, was divided into three ; and even the lowest of these into two, to 
 make them in this, as in all other respects, the patterns of things in the 
 heavens. The reason why the Saviour, on his return from Egypt, was 
 carried, not into Judea, but “ into the parts of Galilee,” will now be 
 evident. Even he, in the progress of his glorification, had to pass 
 through a lower state before he could enter into a higher, and lastly 
 into the highest. The Lord did everything according to order. 
 Though he advanced in every kind of human progress more rapidly 
 than any other man, yet he advanced in the same order as another 
 man — so inconceivable was his love, so great his condescension ! 
 Willing, for our sakes, to be instructed in the goods and truths of the 
 church, as revealed in the Word, he despised not to begin at the 
 lowest. Well may we learn from his example to be willing to take 
 the lowest place, that we may ascend through every orderly stage to 
 the highest of whichever degree we can attain to. 
 
 23. We have a further evidence of there being a divine purpose in 
 directing Joseph to Galilee, in his being providentially led to the city 
 of Nazareth. He came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth , that it 
 might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets , He shall be called a 
 NaZarene. That this prophecy refers to the Nazariteship, is, indeed, 
 
42 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. II. 
 
 disallowed by most and by very eminent critics. There are reasons, 
 however, which seem to sanction, if not to require, that the city 
 Nazareth should have been intended by the evangelist, or the Spirit 
 under which he wrote, to be identified with the institution of the 
 Nazariteship. He tells us that Jesus dwelt there that it might be ful- 
 filled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene. 
 Now, there is no such prediction in the prophets, nor does the name 
 of the city, nor consequently the term expressive of citizenship, occur 
 at all in the Old Testament. It has, indeed, been conjectured, that as 
 the name of the city can be traced to a root signifying “ the despised 
 one,” the evangelist had only the intention of alluding generally to 
 the prophecies relating to his humiliation, as “ he was despised and 
 rejected of men.” But it seems more reasonable to suppose that the 
 reference is to the parts of the Old Testament which relate to the 
 Nazariteship. These are not, indeed, in the prophets, properly so 
 called; but we know that the name of prophet is not limited to those 
 who wrote the prophetical books. Nor are the passages themselves 
 prophetical, much less have they the specific shape which the prophecy 
 assumes in the gospel. But, as we have had occasion to remark, the 
 historical parts of the Word are prophetical, because representative. 
 It is hardly necessary to allude to the objection that the Lord never 
 assumed any of the characters of a Jewish Nazarite. He did not 
 assume the hairy garment of the prophet, nor the robe of the king, 
 nor the ephod of the priest; and yet he was the One who filled all 
 these offices; but he filled them spiritually. Might not he be also the 
 spiritual, who is the true Nazarite, though he assumed nothing of the 
 outward form, which was only typical of the character 2 The passages 
 to which the inspired evangelist seems to allude are those which relate 
 to Samson and Samuel. When the angel appeared to the wife of 
 Manoah, he said to her, “ Thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no 
 razor shall come on his head : for the child shall be a Nazarite unto 
 God from the womb” (Judg. xiii. 5). Hannah does not, indeed, vow 
 to call her son a Nazarite; but her vow involves his Nazariteship: 
 “ I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall 
 no razor come upon his head” (1 Sam. i. 11). The term Nazarite 
 means separation ; and all the days the Nazarite separated himself to 
 the Lord he was to abstain from all the produce of the vine, from the 
 kernel even to the husk ; he was to come at no dead body, and not to 
 defile himself even for his father or mother, and should let the locks 
 of the hair of his head grow, (Num. vi.) But even supposiug that the 
 Lord was to be called a Nazarene, not because he was to be a Nazarite, 
 
Chap. II.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 43 
 
 but because be was to be called after the city of that name, be was yet 
 a Nazarite, and, indeed, the Nazarite of whom all others were types. 
 Therefore, on this ground alone, we may consider what the Nazariteship 
 represented. We cannot suppose that his dwelling there was merely 
 to fulfil a prophecy, or that the prophecy and its fulfilment were for no 
 other purpose than to prove him to be the Messiah. More consistent, 
 surely, is it with the dignity and spirituality of the subject to consider 
 these circumstances as designed to teach us something of the hi, story 
 of the Lord’s inner life, as the perfect pattern of our own. Something 
 of this may be learnt from his going to Nazareth, that he might be 
 called a Nazarene. Although this city may have had no historical 
 connection with the Nazariteship, the Lord’s dwelling there, and being 
 called by its name, would seem as if intended to be equivalent to his 
 being a Nazarite. The Lord was a Nazarite from his mother’s womb : 
 he was holy, undefiled, and separate from sinners ; he was lent, given, 
 devoted to the Lord. In him was spiritually fulfilled all that was 
 naturally practised by the Nazarite. The Nazarite represented a 
 celestial man, and the Lord as the celestial Man. The celestial man is 
 one who acts from love ; and the principle from which the Lord acted 
 in his work of redemption was the love of the human race. It was 
 because the vine was symbolical of the spiritual principle, that the 
 Nazarite was so strictly prohibited from partaking of its fruit. But 
 the Nazarite represented the celestial man while he is undergoing 
 temptation and practising self-denial. He represented the Lord, 
 therefore, in his days of temptation and humiliation. And in this 
 sense, how true and expressive is the prophecy, “ He shall be called a 
 Nazarene !” But it was during this time, and by these means, that 
 his redeeming power was manifested in his conflicts with the powers 
 of darkness. “ In his love and in his pity he redeemed them.” Yet 
 it was Love by means of Wisdom, or Good by means of Truth, that 
 conquered. And not only so ; it was love by means of truth of the 
 lowest order, or in its ultimate form, that overcame. It was not 
 merely the Word, but the Word made flesh, that had the power of 
 redeeming from the dominion of hell. Truth of the lowest degree, 
 such as that contained in the letter of the Word — humanity in its 
 ultimate form, such as that which the Lord assumed, were represented 
 by the hair of Samson, in which his great power lay. And that even 
 infinite love and truth could have no power against hell and evil, 
 without that ultimate which it assumed in the world, we are taught 
 representatively in the fact of Samson becoming powerless against his 
 enemies when his locks were shaven. Yet there was a period when the 
 
44 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. II. 
 
 Nazarite was allowed to shave his head, and lay aside all the other cere- 
 monials to the observance of which he was bound by his vow. And 
 this was when the term of his vow was ended, and his Nazariteship 
 ceased. Then he cut off his hair, and burned it in the fire which was 
 under the peace offering, and returned to the ordinary condition of life. 
 And so did our Lord, when he had conquered human redemption, put 
 off the humanity he took from the mother, and put on a humanity from 
 the Father, and returned where he was before. He was a Nazarite from 
 his mother’s womb; but when he was born of God, by the resurrection 
 from the dead, then his Nazariteship ceased. Yet he did not become 
 as he was before. Although he put off the humanity from the mother, 
 he did not cease to be human, even in the ultimate degree; for although 
 he put off materiality, he glorified his humanity even to that degree 
 which materiality had occupied. Therefore was the Nazarite’s hair, 
 when cut off, not vilely cast away, but burned in the fire of the altar, 
 so that while its grossness was consumed, its virtues, or the virtues 
 acquired by it, were preserved, and consecrated to God, and entered 
 by the refining fire of love into the offering that was the sign of the 
 restoration of peace between man and his God. 
 
 While this exalted meaning of the Lord’s being a Nazarite is to be 
 understood, it is not necessary to exclude from it the idea of his 
 humiliation. His Nazariteship was a time of humiliation as well as 
 of power. For the Lord’s state was in this respect like ours, that his 
 weakness was his strength. The more the human was humbled under 
 a sense of its own nothingness, the more the divine was exalted in it 
 and was its power. Therefore our Lord declared, “ Of myself I can 
 do nothing : the Father that dwelleth within me he doeth the works.” 
 Could any greater humiliation be expressed, even by a mere man? 
 But he not only expressed himself like a man, but his acknowledg- 
 ment expressed an immeasurably profounder humiliation than any 
 mere man ever felt. He was in very deed, in his own sight, “a worm, 
 and no man.” His humility was humility itself; ours, comparatively, 
 is but the shadow and the name. In this, as in all other things, he 
 was our Exemplar. His humiliation was as much lower than ours as 
 his exaltation is higher. He was the true Nazarene, as well as the 
 true Nazarite. We speak now of a Hazarene as he was estimated in 
 the days of our Lord, when the best things had acquired the worst 
 character. Then, even the Lord himself, the pattern of all excellence, 
 was despised. The long years during which the Saviour lived in retire- 
 ment, unknown to the world, and of which no record exists, with the 
 single exception of that which tells us he went up when twelve years 
 
Chap. III.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 45 
 
 old, and sat in the midst of the doctors in Jerusalem, these were the 
 years of his Nazariteship, separated from the world unto God. We 
 are not, indeed, to suppose that these years were lost, or were spent in 
 activity having no immediate bearing on the great work he came to 
 perform. When we know that his work was essentially of so spiritual 
 and sublime a nature as to be beyond the sight of human eye — that 
 his life was essentially an inward life, and his works essentially inward 
 works — temptations and victories, changes of state that angels could 
 but dimly perceive — we may well conceive that Nazareth was the 
 scene of some of those stupendous operations that were but faintly 
 shadowed by those of the Nazarite whom the Lord raised up as a 
 deliverer of Israel. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The preaching of John the Baptist is an epoch in the history of 
 Christianity, if it may not be regarded as its actual commencement. 
 Thirty years had now passed since the shepherds were directed and 
 the wise men were guided to the town of Bethlehem, where the infant 
 Saviour lay. Now a voice is heard in the wilderness, calling men to 
 repentance, as the means of preparing the way of the Lord, who is 
 about to come forth as the Great Teacher and Exemplar of the Law, 
 and to finish the work which the Father had given him, or his own 
 divine Love had prompted him, to do. 
 
 1. In those days . There is no connection of time between the 
 incident with which the previous chapter ends and that with which 
 this begins. But times are, spiritually, states; and the states indicated 
 by the days in which John appeared are those of the Jewish church, 
 afterwards described by the place where John preached. 
 
 John the Baptist filled a most important office, personally and 
 representatively, as the Forerunner of the Lord. The last of the 
 prophets concludes his prophecy by saying, “ Behold, I will send you 
 Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of 
 the Lord : and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, 
 and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite 
 the earth with a curse.” John was this Elijah; and he prepared the 
 people for the appearing of the Lord among them, by administering to 
 them the baptism of repentance. Unless this had been done, the 
 Lord’s presence would actually have smitten the whole Jewish people, 
 nay, the whole human race, with a curse. Not that the people were 
 
46 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. III. 
 
 made personally pure by baptism, though repentance had no doubt 
 its effect. Baptism acted representatively. The Jewish was a repre- 
 sentative church, and was connected with heaven by the correspond- 
 ence, not of their lives, but of their worship. It was to supply that 
 link of connection, which had been broken, that the Baptist came to 
 baptize them with water unto repentance. By this means the Lord 
 could come amongst men without destroying them. This we shall see 
 more clearly by considering the representative character of John and 
 the signification of baptism. The Lord came into the world as the 
 Word. He was the Word made flesh, or the Eternal Wisdom clothed 
 in human nature. John was a representative of the written Word. 
 He came to prepare the way of J esus, to represent that the revealed 
 Word is the means by which men are prepared for receiving the Lord 
 as the Eternal Word itself, of whom the written Word is a revelation. 
 John is called the Baptist, because baptism was a rite symbolical of 
 spiritual purification, which, like repentance, prepares men for the 
 Lord’s coming into their hearts. The days in which John came are 
 the states of the church at the time of the Lord’s advent; and the 
 character of these is representatively described by the wilderness of 
 Judea. The church was in a wilderness state. This image conveys 
 no indistinct idea to the mind of the condition in which the Jewish 
 church then was. But what is it that produces and constitutes this 
 state, so often spoken of under this figure in Scripture ? The church 
 is a wilderness when there is a defect or a want of goodness and truth, 
 of charity and faith. The union of charity and faith is the origin of all 
 beauty and fruitfulness. When that union is imperfect, spiritual life 
 languishes ; when it is dissolved, life ceases : and with life everything 
 of the church and heaven decays or expires. The wilderness in which 
 John appeared being that of Judea, implies that barrenness and 
 desolation had invaded the very centre of the church, and was wasting 
 its inner life. In this waste wilderness the voice of the divine mes- 
 senger was heard preaching to the children of men. And in every 
 general or individual state of desolation the voice of the Eternal Truth 
 may be heard; for God never leaves himself without a witness. And 
 even when the church, or the man of the church, has induced upon 
 himself a state analogous to that of the Jewish church when the 
 prophets had ceased, Divine Providence permits a crisis to come, when 
 a voice proclaims anew the day of salvation. This preaching of the 
 Baptist is still going on. The mind of every unregenerate man is a 
 wilderness, and in every one the Word comes preaching; for in every 
 mind Divine mercy provides a remnant of the hearing ear and the 
 
Chap. III.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 47 
 
 understanding heart, on which the teachings of the divine Word may 
 fall, and awaken an interest in eternal things. 
 
 2. Supposing an interest awakened in the realities of eternal life, 
 let us listen to the theme on which this infallible preacher addresses 
 us, and the duty to which he calls us. Christianity, as first preached 
 to the world, and as the revealed Word still preaches it to the 
 unconverted, is expressed in the single word — Repent. Repentance 
 is the beginning of religion in the heart of man, and thence the 
 beginning of the church in the world. Repentance is the gate 
 through which the soul passes from death unto life, the path which 
 leads from the broad into the narrow way, the step which carries us 
 over the boundary line between hell and heaven. Repentance, in 
 fact, is an actual conversion of t,he mind, of all its faculties and 
 powers, its ends and activities, from a downward to an upward 
 course. Prone by nature to the world and self, man is raised by 
 repentance to God and heaven. Repentance requires both devotion to 
 the end and perseverance in the use of means. The very essence of 
 repentance is to shun evil as sin against God. Without a sense 
 of sin there can be no repentance. The world may restrain, but it 
 cannot convert; it may cause remorse, but it cannot inspire repent- 
 ance. The bonds which the world imposes are upon the members, 
 those which religion imposes are upon the conscience. 
 
 While the preacher calls men to repentance, he gives them a reason 
 why they should repent : for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. We 
 need hardly inquire what is meant by this kingdom, and by its near 
 approach. The Lord’s kingdom is the government of his love and 
 truth in the hearts and minds of men. This constitutes the kingdom 
 of heaven; for heaven is a state — a state of heavenly-mindedness. 
 The kingdom of heaven was brought near by the coming of the Lord. 
 It was brought near to men in his own person, and was about to be 
 declared in his teaching and exhibited in his beneficent works. The 
 judgment, too, was approaching, by which the power of hell would be 
 diminished and that of heaven increased, and the perverted and 
 obstructive dispensation of the Jews be succeeded by the pure and 
 progressive Christian church ; and when, above all, the work of 
 redemption being completed, and the Lord’s humanity glorified, 
 there would be a new power and influence operating on the 
 human mind, enduing it with power from on high to receive and 
 act upon the teaching of Christ and his ministers. All this, and much 
 more, is comprehended in the kingdom of heaven, into which men 
 were called to enter through repentance. 
 
48 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. III. 
 
 3. In calling men to repentance, the Baptist (for these words formed 
 part of his address, as appears from John i. 23) cites his authority. 
 For this is lie that was spoken of by the prophet Fsaias, saying , The 
 voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord , 
 make his paths straight. The prophecy in which this occurs is one 
 of the sublimest of the predictions of the Lord’s advent. “ The voice 
 of him that crieth in the wilderness, ^Prepare ye the way of Jehovah. 
 O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain ; 
 O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; 
 lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your 
 God! Behold, Jehovah will come with strong hand, and his arm shall 
 rule for him” (Isa. xl. 9). As John takes his credentials from this 
 prophecy, his hearers are referred back to it for the character of the 
 personage whose way he came to prepare. That personage was 
 Jehovah. In the person of Jesus, Judah and Jerusalem were called 
 upon to behold their God. In citing the passage, John substitutes 
 the name Lord for Jehovah. As this is the constant practice in the 
 New Testament, Jesus as Lord is Jehovah incarnate. And if he is 
 • divine, he can be none else ; for besides Jehovah there is no God and 
 no Saviour. Such is the Being whose forerunner John the Baptist 
 was. Well might he fall back upon ancient prophecy for the 
 authority by which he assumed so high an office. And when John’s 
 representative character is considered, his reference to the prophet is 
 peculiarly appropriate. For as the revealed Word is the voice that is 
 alone adequate to proclaim the coming of the Lord, and to prepare 
 his way, so is it the source whence all true knowledge of the Lord can 
 be derived. Therefore John does not speak of the Messiah in his 
 own words, but first introduces him to the attention of his hearers in 
 the words of the grandest yet plainest prophecy that was ever 
 uttered respecting him, and one that reveals him in his true character 
 of Jehovah our Redeemer. The voice calls upon us to prepare the 
 way of the Lord, and to make his paths straight. Where two things 
 are spoken of that have a similarity of meaning, one relates to the will 
 and the other to the understanding. These are the faculties in the 
 human mind into which the Lord enters, and in which he is received. 
 His way into the will is prepared by our ceasing from evil and doing 
 good, and his way into the understanding is made straight by our 
 rejecting error and believing truth. 
 
 4. We now have a description of John himself, and one that bears 
 testimony to his representative character. The same John had his 
 raiment of cameC s hair , and a leathern girdle about his loins ; and 
 
Ciiap. Ill] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 40 
 
 his meat was locusts and wild honey. That which John wore was 
 the garment of a prophet, for a “ hairy garment” was a badge of the 
 prophetic office. Both the hairy garment and the leathern girdle are 
 specifically mentioned (2 Ki. i. 8) as having been worn by the pro- 
 phet Elijah, in whose spirit and power John the Baptist came. And 
 he so came because Elijah represented the Word. The literal sense 
 of the Word, which is the clothing of its spiritual sense, was specifi- 
 cally represented by the garment in which these prophets appeared, 
 the leathern girdle about their loins signifying the bond of connection 
 between the spiritual sense and the literal sense. The literal and 
 the spiritual senses of the Word, like the natural and the spiritual 
 worlds, and the human body and soul, have nothing in common ; the 
 one is natural and the other is spiritual; and yet they exist in the 
 closest connection. What is it that forms the bond of connection 
 and union betwixt them h This is an interesting question ; and the 
 true answer to it supplies a profound theological as well as philo- 
 sophical truth. The literal and the spiritual senses of the word, like 
 the natural and the spiritual worlds, and the body and soul, are 
 united by correspondence. And correspondence is the mutual relation 
 which exists between a spiritual cause and its natural effect. Corre- 
 spondence is the “ girdle ” that unites the natural and the spiritual 
 senses of the Word. The genuine truths of the literal sense of the 
 Word are included in the meaning of John’s girdle; for from these 
 truths doctrine is derived and the apparent truths of the Word are 
 explained. The spiritual sense is revealed to none but those who are 
 in genuine truths. John’s garment was of camel’s hair, because the 
 camel on the land, like the whale in the sea, is the symbol of that 
 general kind of truth which is expressed in the letter of the Word. 
 It was in reference to this symbolical character of the camel that our 
 Lord said, “ a camel cannot go through the eye of a needle,” meaning 
 that the mere literalist cannot discern spiritual truth. There is 
 another interesting part in this description of the Lord’s forerunner. 
 His meat was locusts and wild honey. Without being a necessary, 
 this was a natural result of his living in the wilderness ; and, spir- 
 itually understood, has a meaning in harmony with it. For as the 
 wilderness represented the desert state of the church, the locusts and 
 wild honey which it afforded John for food represented the spiritual food 
 which the church then supplied to her children. The locust was among 
 the lowest kind of winged creatures that were permitted to be eaten 
 by the “ holy people ” (Lev. xi. 22), and therefore signifies what serves 
 as food for the intellect. Honey, from its sweetness, signifies what is 
 
50 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. III. 
 
 spiritually delightful. “Thy words are sweeter than honey to my 
 month.” Wild honey signifies what is delightful to the natural mind. 
 John’s meat, therefore, represented that in the church at that time 
 the soul’s food was the lowest possible by which spiritual life could 
 be sustained. When John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, 
 he was, like the prophets of old, a sign unto the children of Judah. 
 His abode, his raiment, his meat, all spoke, in the symbolic language 
 with which the Jews were acquainted, of the state of the church 
 among them ; and in the language of correspondence these will 
 speak to all ages of the state of those who are in a gross and be- 
 nighted condition of mind. And as this was a state from which John 
 came to rouse the carnal Jews, so is it a state from which the Word 
 of God is ever striving to awaken the sinner. 
 
 5. John’s preaching was so effective that there went out to him 
 Jerusalem , and all Judea , and all the region round about Jordan. 
 We cannot suppose that this is to be understood in the strictly literal 
 sense. It cannot be supposed that the whole population of these 
 places went out and were baptized. Like many other seemingly 
 hyperbolical expressions in Scripture, this has been written for the 
 sake of the internal sense. Jerusalem signifies the spiritual principle 
 in the church and in man, Judea the celestial, Jordan the natural. 
 The record teaches us that all in whom there is anything of spiritual 
 truth, good, and obedience go out unto John, or obey the voice of 
 the divine Word, which calls them to repentance, and go out from 
 their unconverted state to one of new life and light — go to the divine 
 Word for instruction, to learn what and where that kingdom is 
 which is at hand, that they may be prepared to enter it. 
 
 6. The multitudes who went out to John, after being instructed by 
 him respecting the Messiah and his kingdom, sealed their faith in 
 him by receiving the sign of baptism. They were baptized of him in 
 Jordan, confessing their sins. It is hardly necessary to say anything 
 respecting the origin of baptism as an initiatory rite. Washings 
 existed in the Israelitish church ; and these, like many others of their 
 ceremonies, would seem to have descended from the ancient, which 
 was a representative church. Hence lustration came to form a cere- 
 monial in all the nations, contemporary with the Jews, descended 
 from those who formed the Noetic dispensation. It appears that the 
 Jews, from whatever source they derived the opinion, understood that 
 the advent of the Messiah would be ushered in by baptism. They 
 demanded of John, “Why baptizest thou, if thou be not the Christ, 
 nor Elias, neither that prophet 1 ?” This we learn from the Forerunner 
 
Chap. III.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 51 
 
 of the Lord’s second advent : that all the ceremonials of the Israelitish 
 church were collected into the two sacraments of the Christian church 
 — all washings into the sacrament of baptism, and all feasts into that 
 of the Holy Supper. 
 
 The baptism of John had two distinct uses. It is declared in 
 Malachi (iv. 5, 6) that Elijah’s coming was to prevent the Lord’s 
 smiting the earth with a curse. Had the Lord come among the J ews 
 without signing and sealing them with the ordinance of baptism, 
 through which they were connected with heaven and surrounded 
 with an angelic sphere of protection, his presence would have con- 
 sumed them. The church, signified by the earth, would have perished 
 prematurely, and no remains would have been left from which to 
 form the beginning of a new dispensation. 
 
 Baptism had a second use: it represented purification. Water is 
 the symbol of truth, and baptism is the sign of washing the heart from 
 wickedness. John’s baptism being performed in Jordan added to the 
 significance of the rite. Through Jordan the children of Israel passed 
 into Canaan; and as Canaan was a type of the church and heaven, 
 baptism in Jordan was a sign that our passage into the church and 
 heaven lies through purification. He who is baptized with this living 
 baptism has put off the old man and put on the new — he is passed 
 from death unto life, has been buried with Christ and risen with him. 
 
 7. Besides the numbers who were drawn to the baptism of John by 
 feelings of true penitence, there were others who sought baptism from 
 unworthy motives. When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees 
 come to his baptism , he said unto them, 0 generation of vipers. Persons 
 belonging to these sects might have come and been accepted; but 
 these had come without manifesting the spirit which would have 
 rendered their acceptance of baptism profitable to themselves. Of 
 these two sects, so frequently mentioned in the New Testament, it 
 may be useful in this place, where they are first mentioned, to say a 
 few words. The Pharisees and the Sadducees may be regarded as the 
 ritualists and the rationalists of the Jewish church. The Pharisees 
 not only accepted the Scriptures, but the traditions of the elders, as 
 their authority in matters of religion, which they made to consist 
 chiefly in multiplied ceremonial observances. The Sadducees, on the 
 other hand, rejected all tradition, and adhered rigidly to the written 
 law, which they so interpreted as to deny the immortality of the soul 
 and the existence of angels and spirits. The Pharisees formed the 
 pious, the Sadducees the philosophical section of the church. Taking 
 their character and their systems as the basis of their spiritual repre- 
 
52 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. III. 
 
 sentation, we cannot fail to see in the Pharisees and Sadducees the 
 symbols of the will and understanding of the natural man, not merely 
 unconverted, but perverted by self-righteousness and intellectual 
 pride. John called them vipers, not from similitude, but from corre- 
 spondence. The whole serpent tribe are emblematical of the sensuous 
 part of man’s nature. Originally this was very good; but when it had 
 accomplished man’s fall, it became degraded; the serpent walked on 
 its belly, and dust became its meat. Sensuous wisdom, which should 
 have been a protection to innocence, having become its destroyer, it is 
 only now, when the seed of the woman has bruised the serpent’s head, 
 that it can, through his work and by his power, be deprived of its 
 dominion in the heart of man. How complete that dominion had 
 become, the Pharisees and Sadducees too fully exemplified. What 
 was their state is that of every unconverted man as to his sensuous or 
 carnal mind. This is that old serpent called the devil and Satan; 
 and from these are produced a generation of vipers, in the endless 
 reasonings in favour of self and the world. 
 
 John demands of his Pharisaical and Sadducean hearers, Who hath 
 warned you to flee from the wrath to come ? This is a question of the 
 utmost consequence, and should be asked of himself by every one 
 who wishes to flee from the wrath to come. In the first place, what 
 was this coming wrath from which these men were induced to flee ? 
 Perhaps they understood him, as many Christians understand him, to 
 mean the wrath of God. Divine wrath is indeed mentioned in the 
 Scriptures; but this is the language of appearances : the reality is, that 
 there is no wrath in God. Yet there is a wrath that overtakes the 
 sinner, and as surely as if God could himself be angry. W rath is in 
 all evil loves as burning is in fire ; and every one who loves and lives 
 in sin carries in his own bosom the fire of his future torment. This 
 is the wrath to come. Who hath warned you to flee from this coming 
 wrath? — God or yourself, the Word or the world, sorrow for sin or 
 fear of punishment ? What is the thought that induces you, the 
 motive that impels you ? Is it the voice of God speaking through 
 your conscience, or the voice of the world speaking through your 
 interests ? These are practical inquiries involved in the demand of 
 John. 
 
 8. He who proposed the inquiry gives the test by which to know 
 whether we can give the true answer. Bring forth therefore fruits 
 meet for repentance. If we are really desirous to flee from the wrath 
 to come, the way lies through repentance. The purpose in the heart 
 must show itself by amendment in the life. If our purpose is of God, 
 
Chap. III.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 5 3 
 
 lie will infallibly lead us to work it out by acts of self-denial. These 
 are the works meet for repentance. “Cease to do evil” is the first 
 great work of the repentant sinner. There can be no true holiness 
 without it. To do acts of piety and goodness, without hating and 
 shunning evil, is to cover and gild corruption. Merely to desist from 
 evil may seem to be but negative virtue; yet the negative is the only 
 foundation of the positive. Eight out of the ten commandments are 
 prohibitory. Thou shalt not steal, nor bear false witness, nor commit 
 adultery, are the forms in which Divine wisdom teaches us honesty, 
 sincerity, and purity. And this is the way in which we are to bring 
 forth fruits meet for repentance. 
 
 9. But while the Word demands practical, we are all inclined to 
 trust in hereditary and nominal religion. The Jews presumed upon 
 being the descendants of the faithful — children of the promise. Divine 
 Truth raises its voice against this vain confidence. Think not to say 
 within yourselves , We have Abraham to our father. While they were 
 the children of Abraham according to the flesh, they were far from 
 being his children according to the spirit. When, afterwards, the 
 Jews boasted that Abraham was their father, Jesus answered them, 
 “If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.” 
 He then told them, too, that their father was the devil, whose deeds 
 they continued to do. It is this hereditary relationship to Abraham 
 which J ohn warns them against as a ground of confidence, as 
 answering all claims of religious obligation upon them. And as the 
 same evil exists now under a different name, what is this plea in our 
 time and on our part? Do not we Christians trust to the name of 
 Christ, when we have not his spirit and do not his works ? What 
 virtue or profit can there be in this nominal religion, when God is 
 able of these stones to raise up children unto A braham ? We need 
 not trouble ourselves with the question of natural possibility; the 
 spiritual lesson is that which concerns us. 
 
 Stones are types of truths. The apostle speaks of the members of 
 the church as living stones: these are the true members of the body 
 of Christ, who is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel. But the stones 
 out of which God can raise up children to Abraham — that is, such 
 children as the Jews — are not living, but dead stones — truths without 
 life, because without love and goodness. Nominal members of the 
 church can be raised up from the knowledges of truth ; real members 
 only from the love and practice of the truth. The stones from which 
 God could raise up children to Abraham are also the statutes arid 
 ceremonial laws of the Jewish church, as a representative and shadowy 
 
5 4 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. III. 
 
 dispensation. The law of the ten commandments was written npon 
 tables of stone, to represent that in the Jewish church the law of 
 Divine order and righteousness could only be impressed upon the 
 outward man. Therefore, when the new covenant which the Lord 
 should make with his church is treated of, he says, “ This is the cove- 
 nant that I will make with the house of Israel : I will put my law in 
 their inward parts, and write it in their hearts” (Jer. xxxi. 33). 
 And so Paul: “Ye are the epistle of Christ, written with the Spirit 
 of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the 
 heart” (2 Cor. iii. 3). 
 
 10. As nothing spiritual and useful could grow out of that dead 
 root, which was never intended to be more than temporary, now also, 
 said John, the axe is land unto the root of the trees. Judaism was to be 
 cut up by its roots, and all presumptuous hopes founded upon it to be 
 overturned. Such was the sentence of divine truth upon the Jewish 
 church, and upon all who clung to it in its then showy but fruitless 
 condition. But there is a lesson here for us. Our motives are the 
 roots from which our actions spring. Christianity lays the axe at the 
 root of the tree ; for it is not only a law to regulate our actions, but 
 a principle to guide our motives; and whatever grows out of the 
 ends of our life, that does not bear the fruits of holy living, must be 
 cut down. Our selfhood constitutes the first root of our life. What 
 sort of tree would man become if that root were not extirpated? 
 But the evil root is not removed, and a new one implanted in its 
 stead, unless man regards the evils which constitute the root as 
 destructive to his soul, and on that account is desirous of removing 
 them. As, however, they belong to his selfhood, and are conse- 
 quently delightful to him, he cannot effect their removal but with a 
 degree of unwillingness and of struggle against them, and thus of 
 combat. The truth, which is the instrument of combat, is meant by 
 the axe, and the combat itself by hewing down the tree. But the 
 tree after being hewn down is to be cast into the fire. 
 
 These two acts have reference to the understanding and the will. 
 To cut down the tree has reference to the removal of evil from the 
 understanding; to cast it into the fire, to the removal of evil from the 
 will. The axe and the fire, too, are symbolical — the axe of truth, the 
 fire of love. As the removal of evil is not effected but by tempta- 
 tion, the hewing down of the tree refers to intellectual labour or 
 combat against evil, and the casting it into the fire to conflict in the 
 will. The imagery is expressive and instructive. The evil principle 
 is cut down in the understanding, but is consumed in the wilL 
 
Chap. III.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 55 
 
 Faith prostrates the evil principle, love burns it up. Fire as a 
 symbol of love and zeal, and burning, of the severest trials and the 
 completest vastation, often occur in the Word. The Lord’s conflict 
 with the powers of darkness, in his zeal for the salvation of the 
 human race, was to be “with burning and fuel of fire” (Isa. ix. 5); 
 and even as a Regenerator, he was to be “ like a refiner’s fire” (Mai. 
 iii. 2). He “came also to send fire on the earth” (Luke xii. 44); 
 and to “baptize with fire” (Luke iii. 16). In all which there is 
 reference to conquest and removal through the fiery trials of tempta- 
 tion, in which holy overcomes unholy love. 
 
 11. John proceeds to speak of the true means and agencies by 
 which this work is carried on and completed, and of the last as 
 greater than the first. I indeed baptize you with water unto repent- 
 ance ; but he that cometh after me is mightier than /, whose shoes I am 
 not worthy to bear : he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost , and with 
 fire. John’s baptism represented reformation; the Lord’s baptism 
 represented regeneration. The first is the removal of evil; the 
 second is the implantation of good. John’s baptism precedes and 
 prepares the way for that of Jesus. 
 
 Man must learn from the written Word what evil is, and abstain, 
 from it; and so far as he does so, he receives new life from the Lord. 
 John’s baptism comes from without; the Lord’s comes from within. 
 John’s baptism removes outward impurities; the Lord’s inspires new 
 inward life. Thus does the Lord baptize with the spirit of his truth 
 and with the fire of his love all who faithfully follow the teachings of 
 his Word, by ceasing to do evil. The second baptism is a greater 
 work than the first, and a mightier power is required to effect it. So 
 much mightier is he who comes after him, that John declares himself 
 not worthy to bear his shoes. The lowest good of love is worthier 
 than the highest good of repentance. But on this point we shall see 
 something more in the next verse. 
 
 We cannot leave these words of John without a remark on the 
 important testimony thus borne to the rank of Jesus, between whom 
 and himself he admits of no comparison. If among those born of 
 women a greater had not arisen than John the Baptist, who could 
 that one be whose sandals John was not worthy to bear? His rank 
 may be described in John’s own words: “He that cometh from 
 heaven is above all” (John iii. 3). And not only above all, but 
 before all. Hot only was he before John (John i. 15), but before 
 Abraham (John viii. 58). He who was all this could be no other 
 than the Highest and the First. 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. TIL 
 
 12. The Lord’s baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire is to be 
 followed by a thorough outward cleansing. His fan is in his hand , 
 and he will throughly 'purge his floor. This purification is to be 
 distinguished from that represented by John’s baptism. For as there 
 is a truth which leads to goodness, and a truth which is derived from 
 goodness, so there is a purification that precedes and one that follows 
 regeneration. T he first is a purificatio n of the actions, from motives 
 of ob edien ce, the second is a pu rification oT the action s, from motive s 
 of love . The firsts was represented by. John’s baptism, the second 
 by the Lord’s washing his disciples’ feet, when he spoke to them 
 as being already inwardly clean. This second purification is that 
 by which the Lord “ throughly purges his , floor,” making a full 
 
 and final se parati on of good qnd e v il- The floor is the outer 
 
 memory, the common receptacle of acquired objects of thought 
 and affection. The Lord’s truth is the means by which separation 
 is effected. The garner into which the wheat is gathered is the 
 inner memory, the storehouse of ends and principles, which form our 
 
 , life, and remain with us for ever. The chaff is burnt up in the fire of 
 an unquenchable zeal for singleness and purity. The wicked, who 
 never judge themselves in this life, are judged in the next, and 
 being themselves like chaff, are cast into the fire of burning lusts, in 
 their own evil hearts, that nothing can quench. 
 
 13. Among those who came to John, to receive his baptism, was no 
 less a personage than the Saviour himself. Then cometh Jesus, from Galilee 
 to J ordan to John, to be baptized of him. J esus, it would appear, had 
 resided in Galilee till now. Thirty years of a life the most momentous 
 to the world, though not in the world’s sense, that had ever been 
 lived by man on earth, had been passed in private, if not in seclusion. 
 But now he publicly appears as the Saviour of the world, the great 
 Teacher and Exemplar of the law. Before entering on a life conse- 
 crated to the highest use, Jesus came to Jordan to be baptized of 
 John. The Lord as the Incarnate Word comes to him who repre- 
 sented the written Word, to receive at his hands this initiatory and 
 representative rite. He came from Galilee to Jordan, to symbolize 
 that progression of state from good to the truth which gives it quality 
 and power — power to subdue. The primary idea involved in John’s 
 baptism was purification, especially that of the external man. The 
 means by which this purification is effected are the truths of th3 
 Word, which are meant by the waters of Jordan. But these truths 
 purify the mind in two ways — by repentance and temptation. 
 Bepentance is necessary for the removal of actual evil, temptation for 
 
Chap. III.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 57 
 
 the removal of hereditary evil also. As every human being is defiled 
 both with hereditary evil and by actual evil, which is sin, every one 
 requires to be purified both by repentance and temptation. In this 
 respect there was an essential difference between the Lord and every 
 mere man. He had no sin, and therefore needed no repentance. 
 
 14. Well then might John forbid him to come to his baptism; for 
 to Jesus it could be no baptism unto repentance, which John had pro- 
 claimed it to be. But although the Lord had no sin, and therefore 
 needed no repentance, he had evil d erived from his fallen mother, 
 and required to undergo te mptation . And to represent this means of 
 purification. Jesus was willing to rec eive, at the hands of h is qwrp 
 messenger, the rite which symbolized it. But John not only for- 
 bade Jesus, but said, I have need to be baptized of thee. There is 
 one particular in this relation that it may be difficult to under- 
 stand. If John represented the written Word, why did he say 
 to Jesus, “ I have need to be baptized of thee?” Is the word of God 
 impure, and does it need purification? In itself it is pure and holy, 
 but as it had become in the Jewish church , a nd as it is i n the ^mind 
 of every one not yet fully rege nerate, it is more or less impure, by reason 
 of their impure perversions of its meaning, and the s anctions of ev il 
 which they thence draw apparently from it. The Jews had thus 
 perverted and defiled the Word ; and it is more or less defiled in the 
 mind of e very ch ild of Adam. These defilements needed to be 
 removed; and no one could in the first instance remove them but he 
 who was himself the Word. There was an analogy between the 
 incarnate and the written Word. The Lord took human nature 
 upon him, not fair as it came from the hand of God, but marred as it 
 had been by the hand of man. And just so marred as was the 
 nature of man, so marred was the Word of God. Corruption among 
 the members of the church brings with it a corresponding corruption 
 of the revealed truths of the Word, as the Pharisees made the com- 
 mandments of God of none effect by their traditions. It was through 
 these p ervers ions that the truths of the writt e n Wor d became instru- 
 ments in the hand of Satan for tempting the Incarnate Word to do 
 wrong. The Lord and the powers of darkness contended over the 
 truths of the Word, as Michael and Satan are said to have done over 
 the body of Moses. Evil spirits assaulted the Lord through the 
 appearances of truth in the letter of the Word, which are capable of 
 perversion, and the Lord overcame them by its genuine truths, which 
 they could neither pervert nor resist. These conflicts were the 
 Lord’s temptations, represented by his baptism. With every temp ta- 
 
58 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 l Chap. III. 
 
 tion, when ended, the Lord put off some of the infirmities of his 
 humanity, and p ut on, o r put forth, s ome of the p erfections of his 
 divinity, till at last he bec ame the Word in ultimates, as from 
 eternity he had been in first principles. 
 
 15. When John forbade Jesus to be baptized, the Lord answered, 
 Suffer it to be so now : for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteous - 
 7iess. In fulfilling the least of the requirements of righteousness 
 the Lord showed that he would fulfil them all. He came to fulfil the 
 whole Jaw of righteousness, and thereby to become Righteousness. 
 This is a great and important truth. He not only fulfilled the law 
 of the commandments, but the law in its widest sense, which is the 
 whole Word. He, by fulfilling, magnified the law and made it 
 honourable. Through his fulfilling the law we can in our measure 
 fulfil it also; through his becoming Righteousness we can become 
 righteous. By fulfilling the whole law, or the Word, he became, as 
 to his humanity, the Word. The fulfill ing the Word jneans, not 
 only that he obeyed its laws, but that he so transcribed the whol e 
 Word, internally and externally, into his own life, that he became 
 the living form of all the eternal principles which it contains. All 
 this is included in the Lord’s words to John, “ Thus it becometh us 
 to fulfil all righteousness.” And as the law which he desired to fulfil 
 by submitting to baptism was but a law of ceremonial righteousness, 
 we learn from the Lord’s condescending to it, that he fulfilled the 
 ceremonial as well as_the moral law, and that all its ceremonials had 
 relation to him in his work of glorification and salvation. 
 
 16, 17. The immediate results of the Lord’s baptism foreshadow 
 the glory he would attain when he arose out of the trials which his 
 baptism represented. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up 
 straightway out of the water : and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, 
 <fec.. Going down into and coming up out of the waters of baptism 
 were recognized in the apostolic church as significative acts. Paul 
 speaks of the Colossians as being “ buried with him in baptism, 
 wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation 
 of God, who hath raised him from the dead.” Baptism was then 
 regarded as the sy mbol of burial and resurrec tion — not of the body, 
 b ut of the sold — the putting off the old man and putting on the new. 
 Jesus coming up out of the water represented his resurrection, or, 
 what is the same, his glorification. It also represented the result of 
 every single temptation, his coming up straightway representing his 
 emergence from the trial, and entering into a new and higher state 
 of glory. The opening of the heavens is one of the blessed results of 
 
Chap. III.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 59 
 
 emerging from tlie flood, which has not overflowed the soul. In the 
 spiritual sense the opening of the heavens of the internal man is here 
 meant. For the object of the baptism of temptation is to remove evil 
 from the external man ; and every purification of the external man 
 has the effect of so far opening the internal man. Just as the world 
 is overcome is heaven brought near to us. To, us as follow ers of the 
 Son of Man heaven is opened as often as we overcome in tem ptation. 
 
 And through the open or rent Heaven he saw the /Spirit of God 
 descending like a dove , and lighting upon him. The Spirit of God is 
 God himself as a Spirit acting upon the human mind. The Scriptures 
 speak indeed of the Spirit proceeding from God; yet even this is but 
 an accommodation to our feeble intellects, as developed in a world of 
 space : for he who is omnipresent, how can he proceed through space 'i 
 It must be evident to every mind raised but a little above the sphere 
 of the bodily senses, that both the shape and motion of the Spirit are 
 figurative or representative. It appeared as a dove, because a dove is 
 an emblem of pure and holy affections and thoughts, and in reference 
 to God, of divine affections and thoughts, which are those of divine 
 love and wisdom. And more especially do those gent l e animal forms 
 sha dow f orth the gentleness and pyjfiJty, of r egenerat e soul s — symbols 
 therefore of the descending love and truth of the Divine upon the 
 human nature of the Saviour, by which also it became divine. The 
 Spirit of divine love and wisdom is therefore the winged messenger 
 sent from on high, with a message of peace to' the soul that overcomes 
 in temptation. 
 
 Besides the descent of the dove, there came also down from the 
 opened heaven a voice, saying, This is my beloved Son , in whom I am 
 well pleased. To those who think of divine as they think of human 
 subjects, of spiritual as of natural things, this will present the simple 
 natural thought of two Beings, one on earth and one in heaven — a 
 Father declaring his love for his Son. The voice to the ear, like the 
 dove to the eye, was the adaptation of the Divine, which is above all 
 sense, to sensuous apprehension. Our Lord himself declared, after 
 this, that no man had heard the voice of the Father at any time, nor 
 seen his shape. This, then, could not be the Father’s own voice, as 
 the dove could not have been the Spirit’s own shape. Both were 
 representative — representative of realities, but of realities far above 
 the mundane and sensuous appearances. The two were intended to 
 teach us, representatively, that the Lord, coming out of the depths 
 of his temptations, brought down to him, as the Man who was 
 made perfect through suffering, a new measure of divine truth and 
 
60 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. IY. 
 
 divine love. We do not, in this view of the subject, by any means 
 ignore the doctrine of the Sonship of Christ. But we believe that his 
 Sonship can only be predicated of his humanity; for the humanity 
 it was that was born of the Virgin, and this is declared to be the 
 only begotten Son of God. The human nature of Christ could alone 
 receive the Spirit of God. But by receiving that Spirit without 
 measure, the humanity came to have infinite fulness; and that which 
 has infinite fulness must be divine. The human was made divine by suc- 
 cessive acts of glorification. And it was when the human was fully 
 glorified that Jesus was truly the Son of God ; for by glorification he was 
 born of God, as by regeneration we are : and then J esus was the Son 
 of the Father’s love. And if he who dwells in love dwelleth in God, 
 infinitely more must Jesus dwell in love; for he is the infinite wisdom 
 of infinite love, the infinite form of the infinite essence — he in whom 
 dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily — he who has the 
 Bather as his very soul and life, and sends the Spirit as the emanating 
 life of his love and light of his wisdom — one God in one glorious 
 Person for ever. 
 
 CHAPTER IY. 
 
 We have had occasion in our remarks on the previous chapter to point 
 out the difference between the baptism of Jesus and that of every 
 mere man, and to explain that in our Lord’s case baptism involved 
 the idea, not of repentance, but of temptation. Accordingly, no 
 sooner does the Lord receive baptism than he engages in those con- 
 flicts which the rite represented. Then was Jesus led up (or away) 
 of the Spirit into the wilderness , to be tempted of the devil. There 
 is one particular in this which may strike the mind as singular, the 
 Lord’s being led into temptation by the Spirit — that Spirit which had 
 descended like a dove upon him. Yet in this very fact is the law of 
 progress exemplified. There is, however, nothing more surprising in 
 this than in Israel being led up by Moses into the wilderness to be 
 tempted. There is indeed an apparent inconsistency between the fact 
 and the Scripture declaration, that “ God tempts no man, but that 
 every man is tempted when he is drawn aside of his own lusts and 
 enticed.” But the truth is, that although temptation does not come 
 from the Spirit of God, it comes of receiving it. The Spirit does not 
 tempt, but it leads into that state in which temptation is experienced. 
 Temptation is an inward spiritual conflict between good and evil, 
 truth and falsity. There can therefore be no inward conflict except 
 
Chap. IV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 61 
 
 in minds in which these opposites are present and active. The 
 natural or unconverted man, who has no spiritual good and truth, 
 and has no concern about eternal life, knows nothing of spiritual 
 temptation; there is nothing in him to tempt. He follows unre- 
 sistingly the impulse of his natural affections, and pursues his 
 temporal aims undisturbed by eternal considerations. It is when 
 the Spirit of the Lord descends upon him, and enters into his heart, 
 that his false peace is first disturbed. A new life, which is spiritual 
 and eternal, has commenced in his soul ; and the old life, which is 
 natural and temporal, rises up against, and enters into conflict with 
 it. The Lord has come, but it is not to send peace, but a sword. 
 The Spirit has lighted and abode upon him; but it leads, nay, drives 
 him into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. The conflict, 
 once begun, continues, though not without intervals of repose, till 
 the natural and temporal submit to and serve the spiritual and the 
 eternal. Then victory is followed and rewarded with peace, peace 
 which the Prince of peace bestows, which the world could not give, 
 and which it cannot take away. We seek to explain this subject, in 
 relation to the Lord, by human experience, because J esus was in all 
 points tempted as we are. 
 
 We are not to suppose that this was the Lord’s first reception of 
 the Spirit, or that this was his first temptation. No doubt this was 
 an epoch in the Lord’s life and experience, the beginning of a new 
 state, of a new stage in the progress of his glorification. His glorifica- 
 tion had hitherto been chiefly that of his internal man, according to 
 the law in regard to human progress, that the internal is first 
 regenerated, and the external afterwards. As the Lord’s work 
 had hitherto been chiefly internal, his life had as yet been chiefly 
 private; and his experience is unrecorded in the gospels, because, 
 being that of the inner man, it does not belong to the outward his- 
 torical sense of the Word. His glorification was now about to be 
 brought more fully into the external, or, so to speak, into the body. 
 Therefore the Lord received external baptism, and entered into 
 the temptations which it symbolized, and came out into public life, 
 and did outward and miraculous works, and taught lessons of truth 
 in parables to the multitudes — the record of all which forms the out- 
 ward or literal sense of the gospels. The work of glorification in the 
 Lord, like the complete regeneration of man, consists not only of 
 continuous, but of distinct degrees. Like man, the Lord passed 
 through three distinct states, which we call natural, spiritual, and 
 celestial. These may be considered to be represented, if not marked, 
 
62 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. IV. 
 
 by the Lord’s baptism, his transfiguration, and his resurrection ; and 
 his progression in them perhaps representatively described by the 
 three journeys he made, during his ministry, to Jerusalem. His 
 temptations in the wilderness were also three in number. These 
 temptations of our Lord were not so much three acts, as three kinds, 
 of temptation. Indeed, we are not to regard the historical relation 
 as strictly literal. It contains the history of all his temptations. 
 Excepting his agony in the garden and his sufferings on the cross, 
 these are the only temptations of the Lord mentioned in the gospels. 
 And yet his whole life was one of conflict and victory. His temptations 
 could not be adequately described as they actually occurred, because, 
 unlike his teachings and his works, they did not, except in a few 
 instances, come under human observation. Although, on this account, 
 they are not recorded in the New Testament, they are described in 
 the Old. As the spiritual sense of the Word is the history of man’s 
 regeneration, the celestial sense is the history of the Lord’s glorifica- 
 tion. Everywhere, therefore, the Lord’s temptations are the subjects, 
 where war and conflict are mentioned in divine Revelation. In 
 many parts they shine through the letter, and in the Book of Psalms 
 they are often openly revealed. And when David is regarded as a 
 type of the Lord, then in “ David and all his afflictions” may be 
 traced the Lord and all his temptations. The Lord’s temptations 
 were various as well as numerous, yet they may all be classed under 
 the three kinds that form the subject of this chapter. A clear idea 
 of these will enable us to have some faint conception of the nature of 
 our Lord’s trials, and also of his triumphs. To the remarks we have 
 offered on the general subject, as introduced in the first verse, it may 
 only be necessary to add, that the wilderness is a general representa- 
 tive of temptation; for the state which lays us open to the assaults of 
 the enemy is one in which the mind has in it waste places, which 
 regeneration makes to bud and blossom like the rose. 
 
 2. The particulars of the Lord’s temptations come now to be 
 described. When he had fasted forty days and forty nights , he was 
 afterward an hungered. Forty is a common term used to express the 
 duration of temptation, whether short or long, and expresses the 
 continuance and succession of states rather than of times. For even 
 temptation has its alternations and successions of state within itself. 
 It has its successions of state, indicated by its forty days, and its 
 alternations of state, indicated by its days and nights. There are no 
 states without progressions and distinctions. Without them no state 
 could come to an end, or leave its impressions behind. The worst 
 
Chap. IV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 63 
 
 states through which man can pass are not of uniform darkness: there 
 is variet} 7 — and variety even in suffering is a relief and a lesson. 
 There is alternation; and if there is day and night, however long the 
 night and short the day, in the winter of our trial, hope is never 
 utterly lost in despair. 
 
 During the forty days and nights of our Lord’s continuance in the 
 wilderness he fasted. A fast of such duration was not a circumstance 
 peculiar to him, though all such fastings had no doubt reference to 
 his. Fastings were either voluntary or involuntary, and signified 
 either the abstaining from evil or the deprivation of good. V oluntary 
 fasts generally were signs of self-denial. Involuntary fasts were 
 generally signs of the deprivation of the good which is the spiritual 
 food of the soul. The soul has its food as well as the body. The 
 Lord’s soul had its food as well as his body; for he declared, “My 
 meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” 
 Temptation was just the time when fasting from this meat would be 
 forced upon him. For temptation is a state when delight in the law, 
 and power to do the will of God, seem to be taken away. The 
 tempter tries to bring us over to love and do our will instead of 
 the divine will ; — first to love it, then to do it. First, the evil influ- 
 ence acts secretly upon the love, and this produces the soul’s fasting. 
 This is the state which is here described. The history leads us to 
 believe that Jesus during these forty days not only ate nothing, but 
 had no desire to eat; for it was not till the forty days were ended that 
 he hungered. His appetite was taken away. We know that distress 
 of mind takes away the natural appetite. And, correspondently, dis- 
 tress of soul takes away the spiritual appetite. The lamentation of the 
 afflicted soul is therefore, “ I have eaten ashes for bread, and drunken 
 tears in great measure.” “ I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh 
 nor wune in my mouth” (Dan. x. 3). And as human experience 
 was, in every particular, inconceivably increased in intensity in our 
 Lord’s case, what must have been the fasting of him whose very meat 
 was to do his Father’s will ! But every state has its termination. 
 When the Lord had fasted forty days, he was afterward an hungered. 
 The object of the tempter is to take away the appetite for good, that 
 he m^y create an appetite for evil. And this is the first part of 
 the conflict. Actively to desire evil is the first step to doing it. 
 If the inspired desire is resisted, the first object of tempting 
 spirits is defeated; for if the inclination is neither approved by 
 the understanding nor cherished by the will, but on the contrary 
 condemned and restrained, the soul will gradually recover itself, 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 64 
 
 [Chap. IV. 
 
 and the good desire will return, and the soul will hunger after 
 righteousness. 
 
 3, 4. But the tempter, who acts secretly upon the desire and the 
 motive, does not give up the contest when he has failed to bend them 
 in favour of evil. From acting secretly on the love he proceeds to 
 act openly on the life. The soul’s hunger — its relish for good, its 
 desire to do the will of God — has returned, and the temptation now 
 consists in the adversary pressing the famished soul to satisfy its 
 hunger with that which is not bread. When the tempter came to him 
 lie said , If thou he the Son of God, command that these stones he made 
 bread . The stones which the devil asked Jesus to change into bread 
 were the stones of the wilderness, and represented, as we have seen, 
 the truths of the Jewish church. As bread signifies good, to have 
 made these stones into bread would have represented the changing of 
 such truth into good; for truth is changed into good by doing it; and 
 such as the truth is, such is the good which it produces. But even 
 supposing that the truths which were revealed to the Jewish church had 
 been preserved in their purity, the good produced from them would 
 have been at the best but Jewish good — the righteousness of the law, 
 the virtue of the letter — and could only have satisfied the Jewish 
 appetite for the good of Judaism. This natural good was rather a 
 substitute for goodness than goodness itself — a temporary means of 
 preserving the remains of the last and lowest degree of spiritual life, 
 till the spiritual truths of a spiritual church could be revealed for its 
 real sustenance. For the Lord to have satisfied his hunger with such 
 bread would have been to feed his senses and leave his soul unsatisfied. 
 It would not have been doing the will of him that sent him, and 
 finishing his work, but doing the will of him whose object it was to 
 defeat that work, yet to defeat it under the guise of promoting it. 
 The Lord was himself the bread that came down from heaven, to 
 give life unto the world. Jesus fed a multitude of people in the 
 wilderness, not by turning its stones into bread, but by multiplying 
 the loaves and fishes. But even this divinely-created bread was not 
 the only nourishment he gave them; for he had already satisfied their 
 souls with his words, with good things out of the treasures of his 
 wisdom : he had fed their inner man with spiritual good, and now fed 
 their outer man with its corresponding natural good — showing, by 
 his own twofold means of satisfying their wants, that man does not 
 live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the 
 mouth of God. In referring to the place in the Old Testament, where 
 the saying which our Lord repeats against his adversary occurs, we 
 
Chap. IV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 G5 
 
 find this truth involved in the meaning. Moses says, “ The Lord 
 thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, and suffered 
 thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna ; that he might make 
 thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word 
 that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live” (Deut. 
 viii. 2, 3). The Lord Jesus was typified by the manna, he being the 
 true bread; he, therefore, is eminently the Word of God by which man 
 lives. This first temptation of the Lord, as the second Adam, was of 
 the same nature as that of the first Adam — it was a temptation by 
 the serpent to eat of the tree of knowledge instead of the tree of life. 
 In his temptation the first Adam fell, introducing sin into the world ; 
 in his corresponding temptation the second Adam overcame, providing 
 in his triumph for man’s restoration. 
 
 5. We have already remarked that the Lord’s . temptations 
 describe three classes, and not merely three acts, of temptation, 
 and that they advance progressively from lower to higher, as those 
 of man do, from natural to spiritual, from spiritual to celestial. 
 The temptation to turn stones into bread describes the first class 
 of temptations, those which belong to the natural class, or which 
 appeal to the natural affections and perceptions. The next temptation 
 is one of another and deeper kind, being spiritual in its character, 
 but connected with that which precedes it, as one of a series. If, 
 when tempted to appease its hunger by turning stones into bread, 
 the soul maintains its integrity, in full conviction of the truth 
 that man cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that pro- 
 ceedeth out of the mouth of God, it will next be tempted to place its 
 confidence in the truths of the Word, to the exclusion of its goods. 
 Or, to express it in its relation to man : when Satan cannot overturn 
 a man’s faith, he tempts him to trust in faith alone. For this pur- 
 pose he takes him up into the holy city, and sets him on a pinnacle 
 of the temple. A city signifies doctrine, and holy is predicated of 
 truth. The holy city is therefore the doctrine of truth, but such as it 
 is in the church. The temple, too, has reference to truth, or to the 
 understanding as its receptacle. When it is called the houze of God, 
 it relates to the will; when named the temple , it relates to the under- 
 standing. To take the Lord up into the holy city, was to draw and 
 abstract his mind from other things, and fix it on the doctrines of 
 truth in the church; and to set him on a pinnacle (literally, a wing) 
 of the temple, was to seek to inspire him with the pride of intellect, 
 or elation of mind. We are not, of course, to suppose that such a 
 temptation was capable of actually producing these effects in the mind 
 
66 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. IV. 
 
 of the Saviour, in the same sense and degree as it would in the mind 
 of an ordinary man. We have to describe and conceive of these 
 states as they are in frail humanity, without which it would be 
 impossible to describe them at all; but we must never forget that 
 at best they can give but an exceedingly imperfect idea of the Lord’s 
 states; and to conceive of them as identical with those of mere man, 
 would be to profane a subject in itself most holy. The Lord, 
 although tempted in all points as we are, never allowed the least of 
 sin to enter into his holy mind : but we never are tempted without 
 betraying our frailty; and even when we overcome, which we do by the 
 power of him who overcame before us, we are but as brands plucked 
 from the fire. 
 
 6. Whatever we may conceive to have been the Lord’s state, as 
 signified by his being set on the pinnacle of the temple, that did but 
 form the prelude of his trial. The temptation itself consisted in his 
 being tempted to cast himself down, in the confidence that he would 
 be borne up. If thou be the Son of God , cast thyself down : for it is 
 written , He shall give his angels charge concerning thee; and in their 
 hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against 
 a stone. It is a singular fact that some, at least, when raised to a 
 giddy height, are seized with an impulse to cast themselves down. If 
 natural effects are the results of spiritual causes, there must be some 
 analogy to this natural impulse, if natural it may be called, in the 
 spiritual life. In the spiritual world we know this is the case. 
 Spirits, when raised above the level of their proper life, are seized 
 with an impulse to cast themselves down, and actually do so. Had 
 the Lord been raised above the level of his proper life — had Satan 
 been able to exalt him into a state above that to which his glorifica- 
 tion had raised him, the Lord could not have maintained his elevation, 
 but must have cast himself down. But Satan has no power to raise 
 men, but only to make them proud of their elevation. And “ pride 
 cometh before a fall.” It was this pride that Satan sought to excite 
 in the mind of Jesus, as a means of his downfall : for Satan only 
 seeks to raise up, that he may cast down. To understand what 
 is meant by the Lord casting himself down, it may be useful to 
 turn our attention to some of the particulars in the Word that bear 
 upon it. One of the statutes of the Mosaic law declared, “ When 
 thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy 
 roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from 
 thence” (Deut. xxii. 8). This civil law contains a spiritual truth. 
 The house is a symbol of the mind, the highest or inmost of which is 
 
Chap. IV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 67 
 
 meant by the roof. The spiritual calamity which this law was intended 
 to guard against is that of a man falling from a higher into a lower, or 
 from a superior to an inferior state of spiritual life — which is to fall 
 from a state of good to a state of truth, or from a state of charity to a 
 state of faith ; and he who does so violates or profanes what is holy, 
 which is to bring blood upon his house. It was because of this 
 important principle being involved in the Mosaic law that our Lord, 
 treating of perilous times that were coming on the church, when men 
 were exhorted to flee from Judea into the mountains, exhorted them 
 that were on the house-top not to come down to take anything out of 
 the house — that is, those who are in a state of good or love are not to 
 come down into a state of truth or faith, for by doing so they come 
 from a superior to an inferior state, and so pervert divine order, and 
 destroy both good and truth in themselves. The great law of life is 
 progression, and the order of progression is from truth to good, from 
 faith to love. The divine command is, “ Go forward — go up higher.” 
 This is the law of divine order, because it is the order of human 
 improvement, and therefore of human happiness. But the efforts of 
 the tempter, or of the whole powers of darkness, are to reverse this 
 law. Hot progression, but retrogression — not higher, but lower — not 
 nobler, but baser, is the order which hell recognizes and acts upon, 
 and endeavours with all its power and cunning to promote. Evil and 
 hell are what they are, because they are in every respect the opposites 
 of good and heaven. The tendency of hell is to go down lower and 
 lower, that of heaven is to go up higher and higher. When, therefore, 
 the devil tempted Jesus to cast himself down from the pinnacle of the 
 temple, he desired him to cast himself down from the holy elevation 
 on which he stood ; and only fulfilled what had been written in the 
 prophetic psalm, “ They only consult to cast him down from his 
 excellency” (lxii. 4). The devil endeavoured to strengthen his cause 
 by appealing to Scripture. Evil spirits do not tempt men to do evil 
 as evil, but to do it either as good or as an act which has the sanction 
 of what the tempted recognize as authority. Before they can use the 
 truth in their evil cause, they must pervert it. It had, indeed, been 
 written (Ps. xci. 11), “ He shall give his angels charge over thee, to 
 keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, 
 lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.” But this promise was given 
 to those who walk in the right way. The angels bear up and protect 
 those who desire their support and protection, and those who live in 
 harmony with, not those who violate, the laws of order, within 
 which support and protection lie. Hence the importance of under- 
 
68 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. IV. 
 
 standing, that we may obey, the Scripture, and that we may resist 
 temptation, which often comes to us under the guise of liberty sanc- 
 tioned by divine authority. The truth makes us free from sin, not 
 from the law which condemns it; free to do good, but not to do evil. 
 In regard to the passage quoted from the Psalms, though prophetic 
 of the Lord, it is to be understood of him in a spiritual sense. He 
 needed not the support of angels ; for angels, like men, are dependent 
 on him. But angels, when mentioned in the Word, signify something 
 of his own divinity ; for all that makes them angels they derive from 
 him. Angels, therefore, signify divine truths, and their hands are the 
 power of truths. These truths were the Lord’s supports, and these 
 prevented him from stumbling over the falsities that prevailed in the 
 church, which were the stones, against even one of which he was to 
 be preserved from dashing his foot. Ho mere man walks in this 
 world without stumbling. The Lord alone walked in it, through all 
 its perils and temptations, and stumbled not. 
 
 7. Jesus answered the tempter by saying, It is written again, Thou 
 shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Men are said in Scripture to 
 tempt God w T hen they doubt or dare his power; and they no doubt 
 tempt him when they presume on divine support in doing wrong. 
 We may thus be tempted by the devil to tempt God. Our Lord 
 overcame the tempter by appealing to the law against tempting God. 
 There is another sense in which our Lord’s use of this law of the 
 Word is to be taken. The devil tempted Jesus to cast himself 
 down, to prove that he was the Son of God. He was thus himself 
 tempting the Lord God in the person of Jesus Christ, who was God 
 incarnate. And our Lord’s answer includes this idea. Indeed, as 
 the tempter acknowledged Jesus to be the Son of God, he must 
 have known that he whom he tempted was the very Being who was 
 not to be tempted. There is another truth contained in this circum- 
 stance. The Lord said, “ Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God,” to 
 instruct us that the Divine itself is above all temptation. As the 
 Son of God, the Lord himself was beyond temptation. The Lord is 
 called the Son of God and the Son of man. And whenever he speaks 
 of temptations and sufferings, he calls himself the Son of man, because 
 the Lord was tempted as to his divine truth; but he never, in 
 speaking of his temptation and sufferings, calls himself the Son of 
 God, because this name is expressive of his divine good. And that 
 divine good is incapable of being tempted, the Lord meant when he 
 answered the tempter by the words of Moses, “ It is written again, 
 Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” 
 
Chap. IV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 G9 
 
 8. The last temptation is still more dreadful and daring than the 
 preceding. The intensity of temptation increases as it proceeds. 
 Again , the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain. A 
 mountain is the symbol of love, and exceeding height is the symbol of 
 what is exceedingly intense, because exceedingly interior. 
 
 This is a symbolical mode of saying that this class of temptations 
 is grounded in the love which forms the inmost of man’s life. The 
 inmost love of man’s life, in his natural state, is the love of self; and 
 the next, which is like unto it, is the love of the world. Our Lord 
 inherited from his human mother the seeds of this as of every other 
 love ; and it formed in him, as in other men, the ground of tempta- 
 tion. Strange indeed it may seem, that he, who was the meekest, and 
 the humblest, and the most disinterested among men, should have had 
 in his humanity the seeds of such evils as the love of dominion and of 
 gain ; but we need not be astonished at what in itself is so natural, 
 nor even at the result, which is so reasonable. Our Lord’s merit 
 consisted in his displaying such exalted goodness, while yet, like other 
 men, he was born with the seeds of evil. Merit arises from or con- 
 sists in being good where there are inclinations and temptations to be 
 evil. The Lord was perfected through suffering. And he suffered 
 because he had in his nature that which was the ground of suffering. 
 He had the hereditary love which formed the ground of this tempta 
 tion, and he experienced it in its greatest possible intensity : “ he 
 was taken up into an exceeding high mountain.” From the top of 
 the lofty mountain the devil showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, 
 and the glory of them. This particular is an evidence of the symbolical 
 nature of this relation. Sundry explanations have been offered, but no 
 satisfactory one has been given. Besides, if Jesus was truly the Son 
 of God, he did not require to be carried by Satan to the top of an 
 exceeding high mountain, to have the sight presented to him. He 
 knew more than the devil could show him; and Satan himself must 
 have known that too well to be guilty of such an absurdity. Such 
 conduct must have done much more to defeat his scheme than to 
 advance it. But though it cannot have been true literally, it is 
 instructively true spiritually. The exceeding high mountain and the 
 kingdoms of the world were in the mind of the Saviour himself. The 
 whole world was there, with its passions and its interests, but 
 slumbering in the depths of his human consciousness, till called into 
 activity by an influx from the kingdom of darkness. And wdien, 
 under the strong pressure of its influence, self-love is excited in the 
 will, all the kingdoms of the world are seen by the understanding; 
 
70 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. IV. 
 
 for the fire of love in the will becomes a flame of light in the under- 
 standing. In this way it was that the devil took Jesus up into an 
 exceeding high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the 
 world. But this did not constitute the temptation. Indeed, there is 
 nothing evil in the love of self and the love of the world themselves. 
 They are necessary elements in the constitution of human nature; for 
 while man lives in the world he must take his part in the affairs of 
 the world, its government and acquisitions; and he could not engage 
 in them unless he had a love for them, for without love there can be 
 no action. Our temptation in the world is, not to love and use the 
 things of the world, but to fall down and worship the devil, that we 
 may possess them. So long as we acknowledge the world to be God’s 
 world, and use it as his, we sin not ; nay, we would sin in not using 
 it. It is not its use, but its abuse, that forms the subject of tempta- 
 tion ; and all abuse comes from evil, which, abstractly, is the devil. 
 Evil claims the world and everything else as its own, and wishes to 
 be worshipped as its owner. Our temptation, therefore, is to worship 
 self instead of God, and possess and use the world for the sake of 
 ourselves and our own glory. He whom we serve is the object of our 
 worship. And we serve whoever or whatever is the object of our 
 ruling love. If we supremely love self or the world, self or the world 
 is the* object of our worship. The devil is ever striving to excite this 
 love in our hearts. The love of self and the world are not, in our 
 fallen state, disposed, as they were intended, to find their happiness 
 in serving God ; they desire to usurp his authority and claim his 
 possessions as their own. This is the ground of our temptations. 
 Whether shall we serve and obey God or self? this is the question. 
 To decide this great practical question of life or death is, in fact, the 
 use of temptation, and the Divine purpose in permitting it. The 
 devil is ever suggesting to us — A ll these things will I give thee , if thou 
 vnlt fall down and worship me; while God through his Word is ever 
 answering this seductive appeal, by saying, Thou shalt worship the 
 Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Jesus overcame the 
 temptation with this divine truth, which proved an antidote to the 
 poison which the old serpent was attempting to infuse into his mind. 
 The Word is the armoury from which we must draw the weapons 
 of our warfare in our conflicts with the world and self. And he who 
 does this faithfully shall never be moved. The Lord, who permits us 
 to be tried, never allows us to be tempted above what we are able to 
 bear; and with every trial he provides a way of escape: and that way 
 will be found in the truths of the Word and obedience to them. 
 
Chap. IV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 71 
 
 We find that the tempter is called both the Devil and Satan. 
 These two names are expressive of two kinds of evil spirits. As 
 heaven consists of the good and the true, hell consists of the evil and 
 the false. The evil are called the Devil, and the false are called 
 Satan. The tempter is called by both these names, to indicate that 
 the Lord was tempted by both these classes of evil spirits, and conse- 
 quently from both the evils which distinguish them. 
 
 It is of the utmost importance that we should have some clear 
 view on the subject of the Lord’s temptations, and should avoid the 
 mistake which our imperfect knowledge of their nature and purpose 
 is likely to cause. A knowledge of the purpose for which the Lord 
 assumed human nature lies, of course, at the foundation of all right 
 views respecting the nature and use of his temptations. The opinion 
 entertained by many, that Jesus assumed man’s nature to suffer in 
 it, as man’s substitute, the punishment due to man’s transgressions, 
 reduces the Lord’s temptations to a judicial infliction. And in order 
 that he might bear it in man’s stead, it is supposed that he himself 
 must have been free from the common ground of temptation and 
 suffering, which is evil. It is therefore assumed that, though born of 
 a fallen women, he himself was unfallen, having, by the miraculous 
 conception, received a manhood pure as that of Adam. To say that 
 the Lord assumed human nature in its fallen state will seem to*those 
 who hold the opinion that he was born pure, as virtually calling the 
 Lord a sinner. Some suppose that if Jesus had inherited moral 
 imperfection, he could not have made atonement for other men’s sins, 
 but only for his own. The nature of the Lord’s work in the flesh 
 required that he should assume human nature in its fallen state, 
 having in it the seeds of all human infirmity. It was to do the very 
 work that man has to do that the Lord assumed man’s nature. And 
 the purpose of the Lord’s doing that work in himself was, that he 
 might afterwards do it in us, according to the nature of the work he 
 first effected in himself In reference to the present subject it is 
 therefore said that he was tempted in all points as we are ; and it is 
 further declared, that he was made perfect through suffering. And 
 in regard to the purpose, in relation to us, for which the Lord 
 endured temptation, it is said to have been, that he might succour 
 those that are tempted. Both these truths were declared by the 
 Lord himself when he said, “ Eor their sakes I sanctify myself, that 
 they also might be sanctified by the truth.” The Lord’s temptations 
 were among the means by which this sanctification or glorification of 
 his humanity was effected, and by which he became the Author of 
 
72 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. IY. 
 
 sanctification and regeneration to men. Had not the Lord assumed an 
 imperfect humanity, having in it the seeds of evil, he could not have 
 been tempted as other men are, nor could he have been perfected 
 through the suffering of temptation. The opinion that the§e seeds of 
 evil made the Lord a sinner is a mistake. Every man inherits evil ; but 
 no man is a sinner till he has committed sin ; for sin is the transgression 
 of the law. The grand distinction between Jesus and every other man 
 consisted, not in the difference of their state by birth, but in the difference 
 of their state by life. J esus, like other men, was born with hereditary 
 evil ; but, unlike every other man, he was entirely free from actual 
 sin. He is indeed called, by birth, a holy thing; but this is applied 
 to him as the Son of God, and not as the son of Mary or the son of 
 man. It is remarkable that his sinlessness is spoken of in the 
 Scriptures, not in reference to his birth but his life — in fact, 
 in reference to his trials and temptations. “ He was tempted in 
 all points as we are, yet without sin.” Had such a remark been 
 introduced in connection with his birth, there might have been some 
 ground for the opinion that he was born absolutely free from moral 
 infirmity. Had it been said, for instance, that he was born of a 
 woman, yet without sin, the objection would have had some force ; 
 but when we find his sinlessness associated with temptation, in 
 whicn all other men to some extent fail, we may conclude that 
 practical, and not hereditary freedom from evil is meant. This 
 constituted the great value, as well as the great merit of our Lord’s 
 sinlessness. He was tempted, but he never yielded in temptation. 
 He met the whole power of evil, both on earth and in hell, on the 
 battle ground of a frail humanity, but, notwithstanding its frailty, 
 he conquered in every temptation, and crowned his work with com- 
 plete victory. Thus did the Lord subjugate the powers of darkness 
 and glorify his humanity. As he conquered, so has he now the keys 
 of hell and of death. And now does he say, “To him that over- 
 cometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also 
 overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne” (Rev. 
 iii. 21). 
 
 11. When the Lord’s temptations were ended, Then the devil 
 leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him. We 
 find here another hint of the existence of an inner sense in the 
 Scriptures. The Lord did not require the assistance of angels, who, 
 however exalted above the condition of men, are but finite beings, and 
 could afford no aid to him, who, being from above, was above all. 
 But there is deep truth in this, although it is not to be literally 
 
Chap. IV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 73 
 
 understood. The condition of mankind at the time of our Lord’s 
 coming was so deeply evil that hell was near, and heaven was far 
 from them. The Lord came to reverse this order. He came to drive 
 hack the powers of darkness, and restore man’s connection w T ith 
 heaven. He overcame hell by admitting temptations into himself. 
 When he overcame these temptations, then was hell removed, and 
 heaven came near. This w r as a general result of the Lord’s con- 
 quests. But it is said that the angels came and ministered unto 
 him. The angels ministered unto him, as men in their devotions 
 and virtues serve him, not by giving him anything he did not already 
 possess, but by satisfying, by their ministrations, his desire for their 
 happiness. This desire is his hunger; and our doing his will is our 
 ministering unto it. There is another and more practical lesson 
 which we learn from this relation. The Lord was our Example. 
 What is recorded of him is to be realized by us. This record 
 describes the result of our overcoming in temptation. When we 
 resist the devil he flees from us, and when the devil Jeaveth us 
 angels come and minister unto us. Here are hope and consola- 
 tion for those that are toiling in the upward path of regeneration. 
 Tempted Christians, who feel themselves beset on every side by evil 
 spirits and evil influences, which shut out the light and love of 
 heaven, may gain strength and take courage, knowing that if they 
 continue to hold bravely on in the day of trial, their perseverance 
 will be rewarded with deliverance from the oppression of the enemy, 
 when angels will come near as ministering spirits, sent to minister 
 unto them who have shown themselves worthy of being heirs of 
 salvation. 
 
 12. The circumstance which is next related, apparently in con- 
 tinuance of the series of historical events, is yet separated from the 
 Lord’s temptation by a considerable interval of time. Yet the two seem 
 to be connected in character; and this, no doubt, is the reason that 
 these events, although they have no historical connection, are here 
 brought together. Who would suppose that an event that did not 
 take place till about three years after the Lord’s temptation in the 
 wilderness, should be introduced in the form, Now, when Jesus had 
 heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee ? Yet 
 may we not find a reason for this in the similarity of our Lord’s being 
 in the wilderness, as it were the prisoner of Satan, and John’s being 
 cast into prison by one who may justly be regarded as an emissary of 
 the kingdom of darkness ? This bringing together of these distant events 
 will be seen to be all the more appropriate and significant when we re- 
 
74 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. TY. 
 
 fleet, that a similar treatment of the Incarnate Word by the powers of 
 darkness, and of him who represented the written Word by the powers 
 of the world, are related in signification to each other. As it was the 
 aim of the tempter to overcome the power and frustrate the object 
 of the Incarnate Word, so was it the purpose of the corrupt church, 
 of which Herod was the type, to deprive the written Word of influ- 
 ence and authority. As this was done in Judea, where the church 
 had her chief seat and her ruling power, Jesus departed into Galilee. 
 This was to represent that, the Word having been perverted and 
 rejected by the Jews, the Lord, as the Incarnate Word, betook him- 
 self to the Gentiles, to raise up among them a new spiritual church, in 
 place of that which had ceased to exist among the Jews. 
 
 13-15. But although the Lord departed into the country whence he 
 had come to Jordan unto John to be baptized, he did not return to 
 the city where he had previously dwelt. On his return from Egypt, 
 Joseph, to avoid Judea, where Arclielaus reigned, “turned aside into 
 the parts of Galilee, and came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth : 
 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall 
 be called a Nazarene;” but now, when, on Herod’s imprisonment of 
 John, he returns to Galilee, he leaves Nazareth, and comes and dwells 
 in Capernaum, that another prophecy may be fulfilled: The land of 
 Zabulon , and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea , beyond 
 Jordan , Galilee of the Gentiles; the people which sat in darkness saw 
 great light ; and to them vrfiich sat in the region and shadow of death 
 light is sprung up. The cities or villages in which the Lord dwelt being 
 made the subjects of prophecy, indicates a higher meaning than appears 
 on the surface of these divinely-inspired Writings. Besides their 
 minuteness in very inconsiderable things, there is another particular 
 that may impress us with a conviction of their spirituality. Galilee is 
 spoken of as being beyond Jordan. Galilee was not on the east of 
 Jordan, out of the land of Canaan, although “beyond Jordan” gen- 
 erally has this meaning. Understood with some degree of latitude, 
 the words may mean that the Lord’s work was to extend to the 
 Gentiles on both sides of the Jordan, as we find from this chapter that 
 it did. For the fame of Jesus’ teaching and healing went through- 
 out all Syria, which was on the other side Jordan; and among the 
 great multitudes that followed him some were “ from beyond Jordan” 
 (v. 25). May we not suppose, however, that Zabulon and Neph- 
 thalim were described as situate beyond Jordan, to express the dis- 
 tinctly gentile character of those to whom the Lord now turned? — 
 out of the land being equivalent to out of the church. Whether this 
 
Chap. IV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 75 
 
 be the case or not, there can be no doubt that we are here to understand 
 the Lord’s turning to the Gentiles. Two particulars enable us to ascer- 
 tain the spiritual meaning of Capernaum. It was upon the sea coast. 
 The sea signifies the external of heaven and the church, in which 
 are the simple who have thought naturally, and but little spiritually, 
 about sacred things. It was also in the borders of Zabulon and 
 Nephthalim. In reference to the people among whom the Lord 
 had now come, besides being called Gentiles, the description indicates 
 that they were in an external state, being on the “ coast” and on the 
 “ borders.” The land of Zabulon and the land of Nephthalim, also 
 Galilee of the Gentiles, as nations, signify that a church was to be 
 established among the Gentiles, who are in the good of life, and 
 receive truths, and thus are in the conjunction of good and truth, and 
 in combat against evils and falsities. That the establishment of the 
 church and the reformation of such Gentiles are understood, is also 
 evident from the series of expressions, as that the land was beyond 
 Jordan , Galilee of the Gentiles , and also that the people which sat in 
 darkness saw great light , and to them which sat in the region and shadow 
 of death light had sprung up. Such being the signification of the 
 country or land where Capernaum was, we have only to reflect on the 
 signification of a city, to arrive at a knowledge of the place which this 
 one holds in reference to the present subject. “ In the universal 
 sense, cities signify the doctrinals of the church; but in the singular 
 sense they signify the interiors of (the natural mind of) man, where 
 doctrinals are, or rather where truths are, conjoined with good. For 
 the truths and goods pertaining to man form as it were a city; 
 hence a man in whom is the church is called the city of God. The 
 signification of a city is like that of a house. In the universal sense 
 a house signifies good ; but in the singular sense it signifies a man, 
 and specifically his mind as to good and truth there conjoined; and a 
 house, with its apartments, circumjacent buildings, and courts, is a 
 city in the least form.” Capernaum, then, represented the doctrinals 
 of Christianity as adapted to the state of the well-disposed Gentiles, 
 and the natural mind in which they are received. For the Lord 
 dwells in that region of the human mind where his truth and good 
 are received, and, indeed, where they are conjoined. The connection 
 of Capernaum with the church which the Lord was about to raise up 
 from among the Gentiles is indicated by the circumstances connected 
 with the very next mention of that city by Matthew. For when the 
 Lord, after his sermon on the mount, “ entered into Capernaum, there 
 came unto him a centurion beseeching him to heal his servant,” and 
 
76 ST. MATTHEW. [Chap IY. 
 
 whose humility drew forth from him the remark that he had not 
 found so great faith, no, not in Israel. 
 
 The state of the Gentiles at the time of our Lord’s coming was 
 widely different from that into which the Jews had so deeply plunged 
 themselves. All, both Jews and Gentiles, were included under sin, 
 but as the Gentiles, unlike the Jews, sinned, not against the clear 
 light of Revelation, but against the dim light of tradition, their spiritual 
 condition was much less deplorable. They sat in darkness , and in the 
 region and shadow of death; but their darkness was the error of ignor- 
 ance, and their death was the evil of natural concupiscence. They 
 were in the region of death in regard to the unregenerate state of the 
 will; and as evil in the will, by intercepting the light of truth flowing 
 in from heaven, casts its dark shadow on the understanding, they 
 were intellectually in the shadow of death. And not only were they 
 in this region and shadow of death, but they “sat” therein, an expres- 
 sion which aways implies a degree of confirmation in the particular 
 state of life to which it relates. Yet the evils and errors of those who 
 are out of the church, and even of the ignorant and simple-minded 
 within it, are not of so deeply malignant a character as those of the 
 well instructed, who have entered deeply into the mysteries of faith. 
 They, therefore, who sit in this darkness are capable of seeing great 
 light, when it is revealed to them, and to them who sit in the region 
 and shadow of this death light springs up when it shows them the 
 way of life; for they are more disposed than the wise and prudent to 
 receive the light of truth, and to be led by it into a true faith, and 
 into genuine charity. 
 
 But this subject deserves to be considered in reference to the Lord 
 himself; for Capernaum, as his new place of abode, must have the 
 same relation to his public life as Nazareth had to his private life. 
 “In the supreme sense, Zabulon and Nephthalim (as the sons and tribes 
 of Israel) signified the union of the Divinity itself with the Lord’s 
 divine humanity, by means of temptation admitted into himself, and 
 victories therein obtained by his own inherent power.” For this union 
 in the Lord is analogous to the conjunction of good and truth in man. 
 When we consider the difference between the Lord’s two states and 
 modes of life, before and after his baptism, and the different significa- 
 tions of Nazareth and Capernaum, we must see the appropriateness of 
 his leaving that “ where he was brought up” for one which henceforth 
 became “ his own city.” In the Lord’s private and public life we 
 cannot fail to see a correspondence with the two successive states of 
 man’s regeneration. The internal is first to be regenerated, and after- 
 
Chap. IV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 77 
 
 wards the external. Nazareth, signifying separation, represented that 
 state and period of the Lord’s life when his internal was regenerated 
 — his state as a celestial man separate from the world. Capernaum 
 represented that state and period of his life during which his external 
 man was regenerated. To this Capernaum, being “ on the sea coast” 
 and “on the borders” of the land of Zabulon and Nephthalim, 
 answered. But there are other instructive circumstances besides 
 these. Between the Lord’s abode in these two places lay his baptism 
 and his temptation in the wilderness. The baptism of John repre- 
 sented the purification of the external; and temptation, which was 
 included in the signification of that rite, and into which our Lord 
 entered immediately after his baptism, is the means by which evil in 
 the external man is subdued, and by which the internal and external 
 are united. And here we see the suitableness of the Lord, after his 
 temptations in the wilderness, coming into the land of Zabulon and 
 Nephthalim, which, we have seen, signify the conjunction of good 
 and truth by means of temptation, and, in reference to the Lord, the 
 union of his divinity and humanity through temptations from the 
 powers of darkness and victories over them. While, therefore, 
 Nazareth was the place where he was " brought up,” Capernaum was, 
 in a divine as well as in a natural sense, “ his own city,” for he 
 became what Capernaum represented. It is not to be understood 
 that the Lord’s temptations were ended before he entered into Caper- 
 naum. On the contrary, he suffered much from the Capernians 
 themselves, among whom he had done many of his greatest works. 
 But we are to remember that even among the Gentiles there were, as 
 there still are, the evil as well as the good, and consequently the 
 unbelieving as well as the believing. And it was against Capernaum, 
 as consisting of and representing these, that our Lord afterwards 
 uttered such severe censures and denunciations. 
 
 17. The state on which the Lord had now entered being one in 
 which the Word came forth from its interior recess in the internal of 
 the Lord’s humanity into a more outward development and manifesta- 
 tion, he began to take up the thread of John the Baptist’s discourse, 
 and preach the same doctrine to mankind. From that time Jesus 
 began to preach , and to say , Repent; for the kingdom of heaven is at 
 hand. This is indeed an epoch in our Lord’s history. It forms the 
 commencement of his ministry — the first of the sublime teachings 
 which make up the incomparable code of interior and spiritual 
 wisdom that stamps the Gospel as the power of God unto salvation. 
 The time from which Jesus began to preach was that in which “he 
 
78 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. IY. 
 
 learnt experience from the things which he suffered.” He had been 
 tempted, and had passed through the fiery ordeal refined and tem- 
 pered. And now he was prepared to give the world the fruits of his 
 practical wisdom. Time is the emblem of state; and the state which 
 results from successful temptation is, as we have seen, a state of 
 conjunction — in the Lord’s case, the union of goodness and truth, and 
 a proportional union of his divine and human natures. Preaching 
 is appropriate to the state on which the Lord had now entered ; for 
 it is the function of the internal to think and feel, of the external to 
 speak and act. It is worthy of remark that the theme of the 
 beginning of the Lord’s preaching is precisely the same as that of 
 John the Baptist’s. It is said by some that repentance is not the 
 gospel. No doubt the gospel includes much besides the doctrine of 
 repentance, but there can be no gospel without repentance. Repent- 
 ance, we repeat, as it was the first duty preached, is the first to be 
 performed. It is the gate of introduction to that kingdom of heaven 
 which was declared to be near at hand. It is not “ believe,” but 
 “ repent and believe,” that forms the enlarged teaching of the gospel. 
 “ Repent” was the first word uttered by the Divine Preacher, and 
 stands as the Portal of the True Christian Temple of religion. 
 Whoever would enter in, must pass through the gate of Repentance. 
 Although there is no literal difference, there is a spiritual distinction 
 between preaching and saying; mentioned together, they imply that 
 the Lord addresses himself to the will and to the understanding; and 
 repentance respects both, for we have to repent of our evils and also 
 our errors. 
 
 18. But when the Lord appeared before the world as the Preacher 
 of the gospel, he was pleased to employ other instruments to carry on 
 the great work. Walking by the Sea of Galilee , he saw two brethren , 
 Simon called Peter , and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: 
 for they were fishers. The calling of the apostles is an interesting and 
 instructive circumstance. The selection of the men who were to be, 
 so to speak, the companions of the Saviour in his life, and labourers 
 with him in his beneficent work, is a matter of deep interest. But 
 when we know that the apostles, as a body and as individuals, 
 sustained a representative character, the choice becomes instructive as 
 well as interesting. The apostles were the first-fruits of the church, 
 and represented it. There is an evident resemblance of the twelve 
 apostles to the twelve patriarchs and tribes of Israel, which is 
 rendered evident by the names of both being inscribed, one on the 
 foundations, the other on the gates of the Lloly Jerusalem, (Rev. xxi.) 
 
Ciiap. IV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 79 
 
 The twelve apostles, like the twelve patriarchs, represented all of every 
 class who constitute the church on earth and in heaven, of which the 
 sealing of the twelve tribes in the Revelation (ch. vii.) may convince us. 
 As the apostles represent all the members of the church, abstractly, they 
 represent all the principles of the church, or all the graces and virtues 
 that constitute the church or heaven in the regenerate mind. Under- 
 stood in this sense, each apostle represents a particular grace. And 
 the order in which they were chosen, like that in which the sons 
 of Israel were born, represented the order in which the corresponding 
 graces are received into the mind in the progress of the spiritual life. 
 The New Testament does not give the history of the calling of all the 
 twelve apostles, as the Old Testament does that of the birth of the 
 twelve sons of Israel, but so far as the history goes, the parallel is com- 
 plete. The first four apostles are similar to the first four patriarchs. 
 The call of the one and the birth of the other are correspondent. 
 Like Simon Peter, Reuben signifies faith in the understanding; like 
 Andrew, Simeon signifies faith in the heart; like James, Levi signifies 
 charity; and John, like Judah, signifies love. It was when Jesus 
 walked by the Sea of Galilee that he saw the brethren, and called 
 them. The scene which this part of the gospel presents is touching 
 and beautiful in its simplicity. Jesus, choosing out men for his work 
 of evangelizing the world, walks along the shores of the Sea of 
 Galilee, and calls unto him some of the fishermen engaged in their 
 humble calling, that they may become fishers of men. The sea, we 
 have seen, signifies the external of heaven and the church; and those 
 who dwell by the sea are such as are of an external but simple char- 
 acter. The Sea of Galilee represented the heathen world as to its 
 intellectual character and condition, and those who were fishers in it 
 were, by analogy, suited to become fishers of men. But the sea has 
 another and kindred signification. As “ the gathering together of 
 waters,” which are emblematical of truths, the sea signifies the literal 
 sense of the Word, which is the ultimate receptacle of all divine 
 truth; and the fish in the sea signify the living, literal truths 
 which it contains. Fishers in this sense are such as study the 
 Divine Word, to draw from it the truths that sustain the religious 
 life both of themselves and others. This is a qualification required in 
 those who become fishers of men. And, indeed, the catching of men 
 is effected by the acquisition and communication of the truths of the 
 Holy Word; so that none but those who search the Word can evan- 
 gelize the world. It was because both these meanings were included 
 in the Sea of Galilee that the Lord walked on its shores, to choose 
 
80 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. IV. 
 
 from among its fishermen those who were required to go forth to 
 teach and to preach in his name. As he walked he saw two brothers. 
 And there was a reason for those he then chose being brothers. 
 Truth and good are brothers, or, what is the same thing, faith and 
 obedience are brothers; for truth in the understanding is faith, and 
 truth in the will is obedience. In choosing Peter first, our Lord 
 teaches us that faith is the first grace that finds a place in the minds 
 of the regenerate. Repentance, we have said, is the gate of introduc- 
 tion into the church; but repentance is rather an act and a state than 
 a grace — it is a general turning of the mind away from sin, which 
 prepares it for the reception of the graces of religion, or of the prin- 
 ciples which form it. Repent and believe. Repentance, like John 
 the Baptist, precedes and prepares the way of the Lord; faith, like 
 Peter, comes after him, and follows up his work. Hence our Lord 
 said, “ Follow me.” Faith is not mere intellectual belief, but is 
 the faith of truth grounded in good. He who was first chosen is 
 therefore called Simon Peter, though the surname had not then been 
 given, because these two names indicate faith as an intellectual state 
 resting on the will; and Andrew expresses its fulness by being mani- 
 fested in the life. When the Lord called these brethren, they were 
 casting a net into the sea. They were in the very act which repre- 
 sented the exercise of the function they were called to assume, and 
 using the instrument that corresponded with the means they were so 
 successfully to employ, in drawing truths from the Word and men into 
 the church. A net, like a hook, signifies doctrine, because it is an appli- 
 cation of science to obtain results that men’s unaided powers could not 
 effect. Doctrine is necessary both to draw truths from the Word 
 and men into the church ; for without it we can neither rightly under- 
 stand nor apply truths. Therefore “ fishers,” which Peter and Andrew 
 are said to have been, are “ those who search out and teach, first 
 natural truths, and afterwards spiritual truths, in a rational manner.” 
 
 19. When Jesus saw Peter and Andrew, he saith unto them , Follow 
 me , and I will make you fishers of men. In the time of our Lord’s 
 sojourn on earth, men who received the Lord as the Messiah were 
 frequently required literally to follow him. Spiritually, all require 
 to follow him by walking in the truth and imitating his holy 
 example. And this the disciple must do if, from being a learner 
 and teacher of natural truth, he would become a learner and teacher 
 of spiritual truth. This progression is meant by becoming a fisher of 
 men. Fish signify natural truths, and men rational truths. To be 
 fishers of men, the disciples must be able to teach spiritual truths after 
 
Chap. IV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 81 
 
 a rational manner. And this can only be done by following the Lord 
 as the Divine Truth itself, and as that Divine Truth manifested in 
 human nature ; for the Lord became man, that he might become the 
 fisher of men, both immediately and by means of others. 
 
 Faith in the understanding, however clear and bright, will not 
 alone suffice for our salvation. Peter has indeed the keys of the 
 kingdom of heaven, and can open it to our view; but he must be 
 accompanied by his brother Andrew before we can fully enter into it. 
 For as Peter signifies faith in the understanding, so Andrew his 
 brother signifies faith in the will, as a willing devotedness of oneself 
 to the practice of what faith teaches. 
 
 It is to such characters as these, or to those who are earnest in 
 connecting faith and obedience, that the Lord peculiarly addresses 
 himself, saying, “ Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 
 This injunction is of the utmost weight and importance. We follow 
 the Lord when we become his disciples, more especially when we follow 
 his example; but the deep import of this command can only be seen 
 when it is understood that the Lord alludes to the process through 
 which he passed in glorifying his humanity and uniting it to his 
 divinity, of which transcendent process the regeneration of man, or 
 the process by which man acquires a spiritual quality and attains 
 conjunction with the Lord, is an image and imperfect copy. 
 
 20. It is surprising, and shows the influence which the Lord 
 exercised over well-disposed minds, that when he called the two 
 brothers, they straightway left their nets , and followed him. It is to 
 be understood, that while the Lord was raising up a church among 
 the Gentiles, the first fruits of his ministry were Jews who were in a 
 Gentile state, for such were necessary to be instruments of reaching 
 others through the Scriptures. The doctrines and truths of the 
 Word were the net by which they were to draw men into the 
 church. But in order that they might receive and use the “ gospel 
 net,” they must leave their Jewish net behind. And such only as 
 were willing to do this could become apostles of the new dispensation. 
 New wine cannot be put into old bottles. New truths cannot be put 
 into old doctrinals. The doctrinals of the Jewish church related in a 
 great measure to ceremonials, which were to be abolished. As bottles 
 they had served their use, and new bottles were to be provided for 
 new wine. The old nets were not more required than old bottles. 
 These two disciples, leaving their nets, followed the Lord — followed 
 him in the regeneration, in performing works of love, and in teaching 
 truths of wisdom. 
 
82 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. IV. 
 
 Happy are they who have advanced to the state represented 
 by Simon and Andrew when they obeyed the Lord’s call; for they 
 have entered into a state of conjunction with the Lord, and secured, 
 if they faint not, a place in his kingdom. 
 
 21. But excellent as this state is, it is not the highest that the Lord 
 has prepared for them that serve him. For we find that Jesus went 
 on further. And going on from thence , he saw other two brethren , 
 James the son of Zebedee, and J olm his brother. By going on is meant 
 a progression or advancement in the state treated of. This, with 
 respect to the Lord himself, is a progression towards more intimate 
 union with the Essential Divine called the Father; and with respect 
 to man, it is progression towards more interior conjunction with the 
 Lord, or a deeper and more interior reception of him in the mind — • 
 the opening of a principle in the mind in which he can more inti- 
 mately dwell. Accordingly, we find that a very distinct state is 
 alluded to; for it proceeds to say that he saw other two brethren. 
 The reason of this particular distinction is because Peter and Andrew, 
 considered together, represent here the first state of the regenerate 
 life, in which the understanding dictates and the will obeys : but the 
 calling of James and John represented a state in which the will itself 
 is renewed, and, no longer requiring to be led by the understanding, 
 asserts its pre-eminence, and needs only to consult the understanding 
 to draw thence the means of executing the good purposes which it 
 now intends. James, accordingly, is the type of the heavenly prin- 
 ciple of charity, or of love towards the neighbour; and John is that 
 spontaneous determination of love into action by virtue of which a 
 benevolent purpose is no sooner conceived in the heart than the 
 hands and all the outward faculties are put into requisition for its 
 performance. How elevated a state that is in which love and charity 
 immediately influence the will, and good is done from spontaneous 
 affection ! and how superior it is to the doing of good from motives of 
 obedience only, and from intellectual conviction, must be evident to all. 
 Still more superior is it to that state in which men do good from the 
 promptings of good natural dispositions, without any spiritual charity 
 in the heart or any spiritual truth in the understanding. Natural 
 good is indeed a medium for receiving spiritual good, but cannot be a 
 substitute for it. This good seems to be denoted by Zebedee, the father 
 of James and John. When good from the Lord is received, this natural 
 good as a principle of action is no longer wanted, nor, indeed, admis- 
 sible; and therefore James and John, when they received the Lord’s 
 call, left their father and followed him. That Zebedee represented 
 
Chap. IV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 83 
 
 the will-principle in general as to the good natural affections which 
 are received by birth, would appear from another important occasion 
 on which James and John are named as his sons. When the mother 
 of these two disciples came to ask of the Lord that they might sit, the 
 one on his right hand and the other on his left in his kingdom, she is 
 called the mother of Zebedee’s children, no doubt to mark the natural 
 origin of the request, in which there was something of self-exaltation 
 which required to be crucified — for the Lord said to the sons, “ Can ye 
 drink of the cup that I drink of, and be baptized with the baptism 
 that I am baptized with?” but which had so much good in it as to 
 be able and willing to endure the trial — for they said, “We are able.” 
 
 22. And they immediately left the ship and their father , and followed 
 him. The Lord required of his disciples that they should leave 
 father and mother, and wife and children, and all that they had, and 
 follow him. This, which was literally done in the days of his flesh, is 
 to be done spiritually now. For these natural relations were the types 
 of the natural principles which constitute our selfhood. It is in 
 reference to these that the Divine Teacher also says, that “ a man’s 
 foes shall be they of his own household and from whom he is there- 
 fore required to separate himself. The two brethren leaving the ship 
 and their father to follow J esus, was thus a natural act, representing the 
 spiritual duty of giving up all things, both of the natural understanding 
 and the natural will, that we may become the Lord’s disciples. And 
 this is done “ immediately,” when it is done without hesitancy or re- 
 servation ; for as the spiritual sense has no relation to time, but only to 
 state, “ immediately” means certainly, as the result of strong affection 
 and unwavering faith. 
 
 23. The Lord, though he had chosen labourers to work in his vine- 
 yard, did not on that account cease to work in it himself. 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. Galilee, we have seen, repre- 
 sented, in relation to man, the natural mind. And when the Lord, 
 after choosing these four disciples, went about all Galilee, we are 
 instructed that when the Lord, as the Divine Truth, is received in 
 faith and love in the inner man, his Divine presence and power 
 descend into the external, carrying light and joy and healing into 
 every faculty and principle therein. The Lord’s labours there are 
 particularly described. He was employed in teaching, preaching, 
 and healing — teaching truth to the intellect, preaching good to the 
 will, and healing the disorders of evil and falsity in the life. He 
 
84 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. IV. 
 
 taught in their synagogues, for a synagogue signifies the church as to 
 doctrine; he preached the gospel of the kingdom, for the gospel 
 signifies the truths and goods of the Word, revealed at the coming of 
 the Lord and governing in the heart; he healed all manner of sickness 
 and all manner of disease among the people, for sickness and disease 
 signify the practical disorders of the life, arising from evil lusts and 
 false persuasions being brought into act; and their existence among the 
 “ people ” signifies that the disorders had an intellectual origin : for 
 evil may either pass from the understanding into the will, or from the 
 will into the understanding ; and those which originate in the intellect 
 are less malignant and deadly than those which originate in the will. 
 Sins of error are less destructive than sins of intention. And this 
 more especially is the character of evil among the Gentiles, or those in 
 the church who are in a Gentile state ; and these are meant especially 
 by the Galileans, who dwelt in the land, which represented the 
 church, and were yet in a Gentile state. 
 
 24. And his fame went throughout all Syria. Syria, or Aram, was 
 out of the holy land, on the other side of Jordan. But it was in this 
 country that the Hebrew church commenced, and some remains of the 
 knowledges of which still existed in the time of Abraham, who was 
 of Padan-aram, and even in the time of Balaam, who knew Jehovah, 
 and made a perverse use of the knowledge he possessed, by using 
 divination against the children of Israel. The remains of the 
 Hebrew, or second ancient church, continued in Syria a long time; 
 but it at last became idolatrous. Syria has therefore two opposite 
 significations. Considered as the seat of the Hebrew church, it 
 signifies the knowledges of good and truth ; but considered as 
 idolatrous, it signifies the opposite, or these principles perverted. 
 When, therefore, the Lord’s fame went into all Syria, it went 
 among a people who were not pure Gentiles, but who had affinity 
 with the church. And the result showed that the Syrians were 
 ready to receive the gospel, and to acknowledge the Lord as the 
 Messiah ; for 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 lunatick , and those that had 
 the palsy. Sickness is a universal term, including under it general 
 and particular evils of every kind. Evils generally are those of the 
 will and the understanding, which are here meant by diseases and 
 torments. Particular evils are those of the will, the understanding, 
 and the life, and these are meant by the three afflictions that follow. 
 Devils are evils of the will; lunatics are falses of the understanding; 
 
Chap. IV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 8 5 
 
 and palsies are evils of the life. These include, indeed, almost all the 
 maladies that are mentioned in the New Testament, as those with 
 which the multitudes were afflicted that came to Jesus for a cure. 
 His power was equal to the greatest demand that was made upon it. 
 The present relation gives us the impression, if not the assurance, 
 that the maladies were not only diverse, but numerous, — they came 
 from all parts of Syria, and were additional to those who came from 
 Galilee. Yet he healed them all. And he is still the same merciful 
 and infallible Physician. He heals the spiritual disorders and 
 diseases of all who come to him, and who trust in his power to save. 
 
 25. Besides the numerous sick and afflicted that were healed, 
 there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee , and from 
 Decapolis, and from Jerusalem , and from Judea , and from beyond 
 Jordan. These great multitudes represented the numerous thoughts 
 and affections of the mind that the Lord, by healing and regenerating 
 the soul, draws into connection with himself, and conforms to the 
 laws of his own Divine life, which is specially meant by following 
 him. The regions from which these multitudes came indicate the 
 kind of thoughts and affections they represent. Those from Galilee 
 and Decapolis signify the inner and outer, or celestial and spiritual- 
 natural ; for Decapolis was out of the land, lying between Canaan 
 and Syria ; Jerusalem and Judea signify the spiritual and celestial; and 
 those beyond J ordan signify the sensual and corporeal. Thus these 
 multitudes include all classes of persons and principles, spiritually 
 considered, that receive love and light from the Lord, and that follow 
 httn in the regeneration. Taken in connection with the calling of the 
 four disciples, and making them fishers of men, and their following 
 him as their Lord, this great multitude from all parts represented 
 affections and thoughts of all kinds, brought under the influence of 
 the Divine Love and wisdom of Jesus, the Saviour, now received as 
 the Supreme Object of faith and love into the understanding and will. 
 These are the great multitudes to whom, with the disciples, the Lord 
 addressed his Sermon on the mount. The sublimity and universality 
 of the truths he then delivered deserved an audience drawn together 
 from all parts, both within and beyond the land of Canaan. And so 
 with us individually ; all our best thoughts and affections should be 
 turned to the Lord, every faculty and power should be devoted to 
 him, when he discourses to us of those high and holy principles that 
 he came on earth to reveal, and which he is ever 1 teaching through his 
 Word, and continually operating by his Spirit to implant in the hearts 
 of mem 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. Y. 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 This forms the commencement of that sublime series of saving 
 wisdom, the whole of which has ever been the theme of general 
 admiration, as known by the name of the " sermon on the mount.” 
 This appears to have been the first regular and continued discourse 
 that fell from the lips of the living Word of God — of Jehovah, as 
 incarnate for human salvation. For until he had been baptized by 
 John, at which time the glorification of his Humanity was so far 
 advanced as to admit of an immediate communication between his 
 divine Essence and his external man — represented by the opening of 
 the heavens, the descent of the Spirit as a dove, and the voice of 
 divine acknowledgment then heard — he did not enter upon any public 
 ministry at all. He then underwent the temptation in the wilder- 
 ness,* after which he returned to Galilee, “ and from that time,” as we 
 are informed in the previous chapter, “ Jesus began to preach, and to 
 say, Repent : for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” This is pre- 
 cisely the same as John the Baptist had proclaimed before, the burden 
 of whose preaching is described in the very same words. “ Jesus,” 
 however, it is said, “ went about all Galilee, teaching in the synagogues, 
 and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of 
 sickness and disease among the people.” But the first specimen that is 
 given of his teaching, beyond the general announcement that the king- 
 dom of heaven was at hand, is that which is here recorded. And how 
 admirably in accord with the character of the Divine Speaker, and 
 with the errand of love on which he has descended into the domains 
 of fallen humanity, are these heavenly sentences ! It is to pronounce 
 blessings that he opens his lips; and the first word which issues from 
 them is the encouraging word “ Blessed.” And how truly, how 
 sweetly encouraging is this blessing! In the sequel he abundantly 
 declares how high is the tone of morals and true excellence which his 
 religion requires; but, instead of beginning with this, or putting it in 
 a form implying reproof and condemnation, he encourages his disciples 
 to engage with cheerfulness in the duties which he shows to be those 
 of true religion, by pouring out blessings upon the humble, the 
 afflicted, and the well-disposed. He begins with evincing that the 
 human race are the objects of his tender affection ; that all that is 
 good in them he desires to foster and increase; that their miseries are 
 regarded by him with the softest pity; and that the delight of his 
 heart is to remove evil and sorrow, to impart good, and eternally to 
 bless. 
 
Chap. Y.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 87 
 
 1. As he thus so characteristically begins his divine teaching by 
 manifesting his love — by evincing that it is from the purest Divine 
 Love that all his instructions and requirements, all his words and 
 actions, all his communication and dealings with the human race 
 proceed — so this was represented by the circumstances and situation 
 in and from which he delivered this discourse. Seeing the multitudes , 
 he went wp into a mountain : and when he was set, his disciples came 
 unto him : and he opened his mouth, and taught them. His seeing the 
 multitudes not only signifies that he beheld them with the eyes of his 
 natural body, but also, according to the spiritual import of the phrase, 
 that he perceived the state or condition of the wandering objects of 
 the children of men — how, as is said in another place, they are “ scat- 
 tered abroad as sheep not having a shepherd” — his discernment of all 
 their wants and needs, and his providence over them, keeping them 
 under his care, and providing, in the best manner that their situation 
 would permit, for their real and eternal good. Divine sigfit is 
 especially foresight and providence. The Lord’s being said, then, to 
 see the multitude, is expressive of his exercise of this providence over 
 the human race according to their state. For all the actions of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ were representative, no less than his words were 
 expressive, of divine and spiritual things — of some activity of his 
 divine love and wisdom, either as existing within himself, or as going 
 forth upon the human objects of his care and compassion. On 
 account of this representative character of all his actions it was, that, 
 when about to deliver the instructions of love composing this dis- 
 course, he went up into a mountain. This, indeed, in a natural point 
 of view, gave him the advantage of the better seeing and being seen 
 by the multitude that he was to address, and conveyed his words 
 more audibly to their organs of hearing : but the action was never- 
 theless correspondent to the state or principle in himself from which 
 he addressed these encouragements and instructions to the people. 
 We have seen that, as the style of the commencement of his discourse 
 most plainly evinces, he uttered it from the impulse of his divine 
 love, and of this a mountain is a correspondent emblem. Frequent 
 mention is made in the Lloly Y r ord, especially in its prophetic parts, 
 of mountains and hills; because, in a good sense, a mountain is repre- 
 sentative of celestial love, or love to the Lord, and a hill, of spiritual 
 love, or the love of our neighbour. For it is from love that all spiritual 
 elevation proceeds ; and the more exalted and ardent the nature of 
 the love in which man is principled, the more truly elevated is his 
 internal state — the nearer to heaven and to the Lord. Thus, when 
 
88 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 the prophet declares that in the last days the mountain of the Lord’s 
 house should be established in the top of the mountains, and bo 
 exalted above the hills, it is evidently the principle of love, as revealed 
 in the new church, and its supremacy over every lower celestial and 
 spiritual affection, that are signified; and when the Lord is said to go 
 up into a mountain, preparatory to his addressing the people, the * 
 signification is, that he entered into the depths and heights of his own 
 unfathomable love, and that from that divine and infinite love flowed 
 his divine words — all the truths which he communicates for the 
 edification and regeneration of the human race. 
 
 When he was set, it is added, his disciples came unto him. It was 
 the custom with teachers in the Jewish representative church to 
 deliver their instructions in a sitting posture, and not that of standing, 
 which most nations have regarded as the most convenient for that 
 purpose. The reason of the former choice was because sitting is signi- 
 ficant of permanence and confirmation. Thus, to deliver instructions 
 sitting, implied that the doctrines delivered were the dictates of 
 permanent and immutable truth. How truly was this applicable 
 to the instructions of the Lord Jesus Christ ! With strict propriety ' 
 and weight of meaning is it therefore recorded that he seated himself, 
 and that in a mountain, when he delivered this divine discourse. 
 The doctrines he then delivered were the dictates of eternal and 
 immutable divine truth — eternal and immutable because grounded in 
 the purposes of infinite beneficence and love. 
 
 2. Thus it was that he opened his mouth, and taught — revealed the 
 doctrines and communicated the life-giving instructions of that 
 infinite wisdom which is constantly directed to the promotion of the 
 true welfare of man, the salvation of the human race. 
 
 3. When the Lord was thus set upon the mountain, with the 
 disciples around and the multitude before him, he began his divine 
 discourse by saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the 
 kingdom of heaven. 
 
 Before we proceed to consider the beatitudes, we may offer a 
 few remarks on the connection that exists between them. There 
 can be no doubt that, like all things stated in the Divine Word, 
 there is a regular order and series in these beatitudes, and that, 
 though each appears in the letter to stand by itself, and not to be in 
 any wise dependent on those which follow and precede it, they never- 
 theless are all connected by divine principles of arrangement, whence 
 each has relation to the others in the series, and each occupies its 
 proper place in it, so that it could not with the same propriety stand 
 
Chap. Y.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 89 
 
 anywhere else. What the principle of the arrangement is, however, is 
 not so plain here as in many of the discourses, narratives, and precepts 
 of the Holy Word; and as I have never met with anything in which 
 this matter is illustrated, what I shall offer upon it shall be proposed 
 with great diffidence. I cannot discern that the several blessings fall 
 throughout into classes either of two or of three each, as is usually the 
 case with series of subjects in the Word of God. They are commonly 
 reckoned eight in number, because the two last, both relating to 
 enduring persecution, are usually regarded as composing but one. In 
 form, however, the two last are distinct, making nine in the whole : 
 thus, the distinguishing word “Blessed” is nine times repeated. 
 Hence they cannot be divided throughout into classes of two each. 
 They might be divided into classes of three each, but, as appears to 
 me, not without violence — not without separating parts that are 
 most closely connected, and uniting others which are obviously more 
 distinct. I incline, therefore, to conclude that the first four are 
 connected together, forming two specific classes of two each, but each 
 two having also a plain reference to the other two, so as to compose 
 altogether a general class of two great portions, each again consisting 
 of two members. Thus, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs 
 is the kingdom of heaven , and Blessed are they that mourn : for they 
 shall be comforted , are plainly united, the one having respect to the 
 good and the other to the truth of the same order or state, and 
 composing thus that heavenly marriage, the existence of which we 
 have often occasion to notice in the Divine Word. The one clause 
 has reference to those who regard themselves as destitute of good, and 
 the other to those who regard themselves as destitute of truth. But 
 the two next clauses are connected together in the same way, and also 
 answer respectively to the two first. Blessed are the meek: for they 
 shall inherit the earth — Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after 
 righteousness: for they shall be filled, are clauses which relate to those 
 who are in the desire for goodness and truth; and there appears a 
 relation between the meek, in the first of these clauses, and the poor 
 in spirit in the first clause of the preceding class : whilst there 
 is a relation no less plain in the beatitude promised to each, the 
 inheriting of the earth clearly answering to the possessing of the 
 kingdom of heaven. So the hungering and thirsting after righteous- 
 ness, in the second clause of this second class, is closely allied to the 
 mourning mentioned in the second clause of the preceding class; and 
 the being filled answers to the being comforted. 
 
 Thus, while each of the two classes contains a clause relating more 
 
90 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. Y. 
 
 to truth, and a clause relating more to good, the two classes have the 
 same relation taken together. The poor in spirit and they that mourn, 
 both have relation to the principle of truth, if viewed in connection 
 with the meek, and with those who hunger and thirst after righteous- 
 ness, which have relation, so viewed, to the principle of good ; but to 
 good more as looked to and desired than yet actually attained. 
 
 The three next clauses are closely related with each other, and so 
 little connected with the preceding and following that they appear to 
 me to form one general class together, and by themselves. Blessed 
 are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure 
 in heart : for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers : for 
 they shall be called the children of God. All these terms — the 
 merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers — seem to belong 
 properly to the states of the will or love, and thus to those who are in 
 the enjoyment, respectively, of three degrees of good from the Lord, 
 and thence are principled in pure divine truth, or gifted with its 
 perceptions. 
 
 The two last clauses, relating to those who are persecuted for 
 righteousness’ sake, and for the Lord’s sake, evidently belong to each 
 other, and form a class by themselves. They relate to those who, by 
 temptations, both as to good and as to truth, attain to states of good 
 and of truth through purification from evils. Thus they relate to the 
 means by which are effected the conjunction of the internal and the 
 external man, and the conjunction of man himself with the Lord. 
 
 I know not whether, by this slight sketch, I have been able to 
 convey any clear idea of the mode in which, as it appears to me, the 
 clauses of these beatitudes are to be classified. I think, however, it 
 will be seen that the two first clauses, relating to the poor in spirit 
 and to them that mourn, form a pair; the second two, relating to the 
 meek and them that hunger and thirst after righteousness, another 
 pair, and these two pairs a compound pair together ; that the three 
 next, touching the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers, 
 form a class by themselves ; and the two last, respecting the persecuted 
 and reviled, a class likewise. Thus the whole may be viewed as falling 
 into three general portions : the first consisting of two compound, or 
 of four single, members ; the second of three single members, and the 
 last of two. 
 
 However, whether this attempt at classifying the clauses be seen to 
 be just or not, there is another principle which prevails in the Holy 
 Word, where a general series of subjects is delivered, which cannot fail 
 to be perceived to be applicable here. That is, that the first mentioned 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 91 
 
 in order is a universal principle, which reigns through all the others, 
 and determines their specific uality. That principle here, then, is 
 the being 'poor in spirit. Evidently, to explain the phrase in one 
 word, this denotes the principle of humility, which is the only 
 ground in which heavenly graces can truly grow. We are therefore 
 taught, by its being here mentioned first, that in order to the enjoy- 
 ment of any of the beatitudes which follow, humility must first be 
 established, and made a universally reigning principle in the heart 
 and mind. 
 
 But what is this humility? Humility is the opposite of pride and 
 arrogance. Unfortunately, in our language we cannot express the 
 quality of being poor in spirit by any one term which does not, 
 according to the genius of the language, convey the notion of what is 
 abject and mean, and which therefore implies rather selfishness than 
 self-abnegation. Yet this cannot be the character of those whom the 
 Lord pronounces to be blest for being poor in spirit, when, in the 
 sequel of this very discourse, he condemns all selfish views in the 
 most decided manner, when he expressly commands his disciples to 
 “ do good and lend, hoping for nothing again.” It is true that he 
 says to those who do act in this disinterested manner that their 
 reward shall be great in heaven ; but this does not mean an external 
 recompence or repayment independent of the state of good, and thence 
 of happiness in the person’s own mind, but the blessedness which is 
 inherent in that good itself, and which becomes greater and greater in 
 proportion to the degree in which a person is capable of doing good 
 for its own sake, or from the pure love of goodness, irrespective of any 
 reward or any recompence whatever. 
 
 But they who are the most capable of acting with real disinterest- 
 edness, without regard to recompense, either in the shape of a return 
 of the same kind, or of credit, reputation, and applause in its stead, 
 will most heartily acknowledge that they possess nothing which they 
 have not received ; that there is but one source of all real goodness, 
 and of all real greatness j and, consequently, that whatever of these 
 may be exhibited in the conduct of a created being, only has a 
 residence in him by gift and communication from his Creator. To 
 separate man from God would be equally to separate him from all 
 good, and then he could neither cherish any feelings nor do any 
 actions but such as are altogether evil. And the only way in which 
 man can be in the reception of pure goodness, truth, or any heavenly 
 attribute from the Lord, is, by being habitually in the acknowledg- 
 ment that whatever he has of that kind is from this divine Source — 
 
92 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 thus, that nothing of it is from himself, unconnected with his Maker. 
 And in proportion to the depth and fullness of the feeling and convic- 
 tion which man has, that nothing good or true is from himself alone, 
 will be his capacity of receiving ennobling gifts from his Creator and ! 
 Redeemer. Therefore it is that the Lord pronounces the first of his 
 beatitudes in favour of those that are poor in spirit, and affirms that 
 their’ s is the kingdom of heaven. Eor to be poor in spirit is to be in 
 the heartfelt acknowledgment of our spiritual poverty and destitution 
 in and of ourselves; specifically, to see and feel that nothing of true 
 knowledge, understanding, and wisdom is of ourselves, or is self- 
 derived. In proportion as there is this heartfelt acknowledgment, 
 there is the capacity of receiving the corresponding gifts from the 
 Lord, and of enjoying and exercising them by derivation from him. 
 These, consequently, are imparted in abundance to such a mind ; in 
 other words, there is the kingdom of heaven — the reign of Divine 
 Truth, with all the graces which it brings. And if by reason of 
 temptations from beneath, or from the activity of the evils of man’s 
 nature striving to engross his affections, the kingdom of heaven is not 
 at all times felt by such a person to be his in possession, it nevertheless 
 is, even in his darkest states, his in property, or in right, and by the 
 best of all rights, that of gift and endowment from its Divine Origi- 
 nator and indefeasible Proprietor. 
 
 4. One with the promise made to the poor in spirit is that to those 
 who mourn. For if one of these terms refers more specifically to the 
 acknowledgment and perception, on the part of man, that he has no 
 knowledge, understanding, or wisdom of himself, the other refers to 
 the corresponding acknowledgment that he has no good, no charity, no 
 heavenly love of his own; that, viewed as he is in and of himself, and 
 separate from his connection with the Lord, he is destitute of the graces 
 of the heavenly kingdom in regard to the furniture of his will, as well 
 as in^egard to that of his understanding. Therefore, again, man being" 1 
 thus emptied of self, there is room for the Lord to enter, and to fill him 
 with his good. Wherefore, also, it is said of those who mourn, that 
 they shall be comforted — that all their wants shall be supplied — that 
 the destitution of which they are sensible in themselves shall be re- 
 moved — and that, being well aware that they can pretend to nothing 
 good of their own, or originating in themselves, they shall be supplied 
 with good in all abundance, and according to the utmost of their 
 capacity of reception, from the Lord. 
 
 It is, however, a fact, that man is not only negatively destitute of 
 all truth and of all good in and of himself, but also, that positively, in 
 
Chap. Y.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 93 
 
 and of himself, he is nothing but evil — that, by what is called the fall 
 of man, and the accumulation of evil which has thence gone on through 
 innumerable generations, man brings into the world with him an 
 immense mass of tendencies to every direful and abominable enormity, 
 so that his selfhood is entirely made up of such evil tendencies ; and 
 that every one has, to a greater or less extent, allowed these tendencies 
 to come into act, and so has alienated himself farther from the pure 
 reign of the Lord and of goodness. Here is abundant ground, when a 
 man becomes sensible that such is reilly his state, for mournful sensa- 
 tions literally; and grief on account of the privation, absence, or 
 perversion of good, is the proper spiritual signification of mourning 
 when mentioned in the Holy Word. No one, however, can truly 
 mourn over the evils which he perceives in himself but from something 
 good interiorly received from the Lord. Whenever, therefore, there 
 is real sorrow for sin, — not merely alarm on account of its expected 
 punishment, — there, to a certainty, a principle of good, of mercy, or of 
 grace, is present from the Lord, operating to effect a cure. That cure 
 is effected when the good thus present with man from the Lord has 
 accomplished the removal of the evil opposed to it — when it has 
 become paramount in the soul ; and not only so, but when it fills the 
 whole heart, mind, and life, so that, being consciously loved, it is at- 
 tended with a corresponding sense of delight and happiness. And 
 this is what is strictly signified by the assurance, that he that 
 mourneth is blessed, because he shall be comforted. 
 
 5. As the two first beatitudes relate to those who, from a principle of 
 good in the internal, see the disorders of the external, in which they 
 discern there is nothing but evil and falsity, so the two next beatitudes 
 which answer to them, relate to those in whom goodness and truth 
 are implanted in the external also, evil and falsity being removed. 
 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. The earth 
 is used in Scripture to signify the church, and, in relation to #man 
 individually, his external man : here it denotes the external man in a 
 state of regeneration and order. The meek denote those who are 
 principled in charity, and who, from charity in the internal man, are 
 mild and forbearing in the affections of the external man, towards 
 those who oppose or ill-treat them, instead of acting, as the unre- 
 generate man does in such cases, with resentment, passion, and vio- 
 lence. Thus it is said of Moses, in reference to the causeless sedition 
 against him of Miriam and Aaron — “Now the man Moses was verv 
 meek above all the men which were on the face of the earth,” (Num. 
 xii. 3). And the Lord takes the character himself when he says in 
 
94 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 that pathetic address to the weary and heavy laden, “Take my yoke 
 upon you, and learn of me : for I am meek and lowly of heart.” They, 
 then, who are meek are they who, from a principle of charity, are able 
 so to direct the feelings and conduct of the external man as that no 
 emotions of anger and bitterness shall arise or break out on any 
 occasion whatever — who, partaking of the long-suffering attribute of 
 the Divine Master, are able in their patience to possess their souls. 
 This is a state, not merely of acknowledgment of evil, and of grief on 
 account of it, but of good, which succeeds upon its removal in conse- 
 quence of such acknowledgment. And the happy ones who thus 
 cultivate this grace of meekness shall assuredly inherit the earth. 
 This does not mean, what many have dreamed, that the saints shall 
 become the sole possessors of what are called the good things of the 
 world, and that a temporal kingdom over the realms of the earth shall 
 be conferred upon them : what it means is, that the external man, 
 which by natural birth is the seat of all evils, shall be reformed and 
 regenerated, and all its evils be removed and so controlled by the 
 prevalence and dominion of heavenly principles, as to be in complete 
 subjection and quiescence. 
 
 I have observed that the meek are they who are principled in charity, 
 and thence regulate the emotions of the external man according to the 
 principles of charity. But it is to be remembered that charity in its 
 essence is truth, being the affection of living according to what truth 
 teaches. Moses also, who was said to be the meekest of men, repre- 
 sents the law divine, or truth divine, in its internal ground. So that 
 strictly, the term meek describes the quality of internal truth, which 
 is not contentious, but pacific. In this view the clause will answer 
 very exactly to that respecting those who are poor in spirit, they being 
 specifically such as acknowledge that nothing of knowledge, intelligence, 
 and wisdom is from themselves, thus, that of themselves, they are desti- 
 tute of truth. This acknowledgment of destitution is indue time followed 
 by the communication of truth; or the poor in spirit, to whom belongs 
 the kingdom of heaven, or who have the internal man opened, in due 
 time become the meek who shall inherit the earth — those who, being 
 in internal truth and the good of it, come into the possession of all the 
 graces of the regenerate external man. 
 
 6. The next beatitude, Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after 
 righteousness : for they shall be filled, relates to the blessedness of being 
 in the affection of goodness and truth ; which affection is sure to be 
 gratified, according to the degree of its intensity, by the communi- 
 cation of all the good and of all the truth which there is a capacity 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 95 
 
 for receiving. Hunger, when applied to the Lord, is the earnestness 
 of his desire to communicate good to mankind thus, for their salvation. 
 So hunger, when applied to man in the sense of having an appetite for 
 food, denotes his desire to be endowed with goodness, which is the 
 proper food of the will; and in like manner thirst, thus applied, is his 
 desire to appropriate truth, which is the proper food of the under- 
 standing. Righteousness is evidently goodness. Thus to hunger and 
 thirst after righteousness is to desire and look to good with all the 
 powers of the will and the understanding. 
 
 This is a desire which in a manner fulfils itself, since truly to desire 
 to become better is actually to become so : only we must take care 
 not to mistake a barren wish, the result of a mere intellectual convic- 
 tion of the superiority of the state regarded, for that real desire of 
 affection which alone is true spiritual hunger and thirst. Thus desiring, 
 we shall know what it is to be happy. The happiness promised to 
 such states will begin its development even in this life, by inspiring 
 an inward peace and contentment : and it will expand hereafter into 
 the utmost fulness of delight and joy. 
 
 We have observed of the first four beatitudes, that they seem to 
 constitute two double clauses, answering in each of their members 
 respectively to each other; agreeably to that species of heavenly 
 marriage, or union of goodness and truth, so often observable in the 
 structure of the Divine Word. But besides the arrangement of the 
 clauses into pairs, and into double pairs, which are so often found in 
 the more poetical parts of the Word of God, triple clauses also not 
 unfrequently occur, expressive of the three degrees of divine order 
 existing in everything that proceeds from the Lord, by reason that 
 such a trine or trinity exists in his own nature; and thence by 
 derivations in the nature of man, his image, and thus also in heaven 
 and in the church, and in anything whatever that is full and com- 
 plete; whence the number three itself, also, in the divine style of 
 writing, signifies what is full and complete. In agreement with this 
 order the three next beatitudes appear to be arranged ; all which 
 seem to relate more especially to states of good, and thus to denote 
 three classes of persons who are distinguished by their attainments in 
 heavenly good and love ; and also to the three degrees of those 
 excellencies as opened in the mind which is regenerated throughout 
 its faculties. “ Blessed are the merciful, the pure in heart, the 
 peacemakers.” All these terms — merciful, pure in heart, peace- 
 makers — certainly refer primarily to states of good; and most admir- 
 
93 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 able and exalted must be the states which are properly described 
 by such heavenly characteristics, — and they are used in reference to 
 what our doctrines call the celestial man, through all the powers of 
 his mind. 
 
 As the preceding beatitudes evidently describe an upward progress, 
 it might be supposed that the ascending order would be still observed; 
 but there are several points, not necessary to be mentioned, which 
 indicate that this is not the order in which these three beatitudes are 
 to be taken. We will now attempt to ascertain what is denoted by 
 these three beatitudes respectively. 
 
 7. Blessed are the merciful : for they shall obtain mercy. Mercy, as 
 we commonly use the word, is the affection of the mind which is 
 exercised towards those who have been guilty towards us of some 
 injury or offence, and whom we forgive and do good to notwith- 
 standing. But the original term, though containing this meaning, is 
 of still more extensive import, as it includes all that we mean by 
 compassion and pity — that is, all benevolence exercised towards those 
 who are unhappy or distressed. If we remit to a person who has 
 injured us the punishment he has deserved, we call it having mercy on 
 him ; if we sympathize with and relieve, where the case admits of relief, 
 a person in distress, we call it having compassion on him. Both are 
 included in the Scripture idea of mercy : indeed, the highest degree of 
 tender benevolence, exercised especially towards those who are in afflic- 
 tion or distress, is what is called mercy in Scripture. Thus, as man, 
 of himself, is a helpless creature, exposed to great miseries, and, if left 
 to himself, to eternal ruin; therefore the Lord’s love, as exercised 
 towards him, is properly mercy; hence we find his love so continually 
 spoken of, especially in the Old Testament, under the name of mercy; 
 and his mercy is what is so continually supplicated in the inspired 
 petitions of the Psalms. And they who are most sensible of their 
 lost and wretched condition by nature and birth, and of the utter 
 impossibility of their attaining real happiness, or any permanent good, 
 except it be imparted to them as a free gift by the Lord, the most 
 truly receive all the communications of his love and bounty as 
 being of pure mercy. His love, as received by them, and exercised 
 towards them, is felt and acknowledged to be mercy. The inmost 
 feeling of their hearts is expressed in that divine saying of Jeremiah 
 (Lam. iii. 22), “ It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, 
 because his compassions fail not.” They know well, that if his love, 
 the communications of his mercy, were to be withheld from them a 
 single moment, in that moment the evil of their selfhood would break 
 
Chap. V.]. 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 97 
 
 forth and sink them into ruin. And the more profoundly man feels 
 this, the more fully are those gifts conferred upon him; because, though 
 the Lord never withholds them, it is only thus that room is made for 
 their more fully flowing into him. He thus becomes most fully the 
 recipient and the subject of the Lord’s all-embracing love. Thus 
 they who receive the Lord’s love in the greatest degree, and thence 
 are most especially the objects of his love, are they who ascribe 
 all to his mercy. This, then, is eminently the characteristic of the 
 celestial man — of the man who is most intimately principled in love 
 to the Lord. 
 
 How, it is an unquestionable fact, that they who thus are most 
 replenished with the Lord’s love in their own souls will necessarily 
 overflow most with love and compassion towards others. Such then 
 are “ the merciful ” spoken of in this beatitude. They are those who 
 feel compassion from an internal, a celestial ground, for the miseries 
 and infirmities of others. They will be merciful towards those who 
 have injured or offended them, e\er ready to forgive and to do them 
 good. Yet their charity in this respect will be guided by prudence, 
 and while they look upon the misconduct, even of their bitterest 
 enemies, with pity, and cherish no inclination to do them injury in 
 return, they yet will not so act as to encourage them in their wicked- 
 ness, or to give them the means of perpetrating it to a greater extent. 
 They will cherish feelings of benevolence towards all, and of mercy 
 and compassion even towards the greatest sinners; but they will 
 exercise charity in externals to every one according to his state, — thus, 
 in one way towards a wicked man, and in another towards a good, 
 knowing that the Lord’s love towards mankind, to be exercised at all, 
 necessarily takes the form of mercy ; and feeling this experimentally 
 in themselves, they will desire to act, in their finite degree, and 
 according to their feeble ability, in a similar way towards their fellow 
 creatures. They will view them, in some degree, as the Lord views 
 them : they will feel compassion on beholding them wander from the 
 paths of real good and happiness, and will thence desire above all 
 things to contribute in some degree to reclaim them from their blind- 
 ness and evil ways, and to promote in them the reception of the Lord’s 
 love and mercy. Thus, in every respect, they will cherish towards all 
 the feelings of compassion and tenderness — of external compassion for 
 those who are in outward calamities, of internal for those who are in 
 spiritual destitution; and they will desire to do good in both respects 
 as far as their ability extends. Thus receiving the Lord’s love, though 
 in comparative obscurity, while in the world, and cultivating the 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 merciful spirit which it inspires, they shall enjoy it openly and fully 
 after death, and shall experience for ever the inestimable blessing of 
 having obtained mercy. 
 
 8. The blessedness of the pure in heart , though also belonging to 
 those who are of a celestial character, yet appears to partake more 
 of an intellectual quality, and to relate rather to the understanding 
 of those who are grounded in celestial good, while the being merciful 
 describes the quality of their will itself. The intellectual part, however, 
 of those who are in the celestial state, or whose ruling love is love to 
 the Lord, is completely one with their will, so that they never can 
 think of anything from a mere intellectual view of it, but always in 
 connection with their love and affection : hence their very thoughts 
 are in a manner nothing but affections, being derivations, in a con- 
 scious form, of the love which occupies their inmost will. Thus to be 
 pure in heart denotes to have a will purified, or cleansed, by the 
 operation of Divine Truth, because it is the character of the celestial 
 man, when he hears any truth, not to deposit it in his memory as a 
 matter for occasional thought or speculation, but to appropriate it 
 immediately in the life, thus making it the means of the still further 
 purification of the will. The heart is always mentioned in Scripture 
 as an emblem of the will; and to be pure in heart is to have a will 
 purified from the defilements of evil, through the continual practice of 
 appropriating divine truths, the only effectual purifiers, in the life, 
 and thus, by their means, continually removing all impurity and evil 
 more and more. 
 
 That there is here a reference to the intellectual state of those who 
 are grounded in celestial good, is obvious from the blessing promised 
 to this state, which is, that they who thus are pure in heart shall see 
 God. This clearly relates to the intuitive perception of Divine Truth, 
 which they enjoy who are principled in celestial good — whose state of 
 good is grounded in the will itself, and not in the intellectual part 
 only. To see is always spoken in the Word of the perceptions of the 
 understanding, and the Lord is called God more especially in regard 
 to that essential of his nature called Divine Truth : to see God , then, 
 spiritually means, not only to behold a manifestation of the Lord 
 in person (though this also is a privilege which such as are here 
 treated of frequently enjoy), but also to see or apprehend the 
 Lord’s Divine Truth by an interior sort of sight or perception. 
 And none really have such perception but they who are pure in 
 heart — who apply all the truth they learn to the purification of 
 the will and its affections, thus allowing it effectually to cleanse 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 99 
 
 them from evils, by immediately incorporating it in the life and 
 practice. 
 
 9. In the two former of these beatitudes we have a description 
 of the state and blessedness of the celestial man, both as to his 
 will and as to his understanding, or rather his perceptive faculty, 
 as making a perfect one with his will. It will easily be seen that 
 the third beatitude in order — Blessed are the peacemakers : for they 
 shall be called the children of God — relates to the life and practice of 
 such heavenly- minded characters. What conduct can be conceived 
 more expressive of the outward operation of an inward principle of 
 pure and exalted love — more appropriate to such a ground in the heart 
 — than that of making peace ! Love, it is obvious, is the great pacifi- 
 cator; and where its operation is extended and received there will be 
 peace. There no doubt is also a reference to the Hebrew form of 
 speaking, in which to seek the peace of any person or place, means, as 
 we often see in the Old Testament, to promote their welfare in general. 
 In this view the original term would be rendered in English, “peace- 
 doers,” a meaning which it bears equally with that of peacemakers : 
 and a peacedoer, or a doer of peace, would be one, all whose actions 
 tend to good and usefulness — to promote the prosperity of all with 
 whom he has to deal; whose actions universally tend to good. I have 
 no doubt that both the sense of doers of peace , and that of makers of 
 peace , are here intended ; and in both of them we have a full and most 
 characteristic representation of the life of a man who is influenced in 
 all he does by celestial love. All that such a man does tends to peace. 
 If all mankind were influenced by the same heavenly love, there would 
 be nothing but peace throughout the earth. None would do an act 
 which tended to the injury of another; and where, by any means, such 
 an act was done, all would hasten to repair it, and to heal the breach 
 which had been made. To do and to make peace, then, is undoubtedly 
 the characteristic in act of him whose life in the will is constituted by 
 love to the Lord and mutual love ; who is merciful by the reception of 
 the Lord’s mercy; and who, by continually applying divine truths to 
 the life, is pure in heart. 
 
 But no doubt a more interior meaning still is couched in the term 
 peacemakers. The term relates, in the purely spiritual sense, to those 
 who remove the contrariety which exists, by natural birth, between 
 the natural man and the spiritual, and thus, also, between man him- 
 self and God. By inheritance and birth, as the apostle has informed 
 us, the natural man lusteth continually against the spiritual ; and 
 the opposition can only be removed by the subjugation and regen- 
 
100 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. Y. 
 
 eration of the natural man, by ■which it first submits, and then 
 receives, in its degree, an affection for the same things as are loved by 
 the internal or spiritual man ; and then, whatever the spiritual man 
 dictates, the natural man executes with promptitude and delight. This 
 making of peace, then — by which, at the same time, peace is made, or 
 conjunction is effected, between man and the Lord — is what is meant 
 in the purely spiritual sense, when those celestial characters who are 
 here spoken of are called peacemakers ; and the result of this internal 
 pacification is, the performance, by the external man from the internal, 
 of such works of good and peace as have been spoken of before. It is 
 also to be observed, that the estimation in which love in act is held 
 by the Lord, is indicated here, as in various other places, by this 
 circumstance — that the highest blessing mentioned is ascribed to these 
 peacemakers. It is said, that “ they shall be called the children of 
 God and by the children of God are meant they who are born of 
 Him by regeneration ; and regeneration is not complete with any, till 
 what the internal man wills the external does, and feels in the doing 
 of it that delight which only results when the action is free and 
 spontaneous. 
 
 In these three beatitudes, then, we see, in a coherent series, a 
 picture of the most exalted state that can be attained by a finite being. 
 Its purity and holiness may perhaps, at first, have a discouraging 
 aspect, as if it were such as no man could hope to attain. Yet, 
 certainly, this is not the case. It is a description of a state which is 
 open to every sincere and humble follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 The way of attaining it is that which is pointed out in the second of 
 these three beatitudes — the becoming pure in heart by immediate 
 application of divine truths to the life. Faithfully employing the 
 truths which it is our privilege to know, there is no state of heavenly 
 blessedness which we may not hope to realize ; and no degree of 
 angelic excellence which, by the mercy of the Lord, may not even- 
 tually be ours. 
 
 But while the first seven beatitudes, taken separately, form a series 
 complete in itself; considered as part of a continuous discourse, they 
 form only a branch of a more comprehensive whole. Regarding the 
 Sermon on the mount under one view, the first seven beatitudes 
 describe the formation of the graces of religion in the heart and 
 mind, while its subsequent part, relating to the law and its duties, 
 describes the manifestation of those graces in the virtues of a religious 
 life. Thus the first part relates to the regeneration of the internal 
 man, and the second to the regeneration of the external man. Now 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 101 
 
 the regeneration of the external, and its union with the internal, 
 cannot be effected but by means of temptation ; for the external man 
 is contrary to the internal, and cannot be reduced to obedience, and 
 brought into harmony with it, without repeated and severe conflicts. 
 This is the reason that, between the first seven beatitudes and the 
 exposition and enforcement of the law, the Lord introduces the 
 subject, and speaks of the blessedness, of persecution, which we now 
 come to consider. 
 
 10. Blessed are they which a, re 'persecuted for righteousness ’ sake. 
 Persecution signifies temptation. Temptation is inward spiritual 
 persecution. This is a kind of persecution to which the Christian 
 disciple is liable in all ages, which exists independently of outward 
 trials, and which he will have to endure when all outward persecution 
 has for ever ceased. Were not this the case, the Lord’s words would 
 have no practical meaning for most Christians of the present time, 
 and for all Christians of the coming age. This inward persecution is 
 that which is truly endured for righteousness’ sake and for the Lord’s 
 sake. It is descriptive of temptation in which the conflict is for the 
 principle of righteousness or goodness, and for the Lord’s love in the 
 heart, as the very life and joy of the soul. Temptation is intense 
 in the degree that it is interior. The higher the prize the severer the 
 contest. The more precious the good which the heart loves, the 
 deeper the anguish when its loss is threatened. But all such trials 
 tend to make goodness more precious, and its possession more secure, 
 to make it enter more deeply into the affections of the heart, by 
 removing the opposite evil. The more our self-love is subdued, the 
 more the love of God is exalted; and with its exaltation there is an 
 increase of all true joy and happiness. It is almost unnecessary to 
 say that this blessing is not promised to us for being tempted, but for 
 overcoming in temptation. This is implied; for temptation is but a 
 means to an end, and only when the end is attained is the reward 
 experienced. Here, again, the reward is the kingdom of heaven. The 
 beatitudes end as they begin. The kingdom of heaven is the first and 
 the last of our spiritual blessings. First heaven is opened in us, and 
 then it is perfected. 
 
 1 1. But the Lord proceeds to say, Blessed are ye , when men shall 
 revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against 
 you falsely, for my sake. It is only necessary to remark on this, that 
 the extent of the temptation is here described, its nature being indi- 
 cated in the previous words of our Lord. And the temptation here 
 covers the whole man. For to revile is expressive of opposition to 
 
102 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 good in the will ; to persecute is expressive of opposition to truth in 
 the understanding ; and to say all manner of evil falsely is expressive 
 of opposition to good in the life. The persecutor also says this falsely 
 “ for the Lord’s sake.” Those who are persecuted are the disciples, who 
 represent all the Christian graces and virtues, or all the principles of 
 good and truth. And these are persecuted when the principles they 
 represent are opposed in us by evil and malignant spirits; and evil 
 spirits hate and oppose and desire to destroy good and truth in us, 
 because the Lord is in them; for the Lord dwells in us by the graces 
 and virtues which we receive and do from him, and the divine sphere 
 of the Lord, as the supreme good and truth, produces the deadliest 
 hatred in the spirits of the kingdom of evil. 
 
 12. The Lord not only promises, but he exhorts. Rejoice , and be 
 exceeding glad — that is, when ye are persecuted. We find the same 
 sentiment expressed by the apostles to whom these words had been 
 addressed. “ Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 
 knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience ” (James 
 i. 2). Paul, too, utters the same truth. “We glory in tribulations 
 also : knowing that tribulation worketh patience ; and patience, expe- 
 rience; and experience, hope” (Pom. v. 3). To joy in tribulation and 
 temptation is no doubt a sign of a high state of Christian perfection. 
 Adversity in any of its forms, internal or external, is one of the 
 sharpest trials of our faith — a stone of offence on which many stumble, 
 and on which some fall and are broken. But what is the state of mind 
 which enables us to rejoice in it 1 ? Many of the early martyrs displayed 
 this state in a remarkable degree. Yet it is perhaps more difficult to 
 rejoice in inward temptation than in outward trial. The mind may be 
 calm when the body is tortured. In temptation it is the mind that 
 suffers ; the body meanwhile may be free from pain. This kind of 
 affliction is therefore not joyous, but grievous at the time. Its fruits 
 are joyful. When the storm has passed away, and the sun shines out 
 in the heavens, cleared of the impurities with which they had been 
 surcharged, new life and vigour animate the soul. This inward joy 
 is the great reward in heaven promised to the tempted soul ; for the 
 heaven in which the reward is experienced is the heaven of the inner 
 man, whereinto the delights of heaven descend and are felt as joy that 
 passeth all understanding. The disciples are exhorted to “ rejoice” 
 and “be glad;” for joy is an affection of the will, and gladness is an 
 affection of the understanding. And they are to rejoice and be glad, 
 because the prophets had been so persecuted before them. Understood 
 spiritually in reference to one person, this previous persecution of the 
 
Chap. Y.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 im 
 
 prophets relates to previous temptations of a lower order and more 
 external kind. A prophet has relation to truth, as a righteous man 
 has to good. And temptation as to truth is spiritual tempta- 
 tion, and temptation as to good is celestial temptation. The first 
 prepares the way for the second ; and he who has overcome in the less 
 has the prospect of overcoming in the greater. 
 
 13. The four verses which immediately follow the conclusion of the 
 beatitudes form together one connected subject. “ Ye are the salt of 
 the earth: hut if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it he 
 salted ? it is thenceforth good for nothing , hut to he cast out, and to he 
 trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that 
 is set on an hill cannot he hid. Neither do men light a candle , and put 
 it under a bushel, hut on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that 
 are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see 
 your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.' 1 ' 1 Salt 
 signifies the desire that is inherent in all genuine truth for conjunc- 
 tion with good, and in all genuine good for conjunction with truth. 
 They who are addressed are the professing members of the church, 
 who are salt by virtue of their possessing the knowledge of divine 
 truth. But if the truth, as received in their minds, is unattended by 
 any desire for conjunction with goodness, it is compared to salt which 
 has lost its savour, and which is fit for nothing but to be thrown 
 away; indicating, that such unfruitful members are cast by the Lord 
 out of his church. 
 
 The disciples personally were the means of spiritually seasoning and 
 preserving the world in their day. All true disciples perform this 
 service to the world in their generation. In dark and corrupt 
 times the righteous few are the means of preserving the connection 
 of the race with heaven, and so of preserving the mass from utter 
 corruption. In the spiritual sense the Lord’s words to his disciples 
 have, of course, a higher meaning. The disciples represent the truths 
 and goods of the church, and the church itself is represented by the 
 earth and the world. In its particular application the earth and the 
 world represent the natural mind, the spiritual principles in which are 
 represented by the disciples. Viewing the subject in this particular 
 application, let us see what the language of correspondence teaches us. 
 Salt, as symbolical of affection, was extensively used in the ceremonial 
 worship of the Jews. It was also ordained that salt should be offered 
 with every meat offering, and that the salt of the covenant of their 
 God should not be lacking (Lev. ii. 13). The Lord, who showed how 
 Christians were spiritually to fulfil the ceremonial law, pointed out its 
 
104 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. Y. 
 
 application when he said, “Have salt in yourselves, and have peace 
 one with another.” The way to live in peace with each other is to 
 have affection for each other. In his words to his disciples on the 
 mount there is an instructive signification. The natural mind, meant 
 by the earth, is the seat of spiritual corruption. This is its hereditary 
 state, and without some corrective, the corrupt disposition would 
 adopt principles and induce habits conformable to itself. The correc- 
 tion is truth in which there is affection — salt in which there is salt- 
 ness. “ But if the salt have lost his savour, wherewithal shall it be 
 salted?” If truth have lost its affection, or its goodness, wherewith 
 shall the mind be seasoned and preserved in health and activity? 
 What is truth, or thought, or act, or word, or even life itself, without 
 affection? Affection is the true salt of life. Without it the relish of 
 life would be gone. Truly, if the salt have lost its savour, it is thence- 
 forth fit for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot 
 of men. If affection, which is the essence of religion, is gone, truth, 
 which is the form of religion, is fit only to be cast out and to be trodden 
 under foot; and indeed it is so, if not in this world, at least in the next. 
 For men reject truth for which they have no affection, and trample it 
 under their feet. The feet correspond to the natural and sensual 
 part of man’s mind ; and that which is trampled under foot is that 
 which, instead of being a power to influence the natural mind, is 
 rejected from it as vile, and contemned, and cursed. There is a 
 striking version of this same saying of our Lord’s in Luke xiv. 34, 
 where the savourless salt is said to be fit neither for the land nor for 
 the dunghill. The state here treated is the extinction of spiritual 
 affection which has once been cherished in the heart. This constitutes 
 profanation. As salt which has lost its savour is neither fit for the 
 land nor for the dunghill, but to be cast out, so profaners are neither 
 fit for heaven nor hell, but are cast out into a region separate from all 
 others, where they exist as things, but do not live as human beings. 
 
 14. The Lord next says to the disciples, and of them, Ye are the 
 light of the ivorld. Light is always used in Scripture to signify truth; 
 of which it is so plain an emblem, that every one intuitively sees the 
 correspondence. Light makes natural objects manifest, and causes 
 them to appear in their true forms and colours; and truth does the 
 same in regard to the objects of thought and affection. They, then, 
 who possess a correct knowledge of divine truth, and whose minds are 
 so formed by it, that they always think and speak in conformity with 
 its dictates, are thereby qualified to lead the opinions and guide the 
 practices of those who have not derived the same gift immediately 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 105 
 
 from the fountain-head. Therefore the Lord says of his true dis- 
 ciples, “ Ye are the light of the world!” What an exalted privilege 
 does such a title describe and imply ! But there can be no privilege 
 without a corresponding duty ; and assuredly it can be no mean duty 
 which they have to perform who are to act as the lights of the world ! 
 There certainly ought to be something about them distinguishing 
 them from the mere people of the world. It is not in following in 
 the common track of worldly men, nor yet by going before them in 
 their own way, outdoing the common herd in the practices delighted 
 in by the external man, that anyone can become what Divine Wisdom 
 calls a light of the world. It is not by conforming in all things to 
 the ways of the world that a person acquainted with divine truth 
 can follow his vocation to be a light of the world. What is necessary, 
 beyond a mere knowledge of truth, to make him such, the Divine 
 Instructor proceeds to show. 
 
 A city (he says) that is set on an hill cannot be hid. This is a very 
 obvious natural fact; but how it illustrates the case of those who, 
 possessing the knowledge of divine truth, are to act as lights to 
 the world, cannot be seen, except in a very general and indistinct 
 manner, till the correspondence of the natural image is known, and 
 the spiritual sense thus deciphered. A city is constantly mentioned 
 in Scripture to denote the doctrine of divine truth, or the church, or 
 the mind of a member of the church, as framed according to doctrine. 
 A hill is always used as a symbol of love or charity, or, in an opposite 
 sense, of worldly or selfish attachment. It here obviously bears its 
 good signification. A city set on a hill, then, is the doctrine of truth 
 grounded in love and charity; and when it is said that a city so 
 situated cannot be hid, the meaning is, that the church, or the 
 member of the church with whom the doctrine of truth is grounded 
 in love and charity, cannot but exercise an illuminating and beneficial 
 influence on those around. Where truth is inspired by love, it must 
 be active and useful; and benefits to the church, to society, and to 
 the world at large, cannot but ensue according to the extent 
 of the sphere in which such a church, or such a member of the 
 church, has the means and opportunity of exercising an influence. 
 Most assuredly, a city that is set upon a hill cannot be hid : neither 
 will they be hid among mere people of the world whose faith or 
 knowledge of truth is united with love, and thus with zeal and 
 the desire to be useful. And as a city on a hill is visible at a less 
 or greater distance according to the height of the hill on which it 
 stands, so will the light of him who possesses the knowledge of divine 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 106 
 
 [Chap. Y. 
 
 truth the farther extend its influence according to the magnitude or 
 degree of the affection with which it is united. 
 
 15. The divine Admonisher next illustrates, by a comparison of 
 an opposite nature, what is necessary in order that a church, or its 
 members, should be the light of the world. Neither , says he, do men 
 light a candle , and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick ; and 
 it giveth light to all that are in the house. The general meaning of 
 this illustration is as obvious as it is striking. A candle certainly is 
 always lighted for the express purpose of giving light to those in the 
 room where it is ; and it would indeed be the height of folly, on 
 having lighted one, to put it under a bushel measure, so as to render 
 it quite as useless as if it had not been lighted at all. J ust as useless 
 to the person himself, as well as to all others, is the light of truth, 
 when it has been kindled in the mind, if it is kept there as mere 
 matter of thought and speculation, without producing any effects upon 
 the conduct and life of the person himself, or any that can conduce 
 to the advantage and edification of others. A bushel, or any other 
 hollow measure of capacity, has reference to the receptive faculty in 
 man ; and all measures or vessels generally signify the same as what 
 they contain, as when a cup is mentioned to signify wine. But a 
 measure, to hold anything, must be placed with the open side upwards, 
 when it is representative of that in the mind which receives the truths 
 and graces of the Lord’s kingdom, and thence of those truths and 
 graces themselves : whilst a measure, to have a candle put under it, 
 must be turned upside down ; and then it represents not that which 
 receives the truths and graces of the Lord’s kingdom, but that which 
 rejects and excludes them ; and then, if any nevertheless find admis- 
 sion, it is by entering from beneath, thus in inverted order, and only 
 to be suffocated, perverted, and destroyed. In such a mind the light 
 of truth, when it has entered, is immediately immersed in the self- 
 hood, and rendered incapable of illuminating the mind, directing the 
 actions, or effecting any saving and beneficial purpose. To have 
 such efficacy it must be placed in its proper situation, raised aloft 
 upon a candlestick so as to diffuse its rays unobstructed around. The 
 candlesticks, or rather lamp-stands, of the ancients were not the small 
 articles which we use for the purpose, made to stand upon a table : 
 they were lofty pillars and branches, of ornamental construction, 
 stauding on the floor, so that the lamp placed on the top shed its 
 light on all sides, with the least possible interception ; and a lamp so 
 placed corresponds to truth in the mind in a state of elevation, by 
 virtue of being conjoined with the affection for goodness —the desiie 
 
Chap. Y] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 107 
 
 of applying it to its proper use. So situated, as the Lord observes, 
 “ it giveth light to all that are in the house,” throwing its rays both 
 on things and persons, and showing what and who they are — corre- 
 sponding to the effect of divine truth in showing the nature and 
 quality of all the furniture of the human mind (of which a house is 
 the symbol), and enabling the man to arrange everything in due order, 
 and to make the proper use of all. 
 
 16. The Lord closes the subject with a most forcible admonitory 
 application of the images just employed. Let your light so shine before 
 •men, that they may see your good works , and glorify your Father which 
 is in heaven. What then ? are we to do good works purposely to be 
 seen of men — to obtain the good word of those who witness them? 
 What is here meant is, not that we are to do good works purposely to 
 be seen of men, making that our object and aim ; but that we are to 
 do them in obedience to the will of God. We are to allow the light 
 that is in us to produce its proper operation, by manifesting itself in a 
 life and conduct of corresponding order and purity. Such a life, indeed, 
 though not cultivated with the view of gaining favour from men, 
 cannot but be seen by them, and procure respect for the principles 
 by which they see we are actuated ; thus disposing them, seeing that 
 we act from sincerity and not from ostentation, to give the glory to 
 him to whom we shall most heartily give it ourselves — our Father 
 who is in heaven — and encouraging them to go and do likewise. The 
 main object of the sincere Christian must ever be to allow the light of 
 truth in his own mind to become instrumental in effecting in him, and 
 by him, the will of the Lord its Author, accomplishing his own re- 
 generation, and bringing his life and conduct into heavenly order, 
 making him an instrument of use to his fellow- creatures, and thus 
 causing everything within him to give glory to his Father who is in 
 heaven. 
 
 17. Having pressed upon his hearers the uselessness of unpractised 
 knowledge, and the necessity of showing their faith in their works, 
 the Lord now proceeds to declare the stability and show the spirit- 
 uality of the law which imposes upon them the perpetual obligation 
 of obedience. Think not that I am come to destroy the law and the 
 prophets. 
 
 No religious apophthegm more weighty, and at the same time 
 obviously just, was ever enunciated, than that which holds a con- 
 spicuous place among the doctrinal tenets of the New Church, and 
 which affirms, “ That all religion has relation to life, and that the life 
 of religion is to do good.” Religion is justly defined to be the bond of 
 
108 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 connection between man and his Maker : and what can possibly con- 
 nect man with his Maker, in any real and reciprocal manner, but con- 
 formity on the part of man to his Maker’s will, producing, in a finite 
 manner, similarity of character? What is God but the Source of all 
 good — Goodness itself, that has given origin to all things with a view 
 to their enjoyment of the blessings suited to their nature, and to man 
 especially, that he might be the subject of blessings of the highest 
 order, having a capacity to reflect on his condition and his privileges, 
 to know his God, and to be made a partaker, in his finite measure, of 
 the perfections, and thus of the felicity, of his Creator? The Author 
 of all good, then, himself, what can God look to, in his rational off- 
 spring, but that they should apply themselves to receive of the good 
 that is imparted from him ? But the passive reception of good from 
 God, that is, of spiritual and moral good, is a thing impossible. Man 
 must re-act to and from the good that flows into him from the Lord, 
 or it cannot become in any respect his own — be imputed to him, or 
 even dwell in him at all. 
 
 Ho revelation ever was or could be given by God of which this 
 was not the grand burden. The Old Testament, consequently, 
 throughout is full of precepts and admonitions, plainly testifying that, 
 in the estimation of its Divine Author, “all religion has relation to life, 
 and the life of religion is to do good.” When the Jewish Church, and 
 the revelation given under it, had become wholly perverted, and He 
 came to found the Christian Church, to accomplish the work of man’s 
 redemption, and to give a further revelation of his will and wisdom, 
 he did not intend to abrogate the revelation he had given before, but 
 only to clear away the Jewish corruptions of it, and to develope more 
 of its true nature, meaning, and design, than had ever been known in 
 the Jewish Church at all: these things compose the substance of the 
 declarations — which the Lord commences with the words, “Think not 
 that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets; I am not come 
 to destroy, but to fulfil.” 
 
 18. And yet notwithstanding the Lord’s statement, there have not 
 been wanting among professing Christians those who have maintained 
 a doctrine exactly opposite to what is here so explicitly delivered; 
 and have even availed themselves of these words to confirm a 
 sentiment directly contrary to that which the words themselves so 
 plainly affirm, — that justification and salvation are by faith alone, 
 and do not depend upon either charity or good works. “ I am not 
 come to destroy, but to fulfil.” By that very circumstance, they 
 reply, Jesus Christ came to fulfil the law, and did fulfil it in his own 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 109 
 
 person, which no one had ever been able to do before : and this ful- 
 filment of it by him is imputed to all believers as if it had been done 
 by them : and though no actual fulfilment of it is required of any one 
 of them, and thus, as to such actual fulfilment by them, it is com- 
 pletely abrogated, yet it is not to be considered as destroyed for all 
 that ; God accounting it as fulfilled by every one of them, because he 
 imputes to them the fulfilment of it by his Son. Thus again is the 
 Word of God made of none effect by man’s tradition or invention. 
 And they confirm this as the true meaning of the passage by 
 extending it to the next verse, in which the Divine Speaker says, 
 For verily I say unto you , Till heaven and earth pass , one jot or one 
 tittle shall in no wise pass from the law , till all be fulfilled. Here, 
 because it is said that “ one jot or one tittle shall not pass from the 
 law, till all be fulfilled,” they argue, that when all was fulfilled, as 
 was done by the Lord Jesus Christ, the whole did pass away, and was 
 of no force against believers afterwards. So far is this from being the 
 meaning of the Lord’s words, his declaration, that nothing shall pass 
 from the law, till all be fulfilled, is a solemn pledge of the perpetual 
 duration and conservation of the law in every jot and tittle. The true 
 import of these divine sayings, and that which alone is consistent with 
 the context, is, that the moral law, delivered in the Old Testament, such 
 as that of the Ten Commandments, and similar precepts regarding life 
 and practice, are not abolished, but opened and enforced by the gospel 
 of Jesus Christ. As to the spiritual sense, the law and the prophets 
 are mentioned together for the sake of indicating that union of good- 
 ness and truth so constantly attended to in the language of the Word 
 of God. The law is a term which has relation to good, and prophets 
 is a term which has relation to truth ; for by the law is spiritually 
 denoted all such divine truth as has more relation to the duties of life, 
 and by the prophets all such divine truth as has more relation to 
 points of doctrine. Now, it must be abundantly clear that the Lord, 
 who is the Truth itself, never could come to destroy or abrogate his 
 own Divine Truth, either as defining the duties of life or laying down 
 points of doctrine. What is once true, on either subject, is eternally 
 so, and can never be done away with. Destroyed by its Author it 
 never can be: but it may be opened; and, by new aid imparted from 
 him, in consequence of accommodating himself to his creatures by 
 assuming the Humanity, it may be introduced more deeply into the 
 heart and mind of man, rendering both his inward and outward life 
 more conformable to its heavenly dictates. In these respects, it is 
 fulfilled in regard to man : and it is most true that the Lord fulfilled 
 
110 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. Y. 
 
 every tittle of it in his own person : and as he thus glorified his 
 Humanity, it is thus that he enabled man to fulfil it likewise. 
 
 “Heaven and earth” is a phrase that includes the whole universe; 
 but by them is spiritually meant the Lord’s church in heaven and on 
 earth. These never can absolutely cease ; and therefore to say that till 
 heaven and earth pass not one jot or one tittle of the law shall fail,' is 
 the same as to say, that the Divine Law or Word can never fail; or, in 
 other words, that the Divine Truth is eternal; and that it really is so, 
 is obvious of itself. 
 
 19. The perpetual obligation of the law of God, and the necessity 
 of obeying it from an internal principle, as well as in mere outward form, 
 is further enforced in the words : Whosoever therefore shall break one of 
 these least (or one of the least of these) commandments , and shall teach 
 men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven : but whosoever 
 shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of 
 heaven. This does not mean that a person may habitually break some 
 of the Divine commandments, and teach others to do the same, and 
 yet go to heaven, though he will occupy one of the lowest places : it 
 means that all who are in heaven will think little or meanly of such a 
 person, so that he cannot enter into their society at all — that the low 
 station he will occupy will not be within heaven, but out of it. The 
 angels are not beings who will despise one another, so that the most 
 exalted angel will never think meanly of the lowest. They who are 
 called least, that is, who are of the quality expressed by that term, are 
 such as are least and lowest in every characteristic of human nature 
 — who occupy the meanest of stations among all who belong to the 
 class of rational and immortal creatures — who retain least of the traces 
 of true humanity, and are not in heaven, but in hell. But observe the 
 Divine tenderness : it is not said, as some say, that whosoever has once 
 broken one of the least of the commandments has incurred irrevocable 
 condemnation, but whosoever shall break one commandment, and shall 
 teach men so, evidently meaning, who treats the commandments as of 
 no authority or obligation, and teaches others to do the same, arguing 
 or ridiculing them out of regard for divine things. The same is obvious 
 from the use and proper signification of the word rendered “ break,” 
 which does not mean to transgress, or to infringe a commandment by 
 a casual or passing act, which may afterwards, if not repeated, be 
 repented of for the future ; but it means the same as the word before 
 translated “ destroy,” which is the same word in a compound form. 
 It means to dissolve, to abolish as to obligation from the authority of 
 a thing. In the two acts mentioned by the Lord in this declaration 
 
Chap. Y] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 Ill 
 
 of his, there is reference to the two faculties of man, the will and 
 the understanding. Purpose from the will is meant by breaking the 
 commandment, and confirmation from the understanding is meant by 
 teaching men so. Every such person, whether the sins he commits be 
 little or great, is one of those who are called least in the kingdom of 
 heaven. 
 
 The converse follows of itself : Whosoever shall do and teach them , 
 the same shall he called great in the kingdom of heaven. It will thus 
 be seen that he who is of a character truly good is adapted for eleva- 
 tion to heavenly greatness, this solely depending on man’s state as to 
 goodness ; whence, in the spiritual sense of Scripture, great means 
 good. Whoever keeps one of the least of the Lord’s command- 
 ments, from a truly reverential regard to the will of their Author, 
 is in the perpetual effort to do all the commandments, and to do 
 so more and more perfectly. And in heaven, where these inten- 
 tions are seen, and are what alone are regarded, such a person is 
 called great, or is accounted good, notwithstanding the imperfections 
 which may still adhere to him, and which he is himself in the con- 
 tinual endeavour to surmount. Therefore the being called great, like 
 the being called least, is not made to depend upon conformity to the 
 greatest of the commandments, but to the least, or those which it 
 requires least effort, least resistance to the natural inclinations to 
 comply with : because it is seen that he who keeps even these from a 
 sincere regard to God in his heart, is in the life of goodness received 
 from him, and would on no account offend him by sinning against the 
 greater. 
 
 20. The Lord sums up his whole doctrine on the subject of the law 
 by the solemn declaration : For I say unto you , That except your righ- 
 teousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees , ye shall 
 in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. The scribes and Pharisees, 
 indeed, were strict in requiring, and punctilious in attending to, the 
 external observances of the divine law, even in little matters ; but they 
 often contrived to evade its obligations in things of greater importance. 
 As the Lord says of them, they paid tithe of mint, and anise, and 
 cummin, but omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, and 
 the love of God; on which the Divine Reprover says, “These things ye 
 ought to have done, and not leave the others undone.” They generally, 
 however, evaded these weighty obligations under some specious pretence 
 of conformity to another commandment, as when they refused to assist 
 their friends in distress by making a fictitious donation of their property 
 to God, calling it corban, because it was not lawful to apply things 
 
112 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 really devoted to God, or made a sacred gift of, to any purpose 
 whatever. Usually, however, they kept the commandment in the 
 external form, but positively maintained that, provided this was done, 
 the state of mind in doing it was of no consequence. Thus, David 
 Kimchi, one of the most learned and judicious of the rabbins and com- 
 mentators on Scripture, positively says, that the meaning of these 
 words, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me,” 
 is not, what every one sees is their real import, that the Lord can pay 
 no regard to outward prayers while evil is intentionally cherished in 
 the heart, but that, if evil is only cherished in the heart, and does not 
 come into outward actions, the Lord will pay no regard to it ; for it is 
 only actions that are condemned, not thoughts. The righteousness, 
 then, which is to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, 
 is that which extends to the heart and thoughts, as well as to the out- 
 ward actions. This is the righteousness which the Lord regards, who 
 looks far more at the heart and thoughts than at the words and 
 actions. How plain is it, then, to see that the Lord did not come to 
 destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil them, and to enable us 
 to fulfil them also ; that there is no abrogation of the Divine law by 
 the gospel, and no contrariety, but the most perfect harmony, between 
 them. Under the gospel we are not to abide in the mere letter of the 
 law, but must enter into its spirit; knowing that, as the apostle 
 observes, the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in them who walk 
 not after the flesh, but after the spirit; and that the power thus to 
 walk is given to those who look to, and exercise true faith in, Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 21. Having laid down these general principles respecting the law, 
 the Divine Speaker proceeds to illustrate them by contrasting the 
 genuine import of the commandments of the ancient law, and its 
 Divine infillings as now opened by himself, with the lax and super- 
 ficial, and in fact make-believe manner in which it was interpreted by 
 the J ewish teachers and observed by the people. Ye have heard that \ 
 it was said by them of old time , Thou shalt not kill. A very singular 
 sort of mistranslation occurs here, and in the repetition of the same 1 
 phrase in subsequent parts of the chapter, in saying, Ye have heard I 
 that it was said by them of old time. All the learned agree that this I 
 ought to be, as it is given in the margin, “Ye have heard that it was 
 said to them of old time.” And, indeed, common sense shows this must I 
 be the meaning intended : for it is one of the ten commandments j 
 which is referred to ; and these were not delivered by the Israelites of 
 old, but to them by J ehovali. Another defective translation occurs in ' 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 113 
 
 the repeated use of the phrase, in danger of as if the ensuing punish- 
 ment were not certain to follow ; whereas the original implies that the 
 person has become subject to the penalty alluded to. Whosoever shall 
 kill, shall be not only in danger of the judgment, but liable or subject 
 to it : and so in other places. 
 
 The Lord now proceeds to show the difference between the mere 
 letter and the spirit of the Divine law. The J ews had received the 
 Divine command, “ Thou shalt not kill,” and had understood it pro- 
 hibited only the act of murder. The Lord teaches his disciples that 
 this law was in reality designed to prohibit not only the criminal 
 act, but every disposition which tends to produce it. To represent, as 
 the scribes and Pharisees did, all sorts of malignant and revengeful 
 feelings as lawful, while they were restrained solely by the fear of 
 punishment from proceeding into the most atrocious of outward acts, 
 is to break or destroy the authority of the Divine requirements in 
 a very awful way indeed. The Lord therefore proceeds to show that 
 states of mind partaking of what is opposite to love, which is the ful- 
 filling of the law, such as hatred and malice, and actions thence pro- 
 ceeding, though not including the commission of murder in the external 
 form, may nevertheless bring upon the person, as to his spirit, and as to 
 his external state hereafter, consequences as awful as can result from 
 the outward commission of murder itself. He further shows that 
 there are three degrees of such states, the slightest of which involves 
 eternal condemnation equally with external murder. In other words, 
 that there are three degrees of spiritual murder, involving all the eternal 
 consequences, from the mildest to the most grievous, that can follow 
 the commission of natural murder, whether the external crime be 
 committed or not. — (1.) The first of these is causeless anger. He that 
 is angry with his brother without a cause shall be liable to the judgment. 
 It is plain that this must be with regard to the sinner’s state here- 
 after; for none but the Divine Judge can know whether anger 
 includes the principle of murder or not. But by the eye of Infinite 
 Wisdom it is seen that such anger as is here alluded to is a crime of 
 the same nature, and if left unchecked, would terminate in the same 
 end, and therefore brings the person into the same state, and cannot 
 but draw upon him the same eternal punishment. But the words 
 must be looked at a little more interiorly, in order that their purport 
 may be truly seen. All evils are either milder or more malignant in 
 proportion as they include, in a greater or less degree, the confirmed 
 and intentional rejection of the opposite good. Thus all offences 
 against others are milder or more malignant in proportion as they 
 
 I 
 
114 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. V . 
 
 include less or more of a deliberate rejection of charity, and disregard 
 for the Divine law, which enjoins charity, and forbids all violation of 
 it. The term brother is always used in the Divine Word, when under- 
 stood as to its spiritual sense, to denote charity, because charity, or 
 mutual love, is the principle of brotherly union. To be angry with a 
 brother means, therefore, to be in a state contrary to charity, either 
 absolutely so, or only in appearance. Therefore the state of condem- 
 nation here treated of is mercifully limited by the being angry with a 
 brother without a cause, anger without a cause being a sure mark of a 
 state contrary to charity. It is true that opposition to charity must 
 always be without a cause ; but there may be cause for being angry 
 with persons who are nevertheless our brethren, either more nearly or 
 more remotely, and who are to be regarded with charity. There are 
 few persons in this world who are such perfect forms of charity as 
 never to say or do anything calculated to give offence or provocation 
 to others; and there are equally few so highly graduated in charity as 
 never to feel offended or provoked at inconsiderate conduct or language 
 in others, much less at what is said or done with a view to offend or 
 provoke them. Self-preservation is an indelible instinct in every being 
 that has conscious life: hence every animated being instinctively repels 
 aggression, and, when suddenly assaulted, feels resentment or anger. 
 Such resentment or anger, which passes away with the occasion that 
 momentarily excited it, is not incompatible with charity; it only 
 becomes so when it is cherished afterwards, and is suffered to degenerate 
 into revenge. There is also a feeling of anger which is without 
 malignity, being directed rather against evil, than against the person 
 who commits it. This is more properly zeal than anger, for the love 
 of good, and even the love of the evil-doer, lies at the foundation of the 
 emotion. This feeling is attributed to the Lord himself. J esus looked 
 round on the Jews with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their 
 hearts (Mark iii. 5). So when grief is the origin of anger, it is the 
 warmth of love and not the fire of hatred, and therefore incurs no 
 condemnation. When, on the contrary, the heart feels and cherishes 
 the anger of uncharitableness, the state which is induced upon the 
 mind exposes the soul to the same judgment or condemnation that the 
 Divine Truth has decreed against murder. (2.) The second degree of 
 opposition to charity is expressed by one saying to his brother, Raca. 
 This was a name of reproach and contempt, equivalent to calling a 
 person a worthless fellow. Here, again, it is evident that it is not 
 according to the literal sense that the words are to be understood. 
 For though it may easily be true that one man may call another a 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 115 
 
 worthless fellow in a spirit of hatred, that would bring him under the 
 condemnation here treated of, yet it is evident that such condemnation 
 cannot be the result of the mere utterance of the word. But we are 
 to remember that the brother thus reviled is the principle of charity : 
 thus, spiritually understood, to say, Baca, means to hold charity in utter 
 contempt ; to consider a regard to charity as a thing too ridiculous for 
 attention, as conduct only fit for a weak or silly person. Thus, a re- 
 jection of charity, and total opposition to it, from a deeper ground 
 than was signified by the first example, is here implied. On this 
 account it is said, that he who acts thus shall be in danger of the 
 council. This is an allusion to the supreme court of judicature among 
 the Jews, which for great crimes awarded the punishment of stoning 
 to death. This is referred to, to indicate the loss of all spiritual life 
 incurred by those who spiritually say to a brother, Raca. It expresses 
 the present and eternal state of those who confirm themselves intel- 
 lectually in opposition to charity, and thence act against it without 
 any concern or remorse. (3.) The Lord adds, But whosoever shall say , 
 Thou fool , shall be in danger of hell fire. The term fool is constantly 
 applied in Scripture, not to the weak-minded, but to the most obsti- 
 nately and desperately wicked. To call a brother a fool, then, means 
 to be in such direct opposition or contrariety to everything of charity 
 and goodness as to regard good as evil, and to act against it with the 
 utmost malignity and determination of purpose. It implies opposition 
 against it from the deepest ground of the will; not merely contempt 
 for it, but the utmost aversion and hatred against it. Therefore, also, 
 the punishment of it is declared to be hell fire, or the fire of Gehenna, 
 which means the most direful raging and tormenting lusts of evil, with 
 the distracting anguish that ever attends their presence. We see, 
 then, of what . immense importance it is that we should ever be careful 
 to guard against the admission into our bosoms of any feelings contrary 
 to those of charity, especially how all-important it is that we should 
 never allow the tendencies of that kind which exist in us by nature 
 to obtain indulgence and confirmation. On the contrary, we should 
 resist everything in our hearts and conduct that is opposite to charity, 
 and assiduously cultivate the heavenly grace of charity itself, till love 
 to the Lord and mutual love become the animating principle of our 
 lives. Thus, not only shall we escape the judgment, and the council, 
 and hell fire, but become prepared for the society of those happy beings 
 who never experience any opposite emotion, and who dwell around the 
 throne of divine love in the interchange of kind offices and affections 
 for ever. 
 
116 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 23, 24. Having shown the direful nature of all lusts of evil that partake 
 of enmity or hatred, or anything that opposes or makes no account of the 
 principle of charity, the Divine Instructor now admonishes his disciples 
 of the need of looking into their own hearts, to see if anything incon- 
 sistent with the most genuine charity lies lurking there; of the 
 indispensable necessity of making such investigation, in order th&t 
 any of our exercises of external worship may be acceptable to the 
 Lord; and of the importance, therefore, of practising self-exami- 
 nation, especially connecting it with the most solemn acts of our 
 devotion. “ Therefore ,” he says, — seeing, that is, that the indulgence 
 of bad feelings in the heart, and the allowing them to appear in what 
 are usually regarded as deeds of little importance, have eternal conse- 
 quences as fatal as the actual commission of the greatest external 
 crimes, — on this account, if thou bring thy gift to the altar , and there re- 
 member est that thy brother hath ought against thee ; leave there thy gift 
 before the altar, and go thy way ; first be reconciled to thy brother , and 
 then come and offer thy gift. To bring our gift to the altar is to offer 
 to the Lord the homage of prayer and praise, which ought to proceed 
 from affections of love to him and charity towards our neighbour: all 
 the good and blessing of which, in any form, we may be partakers, is, 
 in all sincere worship, ascribed to the Lord as his gift. There to re- 
 member that our brother hath ought against us, is on such occasions 
 to be made sensible that we cannot worship the Lord in an acceptable 
 manner, or from such love and charity as alone can give to worship a 
 quality that he can approve, through the cherishing of some affection 
 inconsistent with charity in our bosom. A brother, as already ob- 
 served, is always named in the Word as a type of that charity which 
 ought to reign in the breasts of all mankind, and especially in the 
 hearts of the members of the Lord’s church, towards each other. In 
 reality, all mankind are brethren, being all the children of the 
 Almighty Father, and all creatures of the same nature, designed for 
 the same eternal end; but most especially are all they brethren who 
 have been born again of their heavenly Father, through the reception 
 of his divine truth and the formation thereby of a principle of 
 spiritual life in their souls. A brother, therefore, in the true sense 
 of the name, is one who feels as a brother — who cherishes the affection 
 which brethren, both natural and spiritual, ought to feel and show for 
 each other. Abstract, then, in idea, the affection itself from the 
 person in whom it exists, and you see that a brother is a proper term 
 in the Holy Word to express the grace of charity itself, which only can 
 be given from the Lord, since it is quite obvious that He who formed 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 117 
 
 mankind to exist, both in families and in large communities, in the 
 relation of brotherhood, is, together with the relation, the Author of 
 the affection which is its distinguishing characteristic. To remember, 
 then, at the altar, that our brother hath ought against us, is to be made 
 conscious, when before the Lord, and reviewing our state by the light 
 of heaven, that something contrary to charity both possesses our 
 minds and influences our practice. We cannot be in a state to offer 
 acceptable worship to the Lord so long as we cherish any malignant 
 feeling towards any one, however much he may have injured us. We 
 cannot indeed be in a state capable of presenting with acceptance our 
 offering at the Lord’s altar, or coming before him in worship, till we 
 have removed the offending principle from our minds, and can feel a 
 consciousness that we entertain no affection or emotion incompatible 
 with charity in regard to anything that exists. The course, then, of 
 this state of the mind, in regard to the principle of charity, is what is 
 directed by the Lord when he says, “ Leave there thy gift before the 
 altar, and go thy way ; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then 
 come and offer thy gift.” It is remarkable that the Lord does not 
 direct the gift to be taken away again. He is addressing a sincere, 
 though erring disciple, who comes to worship him from some degree 
 of good received from him, but which, the mind being in other 
 respects not sufficiently purified from evils, is defiled by their presence, 
 and cannot be in such good as the Lord can be acceptably worshipped 
 from, till the evils that render it not genuine are put away. Thus no 
 one is ever to think, because, as we hear people sometimes say, he is 
 not yet good enough for any particular service, that he may as well 
 disregard it altogether. He still must bring his gift before the altar — 
 must engage in acts of divine worship — and must perform the preli- 
 minaries necessary to prepare him for doing it with saving benefit to 
 his soul. He must meditate, for instance, on the Divine will and 
 Word; he must explain his own state in the light which will thence 
 open his mind; he must allow the beams of divine truth to discover 
 him to himself ; and leaving his gift before the altar, — that is, still 
 having his mind directed, with devotional feelings, to the Lord, and 
 looking to him for help, — he must go his way, and be reconciled to his 
 brother — he must set earnestly upon the work of removing from his 
 affections every principle, feeling, or sentiment which is inconsistent 
 with genuine charity. He will find the brother eager to be reconciled, 
 for the brother is the principle of charity itself. 
 
 25. The next duty which our Lord enforces on his disciples forms 
 a counterpart to that which we have just considered, although this 
 
118 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. Y. 
 
 does not clearly appear from the literal sense. Agree with thine 
 adversary quickly , whiles thou art in the way vnth him. The adversary 
 here is expressed in the original by a word which properly and strictly 
 means the opposite party in a question of right, or in a suit at law. 
 It is evidently supposed in the present case that the claim is a just one, 
 and that, if brought into court, the judgment would be against us. 
 We are advised, therefore, not to let it come to this, but to settle 
 with the claimant in time, either by satisfying the whole demand at 
 once, or coming to such an agreement or compromise with him as he 
 will accept; otherwise, the decision of the judge will be given against 
 us. We have said that this passage is the counterpart of the preced- 
 ing one. As we are to be reconciled to our brother by removing the 
 cause of offence, we are to agree with our adversary by settling his 
 equitable demand. The brother, spiritually, is the principle of charity, 
 the legal antagonist is the principle of truth. Divine truth — the 
 precepts of which compose the Divine law — demands attention and 
 obedience to all its requirements ; and so long as we neglect to pay 
 regard to them, it stands to us in the relation of an adversary at law. 
 We must agree with this adversary quickly, while time yet remains; 
 we must be well-minded towards him, acknowledging his claim to be 
 just, and satisfying it to the best of our ability. And who can dis- 
 pute the justice of the demand, or the perfect reasonableness of all that 
 it includes? Who can imagine that the divine truth of the Lord can 
 require anything of man which the Lord does not at the same time 
 enable him to perform ? The Divine law does not utter requirements 
 of truth alone, but of truth in union with goodness and love ; and 
 when truth, if alone, would irreversibly condemn, love steps in, and 
 offers pardon and peace on faith and repentance. Accordingly we 
 find, that even while divine truth stands to us in the character of 
 a legal adversary, in consequence of our not paying due regard to its 
 requirements, it still is presented under the aspect of a peaceable one, 
 who is willing to come to an agreement with us, accepting what, on 
 acknowledging the justice of its demands, we may be enabled to do 
 towards discharging them, without rigorously exacting the penalties 
 that might otherwise be levied. We are exhorted to agree with our 
 adversaiy while we are in the way with him. Naturally, this means 
 while the suit is pending, and has not gone beyond the preliminary 
 steps. But spiritually, to be in the way with our adversary means, to 
 be in a state capable of receiving instruction from divine truth, 
 which is meant by the way; of listening to its claims and admonitions, 
 and applying ourselves to attend to them, and so profit by them. 
 
Chap. Y] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 119 
 
 Divine goodness has provided that every debtor to the law may come 
 to an agreement with his legal adversary while he is in the way with 
 him. This may be done, because divine truth is ever so tempered 
 by its union with divine love as to remit all its claims for the past 
 as soon as their justice is heartily acknowledged, repentance is sincerely 
 felt and made operative in amendment, qnd such a change is effected 
 as will regard its requirements for the future. Unless this state of 
 agreement with divine truth, regarded as our legal adversary, is in 
 some good measure attained, it will change the character of a legal 
 opponent into a much more formidable one. The Lord not only says, 
 Agree with thine adversary quickly, but he adds, lest at any time the 
 adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, 
 and thou be cast into prison. This means, that unless divine truth 
 be reconciled to us, or rather we to it, as our adversary, we shall 
 hereafter meet it as our judge — that is, as the word here implies, as 
 passing on us sentence of condemnation. Then, in the further charac- 
 ter of the officer, to whom it belongs to carry the sentence into 
 execution, it will transfer us to some one of the dungeons of the 
 prison-house below. 
 
 26. And verily, the Divine Truth incarnate adds, Thou shalt by no 
 means come out thence , till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing — which 
 is only a figurative way of saying that we shall remain in the infernal 
 prison for ever. If we pay no share of our debt of obedience here, 
 while in the way of probation, how can we do so when our evils are 
 confirmed by continued impenitence, and the life of them is become the 
 unalterable life of our souls — the very principle of our existence? To 
 say, then, that we should by no means come out thence till we have 
 paid the uttermost farthing, when we are in a state and place where 
 we can procure nothing to pay with, is the same as to say that we 
 must abide in it for ever. How solemn an appeal is this to us to use 
 all diligence to agree with the truth while we have the opportunity 
 which life constantly affords, and escape the consequences of dis- 
 regarding or resisting its just demands. 
 
 27. Erom the law against killing, the Divine Teacher proceeds to 
 speak of the law against another evil that may well be associated with 
 it. Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou 
 shalt not commit adultery. Although among Christian nations this 
 evil is not punished as a criminal offence, it is yet one of the worst 
 crimes, as well as one of the deepest sins, of which a Christian can be 
 guilty. Unlike other evils, it can rarely be committed without in- 
 volving another in its guilt, as well as in the ruin which it brings. 
 
120 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 It is the enemy and destroyer at once of domestic and social, of moral 
 and religious virtue and happiness. Justly, therefore, did the pro- 
 hibition against it find a place in the decalogue, as the most holy 
 portion of the law revealed by J ehovah amidst the thunders of Sinai. 
 Marriage is a divine institution, and was designed to be, not a natural 
 and temporary, but a spiritual and eternal union. He, therefore, who 
 commits adultery violates that which is holy, and cuts himself off from 
 all communication with heaven. 
 
 28. The Jew regarded this commandment, as he did most others, 
 only as a rule for the regulation of his outward conduct; but the 
 Christian is to esteem it as a law for the government of his inward 
 life. Therefore the Lord says to his disciples, But I say unto you , 
 That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed 
 adultery with her already in his heart. If hatred is murder, lust is 
 adultery. Civil laws or outward considerations may prevent the desire 
 from becoming an act ; but if it is secretly cherished, the evil has 
 already been committed in the heart. And as God looks upon the 
 heart, and judges men by their intentions as well as by their acts, sins 
 intended are as condemnatory as sins committed. Christianity, which 
 goes to the root of every evil, requires men to judge themselves by the 
 desires by which they are inflamed, as much as by the actions they 
 commit. Whatever is wilfully and deliberately cherished is an act 
 of the mind, and would become an act of the body also, if outward 
 circumstances were favourable. There is, however, a wide difference 
 between the evil that is cherished and the evil that is only excited. 
 Every heart has its concupiscence; but every heart does not approve or 
 cherish it. Instead of encouraging the lust, the mind may condemn 
 and strive against it, in which case the evil will not become sin, even 
 although there may be the opportunity and enticement to commit it. 
 
 As, in the spiritual sense, to kill is to destroy the principles of 
 spiritual life in ourselves or others, to commit adultery is to pervert 
 and profane them. The principles which constitute spiritual life in 
 the soul are goodness and truth, or love and faith. These are the 
 partners of the spiritual and heavenly marriage, of which truth is the 
 husband, and good is the wife; and from whose union are produced 
 all the virtue and blessedness of human and angelic beings. The 
 opposite of this heavenly marriage is the union of falsity and evil, from 
 which spring all the sin and misery that prevail in the world and in 
 the kingdom of darkness. But spiritual adultery consists, not simply in 
 the union of evil and falsity, but in the union of truth and evil, or of 
 falsity and goodness, which is as the union of heaven and hell. The 
 
Chap. Y.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 121 
 
 first is the profanation of truth, the second is the profanation of good- 
 ness. The natural evil corresponds to and results from the spiritual; 
 and they are ever united as cause and effect. He, therefore, who 
 looketh on a woman, to lust after her, hath, in his heart, committed 
 both the spiritual and the natural sin. 
 
 29, 30. The Lord follows up his remarks on this subject by saying, 
 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out ; if thy right hand offend thee, 
 cut it off. The eye is the symbol, as it is more especially the organ ? 
 of the intellect, as the hand is of the will. And as thought is an act 
 of the intellect, and desire is an act of the will, these are included in 
 the signification of the eye and the hand. It is the offending thought 
 and desire, therefore, that are to be removed. The eye that looks upon, 
 and the desire that lusts after, prohibited objects and pleasures, are 
 the causes of offence; and these must be rejected, that we may be 
 guiltless of the offence, by its being no longer in the intention. If 
 these, as the causes of offence, are not rejected, we are guilty of the 
 sin, although we may never commit the act. — But the offending mem- 
 bers that are removed are the right eye and the right hand. Of the 
 members of the body, those on the right side correspond to faculties 
 and powers of the will, and those on the left side, to faculties and 
 powers of the understanding. The right eye and hand offend us, or 
 rather cause us to offend, when impure thoughts and desires are 
 grounded in the will — are not simply the offspring of the natural 
 weakness and corruption of the flesh, but proceed from evil, known 
 to be such, and wilfully cherished in the heart. 
 
 The Lord tells us what we are to do with the offending member. 
 We are to pluck out the eye, and cut off the hand, and cast them 
 from us. If impure thoughts arise in our minds, we are to check and 
 reject them, so that they may form no part of our intellectual life; 
 and if impure desires are excited in our hearts, we are to condemn 
 and resist them, so that they may form no part of our voluntary life. 
 The two distinct acts of cutting them off and casting them froiH us 
 are expressive of two distinct operations of the mind, which are 
 necessary to effect the full rejection of evil. The separation of evil 
 cannot be complete unless it be the joint operation of the understand- 
 ing and will. Evil may be said to be plucked out and cut off when 
 the understanding first sees and opposes it as evil ; but it is not cast 
 out from the mind until the will or love is also against it, and thus 
 unites with the understanding to effect its full rejection. 
 
 The Lord concludes his exhortation to pluck out the eye and cut off 
 the hand that offend by saying, For it is prof table for thee that one of thy 
 
122 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. Y. 
 
 members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. 
 According to the literal sense it would seem as if the excision of these 
 members was to leave the body mutilated, which, indeed, is plainly 
 stated in another place, where the Lord says, “ It is better for you to 
 enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands and two 
 feet to be cast into hell.” It does not, however, follow that those who 
 enter into life halt or maimed remain for ever so. The body of which 
 all this is said is not the natural but the spiritual body, the external 
 man, where all evils reside. It is the eye, and the hand, and the foot 
 of this body that offend or scandalize us, that obstruct and prevent 
 the operations of the internal man, and which therefore have to be 
 maimed by self-denial, that we may enter into the life of love and 
 faith, and finally into heaven. Self-denial consists in resisting evil in 
 its active states, either in acts of the mind or of the body ; and there- 
 fore we are required to pluck out the eye and cut off the hand, and so, 
 by losing one of our members, save the whole body from being cast 
 into hell, or becoming a confirmed form of evil. But in the 
 spiritual life there is a process of renewal as well as of excision. Self- 
 denial plucks out and cuts off, active goodness restores and renews. 
 He who lays down his life by crucifying the lusts of the flesh, takes it 
 up again by walking in the newness of the Spirit. The old members 
 are removed by ceasing to do evil, the new are acquired by learning 
 to do well. Halt and maimed are conditions of the spiritual body 
 when goodness and truth, or charity and faith, are unequal and divided. 
 As these twain graces become one, the body acquires its true symmetry 
 and beauty, becoming the perfect organ and instrument of the new life 
 into which the cross-bearing Christian has entered. 
 
 31, 32. The Lord extends his remarks on the law against adultery, 
 as understood by the Jews, to the law of divorce. Under the Mosaic 
 law men were permitted to put away their wives, which they some- 
 times did for very trivial causes. This law, be it remembered, did not 
 originate the practice, which was in its very nature hateful to the 
 Divine mind (Mai. ii. 16). Why, then, did not the law prohibit it? 
 Our Lord gives the answer — “ Moses, because of the hardness of your 
 hearts, suffered you to put away your wives, but from the beginning 
 it was not so” (ch. xix. 8). It is important to distinguish, in the Scrip- 
 tures, between laws of command and laws of permission. God, by his 
 very nature, can command nothing but what is good; but it is consistent 
 with a wise and beneficent providence to permit a less evil to prevent 
 a greater. Permission, therefore, forms a necessary part of the laws of 
 God’s moral government. A prohibition of divorce among the Jews 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 123 
 
 Chap. V.] 
 
 would have been unavailing, or would have produced a greater evil 
 than it prevented. What the law could not prevent, and therefore 
 did not forbid, it moderated, by subjecting divorce to prudent and 
 stringent regulations. This was the state of the case when our Lord 
 explained and enforced the Christian law of divorce, which was to 
 supersede that of Moses. It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away 
 his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: but I say unto you, 
 That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornica- 
 tion, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her 
 that is divorced committeth adultery. In this law the Lord lays down 
 the important principle, that adultery is the one only legitimate cause 
 of divorce. There may be other just causes of separation, but there is 
 no other legitimate cause for the absolute dissolution of the marriage 
 tie. True, there is no real marriage without a union of heart and 
 soul; but to make the want of such a union a ground of divorce, would 
 be to introduce into the church and society disorders that would in- 
 evitably work their ruin. It is of the utmost consequence, therefore, 
 that the Lord’s teaching on this point should be a fundamental prin- 
 ciple in all ecclesiastical and civil law. 
 
 The purely spiritual sense of this law relates not to persons, but to 
 principles in one person — the principles of goodness and truth, or love 
 and faith, the union of which constitutes the spiritual and heavenly 
 marriage. The spiritual law which is the origin of the law of 
 marriage consists in this, that every truth has its own good, and 
 every good has its own truth. A good and a truth may be pure, and 
 yet unsuited to each other — in which case their tendency is to separate. 
 This is the case even in heaven, where the blest are distinguished into 
 societies according to the differences or distinctions of goodness and 
 truth ; but these distinctions are not discords, but harmonies. Divorce, 
 which is complete opposition and separation, cannot take place between 
 pure good and truth, but between pure truth and adulterated good, or 
 between pure good and falsified truth, which is as the separation which 
 exists between heaven and hell. If separation were to take place for 
 any other cause, good, deprived of the instruction and protection which 
 it should find in truth, might unite itself with some false principle, 
 and so be profaned. 
 
 33. Another subject is brought before us by the divine Teacher. 
 Again, ye have heard that it hath been said to them of old time, Thou 
 shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths : 
 but I say unto you, Swear not at all. It has been thought by some 
 that the giving testimony upon oath is here prohibited. There is. 
 
124 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 however, nothing profane, and therefore nothing sinful, in judicial 
 swearing. It would appear, from the forms of oath which the Lord 
 adduces, that his object was to prohibit those which the Jews had 
 added to the law, and not to affirmation upon oath in questions at law. 
 
 Spiritually to swear is to confirm Divine truth. Jehovah sware by 
 himself, to teach us that as he only is the author of the truth, so he 
 only is the witness of the truth. This is a character which Jehovah 
 incarnate likewise sustains. “ Jesus is the faithful and true witness,” 
 and as such is the author and finisher of our faith. He who reveals 
 the truth by his Word convinces us of the truth by his Spirit. We 
 cannot convince ourselves from ourselves. We are indeed condemned 
 for unbelief, because if the Lord does not convince us, it is because we 
 reject his Spirit, which is always ready to give us the spirit of belief. 
 While we reject his Spirit, we may yet labour to confirm what we 
 regard as the truth. Some vain or selfish motive may prompt us to 
 confirm the truth; but such confirmation is superficial, and does not 
 enter into the inner life of our spirit. 
 
 34. The first thing by which men are commanded not to swear is 
 heaven : — Swear not at all : neither hy heaven; for it is God's throne. 
 To swear by heaven is equivalent to swearing by the Lord himself, 
 because heaven is and can be heaven only because of the presence in it 
 of the Lord. The Lord himself is indeed above heaven, in the centre 
 of the Divine glory, which constitutes the sun of heaven, and which is 
 the first emanation of his divine love ; but, nevertheless, if he were 
 not present in heaven, heaven would have no existence. The angels 
 have nothing of their own that can constitute heaven : they are 
 angels — human beings in a state of the most exalted finite glory and 
 happiness — purely because they are recipients of the Lord’s divine love 
 and wisdom, by the proceeding emanation of which he is present with 
 them, and is actually in them ; and this it is which constitutes heaven. 
 The Lord’s divine love and wisdom, as existing in himself, are the 
 divine good; and the same principles emanating from him, and 
 abiding in the angels, or in heaven, are called the divine truth. The 
 divine truth is the Lord in heaven : and this is one with the sun of 
 heaven, being the divine proceeding thence of spiritual heat and 
 light adapted to the capacity of the angels for receiving it. Thus in 
 heaven the Lord is all, and the angels respectively are nothing; of 
 which they have an inmost conviction and sense, though it is given 
 them to feel the gifts of the Lord’s love and wisdom in them as if they 
 were their own, whilst they know most assuredly, and acknowledge 
 most heartily, that nothing of them is truly their own, but all of the 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 125 
 
 Lord, as present with and in them. Thus they perfectly know, and 
 are delighted to have it so, and to acknowledge, that the Lord is the 
 all in all of heaven. Most evidently it follows from all this that to 
 swear by heaven is to swear by the Lord himself, and must, as to the 
 literal act, be unlawful in the same manner and in the same circum- 
 stances. In the purely spiritual sense, to swear by heaven is to 
 confirm any sentiment by the Lord’s divine truth in heaven. This 
 can only be done from the Lord, and. not from man himself. For, as 
 before explained, none but they whose internal man is opened can see 
 genuine truths in the Word, and confirm them by the truth of any 
 sentiment which may be presented to their minds ; and such persons 
 know and acknowledge, as we have seen the angels of heaven do, that 
 all they thus perceive, and are enabled to confirm, is from the Lord, 
 and thus that the confirmation itself is from him, and not from 
 themselves, or from man. In this sense, therefore, of prohibiting 
 man from confirming truths, or any notions which he regards as 
 truths, from himself (and if they are not truths they can only be 
 confirmed from himself), every such person dreads to offend against 
 the Lord’s command, “ Swear not by heaven; for it is God’s throne.” 
 Heaven is called God’s throne because by that expression is spiritually 
 signified the divine truth which proceeds from the Lord, and which is 
 what fills heaven, with all the angels, and makes the angels to be 
 angels, and heaven to be heaven. 
 
 35. In the same manner, to swear by the earth means by the church, 
 and thus by the divine truth which proceeds from it — and in its 
 essence is the Lord himself — as it dwells in and constitutes the church. 
 For if heaven is not heaven by virtue of anything belonging to the 
 angels, which is truly their own, but solely from the presence and resi- 
 dence of the Lord with them and in them, most certainly the church 
 on earth is not the Lord’s church by virtue of anything belonging to 
 the professing members as their own, but altogether from the presence 
 and residence of the Lord by his divine truth or divine proceeding 
 with and among them. To swear, then, by the earth, in the purely 
 spiritual sense, is to swear by the church — that is, to confirm truths 
 received as truths divine by the divine truths as known and under- 
 stood in the church. This, again, to be truly done, can only be done 
 from the Lord, and not from man, as explained already. The earth, or 
 church, is said to be God’s footstool , as being below heaven, which is 
 called his throne; and the divine truth by which it is constituted 
 appears in the form of the Holy Word in its literal or natural sense, 
 upon which rests divine truth such as it exists in heaven in its 
 
126 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. Y. 
 
 purely spiritual sense. The foot, also, from which a footstool takes 
 its name, always signifies, in the Holy Word, the natural principle of 
 man, upon which all interior things rest, and by which they are 
 sustained. For although the church, while in a state of order, is 
 enlightened to understand the letter of the Word, so as to distinguish 
 the genuine truths which it presents from the mere appearances of 
 truth, and to draw from it pure doctrine; and although its members 
 may in some measure apprehend its spiritual senses, which are what 
 are perceived, and are alone perceived by the angels, — still the ideas 
 of spiritual things capable of being perceived by man while in the 
 world are not purely spiritual ideas, as are those of the angels, but 
 are spiritual ideas conceived in a natural manner, according to the 
 unavoidable condition of the spirit of man while an inhabitant of the 
 natural world. Thus the church on earth, however pure and elevated 
 the dispensation under which it exists, can never be in any other 
 state than that which is spiritually denominated God’s footstool, — can 
 never acquire the character which belongs to heaven itself, which 
 constitutes God’s throne. If, however, while here, we truly belong 
 to the church, in the sense in which it is God’s footstool — how- 
 ever humble a part of the footstool we may constitute, — when 
 we go hence we shall have a place in his throne — shall constitute 
 some portion or atom of that glorious seat, and have the Lord him- 
 self, in his pure divine truth, perceived by us, not as now in a 
 natural manner, but in a purely spiritual one, eternally present with 
 us, in us, and over us. 
 
 It is further enjoined that we swear not by Jerusalem , for it is the 
 city of the great king . 
 
 To swear by Jerusalem is to confirm divine truth, or what ought to 
 be such, by the doctrine of truth existing in the church, and drawn 
 from the Holy Word. It may easily be concluded that when mention 
 is first made of the earth, to signify the church, and then of Jerusalem, 
 called the city of the Great King, and considered, therefore, as the 
 capital city of the earth, then Jerusalem must denote the doctrine of 
 the church, according to which everything belonging to the church is 
 regulated and determined. Here, then, again, truths can only be really 
 confirmed by the doctrine of the church from the Lord : and therefore 
 man is prohibited so to confirm them from himself, by the command 
 not to swear by Jerusalem. As heaven, the abode of angels, is deno- 
 minated God’s throne, and the earth, or the church, his footstool, so 
 Jerusalem, as the doctrine of the church, is called the city of the Great 
 King. The Lord is called a King, and the Great King, because he is 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 127 
 
 the governor of all things, by his divine truth proceeding from his divine 
 good; and Jerusalem, as denoting the doctrine of the church, is called 
 the city of the Great King, because, as just remarked, it is by its 
 doctrines that all things of the church are regulated or governed, as 
 the Lord himself is the universal Governor by his divine truth. The 
 doctrine of the church cannot be separated from the Lord as the Divine 
 Truth itself : and as to swear by J erusalem involves swearing by the 
 Great King, whose royal city it is, so to confirm anything by the 
 doctrine of the church is the same, in effect, as confirming it by the 
 Lord’s divine truth, which cannot possibly be done by man from 
 himself — to attempt which is therefore prohibited by the command, 
 Swear not by Jerusalem. 
 
 36. The last oath specifically prohibited is, swearing by one’s own 
 head. The head is often mentioned to signify intelligence ; and also 
 what is chief and primary. Thus, for a man to swear by his own 
 head, is to confirm anything by the truth which he accounts as the 
 chief point of intelligence, and which he makes the truth of his faith. 
 But man has no intelligence and believes no truth of faith from himself, 
 but only from the Lord : consequently, no truth can thus be confirmed 
 by man from himself, but only from the Lord. The folly of thinking 
 to confirm any truth from self-intelligence is expressed by the observa- 
 tion, that man cannot make one hair of his own head either white or 
 black. The hair signifies the truth of the external or natural man, such 
 as is possessed by those who hold a true faith, not because they see it 
 to be true by light in their own minds, but because the doctrine of the 
 church so teaches. Because they believe it, not because they see it, 
 but only because they have been taught it, they are commanded not 
 to swear by it, or confirm by it from themselves anything as true, 
 because they cannot make one hair white or black ; for to make one 
 hair white signifies to say and to see that truth is truth from them- 
 selves ; and to make a hair black is to say and to see, from themselves, 
 that falsity is falsity. As this can only be done from the Lord, 
 man is forbidden to swear by his head, because this signifies to confirm 
 truth from himself, or from self-derived intelligence. It will thus be 
 seen that the prohibition against swearing extends to all things, from 
 the greatest and highest to the least and lowest — from heaven to the 
 very hairs of our heads. And as all these are under the immediate 
 care of the Most High — who numbers the stars of heaven and the 
 very hairs of our heads — the command not to swear by any of them, 
 is a command not to confirm or uphold, by our own wisdom, the 
 authority of the divine wisdom, and not to obtrude ourselves, or our 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 128 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 own wisdom, into the domain of the eternal government, where the 
 wisdom of God is all. 
 
 37. Having prohibited swearing, the Lord concludes by saying, 
 But let your communication be, Yea , yea; nay, nay; for whatsoever is 
 more than these cometh of evil. This is a description of the state of the 
 highest celestial angels, whose perception of truth is so clear that there 
 is no room to doubt about it whatever. It is like seeing an object 
 before our eyes in the clearest daylight, respecting which no one enters 
 into any reasonings as to whether such an object is before him, or 
 attempts to convince others of it by any asseverations, since he knows 
 that they see it as well as himself. All reasoning, or any sort of mode 
 of confirming any truth, arises from there being some degree of obscurity 
 respecting it in our own minds, or in the minds of others whom we 
 wish to convince of it; and all obscurity of the understanding in 
 regard to truths originates in a defect of the will in regard to good. 
 If we loved good with our whole heart, and always followed it; if we 
 hated evil in every form, and constantly shunned it, we would possess 
 such light in our minds that we should recognize every truth to be 
 truth as soon as we heard it, and should have no need to be convinced 
 of it, or to be confirmed in it, by any reasons, or by any corroborating 
 considerations whatever. Thus the cause of every degree of obscurity 
 in regard to truths is the existence of evil in the will : consequently, 
 every help we have need of to assist us in our understanding of truth, 
 and to obtain a thorough conviction respecting it, is needed, and is 
 exercised from that cause. Ho legitimate means that can be employed, 
 whether reasoning or asseveration, are themselves evil : on the contrary, 
 everything that tends to assist us in the understanding of truth is good, 
 and is granted by the Lord’s mercy; but that which makes any such 
 assistance necessary is the darkening influence of evil, so that, thus 
 considered, it is most true that whatsoever is more than the simple 
 affirmation, which is the result of so clear a perception as requires no 
 argument to assist it, cometh of evil. Ho mathematical truth, how- 
 ever clearly demonstrated, is so clear as its axioms; and were the human 
 mind in genuine order, all spiritual truths would be in it as axioms 
 perceived by intuition, and only capable of being made less clear, and 
 not more so, by any mode of reasoning and demonstration. 
 
 38, 39. The law of retaliation is that to which our Lord next directs 
 the attention of his hearers. Ye have heard that it hath been said , An 
 eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth : but I say unto you, That ye 
 resist not evil. The law of retaliation delivered to the children of 
 Israel was derived from the universal law of order — “ All things 
 
Chap. Y] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 129 
 
 whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to 
 them.” This being “ the law and the prophets,” it is the law of 
 heaven, and thence of the church. But in descending into the 
 Israelitish Church, it assumed a form in accordance with the charac- 
 ter of the people. Yet the lex taliones is substantially the law of 
 Christian nations. Punishment must be awarded to crime, and with 
 some relation to its nature and extent. The spirit of our Lord’s 
 teaching in respect to this law is nevertheless observed when crime is 
 punished solely with a view to the protection of society, and to the 
 amendment, as far as possible, of the offender. But in all the laws 
 of the Word of God there is a spiritual element and an eternal 
 object. The laws of retaliation were not intended only for evil men 
 in the natural world, but for evil spirits in the spiritual world. The 
 law of heaven, “Do to others as ye would that others should do to 
 you,” becomes in hell, “ As ye do to others, it shall be done to you.” 
 In heaven all are actuated by benevolence, in hell by malevolence. 
 And as every principle carries within it its own reward, happiness is 
 the result of the one and misery of the other. Every evil has along 
 with it a corresponding punishment. That punishment is not a 
 divine retribution; it is not inflicted to satisfy any divine attribute; 
 but is a permission for the purpose of restraint and correction — we do 
 not say of amendment, because this can have no existence in the 
 regions of darkness. The law of retaliation acts in the spiritual 
 world precisely as it acted among the Israelites in the natural world. 
 The punishment is demanded and inflicted by the blood avenger— the 
 Lord, as the universal Judge, like his prototype, only doing what the 
 judge of Israel did, regulating and moderating the punishment, that 
 it exceed not the limits assigned by the law of retaliation. There also 
 the retribution of evil takes place according to the law of contraries, 
 as opposite to the reward of good in heaven. Good willed or done by 
 any one in heaven opens the heart to receive an influx of good, with 
 its delight, from every side, so that the delight of all is imparted to 
 each. Evil done by any one in hell draws upon him the wrath of 
 the whole society, just as among the Israelites the claimant for 
 vengeance was tracked by the congregation, who only waited for the 
 avenger to throw the first stone, to rush simultaneously upon the 
 offender. 
 
 And it is in relation to the spiritual life of man, and not to his 
 outward natural life that he lives in the world, that the Lord delivers 
 these precepts, when understood in their spiritual meaning, which is 
 the only meaning in which they are to be strictly observed. An eye 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. Y. 
 
 for an eye , awe? a tooth for a tooth , signifies that it is a law of divine 
 origin, that so far as any one takes away, or desires to take away, 
 from another the understanding of truth, or the sense of truth, so far 
 they shall be taken away from him; and this is an effect which is 
 seen to follow the effort or intention. The eye signifies the under- 
 standing of truth, and a tooth what may be called the sense of truth ; 
 for tooth signifies what is true or false as it appertains to the sensual 
 man, or as it is perceived by the ultimate region of the human mind, 
 called its sensual principle. That the evil, or the doer of evil, is not 
 to be resisted, signifies that the good, upon whom such spiritual assault 
 is made, are not to fight in return, and recompense evil with evil. 
 Angels, we may be sure, do not fight with the evil, still less do they 
 recompense evil for evil; but they permit evil spirits to hurt them if 
 they can, because it is impossible for them to do it, on account of the 
 protection which surrounds the angels from the Lord, which is such 
 that no evil from hell can hurt them. So when the Lord proceeds to 
 say, in illustration of the precept not to resist evil, whosoever shall smite 
 thee on the right cheek , turn to him the other also, it is because the cheek 
 signifies the perception and understanding of interior truth (as the 
 tooth does of exterior truth), the right cheek signifying the affection, 
 and thence perception of it ; to smite the right cheek is to endeavour to 
 injure such affection and perception; and the command to turn the 
 other implies that the attempt is to be permitted, because it is im- 
 possible, as just remarked, that the evil can do real injury to the per- 
 ception and understanding of interior truth in those who, being grounded 
 in such perception and understanding from genuine good, are encom- 
 passed with the sphere of the Lord’s divine protection. In the original, 
 the word used properly signifies the cheek-bone, or the upper jaw, of 
 which the cheek is the covering, consisting of the muscles by which 
 it acts. The jaws form the opening of the mouth ; and the mouth and 
 all the parts connected with it, as the throat, the lips, the cheeks 
 and jaws, and the teeth, signify such things as relate to the per- 
 ception and understanding of truth, because these principles in the 
 mind correspond, or answer by correspondence, to these organs of 
 the body, on which account they are named to express those mental 
 faculties in the literal sense of the word, which is entirely written by 
 such correspondences. So when the Lord says farther, And if any 
 man will sue thee at the law , and take away thy coat, let him have thy 
 cloak also, the meaning is, that if any endeavour to take away the 
 internal truth of which we are in possession, he may be allowed to 
 take the external truth likewise; for the coat, or inner garment, 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 131 
 
 signifies interior truth, and the cloak, or outer garment, signifies 
 exterior truth. We are informed that the angels do this with the 
 evil; for the evil cannot take away anything of truth and goodness 
 from those who are really principled in them, as the angels are, but 
 they can take away from those who, in resentment of the attempt, 
 burn with enmity, hatred, and revenge, because those evils avert 
 from him who cherishes them the Divine protection of the Lord. 
 So, again, when the Lord further says, And whosoever shall compel thee 
 to go a mile, go with him twain, the spiritual and only true signifi- 
 cation is, that he who wishes to draw away from truth to falsity is 
 not to be resisted, because he cannot do it — a mile being the 
 measure of a road or way, which signifies that which leads to truth, 
 or from it. When the Lord says, finally, Give to him that asheth thee, 
 and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away, the 
 meaning is, that whatever we possess or know of goodness and truth 
 is to be communicated to all who wish for it; and this whether he 
 desires it in sincerity or only to pervert it, and deprive others of the 
 truth by such perversion. This, however, they are not able to do ; 
 and all who derive instruction of us, whether for a good or a bad end 
 or object, of which we can seldom judge with certainty, are to receive 
 it. Even also when the object at the time may be a bad one, we 
 cannot tell what benefit the inquirer may derive from the information 
 imparted: it may possibly be the means eventually of his refor- 
 mation. 
 
 It is quite evident that all these injunctions may be carried out * 
 spiritually without our losing anything of good or truth, or any 
 mental or spiritual endowment, by doing so. We may freely let a man 
 take our spiritual coat and cloak without losing them ourselves ; and 
 we may give to him who would ask or borrow of us without being in 
 any respect the poorer. We ought ever to be willing to do good in 
 all ways, even to the evil; and most assuredly the greatest good that 
 can be done to the evil is to communicate to them that instruction, 
 imparted with compassionate kindness, which may be instrumental to 
 their reformation. 
 
 43. The previous sections of this Divine discourse begin with 
 quotations either from the ten commandments or from other precepts 
 of the Mosaic law ; but this passage continues with a citation from the 
 law, a precept which nowhere occurs in the sacred writings. The 
 Divine Speaker says, Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt 
 love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. The first clause is certainly 
 a Divine command. It is found in Lev. xix. 18, where it is written, 
 
132 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. Y. 
 
 “ Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; ” and in conjunction with 
 the command to love the Lord with all tbe heart and soul, it is 
 repeatedly quoted by the Lord Jesus Christ, who declares that “ on 
 these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” But no- 
 where is to be found in any part of the Old Testament — of the law and 
 the prophets — any more than in the New, any precept which says, 
 “ Thou shalt hate thine enemy.” In the margin of our Bibles we are 
 referred to Deut. xxiii. 6, where the children of Israel are enjoined 
 not to seek the peace nor the prosperity of the Ammonites and 
 Moabites all their days for ever. But this is a special case ; and the 
 very fact that it was an exception proves the rule that they were to 
 love, or at least not to hate their enemies. But even this does not 
 enjoin hatred. It does not come within the spirit of the Christian- 
 precept to love their enemies : it only excludes these enemies from the 
 benefit of the active seeking of their peace and prosperity by Israel. 
 
 Another passage referred to, in illustration of the Lord’s statement, 
 is the 10th verse of the 41st Psalm, “ O Lord, be merciful unto me, and 
 raise me up, that I may requite them.” This is indeed a prayer of 
 David in relation to his enemies. But this is no precept commanding 
 hatred. It is in the spirit of other Old Testament utterances, but it 
 expresses the mind of man and not of G-od ; nor is anything to be 
 found, even in the Scriptures addressed to the Israelitish people, that 
 can be construed into a Divine command to hate their enemies. 
 When, therefore, the Lord says, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, 
 
 . Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy,” it is plain 
 that he must mean, as to the latter clause, that it has been said by the 
 Jewish doctors — the scribes and Pharisees — who, it is well known, 
 have always repeated this as a doctrine of the law of Moses, though, in 
 reality, the law of Moses never says any such thing. It is true they 
 were commanded to drive out or exterminate the previous inhabitants 
 of Canaan; but in this they were to act as the executors of Divine 
 judgments, called down by the extreme wickedness of those nations, 
 which, as is expressly stated, had grown to such a height that the land 
 itself could bear them no longer, but absolutely, in the strong symbolic 
 language of the Word of God, vomited out its inhabitants. The Israelites 
 were to hold no communion with such a people, because this could not 
 be held without contamination ; and as communication could not be 
 avoided if they lived together with them, they were, as just remarked, 
 commanded to exterminate and drive them out, as executors of the 
 Divine judgments on their wickedness; but this is very different from 
 being commanded personally to hate them, and to execute the awful 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 133 
 
 commission assigned them in a spirit of malignity. It is true that the 
 Jews were not content to live separate from the nations, but cherished 
 hatred towards them ; yet this was due to their own character, and 
 not to any recommendation of, or authority for, such a principle from 
 the Word, which comprises many precepts whose tendency is directly 
 the contrary. Thus, not only was the commandment given (Lev. 
 xix. 18), “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” which the Jews 
 consider includes none but their own nation; but in verse 34 of the 
 same chapter it is added, The stranger (that is, the foreigner) that 
 sojourneth with you shall be as one home-born among you, and thou 
 shalt love him as thyself ; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. 
 So in Deut. x. 18, “God loveth the stranger, in giving him food and 
 raiment. Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the 
 land of Egypt.” Evidently, then, the Mosaic law teaches no such 
 principle as hatred of enemies, but directly the contrary. Yet it is 
 certain this was a grand precept of the J ewish doctors, and heartily 
 received by the whole nation. 
 
 44. In correction, then, of this feature of the righteousness of the 
 scribes and Pharisees, the Divine Author of the Christian religion 
 says to his disciples, But I say unto you , Love your enemies , bless them 
 that curse you , do good to them that hate you , and pray for them which 
 despitefully use you, and persecute you. It may be asked, Why should 
 a Divine teacher, who knew that his church would not be formed of 
 Jews, few of whom were capable of receiving pure Christianity, address 
 so much of his instructions to the correction of Jewish errors and 
 principles of conduct? The answer is, because those Jewish errors 
 and principles — if not the very same doctrinal errors, corresponding 
 sins, and the very same principles of affection, life, and practice — are 
 deeply rooted in the heart and mind of the natural man, and con- 
 stitute his principles of thought and action in all ages. Therefore 
 the Lord says, “ But I say unto you, Love your enemies.” 
 
 The command, “ Love your enemies,” certainly appears as a hard 
 saying to the natural man. How we can actually love those who, 
 we know, hate us, and would, if they had the power, destroy us, 
 is certainly a problem of which mere nature cannot suggest the 
 solution. It is true that duty does not require us to love them 
 as to that principle and state in them from which they are our 
 enemies, and would, if they could, injure or destroy us; for no one 
 is an enemy to another, and wishes to injure or destroy him, but from 
 some principle of evil — some overweening impulse of self-love or the 
 love of the world, which are the basis of all evil; and evil in no one 
 
134 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. Y. 
 
 is to be the object of our love, but always of our aversion. But duty 
 requires us to remember that there is no one who is altogether evil. 
 If all have evil inherent in them from self, and present with them 
 from will, all likewise have good present with them from the Lord 
 and from heaven. All are human beings, our fellow-creatures, 
 possess the human endowments of rationality and liberty, and 
 thus retain somewhat, however disfigured, of the image and like- 
 ness of God. The desire and the will of the Lord is, that the good 
 which is present in every one from him should be brought forward 
 and increased, and appropriated by the person, and acted from as his 
 own, and exalted to the supremacy in his affections; and that the evil 
 which is in him from himself and from hell should be subdued and 
 removed before it. And what is the will of the Lord respecting any 
 or every individual of the human race must be also the will, or must 
 be made the will, of every one who would truly be the Lord’s disciple 
 or his servant, his friend or his son. How then can we act — even 
 in the lowest of these capacities — as the Lord’s servant or disciple, 
 if, in regard to any one of whom we know that such is the will of 
 the Lord — that is, any one of the human race, any fellow creature — 
 we allow the petty consideration, that the evil which is in him, and 
 which he shares with ourselves and with every one, happens to be 
 specially directed against us, and induces him, mistaking us, to act 
 as our enemy — if, I say, we allow this feeling, this merely selfish 
 consideration, to prevent us from complying with the will of the 
 Lord, and from acting as his children or disciples, by constituting 
 ourselves enemies of that individual in return, and hating him 
 because he has fallen into the error, and is injuring himself by 
 appropriating the evil of hating and wishing to do injury to us? 
 The grand thing we have to attend to, and never to forget, is, to 
 distinguish between a man’s evils and his person, because he is a 
 human being — by creation our brother — capable of becoming an 
 angel, equally with ourselves the offspring of our Creator, and the 
 object of his paternal tenderness ; while we regret and lament his 
 evil conduct or principles, we should on no account do anything to con- 
 firm him in them, but should gladly do everything in our power to pro- 
 mote their removal. In fact, the true definition of what is meant by 
 loving our enemies is to feel and act towards them under the influ- 
 ence of charity. However truly a person may be an enemy to us, we 
 are never to suffer feelings of enmity against him in return to 
 establish themselves in our hearts ; and though we may do whatever 
 is necessary to defeat his endeavours to do us injury, we must never 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 135 
 
 admit the wish to do him injury in return. Everything is comprised 
 in the direction, that we are ever to regard him with the feelings of 
 true charity, and to act towards him with such feelings alone. 
 
 That it is in this manner that we are to love our enemies is 
 evident from the additions with which the Divine Speaker accom- 
 panies that precept. After saying, “Love your enemies,” he con- 
 tinues his precepts on the subject by saying further, Bless them that 
 curse you , do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that 
 despitefully use you, and persecute you. These are all marks and 
 manifestations of charity. The end which all charity has in view is 
 to promote the good of those towards whom it is cherished, and to do 
 them good in whatever way we are able, so as to contribute really to 
 their benefit. One way of doing such good is to bless them that 
 curse us. To bless implies desiring blessing from the Lord ; and it 
 includes, where there is opportunity of doing so with effect, the 
 imparting such advice and instruction as may tend to bring them 
 into a state admissive of the Divine blessing. To do good to them 
 that hate us is evidently to return good for evil, and thus to convince 
 them how little reason they have to hate us, and to bring them to 
 feel the evil of doing so. To pray for them that despitefully use us 
 and persecute us cannot, in the spiritual sense, mean anything very 
 different from what the letter expresses. When so ill treated by an 
 enemy as to have no means of doing anything directly good to him, 
 we can only elevate our souls in devout desire for his true welfare 
 to the Lord, and intercede at the throne of mercy on his behalf ; 
 and, little as human reason may be able to discern the probable use 
 of such a course, we may be sure that it would not be enjoined by 
 Infinite Goodness and Wisdom, did not that Wisdom see how it 
 may be beneficial, and were not that Goodness disposed to make it 
 so. Doubtless, in many cases, no human intercession on behalf of 
 others can be of any avail ; but if the W ord of God is to be believed, 
 there certainly are cases as numerous, whatever philosophy may argue 
 to the contrary, in which it may. And as it is impossible for us to 
 know what cases may belong to this class, and what to the other, it 
 is doubtless our duty in all, from special emotions of charity, to 
 comply with the Lord’s command, and to pray for them that 
 despitefully use us and persecute us. The Lord himself prayed 
 for his enemies on the cross. His prayer could neither be formal 
 nor unavailing ; and if we are true disciples we will follow his 
 example, believing sincerely in the blessedness of the result. 
 
 45. But the Divine Speaker does not confine himself to simply 
 
136 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 commanding us to love our enemies : lie adds to tlie command the 
 strongest motives, reasons, and inducements to the love of enemies: 
 That ye may he the children of your Father who is in heaven : for he j 
 maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good , and sendeth rain 
 on the just and on the unjust. The not regarding of injuries, so as to j 
 seek to requite them ; the not hating, but the loving of our enemies, 
 
 .so as to regard them with entire charity, and to desire nothing but | 
 their good, is, beyond everything else, that which makes man, in his j 
 finite measure, like God, insomuch that God regards such a man as ! 
 his son, and gives him this title. The reason of this is, because 
 such genuine, disinterested charity — charity thus free from all 
 contamination by the love of self— is the very Divine principle as 
 received by and dwelling in man ; and though man can never have 
 anything divine in him as his own, so as to be himself a god, yet in 
 the form of such charity it is imparted to him, as if it were his own; 
 and though it cannot make him a god, it unites him, in his finite 
 manner, with God, and effects a real conjunction of life for him 
 with the Lord himself. With it he receives power to ’be, and is 
 accounted as, a son of God. He has an intimate conjunction 
 with the Lord Jesus Christ as to his Divine humanity, and in 
 • the humanity with the essential divinity — the inmost divine essence 
 and nature. 
 
 For the Lord, in his unfailing bounty, maketh his sun to rise on 
 the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the 
 unjust. Not only does he do this literally, communicating all 
 needful benefits to all, but spiritually likewise, by communicating to 
 all the means of salvation, together with ability to make saving use of 
 them. The rising of his sun is the communication of the influences 
 of his love, conveying all spiritual good ; the rain that he sends is 
 the influence of his truth, making the mind receptive of the 
 knowledge conveyed through his W ord ; and both are the gifts of 
 his Holy Spirit, which are constantly present with every one, and 
 when received and appropriated, replenish the soul with spiritual 
 life, and prepare the man for the blessed enjoyment of life ever- 
 lasting. 
 
 Other reasons are offered by the Divine Speaker and Benefactor, 
 to convince man how readily he should comply with the Divine 
 desires in his behalf, by acquiring that charity which can love its 
 enemies, and thus become an inheritor of all heavenly excellences 
 and joy. 
 
 46. And, first, he shows that religious men have no advantage 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 t 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 137 
 
 over the men of the world unless they show a better example of un- 
 worldly love. For if ye love them that love you , what reward have ye ? 
 do not even the publicans the same ? As natural men hate, so do they 
 love. As they hate those that hate them, they love those who love 
 them. In thus loving others they only love themselves. They love 
 others so far and so long as others minister to their self-love or 
 self-interest. Christian love is entirely different from this. A 
 Christian loves his neighbour for his neighbour’s sake. And this 
 he does whether his neighbour love him or not in return. His 
 principles prompt him to desire the welfare and happiness of others, 
 and to do what he can to promote them. Not self-love, but the love 
 of God, is the principle from which he loves and acts. And as God 
 loves all, and dispenses his bounty to all, he who loves God must 
 love as God loves. There is another duty inculcated — that of 
 saluting others besides our brethren. 
 
 47. And if ye salute your brethren only, vjhat do ye 7nore than 
 others ? do not even the publicans so 1 The distinction is that which 
 exists between loving and doing, and, spiritually, is one that so 
 often occurs to mark the distinction and the union of the will and 
 the understanding in all our intercourse with our fellow-creatures — 
 that heavenly marriage of the good and the true from which all • 
 spiritual virtue springs. Unless the Christian acts from these 
 heavenly principles, what reward has he ? The publicans have 
 selfish gratification,, and sometimes worldly advantage, as the re- 
 ward of loving and saluting those who love and salute them. The 
 reward to which the Christian looks is inward satisfaction and 
 advantage ; but it is the satisfaction of doing good, and the advan- 
 tage of increasing his own capacity for usefulness and happiness. 
 
 48. As the Lord pointed to the Father in heaven as the pattern 
 for men in their love for and conduct to each other, he concludes 
 by exhorting his disciples to imitate him even in his perfection. 
 
 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is 
 perfect. This must seem to many an impracticable lesson. The 
 Lord cannot, of course, mean to teach us that we can be perfect in 
 the degree that God is perfect ; but he certainly intended to teach 
 us that there is a perfection to which the Christian can attain which 
 is an image of the Divine perfection. What is it that, apart from 
 his infinity, constitutes the perfection of God’s nature ? It is the 
 perfect union in him of love and wisdom. The same union con- 
 stitutes human perfection ; the only difference being, that while the 
 perfection of God is infinite, that of man is finite. Love from God 
 
138 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. VI. 
 
 in man’s will, and wisdom from God in man’s understanding, make 
 man an image of God ; and man is a perfect image so far as tliese 
 principles are united in his mind and in his life. According to this 
 idea of perfection, the humblest member of the Lord’s body can be 
 as perfect in degree as the most exalted. For he who has little 
 of love and of wisdom may have that little in as perfect a state of 
 union as the greatest. The union of love and wisdom, or of good 
 and truth, of charity and faith, of will and understanding, of doc- 
 trine and life — this is perfection; and to this perfection all can 
 attain. 
 
 What a beautiful conclusion do these verses form to the series of 
 Divine lessons which this portion of the Lord’s sermon conveys! 
 How excellent and amiable does the religion of Jesus Christ appear, 
 according to its nature, as here described and insisted on by himself! 
 How far surpassing anything ever imagined is here presented, as the 
 character of the true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, when, as 
 necessary to distinguish him from men of the world, and to evince 
 that he is a true disciple of his Divine Master, we are ffold that he 
 must love even his enemies, and return blessings and prayers for 
 curses and injuries; and when, after a picture of our heavenly Father 
 * as the Author of good to all, we are instructed that, in this respect, 
 we are to take him for our pattern, and strive after a perfection 
 imitative of his ! In practice how few of us appear to think that 
 such precepts are given in earnest, as intended to. be obeyed, and that 
 unless we are at heart in the sincere effort to obey them, and to 
 govern our affections and habits of life in conformity with their 
 directions, we have no claim to be accounted as Christians, or to 
 assume the name, and expect the consequent blessing, of him as the 
 disciples and followers of the Lord J esus Christ. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 This chapter, while it forms part of the series of the Lord’s discourse, 
 forms at the same time a series which is distinct by itself ; and which 
 again consists of distinct parts, forming again other distinct series. 
 Thus, the first eighteen verses obviously constitute one series of sub- 
 jects, consisting again of three parts, intimately connected together: 
 the first treating of the duty of almsgiving, the second of that of 
 prayer, and the third of fasting. 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 139 
 
 Chap. VI.] 
 
 1. The first verse is a general introduction, not only to the subject 
 of almsgiving, but also to those of prayer and fasting. In our version 
 the Lord is made to say, Take heed that ye do not your alms before 
 men; but in the margin righteousness is given instead of alms. The 
 reason of this is, that in a great number of manuscripts, including 
 those that are most ancient, and in some of the most ancient versions, 
 the word properly meaning righteousness, or justice, is here found. 
 This would appear to be the correct reading. For righteousness being 
 a general term, denoting any kind of religious duty whatever, includes 
 the three different duties, of which almsgiving is one, and which, 
 therefore, comes appropriately in the next verse. The general precept, 
 then, Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men , to be 
 seen of them ; otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is 
 in heaven , implies, that no kind of religious duty whatever is to be 
 done for the sake of the applause of men, or on account of any 
 external consideration whatever; and that when so done, it ceases to 
 be truly an act of religion, and brings no blessing upon the hypo- 
 critical performer. 
 
 2. Having taught that in the performance of religious duty in 
 general, regard is not to be had to men, otherwise no reward attends 
 them from our heavenly Father, the Divine Instructor draws from the 
 general precept an inference relating to the specific duty of almsgiving. 
 Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, 
 as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may 
 have glory of men. Almsgiving, as one of the most obvious good 
 deeds which spring from a principle of charity, is here mentioned to 
 denote all good in general, — every sort of performance which has, or 
 ought to have, charity or love as its origin, — all good which man can 
 will or do. That almsgiving is one of the forms of such good, there 
 can be no doubt ; although, in a corrupt and artificial state of society, 
 there is need of prudence and caution in its exercise; lest by this 
 means the unworthy should be supported in idleness and profligacy, 
 and, by importunity and hypocritical pretences, should monopolize 
 the bounty which is only well bestowed upon those whom misfortune, 
 and not vice, has reduced to a situation to require it. But almsgiving 
 alone is not what is here intended in the spiritual sense, but, as 
 remarked, all good whatever that man can will and do. Nothing of 
 the kind is to be done for the sake of outward appearance. Do not 
 sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and 
 in the streets, that they may have glory of men. To sound a trumpet is 
 a figurative form of speech, denoting, when applied to divine things, 
 
140 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. VL 
 
 revelation by truths grounded in celestial love : here, therefore, where 
 it is applied to a subject of an opposite nature, it denotes publication 
 and boasting, grounded in self-love, and the love to obtain the glory of 
 men, and to desire reputation by such means among those who only! 
 behold the outward appearance, but cannot look into the heart. 
 Thus it is to do good only for the sake of appearance, without any 
 regard for good in itself. The synagogues and the streets, where the , 
 trumpet is blown, signify, in the good sense, doctrines and truths; 
 and therefore point to the nature of the act as being one of intellect, i 
 and not of the heart, the result of study and contrivance with a view 
 to self-glory. It implies also the practice of selfish benevolence under : 
 the cloak of religion. Verily , they have their reward. But what is this 
 but the bubble reputation, which death at least must burst, leaving j 
 the miserable performer to shame and everlasting disgrace. 
 
 This, therefore, being not the mode of doing good which is 
 acceptable to the Lord, or truly beneficial to the performer, the Lord | 
 says to his disciples, Therefore , , when thou doest alms , let not thy left 
 hand know what thy right hand doeth. This is doubtless a proverbial j 
 phrase, implying great secrecy ; but when employed by the Lord it 
 becomes significant likewise. All the organs on the right side of the ' 
 body have, as we have seen (ch. v. 29, 30), relation, in the symbolic ! 
 language of Scripture, to the principles of goodness; and those on the I 
 left to that of truth. These, with a good man, act in union ; but not | 
 with a wicked man, or with one who does good only for the sake of ! 
 appearance. The hand always signifies power or ability. To act, 
 then, with the right hand denotes to act from a principle of truth i 
 giounded in goodness. But the left hand here denotes the power of < 
 truth separate from goodness: and to consult this, would be to act 
 from the understanding alone, without regard to any concurrence on 
 the part of the will — thus to do what truth dictates, but without any 
 motive of goodness in the doing of it ; in which case self-love or evil 
 must be the moving principle, and the good outwardly done would 
 be for the sake of appearance and character. Not to let the left hand 
 know what the right hand doeth is to do good from a principle of 
 goodness itself, without any respect to any consideration not grounded 
 in genuine goodness. 
 
 4. Good must be thus done that our alms may be in secret — that 
 is, that our good deeds may proceed from the inmost recesses of the 
 soul, and be kept separate from all external considerations. And for 
 such good, Thy Father vrfiich seeth in secret himself shall reward thee 
 openly. Ly which is meant, that the delight and blessedness inherent 
 
Ciiap. VI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 141 
 
 in all genuine good, or in all good which is lived, will be communi- 
 cated to us by the Lord, the only Source of all real good and of all 
 true felicity. And when this is promised from the Lord as our Father, 
 we are instructed that this reward will come from his fatherly love, 
 the fountain of the purest bliss. How desirable to come into the 
 possession of such a principle of goodness, and to be influenced by it 
 alone in whatever we do! If we do good according to our abilities 
 and opportunities, our heavenly Father himself will give us a reward 
 — the reward which all pure love of good carries in its bosom, the 
 delight and blessedness of heaven, not the heaven only which is 
 without, but of that which is within us ; for good itself is heaven, 
 and in this our Father dwells. 
 
 5. From the subject of almsgiving the Lord passes on to that of 
 prayer. This is a subject in which all are most deeply interested. 
 Prayer is discourse with God. Love is the fire that burns perpetually 
 upon the altar, and devoutness of spirit is unceasing worship. There 
 are times and seasons, however, when the devout man pours out his 
 soul to God in oral prayer. Nor can true piety exist without the 
 exercise of outward devotion, any more than true holiness can exist 
 without the practice of good works. Prayer is therefore introduced 
 among the active virtues which the Lord enjoins in his sermon on the 
 mount. As in the duty of almsgiving, so in the performance of 
 devotion the Lord instructs us both negatively and positively. And 
 when thou prayest , thou shalt not he as the hypocrites are. W e must not, 
 as the word hypocrite implies, with our lips use words, or assume any 
 outward appearance, of devotion or holiness, while our heart believes 
 or thinks in opposition to the form of goodness assumed before the 
 world. The Lord, it is plain, does not speak of the infirmities which 
 may attend the performance of our acts of worship, such as accidental 
 and unintentional wanderings of thought or distraction of mind, but 
 of that studied simulation of a piety to which the heart is an utter 
 stranger, and which it even abhors. The Lord explains what he 
 means by the command to be not as the hypocrites, by proceeding to 
 explain what such a hypocrite is : for they love to pray standing in the 
 synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may he seen of men. 
 The Lord does not in this discourage public worship. He himself 
 worshipped in the synagogue. Social worship is not implied here. 
 Synagogues were made in imitation of the temple. And the Lord 
 represents the Pharisee and the publican going up into the temple to 
 pray, and each as praying alone. The point of our Lord’s exhortation, 
 to avoid the example of the Pharisees, is in their praying in public 
 

 142 ST. MATTHEW. [Chap. YI 
 
 places, to be seen of men. And nothing, surely, can be a more profane 
 mockery than seeking human praise by the very act of offering homage 
 to God. All our Lord’s description of the practice of the hypocrite is, j 
 in the spiritual sense, expressive of activity of the intellect, and, in 
 this case, without the co-operative influence of the will. Standing is 
 expressive of a state of the thought ; the synagogue signifies doctrine ;!| 
 a street signifies truth or its opposite ; and the corner of a street the ! 
 ultimate where truth closes, and on which it rests. We thus pray 
 when from the understanding alone we go through the forms which; 
 truth prescribes as the means of acquiring good, for the purpose of 
 acquiring the reputation of goodness. We do it to be seen of men, that 
 is, to deceive their understandings, which is meant by the sight, to 
 make that seem good which in itself is evil. Of all such worshippers jij 
 the Lord says, Verily I say unto you , They have their reward. Their I 
 present reward is to obtain a character for piety, and secure respect | 
 and credit with others. Their reward is of this life, and here it ends. | 
 Their reward in the other life is “ shame and everlasting contempt.” 
 
 6. Pharisaic worship is to be shunned by every true disciple of the 1 
 Lord. He is to seek the favour of the Lord alone. No view to any | 
 merely external advantage is to be made the end of his devotions. He jj 
 is to worship primarily from the internal man, and by internal wor- I 
 ship give a spiritual and internal nature even to its outward expres- I 
 sions. Therefore the Lord says, But thou , when thou prayest, enter into I 
 thy closet , and when thou hast shut thy door , pray to thy Father which I 
 is in secret ; and thy Father which seetli in secret shall reward thee openly. I 
 By the direction to enter into the closet is not meant that all worship > 
 is to be performed in solitude. The closet is here put to signify the ij 
 interior recesses of the mind. We are to worship the Lord from the !| 
 internal man, and thus from states of inward faith and love, and not \\ 
 from the external man and his natural desires. Therefore we are also I 
 commanded to shut the door, which means to exclude all the influences 1 
 that arise from the body and the world — to shut out completely every I 
 suggestion and desire that arises from below, and to seek the blessing of 
 our Father, that is, of the Lord as pure Divine Love, who is only to be il 
 approached in such states of interior affection and spiritual desire, and 1 
 who has his residence in secret, in the inmost recesses of the purified | 
 soul. The blessings of which we shall be made partakers will, while | 
 here, be stored up in the interiors of the mind; but when we depart I 
 hence, we shall enter into their manifest enjoyment and full fruition. | 
 Our Father, who seeth in secret, and who notes every desire and I 
 aspiration truly directed to him, will, we may be assured, reward us > 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 143 
 
 openly. But even in this world we shall not be entirely without our 
 open reward. Heavenly graces will be drawn down from, the Lord in 
 the internal man into the external by every act of true worship, and 
 we shall be made partakers more and more fully of our heavenly 
 Father’s love. 
 
 7 8. Having entered into our closet, and shut the door, we must 
 attend to the matter of the prayer we offer up to our Father in 
 heaven. On this important point our Lord says, But when ye pray 
 use not vain repetitions , as the heathen do : for they think that they shall 
 be heard for their much speaking. As the word rendered “ vain repeti- 
 tions” occurs in no other passage in the New Testament, and, according 
 to Tholuck , only once in any classical author, its precise meaning is 
 not easily determined. The context, however, sufficiently shows its 
 meaning. It evidently includes the idea of “ much speaking, for 
 which the heathen “think they shall be heard;” and it probably 
 includes also the idea of asking many particular things; since one 
 reason for our not being like the heathen in our prayers is, that your 
 Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. In 
 both these particulars our Lord’s own prayer, which he delivered to 
 his disciples as an example, is instructive. Few things are asked in 
 few words. Even in its simple literal sense it craves but one blessing 
 for the body; all the others are for the soul. The Lord’s prayer is no 
 doubt to be our pattern, though its use does not exclude that of other 
 suitable forms. In itself it includes all— all that we can think or 
 ask ; but this in its spiritual sense. It certainly most emphatically 
 teaches us that we should not approach the Divine Being with long, 
 unmeaning, or worldly-minded prayers. But these exhortations have 
 some deeper meaning than that which the letter expresses. It will 
 be observed that the Lord first warns us against the practices of the 
 hypocrites, and then against that of the heathen. The hypocrites are 
 those who do not pray, but only pretend to pray ; the heathen pray, 
 but are mistaken in the nature and objects of prayer. The hypocrites 
 represent those who are in truth without good ; and the heathen 
 represent those who are in good without truth. This good is what is 
 called spurious good. It is not false and deceitful like that of the 
 hypocrites, but it is natural, and therefore impure and misdirected. 
 Truth is that which purifies good and makes it spiritual. And by the 
 good we here speak of we are to understand the good of well-disposed 
 persons, who yet have not the truth which is necessary to direct their 
 | good dispositions to their proper objects, by the use of proper means. 
 Such persons are liable to think they shall be heard for much speak- 
 
144 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. VI. 
 
 ing, and who use vain repetition, and think more of the body in their 
 prayers than of the soul. Be not ye therefore like unto them. Our 
 prayers are not only to be sincere, but intelligent and spiritual ; asking 
 always to be supplied according to the Divine will and wisdom, and 
 not according to our own, except so far as our own are in harmony 
 with those of our heavenly Father. The divine prayer which he him- 
 self taught us we now come to consider. 
 
 9. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father. What an 
 inexpressible charm is included in this affecting and tender com- 
 mencement, especially when it is borne in mind that it is the Lord 
 himself who authorizes and prescribes the form of approaching him, 
 and commands us to think of and address him as Our Father ! What 
 an evidence is there, and an example, in this instance alone, of the 
 grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ — of the nearer and per- 
 ceptibly kinder relation which the Infinite and Most Holy Creator 
 assumed towards his creatures when he himself assumed humanity 
 for their redemption ! In the Old Testament there are a few instances 
 of the Lord being spoken of as the Father of his people ; but it is in 
 the person of the Lord Jesus Christ alone, in his Divine Humanity, 
 that the Eternal Creator can be truly known as the Father of those 
 who call upon him. The natural idea conveyed in the title of Father 
 is, that he is the Author of our existence. This is the most general 
 idea which is presented when we are instructed to call upon the 
 Divine Being as Our Father. Yet every one of any feeling perceives 
 that there is something involved in the epithet more than this, and 
 associates with the title the notion of paternal tenderness and care. 
 This arises from an obscure perception which all have of the spiritual 
 sense of the term Father, — of the spiritual reality which answers by 
 exact correspondence to the natural relationship of a Father. The 
 Lord is called Our Father in reference to that primary constituent of 
 his essence, the Divine Love. Divine Love is the universal parent. 
 It was to satisfy the yearnings of divine love, and the intense desire 
 inherent in it to impart itself to others, and to bless them from the 
 infinite fountain of beatitude in itself, that all creation was produced. 
 For all the natural creation is produced for the sake of man, or that 
 man might have the means of existence. And man was produced 
 that heaven might exist, to be peopled with human beings, exalted to 
 all the perfection and blessedness of which a created nature is capable, 
 and enjoying these blessings by conjunction with the Lord and the 
 fruition of his love. That the Divine Love is what is specifically meant 
 when he is called our Father is thus sufficiently obvious from 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 145 
 
 rational considerations ; and it is affirmed, almost in express terms, 
 in the Holy Word. The psalmist says, “ Like as a father pitieth his 
 children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him ;” where the word 
 rendered “ pitieth,” is one which denotes the deepest tenderness and 
 mercy, which are the feelings of the softest love. We are thus to 
 look at him, to our inexpressible comfort, as actuated by these 
 emotions towards us, when we are encouraged to address him in 
 prayer as our Father. 
 
 But we are instructed to address the Object of our worship not only 
 as our Father, but as our Father who art in the heavens. As with 
 respect to the Lord, the inmost Divine Essence, which is the same 
 as the Divine Love, is called the Father — the Divine Existence or 
 manifestation, which is the same as the Divine Truth, is what is 
 called the Son; so the whole Divinity, only as existing in and 
 manifested by the Divine Humanity of Jesus Christ, is “our Father,” 
 and only by communications of spiritual graces thence can we be sons 
 of God ; as it is written, “ To as many as received him, to them gave 
 He power to become the sons of God, even to as many as believed in 
 his name.” This is expressly indicated when He whom we are to 
 address is defined to be “ our Father who art in the heavens .” For 
 the Father in the heavens is specifically the Divine Truth, the sphere 
 of which fills all the heavens, and is the source of all the perfection 
 and blessedness that the heavenly inhabitants enjoy. And it is only 
 the Divine Humanity of the Lord which is thus in the heavens — 
 which there is known, experienced, and worshipped, and which fills 
 the inhabitants with their angelic endowments; for the Essential 
 Divine Principle, which Jesus Christ calls his Father, is utterly 
 inapprehensible to angelic as well as to human minds. 
 
 But who is it that we are to address as our Father? What is the 
 name by which he has been manifested to us, and in what person 
 has he revealed himself to us, and evinced that he is actuated by a 
 Father’s tenderness ? It is only when clothed with humanity that we 
 can truly know him in this character; it was when he actually 
 assumed humanity that he first instructed us to address him as our 
 Father. When he is spoken of or addressed by this title in the Old 
 Testament, it is done prophetically, and in the anticipation of his 
 drawing near to man, by taking on him human nature and becoming 
 a Bedeemer. It is true, indeed, that he was the Father of his creatures 
 from eternity, and it is because he was so that they were called into 
 existence. Yet he could not be fully known in all the nearness and 
 tenderness of this relationship till he had put on the humanity for 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. VI. 
 
 the purpose. “No man (says the Lord) knoweth the Father, save the ] 
 Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him” So when Philip desired ] 
 to see the Father, Jesus referred him to himself, and said, “ Have I j 
 been so long time with thee, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip ? I 
 He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou, 
 then, Show us the Father?” Although, then, the divine principle 
 specifically called the Son is not the same as that called the Father, 
 yet when the union between the divinity and humanity was fully I 
 effected, that union was so complete that they formed but one person, i 
 and the whole fulness of the Godhead dwelt in the person of Jesus 
 Christ. It is therefore a great error to suppose that he whom we 
 are commanded to address in the Lord’s prayer as our Father is any 
 other than the Lord Jesus Christ. He, after his glorification, is the 
 Father as well as the Son. Hence he speaks of himself (when he 
 speaks without a parable) as the Father. So, when the prophet 
 announces his expected birth, saying, “Unto us a child is born, unto 
 us a son is given,” he not only affirms that “the government shall be 
 upon his shoulder,” and gives him the titles, “Wonderful, Counsellor, 
 aud the Mighty God,” but he declares him also to be “the everlast- 
 ing Father.” So when the same prophet addresses him as the Father 
 it is when the Lord J esus Christ is meant, because he is addressed at 
 the same time as the Redeemer: “Thou, O Lord, art our Father, our 
 Redeemer; thy name is from everlasting.” The name of the Father, 
 which the Lord teaches his people to pray may be hallowed, is the 
 humanity in which Jehovah appeared in the world, and in which he 
 now dwells. The humanity is called the Divine name , because it was 
 in it that God was manifested, or came forth to view. That in the 
 supreme sense Jesus is meant by the name of Jehovah, is evident 
 from his own words. “ Jesus said, Father, glorify thy name : there 
 came a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will 
 glorify it again.” In this form our Lord prayed for the glorification 
 of his humanity, because this is truly the name of God, meaning by a 
 name that by which God is known to angels and men. The Lord 
 prayed that the Father’s name might be glorified, and he requires us 
 to pray that it may be hallowed. God glorified his name when he 
 glorified his humanity; and we hallow his name when we acknowledge 
 the sanctity and divinity of his humanity. And this acknowledgment 
 is to be made for the sake of worship. It is the glory of the Christian 
 religion that it enables us to worship a visible God. The Essential 
 Divinity itself — that divine principle which Jesus Christ calls his 
 Father — is utterly unapproachable by angelic as well as human minds. 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 147 
 
 The humanity is the name by which the otherwise incomprehensible 
 Divinity is known and worshipped. The end of divine worship is, 
 that we may be like the Object of our worship. For no other purpose 
 does God require us to worship him. Our homage can add nothing 
 to his glory : it is only useful as it sheds his glory upon us. How 
 reasonable, on this ground, is the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ! 
 Not only is he a visible and comprehensible Object, but he is the 
 Pattern, as he is the Fountain, of all perfection — a perfection that has 
 been manifested in a life such as that by which we are to serve him, 
 and by which we are to worship him; for we worship him when we 
 live to his glory, as truly as when we bow in the profoundest humi- 
 liation before him. As all the good and blessing with which the 
 human soul can be recreated solely proceeds from the Divine Human- 
 ity of the Lord, and can only be given to those who are in the sincere 
 acknowledgment of its divinity, therefore the devout veneration of the 
 Lord’s humanity must be the centre of all true and acceptable worship. 
 It is the peculiar sentiment of the angels of the highest heavens, and 
 to the inmost faculties of the regenerate human mind. Of every 
 prayer that we can offer, this sentiment must form the soul, and, 
 whether expressed in words or not, must have existence and life 
 within, to give acceptableness and efficacy to all our petitions. There- 
 fore the Lord’s prayer opens its petitions with the expression of this 
 sentiment, in the words Hallowed be thy name. And who can 
 think of the mercy of the Lord in assuming human nature even to 
 the uttermost, or as to the lowest principles in which it exists -in man 
 in the world, for the sake of accomplishing in it a work of redemption, 
 and of making it the medium of communicating to us the qualities of 
 the heart and mind, as to truth, and goodness, in which is salvation, 
 which is truly the giving to us the power to become the sons of God ; 
 — who can think of such blessings, of which the Lord J esus Christ in 
 his Divine Humanity is the Author, without most sincerely venerating 
 and hallowing his blessed name ! 
 
 10. The sentiment of devotion which follows next in order is the 
 petition which, also, if rightly appreciated, should express the ardent 
 desire of every feeling heart: Thy kingdom come. Every one sees 
 that the kingdom of the Lord must denote, or at least include, his 
 divine government. And if his government truly reigned in the 
 hearts of all, it is no less evident that the most desirable blessings 
 would prevail among mankind. For, looking to the natural sense of 
 the phrase alone, as obvious to every one, the coming of his kingdom 
 must mean the establishment of that kingdom on earth. And if it 
 
148 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. VI. 
 
 were fully established, so that no corrupt passions might rebel in the 
 breast of any one, — much less any individuals, or whole masses of 
 men, set themselves in opposition to the merciful government of the 
 Lord, — what blessings must that gracious government diffuse through- 
 out the earth ! How ardently, then, viewed only in this general way, 
 should all desire, and how sincerely should they pray, that this 
 blessed kingdom may come. 
 
 But a kingdom implies a king. And who is the king of this 
 kingdom? The incontrovertible testimony of Scripture is, that the 
 kingdom belongetli to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is “ King of kings 
 and Lord of lords.” His kingdom upon earth, in its peculiar sense, 
 as spoken of in the Hew Testament, commenced with his assumption 
 of humanity, and his beginning openly to manifest himself therein by 
 his mighty works of divine love and his words of divine wisdom, 
 which his intimate union with the Divine Essence enabled him. to do 
 and to utter. The kingdom of God having commenced with the 
 manifestation of God in the flesh, it is truly the kingdom of him who 
 thus showed himself to mankind. His kingdom is not of this world, 
 though intended also to be established in the hearts of men in this 
 world. For, as is announced respecting him by the prophet, “His 
 dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and 
 his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” 
 
 But with respect to the petition, Thy kingdom come , as well as all 
 other specific terms and phrases used in the Word of God, there must 
 also be a specific sense intended, besides that natural one which 
 results from the common sense of the words in natural language. 
 What then is the proper spiritual idea that belongs to the word 
 kingdom? In what respect is the Lord spiritually denominated a 
 king? All his Divine titles refer to some distinct attribute or essen- 
 tial principle in his nature; so, consequently, must the title of king. 
 But how is it that a king on earth exercises his authority over his 
 subjects? or how is every kingdom maintained in order as such? 
 Every kingdom is a society of men bound together by the circum- 
 stance of their living under the same laws. Under every kind of 
 government, the kingly, that is the sovereign power, is administered 
 by means of laws; in fact, the essential sovereignty resides in the law. 
 We have only to apply this to the Divine government to see in what 
 respect the Lord is called a king, and what is meant in the spiritual 
 sense by his kingdom. How does he exercise his government but by 
 his divine laws? and what are these laws but the laws of his divine 
 order? And what are these but the dictates of his divine truth? 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 149 
 
 These laws are the immutable appointments of infinite wisdom 
 grounded in infinite love. Love being his essence, he cannot will 
 anything but the purest good : and wisdom being, in his essence, in 
 perfect union with love, he cannot aim at the accomplishment of his 
 purposes by any but the best and wisest means. And his love and 
 wisdom being infinite, he sees from eternity to eternity what the best 
 and the wisest means are. The consequence is, that his laws are as 
 eternal and immutable as his own love and wisdom, or as himself. 
 To be laws of his divine truth they cannot be otherwise; for truth 
 itself can admit of no variation. As the Author, then, of the laws of 
 eternal truth, and as administering the government of heaven and of 
 his church, of the human race, and of the universe, according to them, 
 the Lord is called a King ; and his government, — the order and course 
 of such administration, and the beings who are the subjects of it, are 
 denominated his kingdom. In praying, then, Thy kingdom come , 
 we particularly pray that the government of the Lord’s divine truth, 
 grounded as it is in divine goodness, may be established both in our 
 own hearts and in the hearts of mankind at large. And as the 
 aspiration, “Hallowed be thy name,” is pre-eminently the sentiment of 
 the celestial angels, and of the celestial degree of man’s mind, so the 
 petition, Thy kingdom come , is pre-eminently the sentiment of the 
 spiritual angels, or of the spiritual degree of the mind. These spiritual 
 angels are themselves called “kings,” while the celestial are called 
 “priests.” The heaven in which the spiritual dwell is specifically 
 the kingdom for whose coming we are taught to pray. To become 
 the subjects of this kingdom every thought must be brought into 
 obedience to the divine truth of the Lord, and he himself, by the laws 
 of his order, which are the truths of his Word, must reign with unre- 
 sisted authority throughout our souls. Not only so : his laws must 
 be loved, and thence willingly obeyed. When obedience is thus 
 yielded with affection, it is accompanied with delight. How de- 
 voutly, then, and with what earnestness of desire, ought we to offer 
 the petition, Thy kingdom come , making it the habitual wish of our 
 souls ! 
 
 The next petition of the Divine prayer, Thy will be done , may 
 appear much the same in import as the one we have just considered. 
 Wherever the Lord’s kingdom is established, there undoubtedly his 
 will is done ; wherever his will is done, there assuredly he reigns as 
 King, and his government is established. Yet there must be a 
 decided distinction between the purport of one petition and the 
 other. In a divine composition there can be no real tautology. 
 
150 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. YI. 
 
 That absence of sameness, amid the most admirable harmony, which i 
 is apparent in the works of the Creator, must be equally character- 
 istic of his words. What has been already said about the sense of 
 the petition, “ Thy kingdom come,” will show that there is nothing 
 approaching to a “vain repetition” in the addition of the clause, 
 Thy will be done. The Divine Truth, which is the principle’ of 
 the Lord’s government, in the true reception of which consists the 
 establishment of his kingdom, is evidently the proper attribute of the 
 Divine understanding ; whereas the will of the Lord must relate to ! 
 the other great essential of the Divine mind : comparatively as the 1 
 mind of man, who was created according to the image and likeness 
 of God, consists of the two universal faculties of will and under- 
 standing. But as the attribute of the infinite understanding of the 
 Lord is Divine Truth or Divine Wisdom, so his infinite will is 
 Divine Goodness or Love. To pray that the Lord’s Divine will may 
 be done, is to pray that the benevolent, the gracious, the merciful 
 desires, the unbounded love of our heavenly Father may take effect 
 in moulding the hearts of men according to its own nature, and in pro- 
 ducing the fruits of goodness in their lives. The will of God can be 
 nothing but pure love and mercy ; and it prevails in us when we 
 are animated by no other affections than those of love to him and 
 charity towards our neighbour ; and it properly is done by us when 
 all our conduct is regulated in conformity with these blessed prin- 
 ciples — when we do what they declare, and nothing but what they 
 sanction. 
 
 But this petition is marked by the circumstance that it par- 
 ticularly desires that the Divine will may be done on earth as well as 
 in heaven : Thy will be done , as in heaven so upon the earth. This 
 is the order according to which the words follow each other in the 
 original, and according to which what is superior comes first, and 
 what is inferior follows after. That the Divine will is done in 
 heaven no one can doubt ; that it ought to be done on earth, and 
 that this ought to be our ardent desire, is no less obvious. But 
 heaven also denotes not only the heaven without, but also the heaven 
 within — the internal man — and consequently the earth denotes the 
 external man ; and it is the external man which requires to be brought 
 into obedience, and conformed to the Lord’s will, being by natural 
 inheritance in a state of contrariety and rebellion. When the Lord’s 
 will is thus done on earth as it is in heaven, the regeneration of man 
 is complete; and without it he is not qualified for any of the mansions 
 of heaven. This petition seems, then, to contain the peculiar senti- 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 151 
 
 ment of those in the heavenly kingdom who occupy the lowest of the 
 three general mansions assigned to the blest, and through which the 
 Lord, and heaven in general, flow into the world and into men on 
 earth. The angels of this heaven are particularly in the principle of 
 obedience. Their especial life is in doing the Lord’s will ; and 
 through them the conformity of the external man, in those who are 
 regenerated, to the same holy determination is more especially 
 carried on. In order that we may experience the Lord’s saving 
 operation, and be prepared for a place in his heavenly kingdom, our 
 prayer must most devoutly be, Tliy will he done , as in heaven so 
 upon the earth. There is a principle of our internal man of which 
 this is the proper sentiment. We must allow it to be opened, and 
 must thence look continually to our Father in the heavens for the 
 conformity of our external man to the spirit of the petition. We 
 must, to this end, join determination to goodness in life and act with 
 our aspirations towards heaven, never ceasing till the blessed fruit is 
 experienced, and, doing the Lord’s will on earth, we are prepared 
 for that heaven where it is done spontaneously and unceasingly for 
 ever. 
 
 11. The petition of the divine prayer which we are now to con- 
 sider is one that expresses our constant dependence on the bounty 
 of our heavenly Father. Give us this day our daily bread. This 
 x forms the middle petition of the Lord’s prayer : above it, all relates 
 to the Lord and his kingdom ; below it, all relates to ourselves and 
 the world. In the first three petitions we address our Father in 
 heaven ; we pray that his name may be hallowed, that his kingdom 
 may come, and his will be done on earth as in heaven. In the last 
 three petitions we pray for forgiveness, for protection ' against or 
 support in temptation, and for deliverance from evil. In the first 
 three petitions we look, as it were, above us to the Lord and heaven ; 
 in the last we look below us to the world and hell. The present 
 petition — Give us this day our daily bread — occupies the middle 
 place, as it appears to be of an intermediate character. 
 
 How the reason of this change of strain, so to speak, in the 
 varying petitions of the prayer — of its passing from the contempla- 
 tion of the highest good and blessedness, by a regular gradation, 
 to the lowest evil and misery, is because it is so framed as to be 
 adapted to the whole nature, faculties, and composition of man, from 
 first to last. It is the production of Him who knoweth how “ fear- 
 fully and wonderfully we are made,” and in whose “book all our 
 members are written.” It therefore expresses the sentiments both of 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. VI. 
 
 152 
 
 that part of our spiritual and mental constitution by virtue of which, j 
 if duly opened, we become inhabitants of the heavenly kingdom, and j 
 of that also by the abuse of which, when unreformed, we find our 
 sad home in the realms of darkness. We have mentioned that the 
 petitions of the first class contain in an especial manner the devo- 
 tional sentiments of the various orders of angelic beings, and also of 
 the corresponding provinces and powers of the mind of man, which 
 are those that belong to what is called in theology the internal man. j 
 In the heavenly kingdom the Lord is all in all ; and so also in 
 everything belonging to the internal man. Therefore, in the class j 
 of petitions which we have already considered, there is such a | 
 direction of thought and affection to the Lord as prevents the 
 appearance of any other idea. So in the last class of petitions we I 
 have the devotional sentiments, not certainly of the inhabitants of 
 the infernal kingdom — for there no such sentiments can exist — but 
 we have in those petitions the devotional feelings of the various 
 faculties and provinces of the external man, as regenerated or regen erlH 
 ating, or the feelings of the man himself when contemplating this 
 part of his nature, and the liabilities which he derives from it. For it 
 is that part of man’s nature, or mental frame, which is denominated! 
 in the language of theology, the external man, which alone is subject 
 to evils, is defiled with them, or is susceptible of them. Without it, 
 a finite intelligent being, or accountable creature, could not have 
 been produced ; and having it, the necessity of obtaining the removal 
 of its evils, and protection against the ruin to which it, and the man 
 who makes it his all, is exposed, prevents us in our supplications at 
 the throne of grace from abiding wholly in the contemplation of the 
 Lord and his perfections, and obliges us to have respect also to our 
 own deficiences, infirmities, and dangers. 
 
 Distinct, however, from these last great constituents of the frame 
 of human beings — the external and internal man — is the rational 
 faculty or principle; or rather, it is an intermediate which partakes 
 of both. This is the highest seat of man’s conscious perception while 
 he lives in the world, and it is given him, that by means of it, as a 
 rational free agent, he may be capable of appropriating the things that 
 belong to the internal man, and thus have his internal man opened 
 and prepared for heaven, which takes place in proportion as the 
 external man is taught obedience, and is made what the Scripture 
 calls regenerate, by the removal of its evils. The rational faculty of 
 man, then, ought to be in the perpetual desire to receive and appro- 
 priate good from the Lord, with every help requisite for these objects. 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 153 
 
 Here, then, our constant prayer must be, Give us this day our daily 
 bread: which clause we are now particularly to consider. 
 
 The exact literal sense of this passage has been a subject of great 
 controversy among the learned, the word here translated daily 
 being formed by the evangelists themselves, and existing in no other 
 work than the gospels, and in tliem only in this place, and in the 
 corresponding passage in Luke. It is only, therefore, from the 
 etymology of the term, and from the sense required by the context, 
 that any conclusion can be formed as to its meaning. In the Latin 
 Vulgate it is rendered super-substantial; but this is rather a spiritual 
 than a literal sense. Others, with our translators, have rendered it 
 daily, not that there is any direct reference to days in the original, 
 but because no modern language can accurately express what the 
 original term implies. The original term, according to what appears 
 to be its most probable etymology, denotes that which is suited to, or 
 required for, our substance or being; thus, when joined to bread, the 
 phrase signifies, the bread which is for our substance, being, or sub- 
 sistence. This is our necessary bread ; and the idea of our necessary 
 bread is not badly, though not literally conveyed by the phrase — our 
 daily bread. 
 
 It is plain, that in praying for our daily bread, the word bread 
 must have, even in the literal sense, a wider signification than one 
 article of food. It is used figuratively to denote food in general, and 
 indeed all that is necessary to the maintenance of life. Yet after all, 
 this is not w 7 hat is truly meant by the divine words. The whole 
 purport of the divine exhortations which follow is to withdraw us 
 from a regard to natural things, which are promised to be given freely 
 where superior blessings are duly regarded. “ Seek ye first the king- 
 dom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added 
 unto you.” Doubtless we ought to look to the Lord as the Author 
 of all our natural comforts, to acknowledge with gratitude his mercy 
 in bestowing them, and to look to him for their continuance. But 
 what he wishes us to desire with earnestness, and to ask of him as an 
 indispensable means of obtaining, is the good, and the spiritual gifts in 
 general, which are requisite to our spiritual support — to the life and 
 nourishment of our souls. This is the spiritual sense which the word 
 “bread” contains throughout the whole of the Word of God. Its 
 proper spiritual sense is good, or goodness. For as bread is that 
 which nourishes the body, so real good from the Lord is the proper 
 nourishment of the soul. And when, as here, bread in the natural 
 sense signifies all food in general, and not only so, but everything 
 
154 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. VI. 
 
 necessary for the support of bodily life, it denotes in the spiritual 
 sense not good simply, but truth also, and these in all the varieties, 
 and under every form, suited to our spiritual state. Hence we say, 
 “ Give us this day our daily bread : ” for by days are signified, in the 
 spiritual sense, states through which we pass, or in which we are. 
 And when the idea of succession of days is involved in the natural 
 expression — for we are to pray every day — the idea of eternity, of suc- 
 cession of states without end, is also included. What then we are 
 earnestly to desire when we say to our heavenly Father, Give us 
 this day our daily bread, is that he would bestow upon us every 
 spiritual good and gift necessary, as our varying states require, to the 
 support of our spiritual life, and to our well-being in and to eternity. 
 Among other things, the regulation of our thoughts, the supplying us 
 with profitable subjects of thought and affection, is particularly 
 involved in the petition ; for these constitute in a particular manner 
 the food of the mind. The Lord continually gives the angels what to 
 think; and thus do they receive from him their daily bread. When 
 we offer up this form of words we should desire to partake of the 
 same privilege. But in using this petition, what do we not pray for, 
 when the Lord himself is the bread of life, the true bread that came 
 down from heaven, to give life unto the world? He that eateth 
 of this bread shall live for ever. Daily should we look up to him as 
 the source and the substance of all good for our needful supply. And 
 knowing that he still comes down from heaven as the bread of life, 
 that we may eat and not die, causing his love and truth to descend 
 upon our hearts, as the manna descended upon the wilderness around 
 the camp of Israel, let us gather it, and gather it daily, that we may 
 go on by the strength of this angel’s food in our journey to the pro- 
 mised land. 
 
 12. The petition which now demands our consideration is that in 
 which we are directed to pray, Forgive us our debts, as we forgive 
 our debtors. This, in more respects than one, may be regarded as one 
 of the most remarkable of the whole series of sacred supplications. 
 That every human being stands in need of forgiveness at the hands of 
 his Divine J udge ; or that no one can stand up and claim the rewards 
 of eternal life as matter of right, pleading the unforfeited title of unde- 
 viating obedience and holiness ; but that all must receive a favourable 
 decision of their final lot as matter of grace and mercy, there can be 
 few so blinded by self-love and self-conceit as not to be disposed most 
 humbly to acknowledge. “ There is no man that sinneth not — In 
 many things we all offend — All have sinned and come short of the 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 155 
 
 glory of God,” are declarations of the Old and New Testaments, to the 
 truth of which every one must feelingly assent. And none can be 
 humbled with the consciousness that he is thus a debtor — a sinner — 
 without most earnestly desiring that his deficiencies and offences may 
 not be brought against him, but may be covered over with the mantle 
 of forgiveness. Without forgiveness for what we have done amiss, 
 accorded from pure mercy, dark indeed were the prospect which we 
 should have to look upon in eternity. Accordingly, in some form or 
 other, supplications for forgiveness form a principal part in the devo- 
 tional exercises, or religious worship, of every people, and of every 
 individual that cherishes any feeling of religion whatever. “ Forgive 
 us our debts ” is the humble supplication of all. But to this simple 
 sentiment, however briefly or verbosely expressed, all petitions of 
 merely human composition for the forgiveness of sins would, it may be 
 presumed, be confined. . Few persons, conscious of being sinners, would 
 think of asking forgiveness on the ground that they had forgiven 
 others. Forgiveness absolute, and in all respects unconditional, is 
 what we should regard as most agreeable, and at the same time most 
 suitable to our condition. In framing the petition for ourselves, our 
 natural inclination would not lead us, and regard for our own interest 
 would not suffer us, to say, “ Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive 
 our debtors .” Yet this is the form in which we are directed to prefer 
 our entreaty in this divinely communicated prayer. Here, then, is a 
 feature in the prayer, given for use by the Lord Jesus Christ himself, 
 which is truly remarkable, and of most weighty consideration. A 
 form of forgiveness which, if invented by ourselves, would be pre- 
 sumptuous, is by him enjoined as of indispensable necessity. Using it 
 after his direction, all idea of presumption in it disappears. And how 
 momentous is the instruction which remains in its stead. Forgiveness 
 of our debts, upon condition of our forgiving our debtors, is still of free 
 grace and mercy on the part of the Lord ; for our disposition to forgive 
 others is itself the fruit of divine grace. Conditional forgiveness is 
 grace for grace. But though forgiveness of our sins is pure mercy on 
 the Lord’s part, even where a condition is annexed to it, how truly 
 salutary is it calculated to be to us, that we should be reminded of the 
 condition in a way the most likely to produce its proper effect on our 
 minds. The condition annexed to forgiveness must, in the very nature 
 of things, be an indispensable one ; for how can it be possible that we 
 can obtain forgiveness of our sins past, while we continue to make 
 them sins present? To pray for forgiveness of our sins, without 
 cherishing the full purpose of desisting from them, and seriously 
 
156 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. VI. 
 
 endeavouring to do so, is mere mockery and vain babbling. The I 
 cherishing feelings of revenge against those who have injured us, is one j| 
 of those sins which, while we continue to entertain and practise them, il 
 cannot be forgiven. But, plain as this is in itself, our self-love would !| 
 here be very apt to blind us, and prevent us from making the dis- il 
 covery : it is, therefore, of mercy that the Lord makes the discovery, 1 
 and reminds us of it continually, by continuing the acknowledgment j] 
 of it with the very words of his prayer itself. 
 
 But what is the reason that our forgiveness of those who are de- |! 
 ficient in the discharge of their duty to us, or who trespass against us, ! 
 is made the condition on which alone we are encouraged to hope for |l 
 forgiveness ourselves ? And what is the proper meaning of the for- I 
 giveness of sins? The forgiveness of others is made, in the literal 
 sense of the petition, the ground of our obtaining forgiveness, because j, 
 no one can truly forgive those who injure him, so as to regard them I 
 with perfect complacency and kindness of heart, except in proportion I 
 as the love of self and the love of the world, which are the roots of all j 
 evil, have ceased to exercise a preponderating influence over him, and k 
 thus in proportion as evils in general are removed from his affections, | 
 and consequently from his practice. The Lord instructs us, in the beati- I 
 tudes, that the merciful obtain mercy ; and on the same principle 
 we are here taught that the forgiving obtain forgiveness. This j 
 shows us what the nature of forgiveness truly is. It does not consist 
 in the pronouncing of a pardon by the Lord. If this were sufficient j 
 to enable the sinner to enjoy the blessing intended, every child of 
 man would receive it. Jesus Christ, who is mercy in its very essence, j 
 could refuse it to none. But how can sins be forgiven, so as to free | 
 us from their deplorable consequences, unless they are at the same ! 
 time removed — removed from their seat in the affections, desisted from 
 in the habit of our lives ? The removal of evils is what we ought to 
 think of when we pray for their forgiveness. As we, by Divine aid, de- 
 sist from and remove them in desire and practice, they are truly remitted 
 to us by the Lord, who then removes them also from our affections 
 and thoughts. The desire for the Divine aid for this purpose is ex- 
 pressed when we say, “Forgive us our debts the acknowledgment 
 of the necessity of our own fighting against and desisting from them 
 is implied when we add, “as we also forgive our debtors.” If this be 
 our prayer and our practice, we shall assuredly obtain from the Lord 
 the blessing of complete forgiveness. 
 
 13. The next petition of the Lord’s prayer, Lead us not into temp- 
 tation, is not free from difficulty. Many have found in it what appears 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 157 
 
 Chap. VI.] 
 
 to contradict tlieir apprehensions of the Divine nature and the 
 economy of the Lord’s dispensations in regard to men, while leading 
 them through the wilderness of this world to their home in heaven. 
 In the first place, the words seem to imply that when man falls into 
 temptation the Lord is the author of it; when yet genuine doctrine in- 
 forms us that God tempts no man, but every man is tempted when he is 
 drawn away of his own lusts and enticed. Another apparent difficulty 
 is, that, as no man that is saved can avoid undergoing temptation, and 
 as even the Saviour himself, when engaged in the work of glorifying 
 his humanity, was “in all points tempted as we are,” it seems extraordi- 
 nary that this prayer would seem to deprecate the idea of being exposed 
 to temptations in any shape. A general and satisfactory answer will 
 probably be given to both these difficulties when the remarkable, 
 peculiarity we have already noticed is kept in view — namely, that its 
 various petitions have a specific reference to the various constituent 
 principles of the human mind. Now, it is only through the medium 
 of the lower principles of the natural man that we can be assailed 
 with temptations strictly and properly so called. They originate 
 from evil spirits, who delight in falsities grounded in evil lusts, and 
 they are carried on, on their part, by the injection of false suggestions 
 into the thoughts. But the part of the human mind which is liable to 
 he thus influenced is that which, if separated from the higher principles, 
 and made the chief seat of man’s affections and thoughts, gives him 
 a quality of the same gross and evil nature, and sinks him after death 
 to the state of those who thus delight to destroy the soul. It is, in 
 fact, the part of man that thinks according to the apprehension of the 
 external senses which is the inlet by which temptations approach him ; 
 and the apprehensions of this, which may be properly called the sensual 
 part of the mind, in regard to divine and spiritual subjects, are of 
 themselves naturally imperfect and obscure. Hence, those whose minds 
 are not elevated above the sphere of the senses, when they acknow- 
 ledge and worship God, have but gross and defective notions respecting 
 him. They regard him, indeed, as a Being of infinite power ; but not 
 having so clear an idea of his unmixed goodness, they suppose him 
 to be the author of everything they experience — of evil and misery, as 
 well as of good and happiness. And this idea, though not agreeable 
 to the genuine truth, is yet useful to such persons, as leading them to 
 think of the necessity of rendering such an all-powerful Being pro- 
 pitious, by attending to his commandments. Accordingly, the idea 
 of God as thus the Author of all things, though not the true idea, yet 
 being one of the natural apprehensions of the human mind, and, when 
 
158 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. VI. 
 
 entertained in simplicity, adapted to produce beneficial effects, is 
 what may be called an apparent truth, though not a genuine truth. 
 According to such apparent truths, or according to the natural appre- 
 hensions of mankind, when their minds are not elevated above the 
 sphere of the ideas suggested by the senses, many things are expressed 
 in the literal sense of the word. Thus, in regard to this very subject 
 of evil apparently coming from the Lord as well as good, we find the 
 Lord himself saying, “ I form the light, and create darkness : I make 
 peace, and create evil : I the Lord do all these things,” (Isaiah xlv. 7.) 
 Here the Lord speaks in the letter according to the apprehensions of 
 the simple, the genuine truth being, not that darkness and evil 
 come from the Lord, but that they cannot take place without his per- 
 mission, which is conceded, not for the promotion of evil, but for its 
 abatement and removal, and thus for the promotion of good. In 
 severe trials it is scarcely possible to abstain from thinking according 
 to the appearance : and the afflicted person is oppressed with the ap- 
 prehension that the Lord takes part against him, and thus that the 
 temptation is actually induced by him. Still, this is not the real 
 truth ; and this, in states of any degree of illustration, the mind per- 
 ceives. Accordingly, in all ages, from the earliest times of Chris- 
 tianity, as is evinced by the writings of those called the fathers of the 
 church, the true sense of this clause has been explained to be, “ Suffer 
 us not to be overcome by temptation.” 
 
 It has sometimes appeared to us, from the mode of expression in the 
 original, that the force of the words which we translate, “lead us not 
 into,” is nearly equivalent to that of “ rescue us from.” For in the 
 original the term denoting not is in juxtaposition with that signifying 
 lead, and precedes it, though the genius of our language does not 
 permit us to put the words in the same order, and to say “ Hot lead 
 us into temptation.” How it is remarked by critics, that in the 
 idiom both of the Old and Hew Testaments the particle not often 
 coalesces with the word that follows, so as to form one idea, and as it 
 were one word, being the contrary of that which the other word would 
 convey by itself : only this happens more frequently with nouns than 
 with verbs. Thus the translators in the common version have very 
 properly given the words of the Lord to Martha in this form : “ He 
 that liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” In the original it 
 is, “shall not die for ever,” being equivalent in sense to “never.” If, 
 then, we consider, in this part of the Lord’s prayer, not as coalescing 
 with lead, the sense of not lead into must be, rescue from. But this is 
 offered with diffidence as a suggestion, it never, so far as we are 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 159 
 
 aware, having occurred to any one else. All agree that the true sense 
 of the passage is to this effect, though they have not deduced it, in the 
 same manner, from the very words. And if this be the true sense of 
 the passage, whether literally expressed or not — if the idea intended 
 by ifc, when viewed in the light of genuine truth, and above the veil of 
 appearances, is, “ rescue us from temptation,” the other objection also 
 disappears, which is, that since temptations are both unavoidable and 
 necessary to salvation, it seems strange that we should be directed to* 
 pray not to be exposed to them. Here, again, several of the literal 
 commentators have seen that the words cannot, in their real design, 
 be intended to deprecate all approach of temptation, but only to en- 
 treat that we may not be immersed in it, Or swallowed up by it. And 
 this, they say, is involved in the term into — that according to the pecu- 
 liar force of this expression, as here used, to enter into temptation is to 
 be overcome and carried away by it. Thus to pray, as Augustine of 
 old expresses the sense of the petition, “Suffer us not to be led into 
 temptation,” is quite different from what it would be if we were to 
 say, “ Suffer us not to be assailed by temptation yet it is through 
 supposing these two phrases to be exactly synonymous that all the 
 difficulty has arisen. The Lord does not direct us to pray not to be 
 exposed to the assaults of temptation, because this would be the same 
 thing as to pray not to be made regenerate, since without temptation 
 regeneration cannot be accomplished ; but we are most earnestly to 
 pray not to be suffered to be led into temptation, because if we do 
 come into it, in the Scripture sense of the phrase, we become a one 
 with the tempting agency, by adopting the false and evil suggestions 
 thence presented, and so confirming them that they cannot be re- 
 moved. Such, assuredly, is the genuine idea intended to be produced 
 by this mode of expression, though, doubtless, when suffering tempta- 
 tion, the mind is sufficiently ready to desire to have it removed, or to 
 be spared the trial altogether. The only proper sense in which the 
 prayer is authorized by the dictates of genuine truth is, “ Suffer us 
 not to be overcome in temptation,” or, “ Rescue us from it by giving 
 us the victory.” 
 
 We come now to the last petition of this divinely dictated prayer, 
 But deliver us from evil. As the divine form of words delivered by 
 the Lord, as a guide for the devotion of Christians, begins with the 
 contemplation, attended with the veneration, of the supreme good, so 
 does it, after passing through the whole series of intermediate senti- 
 ments in the most orderly progression, terminate with the contempla- 
 tion, attended with the shuddering aversion, of the principle of evil. 
 
160 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. VI. 
 
 As in its contemplation of the supreme good it elevates the mind 
 to the Lord, even the Lord Jesus Christ, as being that supreme 
 good, and excites our love for him by presenting him as the tender 
 Father of our race, and the beneficent Author of all good to man; so, 
 in adverting to the principle of evil, it regards it as one with the devil 
 and with hell, and presents it as the more an object of dread and horror 
 by identifying it with an existing being, or rather an innumerable 
 Assemblage of beings, the very principle of whose life consists in the 
 love of destroying and doing hurt. As this prayer, in the commence- 
 ment, desires that the Lord’s name may be hallowed, which is the 
 sentiment, in its most direct form, of the pure love of the Lord, so 
 does it close with desiring to be delivered from the opposite of this 
 principle — from evil in its deepest ground, which is the mere love of 
 self. For it is only as self-love is removed, or ceases to exercise its 
 baneful influence on the heart, that the love of the Lord, which is 
 the love of pure goodness, can come into exercise and into actual 
 existence. 
 
 Such, in a few words, is the purport of this concluding petition of 
 the Lord’s prayer, as placed in contrast or in parallelism with its first. 
 We say, in contrast or parallelism ; for the things prayed against in 
 the latter clauses of the prayer are the exact opposites, respectively, 
 of those prayed for in the clauses which precede ; but the sentiments 
 which breathe in these latter petitions themselves, and which depre- 
 cate the evil things adverted to, are the exact counterparts or 
 parallels of those which rise towards the Lord, in direct aspirations 
 for good in the former. Thus, as we have just seen, the evil prayed 
 against in the last petition is the exact opposite of the good which 
 is desired in the first aspiration ; and thus the request, “ Deliver us 
 from evil,” is the proper counterpart of the aspiration, “ fallowed be 
 thy name.” So the petition, “Lead us not into temptation,” which 
 expresses the desire to be rescued from the influence of false prin- 
 ciples grounded in evil, is the exact counterpart of the aspiration, 
 “ Thy kingdom come,” which denotes the desire for the establishment 
 of the empire of truth grounded in goodness; just as falsity grounded 
 in evil and truth grounded in goodness are the perfect opposites of 
 each other. So, again, the petition, “Forgive us our debts, as we also 
 forgive our debtors,” is the proper counterpart of the aspiration, “Thy 
 will be done, as in heaven, so upon the earth ;” since debts and defalca- 
 tions in regard to the performance of the Lord’s will, or trespasses 
 against it, are the exact opposites to the doing of it; and the senti- 
 ment which desires the forgiveness or remission of these debts is the 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 1G1 
 
 exact counterpart of that which desires that the Lord’s will be done, 
 or that good from him may prevail, in the external man as well as in 
 the internal. The intermediate petition, “Give us this day our daily 
 bread,” has not another answering to it, because it is truly interme- 
 diate, partaking of the nature of both the other classes; since bread 
 denotes everything whatever which is necessary for the support and 
 preservation of spiritual life, and power to resist the evil by which it 
 would be destroyed. Thus we see, further, what has been shown in 
 explaining the several petitions, how this prayer applies to the wants 
 and sentiments of every faculty and principle of the human mind, 
 internal and external, from the highest to the lowest, including every- 
 thing that can possibly be required for the establishing of the soul 
 in good, and its withdrawal from evil, and thus for the highest ex- 
 altation of human nature ; and is suitable for every state which man 
 can experience in the whole process of his regeneration. 
 
 The petition now under consideration is not, like that which im- 
 mediately precedes it, attended with any sort of difficulty, or liable to 
 misapprehension ; yet the particulars it involves may be set in a 
 clearer light by explanation. First, if viewed in connection with the 
 petition which precedes, and with which its connection is very close, 
 “Lead us not into temptation,” it tends powerfully to remove the 
 obscurity with which this is attended, and to establish the view of its 
 meaning which we have taken. For it is well known that it is cus- 
 tomary in many parts of the Holy Word, particularly in those which 
 consist of prayers or praises, to connect two clauses together in such 
 a manner as to appear in the letter to be perfectly synonymous with 
 each other, only expressing the same thing in other words ; although 
 such passages are in reality not synonymous, but one of them 
 always expresses something that has relation to the principle of good, 
 and the other to something relating to the principle of truth. To 
 take one of a multitude — the Psalmist, addressing the Lord, says, 
 “ Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path ” (Ps. 
 cxix. 105). Though this sort of parallelism is not so observable in 
 the Lord’s prayer, the clauses of which do not run in pairs, yet it 
 exists most perfectly in the clauses, “ Lead us not into temptation, 
 but deliver us from evil.” Lead us not into , in the one clause, being 
 exactly equivalent to deliver us from, in the other ; whence we may 
 conclude that the former phrase is more positive in its sense than the 
 words as they stand in English might induce us to imagine, and that 
 they amount in signification to Rescue us from temptation. So tempta- 
 tion in the one clause answers to evil in the other; whence, again, 
 
 >i 
 
. 162 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Ciiap. VI. 
 
 we may conclude that it is not temptation, considered as a mere trial, 
 that is the thing represented as so dreadful, but the consequence of 
 falling in it, or being overcome by it. The temptation which we are 
 to pray against coming into must be something equivalent to the 
 evil which we pray to be delivered from; which would not be the 
 case if entering into temptation, in Scripture phrase, meant no more 
 than being assaulted by it. We must be assaulted by it, otherwise 
 we can never overcome evil and falsity; and without overcoming 
 them we can never be delivered from them. Without having our 
 evils excited by temptation, we should be ignorant that we had any 
 in our nature, and that which is not known cannot be removed. 
 
 But that which we specifically pray against in the petition, ^ Lead 
 us not into temptation,” is the power, dominion, and influence of 
 falsity grounded in evil; but when we add, but deliver us from evil, 
 we pray against the power, dominion, and influence of evil itself. This 
 is going to the root of the tree. Evil is properly the delight and con- 
 cupiscence of thinking and acting contrary to Divine order, the laws 
 of which are summarily expressed in the precepts of the Decalogue. 
 The seeds of all evils are inherent with every one in his natural or 
 external man, so that the delight of them is natural to him; and 
 if not withheld from acquiring the habit of yielding to them, he is in 
 danger of confirming them, and becoming enslaved to their power. 
 ITow ardently, then, should we pray, “Deliver us from evil!” 
 
 But, as already remarked, there is reason to believe that the idea of 
 evil is here meant to be united with that of an evil being, or rather an 
 assemblage of evil beings, whose very life is the love of destroying and 
 doing hurt. The word here rendered evil is in a form which may 
 equally mean the evil one. In the parable of the sower it is said of one 
 class of recipients, “ Then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away 
 that which was sown in his heart;” where the word rendered wicked 
 one is the same as in the last petition of the Lord’s prayer is simply 
 rendered evil. The same occurs in the parable of the tares. In this 
 petition, therefore, we pray also, “ Deliver us from the evil one.” In 
 the spiritual idea evil and the devil, or what is the same thing, evil 
 and hell, are a one ; or, evil and the whole mass of evil spirits are a 
 one, and they act as one for the destruction of the human soul. Such 
 being the case, nothing but the divine power of the Lord can effect 
 our deliverance. Yet we are not to suppose it is unnecessary or 
 useless for us to attempt to use any resistance. The law of divine 
 order is, that we resist evil or the devil, altogether as if we were able 
 to do so of ourselves, yet heartily acknowledging that all the power of 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 163 
 
 resistance is given us from the Lord, and is the Lord in us. He who 
 does this will not pray to be delivered from evil, or the evil one, in 
 vain. 
 
 But, finally, evil in its deepest ground consists in self-love, which is 
 the proper principle of man’s selfhood, from which all other forms of 
 evil have their rise and manifestation. Self-love consists essentially in 
 the desire to rule over others — to make others subservient to ourselves ; 
 and it burns with revenge and hatred against all who do not submit. 
 This is, in fact, the principle which reigns in the lowest hell, into which 
 all descend who make it the ruling principle of their life here, and 
 yield to it without check. Specifically this is the root of all evil which 
 we pray against when we say, “ Deliver us from evil.” And he who 
 completely overcomes it, and becomes regenerate even to this part of 
 his external man, in which it has its seat, becomes after death a celestial 
 angel, whose ruling love is the love of the Lord, and the predominant 
 sentiment of whose heart, rising towards him, is expressed in the 
 aspiration, “ Hallowed be thy name.” Such is the state of perfection 
 and bliss which is consequent on the complete accomplishment of the 
 prayer which entreats, “ Deliver us from evil.” Complete deliverance 
 from evil, and the rejection of evil in its deepest ground, make one 
 with exaltation into the highest angelic good and felicity. 
 
 As a close to the whole prayer are added, in the common Bible, the 
 words, For thine is the kingdom, and the power , and the glory, for 
 ever. Amen. But it is now the general opinion of those who have 
 examined the subject, that this formed no part of the prayer as de- 
 livered by the Lord himself ; but that it was added as a suitable ex- 
 pression of devotion in the liturgies of the early Christians, and was 
 from thence taken into the text by some of the transcribers. Certain 
 it is that the chief of the most ancient manuscripts and versions are 
 without it; whence it was never generally received till after the 
 Reformation. It is not contained in the Bibles used by the Homan 
 Catholics to this day. But although the words are not, we may 
 conclude, properly a part of the sacred formulary, the sentiment 
 intended to be expressed by them ought to be that of every heart. All 
 ought to acknowledge both that everything true, and everything good, 
 and every blessing that we enjoy, come from the Lord above, and to 
 ascribe them to him in devout veneration and heartfelt gratitude. 
 
 14, 15. After delivering that divine prayer which has now been con- 
 sidered, the Lord returns to the subject of one of the petitions he had 
 taught his disciples to address to the throne of mercy. The subject of 
 that one is forgiveness. He had taught them to pray to their Father in 
 
164 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. YI. 
 
 heaven to forgive them, as they forgave one another. He now assures 
 them, If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also 
 forgive you : but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your 
 Father forgive your trespasses. Forgiveness is the only thing we are 
 instructed to pray for conditionally. Our Lord tells us that unless we 
 comply with the condition, our prayer will not be answered. How 
 impressive is this lesson ! There is perhaps no passion more powerful 
 than revenge ; no vice so common as unforgiveness. How quick are 
 we to take offence — how ready to resent an injury. Yet this is the 
 very evil our Lord singles out for reprobation, and forgiveness is the 
 very virtue which he insists upon as the necessary channel of receiving 
 forgiveness. “ How often shall my brother offend me, and I forgive 
 him? till seven times? I say not unto thee until seven times, but 
 until seventy times seven.” We must cultivate a forgiving spirit. 
 Forgiveness must not be an act merely, but a state — an abiding 
 disposition to give to others that which we seek for ourselves. 
 
 16. Alms-giving and prayer are succeeded by fasting. Moreover, 
 when ye fast. The Lord does not in his sermon teach his disciples to 
 give alms, to pray, and to fast : he teaches them how to perform these 
 necessary duties. Fasting was an institution of the Israelitish church ; 
 but no specific directions were given how to fast. We learn how they 
 fasted. They rent their garments, and sprinkled ashes on their heads, 
 and otherwise mortified their flesh. Yet even through their own 
 prophets they are reproved for the manner in which they fasted, and 
 are taught a better way. “ Is it such a fast that I have chosen ? a day 
 for a man to afflict his soul ? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, 
 and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him ? wilt thou call this a 
 f ist, and an acceptable day unto the Lord? Is not this the fast that 
 I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy 
 burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every 
 yoke ? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring 
 the poor that are cast out to thy house ? when thou seest the naked, 
 that thou cover him ; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own 
 flesh?” (Isaiah lviii. 5-7.) Even in the Old Testament we often see 
 the spirit of the New. The Spirit looks at times through the cloud 
 of ceremonies, and utters the broad and noble truth. The Lord’s fast 
 is here declared to be indeed a divine institution. Not empty forms, 
 but deeds full of charity, were the duties the Lord required of Israel 
 in their fasts. And this is the character of fasting even under the 
 sense of mortification. For what is the mortification which fasting 
 implies? It is mortification of the mind, not of the body; the 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 1 Go 
 
 abstaining from tlie delights of sin — from the gratification of selfish 
 and worldly loves — from the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life. 
 And the true sign of mortifying ourselves is in doing disinterested 
 service to others. The mortification and the deeds of charity are 
 indeed distinct, but they cannot be separated. We cannot do disin- 
 terested good to others without denying ourselves, and we cannot deny 
 ourselves without doing good to others. For what is self-denial but 
 the effort to be unselfish 1 ? Abstinence from evil in mind and practice, 
 and thus the mortification of self and all its corrupt lusts, is what is 
 spiritually meant by the fasting of which our Lord here speaks ; and 
 as this is always accompanied by a sense of our deficiency in ourselves, 
 in regard to everything that is good, and by mourning and humiliation 
 on that account, this also is included in the signification of fasting. 
 Such fasting we are commanded not to perform as the hypocrites do. 
 Indeed, such fasting cannot be performed by hypocrites at all, who 
 only substitute something in its place for the sake of appearance. 
 They are of a sad countenance ; for they disfigure their faces , that they 
 may appear unto men to fast. They assume an outward appearance of 
 mortification and austerity, being loud in the acknowledgment that 
 they are sinners, and exhibiting such other features of external peni- 
 tence as appear before the world. In the spiritual sense, the counte- 
 nance and the face are the affections and thoughts of the mind, for 
 these are expressed in them. Sadness is a state of the affections; 
 disfigurement, of the thoughts. Assumed, not real states are here 
 understood. Under the appearance of godly sorrow and self-aban- 
 donment they concealed callous hearts and contemptuous thoughts. 
 
 17. The true Christian is not to be like unto these hypocrites. He 
 is to anoint his head and wash his face. He is to perform the duty of 
 spiritual fasting with cheerfulness. The practice of anointing the head, 
 common in ancient times, was representative of cheerful goodwill and 
 social benevolence, because the oil with which it was done was a 
 representative of all good, kindness, and love in general. And to 
 wash the face was representative of interior purification, producing 
 effects in a life of comeliness and order. The import of the direction is, 
 that while practising abstinence from evils, and maintaining a constant 
 guard against their influence, we are not to do this as a grievous 
 requisition, rendering the mind melancholy from the opposition of the 
 duty to its most cherished desires. We are to do it cheerfully and 
 willingly, not with regret that we are obliged to surrender our darling 
 evils, but only with sorrow that there should be anything in us that 
 would plead for their retention. 
 
166 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. VI. 
 
 18. We are not to appear unto men to fast, but unto our Father 
 which is in secret. As already explained (v. 5, 6), we are not to act 
 from truth in the external man, but from good in the internal; thus, 
 not from self, but from the Lord. And while the hypocrite, who 
 acts from and for the sake of self, has the poor and transient reward 
 of a reputation for being what he is not, the true penitent will receive 
 a reward of divine approval, and of inward peace and satisfaction. 
 His heavenly Father, who sees what is within, will bless him with 
 his grace. His sorrow for his evils will be within; and this cannot 
 exist there at all in sincerity without producing a state capable of 
 the reception of good from the Lord. The good thus appropriated, 
 through the rejection of evil, will, after the trial is over, be productive 
 of delight, which will be consummated in heaven, when the joy 
 inherent in all good from the Lord will ever be communicated to 
 him, together with the good itself from him. Thus again his happy 
 experience will be, that his Father, who seeth in secret , will reward 
 him openly. 
 
 19-21. The subject to which our Lord now directs the attention of his 
 hearers is one that comes home to us in our every-day life, and enters 
 into our habitual thoughts and feelings. Lay not up for yourselves 
 treasures on earth, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Every 
 one has a general perception of what this language means, and of the 
 lesson which the exhortation was intended to convey. The Lord 
 teaches us that not temporal but eternal things should be the chief 
 objects of our pursuit and affections. Those who have any real 
 belief in their own immortality, and any sincere concern for their 
 eternal state, must be aware of the importance of acting in conformity 
 with this principle. The wealth of this world and the riches of 
 heaven are to each other as the body is to the soul, and as time is to 
 eternity. They have nothing in common. There is no proportion 
 between them. They are connected only by correspondence. The 
 lower was designed to be subservient to the higher. The treasures of 
 this world are to be sought after and esteemed as things whose final 
 cause is not on earth, but in heaven. It is true that natural things 
 have a natural use ; but this is not their only nor their principal use. 
 Nothing that we love and pursue affects the body only, or terminates 
 in this world. Our ends are in heaven or in hell; and there, where 
 they begin, our works terminate, for everything returns to its origin. 
 Nothing is better calculated than such reflections to regulate the 
 desire and sanctify the use of temporal things, and at the same time 
 to lead us to devote our best thoughts to the acquirement of heavenly 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 1C7 
 
 things, and make them the objects of our best affections. In them- 
 selves earthly treasures are corruptible and precarious. In some way 
 the moth and the rust are ever at work upon them ; and if some turn 
 in the wheel of fortune do not rob us of them, yet death, when he 
 comes as a thief in the night, will sweep them all away. Heavenly 
 treasures are incorruptible and certain ; and if we possess these, death, 
 who at last deprives us of the temporal, will open the gate which intro- 
 duces us into the full enjoyment of the true riches. 
 
 But there is a spiritual sense in the Lord’s words. In the language 
 of the correspondence between natural and spiritual things, riches is a 
 term denoting the knowledge of goodness and truth, or all points of 
 knowledge respecting spiritual subjects. The earth, in the same 
 expressive language, denotes the external or natural man, and 
 heaven, the internal or spiritual. Here, then, we are told how we are 
 to proceed in regard to the knowledge of divine things with which 
 we are brought acquainted from the Word, and from preaching, and 
 other mediums of instruction derived from that source. We are not 
 to lay such precious treasures up among ordinary matters accumulated 
 in the memory of the external man, or merely to speculate upon them 
 with the natural understanding. If we make no better use of our 
 acquisitions than this, they are sure to be corrupted and perish, and 
 to leave the mind as destitute of any advantage from their seeming 
 possession as if they had never been known at all. Moth and rust 
 will corrupt , and thieves will break through and steed. These denote 
 the evil lusts and false persuasions which belong to the natural man 
 separate from the spiritual ; the tendency of which is to prevent, 
 destroy, and render useless every acquisition of a spiritual nature 
 which the mind may externally have obtained, to check its influence, 
 to change or pervert its tendency, and at last completely to take it 
 away. For whatever is merely deposited in the memory, and is not 
 made matter of life and practice, never enters the spirit, or the man 
 himself that lives after death. In this state the proper and natural 
 state of the person, which is one of evil and falsity, is continually 
 endeavouring to break through from without, as thieves are said to 
 do, and to remove and abolish the knowledges respecting heaven and 
 divine things, and every spiritual appearance which the mind had 
 externally taken up, and had not truly appropriated by love and 
 life. Nothing of the kind can be permanent, or can accompany man 
 into eternity, which has thus been admitted into the outer chambers 
 or the threshhold of the mind. Every appearance, every possession, 
 every apparent intellectual attainment, will then be abolished, and 
 
1G8 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. VI. 
 
 the man will remain in eternity the mere subject of those unholy and 
 purely earthly attachments which he had here supremely cherished. 
 These treasures, therefore — those sacred and, as they are intended to 
 be, saving knowledges — are to be laid up in heaven, — to be made truly 
 the possessions of the internal man, or to be established in man’s 
 spirit, where no evil influence can come to hurt them, and where he 
 will retain the enjoyment of them for ever. This is done by the 
 good to which they point and lead being made tbe supreme object of 
 regard. The heart being in them, or the will being conformed to them, 
 will be elevated with them ; and the life of heaven being established 
 in the soul, man will live in heaven for ever. Where your treasure is, 
 there will your heart be also. How true is this ! That only is a treasure 
 in which the ruling affections of the heart are interested. How 
 important is it to make spiritual things the chief objects of our 
 affections, which we do when we lay them up in our inner man, and 
 make them the delight and end of our life ! 
 
 22, 23. From the heart the Lord comes to the eye. The light of 
 the body is the eye. More properly, The lamp of the body is the eye. 
 What a lamp is to a room, the eye is to the body. The eye is not 
 itself luminous ; it is only a recipient of light. Or it may, like the 
 lamp, be considered as an instrument that may be the means of 
 lighting up the body. But its power of lighting the body depends on 
 the state of the organ. If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be 
 full of light. The term single, or simple, unmixed or uncompounded, 
 as the word properly signifies, applied to the eye, means clear, pure, 
 or perfect — free from anything that obstructs or distorts the vision. 
 When the eye is thus adapted to the proper discharge of its functions, 
 small as the organ is, it is all that is requisite to give the perfect 
 enjoyment of light to the whole man: it is as if the body were all 
 eye, so completely is he blessed with the perception of light, and all 
 the beauties and glories that it reveals. But if the eye be evil, the 
 whole body shall be full of darkness. If the eye be afflicted with any 
 malady or malformation that deprives it of its functions, the whole 
 body is plunged into darkness. And if the light (and here the word 
 for light itself is used) that is in thee be darkness , how great is that dark- 
 ness! — that is, naturally, if that in us which should be the perception 
 of light be only a perception of darkness, great indeed is that darkness, 
 for the whole body is full of darkness. 
 
 But what is its application ? — what the true lesson conveyed by it 
 to the soul? The sense of the whole depends upon the spiritual 
 signification of the eye. And of this there is a common perception. 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 109 
 
 The eye is an obvious and natural symbol of the understanding. 
 There is an exact correspondence between them. Sight is in a lower 
 sphere what understanding is in a higher. As the eye is the lamp of 
 the body, the understanding is the lamp of the mind; because, by 
 another obvious correspondence, light, or anything that gives light, is 
 to the natural world what truth is to the intellectual and moral 
 world. Here then we see that the manner in which a person will 
 enjoy the perception of truth will be according to the state of his 
 faculty of understanding; just as a man’s perception of light depends 
 on the state of his eye. His understanding must be sound, or must 
 be in the state which is most accurately described by singleness of 
 eye. The understanding is single when, in all that it meditates, it 
 has good as its end, and thus when the truth it knows and thinks is 
 grounded in goodness in the will. According to this beautiful, plain, 
 and obviously true meaning of the Lord’s words, we are taught that 
 the only way to have the mind filled with perceptions of divine 
 truth, and to live in the cheering radiance of its heavenly light, is to 
 maintain in the understanding, in all we think, and thence in all we 
 say or do, a constant regard to the principle of goodness, of charity 
 and love, instead of allowing our faith to be defiled by the con- 
 taminating influence of selfish and worldly love. Then our whole 
 body will be full of light — the body here denoting the whole mind or 
 the whole man. But if the eye be evil, if the understanding be per- 
 verted or disordered by the mixture of evil ends, there can be no 
 true perception of divine things, no genuine enjoyment of the light of 
 pure truth, but the mind will be occupied with false persuasions, 
 regarded as true, and the truths that are known will be falsified and 
 perverted, which is the worst darkness of all. This is the sort of 
 darkness which is here alluded to, which is the reason of the solemn 
 exclamation at the close, “ If therefore the light that is in thee be 
 darkness, how great is that darkness!” In these divine words of our 
 Lord we are presented with the reason of all the darkness in respect 
 to the things of his Word and kingdom which prevails among man- 
 kind; and the true ground is opened to us of all determined opposi- 
 tion to divine truth. When men truly love darkness rather than 
 light, it is because their deeds are evil. On the other hand, the love 
 of truth has its true ground in goodness. “ A good understanding 
 have all they that do his commandments.” 
 
 24. The two preceding subjects, combined with the present, may be 
 said to teach singleness of heart, singleness of eye, and singleness of 
 choice and action. No man can serve two masters . Naturally it may 
 
170 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. VL 
 
 be possible, but this must be when the service required by one is not 
 incompatible with that demanded by the other. In the present case 
 the masters are two whom the metaphor regards as being opposite 
 in their wills, and therefore in their commands. The two masters 
 are the figures for God and mammon, who are opposite as light 
 and darkness, as good and evil. These two no one man can serve 
 at the same time. For either he will hate the one, and love the other ; or 
 else he will hold to the one , and despise the other. There can be no com- 
 promise between the service required by the one and that demanded 
 by the other. Some, indeed, are disposed to make the attempt ; but it 
 can only be intended to please men. There can be no true knowledge 
 of the service that each requires where there is any idea or attempt 
 to combine them. What we require to love in the one we require to 
 hate in the other. The love of God and the love of the world are 
 opposite and discordant. But the opposition and discordance are in 
 these loves as ruling loves or ends of life. We cannot serve any 
 spiritual master without loving him. But how can we serve God from 
 the love of God, and at the same time serve mammon from the love of 
 mammon h God and mammon are not indeed incompatible if we 
 make mammon our servant instead of our master. Our Lord in 
 another place instructs us to make unto ourselves friends of the 
 mammon of unrighteousness. And this we do when we serve God, 
 and make wealth subservient to the end which the service of God 
 implies. All lingering between two objects and halting between 
 two opinions is dangerous. If we attempt to unite two things, so 
 destructive of each other, in our own minds, we attempt to unite light 
 and darkness, heaven and hell ; and the consequence must be the de- 
 struction of all true life in ourselves. Let us be warned, therefore, to 
 serve that God who deserves as well as requires our service ; and who 
 will richly reward us for our singleness of life, flowing from singleness 
 of will and understanding. 
 
 25. The exhortation with which our Lord follows up these instruc- 
 tive lessons, and with which he closes what may be called this branch 
 of his discourse, is one of the most important, and one of the most 
 beautiful and persuasive, to be found in the whole of revelation. 
 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall 
 eat, or what ye shall drink ; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. 
 Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment ? It is impossible 
 to expose in more striking and affecting terms than the Lord does in 
 the exhortation of which these words are a part, the futility of those 
 cares under the influence of which people rush into self-love and the 
 
Chap. YL] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 171 
 
 love of the world, and make external things the primary objects of 
 their attachment : it is impossible, by more touching and beautiful 
 considerations, to urge to a reliance on Divine Providence. But we are 
 not hence to suppose that all thought about our future well-being in 
 this world, and all provident foresight in the disposal of our temporal 
 affairs, are hereby prohibited. To imagine so, and to act accordingly, 
 would be to fall into fanaticism, and to go the directest way to in- 
 capacitate ourselves for the performance of uses in the world. All 
 we are prohibited from doing is, to set our hearts upon worldly and 
 external things, to give in to such anxieties as are incompatible with 
 reliance on the Lord, and so to depend upon our own prudence as to 
 disown and disregard the Divine Providence. It is not all thought and 
 care whatever about things future that is forbidden, but all undue 
 solicitude, all such anxiety as unvoidably arises when natural and 
 worldly things are loved in the first place, and are made the primary 
 objects of pursuit. And this, indeed, the Lord’s exhortation literally 
 expresses ; for the word “ thought,” at the time our translation was 
 made, meant “ anxiety,” which correctly expresses the sense of the 
 original. 
 
 But the mind has, and needs, its provision as well as the body; and 
 in the spiritual sense it is in regard to this provision that the Lord 
 here speaks. For here, also, man may look too much to himself, and 
 too little to the Lord, and may seek to obtain that by his own self- 
 derived power and self-derived intelligence which is only to be received 
 by gift from his all-provident Father. Every spiritual endowment 
 and communication that man can have or enjoy, conducive to the life 
 and well-being of his soul, and thus to his welfare in eternity, is a free 
 gift to him from the Lord, and is by no means self-derived. All desire, 
 then, to procure such things by one’s own power, and all anxiety on 
 that account, are here condemned in the spiritual sense of the natural 
 images made use of. In this point of view we proceed to consider 
 the subject. 
 
 Is not the life more than meat , and the body than raiment ? The life and 
 the body are to be the chief objects of our concern, not the food by which 
 the former is nourished, and the dress by which the latter is clothed. 
 Yet obviously the life cannot be sustained without nourishment, nor the 
 body without clothing. These, however, are to be given us from the 
 Lord ; whatever, for this purpose, we should take from self, would be 
 destructive of the true life and well-being of both — yea, would deprive 
 both, properly considered, of their very existence. The life is the life of 
 the soul, as to its intellectual faculties, which can only be sustained by 
 
172 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. VI. 
 
 principles of good affections and true faith and intelligence, which are 
 the gifts of the Lord ; and anything self-derived cannot be really either 
 good or true. By the body is here specifically meant the good of love 
 and of the will; and the clothing of the body is truth investing such 
 good, or the sentiments as to spiritual subjects which spring out of 
 and harmonize with it : these again are derived from the Lord alone ; 
 for if from man himself, they are founded in and compose the clothing 
 of his own self-love, not of any love of goodness. These are provided 
 and given freely to us by the Lord when we regard the life of the 
 understanding itself, and the love of goodness, as the things to be 
 chiefly cultivated and pursued, and when we look to the Lord for that 
 purpose, applying ourselves to the use of the means which the Lord 
 has provided — that is, to the practice of the commandments. This 
 is all that we have to do — and it cannot be too often repeated — to look 
 to the Lord and to keep his commandments. Doing this, we may 
 safely leave all the rest to him, assured that our minds will be con- 
 tinually replenished with every affection of goodness, and every per- 
 ception of truth suited to our states, while we abstain from the desire 
 to draw anything of this sort from a self-derived origin, but live per- 
 petually in the conviction that the life is more than meat and the 
 body than raiment, and that he who has given the greater will also 
 give the less, provided we thus depend upon him. 
 
 26. The Lord confirms the truth of this doctrine, and encourages 
 us to rely upon him, by an argument (and a most affecting one it is) 
 drawn from the case of the bird. Behold the fowls of the air : for then 
 sow not , neither do they reap, nor gather into barns : yet your heavenly 
 Father feedeth them . Are ye not much better than they 1 Considered 
 only as a natural image and comparison, this is truly beautiful, and 
 most appropriate to the subject which it is introduced to illustrate; 
 but when the spiritual import of it is seen, it becomes more beautiful 
 still. Fowls, or birds, throughout the Word of God, are mentioned to 
 describe things intellectual, such as the thoughts upon whatever sub- 
 ject — to which they answer by a beautiful and obvious analogy. They 
 have the power of raising themselves towards heaven, and soaring 
 aloft in the sky, as our thoughts have the power of rising above earthly 
 and external things, and soaring into most exalted contemplations. 
 They are affected in a wonderful manner by the light, so as to be in a 
 state of life and activity, or of torpor and sleep, according to its pre- 
 sence or absence. And light, we have seen ( v . 22), is the natural 
 emblem of truth, which in some form or degree is what gives 
 activity to the thoughts. How, nothing is so irrepressible as the 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 173 
 
 thoughts. So long as we are alive and awake, our thoughts are 
 incessantly in exercise. It is always something of love or affection, 
 connected with the object of the thoughts at any particular time, that 
 puts them into activity, and sustains them in their powers of flight. 
 And this is never absent. We cannot, if we wished it, cease to think, 
 because the love which animates us, whatever be its nature, cannot be 
 withdrawn without death; and to suppress it is entirely beyond the 
 reach of our power. The reason is, because the Lord, as being Love 
 itself, is also Life itself ; and he imparts life to us by imparting to us 
 love ; and by giving us love he continually supplies us with the food 
 of thought. Thus our thoughts are entirely kept alive, without their 
 doing anything themselves to cause it, by the fire of love with which 
 they are nurtured by the Lord, as our heavenly Father feedeth the 
 fowls of the air. It is true, indeed, that we are often influenced by 
 love of an evil nature, which calls forth evil thoughts; and nothing of 
 evil can have its origin in the Lord. But that love which flows forth 
 from the Lord as the love of goodness and truth is perverted by man 
 himself, when wicked, into its opposite : thus the love, considered 
 abstractedly from its evil quality, is from the Lord ; the evil form 
 which it assumes is by perversion in the man. Thus it is from the 
 Lord that every man derives the faculty of thought, and that this 
 faculty is nourished and kept alive ; the evil use that he makes of it 
 alone is from himself. But the wonderful provision by which it is 
 ordered that thought can never cease but with consciousness of exist- 
 ence, is purely from the Lord, who thus alone spiritually feedeth the 
 fowls of the air, and maintains them in life and being. The fowls, 
 therefore, as denoting the thoughts, are said not to sow, nor reap, 
 nor gather into barns : by which images is meant, to provide for 
 their own support by the acquisition of knowledge, the insemina- 
 tion of these in the mind, and the storing, of them in the memory. 
 These operations are necessary to afford materials for thinking, but 
 not for the existence of thought itself ; for thought, as already 
 remarked, is in existence and activity from the first dawn of con- 
 sciousness, purely by virtue of the principle of love which exists in 
 every human being ; and the matters of knowledge which the 
 mind acquires in early life, first by the medium of the senses, and 
 afterwards by instruction from others, are things on which thought are 
 exercised, and are provided for the purpose, but are not the products 
 of the thoughts themselves. If, then, the Lord provides for the con- 
 stant existence of thought, will he not, as of still more importance, 
 provide for his rational creatures, that look to him, everything necessary 
 
174 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. VI. 
 
 to tlieir support and well-being as spiritual and immortal existences ? 
 As such, are not men much superior to fowls? Are not the spiritual 
 gifts, the endowments of spiritual love and wisdom, by which we 
 properly are human creatures, better than the mere thoughts which 
 we enjoy in a natural manner, independently of our character as to 
 spiritual advantages? Should we not then rely that he who has so 
 wonderfully provided that we should ever think, whether our thoughts 
 be true or false, or good or evil, will equally provide for us all that 
 can be necessary to the perfection of the higher endowments of our 
 nature, and every good, both spiritual and natural, that we ever can 
 stand in need of, if we place our life and good in the first place, and 
 look to him for its support and preservation? And can it be sup- 
 posed that since, by our own power alone, we can neither cause 
 ourselves to think nor cease from thinking, we can derive from self 
 anything that is truly good for us, and especially what is necessary 
 for our spiritual welfare? 
 
 27. Such is the argument which the Lord urges, by his appeal to the 
 case of the fowls of the air, when spiritually understood : with which 
 he connects another strong appeal, expressed in the words, Which of 
 you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature. By the stature 
 is here spiritually meant our spiritual stature, or our state as to the 
 things of love and wisdom of a heavenly nature, which every one sees 
 is not to be increased in improvement by anxieties — by seeking any 
 resources in ourselves, instead of drawing all from the care, mercy, and 
 providence of the Lord, from whom alone all good can flow. As our 
 spiritual stature is altogether according to the measure of excellent 
 graces which we have received from the Lord, to think to add to it by 
 any other means, and especially by such means as involve a casting 
 away of all reliance on the Lord, from whom alone the growth can 
 come, w*ere absurdity indeed. The thing is manifestly impossible : so, 
 if we are sincerely desirous to maintain a state of spiritual life, of 
 heavenly intelligence, and of the will of goodness, we must look to the 
 Lord for the proper nutriment, and rely on his providence to supply 
 it to us. 
 
 28, 29. The Divine Instructor now takes up the subject respecting 
 care and anxiety about raiment. And why take ye thought for raiment 1 
 Consider the lilies of the field , how they grow ; they toil not , neither do 
 they spin : And yet I say unto you , That even Solomon in all his glory 
 was not arrayed like one of these. This passage owes its exquisite 
 beauty, unparalleled in the whole circle of human composition, to tbe 
 images used being correspondences of spiritual things, and communi- 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 17 5 
 
 eating with heaven. According to this correspondence of natural with 
 spiritual things, raiment, or garments, throughout the Word of God 
 are mentioned to denote, specifically, such principles of truth in the 
 mind as flow from the state of good in which a man is principled, and 
 which occasion such language and conduct as are the natural and 
 spontaneous manifestations of the good within. This is the significa- 
 tion of raiment, or garments, in a genuine sense; for truth is that in 
 which goodness manifests its existence and presence, as the affections 
 of the will first come clearly to light to the man himself in the 
 perceptions and thoughts of the understanding. Sometimes, however, 
 garments are mentioned to denote the mere faith or profession of truth, 
 separate from all proper connection with the will or affections of the 
 wearer ; and sometimes, like most other natural images employed in 
 the Word, they are mentioned in an opposite sense, to denote principles 
 of falsity grounded in evil. In their genuine sense they are attributed 
 to the Lord himself : as when it is said that he covereth himself with 
 light as with a garment. Here, because light is the most obvious 
 symbol of truth, it is said to compose the garment of the Lord, as 
 flowing forth from the body of his divine love, and truth being in 
 him truth itself. From the same cause, when the Lord Jesus Christ 
 was transfigured, not only did his face “ shine as the sun,” to express 
 the ardour of his divine love, but his raiment became “ white as the 
 light,” to represent the inexpressible beauty of his divine truth. It is 
 impossible to desire more conclusive evidence to evince that garments, 
 or raiment, in their most proper and genuine sense, denote truth flow- 
 ing from and investing the principle of good, as garments invest the 
 body. 
 
 If this be the case — if all truth, to be genuine, or, to belong properly 
 to the man himself who makes profession of it, be grounded in a 
 principle of good, must flow from the feelings of love and charity in- 
 corporated in his own mind — we see how truly the Lord says that the 
 body, as denoting such a principle of good, must be more than raiment ; 
 as truly so, though in a case of immensely more importance, as the 
 natural body is of more dignity and importance than the clothes that 
 cover it. We see, also, how justly we are warned not to be anxious 
 about raiment, since no spiritual raiment that we could procure by any 
 anxiety of our own could be of that genuine kind which forms the 
 proper investiture of the principle of goodness. Let this only be dili- 
 gently attended to, and the other will follow of course, as a free gift 
 from our heavenly Father. Therefore the Lord illustrates the doctrine 
 by the case of the lillies of the field, which neither toil nor spin, be- 
 
173 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. VI. 
 
 cause by these are represented such perceptions of truth as are of a 
 celestial origin, or such as spring spontaneously in the mind of him 
 who has attained what may be called the celestial degree in the regene- 
 rative process, so as to have his mind continually recreated with 
 beautiful perceptions of truth and wisdom springing forth from the 
 ever-varying play of celestial affections. To be able thus to see truth 
 intuitively — to have its sweetest and most beautiful perceptions 
 spontaneously opening in the mind — is a very different state from that 
 of those who arrive at it first by the accumulation of facts as matters 
 of knowledge and faith, and by the inferences of reason deduced from 
 these facts. To express this difference, it is said of these lilies that 
 they toil not, neither do they spin, because by toiling is spiritually 
 meant the accumulation of truths merely as facts, or things known 
 by study and learning; and by spinning is meant the composing of 
 coherent systems of doctrine or opinion by reasonings from such facts. 
 In this process there is much of man himself mixed up with the 
 acquisitions he may have made; in the other, all is from the Lord. 
 They differ also in intrinsic excellence and in genuine beauty, just as 
 the works of man and the works of God. The works of man possess 
 no other beauty than that- which is exhibited on the surface. The 
 most exquisite painting is inwardly nothing but a rude assemblage of 
 earthy matters, having no correspondence to the beauty of form and 
 colour which the artist’s skill has pourtrayed upon the surface. The 
 most perfect statue still has no beauty but that which is artificial, there 
 being, again, no correspondence between the particles of stone or metal 
 which compose its substance, and the exterior shape which, by the 
 sculptor’s genius, they have been made to assume. Not so the works 
 of the Almighty hand. Here, from its inmost principles, there is a 
 determination towards the form the plant or the animal exhibits to the 
 eye, and there is nothing in it but what harmoniously conspires to the 
 production of the form, and of no other; while even the utmost beauty 
 that appears upon the surface is impressed by the wonderful adaptation 
 of the interior parts by which its texture is composed. What au 
 immense difference is there between the flower itself and the imitation 
 of it by the artist, though to the eye, and at a sufficient distance, the 
 resemblance may be perfect! But touch the leaf of a rose or any other 
 flower — let the exquisite delicacy and softness of its texture be felt, 
 and then let it be observed that these are produced by the harmonious 
 arrangement of myriads of myriads of fibres and of threads of feathery 
 pile, to which those of the finest velvet bears no comparison for deli- 
 cacy — and the exquisite perfection of the works of the Divine hand is 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 177 
 
 seen to be admirable indeed. So it is, correspondent^, with the 
 perceptions which spontaneously arise in the minds of those who are 
 in such a state of life as to enjoy what may be properly denominated 
 perception indeed, as being, in a manner, immediate revelations from 
 the Lord himself, and of which the lilies of the field, which in the 
 East flourish in extraordinary splendour, where the lily is esteemed the 
 queen of flowers, are here mentioned as the appropriate natural 
 symbols. 
 
 Therefore it is said, that even Solomon , in all his glory, was 
 not arrayed like one of these. That no splendour of clothing manu- 
 factured by human skill can equal in intrinsic beauty and loveliness 
 the delightful flowery products of the hand of Omnipotence, follows 
 from the remarks just made upon the difference between the works of 
 man and the works of God, so that it literally is true that neither 
 Solomon nor the most powerful earthly prince that ever existed could 
 boast of robes that equalled the clothing of the lily. But the compa- 
 rison is made to express an important truth. Solomon, as king of 
 Judah and Israel, represented, as all kings do, the spiritual principle 
 properly so called, which is especially the principle of truth ; and the 
 clothing of this principle are all truths of intelligence and knowledge, 
 or truths seen and understood. But this principle is separated by a 
 discrete degree from the celestial principle, which is essentially the 
 principle of love, the clothing of which are perceptions of wisdom, or 
 truths felt and perceived. The spiritual truths belong to the under- 
 standing, considered as distinct by itself ; the celestial belong to the 
 will, even when they enter the understanding. Now, the highest 
 degree of spiritual intelligence, though very beautiful and excellent, is 
 inferior to the lowest degree of celestial wisdom, which is truly simple 
 and altogether lovely; and these are what are signified respectively by 
 the raiment of Solomon and of the lily. The difference is precisely as 
 that between the gorgeous robes of a king and the delicate simplicity 
 of a flower. 
 
 30. But the Lord immediately changes his terms in speaking of the 
 flower : From naming the lily he adverts to the grass ; and speaks 
 of it as of little account. If God so clothe the grass of the field, which 
 to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven. He here calls it the 
 grass of the field, to intimate that he is speaking of the lowest percep- 
 tions of celestial wisdom, but still of such as are truly celestial in their 
 nature, or the immediate products of love. But where love or goodness 
 is accounted as everything, nothing of truth, not even the highest per- 
 ceptions of the most exalted mysteries, are regarded in themselves 
 
178 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Ciiap. VI. 
 
 as anything, except so far as they tend to fan the flame of love, and 
 promote the perception and appropriation of those celestial affections 
 which the man of this character feels as constituting his life, his all. 
 Therefore the use of the grass of celestial perception is described to be, 
 to be “ cast into the oven” — that is, to feed the heat by which the sup- 
 port of man’s life, the good, of which the products of the oven is the 
 symbol, is prepared. By him who truly loves the Lord above all 
 things, nothing of truth, even the most delightful perceptions with 
 which his mind can be recreated, are at all prized for their own sake, 
 but only for the sake of the good which is seen to be in them, and which 
 they are adapted to nourish and keep alive. To this use he constantly 
 applies them. Thus never abiding in truth by itself, but always ap- 
 plying it immediately to the purposes of life, and the exaltation of 
 the flame of love, or of his affection for goodness, he is continually 
 supplied with new stores of it from its Divine Author. His lilies 
 toil not, neither do they spin : as the grass of the field, they are cast 
 into the oven ; but he knows that they will continually grow again in 
 still more luxuriant abundance, being watered with the dew of heaven. 
 As these perceptions of truth, communicated solely for the sake of 
 good, are thus continually provided and taken care of by the Lord’s 
 bountiful hand, should not the man himself who lives continually in- 
 tent upon the good which is thus essential be effectually provided for 
 with every perception of truth that the welfare of his state may require 
 at the hands of his heavenly Father 1 ? This is what the Lord teaches 
 when he says, Shall he not much more clothe you, 0 ye of little faith l 
 Assuredly we may rely upon his Word. 
 
 31, 32. Having, by the exquisitely beautiful and tenderly affecting 
 comparisons and appeals which have now been considered, placed the 
 subject of his admonition in the most striking and engaging manner 
 before his hearers, the Divine Speaker repeats the proposition with which 
 he set out, though now as a conclusion from the premises advanced, and 
 in a somewhat different form, affirming the needlessness of the con- 
 duct condemned : Therefore take no thought, saying , What shall we 
 eat ? or, What shall we drink l or, Wherewithal shall we he clothed ? ( for j 
 after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father 
 knoweth that ye have need of all these things. A double reason is | 
 assigned by the Lord why this conduct should not be pursued. First, 
 a negative and deterring one : for after all these things do the Gentiles 
 seek. A powerful reason certainly it ought to be to the spiritually j 
 minded, not to seek after those things which are sought by the 
 natural minded, meant by the Gentiles, especially the positively 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 179 
 
 wicked, which the nations more particularly denote. This is the 
 deterring reason. But a more affecting and convincing one is added : 
 for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 
 What tenderness is implied in this mode of stating the providential 
 care of our heavenly Father ! The Lord does not directly say that 
 whatsoever we have need of shall be given us; but he conveys this 
 delightful assurance in a way that makes it tenfold more affecting. 
 He assumes this as a fact universally known, and w T hicli we cannot 
 be so ignorant or so credulous as to doubt; and thence he argues, we 
 may be assured, as the greater includes the less, or the whole the part, 
 that he will supply to us freely, and without any anxiety on our part, 
 those things which the natural man prizes so highly as to make them 
 the objects of his exclusive regard. It is sufficient to assure us that 
 he knows we have need of them, to assure us that we shall not be left 
 without them. 
 
 33. But now he tells us, in direct terms, how we are to proceed to 
 secure the attainment of all things that can be necessary for our real 
 welfare, even of those which the natural man makes his exclusive 
 goods. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness ; and all 
 these things shall be added unto you. The kingdom of God, as we 
 have seen, is a phrase which denotes the government of the Lord’s 
 divine truth both in heaven and on earth; and his righteousness is a 
 term expressive of his divine goodness, or of such goodness as owns 
 him for its Author. Applied to ourselves individually, the kingdom 
 of God which we are to seek is the government of the Lord’s truth 
 in our understanding; and his righteousness, which we are also to 
 seek, is the presence of his love or goodness in our wills. But how 
 are we to seek these two great elements of all blessing? Not simply 
 by asking God to bestow them upon us. We must indeed seek them 
 by prayer, but we must also seek them by the still more practical 
 means of self-denial and active virtue. To obtain the kingdom we 
 must apply the divine truth to the government of our thoughts, with 
 the view of bringing every thought under obedience to Christ; and to 
 obtain the Lord’s righteousness, we must cultivate the divine good in 
 our affections and in the duties of a righteous life. But we are not 
 only to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, but we are to 
 seek them first. It is easily seen that the expression first refers to what 
 is chief and primary. And nothing is chief and primary with us but 
 what is regarded with overruling or governing love. To seek 
 effectually the kingdom of God and his righteousness, we must seek 
 them with the ruling determination of soul — to make them the objects 
 
180 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. VI. 
 
 of the ruling or governing love and desire. To seek them first is to 
 put them in the first place; to exalt the Lord’s truth above all other 
 kinds of truth, and the Lord’s goodness above all other kinds of good- 
 ness; to give them the first place in our understandings and hearts, 
 in our minds and lives. Then will all other things be added to us. 
 Every kind and degree of truth and good will then be added to the 
 supreme good and truth; because, according to right order, every 
 other good descends and is derived from the First. So far from 
 having to give up anything orderly that is inferior to the First, 
 everything will come to be possessed in greater abundance, and 
 enjoyed with greater zest. The spiritual does not abolish, but sanctifies 
 the natural : and spiritual men glorify the Lord with their souls and 
 with their bodies, which are his. 
 
 34. We come now to the closing words of this beautiful discourse, 
 against indulging in anxious thoughts about meat, and drink, and 
 clothing. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow 
 shall take thought for the things of itself Sufficient unto the day is 
 the evil thereof Looking at these words even in the most general 
 manner, when the truth on which they are founded — the per- 
 petual care of the Lord’s divine providence, rendering human care 
 respectively needless — is believed, how admirably adapted is the 
 injunction conveyed in them to soothe the human breast. Man’s 
 proneness to torment himself with unavailing cares for futurity has 
 always afforded a copious theme for the declamations or reasonings of 
 the moralist and philosopher. No considerations can be of any real 
 avail for its cure but those which rest on the doctrine of a Divine 
 Providence; and these, again, cannot come with any power of con- 
 viction but when they proceed authoritatively from a divine source. 
 It argues the knowledge of Omniscience as to the inmost wants of 
 human nature, together with the benevolence of Infinite Goodness 
 desiring to remove them, when the Lord Jesus Christ so positively 
 declares, and so plainly demonstrates through the whole of this 
 discourse, the existence of a Divine Providence over all human 
 affairs — yea, over the whole creation, providing for the real necessities 
 of all. 
 
 But they who have rightly learned the lesson inculcated in the 
 words under consideration, and, in reliance on the Lord’s Providence, 
 have banished that care for the morrow which is here condemned, do 
 not make this renunciation in the fanatical manner which a literal 
 adherence to the Lord’s words, as given in the common version, 
 might seem to recommend. They know that to provide things 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 181 
 
 necessary for the morrow, both for themselves and their families, is 
 not contrary to the order of the Lord’s providence and will, provided 
 such things are not made the primary objects of regard, are not pur- 
 sued with anxiety, or with reliance on selfish prudence, nor in any 
 way that would foster in the bosom the love of the world, a disposition 
 to avarice or self-seeking. As a reason for not being anxious for the 
 morrow, the Lord says, for the morrow will take thought for the things 
 of itself And he adds, as a further reason, Sufficient unto the day is 
 the evil thereof Considered as to the literal expression, these sentences 
 contain truth which all experience of human life confirms. As mere 
 matter of prudence, it is undoubtedly unwise to load the present 
 moment with anxious cares about futurity, when every future day, 
 when it comes, will bring cares of its own. And the evils or 
 troubles which may be pressing upon us at the present moment are 
 enough to bear of themselves, without being aggravated by the antici- 
 pation of ills to come. But spiritually, as well as naturally, the 
 sentiments are most true, and the lesson they involve is most 
 important. In every new state on which we may enter, spiritually 
 signified by the morrow, there will be new trials or temptations, 
 arising from the opposition made by the corrupt part of our nature, 
 excited from an infernal source. From that part of us which is the 
 seat of all anxiety and distrust of the Divine Providence, or from the 
 influence of which it is that all such anxiety arises, there will be 
 trials and temptations, thus occasioned, to be encountered. But we 
 are not to fall into despondency by anticipating these. Sufficient for 
 our present state is the evil which is therein to be experienced, — the 
 opposition which selfish and worldly desires and appetites present to 
 the establishment of the kingdom of God and his righteousness within 
 us. It is enough for us to be steadily engaged in resisting evil 
 which is present, and requires to be overcome at the present moment 
 and in the present state, through the whole course of our pilgrimage. 
 If we do this, we need not be anxious about what is to come upon us 
 hereafter. Desisting evil whenever it is present, we may rely that 
 the Lord will never suffer it to prevail against us. Just as we rely 
 on him, and combat in his strength, we will prevail. But if we fall 
 into doubts and anxieties, which always arise from the influence of 
 our own selfhood, and yield to them, we shall not overcome. And 
 the same renunciation of care for the morrow which will make all the 
 occurrences of life acceptable to us, and prosperous for our real good, 
 will have the same influence on our spiritual states. When we dis- 
 cover in ourselves what is evil and wrong, we shall not fight to retain 
 
182 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. YII. 
 
 it, and so either sink downward with it, or bring upon ourselves a 
 severer course of discipline to force it from us; but we shall let it go 
 at once: putting ourselves herein in the stream of providence, and 
 willingly going where that leads. Thus all things will truly concur 
 for our well-being in time and in eternity. Setting, as we know the 
 Lord does, eternal ends in view, we shall willingly part with what 
 is incompatible with them, gladly complying with whatever will 
 advance them, and so finally realize them to our inexpressible 
 beatitude. 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 1. In continuing his sublime discourse the Lord comes to treat of 
 judgment as exercised by men upon one another; and of the conse- 
 quences of the judgment pronounced, not upon the person judged, but 
 upon the person who judges. Judge not , that ye be not judged. It 
 is almost unnecessary to say that the Lord does not here intend to 
 interdict all judgment. We know too well that society could not 
 exist without the exercise of private judgment and of public judi- 
 cature. Our Lord himself authorized judgment when he laid down a 
 rule for its exercise: “ Judge not according to the appearance, but 
 judge righteous judgment.” But we are to reflect that our Lord 
 always spoke with reference, not merely to the moral, but the 
 spiritual states of men; and not to temporal, but eternal retribution. 
 In this respect his words, “judge not,” express a direct and positive 
 prohibition. While it is necessary to judge men as to their moral 
 character, it is not allowable to judge them as to their spiritual state; 
 and while it is lawful and necessary to inflict temporal punishment 
 for moral crimes, it is neither lawful nor necessary to punish for 
 religious opinions, much less to pronounce upon “ heretics” an eternal 
 malediction. Both society and the church may judge, and in their 
 own modes inflict penalties upon unworthy members ; for their conduct 
 lies open to public view, and to pass over immoral conduct would 
 relax the bonds of civil and ecclesiastical law. But this is entirely 
 different from judging the internal states of men. No eye but His 
 which “ looks upon the heart ” can see the state of the interior mind, 
 and none but the Judge of all the earth can pronounce upon the 
 eternal condition of the soul a righteous judgment. It is a law of 
 Divine Providence that the essential spiritual state of no one shall be 
 known with certainty by another during his abode in the present 
 world. Every human being is left in a state of freedom to form for 
 
Chap. VII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 183 
 
 liimself the character and destiny which are to be truly and eternally 
 his own. To judge the outward conduct, and even the proximate 
 motive, does not interfere with internal and essential freedom, but 
 rather assists it, by keeping the external in some degree of order; but 
 if the internal itself could be interfered with, spiritual reformation 
 would be prevented, because human would usurp the place of divine 
 authority. But although it is not permitted us to judge of the 
 spiritual state of others absolutely, it is permitted us to judge of them 
 conditionally. We may say of or to any one, that if he really is 
 what he appears to be, he will be lost or saved; but we may not say 
 that he is what he seems to be, therefore he will be lost or saved. 
 There is a sense in which our Lord may be understood as uncondi- 
 tionally prohibiting judgment. That against which he warns us is 
 condemnatory judgment. This appears more clearly from his words, 
 as given by Luke — “ Judge not, that ye be not judged; condemn not, 
 that ye be not condemned.” The judgment which is interdicted is 
 the judgment of truth without good, or that of an enlightened under- 
 standing without a regenerated will. It is the function of the under- 
 standing to judge, and truths are the laws according to which judg- 
 ment should proceed; but the judgments of the understanding are 
 influenced by the inclinations of the will, and its decisions are just or 
 unjust according as the higher faculty is under the influence of charity 
 or uncharitableness. The judgment therefore which the Lord pro- 
 hibits is that of justice without mercy. There is one other lesson we 
 may learn from this solemn injunction. We are but too ready not 
 only to judge, but to prejudge. One bad consequence is likely to 
 follow from this. Having an interest in the success of our pre- 
 judgment, which is a sort of prediction, we may be either actively or 
 passively instrumental in procuring its fulfilment. We should be 
 careful, therefore, to avoid judging unfavourably of the future of any 
 one ; we should ever desire and hope the best ; and then we shall have 
 every motive to second our hopes by our prayers and efforts. In the 
 higher sense, or abstractly considered, we are prohibited from judging, 
 not persons but principles — as all judgment, in fact, resolves itself into 
 this. We are required to “judge not,” and therefore to “condemn 
 not,” the principles of goodness and truth, either as they are revealed 
 in the Word or as they are acknowledged in the church and among 
 men. It is lawful and necessary for us to judge for ourselves as to 
 what is, or is not, the truth; but our judgment in this important 
 matter cannot be just unless it be influenced by a sincere love of 
 truth. And here it is necessary for us to “judge not according to the 
 
184 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. VII. 
 
 appearance, but to judge righteous judgment.” Judge not , that ye be 
 not judged. This teaches us at once both the nature of the judgment 
 interdicted and its consequence. 
 
 2. Our judgment, whatever it is, returns upon ourselves. With 
 what judgment ye judge , ye shall be judged : and with what measure ye 
 mete , it shall be measured to you again. This is of the same character, 
 and is determined by the same law, as “the merciful shall obtain 
 mercy.” Those who judge, shall also be judged, without mercy. It 
 is unnecessary to explain again the law by which this result is deter- 
 mined. It is enough to say, that it is not by any arbitrary or sove- 
 reign appointment of the Almighty, but flows from the laws of eternal 
 order, which the Creator introduced into all his works, and which rule 
 in ail his dominions. It is not the Lord who judges without mercy; 
 as men are judged, not by what is without, but by what is within 
 them, they who have no mercy must be judged without any. But 
 the measure of retribution is that which our Lord here speaks of. 
 The measure of our reward, whether for good or evil, is determined 
 by the capacity we have acquired in the world for happiness or misery. 
 Goodness is the capacity for happiness, evil is the capacity for misery ; 
 and the measure of happiness or misery received in the other life is 
 determined by the measure of good or evil we have acquired in this. 
 God does not, by any sovereign appointment, fix either the nature or 
 extent of our bliss or woe. This is fixed by a law of order, by which 
 certain causes produce certain effects, and which measures our experi- 
 ence by our state and conduct. Every one who is either condemned 
 or saved has a certain measure which is capable of being filled. This 
 measure is filled in the other life; but with some it is more, with some 
 less. It is procured in the world by the affections which are of love ; 
 for the more any one has loved what is evil and false, or what is good 
 and true, so much the greater a measure has he procured for himself. 
 That measure cannot in the other life be transcended, but may be 
 filled. With those who have been in the affection of what is good 
 and true, it is filled with goodnesses and truths; and with those who 
 have been in the affection of what is evil and false, it is filled with 
 evil and falsity. And as in heaven the apostolic principle of a com- 
 munity of goods is carried out in all its perfection, he who is raised 
 into one of the mansions of the blest comes into the enjoyment of the 
 common good by which its inhabitants are distinguished; so that the 
 happiness of all becomes the happiness of each. And on the same 
 principle, evil is strengthened and its misery is increased by the 
 wicked assembling with their like in the kingdom of darkness. 
 
Chap. VII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 185 
 
 3. Proceeding with his teaching as to the wrong and the right mode 
 of dealing with our neighbour, the Lord says, And why beholdest thou 
 the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in 
 thine own eye? The idea which our Lord here presents is similar to 
 that which he expressed when he told the Jewish moralists that they 
 strained at a gnat and swallowed a camel. On that occasion the con- 
 duct he censured was that which the Pharisees practised in regard to 
 themselves. The same principle is here exemplified in relation to the 
 neighbour — the hypocrite sees not the beam that is in his own eye, 
 but detects the mote that is in his brother’s. The Lord here intro- 
 duces the term brother, because the subject relates to charity, which 
 a brother denotes. A mote in the eye of a brother is a trifling error 
 or false persuasion in the understanding of one who is, nevertheless, 
 in the life of charity ; while the beam in our own eye is an evil in the 
 will intellectually confirmed, which perverts our vision. How just 
 and necessary is the reproof conveyed in our Lord’s words! Naturally 
 and habitually we are too blind to our own faults, and too keenly per- 
 ceptive of the faults of others. If we need anything beyond our own 
 conscience and experience to convince us of this fact, we shall find it 
 too abundantly exemplified in the world in which we live. The evil 
 are the readiest to detect evil, the severest to judge it, the most unre- 
 lenting to punish it. The spiritual sense reveals the origin of this 
 seeming inconsistency. The eye is the emblem of the understanding, 
 the perceptive faculty of the mind ; the mote is a symbol of error, and 
 the beam of evil. When the understanding is under the dominion of 
 an evil will, it is blind to its own evil, but is keenly perceptive of error 
 or falsity in another, when these do not favour its own desires. The 
 difference between the spiritual and the natural man supplies an 
 answer to the Lord’s question, “ Why beholdest thou the mote that is 
 in thy brother’s eye, and considerest not the beam that is in thine own 
 eye?” The natural man looks outwards, and marks the faults of 
 others ; the spiritual man looks inwards, and observes his own. And 
 he who examines himself and discerns his own evils and imperfections, 
 will be less disposed to drag those of his neighbours into the light, or 
 to judge them severely. 
 
 4, 5. Our Lord continues, — Or how wilt thou say to thy brother , 
 Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is 
 in thine own eye ? To see the mote is one thing, to cast it out 
 is another. It is no doubt an act of charity to point out and 
 assist in removing error from the mind of another. But this 
 office cannot be performed by those who look at their neighbour's 
 
186 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. YIT. 
 
 errors and failings with an evil eye, and with whom there can he no 
 true regard for their neighbour’s welfare. How can one remove error 
 from another’s mind who has not even discovered the root of error in 
 his own? What is to be expected from the labours of one who strives 
 to convict his brother of error, rather than to convince him of the 
 truth ? To correct what is wrong in another requires moral principle 
 as well as intellectual discernment. Take the case of a parent, who so 
 often has occasion to correct faults in his child. It requires no great 
 amount of intelligence to see a child’s faults, but it requires great 
 moral wisdom rightly to correct them. Gentleness, kindness, patience, 
 with firmness, are essentially necessary to be possessed and exemplified 
 by the parent who would be the real improver of his child. The 
 parent whose temper is irritable or violent, who is harsh, unkind, 
 impatient, infirm of purpose — how can he draw out from the young 
 mind, delicate and sensitive as the eye in which is the mote, the errors 
 and evils that are incident to it as that of a fallen and imperfect 
 being? Just so is it in all the relations of life. The same qualities are 
 required in the brother, the friend, the teacher, the pastor. Not only 
 a clear sight, but a kind heart — not truth only, but goodness — must 
 be employed in the work of correction and reformation. To cast the 
 beam of evil out of our own eye is therefore the first and principal 
 duty we have to perform, even to our neighbour, and the only means 
 of enabling us to see clearly to remove the mote from his eye. 
 
 6. While the Divine Teacher warns us against acting from truth 
 without goodness, he warns us also against acting from goodness with- 
 out truth. Of these two opposite states one is about as defective in 
 itself, and about as faulty in its consequences, as the other. As truth 
 alone is all light and severity, good alone is all feeling and tenderness. 
 So far as men are in good without truth, they give evil men the fruit 
 of the tree of life for food, without applying its leaves to them for 
 medicine. They would present the pure goods and truths of the Holy 
 Word to the lustful and the sensual, who are disposed to profane and 
 destroy them. Against this the Lord warns us when he says, Give 
 not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before 
 swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend 
 you. Those are compared to dogs and swine who are the slaves of their 
 passions and panderers to their senses. The goods of charity and the 
 truths of faith, which are holy things, and the knowledge of truth and 
 good from the Word, which are pearls, are not to be cast before such 
 characters. These heavenly things, cast injudiciously before the grossly 
 sensual, are more likely to exasperate and provoke than to reprove and 
 
Chap. VII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 isr 
 
 repress their evil lusts and appetites. They trample them under their 
 feet — they scoff at them, degrade them beneath the very lowest of their 
 own low thoughts and impure affections, and trample upon the holy 
 principles they inculcate. And having subjected the spiritual principles 
 of the Word to this treatment, they turn again and rend those who 
 have dispensed them. The disciples whom they rend are, abstractly, 
 the living principles of the Word which constitute the church, the 
 dissipation and destruction of which is meant by rending. Our Lord 
 was a pattern to all teachers. He accommodated himself not only 
 to the capacities, but to the states of his hearers. To those who were 
 without, he delivered his truth in parables ; and he condescended to 
 adapt his instruction to the infirmities of the disciples themselves, 
 leading them by visions of glory suited to their external states, as 
 when he promised as a reward for following him in the regeneration, 
 that they should sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of 
 Israel. In a more abstract sense these words teach us, that if the 
 external man remains sensual, holy things that flow down from the 
 internal, where they may have been received, into the sensual external, 
 will there be perverted and profaned, and will only be the occasion of 
 the external turning more fiercely against and rending the internal, 
 and so destroying all spiritual life in both. 
 
 7. From the subject of giving, the Lord turns to that of asking. 
 Ash, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and 
 it shall be opened unto you. We are constantly taught that the grace 
 of God, though freely offered, must yet be earnestly and actively 
 sought to be obtained. There is a philosophy that harmonizes these 
 seemingly discordant facts. Our prayers are not to induce God to 
 give, but to fit us to receive. And to fit us to receive the gifts of God, 
 all our faculties must be brought into activity. We must ask with 
 the heart, seek with the understanding, knock with the life. All 
 these are to be employed, and their operation continued, in order that 
 we may receive. God delights to give. He waits to be gracious. All 
 that is required on our part is to be earnest in our desire and efforts 
 to receive. 
 
 8. The promise of receiving is as certain as the duty of asking is 
 imperative, and is as significantly expressed. Every one that asketh 
 receiveth : for asking and receiving, which are the briefest and directest 
 modes of communication, express the desire for good from God, and its 
 reception by the will. And he that seeketh findeth : for the under- 
 standing searches and seeks for the means of salvation, and finds the 
 object of its search in the riches of wisdom and knowledge. And to 
 
188 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. VII. 
 
 him that knocketh it shall be opened : for the bringing of the principles 
 of the will and the understanding into the life and conversation 
 opens the door of communication between the Lord and man, and 
 between the spiritual and natural degrees of man’s own mind, and not 
 only brings them into communion, but into conjunction with each 
 other. 
 
 9-11. It is worthy of remark that, in teaching us the character 
 of our Father in heaven, and his dealings with his children, the 
 Lord does not employ abstract terms or use the arguments of reason, 
 but simply appeals to those affections of our nature which he himself 
 has implanted, and which, being possessed alike by all, are the ground 
 of universal perception. He appeals to our instincts, rather than to our 
 reason, in proof of his Fatherly tenderness and beneficence. And this 
 appeal will be seen to be the more appropriate when we reflect that 
 the love of parents for their children is an offshoot from his own love 
 for his children of the human race, and is implanted in all human 
 hearts, notwithstanding their hereditary corruption, as it is in the 
 nature of all the inferior creatures, the fiercest as well as the gentlest. 
 The Lord does not therefore refer us to those parents who are regen- 
 erate and holy, and in whom the image of their Father has been 
 restored, but to the fallen race of men without distinction. If this 
 simple fact had been always kept in view, how much obscurity would 
 have been avoided and controversy prevented respecting the character 
 and dealings of God. The universality and unchangeableness of the 
 Divine Love could not have been for a moment doubted. What 
 encouragement does this give us to come to the Lord in all our 
 necessities, in the confidence that he will listen to us not only with 
 all a father’s love, but that he will supply our wants with all a 
 father’s wisdom. Let us see what his language involves. 
 
 9, 10. What man is there of you , whom if his son ask bread , will he 
 give him a stone ? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a sei'pent ?■ 
 What parent, indeed, would thus mock the wants and abuse the confi- 
 dence of his hungering and pleading child? The force of this appeal 
 as a comparison consists in the fact, that natural affection is sufficient 
 to prompt a father to supply the natural wants of his son, when those 
 wants are expressed. But these words have a spiritual meaning. 
 Like the loaves and fishes with which the Lord fed the multitude, the 
 bread and fish are symbolical of the two essential principles of good- 
 ness and truth, which sustain the voluntary and intellectual life of 
 the soul. So we read in the Word of “bread that strengtheneth 
 man’s heart” (Ps. civ. 14); for the heart is the symbol of the will, 
 
Ciiap. YII] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 189 
 
 and good, wliich is specifically meant by bread, is that principle by 
 which the life of the will is sustained. The will, thus sustained, is 
 called a heart of flesh, which is the living goodness into which the 
 appropriated bread of life is turned. But while in the Word we read 
 of a heart of flesh, we read also of a heart of stone (Ezek. xi. 19). 
 These are not mere figures to express penitence and impenitence of 
 heart, but are real correspondences. And as the heart of flesh denotes 
 a will renewed by the reception of principles of goodness, the stony 
 heart is the unrenewed will, hardened by unbelief and its result- 
 ing evil, as is expressed in Zechariah, — “ They have made their hearts 
 as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law” (vii. 12). To 
 give a stone to a son who asks bread would therefore be to give him 
 a false good for a true one, and so turn the will into a heart of stone. 
 So in regard to the fish, which signifies truth that nourishes the 
 understanding and forms a true faith. A serpent is the emblem of 
 sensual truth. But these things are here evidently to be understood 
 in a sense opposite to that of their genuine meaning— the stone of 
 what is false grounded in evil, and the serpent of self-derived pru- 
 dence. These given for bread and fish torment and destroy spiritual 
 life. But before a son can desire, and a father can give spiritual 
 food, which is the knowledge of spiritual things, they must themselves 
 be to some extent spiritually-minded : and then they are the emblems 
 of the Lord and his children. We are the children of our heavenly 
 Father when we desire that he will feed our hungering souls with 
 heavenly goodness and truth, as while on earth he fed the bodies of 
 the fainting multitude with loaves and fishes. 
 
 11. Jf ye then , being evil , know how to give good gifts unto your 
 children , how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good 
 things to them that ask him ? It is the result and evidence of a merci- 
 ful Providence that, notwithstanding man’s state of moral evil, he 
 is endowed with natural affection for his offspring, which prompts 
 him to love them tenderly, and anxiously supply their natural wants, 
 and in every possible way to provide for their temporal welfare. 
 This, it is true, is an affection common to man and animals ; yet it is 
 inspired by the Author of nature, and is given alike to the mild and 
 ferocious among animals, and to the best and worst among men. 
 The fact, therefore, that men, being evil, yet know how to give good 
 gifts to their children — gifts that are good as natural means for a 
 natural end — is a proof and assurance to us that God will much more 
 give good things to them that ask him. It is not possible that he 
 who is goodness itself can withhold any good thing from any one who 
 
190 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. TIL 
 
 sincerely asks Lira. As Le Las implanted natural affection in all 
 human Learts, both good and evil, so has he bountifully provided for all 
 men’s natural wants, without respect of persons, and without solicita- 
 tion. Those things which God requires to be asked before he gives 
 are spiritual things, such as are necessary for sustaining the life of 
 good in the soul, and securing its spiritual and eternal welfare. 
 These are not given unasked — that is, undesired and unsought for; 
 because desire is to the soul what hunger is to the body, and the 
 desire for heavenly good must exist before that good can be supplied. 
 The mind has an inherent desire for food as well as the body ; but here 
 the moral condition of the mind determines the nature of the desire, 
 and consequently of the kind of good which is craved. Those who 
 have become conscious of their spiritual wants, and desire the spiritual 
 good which is necessary to supply them, will find the Lord, as their 
 heavenly Father, infinitely more ready to give the good things which 
 are necessary for sustaining the true life of the soul than any earthly 
 parent can be to give temporal gifts unto his children. 
 
 12. The Lord concludes this series of lessons on mutual benefits be- 
 tween man and man by laying down this grand principle, — Therefore all 
 things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you , do ye even so to them: 
 for this is the law and the prophets. This has been called the “ Golden 
 rule;” yet it belongs rather to the silver than to the golden age. The 
 celestial principle prompts men to love others better than themselves; 
 the spiritual principle prompts them to love others as themselves. Even 
 in these days we see the higher principle emulated, if not exemplified, 
 by parental and filial love, and imitated in the forms of ordinary 
 politeness. But this may be done from natural affection and conven- 
 tional usage, without any of the spirit of religion. Such acts may 
 proceed from selfish as well as from disinterested affection. The 
 principle which our Lord lays down does not require disinterested love 
 for its recognition and application. It is to be considered in connection 
 with wbat the Lord had just said, that men, being evil, knew how to 
 give good gifts unto their children. The law which he now lays 
 down is for the natural man as well as for the spiritual. It appeals 
 not only to every man’s sense of right, but to his self-love, and 
 requires only to be honestly applied to make every one a law of 
 equity unto himself. What God has revealed through Moses and the 
 prophets is intended, therefore, to change a natural law into a 
 religious obligation, in order to give men a conscience to do what 
 their own judgment may tell them is their duty. Every man can 
 see, and can be brought to admit, that he ought to do to another as 
 
Chap. VII] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 191 
 
 lie would that another should do to him. Before he acts towards 
 another, he has only to consider how he would wish or expect another 
 to act towards him under the circumstances. In all our intercourse 
 and transactions with others — in all the duties and relations of life, 
 we have only to reverse the position in which we stand to another, to 
 know what we ought to render to him, and what we ought to expect 
 from him. And what we would consider it right to do or expect, if our 
 case were his, we must see it is our duty to do. It is not necessary to 
 cite instances, for no case is exempt from the law. Its application is 
 universal and invariable. “ All things whatsoever ye would that man 
 should do to you, do ye even so to them.” But although there is no 
 need for illustration, there is some need for explanation. It is 
 thought by some that the law requires not only that you put yourself 
 in the other’s place, you must put yourself also in his state. Not so. 
 This would be to change not your place only, but your identity with 
 another, which would make things precisely as they were. If such 
 could be done, every one would of course act precisely as the other 
 acts, and judge as he judges. 
 
 The law requires us only to take another’s place, and to consider what 
 our principles would require us to do under the other’s circumstances. 
 If one is a seller, he is to consider what, if he were a buyer, he would 
 consider it right that a seller should do; if he is a master, what, if a 
 servant, he would expect a master to do. By thus placing ourselves 
 in the position of those with whom we have to do, we learn to be 
 more just and merciful — to demand less and give more — in a word, to 
 be more equitable. What a different world it would be if this great 
 law were, in any considerable measure, the rule of conduct ! And not 
 only would it affect the state and condition of men and nations in 
 this world, but, what is of infinitely more consequence, it would affect 
 the state and condition of men ( in the world to come. The law of 
 equity is the practical form of the law of love to the neighbour: 
 practically to love our neighbour as ourselves is to do to him as we 
 would that he should do to us. This is the law of heaven. In 
 heaven, therefore, all are united in the bond of mutual love and 
 service. Unless we cultivate love to the neighbour, how can we live 
 in that kingdom where this law universally prevails? 
 
 13. Our Lord proceeds to show how this law of equity is to be 
 carried out, and how we are to act, so as to bring ourselves under its 
 government. Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, 
 and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be 
 which go in thereat : because strait is the gate , and narrow is the way, 
 
192 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. YU. 
 
 which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. The strait gate 
 can only be entered by self-denial, and the narrow way can only be 
 walked in by circumspection and perseverance. In Luke, therefore, 
 we read, “ Strive to enter.” The gate of life has become strait by 
 that which has made the gate of death wide — our natural aversion to 
 good and our natural aptitude for evil. That which is delightful is 
 easy ; that which is undelightful is difficult. And that which is 
 difficult is strait, and that which is easy is wide. Straitness, in a 
 moral sense, is anxiety, anguish, difficulty. The gate of life can only 
 be entered through straitness of spirit — striving with the devil, 
 the world, and the flesh, being the agonistic conflict through which 
 the passage lies to victory. On the other hand, the gate of destruc- 
 tion is wide, because no striving is required to enter it. So far from 
 self-resistance being necessary for entrance into the way that leads 
 to destruction, self-indulgence opens the gate; and the more we 
 indulge, the wider the gate and the broader the way become. But 
 where and what are these gates and ways'? They are in our own 
 minds. In that rational faculty that stands midway between the 
 spiritual and the natural mind there is a gate that opens and a way 
 that leads upward to heaven, and another gate that opens and a way 
 that leads downwards to the world and hell. During the early part 
 of life these gates are not open, and yet are not shut. That is to 
 say, the thoughts and affections are not determinately bent in either 
 direction previous to the mind’s deliberately and practically choosing 
 good or evil as a principle of life. There is in every one a hereditary 
 tendency to the downward road ; but the Lord in his mercy provides 
 that the gate that leads to destruction shall not be actually opened, 
 nor the gate that leads to life be actually closed, till man, as a free 
 agent, shall knowingly and deliberately open one and close the other. 
 To open and enter into the gate that leads to destruction is easy, 
 because congenial to man’s fallen nature; but the Lord gives him 
 aids and means, and inspires him with motives, and supplies grace 
 sufficient to enable him, if he is willing, to enter the strait gate and 
 walk in the narrow way which lead to life. We enter the gate of 
 life by repentance, and advance in the way of life by persistent 
 holiness. We enter the gate of death by impenitence, and walk in the 
 road to destruction by persistent sinfulness. If there are literally 
 many that enter the wide, and few that find the strait gate, it is not 
 from necessity, but from choice. All walk more or less in the down- 
 ward road. While the Lord provides against our being betrayed 
 unwarily into any confirmed state of evil, his grace so abounds, that 
 
a v 
 
 ■<***<?*#***■ 
 
 4r, iU.’frumtty «» 
 
 f Um / tt -vu* sLMV-Vi 
 
 2*+ ^ ^ a c/ ***' 
 
 fhwAi-ly £*+* 
 
 ~ L Jm 4*sM - / 
 
 Jyw 1 A 
 
 Y 
 
 
 W * "" / 
 
 
 , „ - * edidA/^ 1 
 
 ^ % ,< K W • 
 
 ' / , . 9 . • 4 OO ‘ *" ' 
 
 ^1' &4*-**«*~t . 
 
 ju,M 
 
 &-UA ''MsfcsOr'f ' 
 f £ *%.( fady w ^ 
 
 /5U 
 
 ik 
 
 ft "l-A- 
 
 T a ** ud * 
 
 ^ 7 J ' Jjj. cUju^*^* 
 
 u ^ -z ' , ~ / . 
 
 Iciinld Z-4^ 
 
 
 /■• 
 
 //, 
 
S-j U* * 
 
 
 , i / / 
 
 (jU UM-'uJ- ./*■** <UK* * < / tfnH 
 
 ? i,c/ hj~* t'rfia I 
 
 * IU-U * S 4 w4 ^ 
 
 ^ ^ y ~&Us jt/f 
 
 <U /? ^/,4,^ y 
 
 ■A&tijA, U^'H. a- (?H£4t*UJ l£ 
 
 £&>p\ {>/ - 
 
 A % a/-£\ ce/f 22 ? 
 
 {Jw\7f3 "9 U " t rfs/l/ ^4, 
 
 / 
 
 ^4 f fUt ^J’f l -ix&M St* 
 
 ihjj *Y tb* fiA.tctte+J . 
 
Chap. VII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 193 
 
 whenever we sincerely desire to return from our evil ways, and 
 enter into the right path, all things will work together in our favour. 
 But although it may be literally true that at the time our Lord spoke, 
 and even now, more may enter the wide than the strait gate, the 
 Lord’s declaration does not teach that it is a necessary state of things. 
 On the principle that numbers in the Word spiritually express quality, 
 and not quantity, few signify those who are in the faith of charity; 
 and many signify those who are in faith without charity. 
 
 15. That we may enter into the strait, and avoid the wide gate, we 
 must be careful what counsel we take or listen to. We must beware 
 of false prophets. Personally, these are false teachers; abstractly, they 
 are false principles. Care to avoid these last is the more necessary, 
 because we may be our own teachers; and prejudice or inclination 
 may lead us to adopt and follow the false, as if it were the true. W e 
 ought, indeed, to cultivate the faculty of distinguishing between the 
 false and the true, without respect of the persons who utter them ; to 
 accept truth and reject error, whoever may teach them. It is the 
 more necessary to beware of false prophets since they come to you in 
 sheep’s clothing , but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Palse prophets 
 are hypocritical teachers, who conceal a devouring selfishness under an 
 appearance of disinterested kindness. But abstractly they are false 
 principles that seem outwardly to teach charity, but inwardly are as 
 destructive of it as the wolf is of the sheep. All errors in religion 
 avow as their object, “ Glory to God in the highest, good will towards 
 men;” for no one teaches or adopts what is false as falsehood, but as 
 truth, much less as leading to evil, but to good. It is important, 
 therefore, to beware of false prophets; for though they come under 
 the aspect of charity, they in their very nature are cruel and de- 
 structive. 
 
 16. But the question comes, How are we to know false prophets? 
 Our Lord gives, the answer, — Ye shall know them by their fruits. This 
 is the moral test. The Word gives another, — “ To the law and to 
 the testimony: if they speak not according to this V^ord, it is because 
 there is no light in them.” It may be difficult to detect individual 
 teachers of falsity, or hypocritical teachers of truth, by their outward 
 lives. As a general test it is an entirely true and certain one. The 
 natural, and therefore the general, result of falsity is evil, and the 
 natural and general result of truth is goodness. Life is, without 
 doubt, the great test ; and it is one that every person may apply and 
 judge by. Yet it is more important to be able to test principles than 
 persons. And the question with each of us is, What fruits do certain 
 
 o 
 
194 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. YU 
 
 principles produce in ourselves? We can know our own principles by 
 their fruits, because we can see our inward as well as our outward 
 life. The inward life is more especially meant by the grapes, and the 
 outward life by the figs; for grapes are the goods of charity pro- 
 ceeding from the internal man, and figs are the goods of obedience, 
 But, Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ? If the falsities 
 of concupiscence, which are the thorn and the thistle, are rooted in 
 the mind, there can be no genuine good produced in the life. The 
 appearance may be put on, as the wolf may appear in sheep’s clothing, 
 but the reality cannot be there. Such principles cannot produce the 
 inward fruit of peace and goodwill to our neighbour, nor the outward 
 fruit of consistent and disinterested goodness. 
 
 17, 18. But whatever outward similarity there may be between the 
 actions of a good and those of an evil man, their deeds, viewed from 
 within, by means of spiritual light, are essentially different. Every 
 good tree bring eth forth good fruit ; but a corrupt tree bring eth forth evil 
 fruit. This is absolutely true. The fruit must correspond to the 
 tree. Good principles cannot produce bad practice; and evil princi- 
 ples cannot produce good practice. A good man, it is true, may do 
 some evil, and an evil man may do some good ; but the reason of this 
 is, that, in this world, there is no man so good as to be entirely free 
 from evil or error, and no man so evil as to be entirely destitute of 
 goodness and truth. But good itself, as a principle in the mind, must 
 of necessity produce good ; and evil, as a principle, must produce evil. 
 This is as much a law of mind as that a vine must produce grapes is 
 a law of nature. Our Lord declares this to be the case. A good tree 
 cannot bring forth evil fruit , neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good 
 fruit. “ To will evil and to do good are in their nature opposite to 
 each other, for evil is derived from hatred towards our neighbour, 
 and good from love towards him ; in other words, evil is our neigh- 
 bour’s enemy, and good is his friend, which two cannot possibly exist 
 together in the same mind : evil cannot exist in the internal and 
 good in the external. In such circumstances man is like a tree 
 whose root is decayed through age, but which yet produces fruit 
 that appears outwardly like fruit rich in flavour and fit for use, but 
 which inwardly is unsavoury and useless.” The good which a man 
 does from evil — that is, from a selfish motive — is not good, but 
 evil; for the end determines the quality of the deed. This may- 
 not be seen clearly by men in this world ; but when men enter the 
 spiritual world, the quality of men’s works is obvious to all. And 
 as our Lord spoke eternal, and therefore spiritual, truth — truth for 
 
Chap. VII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 195 
 
 the spiritual world — this is the essential truth which he taught in 
 these words. 
 
 19. The lesson we may derive from the necessary connection 
 between the internal and the external is most important. Every tree 
 that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down , and cast into the fire. 
 On this declaration, which is a repetition of one made by John the 
 Baptist (ch. iii. 10), it is sufficient here to remark, that if we allow 
 evil and false principles to take root in our hearts while we live in 
 this world, the tree which has grown up and produced its evil fruits 
 cannot be changed in the other life, but must be hewn down and cast 
 into the fire. The evil man himself is such a tree : for such as a man’s 
 ruling principles are, such is his whole being. The good which a man 
 does in the body proceeds from his spirit, or from the internal man, 
 this being his spirit which lives after death; consequently, when man 
 casts off his body, which constituted his external man, he is then 
 wholly immersed in the evils of his life, and takes delight in them; 
 while he holds good in aversion, as being offensive to his life. 
 
 20. Our Lord concludes by repeating the principle he had already 
 laid down. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. To know 
 the fruit is to know its quality, not merely its appearance. If we 
 thus know the fruit, we know the tree. It is our duty, therefore, 
 to look to results; and as far as we can know these truly, we 
 shall be able to judge correctly of the principles that produce them. 
 We may regard this exhortation of our Lord as designed to correct 
 the tendency to judge our brother by his opinions, and look at the 
 mote in his eye rather than at the blemish in his life. 
 
 21. 22. The Divine Speaker brings this subject of sinning and living 
 home to us most powerfully by carrying us by anticipation into the 
 scene of our final judgment. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, 
 Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will 
 of my Father which is in heaven. The time of decision will indeed 
 show the difference between saying and doing, between profession 
 and practice. It is plain that the contrast the Lord here makes is 
 between those who have lived in the mere profession and those who 
 have lived in the practice of his religion. Nor are the professed dis- 
 ciples those only who have named themselves by the name of Christ, 
 but those who have been zealous in his cause — for they say, Have we 
 not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and 
 in thy name done many wonderful works ? What more, apparently, 
 could they have done to commend themselves to his favour? One 
 thing have they lacked — sincerity. All these things have they done 
 
196 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. VII. 
 
 for to be seen of men. They have not done the will of their Father 
 who is in heaven. The Father’s will is, that they should be perfect 
 even as he is perfect: that they should love him above all things, 
 and their neighbour as themselves, manifesting that love in all 
 manner of good works. Instead of this, they have rendered to the 
 Lord a lip service, in formal and ostentatious prayers, thus saying, 
 Lord, Lord: they have taught the Word and the doctrines derived 
 from it, and it may be with eloquent persuasiveness, thus prophesying 
 in the name of Christ : they have liberated other minds from errors of 
 religion, thus casting out demons : they have effected numerous con- 
 versions, thus doing many wonderful works. But this they have 
 done, not for the Lord’s sake, nor for the salvation of souls, but for 
 the sake of themselves and the world. Those who are of this 
 character are in what may be called persuasive faith. They have no 
 inward perception of truth, and no inward faith in it, or love for 
 it, but adopt a creed, and confirm it by reasons grounded in self- 
 interest, as a means by which they may obtain reputation, wealth, 
 and honours. The worst of men may have this persuasive faith, and 
 maintain it with zeal, condemning all who differ from them without 
 regard to the good which they exhibit in their lives. Many of the won- 
 derful works of party zeal have no doubt this origin and character. 
 
 23. The Lord therefore says, Then will I profess unto them, I never 
 knew you. He never knew them as his own. His saving knowledge 
 was not in them. They are not his children. He knows them not. 
 He never knew them : their whole life has been a deception. Can any 
 other conclusion be expected from such a life of hollow pretence than 
 that expressed in the Lord’s words, Depart from me, ye workers of ini- 
 quity? They have wrought iniquity. Whatever good they may have 
 done for others, they have done none for themselves. Their motive 
 has been evil, because selfish ; and an evil tree cannot produce good , 
 fruit. The Lord’s sentence upon them to depart expresses the necessary 
 result of their real state. His love is not in them ; there is no mutual 
 sympathy between him and them : his truth is not in them; there is no 
 mutual knowledge. Separation is the inevitable consequence. The 
 evil and the false must depart from him who is goodness itself and 
 truth itself. This is the cause of removal from the presence and I 
 exclusion from the kingdom of God. He does not cast them out: 
 their own state of contrariety to his holy nature excludes them. They I 
 gravitate to their own centre, which is the kingdom of evil, and fall 
 into the abyss, not because justice demands, but because mercy cannot | 
 prevent, their ruin. 
 
Chap. VII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 197 
 
 24. Having in his sermon enunciated the great principles of his 
 church and kingdom, the Lord concludes his sublime discourse by a 
 most striking description of the two opposite results which his teaching 
 would have with the multitude whom he addressed, and with all 
 future generations of men, according as they use or abuse the mercies 
 of the gospel of righteousness and peace. Therefore , whosoever lieareth 
 these sayings of mine, and doeth them , I will liken him unto a wise man; 
 and every one that heareth these sayings of mine , and doeth them not, 
 I will liken him unto a foolish man. The whole difference between the 
 wise and the foolish, and between the eternal consequences of wisdom 
 and folly, consists in one thing, and is described by one word, and 
 that one word is doeth. This word holds a most prominent place in 
 the whole of the Scriptures of truth, and an all-important place in the 
 economy of the religious life. To do or not to do decides the question 
 of order and disorder, of weakness and power, of salvation and con- 
 demnation, of life and death. Doing is the use and end of religion. 
 Hearing the Lord’s sayings, which includes knowing and understand- 
 ing them, is but a means to an end, and that end is to do them. To 
 do what we hear is wisdom ; to hear and not do is folly. Wisdom 
 and folly in Scripture do not mean intellectual, but moral states. Wis- 
 dom is not knowledge, but the right use of it; folly is not the absence 
 of knowledge, but its abuse. He that heareth these sayings of mine, 
 and doeth them, I will liken him to a wise man. Let us see what this 
 man did as an evidence of his wisdom. He built his house upon a rock. 
 The expressive word edification means building up, and has been 
 borrowed to express the idea of practical education, as a building up 
 of the mind in knowledge and virtue. In this sense it is used in 
 Scripture. The only difference is, that the materials here are spiritual, 
 and the building is not for time but for eternity. Every one builds 
 in this world the house in which he shall live for ever. The materials 
 of this house are the truths of the Word, and these may be built up 
 by practical wisdom into a holy habitation, in which grace and truth 
 may dwell together — yea, in which the Lord himself, by his love and 
 wisdom, may take up his abode, according to his own divine promise : 
 “If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love 
 him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. ,, 
 But the stability of the house depends on the foundation on which it 
 is built. The wise man builds his house upon a rock. This rock is 
 eminently the Lord himself. A rock, in Scripture is the symbol of 
 truth ; and the Lord is called a rock, as being the truth itself ; and he 
 is especially the Rock of Ages as the truth manifested — the Word made 
 
198 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. YIX. 
 
 flesli. Faith in this Truth — or this Truth held in faith — is the rock 
 on which the wise man builds his house. It is that of which the Lord 
 declared to Peter, — after his ever-memorable confession, “ Thou art 
 the Christ,” — “ On this rock I will build my church.” And the house 
 which the Christian builds upon this foundation is the church in him. • 
 25. The advantage of building the house upon a rock our Lord 
 describes by expressive figures. And the rain descended , and, the floods 
 came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: 
 for it was founded upon a rock. The power of resisting trials and 
 temptations is the great advantage which results from a faith which 
 rests on the foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no regen- 
 eration without temptation. Temptation is the trial of our faith. 
 Temptation confirms a true faith and overturns a false one. A true 
 faith is not only a faith in the truth, but a faith that is true — sincere. 
 A true faith is one that is of the thought from affection, and a false 
 faith is one that is of the thought without affection. A true faith, 
 therefore, not only resists in temptation, but is increased and con- 
 firmed by it. The temptations to which faith is subjected are described 
 by the storm that fell upon the house. And no images could more 
 expressively depict the danger to which the mind is exposed by the 
 trials and temptations of life than that which threatens the house 
 by the combined action upon it of the rain, the flood, and the wind. 
 The temptation arising from false suggestions are meant by the rain ; 
 for rain, when it falls upon the earth in gentle and fructifying 
 showers, is the expressive symbol of truth ; when it beats upon the 
 house, and threatens it with destruction, is the equally expressive 
 symbol of falsity. And as the subject of the Lord’s words is the 
 foundation of a true faith, the temptations come from what is 
 opposite to, and tends directly to invalidate the truth, and destroy 
 faith in it. But not only does the rain descend, but the floods come. 
 Bain is that kind of temptation that comes in gradually-increasing 
 torrents of false suggestions; but floods are those temptations that 
 arise from the accumulation of such false suggestions, and when they 
 come in a body, like an inundation of waters, bear down every- 
 thing that is not capable of the greatest resistance. The wind indi- 
 cates that kind of temptation that flows into the thoughts — for wind 
 is more subtile than water — and is the stormy wind that sweeps over 
 the mind like a tornado, and threatens to root up and cast down 
 everything before it. But there is one object that resists them all — 
 the house that is founded upon a rock. The church of the Lord 
 that is built in the human mind upon the rock of a living faith — 
 
Chap. VII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 1U ( J 
 
 against it the very gates of hell shall not prevail. And these tempta- 
 tions of which our Lord here speaks are induced by the powers of 
 darkness, and are the means which the spirits of darkness employ for 
 the purpose of effecting their purpose of destroying the soul, by 
 pulling down what the Saviour has built up. But the assurance 
 which the Saviour gives to his faithful ones is, that having built 
 their faith upon him as its foundation, all the combined powers 
 of the kingdom of darkness, in the severest temptations, will not 
 be able to overturn it. And it fell not: for it was founded upon 
 a rock. 
 
 26. The Divine Speaker contrasts with these wise ones the persons 
 who build on an unstable foundation. And every one that heareth 
 these sayings of mine , and doeth them not , shall be likened unto a foolish 
 man, which built his house upon the sand. The description of these is 
 simply the reverse of the others. The mere hearer of the Lord’s 
 words builds a house, but he builds it on the sand. We commonly 
 speak of those building in the air who place their hopes of happiness 
 on visionary or unpractical schemes. Answering to them are those 
 who build their hopes of eternal happiness on their being hearers of 
 the words of Jesus Christ. They build upon the sand. Considered 
 simply as a figure, it is sufficiently suggestive of the baselessness of 
 the fabric of a mere verbal and persuasive faith. 
 
 But the sense obtained by correspondence is more specific and 
 instructive. While a rock and a stone signify truth as a principle, 
 sand signifies knowledge as a simple acquirement. The sand is to the 
 rock as the dry bones that lay scattered in the valley of Jehoshaphat 
 were to the exceeding great army that the prophet’s voice raised up 
 from them. Beligious facts and opinions laid up in the memory, or 
 even in the natural understanding, are mere shifting sands, on which 
 no rational hope can be placed. A faith of the intellect, which is not 
 at the same time of the heart, is dead, and can avail nothing in the 
 day of trial. Our Lord tells us, therefore, that when the storms 
 assailed the house built upon the sand it fell, and great was the fall 
 of it. The house which the religious professor builds becomes a ruin, 
 however fair it may have been. So will the faith of every hearer of the 
 Word who does it not; and a ruin complete, according to the pains 
 that have been taken to make it great and admirable in the eyes of 
 men. The fall of those Avho have known and professed the truth is 
 great compared with that of those who have known and assumed less. 
 We may learn from this similitude how important it is to be doers of 
 the words of Divine Wisdom, and especially of those heavenly prin- 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 200 
 
 [Chap. YIII. 
 
 ciples which our blessed Lord delivered in his ever-memorable sermon 
 on the mount. 
 
 28. And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the 
 people were astonished at his doctrine. Those who had been accustomed 
 to the superficial, trifling, and lifeless addresses of the Jewish scribes, 
 might well be astonished at the doctrine which they had just heard 
 from the lips of Jesus. But the word expresses something more, or 
 rather something other than astonishment : it means that the people 
 were inwardly moved or affected. The teaching of Jesus did not play 
 upon the outside, but penetrated into the inmost depths of their being. 
 He taught them as one having authority — more properly, as one having 
 power, not the power of authority only, but the power of convincing 
 the understanding and moving the heart. Supposing the law had 
 been taught by the scribes in its original simplicity and purity, the 
 spirituality which Jesus showed it to possess, and which he so clearly 
 and practically set forth, must have presented it to every well-dis- 
 posed mind in a new light of unspeakable beauty, and with a force 
 that must have brought it home to every conscience. But when we 
 reflect that the Jewish teachers had made the commandments of none 
 effect by their traditions, the Lord’s enforcement and exposition of the 
 law must have produced on the minds of his sincere and earnest 
 hearers a wonderful impression indeed, such as that which led his 
 mercenary hearers to exclaim, “ Never man spake like this man.” 
 
 CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 1. Having finished his sermon on the mount, Jesus now comes 
 down to exemplify in works of mercy and benevolence the spiritual 
 principles he had enunciated as those of the kingdom he had come to 
 establish upon earth. His coming down from the mountain does not 
 mean descent from a more to a less perfect state, but the bringing 
 down of his holy principles into beneficent acts, and enforcing by 
 example what he had taught by precept. This also is the order of 
 individual experience. The Lord first implants the principles of 
 righteousness in the mind", and then causes them to come down into 
 the actions of a holy life, that the external may be an image of the 
 internal, and both together form the regenerate or new man. No 
 wonder that when the Lord came down great multitudes followed him. 
 The multitudes that gathered about the Lord — the common people 
 who heard him gladly — are types of the common affections and 
 
Chap. Y ITT.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 201 
 
 thoughts of our nature that give us a sense and perception of natural 
 justice and truth, and which, when unbiassed by interest or unawed by 
 authority, can see and admire religious truth when presented to them 
 in its own light and power. Those who had been astonished at his 
 doctrine could not now be less astonished at his works. And as the 
 works which the Lord performed, beneficent and marvellous as they 
 were, are to be regarded as but the natural types of spiritual opera- 
 tions, which he is ever performing in the souls of the penitent and 
 believing, we have a deeper interest in them than those who beheld 
 them with their eyes and experienced them in the restoration to 
 health and strength of their diseased and enfeebled frames. 
 
 2. When Jesus came down from the mountain, behold , there came a 
 leper and worshipped him. Leprosy was one of the most dreadful and 
 loathsome diseases with which the Jews were afflicted. Under that 
 representative dispensation evils in the mind produced corresponding 
 diseases in the body. The disposition of the people to depart from 
 the worship of the Lord and the ordinances of the law, to worship 
 false gods and observe their unholy rites, led them into acts of pro- 
 fanation, which brought upon them the disease of leprosy. Leprosy 
 therefore represents profanation — the mixing of the holy and the im- 
 pure. Of this greatest of sins there are two kinds — the profanation of 
 truth and profanation of good. These are expressed in the Hew 
 Testament by a w'ord against the Son of Man and blasphemy against 
 the Holy Spirit. We are guilty of the first sin when we profane or 
 pervert the letter of the Word ; we are guilty of the second when we 
 violate its spirit. The first is pardonable, like the leprosy which 
 could be cured ; the second is unpardonable, like the leprosy which 
 cleaved to its victim for ever. The leper who came to Jesus repre- 
 sented one who has been guilty of the milder degree of profanation. 
 He came to him with the prayer to be made clean. This, spiritually, 
 is the confession of sin, and an active desire for its removal. Every 
 such prayer implies a knowledge and sense of sin, and the acknow- 
 ledgment that the Divine power alone can remove it. That is true 
 penitence and true worship which produces the prostration of self, the 
 exaltation of the Lord, and the submission of the human to the divine 
 will. The new creature is born, not of the will of man, but of the will 
 of God. So the leper says to Jesus, “ If thou wilt, thou canst make 
 me clean.” Blessed is the state when the suppliant for divine aid 
 confides solely in the Lord’s will. 
 
 3. In answer to the leper’s prayer, Jesus put forth his hand , and 
 touched him , saying , I will ; be thou clean. The Lord’s hand is the 
 
202 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. YIII. 
 
 symbol of his power, especially as it now operates upon men from or 
 through the Divine humanity ; and the Lord’s will is his love in union 
 with his wisdom. The will and the power of the Lord are one. 
 Whatever the Lord wills he can do. Yet there are some things that 
 he wills that are not done. He wills that all men should be saved, 
 yet all are not saved. He wills that all should be saved ; but he wills 
 that they should be saved by their own consent, and cannot will that 
 they should be forced — therefore cannot exert his power to force them. 
 For the Lord to force men to accept salvation would be to contradict 
 himself, which is impossible. He bestowed freewill upon man, and 
 preserves him in possession 'of it every moment of his life ; how, then, 
 can he at ouce preserve freedom and employ force ? The Lord is both 
 willing and able to save to the uttermost, but he must save in accord- 
 ance with the laws of his divine order, which are the laws his wisdom 
 inscribes upon his love, and according to which his love ever acts. If 
 all are not saved, it is because all do not desire and will not accept 
 salvation. To those only whose will accords with his own can the 
 Lord’s hand be extended to cure them of their spiritual maladies. 
 His hand is put forth when his power, ever present in the inmost of 
 their souls, above the seat of their consciousness, is allowed to come 
 forth into the thoughts and affections of their minds, and thence into 
 the actions of their lives. It is then that the divine hand “ touches,” 
 that is, affects them, communicating to them the power and virtue of 
 his humanity, in which his love and truth are brought near to save 
 them. When the Lord’s will and his power are thus unitedly active 
 within the soul their action must be effective. When Jesus can at 
 once put forth his hand and touch the leper, and say, “ I will, be thou 
 clean,” the effect follows — immediately his leprosy was cleansed. To 
 show the miraculous nature of the Lord’s cures it was necessary that 
 they should be instantaneous. Had they been gradual, those who 
 saw the beginning of a miracle might never see its end, nor might they 
 be able to distinguish between a miraculous and an ordinary cure. 
 But those instantaneous cures do not represent instantaneous salva- 
 tion. What is instantaneous in regard to time represents what is 
 certain in regard to state ; for the soul is not subject to time. For 
 “immediately” we have only to read “certainly,” and we have the 
 assurance which the spiritual language of revelation expresses, that to 
 those who sincerely desire it, and co-operate with the Lord to receive 
 it, his salvation is sure. 
 
 4. After the leper was cleansed Jesus laid on him a double injunc- 
 tion. See thou tell no man ; but go thy way , show thyself to the priest . 
 
Chap. VIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 203 
 
 There is something peculiar in the first command. It has been sup- 
 posed that the man was only required not to tell any one till he had 
 shown himself to the priest. But the same command was given when 
 no such condition existed (ch. ix. 30 ; Mark v. 43). It appears from 
 the record of the same miracle in Mark (i. 40) that there was a reason 
 entirely separate from this. We there find that the cleansed leper, 
 like others on whom silence had been enjoined, “ went out, and began 
 to publish it much, and blaze abroad the matter,” the result of which 
 was, “ that Jesus could no more enter into the city, but was without 
 in desert places.” It appears, therefore, that it was to prevent the 
 necessity of his withdrawing himself from the chosen scene of his 
 labours that Jesus wished these works of his not to be publicly known. 
 
 But how could the public knowledge of a miracle have the effect of 
 driving him, so to speak, from the city into the desert ? It would 
 seem that two causes conspired to produce this effect. A report of the 
 miraculous cure would excite the opposition of the rulers on the one 
 hand, and throng him with supplicants for similar favours on the other. 
 It is easy to see how the first of these circumstances might operate as 
 a cause, but the second does not at first sight appear likely to act in the 
 same manner ; it would rather, it might seem, have an opposite ten- 
 dency. We are to remember, however, that these works were not the 
 primary, but the secondary object of the Lord’s ministry. His first 
 object was to teach, his second to cure. Miracles did not produce 
 faith, but faith was necessary to the production of miracles ; and faith 
 cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. It was there- 
 fore, it would appear, contrary to order for the miracle to be proclaimed 
 by man before the gospel of the kingdom had been preached by the 
 Lord. John, who was the forerunner of the Lord, did no miracle, 
 doubtless to teach us that instruction must precede regeneration. We 
 may therefore suppose the Lord addressing each cleansed sinner thus : 
 “ Go thy way. Live according to the truth. Speak not to men, but 
 act towards God. Turn not thy thoughts earthward, but thy steps 
 heavenward. Before thou go into the world, enter into the sanctuary ; 
 give thy heart to the Lord before thou give thy experience to men.” 
 Another reason for silence is given in this Gospel (ch. xii. 17), which we 
 shall consider in its place — that it was to fulfil a prophecy. But the 
 second command which the Lord gave to the leper will still further 
 explain the first : “Show thyself to the priest.” In this command 
 the Lord, as our Prophet, directs us to himself as our Priest — as the 
 Truth he leads us to himself as the Good ; as the Human to the Divine. 
 To show ourselves to the Lord as our Priest is to see ourselves as he 
 
204 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Ciiap. YIII. 
 
 sees ns, and to see Lis truth from good. As our Priest, the Lord sees 
 us savingly when he gives us to know that he dwells in us, and we in 
 him, by the love we have received from him ; for he that dwelleth in 
 love dwelleth in God, and God in him. He sees and pronounces us 
 clean when he whispers to us through our conscience that the plague * 
 of sin no longer cleaves to us. When the conscience is purified from 
 dead works, we can offer the gift that Moses commanded , for a testimony 
 unto them. The gifts and offerings commanded in the Levitical law 
 were types of the purified thoughts and affections that are offered to 
 God, in gratitude for deliverances experienced and mercies received, 
 and which become sanctified to the worshipper by being dedicated to 
 the service of him who gave them. The offering of the cleansed leper 
 consisted of lambs without blemish, fine flour, and oil — symbols of 
 innocence, charity, and love: innocence unblemished by conscious 
 guilt, charity that envieth not, love that is without dissimulation. 
 These are the gifts which the purified soul offers as a testimony to the 
 Lord as the Author of all good, and which are the means of effecting 
 conjunction of life with him as the supreme good. 
 
 5, 6. The Lord, having cleansed an Israelite, is now besought to cure 
 a Gentile. When Jesus was entered into Capernaum , there came unto 
 him a centurion , beseeching him , and saying , Lord, my servant lieth 
 at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. A servant signifies 
 the natural or external part of the mind, because this serves the 
 internal, as a servant his lord. The word here used is not that 
 which means a bond-servant. In Luke vii. 2 this servant is said to 
 be dear to his master — a fact which may be inferred from his soli- 
 citude for his recovery. But this loved servant was sick of the 
 palsy, grievously tormented. Palsy represents a state where there 
 is the will, but not the power to do. The will to do is from good ; 
 but good has no power of acting but by truth. Truth is in the 
 mind what the muscular system is in the body. Good can no more 
 act spiritually without the ministry of truths, than the will can act 
 naturally without the concurrence of the muscles. Paralysis is the 
 symbol of that state of the mind when, from some opposing influence, 
 truth refuses to obey the behests of goodness ; or, what is the same, 
 when the external is unable to do what the internal wills to be 
 done. Such a state is described by the apostle, where he says : “ To 
 will is present with me ; but how to perform that which is good I find 
 not” (Rom. vii. 18). Such a condition of mind is attended with 
 torment ; for what can be more afflictive to one who desires to do 
 good than to find that evil is present with him ? How pathetically 
 
Chap. VIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 205 
 
 does the apostle lament this state when he exclaims, “ 0 wretched 
 man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” 
 (Rom. vii. 24.) 
 
 7. The state which this case represents and the apostle describes is 
 one that is not without hope. There is a physician in Israel to whose 
 healing power every disease must yield. So knew the apostle when, 
 turning his thoughts from his own feeble and wretched condition to a 
 powerful and blessed One in whom there was help, he said, “ I thank 
 God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The centurion had learnt 
 where to look for help in his time of need ; and this help he found. 
 His prayer was answered before it was expressed. To his simple 
 declaration that his servant was sick, the Lord responded, I will 
 come and heal him. He comes by influx and revelation, and heals 
 by reformation and regeneration. The Lord comes by a knowledge 
 of his truth, and restores by obedience to it. 
 
 8. But the centurion answered and said , Lord, I am not worthy that 
 thou shouldest come under my roof ; but speak the word only, and my 
 servant shall be healed. A sense of unworthiness is a sign of worth. 
 It is one of the first results of distinguishing in ourselves between what 
 is from the Lord and what is from self ; and this feeling deepens as 
 the distinction is more perfectly perceived. This is the ground of true 
 humility. The highest angels are the most humble. Those who are 
 in the deepest humiliation are in the highest exaltation. Those who 
 are farthest from self are nearest to the Lord. Yet true humility 
 among men, as arising not only from a sense of evil and nothingness, 
 but from a conviction of sin, rather deprecates than craves the Lord’s 
 intimate and immediate presence. “ Depart from me, for I am a sinful 
 man, O Lord,” was the prayer of Peter, on a signal manifestation of 
 the Lord’s power, contrasted with his own unavailing labour ; and a 
 sudden sense of the Lord’s loving condescension made the centurion 
 feel and declare his unworthiness to receive Jesus under his roof. The 
 mind that has a deep sense of the Lord’s goodness has, at the same 
 time, a deep sense of its own unworthiness : the one is proportioned to 
 the other. It feels itself too mean for such a guest — too disorderly, 
 dark, and impure to endure the presence of him who is order and 
 light and purity itself. Speak the word only, is its language, and my 
 servant shall be healed,. Unworthy to receive, and unable to bear thy 
 immediate presence and power, give me thy mediate presence and 
 operation. Come to me through thy Word, out of which virtue goes 
 to heal all manner of sickness and disease. 
 
 9. The centurion’s humility and faith were enhanced by his posi- 
 
206 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. VIII. 
 
 tion. I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me : and I 
 say to this man, Go, and he goeth ; and to another, Come, and he 
 cometh ; and to my servant, Bo this, and he doeth it. The centurion 
 representing the rational man, or the rational faculty, his hundred 
 soldiers are rational truths, existing in adequate fulness, in orderly 
 arrangement, and in due subordination to the ruling principle of the 
 mind. As soldiers, they signify also truths combating, not only, as 
 is too much the case with the natural rational man, against error in 
 others, but against doubt and unbelief in himself. The subordination 
 of all the principles of the mind, born of the will, the understanding, 
 and the outward life, is meant by this one going, another coming, 
 and the servant doing. Faith becomes conspicuous in the submission 
 of the mind, with all its powers and possessions, to the Lord. 
 
 10. It was when the centurion, after his entreaty, had made 
 this statement of his condition, that the Lord marvelled, and said 
 to them that followed , Verily I say unto you , I have not found so 
 great faith, no, not in Israel. We are not of course to imagine 
 that the Lord was taken by surprise. He who knew what was 
 in man, knew all the centurion told him before he uttered a word. 
 His was an expression of admiration. It expresses the sympathy 
 which existed between the spiritual truth of the Lord and the rational 
 truth in the mind which acknowledges and is desirous to receive the 
 higher light. The Lord’s saying to them that followed him, that he 
 had not found so great faith in Israel, was literally to express to them 
 how much more believing and receptive he found this Gentile than 
 he had found any among the Jews, and how much better disposed 
 towards him were those beyond than those within the pale of the 
 church. 
 
 11, 12. From the case of the Gentile centurion whose faith surpassed 
 any he had found in Israel, the Lord proceeds to speak of the state of 
 the Gentile world, as compared with that of the Jews. And I say 
 unto you , That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit 
 down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. 
 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness : 
 there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The subject is not limited 
 to any particular people or time. The contrast is between those who 
 are in good without truth, and those who are in truth without good. 
 The first are spiritually meant in the Word by the Gentiles, and may 
 be found within as well as out of the church ; the second is the state 
 of all who have been unfaithful to the knowledge they possessed. Of 
 those spiritual Gentiles it is said that “ many shall come from the east 
 
Chap. VIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 207 
 
 and west,” because east and west signify states of good, as south 
 and north signify states of truth. East is a state of interior good, as 
 it begins in the heart ; and west is a state of exterior good, where it 
 ends in the life. East and west, therefore, are expressive of all states of 
 good, internal and external. But these are states of natural good, 
 having in it, like all sincere good, the desire to receive truth, by which 
 it becomes spiritual. This truth is meant by the term “ kingdom for 
 a kingdom is under the government of laws, and these laws are truths. 
 But that here spoken of is the kingdom of heaven, which is heavenly 
 or spiritual truth. For Gentiles to come into the kingdom of heaven, 
 therefore, is for those who are in natural good to come into spiritual 
 truth. This, in fact, is the same as coming into heaven itself. All 
 who are principled in good, who live and die without the truth, receive 
 it in the other life, and so enter heaven; nor can they come into 
 heaven till their good receives and is united to truth ; for heaven is the 
 conjunction of good and truth. But heaven is a state as well as a 
 place; and being in man, it can exist in this world as well as in the 
 other. All true members of the church are in the kingdom of heaven 
 while they yet live on earth. The Lord, therefore, taught, and com- 
 manded his disciples to teach, that the kingdom of heaven was at 
 hand. All the good, when they receive the truth, enter the church, 
 and all who enter the church enter the kingdom of heaven. But it 
 is said of those who come from the east and from the west, that they 
 sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 
 There are three degrees of perfection to which the good are capable of 
 attaining, which are called celestial, spiritual, and natural ; and there 
 are three heavens formed respectively of those who are in these states. 
 These are meant in the Word by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who 
 represented the Lord himself as he is present with men and angels in 
 his Divine Humanity. To sit down with these patriarchs is to sit 
 down with the Lord in his kingdom, as he accommodates his attributes 
 to the states of his people. To sit, we have seen, is expressive of a 
 confirmed and permanent state of life, and includes the idea of serenity 
 and peace. Such is the blessed end of those who cherish affections of 
 goodness, however they may be deficient in the knowledge of the truth. 
 
 The children of the kingdom are those who have been born and nur- 
 tured in the church, but who have sinned against the light of truth. 
 These shall be cast out into outer darkness. As truth is the symbol 
 of light, darkness is the symbol of falsity. The degree of falsity into 
 which the evil ultimately come is proportioned to the degree of truth 
 against which they have sinned. Outer darkness is expressive of that 
 
208 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. VIII, 
 
 degree of falsity which is opposed to the clearest light of truth ; and 
 those who are cast, or whose evils cast them into it, are such as have 
 extinguished all truth in their minds, and confirmed themselves in 
 that falsity which is grounded in evil. The weeping and gnashing of 
 teeth which prevail in the region into which they are cast are no 
 doubt expressive of the misery they endure; but they also signify 
 active states of the affections and thoughts, weeping being expressive 
 of the absence of all true satisfaction of heart, and gnashing of teeth, 
 of sensual reasonings and disputations, by which they confirm them- 
 selves in the evils they love. 
 
 13. When the Lord had concluded his address to those who followed 
 him, he said unto the centurion, Go thy way ; and as thou hast be- 
 lieved, so be it done unto thee. This often-repeated command, “ Go thy 
 way,” is an injunction to live as the Lord directs — to order our lives 
 according to the dictates of his truth. Thus our faith becomes prac- 
 tical, being exemplified in our life and conversation. When we have 
 thus believed, so will it be done unto us. Although salvation is in 
 goodness, it comes through truth ; although it is in love, it is received 
 through faith, — not through faith alone, which is dead, but through 
 faith in conjunction with love, which is living. Faith is the medium 
 through which the Lord’s power becomes operative ; for truth is the 
 power by which the Lord works, and truth is the object of faith. 
 Therefore faith was a common condition of salvation, and of the Lord’s 
 miraculous cures, which represented it. According to our faith in the 
 Lord as the Saviour, so is the saving virtue we receive from him. 
 Such was the centurion’s faith that his servant was healed without the 
 Lord’s personal presence, and in the moment of his declaring the cure. 
 The self-same hour in which the cure was effected was symbolical of 
 the state of the centurion’s faith, which secured the blessing, for time 
 is the symbol of state. 
 
 14, 15. A third miraculous cure was that performed on Peter’s 
 wife’s mother. And when Jesus was come into Peter's house , 
 he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever. The Lord’s 
 coming into Capernaum represented his presence with man in doctrine; 
 which a city signifies ; his coming into Peter’s house represented a 
 further progression, and his presence with man in the good of faith ; 
 for Peter represented faith, and a house signifies good, and Peter’s 
 house, the good in which faith dwells. As Peter represented faith, his 
 wife signifies the affection of faith, which is charity, or neighbourly 
 love. The mother of Peter’s wife represented the affection of love to the 
 Lord ; for love to the Lord is the parent of love to the neighbour. But 
 
Chap. VIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 209 
 
 Peter’s wife’s mother was laid, and sick of a fever. A fever is expres- 
 sive of the burning lust of evil. The evil of self-love is the opposite 
 of love to the Lord ; and a state like that of a burning fever is pro- 
 duced in the mind when the evil of self-love rises up in the heart in 
 opposition to the good of love to the Lord. The state here described 
 is not one in which the evil of self-love predominates in the mind, but 
 is one in which that hereditary affection is excited by evil spirits, 
 giving rise to a state of temptation. The two expressions “ laid ” and 
 “sick” indicate the operation of this temptation as active both in the 
 will and the understanding. When the Lord saw her, he touched her 
 hand, and the fever left her. This teaches us not only that the Lord’s 
 divine power is that by which deliverance from the influence of evil 
 love is effected, and love to him is restored to health and established 
 in its supremacy in the heart, but also how this deliverance is effected. 
 The hand is the emblem of power, because it is that member of the 
 body by which power is manifested. The hand also signifies, there- 
 fore, the natural principle, which is the instrument by which the 
 spiritual acts. The Lord’s touching the hand was emblematical of his 
 power flowing into and restoring to order the natural principle, so that 
 the spiritual could act in an orderly manner through it. The natural 
 mind is the seat of evil; and when the evil that resides therein is 
 excited into activity, the natural mind reacts against the spiritual, 
 which produces spiritual disorder and disease, one form of which is 
 here meant by a fever. When Jesus touched her hand the fever left 
 her. Here again was an instantaneous cure, intended to teach us the 
 certainty of restoration when the Lord’s power is invoked or received. 
 The completeness of the cure is indicated by the circumstance that she 
 arose, and ministered unto them — indicating the return of complete 
 health and strength. But this represents that when opposing lusts 
 are removed, the oppressed and diseased affection of love to the Lord is 
 elevated to a still higher place in the heart, and thence proceeds into 
 act in ministering to the Lord and men in works of piety, charity, and 
 mercy. 
 
 16. After the Lord had performed these three miracles on indivi- 
 dual persons, When the even was come, they brought unto him many 
 that were possessed with devils : and he cast out the spirits with his word, 
 and healed all that were sick. The demoniacal possessions so common 
 at the time of our Lord’s manifestation in the flesh were the result of 
 the dominion which the kingdom of darkness had then acquired over 
 mankind, — a dominion so complete that evil spirits ruled not only the 
 minds but the bodies of men. And had not the Lord in this crisis 
 
 P 
 
210 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Ciiap. VIII. 
 
 come into tlie world, by assuming our nature and receiving the 
 assaults of evil spirits into his own humanity, and by overcoming 
 in temptation, conquered the hells, no flesh could have been saved. 
 His casting out demons was a part of his work of redemption. But 
 these deliverances of men from external possessions represented 
 deliverance from internal possessions, to which all men are subject. 
 Eor evil spirits still dwell in our impure affections, and possess our 
 souls as truly as demons then possessed the bodies of men. It 
 is said that they brought unto him many that were possessed 
 with devils. The many here mentioned are spiritually the numerous 
 affections of the natural mind or external man, and those who 
 brought them are the affections and perceptions of the spiritual 
 mind or internal man. When the Lord gives us internally to see 
 the real state of the natural mind as it is by nature, and to know 
 him as our Saviour, we may draw near to him with our sufferings 
 and sorrows, with the hope and even the certainty of having them 
 removed. When the possessed ones were brought to him, he cast out 
 the spirits with his word , and healed all that were sick. How does he 
 cast out with his Word the evils in our minds, in which evil spirits 
 dwell? By his Word, which is divine truth, being received by us and 
 loved and obeyed. No word of the Lord can deliver us except by 
 our active co-operation with it in affection and thought, by word and 
 deed. In all who become workers together with him the Lord works 
 effectually in casting out the spirits of evil from our hearts, and healing 
 all the sicknesses of our understandings. 
 
 These last miracles were done when even was come, both to indi- 
 cate an obscure state of the mind, and to mark completion of tlie 
 general state of the regenerate mind, meant by the day in which the 
 several works were performed, of which these were the last. 
 
 17. These last works were performed, that it might be fulfilled which 
 was spoken by Esaias the prophet , saying , Himself took our infirmities , 
 and bare our sicknesses. This important prophecy has been interpreted 
 to mean that Jesus, as our surety and substitute, assumed the guilt 
 of our moral infirmities, and suffered the punishment due to our sins. 
 In the practical exposition which the evangelist gives of this predic- 
 tion no such idea is expressed, or even alluded to. It is a great truth 
 delivered by the prophet, where he says, “The Lord hath laid on him 
 (or, as expressed in the margin, hath made to meet on him) the 
 iniquity of us all” (Isa. liii. 6). But how did our iniquities meet upon 
 him? Not certainly by God imputiug to him the guilt of our sins, 
 and punishing him in our stead, but by his taking upon himself our 
 
Chap. VIXL] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 211 
 
 fallen nature, with all its hereditary evils, or its moral infirmities and 
 sicknesses. 
 
 The Lord took our evils upon him, that he might have in his 
 humanity the common ground of human temptation, and be able, by 
 overcoming those temptations, to subdue the powers of darkness, and 
 glorify his humanity. Thence he is able to succour us in our tempta- 
 tions, and to effect our regeneration. The casting out of devils from 
 the minds and bodies of others was the result of his having first over- 
 come them in their attempts to possess humanity as he had taken it 
 upon himself. The Gospel, therefore, in this case gives an instance of 
 the effect of the Lord’s work of glorification, and of his having him- 
 self taken our infirmities and borne our sicknesses. 
 
 18. Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave com- 
 mandment to depart unto the other side. This commandment indicates 
 a purpose to extend his saving operations to another sphere of the 
 human mind, one which may be understood by the place to which he 
 proposed to repair. The other side of the sea of Galilee was out of 
 Palestine, being on “ the other side J ordan.” In the original settlement 
 of the Israelites two tribes and a half received their inheritance on 
 the farther side of the river. Under this division Canaan represented 
 the internal man, and the land beyond the river the external. The 
 tribes that dwelt in Canaan represented the spiritual principles that 
 reside in the internal man, and those beyond the river represented the 
 natural principles that reside in the external man ; while the tribe of 
 Manasseh, half of which dwelt on either side the river, represented 
 the principle of goodness which unites them. The Lord’s command- 
 ment to depart unto the other side expresses his desire to proceed 
 from the internal to the external of the mind, that he may there 
 manifest the power of his truth to deliver, and the virtue of his love 
 to save, even unto the uttermost. 
 
 19, 20. But this purpose operates as a test and trial in two ways. 
 First, it brings to a decision what affections in the mind are disposed to 
 adhere to and follow the Lord through the self-denying labours of the 
 Christian life — what good affections and thoughts, which his teaching 
 has awakened and his works have strengthened, are ready to leave the 
 things that are behind, and press onward to the things that are be- 
 fore. One comes to the Lord with the noble profession, — Master, I will 
 follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And now the Lord discloses to 
 him the kind of experience that awaits every one who undertakes so 
 serious a duty. The foxes have holes , and the birds of the air have 
 neats ; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. True as 
 
212 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. YIIT. 
 
 this was naturally at the time, not less true will every one find it 
 spiritually who follows the Lord in the regeneration. The natural 
 mind of man, in its yet unregenerate state, is the den of every wild 
 beast, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird. Its affections 
 and thoughts are only evil, and that continually. But not only are 
 evils there by nature, which no one can help, but that which is to be 
 mourned over is, that they are more or less cherished in every heart 
 and mind. Here the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have 
 nests, where they live in security and increase. The foxes are the 
 types of all evil affections, the birds of all false thoughts. And when 
 these are cherished, to the exclusion of good affection and right 
 thoughts, the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. The 
 Lord’s sacred head should be pillowed on every heart — his truth 
 should find a place in our best affections. We lament the state of the 
 world that produced the necessity for the Lord’s declaration, and sym- 
 pathize with the Son of man. Let us look within : and then may we 
 remedy, if we will, the corresponding state in ourselves, and so render 
 our sorrow and sympathy practical and availing. 
 
 But the point of this declaration consists in its being addressed to a 
 would-be-disciple, as a test of his sincerity, whether he was disposed to 
 follow a Master who had nothing in the meantime to promise but 
 hardship and privation. Though this test may no longer exist natu- 
 rally, it still exists spiritually; for the disciple must follow his 
 Lord “ whithersoever he goeth” — through privation and suffering, as 
 well as in doing. 
 
 21, 22. When the Lord had addressed these words to the first who 
 offered to follow him, another of his disciples said unto him, Lord , 
 suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, 
 Follow me ; and let the dead bury their dead. This is one of those 
 passages which Christians intuitively perceive have a deeper sense 
 than that which lies on the surface. This they perceive from the 
 Lord’s answer, rather than from the man’s request. For there seems 
 nothing either extraordinary or unreasonable in the desire which the 
 disciple expressed ; and some objectors have assumed that the 
 request was more humane than the answer. But we are to reflect 
 that the soul and eternity, not the body and the world, were ever in 
 the Lord’s thoughts, and were really the subjects of his discourse on 
 all occasions, the temporal events of which others spoke being made 
 by him images and the vehicles of corresponding spiritual truths. 
 Thus in the Lord’s mind the body was an image of the soul, and 
 natural were images of spiritual death and burial. In the spiritual 
 
Chap. Vili.J 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 213 
 
 sense, a father signifies, in relation to man in his natural state, the 
 principle of self-love, this being the origin of the affections of our 
 unrenewed nature ; and this is the father we are required in the 
 gospel to leave and hate. But when this love dies within us, why 
 should it be wrong to desire to bury it ? One reason is, burial 
 signifies resurrection, or rising again into new life. The disciple’s 
 request to be allowed to bury his father involved the existence of 
 a lingering desire to restore, rather than to reject, this principle of 
 self-love, now dead within him. And this was more especially the 
 case as he desired to “go” and do it, which was spiritually a desire to 
 turn away from the living to the dead. The singular phrase, “ let 
 the dead bury their dead,” is instructive ; for Jesus never spake 
 without a solemn and important meaning. In the work of regenera- 
 tion evil spirits are made the instruments of removing evil. They 
 • excite evil in the human mind, and when their assaults are resisted, 
 and the temptation is overcome, the evil is removed along with those 
 who excited it. Nay, they themselves remove it. The spirits of 
 darkness cling to the evil which they excite in our hearts, and 
 they never leave us till we let the evil go. Then they go with it 
 to their own dark abode, and become the dead that bury the dead. 
 When, therefore, the Lord said, “ Follow me ; and let the dead bury 
 their dead,” he inculcated the Divine lesson, that it is the duty of the 
 disciple to walk onward with Him who is the life, and not turn back 
 to dead principles and works, but leave them to return to the regions 
 of darkness from whence they came. 
 
 23, 24. There are trials before us in the onward path of regenera- 
 tion which require the energies we are often disposed to waste on 
 things and states that are past. The incident we now come to con- 
 sider teaches us this. And when he was entered into a ship , his dis- 
 ciples followed him. A ship signifies the knowledge of goodness and 
 truth : for knowledge is not truth, much less is it in itself goodness, but 
 is only the vessel which contains them, and conveys them to the under- 
 standing, and thence to the will, of the mind. The Lord’s entering 
 into a ship, and his disciples following him, represented his entering 
 into, and his presence in, the knowledge of good and truth which we 
 have derived outwardly from his Word. The sea on which the Lord 
 and his disciples were now embarked was an expansion of the Jordan, 
 through which Israel passed on their way to Canaan, and has a 
 similar signification. In relation to man, both signify the natural 
 mind, or more strictly, perhaps, the natural rational, which is inter- 
 mediate between the spiritual and natural degrees of the mind, as 
 
214 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. YIII. 
 
 Jordan and the sea were between Canaan and the region on the east. 
 Here the disciples experienced tribulation, which is the symbol of 
 temptation. For, behold , there arose a great tempest in the sea. The 
 tempest produced by the stormy wind was a type of the tumult of 
 evil passions excited in the natural mind by influx from the kingdom 
 of darkness. But in the midst of all this agitation and alarm Jesus 
 is asleep, — in a state of tranquil and peaceful repose while the 
 tempest rages. So in the mind of the tempted one there is inward 
 peace while there is outward tribulation ; for the Lord is in the in- 
 most of the soul as its peace and security. We may be unconscious 
 for the moment of the inward secret peace which we possess. These 
 tribulations arise partly from our too great attention to and immersion 
 in outward things, so that the inward principle is laid asleep, and 
 seems as if it were not. A natural state of the mind is also called 
 sleep, compared with a spiritual state, which is called wakefulness. 
 This of course is still more the case when we fall into tribulation, 
 which indeed can only happen when the spiritual principle is less 
 active than the natural. But these tribulations are permitted in order 
 to lead us to a sense of our danger and of our weakness, and to prompt 
 us to flee for succour to Him who only has power to control and sub- 
 due the angry passions of the human heart, and to awaken within us 
 the Divine love and truth that our own carelessness and carnality have 
 cast into a deep sleep. The disciples, when they awoke the Lord, ex- 
 claimed, Lord, save us ; we perish. It is only when we feel ourselves 
 to be perishing sinners that we truly feel the need of a Saviour. It is 
 not that we are without the Saviour’s presence ; but these times of 
 peril awaken up the slumbering consciousness of his indwelling life 
 into activity, and bring the preciousness of his mercy home to our 
 hearts. So is it with us in regard to every object of our love. In 
 ordinary circumstances there may be little sensible emotion in regard 
 to our most loved ones; but bring us into the fear of losing them, and 
 the deepest solicitude is excited for securing what we now doubly feel 
 we so greatly prize and cherish. Yet our fear originates in a want of 
 faith. Every temptation indicates the weakness of our principles, and 
 the use of the trial is to strengthen them. Temptation is an overshadow- 
 ing of our convictions, a deadening of our love. It is the temporary as- 
 cendancy of the natural over the spiritual principles within us. Fear is 
 the oflspring of doubt — the want of perfect confidence in or reliance on 
 the Lord’s providence. Why are ye fearful ? is a question the Saviour 
 asks every trembling heart. Were we in every time of trial able confid- 
 ingly to say, “ The Lord is my strength,” we should be able also to say, 
 
Chap. VIII] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 215 
 
 “ Of whom shall I be afraid ? ” The Lord, who asked the question, gave 
 the answer when he said, 0 ye of little faith. Yet the threatening of the 
 tempest gave distinctness and direction to the faith of the disciples, 
 since it led them to Jesus, to allay the storm which their lack of faith 
 had produced, and which it disclosed. Then the Lord arose , and re- 
 buked the winds and the sea. How sublime is this spectacle of Jesus 
 speaking peace to the raging elements, manifested in the result — and 
 there was a great calm! We should let no occasion pass of recognizing 
 the wonder-working power of the Divine Saviour. And hardly any 
 one more strikingly presents evidences of his superhuman power than 
 the rebuking of the storm, and causing the raging tempest to subside 
 at once into a profound calm. But great as that work undoubtedly 
 was, still greater and infinitely more blessed in its results is the power 
 which the Lord exercises over the spirit of man when tossed upon a 
 sea of spiritual trouble, when the tempest and the whirlwind are such 
 as threaten to engulf the soul in spiritual evils, and finally in hell 
 itself. The rebuking the wind and the calming of the storm in the 
 soul is the result, not only of the Lord’s awaking, but of his arising — 
 that is, his elevation in our hearts and minds, by which he acquires the 
 power to bring the lower thoughts and affections into subordination 
 and submission to himself, and thereby into the tranquillity of spiritual 
 repose. That which our Lord produced was called a great calm, because 
 greatness is predicated of a state of love and goodness, from which all 
 true peace exists. 
 
 27. When the Lord had quelled the tempest, the men marvelled , 
 saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea 
 obey him! And must not spiritual deliverance from such tribulation 
 and peril lead the devout mind to marvel and say, What manner of 
 man is this ? Must he not be a divine man? To be a divine man, his 
 manhood must be divine ; for in no other way can divinity be possessed 
 by a man than by his being divine as man. Every act of his saving 
 mercy and power which we experience should lead us to adore the 
 Lord in his divine humanity; for it is by his humanity being divine, 
 and having been made divine through tribulation, that he is able 
 to enter into our human trials and tribulations, and bring us out 
 of them with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. It is by 
 this also that he can rule the kingdom of darkness, and that he 
 can tranquillize the mind in its greatest temptations. Even the 
 winds and the sea obey him. The thoughts and affections of 
 the mind, although, when excited by the influence of evil spirits, 
 they may be beyond our own control, are completely under the 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 216 
 
 [Ciiap. VIII. 
 
 power of him who rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a 
 great calm. 
 
 28-34. And when he was come to the other side into the country of the 
 Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils , <&c. This is so 
 extraordinary a case of demoniacal possession, and discloses so much 
 the nature of the connection between the spiritual and the natural 
 worlds, that it deserves a few words in its simply historical sense. 
 The spiritual and the natural worlds are as closely connected with 
 each other as the soul and the body. The ordinary connection of 
 men with the inhabitants of the spiritual world, though intimate, is 
 not, however, sensible. The two worlds, like the spiritual and the 
 material parts of man, have nothing in common : they are united by 
 correspondence; and such a union, however close, is not sensible 
 either to men or to spirits. The only circumstance that was peculiar 
 in the possessions mentioned in the Hew Testament was, that the 
 ordinary laws of spiritual intercourse were overborne, and spirits 
 entered not only into the affections of men’s minds, but into the 
 sensories and organs of their bodies. This arose from the prevalence 
 of evil in the world, and the grossly sensual state into which men had 
 fallen, which enabled wicked and sensual spirits to descend into the 
 very ultimates of human nature. Such was evidently the case in the 
 possession here recorded. The men did not speak as free agents 
 under the influence of the evil spirits, but the evil spirits spoke 
 through the men as passive instruments, showing that they had 
 possession of their physical organs, and used them at their pleasure. 
 But this singular narrative show's that spirits were not only able to 
 possess human beings, but the inferior creatures. Animals as well as 
 men live by virtue of their connection with the spiritual world; for 
 the souls of beasts are spiritual, though not immortal, and they are 
 capable, like men, of being the subjects of an extraordinary as well as 
 of an ordinary influx from the spiritual world, or through it from the 
 Divine and only Fountain of life. Animals and the animal nature 
 of man are, by the ordinary laws, governed by a common or general 
 influx from the spiritual world. Gentle and clean animals, like 
 regenerate men, receive their life through heaven, while ferocious 
 and unclean animals, like wicked men, receive their life through hell. 
 In the present instance it is evident that the swine became the 
 subjects of an extraordinary spiritual influx, the devils being per- 
 mitted to possess them and use them as the involuntary instruments 
 of their will. 
 
 It is remarkable that these evil spirits knew and acknowledged 
 
Chap. VIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 217 
 
 Jesus to be the Son of God and the Redeemer, at a time when even 
 his disciples had but an obscure perception of his true character, and 
 of his object in becoming incarnate. This is not surprising. The 
 nature and purpose of the Incarnation were, at that particular time, 
 better known in the spiritual than in the natural world. The Lord’s 
 redeeming work had more immediate relation to the spiritual than 
 to the natural world. Redemption consisted in the subjugation of 
 hell, and in the performance of a judgment in the world of spirits, or 
 intermediate state, on those who had lived in the world from the 
 time of the Noetic dispensation, as well as in the establishment of a 
 new church on earth. Subjugation and judgment in the spiritual 
 world were even then in progress ; and therefore spirits knew more 
 of the Lord and of his work than men upon earth as yet knew. 
 The language of these spirits bespeaks some knowledge and dread of 
 the approaching day of decision. Judgment is effected by the Lord’s 
 more immediate presence, or by an extraordinary influx of his divine 
 truth, which lays open the interior states of those who are subjected to 
 it, and which, by divesting them, or rather by inducing them to divest 
 themselves, of everything that is opposite or extraneous to their true 
 character, consigns them to their final and everlasting abode. To the 
 evil this is attendant with torment; not because it is the nature of 
 the Lord’s truth, or the will of the Lord himself, to cause pain or 
 misery even to the worst of devils, but because their corrupt and 
 perverted state is in direct opposition to the purity and order of his 
 truth, which acts upon their deranged spiritual organism as light does 
 upon a diseased eye. Such was the torment which these demons 
 experienced from the presence and words of Jesus. This teaches us 
 the important truth, that those only whose state of life is in harmony 
 with the Divine life, which is pure love, can enjoy happiness in his 
 presence, and that to those whose ruling love is opposite to his, the 
 Lord’s presence can only be productive of torment. 
 
 We now come to consider this miracle according to its spiritual 
 
 . 
 
 meaning. 
 
 28. And when he was come to the other side into the country of the 
 Gergesenes , there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the 
 tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. In this 
 simple relation we have a true but awful picture of the state of man 
 as to his natural mind, signified by Gergesenes, at the time our Lord 
 came into the world, and at the time of his first coming to every man 
 as his Redeemer and Saviour. The two possessed with devils are the 
 will and the understanding of the natural mind, as, in every unre- 
 
218 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. YIII. 
 
 generate man, they are possessed and ruled by evils, and by the false 
 persuasions connected with them. Although at this day evil spirits 
 do not possess the bodies of men, they possess their minds; and in 
 this way they may possess and rule men as completely as they did at 
 the time of the Lord’s incarnation. This kind of possession makes 
 men even more culpable than the demoniacs of old. The possessed 
 with devils, like lunatics, ceased for the time to be responsible beings ; 
 but those who give their minds to demons, w’hile they retain their 
 liberty and reason, are responsible for their actions. According to 
 the ordinary law, spirits dwell in the affections of men. They are 
 not allowed to enter directly into men’s thoughts, and can only influ- 
 ence their thoughts through their affections ; so that every man is left 
 free to think, and therefore to decide and choose between good and 
 evil. Although less obvious, possessions at this day are not less real 
 or deplorable than they were of old. Every evil man is possessed 
 with devils; nay, every evil passion in every man is a body which 
 some wicked spirit inhabits, and every depraved appetite is a tomb 
 in which some unclean spirit dwells. Every evil man inwardly 
 cherishes hatred and breathes destruction against all who are not his 
 slaves; and is exceeding fierce, so that no man may safely pass by the 
 way, or cross the path of his interest or ambition. But in the 
 spiritual sense, “ man ” is the expression of what is truly human, 
 which is the image of God in^man ; and the fierce hatred against men 
 by these dwellers in the tombs is expressive of the direful hatred 
 that is in all evil against what is truly human, or what is good and 
 true, whether in themselves or in others. This hatred against men 
 must have been still more intense against Jesus, as Man in the highest 
 and holiest sense. But he came to moderate the fierce hatred of evil 
 spirits against mankind, or at least to deprive them of the power to 
 possess and destroy them. His great and beneficent power was 
 exemplified on the present occasion. The men, under the control of 
 the devils who possessed them, came out of the tombs when Jesus 
 approached them, and, according to Mark v. 6, ran and worshipped him. 
 This abject submission of the demons to the power of Jesus exem- 
 plifies the complete subjugation of the powers of darkness by the Lord 
 as man’s Redeemer. Redemption itself, as the great work of the 
 Lord in the flesh, is well represented in this case. The Lord 
 redeemed mankind by delivering them from the overwhelming power 
 of hell, and restoring them to a state of spiritual freedom. Such was 
 then the ascendancy of the power of hell over the power of heaven, 
 that men were in a state of bondage, which deprived them of 
 
Ciiap. YI1I.J 
 
 ST. MATTHEW 
 
 219 
 
 spiritual liberty. They had, like the demoniacs, become to some 
 extent the involuntary subjects of demoniacal power. It was not to 
 cast off all communication between men and evil spirits that the 
 Lord entered into conflict with the powers of darkness, but only to 
 remove their ascendancy over mankind, which deprived them of their 
 freewill, and to restore the equilibrium between heaven and hell, on 
 which the freedom of the human will depends. 
 
 29. When Jesus came near these demoniacs, behold , they cried out , 
 saying , What have we to do with thee , J esus, thou Son of God ? art thou 
 come hither to torment us before the time ? This cry, though uttered 
 by the men, was really that of the devils who possessed them. But 
 the words are attributed to the possessed, to describe spiritually the 
 exquisite torment experienced by those who are being regenerated, 
 when the Divine and the diabolic power come into actual conflict 
 within them. Evil spirits suffer torment on such occasions, but their 
 torment is communicated to those in whose evils they dwell, and 
 which they defend with all their power. The kind of temptation is 
 also indicated by the names of those engaged in it. The demoniacs 
 address the Lord as “ Jesus, thou Son of God.” Both these divine 
 names are expressive, not only of the Lord in his humanity, by which 
 he is our Saviour, but specifically of the Lord in respect to his 
 essential attribute of goodness, as the Son of Man is expressive of the 
 Lord, not only as the Word, but in respect to his essential attribute 
 of truth. The principle of evil, and the class of infernal spirits that 
 are directly opposed to the Lord’s goodness, are also expressed in the 
 *Word by the devil, the name by which the evil spirits who possessed 
 the men are designated; while false principles, and spirits that are 
 directly opposed to the Lord’s truth, are named Satan. Temptation 
 conflicts between good and evil are attended with much greater tor- 
 ment than those between truth and falsity; as all mental trials which 
 have relation to love are more afflictive than those which have rela- 
 tion to faith : for truth and faith are means, and belong to the under- 
 standing, but goodness and love are ends, and belong to the will. In 
 addressing Jesus the demoniacs say, “art thou come hither to torment 
 us before the time 1 ?” Time signifies state; and the state here alluded 
 to, as the anticipated time of torment, is the climax of temptation, 
 when suffering is so direful that it induces something of despair as to 
 the result. It was when looking to the extremity of his temptation, 
 in the passion of the cross, that Jesus prayed that the cup might 
 pass from him, and that, when the hour of his conflict came, he 
 uttered the despairing cry, “ My God, my God, why hast thou for- 
 
220 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. YIIJ. 
 
 saken me!” The cry of the demoniacs was of the same character, 
 though far inferior in degree, to that of the Lord himself. To con- 
 sider the subject more precisely. “ Before,” in regard to time, means 
 principal in regard to state. Torment before the time signifies, there- 
 fore, suffering arising from temptation as it acts upon the principal or 
 ruling affections of the mind, and not on those of an inferior degree ; 
 and the more interior temptation is, the more exquisite is the torment 
 with which it is attended. 
 
 30. And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine 
 feeding. As, in the spiritual sense, the relation has reference to one 
 person, and to every person in a particular stage of the regenerate 
 life, the “ men ” represent the rational, and the “ swine ” the sensual 
 part or principle of man’s nature. The sensual part of man’s nature 
 being the lowest and grossest, it is “ a good way off” from the rational, 
 which, though not a spiritual, is an interior natural principle. The 
 sensual affections and appetites, with all the impressions and ideas 
 that have been acquired through the medium of the senses, which 
 form the sensual principle, are “ many,” and form a “ herd,” being 
 drawn and held together by a common bond that is rather animal 
 than human. But the swine were feeding at the time the devils 
 entreated to be sent away, or suffered to go into them ; for the state 
 here described is one in which man is as yet living in the indulgence 
 of his sensual appetites. W§ cannot but call to mind in this connec- 
 tion that beautifully expressive description of the sinner’s descent 
 into the lowest state of spiritual degradation, in the prodigal’s being 
 reduced to the last degree of destitution, when he hired himself to a 
 citizen of the far country in which he had wasted his substance with 
 riotous living, and who sent him into his fields to feed swine. It was 
 here, however, that the prodigal came to himself, and resolved to 
 return as a penitent to his father. It is here, too, in the spiritual 
 sense of the present narrative, that the men’s deliverance from 
 demoniacal possession was effected, the swine serving as the channels, 
 so to speak, through which the devils were sent to their own con- 
 genial abodes. 
 
 31, 32. So the devils besought him , saying , If thou cast us out , suffer 
 us to go away into the herd of swine. And he said unto them , Go. 
 And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine. When 
 evil spirits are expelled from the inner or rational part of the mind, 
 they still seek and find a refuge in the lower or sensual part. Their 
 own desire, and the divine permission, though diametrically opposite 
 in end and purpose, nevertheless work together to produce the same 
 
Chap. YIIL] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 231 
 
 beneficent result. The spirits of darkness can only operate upon man 
 by Divine permission. But we must remember that, in the government 
 of the Divine Providence, the permission of evil is regulated by this 
 principle, that the Lord only permits a less evil to prevent a greater, 
 and, as far as possible, to bring ultimately some good out of yie evil 
 permitted. Evil spirits are allowed to enter into men’s evil affections, 
 not only because man in his present state could not live and act as a 
 free agent without connection with the spirits of hell as well as with 
 the angels of heaven, but because evil spirits excite men’s evils, so as 
 to bring them to his knowledge, as a necessary means of his being 
 induced and led to remove them, or rather to consent to their removal. 
 When we consider that evil spirits are permitted to enter into man’s 
 evils that they may excite them, and so be made the negative instru- 
 ments of removing them, we can see the divine wisdom and goodness 
 of the Lord in suffering the devils to go away into the herd of swine 
 when cast out from the men they had so completely possessed. Re- 
 generation, too, proceeds from higher to lower. The interior of the 
 mind is first regenerated, and the exterior afterwards and through 
 it. The lower evils are therefore excited last; and when these are 
 removed regeneration is completed. With this purpose and order of 
 the Lord’s saving operation the very inclinations and purposes of the 
 spirits of darkness are made to conspire, to work out the final cause of 
 temptation. The tenacity with which eyil spirits cling to the lusts and 
 phantasies of the human mind is such, that they never relinquish their 
 hold, and can only be cast out by the evil itself, in which they dwell, 
 being renounced and removed. Thus are the evils of the human heart 
 and mind removed by the evil spirits who dwelt within them, and carried 
 away to the kingdom of darkness, to which they belong. This king- 
 dom is meant by the sea, in the waters of which the swine perished. 
 The whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the 
 sea, to express the downward inclination of evil and evil spirits, and 
 the avidity with which they plunge into the lowest depths of iniquity, 
 and, as a consequence, into the abyss where all evil has its ultimate 
 and endless abode. Those who live and die in a state of impeni- 
 tence are dragged, with their cherished evils, down into the regions 
 of eternal woe. The penitent have a far different end. Re- 
 pentance and amendment separate their evils and evil spirits from 
 them, so that what is intended and expected to be their destruc- 
 tion proves their salvation; for the devils carry away their evils, 
 while they themselves, delivered by the Lord’s power, are restored 
 to their right mind, and after having witnessed the Lord’s mercy 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 222 
 
 [Chap. YIII. 
 
 and goodness here, enter into his kingdom of peace and blessedness 
 hereafter. 
 
 33. When the herd of swine had rushed into the sea, and perished 
 in the waters, they that kept them fled , and went their ways into the 
 city, agid told every thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the 
 devils. It is not said of these, as it is of the prodigal, that they fed 
 the swine, but that they kept them. The swine-herds, too, although 
 terror-stricken at the catastrophe, were awed into wonder by the 
 miracle. They fled from the scene of the disaster •, but they entered 
 the city in a calmer mood, and were not so entirely occupied witli 
 their own loss as to forget to relate what had befallen to the possessed 
 of the devils. Spiritually understood, the possessors and the keepers 
 of these unclean animals are related to each other as affection and 
 thought. It is the affections that possess, and the thoughts that 
 keep watch over the mind’s ‘possessions, whatever they may be. 
 When man is merely sensual, his affections are lusts, and his thoughts 
 are devices to secure the means of their gratification. This is not 
 exactly the state described in the present narrative. It represents 
 man as alive, indeed, to sensual gratification, but not dead to a sense 
 of higher things. It describes the state of one whose thoughts have 
 been directed to the Lord as the Redeemer, come to destroy the 
 works of the devil by the subjugation of hell, not only as it is in 
 itself, but as it is in man, thereby restoring the rational mind to a 
 sound state. The conveyance of this to the affections is meant by 
 the keepers relating everything, and that which had befallen to the 
 possessed of the devils, to those in the city. 
 
 34. On hearing the tidings, behold, the whole city came out to meet 
 J esus : and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart 
 out of their coasts. The citizens, like their informants, seem to have 
 regarded Jesus with mingled feelings of fear and wonder. Although 
 they desired him to depart from their coasts, they did not offer to employ 
 force, but used entreaty. They quailed before one who had given 
 them so severe a proof of his power ; but there was no manifestation 
 of rage or enmity. The Lord also complied with their petition, and 
 departed. Personally, they represent those who see in the Lord a 
 Being of power rather than of goodness, and who worship him from 
 fear, rather than from love, and are more distressed than comforted 
 by the idea of his near presence. This is characteristic of those who 
 are in an external state in regard to religion. They Sbe in God, even 
 as revealed in the Word, an angry and vindictive Being, and tremble 
 at his presence, believing that no man can see him and live. In a 
 
Chap. IX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 223 
 
 more particular sense, the circumstances describe a state in which the 
 whole affections, suddenly brought under a powerful Divine influence, 
 are moved to separate themselves from the dogmas of their sensuous 
 faith to meet the Lord at his coming. Yet this very state, which 
 brings man’s evils more vividly to his mind, makes him unable to 
 bear the nearer presence of the Lord, or makes the clear light of 
 truth terrible to him. The case and the language of these Gentiles 
 may be compared with those of the Gentile woman whose son died 
 while she nourished Elijah, and who said unto him, “ What have I to 
 do with thee, O thou man of God 1 Art thou come unto me to call my 
 sin to remembrance, and to slay. my son” (1 Ki. xvii. 18). 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1. When Jesus, in compliance with the Gergesenes, departed out 
 of their coasts, he entered into a ship, and passed over , and came into 
 his own city. Capernaum is now called the Lord’s own city, and was 
 during his public ministry what Xazareth had been during his private 
 life. As a city signifies doctrine, the Lord’s own city is the doctrine 
 which relates personally and immediately to him, and which teaches 
 that he is God manifest, and that in his Divine humanity he is the 
 Redeemer and Saviour of men. This heavenly doctrine in us is the 
 Lord’s own city of habitation, from which he goes forth to carry 
 his saving virtue into every faculty and affection of the mind, 
 and to which he returns with renewed strength, to proceed again 
 and again on his mission of salvation. The Lord can only dwell with 
 man in that which is his own. Divine good can only dwell in divine 
 truth; genuine good must have genuine doctrine for its place of abode. 
 When the Lord’s power brings deliverance to the good, and inspires 
 terror into the evil of the external man, he returns into the internal, 
 where there are purer affections and truer thoughts, that can bear his 
 presence, and can recognize him as a benefactor. 
 
 2. When he had entered into his own city, they brought to him a 
 man sick of the palsy. This disease represented, as we have seen 
 (viii. 6), the state of one who has the will but not the power to do good, 
 or in whose external there is such a want of conformity and corre- 
 spondence with the internal as to prevent him from manifesting in 
 and by it the thoughts and intentions of the heart. This man was 
 lying on a bed. A bed signifies the particular religious doctrine or 
 persuasion in which a man confides, and in which he seeks rest for 
 
224 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. IX. 
 
 his weary soul. So the Psalmist exhorts, “ Commune with your 
 own heart upon your bed, and be still ” (Ps. iv. 4) ; and declares for 
 himself, “ My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness ; and 
 my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips : when I remember thee 
 upon my bed, and meditate upon thee in the night-watches ” (Ps. 
 lxiii. 5, 6). The wicked, on the contrary, “ deviseth mischief upon his 
 bed ” (Ps. xxxvi. 4). And so the Lord, to teach us that it is not any 
 one’s religious doctrine or persuasion that saves him, tells us that in 
 the last days of the church “ there shall be two men in one bed ; the 
 one shall be taken, and the other shall be left” (Luke xvii. 34). Two 
 may be in one doctrine, and while to one it may be a living faith, 
 to the other it may be lifeless persuasion. The sick of the palsy 
 was brought on his .bed of languishing to Jesus by his friends. 
 The best affections of our hearts prompt us to come, and the best 
 thoughts of our understandings bring us to Jesus, for the removal of 
 our spiritual maladies and our restoration to health. And Jesus , 
 seeing their faith (the faith no doubt both of the paralytic and his 
 friends), said unto the sick of the palsy , Son, be of good cheer : thy sins be 
 forgiven thee. The man sought health for his body, and the Lord gave 
 him salvation for his soul. This, however, was but preparatory to 
 the restoration of his body also. Prom this we may learn that 
 there is a connection between sin and disease. We must be careful 
 rightly to understand this doctrine. We must not, like the Jews at 
 the time of our Lord’s incarnation, suppose that every man’s particular 
 maladies are the results of his particular sins. Disease is the general 
 effect of general corruption, but not always the effect of particular sin. 
 The Lord, who sees the connection between causes and effects, knows 
 when a particular natural disease proceeds from a particular spiritual 
 cause; and when this is the case, the removal of the sin is the way 
 to cure the disease. This may have been the case in the present 
 instance. But when we understand the diseases of the body to be 
 types of diseases of the mind, we can see that spiritual disease is 
 invariably the result of spiritual evil. In the spiritual body outward 
 disease is always the effect of inward corruption. Diseased action is 
 the effect of corrupt motive. When these co-exist as cause and effect, 
 the removal of the first is preparatory to the cure of the second. 
 When the Lord, therefore, desired the man to be “of good cheer,” and 
 declared his sins to be forgiven, he uttered words of comfort and 
 assurance to every humble and penitent supplicant for his mercy, that 
 a true and sincere faith is that through which the Lord inspires con- 
 fidence and gives pardon. 
 
Chap. IX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 225 
 
 3, 4. In forgiving the sins of this man, certain of the scribes , knowing 
 that none can forgive sins but God only, said within themselves, This 
 man blasphemeth. The Lord gave these objectors what they ought to 
 have accepted as a proof of his possessing the divinity and power they 
 denied him. Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye 
 evil in your hearts. ? In telling them their unuttered thoughts the 
 Lord gave them a proof of his power to forgive sins, and of being 
 God, who only, according to their own faith, could claim the power 
 of forgiveness. But he condescended to give them another proof, in 
 the cure of the disease with which the man was afflicted. 
 
 5. Before performing this miracle the Lord demanded of the scribes, 
 Whether is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee ; or to say, Arise, 
 andvialk 1 The Lord received no answer, and required none. His 
 question implies that he who, with a word, could instantly restore 
 an impotent man to sound and vigorous health, could cure the 
 maladies of the soul, and restore it to a state of righteousness. It 
 was no doubt equally easy to say the words that Jesus uttered, but 
 he showed that it was equally easy to do the works which his words 
 expressed. But in the spiritual sense the connection of these two 
 acts is still more obvious. The spiritual connection between the for- 
 giveness of the man’s sins and his rising up and walking is so inti- 
 mate, that, although distinct, they are not separate or isolated acts, 
 but form two parts of the same divine work. The forgiveness of sins 
 does not consist in pronouncing them pardoned, but in removing from 
 the heart the inclination to commit them. When the Lord said to 
 the palsied man, “ Thy sins be forgiven thee,” he intimated the removal 
 of the sinful inclination from the heart, and the communication to it 
 of the love of goodness; and when he further said, “Arise, and walk,” 
 he intimated the deliverance of the external life from the effects of 
 inward evil, and the descent into it of the life and activity of the 
 love of goodness, which had been inspired into the inner man. Thus 
 the Lord first brought the internal into a state of order, and then, 
 as a consequence, restored the external to a state of correspondence 
 with it; so that, in the best sense, the man might have a sound mind 
 in a sound body. 
 
 6, 7. The Lord, still addressing the scribes, continues : But that ye 
 may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, 
 (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go 
 unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to his house. We 
 cannot well conceive that such a miracle as this could produce any 
 effect but awe on the minds of impartial spectators. To see a man 
 
 Q 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. IX. 
 
 2ii6 
 
 entirely palsied rise at once from his couch, and stand before them in 
 all the vigour of health, and take up the bed on which, hut a moment 
 before, he lay utterly prostrate, and depart with it to his own house, 
 were surely enough to awe men into holy fear, and cause them to 
 bow down in profound reverence before him who had performed so 
 mighty a work. There is no record to tell that these scribes, though 
 utterly silenced, were at all convinced ; on the contrary, the relation 
 leaves it to be inferred that they continued in the obduracy of sinful 
 and determined unbelief. 
 
 One purpose the Lord had in performing this miracle was, that 
 those who heard him pronounce the man’s sins forgiven might know, 
 by beholding his work, that the Son of man had power on earth to 
 forgive sins. There is a great and consolatory truth involved in this 
 fact. The Lord assumed human nature, and thus became the Son of 
 man, or Divine Truth in its ultimate degree, that he might deliver 
 man from evils which his Divine Truth, such as it was in relation to 
 man on earth, could not reach before the incarnation. Divine Love 
 exercises its saving power by means of Divine Truth; but love has 
 power by truth only so far as it is accommodated to the states of the 
 human mind. The Word, which in the beginning was with God, — 
 Eternal Wisdom, as it dwelt in the bosom of Eternal Love, — was all- 
 sufficient for the spiritual generation of unfallen man; but man’s fall 
 rendered it necessary that the Word should be made flesh, and so 
 come down to his level, and accommodate itself to his altered state of 
 affection and perception. By this means the Son of man had power 
 on earth to forgive or to remove sin. But this language expresses 
 still more. For earth, in the purely spiritual sense, means the earthly 
 or natural mind of man. This region of the mind is the seat of all 
 man’s evils. And as the Lord by incarnation took this earthly mind, 
 or this part of man’s organization, upon himself, he thereby brought 
 his Divine Truth down into it, and so dwelt among us as Man 
 among men. And not less, but even more, is he among us now as 
 the Son of man who has been lifted up, or glorified, that he may draw 
 all men unto him. And this he does by removing from our natural 
 man, or earthly mind, the sins which separate us from him as our 
 God. 
 
 8. But when the multitudes saw it , they marvelled, and glorified God, 
 which had given such power unto m.en. The simple, less spoiled 
 through vain philosophy, and less influenced by intellectual pride, 
 were more ready to draw the proper conclusion which the evidence 
 of their senses justified, and even demanded. They did not, it is true, 
 
Chap. IX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 227 
 
 recognize in Jesus the Supreme Being, clothed, though not entirely 
 concealed, by the frail garment of humanity. They marvelled, or, as 
 some read, were afraid, and glorified God; but they glorified him 
 because he had given such power unto men. They regarded J esus as 
 a man, but as one who had his power to do these wonderful works 
 immediately from God; and were therefore much better than the 
 scribes and Pharisees, who ascribed the Lord’s power, when they could 
 not deny it, not to the Most High, but to Beelzebub. The science, 
 falsely so called, which leads men to ascribe everything to nature, and 
 the pride of intellect, which persuades them that they can see in 
 secondary causes the beginnings of things, blind them to the percep- 
 tion of the truth, which simplicity of mind, though it be that of 
 comparative ignorance, disposes and prepares men to receive and 
 reverence. Singleness of mind can alone see the Divine in the 
 human of the Lord, which is truly and spiritually to glorify God that 
 gives such power unto men. The Divine gives its power to the 
 human, and that power is manifested by it in the salvation of man. 
 The union of the Divine and the human in the person of the Lord is 
 the source of his saving power. 
 
 9. And as Jesus passed forth from thence , he saw a man , named 
 Matthew , sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him , 
 Follow me. And he arose, and followed him. The calling of the twelve 
 apostles, like the birth of the twelve patriarchs, represented the order 
 in which the regenerate acquire the graces of religion. The calling 
 of the first four, as recorded in chap, iv., has already been con- 
 sidered. Peter, we have seen, signifies faith in the understanding, 
 and Andrew, his brother, signifies faith in the will ; James signifies 
 charity or love to the neighbour, and John, his brother, signifies love 
 to the Lord, — but love as a practical principle, such as the Lord 
 describes it when he says, “ He that hath my commandments, and 
 keepeth them, he it is that loveth me” (John xiv. 21). As we 
 shall see, when we come to the enumeration of the apostles on their 
 being sent forth to preach the Gospel, as recorded in chap, x., the 
 apostles form three groups of four members each. Matthew be- 
 longs to the second group. The first four were fishermen, whose 
 worldly occupation corresponded to the spiritual function they were 
 to exercise — that of being fishers of men. Matthew’s occupation at 
 the time of his call was different from that of the four we have named ; 
 but, no doubt, had as close an analogy to the special use he was 
 intended to perform as he himself had to the grace be represented. 
 He was a publican, or collector of the tax which the Homans levied 
 
228 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. IX. 
 
 on the Jews, which was felt as an oppressive burden; and, what 
 rendered it still more obnoxious, was an undeniable badge of their 
 subjection to a foreign yoke. The Roman power represented the 
 natural rational principle, and the taxes which they levied from the 
 Jews symbolized the making of spiritual knowledge subservient to 
 the ends of man’s natural reason. The Lord himself recognized it as 
 a duty to render unto Csesar the things which are Caesar’s ; but he 
 declared it at the same time to be a no less imperative duty to render 
 unto God the things which are God’s. When, to avoid giving offence, 
 Jesus consented to pay the tribute money, he so ordered it that the 
 money should be obtained from the mouth of a fish in the sea, to 
 represent that the natural, but not the spiritual principle, should be 
 subject to the rational — that scientific, but not intellectual truth, 
 should be subservient to its uses. When the Lord called Matthew 
 from the service of Caesar to his own, he did representatively what he 
 does spiritually, when he delivers the spiritual principle in man from 
 the dominion of the rational, and brings it into immediate connection 
 with himself. Matthew was obedient to the call: he rose up, and 
 followed Jesus. To obey the Lord when he calls us is a dutiful act, 
 and shows a desire to do his will and make it our own. There is one 
 act recorded of Matthew which teaches us the secret of the willing- 
 ness of all whom he represented to follow the Lord. “ He rose up,” 
 and followed him. If, when we are called, we raise our affections 
 from worldly to heavenly things, and from temporal to eternal ends, 
 we, too, will, with readiness and cheerfulness, follow the Lord where- 
 ever he is pleased to lead us. 
 
 10. Jesus, after he had called Matthew, entered into his house. Ancl 
 it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans 
 and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. No part 
 of the Lord’s character stands out in more beautiful relief from that 
 of the Pharisees of those and of all other times, than the tender regard 
 he manifested for the despised and rejected among men, and his 
 readiness to mix with them even in their feasts. But this com- 
 passionate tenderness and divine condescension was one of the very 
 things for which the Pharisees accused and contemned him. The 
 merit of the Lord’s condescension consisted, of course, in the beneficent 
 end he had in view; but this the Pharisees were unable to compre- 
 hend. Religion with them was a thing of mere ceremony and 
 ostentation, and in their estimation it would only have been degraded 
 by being brought down to the condition of the poor and miserable. 
 But the religion which the Lord came to establish and to exemplify 
 
Chap. IX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 229 
 
 among men, was one whose very object it was to save the degraded 
 and lost. Jesus, therefore, mingled with men in every condition, and 
 entered into their houses as the means of entering into their hearts. 
 Such was his purpose in coming into the house of Matthew. But to 
 regard this subject spiritually : a house is an emblem of the mind ; 
 and Jesus is spoken of as having sat down there, to express the 
 interior reception, by the obedient mind, of the Lord as the truth and 
 the life. His entertainer sat with him, to indicate community of 
 state, which is necessary to make the Lord truly the guest of the 
 humble but willing mind. The Lord sat at meat in the house ; be- 
 cause meat for the body is typical of food for the mind, especially of the 
 principle of good, which constitutes man’s spiritual meat. And the 
 Lord sitting at meat is expressive of the Lord’s communion through 
 good with man, and with all the affections and thoughts of his mind. 
 The spiritual affections which the Lord introduces into the mind are 
 meant by his disciples, who (Mark ii. 15) entered and sat down in the 
 house with him. But besides these spiritual affections which the 
 Lord introduces, there are other and natural affections which belong 
 to man. These are the “ many publicans and sinners that came and 
 sat down with Jesus and his disciples.” The name sinners is not, we 
 may remark, always used in the New Testament in a moral sense, 
 but frequently indicates no more than that those to whom it was 
 applied were lax in their observance of the numerous ceremonials 
 which the Pharisees had added to the law. The disrepute, too, in 
 which the publicans were held, had no necessary reference to their 
 moral character, but only to their office as tax-gatherers, whom the 
 Jews regarded with extreme abhorrence. Those, therefore, who came 
 and sat down with Jesus and his disciples may have been morally 
 better than the Pharisees who despised them. The publicans repre- 
 sented affections or inclinations of the will — thus the affections and 
 thoughts that belong to 'the natural mind of man. Spiritually, these 
 are evil in every one by inheritance, for in this respect all men are 
 alike; but when the heart and mind are turned heavenward, these 
 are disposed to meet the Lord as an instructor and a Saviour. They 
 come and sit down with Jesus and his disciples; they are inclined to 
 come under his influence and receive his teaching, that they may be 
 brought into conformity with the laws of his divine truth, as the 
 principles of his kingdom, and have the same mind in them which is 
 also in him. 
 
 11. And when the Pharisees saw it , they said unto Ids disciples, Why 
 eateth your Master with publicans and sinners ? The self-righteous 
 
230 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. IX. 
 
 man shuns “ sinners” from contempt; the man of the world for the 
 sake of reputation; the sensual man enters their company for gratifi- 
 cation ; the spiritual man only as a means of doing them good. Our 
 Lord was a perfect pattern of what every minister of the Word, and 
 every Christian in private life should be. The Christian should seek 
 to save souls, by drawing men away from sin, which he can do only 
 by imitating the Lord in hating the sin and loving the sinner. 
 This the self-righteous do not. Why eateth your Master with pub- 
 licans and sinners ? is still the demand of the Pharisee. The Lord 
 himself, as we shall see, answers the question. Here we only attend 
 to the spiritual idea in his eating with them. To eat with any one 
 is to enter into communion with him by the reciprocation of good- 
 ness. This is expressed by the Lord himself where he says, “ If any 
 man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and 
 will sup with him, and he with me” (Rev. iii. 20). The Lord at 
 all times is urgent to enter the hearts, as he was willing to enter the 
 homes, of publicans and sinners, to accept their good and impart his 
 own. Hot that men have any good self-derived; but in whatever 
 mind there is anything good which the Lord has already implanted, 
 he desires to draw it forth, and make it the channel of conveying to 
 the mind good of a still higher and purer kind. There is no salva- 
 tion without reciprocation. If men could be saved by the Lord 
 operating in them and upon them, all would be saved ; for he desires 
 the salvation of all. Man’s co-operation is that which brings him 
 salvation. The Lord is in every man, but every man is not in the 
 Lord. In order to be saved, not only must the Lord dwell in 
 us, but we must dwell in him. This is the reason that, in the days 
 of his flesh, the Lord condescended to eat with publicans and sinners. 
 To the spiritual Pharisee this is still a cause of offence. He denies 
 the necessity for man’s co-operation in the business of salvation, and 
 deems it only consistent with the majesty and omnipotence of God 
 that sinners should be saved by irresistible grace, or left by justice as 
 vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. To all such we may say, Hear 
 what the Lord saith. 
 
 12. But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that he whole 
 need not a physician, but they that are sick. No answer could better 
 meet such an objection. That which the Pharisees blindly considered 
 a reason why Jesus should avoid sinners, was the very reason he had 
 for eating with them. They were sick — he was a physician. They 
 were the objects of whom he was in search, the persons he had come 
 to seek and to save. Do we sufficiently reflect upon this as eminently 
 
Ciiap. IX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 231 
 
 tlie work of the Divine Saviour, and of the Christian’s mission? If 
 we despise, or neglect, or shun our degraded brethren of the human 
 race, do we not practically make the same accusing demand as the 
 Pharisees? "What we ourselves think it a degradation to do, we 
 must think it a degradation for the Lord to have done. If, on the 
 other hand, we have the Lord’s spirit dwelling within us, we will 
 desire and act towards sinners as the Lord himself acted, and as he 
 still acts, towards them. The whole family of fallen man are included 
 in the number of the sick who need a physician. Yet our Lord 
 speaks as if there were some who are not in this condition. As we 
 shall see in explaining the words which follow, the distinction is to 
 be understood, not as applicable to fallen men in any age, but to 
 humanity in its primeval and present state. 
 
 11. The Lord further exhorts the Pharisees, saying, But go ye and 
 lean . what that meaneth , I will have mercy , and not sacrifice : for I 
 am rot come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Naturally 
 understood, sacrifice is worship offered to God, and mercy is good 
 done to man. The Lord wills mercy, and not sacrifice. Divine 
 worslip was instituted not as an end, but as a means. The end of 
 worsKp is to make the worshipper like the Object of his worship— to 
 make him good and just, merciful and forgiving. These are the 
 things that the Lord wills. Not only does he will mercy in preference 
 to sac*ifice, but mercy is the only thing in sacrifice which he either 
 wills cr accepts. He can receive nothing from man. The homage 
 he ask. 1 is only intended as a means for conveying the riches of his 
 grace 1o the mind of the worshipper, and to inspire him with and 
 keep him in the desire of doing mercy to his fellow-creatures. The 
 Lo T d gives a reason for addressing to the Pharisees what had been 
 wrtten in the Word, — for his requiring mercy, and not sacrifice. He 
 cane not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He there- 
 for!, as man, and the pattern for men, did what the Divine will 
 deares. He showed mercy, and freely admitted into his presence, 
 am entered into communion with, sinners who required it. Mercy 
 is ove grieving and forgiving; sacrifice is truth demanding and 
 exating. Had man not fallen, God would not have required mercy. 
 Mai would have been the subject and the object of divine love, and 
 woud have rendered to the Lord the sacrifice of thanksgiving and 
 praie, and spontaneously paid his vows unto the Most High. But 
 mans state is changed, and with it the divine economy in relation to 
 him. The men of the first or celestial church are meant by the 
 who’e, who need not a physician — the righteous, whom the Lord came 
 
232 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. IX 
 
 not to call. The spiritual, who lived after the time of the primeval 
 church, are the sick whom the Lord came to heal, the sinners whom 
 he came to call to repentance, the lost whom he came to save. When 
 the celestial church ended, a spiritual church began. A miraculous 
 change was then effected in the mental condition of men, — the intellect 
 was separated from the will, and conscience was substituted for per- 
 ception. A lower standard of duty was consequently introduced. 
 The Lord does not require from his imperfect creatures all that tin? 
 laws of eternal order required of him in his unfallen state; but h0 
 deals with him in conformity with the merciful accommodation of hjs 
 truth to his fallen condition. That the law teaches more than nun 
 can ever realize, is true; that it demands perfect obedience, or ine 
 death of the sinner, is not. Nor is it a truth that Jesus came to Jive 
 a life of holiness, and to offer himself as a sacrifice for sin, in our 
 stead. Jesus came to fulfil the law, as a means of enabling up to 
 fulfil it; and now, with all the aid that a Saviour perfected through 
 suffering, can give us, what we are required to render, the Lord gives 
 us power to perform. We are required to come up to the standard 
 as it is set up in our conscience, formed by the truths contained ji the 
 divine law, but the Divine mercy and justice require no more. The 
 Lord will have mercy, and not sacrifice : he desires that men mould 
 be not only the objects but the subjects of his mercy, receiviig his 
 mercy into their hearts, and exhibiting it in their lives in deeds of 
 mercy and charity to each other. 
 
 14. After the Lord had thus gently rebuked and instrucbd the 
 Pharisees, Then came to him the disciples of John , saying , Wh^ do we 
 and the Pharisees fast oft , hut thy disciples fast not? John’s dijciyles, 
 strict observers of the ritual law, agreed with the Pharisees on :he 
 subject of fasting, and were scandalized at the idea of Jesus and (ds 
 disciples neglecting to fast. Looking at the subject spiritually, t|is 
 question contains a deeper meaning. John represented the writpn 
 Word, especially as to its literal sense, while the Lord was the Wrd 
 itself, as the Divine Wisdom from which the written Word 
 ceeded, and which it contains. John’s great mission was to prej 
 repentance, as the means of preparing the way of the Lord, 
 followers are therefore disciples of the letter, and as such are 
 paring the way, by self-denial, for the Lord’s entrance into 
 hearts and minds. This work of self-denial is signified in the 
 by fasting ; and with those who are in this preparatory stage o 
 regenerate life, spiritual fasting is not only a necessary, but seem! to 
 them a paramount duty. The Lord’s work, as succeeding tha of 
 
Chap. IX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 233 
 
 John, represented the doing of good rather than the ceasing to do 
 evil, — the supplying of the mind with the principles of goodness and 
 truth, for which fasting from everything evil and false has pre- 
 pared it. 
 
 15. In answer to the disciples of John, Jesus said unto them , Can 
 the children of the hridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is 
 with them ? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken 
 from them, and then shall they fast. The Lord does not say that the 
 children of the hridechamber do not mourn, but that they cannot 
 mourn so long as the bridegroom is with them. He does not there- 
 fore say that his disciples do not fast ; he only says that their time of 
 fasting had not yet come, but that, when it did arrive, it would be 
 more severe than that which John’s disciples practised. The Lord 
 delivered his lesson to John’s disciples in a parable beautifully ex- 
 pressive of the truth he intended to convey to them, and to those 
 whom they represented. The heavenly marriage in the Christian mind, 
 which is the union of goodness and truth, is that which is everywhere 
 meant in the Word by nuptials, in the genuine sense, and as a true 
 internal union. The marriage of the Lord and the church is also 
 included in its signification ; but the church consists of those only in 
 whom the marriage of good and truth exists. The children of the 
 hridechamber are those who are in the affection of goodness and truth, 
 and who receive into these affections the joys and delights of love and 
 truth from the Lord’s presence with them. In the state here spoken 
 of, the Lord is with his disciples as a bridegroom, which indicates a state 
 preparatory to marriage, or to the complete and confirmed union of the 
 principles of goodness and truth. But even in this preparatory state 
 the children of the hridechamber cannot mourn, for the bridegroom 
 is with them. They are in the hridechamber, or in the internal 
 affection of truth, and the bridegroom is with them in that affection 
 as the principle of good. Yet this itself is but a state of preparation. 
 The actual conjunction of goodness and truth cannot be effected in 
 the mind without trial and temptation. The bridegroom in whom 
 they now rejoice must be taken away from them, and then shall they 
 fast in those days. This taking away of the bridegroom, in reference 
 to the Lord’s disciples, literally refers to his being taken away from 
 them by the death of the cross, which blasted all their cherished hopes 
 of his restoring Israel as a temporal kingdom. But every Christian 
 disciple passes through states corresponding to those which the Lord’s 
 first disciples underwent. Between the joyful reception and the 
 happy union of goodness and truth there is an intervening state of 
 
234 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. IX 
 
 trial and sorrow, in which the Lord seems to be taken away, and in 
 which the disciple fasts indeed. This fast is of a different character, 
 and of much greater severity, than that of the disciples of John : it is 
 not a voluntary abstinence from sinful gratifications, but an involun- 
 tary deprivation of the delights of goodness, which the soul has come 
 to esteem as its life. But as the Lord, after his crucifixion, rose in 
 greater glory than that in which he had previously appeared, so is this 
 trial succeeded by a state of higher perfection and greater joy than 
 any which the disciple had previously experienced. 
 
 16, 17. The Lord proceeds by another parable to instruct the disciples 
 of John why his disciples, unlike them and the Pharisees, did not 
 then fast. No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment , 
 for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the 
 rent is made worse. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles : else 
 the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish : but 
 they put nevo wine into new bottles, and both are preserved. The old 
 garment is Judaism, the new piece is Christianity; the old bottles are 
 the rituals of the Jewish church, the new wine is the truth of the 
 Christian dispensation. The entire system of Judaism was alien to 
 the spirit of the Christian religion. The moral law is indeed the 
 same ; but what was peculiar to the J ewish church was incapable of 
 being combined with the principles of Christianity. These parables 
 have, however, reference to the church in our* day as well as to that 
 which existed when they were first uttered. The principles of the 
 new church cannot be engrafted on the doctrines of the old, as they 
 now are. “ The imputation of the former church does not correspond 
 with the new church, not as to the twentieth part.” The name of the 
 Christian doctrines remains, but the reality has ceased to be. But 
 there is a still more practical lesson for us contained in these words of 
 the Lord. It is possible for those who know the true doctrines of the 
 church to fail in the duty which the Lord intended to teach them. 
 The old garment is the righteousness of the old and unregenerate 
 nature — the moral vesture which men put on to cover their spiritual 
 corruption. We cannot become religious by merely inserting a piece 
 of the new into the old, in order to repair this world-made vesture; 
 but we must buy of the Lord new raiment, that the shame of our 
 spiritual nakedness may not appear ; we must put on the garment of 
 praise for the spirit of heaviness, the white robe, which is the 
 righteousness of saints. Nor must we put the new wine of spiritual 
 truth into the old maxims of moral expediency and worldly prudence ; 
 bat we must put our new principles into their only suitable receptacles 
 
Chap. IX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 235 
 
 — honesty, integrity, and sincerity — under the conviction, that only by 
 doing so can we have either true morality or true religion, and that 
 only when both are new can both be preserved. But there is an idea 
 expressed in the Lord’s similitudes that we must attend to. The new 
 piece properly means cloth that has come from the loom, but has not 
 yet passed through the hands of the fuller, and symbolizes a righteous- 
 ness which has been acquired, but is not yet perfected by trial and 
 temptation. It is this kind of righteousness which, when put unto 
 the old garment, takes from it, and makes the rent worse. The other 
 similitude includes the same idea. The danger to old bottles from 
 tilling them with new wine arose from the wine fermenting, and so 
 exerting a pressure on the old skin receptacles which they were 
 unable to bear. Fulling and fermenting signify temptation, by which 
 man is purified and perfected. By these two expressive parables we 
 are instructed that temptation tests the soundness of our principles, 
 and that unless our external is made new, and thus a suitable vesture 
 and receptacle of new internal principles, we cannot stand in the day 
 of trial. 
 
 18. While he spake these things unto them , behold, there came a 
 certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now 
 dead, : but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live. This 
 man is an honourable exception to the general class of Jewish digni- 
 taries. Though not so distinguished for his faith as the Homan cen- 
 turion, he had confidence in the Lord’s power to prevent death, if not 
 to restore life. For although, as appears from Mark vi. 23, the ruler’s 
 daughter was not then actually dead, but was only dying, the case 
 may be regarded as nearly the same. Regarded spiritually, a daughter 
 is a type of an affection for good, as a son is a type of an affection for 
 truth. Thus understood, the dying out of such an affection in the 
 mind, and the apprehension of its total loss, is that which the feeling 
 of this father for the dreaded loss of his daughter is intended to 
 express. But it may be asked, how can a cherished affection die out 
 of the heart? or if it is suffered to die out, how can this be a cause of 
 distress, and how can there be such solicitude for its restoration? In 
 the cases recorded in the Gospel, of disease and death, and of solicitude 
 and prayers to the Lord for their recovery and restoration, two states 
 of mind are represented. Either the mind has become diseased and 
 dead in regard to spiritual things, and has been awakened to a sense 
 of its disordered and lost condition, or it has become the subject of 
 spiritual tribulation, in which state evils and falsities invade the 
 affections and thoughts, and sometimes to such an extent as to cause 
 
236 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. IX. 
 
 everything good and true in the mind to languish or die. These 
 conflicts take place in the natural mind, where evils and falsities 
 reside, and where evil and false spirits excite them into opposition to 
 what is good and true. The faith which, in such states, turns to the 
 Lord as the Saviour, is the faith of the inner man, where the Lord 
 himself dwells in the heavenly goods and truths which he has there 
 implanted. Faith, as a living principle, confides in the Lord’s power, 
 and is that through which his power is manifested. The faith of the 
 ruler enabled him to say to Jesus, “ Come and lay thy hand upon her, 
 and she shall live.” The Lord’s hand is the symbol of the power 
 which resides in his humanity, and when laid upon and received by 
 any one, heals spiritual infirmities and restores spiritual life. 
 
 19. And Jesus arose , and followed him , and so did his disciples. 
 Spiritually, Jesus arising is the elevation of his divine love in the 
 heart and its affections. But when Jesus arose, he and his disciples 
 followed the ruler. Jesus and his disciples are, spiritually, the Lord’s 
 divine love and the truths derived from it. The Lord’s following the 
 ruler signifies his descent, by the influx of his divine love and truth, 
 into the inferior or natural degree of the mind, where the evil which 
 is to be removed resides. 
 
 20, 21. But while Jesus was on his way, before he came to the 
 ruler’s house, Behold , a woman, which was diseased with an issue of 
 blood twelve years , came behind him , and touched the hem of his gar- 
 ment: for she said within herself If I may but touch his garment, I 
 shall be whole. This case is extremely interesting, not so much from 
 the nature of the woman’s disease, as from her confidence that so 
 great was the healing virtue which proceeded from the person of 
 Jesus that she had only to touch the hem of his garment to be made 
 whole. The issue of blood, with which she had so long been afflicted, 
 signifies natural love separate from spiritual love, and a degree of pro- 
 fanation as the result. The spiritual signification of the disease may 
 be known from its nature, considered in the light of the Scriptures. 
 In the Word the blood is called the life or the soul of the flesh, being 
 the vital fluid from which the substance of the body is derived, and 
 by which it is constantly renewed. The blood therefore signifies 
 truth pervaded by the life of love, from which the good that consti- 
 tutes the very spiritual body is derived and constantly renewed. A 
 diseased condition of the blood, or a drain of that stream of life, is 
 symbolical of a deficiency of the love which is the life of truth, and 
 a consequent perversion and dissipation of the truth itself by which 
 the soul lives. The period of twelve years, during which the woman 
 
Chap. IX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 237 
 
 was afflicted, is expressive of a full state in relation to the truths of 
 faith, — in the present instance, a habitual condition of the mind in 
 opposition to the truths of faith. But it may again be naturally 
 asked, how it is that such a condition of mind is consistent with the 
 undoubting faith which this woman displayed? The whole of the 
 cases of disease recorded in the Gospel, as brought to the Lord to 
 cure, are intended to show the deplorable state of human nature, as it 
 is in itself, and more or less in all by practice, and also, and princi- 
 pally, to impress upon us this great truth, that mere human power is 
 utterly unavailing for the removal of diseases of the soul, and that the 
 Lord alone is able to cure them, what is impossible with man being 
 possible with God. All things, it is true, are possible to him that 
 believeth; but the possible with man is from the power of the 
 Lord, acting through his faith, and delivering him from evil, 
 and gifting him with good, according to the measure of his belief. 
 But that which is peculiar in the present case is the manner of the 
 cure. The woman’s disease was cured simply by her touching the 
 hem of the Lord’s garment. Virtue went out of the Lord and restored 
 her to health. As the woman’s disease was the type of a spiritual 
 malady, so was the Lord’s garment, as the means of her cure, repre- 
 sentative of a divine medium of salvation. When the Lord appeared 
 before John the Bevelator, he was clothed with a garment, down to 
 the feet; and when he was transfigured, he appeared in raiment white 
 as light. This garment with which the Lord, as the Word, clothes 
 himself, is its literal sense, and the hem of this garment is the 
 extremity or lowest part of the letter of the Word — its simplest 
 truths of faith and plainest precepts of life. What, then, do we learn 
 from the present beautiful incident? That he who takes hold of the 
 lowest truths of the Word, if his faith in its divinity be sincere, shall, 
 through that holy medium, receive from the Lord, who dwells within 
 it, saving virtue sufficient to restore him to health and bless him with 
 happiness. 
 
 22. After the woman was cured of her disease by touching the 
 hem of his garment, Jesus turned him about. The woman came 
 behind the Lord to touch the hem of his garment. The back signifies 
 the external, and the face the internal. The back also signifies the 
 will, and the face the understanding; because in the head, the lesser 
 brain, which is the organ of the will, is behind, and the larger brain, 
 which is the organ of the understanding, is before. In relation 
 to the Lord, the back and the face signify the Divine will and 
 understanding, which are infinite love and wisdom. The woman’s 
 
238 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. IX. 
 
 coming behind Jesus is spiritually expressive of a deep sense of un- 
 worthiness, and of a feeling that the mind admits of no more than an 
 external and obscure perception of the Lord through his Word. 
 Coming behind the Lord signifies also a desire to come into his 
 presence rather as the object of his love and mercy than of his 
 wisdom and omniscience — of his love, which covers, rather than of his 
 wisdom which discovers our sins. This, however, is a state which is 
 preparatory to another and more perfect one. When the woman had 
 touched the Lord, and virtue had gone out of him to heal her, he 
 turned himself toward her, — she received internally what she had 
 previously received externally : and to the influence of the Lord’s love 
 on her heart was now added the perception of his wisdom in her 
 understanding ; for the Lord not only turned himself to her, but saw 
 her ; and when the Scriptures speak of the Lord’s seeing any one, they 
 spiritually mean that his wisdom or truth enters into the understand- 
 ing, and gives an internal perception of the good which his love had 
 inspired. An interesting instance of this occurs in Revelation (i. 10). 
 John heard a voice behind him, and he turned to see the voice that 
 spake to him ; by which we are instructed .that when the Lord’s 
 love, which flows into the will, is heard or obeyed, it turns the under- 
 standing to the Lord, to receive a perception of his wisdom. The 
 same truth is expressed in the Lord turning to man, or in man 
 turning to him, and in the present case, of Jesus turning himself 
 about and seeing the woman. When the Lord saw her, he said, 
 Daughter , be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. This 
 endearing salutation contains within it the blessed assurance of being 
 born of God. The Lord’s sons and daughters are they who have 
 become his children by regeneration. The reception of his love gives 
 joy of heart and comfort after affliction, and the reception of his truth 
 into the understanding becomes, through faith, the power of saving 
 health. The actual existence of this state is the hour of restoration, 
 and which is that mentioned by the evangelist: And the woman was 
 made whole from that hour. 
 
 23, 24. The history now returns to the ruler’s daughter. We are 
 not to regard the account of the cure of the issue of blood as an 
 interruption to the history of the restoring to life of the ruler’s 
 daughter, or to view it as an incidental and isolated circumstance ; 
 for in the spiritual sense everything is connected and in series. And 
 this connection will be seen in the present instance, if we consider the 
 subject in relation to one mind, of which the woman with the issue is 
 an internal affection, and the ruler’s daughter an external affection. 
 
Chap. IX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 239 
 
 The obstruction to the Divine influx being removed by the cure 
 he had performed on his way to the ruler’s house, the life of his love 
 and truth can now descend into the external, to restore life to the 
 affection of good which is therein. And when Jesus came into the ruler s 
 house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, he said 
 unto them, Give place. The house is a symbol of the mind — in the 
 present case, of the natural mind, to which the affection of good 
 which Jesus had come to restore to life belongs. The minstrels and 
 the people making a noise, whom the Lord saw when he entered the 
 house, and who were the professional mourners, piping their requiem 
 over the dead maiden, and the crowd of professional wailers and 
 others who attended on such occasions, represent the crowd of natural 
 and worldly affections and thoughts that obstruct the operation of the 
 divine life of love and truth in the soul. The Lord’s seeing them 
 denotes the discovery by the mind itself, from the light of divine 
 truth, of the true character of such affections and thoughts, and the 
 necessity of their being removed before his divine life can be received 
 into the good affection thus surrounded and obscured. When the 
 Lord commanded the crowd to give place, he gave as a reason, for the 
 maid is not dead, but sleepeth. We need hardly say that the distinc- 
 tion which the Lord makes between death and sleep is for the sake of 
 a higher than the literal sense. It is evident from what Jesus said to 
 his disciples respecting Lazarus — first intimating that he was asleep, 
 and then telling them plainly that he was dead — that by sleep he 
 meant death. But there are two kinds or degrees of spiritual death, 
 — the extinction of the life of faith and the extinction of the life of 
 love ; or, what is the same, the extinction of the affection of truth in 
 the understanding and the extinction of the affection of good in the 
 will. The first is meant by the sleep of death, the second by death 
 itself. The first is like suspended animation, when, though the lungs 
 no longer move, the heart continues to beat; the second is like the 
 complete cessation of life, when the motion of both these organs has 
 ceased. What, therefore, the Lord calls sleep is a more external and 
 less confirmed state than that which he calls death. He did not 
 therefore mean that the maid was not dead, but that her state repre- 
 sented a spiritual death which has not entirely extinguished the life 
 of love in the soul — that the affection itself of good in the heart is 
 not dead, but asleep. When the Lord had said to the crowd that the 
 maid was not dead, but asleep, they laughed him to scorn — implying 
 that the mere natural and worldly affections and thoughts not only 
 deny, but deride the declarations of divine wisdom, and reject both 
 
240 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. IX. 
 
 tlie idea and the hope of resurrection. For the merely natural affec- 
 tions, while they mourn over the death of better affections in the 
 mind, do.not desire their resuscitation into a newer and higher life. 
 
 25. But when the people were put forth , he went in , and took her by 
 the hand , and the maid arose. The putting forth of the people is the 
 removal of those tumultuous and worldly feelings that indispose the 
 mind for the reception of the peaceful influences of the Lord’s spirit, 
 with its restoring and renewing power. That these merely natural 
 affections and worldly thoughts occupy a lower place in the mind 
 than the affection of spiritual good, represented by the maid, appears 
 from the relation itself; for when the people were put forth, the Lord 
 went in : having removed the crowd from the outer apartment, he 
 went into the inner room where the maiden lay. He then took her 
 by the hand, indicating again the communication from the Lord of 
 new life by the power of his Divine Humanity, in which all saving 
 virtue dwells. And this virtue is communicated through the hand of 
 the maiden, which signifies the ultimate degree of the mind, where its 
 faculties manifest themselves in power. The efficacy of this mode of 
 operation arises from the circumstance that the influx of the Lord’s 
 love and truth from his Humanity is his divine life accommodated 
 or brought down to the lowest degree of the human mind. Life and 
 action were the result of the Lord’s touch. The maid arose. This 
 does not imply merely that the spiritually dead are raised by the 
 Lord to their former life, but to a new and higher one. They arise, 
 as the Lord himself rose, into a degree of perfection and glory far 
 exceeding all they had previously known, or that had entered into 
 their heart to conceive. 
 
 26. And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land. The fame 
 of the Lord’s wonderful work goes abroad into all the land when the 
 whole mind is brought under his influence, and acknowledges his 
 goodness and power in raising up into new and spiritual life the 
 affection of good in the will, and the consequent perception of truth 
 in the understanding, which had, by the prevalence of those evils 
 and errors that belong to the corrupt selfhood, been cast into a dead 
 sleep. Considered in reference to the regenerate, this death, like that 
 of the body, is not to be considered as anything more than an apparent 
 evil ; for it represents, in their case, the putting off of something that 
 is old, preparatory to the putting on of something that is new, — the 
 laying down of their life, that they may take it again ; giving up a 
 lower and viler life for one higher and more glorious. 
 
 27. From the raising of the dead to life, the Lord next proceeds to 
 
Chap. IX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 241 
 
 restore tlie blind to sight. And when Jesus departed thence, two blind 
 men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou son of David, have mercy 
 on us. Mental, or rather spiritual blindness, is that which is spoken 
 of in the Scripture in reference to men as immortal beings. There 
 are, however, several kinds and degrees of spiritual blindness, — as 
 the blindness of ignorance, the blindness of error, and the blindness 
 of falsity. The blindness of ignorance is represented by that with 
 which these two men were afflicted. Simple ignorance is without 
 sin; but in those who have reached mature years, ignorance is never 
 unaccompanied with error, and with evil as a consequence. As there 
 are two distinct objects of knowledge, ignorance is twofold — ignorance 
 of truth and ignorance of good. These were represented by the two 
 blind men. Considered in connection with the previous miracle, the 
 opening of the understanding to the perception of truth, after the 
 awakening of the affection of good in the will, is represented by this 
 opening of the eyes of the blind. This miracle was an exhibition, in 
 a representative form, of one of the great objects for which the Lord 
 came into the world — to give man power to understand spiritual truth. 
 By the prevalence of evil, the human understanding had been closed 
 to the perception of Divine truth, as their hearts had become closed 
 to the reception of his Divine love; and the Lord’s coming was to 
 unseal the eyes as well as to open the hearts of men. Those, mighty 
 works which the Lord performed on the bodies of men were but the 
 outworks and the symbols of still mightier and more beneficent works 
 which he, as the Saviour, performed, and will continue to perform, in 
 the souls of all who come to him. Truth is to the intellect what 
 light is to the eye; and the bestowal of spiritual sight is a blessing as 
 much greater than the giving of natural sight, than eternal life is 
 greater than temporal. 
 
 In the account of this miracle there are some particulars that demand 
 our attention. The blind men follow the Lord, which spiritually means 
 to follow his teaching and example. The perseverance of these men 
 proved the means of their obtaining the object of their prayer, and 
 teaches us the necessity of following on to do the Lord’s will, that we 
 may know of his doctrine, or have a knowledge and perception of his 
 truth. While they followed the Lord, they kept crying, and saying, 
 “ Thou Son of David, have mercy on us.” Crying is expressive of 
 affection, and saying of thought, teaching us that both must be 
 directed to the Lord when we desire his mercy. Their addressing 
 the Lord as the Son of David shows that they acknowledged him as 
 the Messiah; but in the spiritual sense the Son of David signifies the 
 
 R 
 
242 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. IX. 
 
 Lord as Divine Truth ; and the blind appropriately address him by 
 this name, it being their desire to receive from him the power of 
 seeing, that is, of understanding. They crave his mercy, for mercy is 
 love grieving and brought down to the aid of the fallen and helpless. 
 The celestial ask for mercy, the spiritual for grace; thus the prayer 
 for mercy is expressive of a deeper sense of imperfection and a 
 stronger desire for the needed salvation. 
 
 28. And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him. 
 It would appear that the Lord did not comply with the blind men’s 
 petition ; nor does it seem that he even attended to it while he was 
 on the way. Although the Lord generally granted the prayers of the 
 afflicted at once, yet on several occasions he either seemed unwilling 
 to listen to their petitions or delayed compliance with them. We 
 cannot suppose that this arose from any want of compassionate ten- 
 derness towards these suffering and helpless supplicants, much less 
 from anything like disregard to their wants and entreaties. Such 
 cases teach us an important lesson. The Lord’s seeming neglect of 
 our petitions, or his slowness to grant them, does not proceed from his 
 unwillingness to give, but from our unpreparedness to receive. How 
 many of those who follow the Lord, confessing their blindness and 
 praying him in mercy to open their eyes, would be startled by the 
 question, Believe ye that I am able to do this? If they were 
 required to answer it in the presence of him who knows the heart, 
 how few would be able to say, with the blind men, Yea, Lord. The 
 purpose of the Lord’s inquiry is to enable us to know whether we are 
 able, in the sincerity of our hearts, to make this affirmation before 
 him. If we do not receive an answer to our prayer for enlighten- 
 ment— to have our eyes opened to see the wondrous things contained 
 in his Divine law, and to see him as the Divine Lawgiver — it is because 
 we do not truly believe that he is able to do this for us and in us. 
 But it was not till Jesus came into the house, and the blind came 
 to him there, that the question was asked, and was affirmatively 
 answered. The Lord’s comm" into the house with us is his coming 
 into the mind, and specifically into the will, or into the good which 
 has its dwelling there ; and our coming to him is our entering into 
 communion with him through the good in which he is present 
 with us. 
 
 29, 30. Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith 
 be it unto you. And their eyes were opened. The Lord’s touching 
 their eyes signifies his communicating the power of understanding 
 and seeing the truth. If the giving of natural sight opens the gate- 
 
Chap. IX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 243 
 
 way that admits the blessed light of this world, which reveals so 
 many scenes of beauty and sources of instruction and delight, un- 
 known and therefore unappreciated before, how immeasurably greater 
 the beauty, instruction, and delight that are disclosed to us by the 
 opening of the understanding to admit the light of spiritual and 
 eternal truth ! How impressive and even sublime are the words, 
 “ And their eyes were opened ! ” The natural sublimity of the com- 
 mand, “ Let there be light,” has often been dwelt upon. These words 
 express the same spiritual idea, and describe the same spiritual state, 
 as the less striking words in which is described the restoration of 
 sight to the two blind men. When he had opened their eyes, Jesus 
 straitly charged them , saying , See that no man know it. Here, again, 
 the Lord imposes silence on those on whom he had bestowed one of 
 his most precious blessings. We have already (ch. viii. 4) considered 
 the sense and meaning of this often-repeated command. There is, 
 however, we confess, some obscurity in it, or rather in our apprehen- 
 sion of its spiritual meaning. Why the injunction should have been 
 laid upon some, and not upon others — why persons, on whom silence 
 had been solemnly enjoined by one who had conferred on them so 
 great a boon, should, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame 
 in all that country , — and why this should be recorded by the evangelist 
 without any expression of disapproval, are points that do not appear 
 to us perfectly clear. We can well understand how strong the im- 
 pulse to publish the matter must have been in the hearts of those who 
 had received such extraordinary cures, and how it must have con- 
 tributed to the fame of Jesus as a healer in Israel. We can compre- 
 hend also how the experience of his divine mercy, in the cure of our 
 spiritual maladies, should incite us to extend, through our whole 
 hearts and minds, with all their affections and thoughts, the fame of 
 his great goodness. 
 
 32. After the Lord restored the blind to sight, As they went out, 
 behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil. Dumb- 
 ness is usually the result of deafness. In the New Testament cases 
 are mentioned of persons being deprived of the power of speech, appar- 
 ently without their hearing being taken away; and this appears to be 
 one of these. Whether they are found together or separately, there 
 is a distinction between deafness and dumbness, which it is important 
 to attend to as the symbols of spiritual conditions of mind. Deafness 
 closes the channel of influx, dumbness closes the channel of efflux. 
 Receiving and giving are the two great functions of life. One cannot 
 exist in perfection without the other. Dumbness signifies a state of 
 
244 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. IX. 
 
 obstructed efflux, in which the understanding is prevented from going 
 forth in the performance of its use, in glorifying God and imparting of 
 its gifts to men. This dumb man was possessed with a devil, who 
 seems to have been what is called elsewhere a dumb spirit, which is 
 indeed plainly declared in Luke xi. 14, where the same miracle is 
 recorded. This case is appropriately recorded after the case of the 
 blind men. Hor is it without a meaning that the blind men followed 
 Jesus into the house, where they were restored to sight, and that this 
 man was brought to him, and that he cured him as he went out of 
 the house ; for this cure restored that faculty by which man is enabled 
 to give utterance to the thoughts of his heart, and was symbolical of 
 the casting out of the dumb spirit which sometimes possesses us, under 
 the pressure of some severe trial or temptation ; a state described so 
 accurately by the Psalmist : “ I was dumb with silence ; I held my 
 peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred. I was dumb, 
 I opened not my mouth : because thou didst it ” (Ps. xxxix. 2, 9). 
 Zacharias was made dumb because he believed not the words of 
 Gabriel, when the angel promised him a son in his old age, and 
 remained so till the promise had been fulfilled; for how can we 
 praise God, and proclaim the power of his name, when we disbelieve 
 his sacred promises on our behalf? Therefore it was that, in the time 
 of the Lord’s natural presence, faith was so essential a condition of 
 deliverance even from physical ills. How much more so for the cure 
 of spiritual evils ! 
 
 33. But how is spiritual dumbness to be cured? By the Lord 
 casting out the spirit which had produced it. And when the devil was 
 cast out, the dumb spake. But how does the Lord cast him out? His 
 alone is the power to deliver from this and every other spiritual 
 affliction; but our free will and active concurrence are indispensably 
 necessary to bring his power to work effectually for our deliverance. 
 We only require to come with our afflictions to him, having faith in 
 his mercy and omnipotence, and nothing will prevent his casting out 
 the spirit of evil from our hearts. And then shall we experience the 
 benefit of our restoration to a sound condition of mind, as expressed 
 in the present case — the dumb spake. If, with the Psalmist, we 
 pray, “ O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth 
 thy praise ” (Ps. li. 15), our prayer shall be answered, and we shall be 
 enabled to praise the Lord with joyful lips. Like Zacharias, too, 
 when his mouth was opened, and his tongue loosed, we will speak, 
 and praise God. The spirit of unbelief and distrust being cast out, the 
 Holy Spirit will enter into us, and prompt us to show forth the good* 
 
Chap. IX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 245 
 
 ness of the Lord, and to rejoice in the power of blessing and serving 
 him. Another result of such a manifestation of the power of our 
 Saviour is expressed in that which followed the dumb being enabled 
 to speak : and the multitudes marvelled , saying, It was never so seen in 
 Israel . This, spiritually, is expressive of the recognition and acknow- 
 ledgment of the Lord’s wonder-working power by the whole of the 
 affections and thoughts of the natural mind, now brought under the 
 influence of the Divine Love, and gifted with a perception of his wis- 
 dom, as exhibited in the superior faculties of the mind being restored 
 to order. The declaration of the marvelling multitude, that “ it was 
 never so seen in Israel,” teaches also a spiritual lesson. The Lord 
 came to do in his spiritual Israel what had never been done before. 
 He came to open the blind eyes, to unstop the ears of the deaf, and 
 cause the dumb to shout for joy. In his humanity he brought his 
 saving power down to men, and it was to them nearer than, in their 
 fallen and marred condition, it had ever been or could be brought 
 before. And the same may be said now of and from individual 
 experience. Never before could the Lord’s regenerating power be 
 manifested so fully and beneficently as since his incarnation. And 
 never was spiritual truth itself so enlightening as now, when the light 
 of the moon has become as the light of the sun, and the light of the 
 sun has become sevenfold, as the light of seven days. 
 
 34. But there is a dark side to this picture. This ready and hearty 
 acknowledgment of the Lord’s marvellous and benevolent works by 
 the multitude was met by the Pharisees saying, He casteth out devils 
 through the 'prince of the devils. It may not be unj ust to class with this 
 Pharisaical theory of a demoniacal origin of the Lord’s miracles the 
 philosophical one of tracing them to natural causes. The natural man 
 avails himself of any argument to evade their force, and enable him 
 to deny their divinity, and to bring the most marvellous operations 
 of Divine power down to the level of ordinary natural phenomena, that 
 the claim of Jesus to divine, or even to supernatural power, may be 
 rejected, and his religion deprived of its high claims and of its benefi- 
 cent character. While the learned are often, on these high questions, 
 spoiled through vain philosophy, the multitude, who judge of plain 
 facts and simple testimony by common sense, are often right. No 
 answer of the Lord to this accusation is here mentioned; but on 
 another occasion he refuted it by simply saying, “ If Satan cast out 
 Satan, he is divided against himself; how then shall his kingdom 
 stand?” But this objection, as a suggestion from Satan, may enter 
 into our own hearts; for the Pharisees have their representatives 
 
246 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. IX. 
 
 there. And whenever a heavenly influence awakens our good affec- 
 tions to an acknowledgment of the Lord’s power and goodness, an 
 opposite influence from the kingdom of darkness is sure to excite 
 some suggestions against it. 
 
 35. After this Jesus went about all the cities and milages , teaching in 
 their synagogues , and preaching the gospel of the kingdom , and healing 
 every sickness and every disease among the people. We cannot realize 
 an idea of this simple fact without a deep sense of our Saviour’s love 
 for his creatures, which prompted him to come to seek and to save 
 that which was lost. The Divine Author of their existence himself 
 labouring to turn them from sin unto righteousness, and healing every 
 malady to which their frail bodies had become subject, as a symbol 
 and promise of the spiritual health that he above all things desired to 
 impart to their souls, is truly a matter of wonder and admiration. 
 Spiritually significant and instructive as these circumstances are, they 
 are not on that account less deserving of our devout attention and 
 adoring gratitude as simple historical facts. This reverence for the 
 historical circumstances helps us to enter more profitably into their 
 spiritual meaning, which again sheds its purer light back upon the 
 great facts of the letter. 
 
 The Lord, in this higher sense, is still going into all our towns and 
 villages preaching the gospel. He is still spreading, by his Spirit and 
 through his Word, throughout every receptive mind, the glad tidings 
 of his great salvation. He goes about our cities and villages, when 
 divine truth, proceeding immediately from himself, enters into the 
 truths, both internal and external, which we have acquired from the 
 literal sense of the Word, and built up into systems of doctrine; and 
 he enters into our synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, 
 when his divine truth flows into the truths we have acquired from the 
 Word, and have understood with some degree of spiritual light, 
 and communicates through them a perception of the gospel of the 
 kingdom, which is the good of spiritual and heavenly truth — thus 
 bringing to the mind glad tidings of great joy. When the Lord, as 
 the Saviour, has thus been received into the things that are in some 
 degree of order in the interior of the mind, he can, with his divine 
 truth, flow down into, and bring into order the things that are in 
 disorder in the exterior of the mind — thus healing every 'sickness and 
 every disease among the people, or removing everything evil and 
 false, as the cause of spiritual disease, from the more external and 
 common affections and thoughts meant by the people, especially those 
 of an intellectual kind. 
 
Chap. IX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 247 
 
 36. But wherever the Lord went there was a numerous class of 
 objects to whom his mercy was intensely directed. But when he saw 
 the multitudes , he was moved with compassion on them, because they 
 fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. 
 
 The multitudes are descriptive of man himself as to* his natural 
 state and condition; and more particularly still, they denote the 
 innumerable principles of affection and thought, all confused and 
 unarranged, which occupy his will and understanding. This their 
 unarranged and disordered state is expressed by their “ fainting” — 
 more strictly unloosed — “and scattered abroad.” In the spiritual 
 sense the first has reference more particularly to the affections of the 
 will, and the second to the persuasions thence derived in the imder- 
 standing: thus they imply, that while man remains yet in his 
 natural state, regardless of divine things, and unsolicitous of obtaining 
 conjunction of life with the great Source of life and love of a spiritual 
 and truly human nature, his affections and desires, unloosed from any 
 connection with eternal goodness as their proper object, wander at 
 random, in dissolution and disorder, towards anything, however un- 
 worthy, that offers them gratification, whilst his opinions and thoughts, 
 underived from eternal truth as their proper source, are in like manner 
 scattered abroad, and espouse every idle fallacy that the senses suggest. 
 Still, we are capable of better things. Even in our natural state we 
 are capable of feelings of humanity and some regard for others, the fault 
 being, not that we are wholly insensible to such emotions, but that 
 they are not strong enough to act with sufficient force to counteract 
 the impulses of our selfish propensities, the good dispositions only 
 making themselves attended to when the selfish are for the moment 
 asleep, and in all cases yielding when these require it. It is on this 
 account that we are here compared to sheep; for sheep in the Word 
 properly signify the principle of charity, or love to our neighbour; but 
 when, as here, the sheep are presented as undirected by a shepherd, 
 they signify the good natural affections which, for want of being 
 united with genuine principles of truth, are not yet in connection with 
 their proper centre, and are easily perverted and led astray. But we 
 find, for our consolation, that notwithstanding, in our natural state, 
 we are loosed and scattered abroad, if we are desirous to escape from 
 the defilements of our selfhood, and to become the real subjects of the 
 Lord’s kingdom, his divine compassion, by which such desire is first 
 implanted, immediately becomes operative in our behalf. The proper 
 exciting cause of compassion is wretchedness; and whenever we be- 
 come sensible of our wretched condition, the Divine compassion is 
 
243 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. IX. 
 
 excited, not towards us, but in us. This state is what is here described 
 by its being said that the Lord was moved with compassion : for he 
 who is compassion itself cannot be the subject of emotion. In Scrip- 
 ture divine emotion means human emotion from the Divine. When 
 we become sensible of the divine compassion working in us, then is 
 the state signified by Jesus being moved with pity. 
 
 37. Then, too, we become sensible of the value of heavenly blessed- 
 ness, and affected with the spiritual things in which that blessedness 
 resides, which is implied by the Lord’s saying, The harvest truly is 
 'plenteous. The disciples represent all the truths of the Word taken 
 collectively; and as it is only by means of the truths of his Word 
 that the Lord imparts spiritual instruction to man, therefore it is 
 here stated that the Lord said to his disciples, “ the harvest truly is 
 plenteous,” to denote that it is by means of the truths of the Word 
 that man receives a conviction of the value of heavenly attainments. 
 The harvest also signifies that completion of the regenerate state when 
 a judgment is performed within us, and a separation is finally made 
 between the principles of heavenly life and love and the opposite 
 principles of infernal life and love, and when man becomes fixed in 
 goodness and truth, and is liberated from evil and falsity. To effect 
 this, much labour and combat is requisite. And this labour is to be 
 carried on by means of truths derived from the Word, which are 
 meant by the labourers; and these truths, so long as they are only 
 learnt and stored up in the memory, have not the power to accomplish 
 the work; therefore it is said of this state, that the labourers are few. 
 Truths are said also to be few, and thus inadequate to the work of 
 gathering in the harvest, because as yet the mind in acquiring them 
 has acted too much under the influence of self, and has used them too 
 much in reliance on its own power. 
 
 38. Therefore the Lord says, Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest , 
 that he will send forth labourers into his harvest. We are thus in- 
 structed to turn from ourselves to the Lord, to recognize the harvest 
 as his, and the labourers as his, and to pray him to send them forth. 
 We are thus instructed that the truths of the Word, by which the 
 harvest is to be reaped and the wheat separated from the tares, are 
 from the Lord alone, and are to be acknowledged as his. Only when 
 this is the case are his Spirit and his power in the truths of our faith ; 
 and then only are they sufficient for the important work of gathering 
 in the abundant harvest which his bounty provides. To this end the 
 interiors of the mind must be continually directed to him, and thus 
 kept open to the reception of influences from him. A devout acknow- 
 
Chap. X.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 249 
 
 ledgment must be impressed on the inmost of the soul, that he is the 
 Lord of the harvest, that all the blessedness of heaven is from him, 
 and that the work of separating between good and evil in the human 
 mind, and confirming the one and casting out the other, is his alone. 
 This is the internal prayer of the true disciple — a prayer which the 
 Lord himself inspires and answers. 
 
 If we keep the interiors of our minds continually turned to the 
 Lord, which is to obey the Scripture injunction, to pray without 
 ceasing — always to pray, and not to faint — at the same time learning 
 truths from the Word, and making them our own by loving and 
 obeying them, they will prove efficient labourers in the Lord’s 
 harvest, will root out everything that offends, gather the wheat into 
 his garner, and constitute in us the felicity of his kingdom for ever. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 The last chapter closed with the divine declaration that the harvest 
 is plenteous, but that the labourers are few, and the divine exhorta- 
 tion to the disciples to pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth 
 labourers into his harvest. This chapter begins with Jesus, as the 
 Lord of the harvest and shepherd of the sheep, calling unto him his 
 twelve disciples, to send them on the great mission of gathering souls 
 into his church. 
 
 1. Jesus first called unto him his twelve disciples. The twelve 
 represented all the principles which constitute the church, under- 
 standing the church to be a state of spiritual love and faith, or 
 goodness and truth, in the heart and understanding of man. As 
 these heavenly graces and spiritual principles are derived from the 
 Lord through his revealed Word, the twelve disciples represent also 
 all the goods and truths of the Word, these being the powers by which 
 the Lord works out his saving purposes, whoever be the personal 
 instruments who use them. When the Lord had called his twelve 
 apostles, he gave them power against unclean spirits , to cast them out , 
 and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. In 
 sending his servants forth on this mission of mercy, the Lord gave 
 them power to do what he himself had done. The power which 
 Jesus exerted for the benefit of mankind he derived from the 
 Father — that is, from his own indwelling divinity. The power of 
 healing conferred upon his disciples was entirely different from that 
 power as it existed in the Lord. They wrought their miracles in his 
 
250 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Ciiap. 
 
 name; and in that name, as expressive of the divine humanity of the 
 Saviour, was all the power of which they were but the finite mediums. 
 Still, the result of their labour was the same as if they had possessed 
 that power in their own persons. The reason of this was, they were 
 representative characters. The principles of goodness and truth 
 contained in the Word, which they represented, are truly the Lord’s 
 apostles or ambassadors; and it is only these in the minds of teachers 
 that makes them servants of the Lord. The Lord’s calling his 
 twelve disciples unto him spiritually means, his drawing into a 
 most intimate connection with himself the goods and truths of his 
 Word, and endowing them with new power to evangelize the world 
 and regenerate the human soul. But this subject, and the explana- 
 tions we have offered, cannot be rationally understood without 
 reflecting that this relates to the Lord in his humanity. When the 
 Lord was made flesh, and his humanity was glorified, a more intimate 
 connection was established between himself, as the eternal Word, and 
 the written Word, and a power from him was imparted to its truths 
 which they did not before possess, or could not exert. There was a 
 reason for this. When the Lord was born into the world he passed^ 
 during his sojourn in it, through all the states of human life. 
 Especially did he, as a man, acquire a knowledge of the truths of the 
 Word, and these, in the first instance, as apparent truths. But as ho 
 advanced in glorification, as a mere man advances in regeneration, 
 he elevated, or called unto him, the truths which he had acquired, 
 putting off their appearances successively, until in him they were 
 purely divine. And having ascended through all the degrees of truth, 
 as they are in the Word, he is now enabled to descend through them, 
 thus giving them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out from 
 every human mind into which the truths of his holy Word have been 
 admitted, and to heal therein all manner of sickness, and all manner 
 of disease. This calling of the truths of the Word unto him, and 
 giving them power over evils and falsities, the Lord also does in every 
 one who is regenerated; for the truths acquired from the Word, first 
 laid up in the memory, are gradually called forth by the Lord, and 
 elevated nearer to himself; and as they are elevated, so are they 
 endued with power to make all things new in the mind and life of 
 man. And so is it with the church as a body, which was also repre- 
 sented by the disciples. Her power to correct disorder, and introduce 
 order into the world, is exactly in proportion, not merely to the abstract 
 purity of her principles, but to the actual elevation they have 
 obtained in the hearts and understandings of her members. 
 
Chap. X.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 251 
 
 2-4. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these. Before we pro- 
 ceed to consider the reason for enumerating the apostles by name, we 
 shall offer a few remarks on their general arrangement. We have 
 already observed that the apostles, as enumerated in the Word, form 
 three groups, consisting each of four numbers. This general arrange- 
 ment is common to all the three gospels in which the twelve are 
 named in series. To present this to the eye, we will give the lists 
 placed side by side 
 
 Matthew, x. 2. 
 
 1. Simon and 
 
 2. Andrew, 
 
 3. James and 
 
 4. John, 
 
 5. Philip and 
 
 6. Bartholomew, 
 
 7. Thomas and 
 
 8. Matthew, 
 
 9. James the son of Al- 
 
 phaeus and 
 
 10. Lebbseus, 
 
 11. Simon the Canaanite 
 
 and 
 
 12. Judas Iscariot. 
 
 Mark iii. 16. 
 
 1. Simon and 
 
 2. James and 
 
 3. John and 
 
 4. Andrew and 
 
 5. Philip and 
 
 6. Bartholomew and 
 
 7. Matthew and 
 
 8. Thomas and 
 
 9. James the son of Al- 
 
 phseus and 
 
 10. Thaddaeus and 
 
 11. Simon the Canaanite 
 
 and 
 
 12. Judas Iscariot. 
 
 Luke vi. 14. 
 
 1. Simon and 
 
 2. Andrew, 
 
 3. James and 
 
 4. John, 
 
 5. Philip and 
 
 6. Bartholomew, 
 
 7. Matthew and 
 
 8. Thomas, 
 
 9. James the son of Al- 
 
 phaeus and 
 
 10. Simon Zelotes, 
 
 11. Judas the brother of 
 
 J ames and 
 
 12. Judas Iscariot. 
 
 It will be seen that while the three lists differ from one another in 
 the particular arrangement of the apostles, they all agree in this, that, 
 taken in fours, each corresponding group consists of the same four 
 names, and each group begins with the same name. As in the Word 
 there is nothing accidental, there must be a purpose and a meaning in 
 this general similarity with particular diversity. As the apostles 
 represent all the principles of goodness and truth in the Word, and 
 thence in the church and in the human mind, this trinal arrangement 
 of their names may be considered to represent that trinal order in 
 which, we know, all the goods and truths of the Word exist, which we 
 call celestial, spiritual, and natural. There are other similarities and 
 distinctions that may be seen in these sacred namings of the apostles. 
 There is the general agreement among all the evangelists of placing 
 the name of Simon first, and that of Judas last. There is also the 
 connecting them in pairs, as it will be seen is done in Matthew and 
 Luke, and is according to the order in which the Lord sent them 
 forth, as recorded in Mark vi. 7. Matthew’s connecting them, and the 
 Lord sending them forth, two and two, represented that good and 
 truth are partners, every good having its own truth, and every truth 
 its own good ; and that they ever proceed from the Lord united, how- 
 ever they may be divided in their finite recipients. So naming the 
 
252 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. X. 
 
 twelve disciples is spiritually to express the quality of the principles 
 they represent ; for in ancient times names were generally given, not, 
 as now, to distinguish one person from another, but to express some- 
 thing peculiar to or characteristic of the person named. To trace the 
 connection between Scripture names, where their meaning can be 
 determined, and the spiritual signification of the persons named, 
 would be a most useful study, and would yield most valuable results. 
 This has been done to some extent, in the case of the apostles, by 
 Noble, in the Intellectual Repository for 1839, to which we must be 
 content to refer the reader. 
 
 5 , 6. After naming the apostles, the evangelist says — These twelve 
 Jesus sent forth. In its reference to the regeneration and spiritual 
 progress of man, this circumstance of the calling to him and sending 
 forth his twelve apostles appears to describe that period in man’s 
 regenerative process in which his mind has been already furnished 
 with a sufficient store of the knowledge of goodness and truth, or of 
 the truths of the Word, and these have been united with their proper 
 affections in the internal man, and endued with power by conjunction 
 with the Lord, and thus stand ready to descend into the external 
 man, to bring this into due correspondence with them. The com- 
 mand which the Lord gave the twelve when he sent them forth, 
 expresses the law of order according to which the principles which 
 the apostles represent operate, so as to effect the objects for which 
 they are sent forth. Go not into the way of the Gentiles , and into any 
 city of the Samaritans enter ye not : but go rather to the lost sheep of the 
 house of Israel. If these directions be only looked at externally, they 
 must appear rather singular. The Lord came into the world, among 
 other purposes, expressly to extend to the Gentiles the privilege of 
 admission into his church, which had long been confined to the Jews; 
 and while on earth, Samaritan and Gentile people shared his love, atten- 
 tion, and approbation. Whatever reason the Lord had for this limitation 
 of the sphere of the apostles’ labour, it was only a temporary arrange- 
 ment, and can afford no ground for the charge of partiality, since the 
 full and final command of the Lord was, to go into all the world and 
 preach the gospel to every creature. It is in the spiritual sense, and 
 its individual application, we propose to consider it. In this view, both 
 the apostles, the Gentiles, the Samaritans, and the Israelites, all have 
 reference to certain principles, powers, and faculties existing in our- 
 selves. The apostles, we have seen, are all the principles of truth and 
 goodness operating in our minds from the Divine Word, all the graces 
 of heaven striving for full transmission into, and influence over the 
 
Chap. X.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 253 
 
 whole man. The Gentiles, when mentioned in Scripture in an un- 
 favourable manner, and as in opposition to the Israelites, or Jews, 
 always signify the evils belonging to the natural mind. And as in 
 the Word, when evil is treated of, falsity is usually treated of at the 
 same time, therefore by the Samaritans, who were the descendants of 
 the people whom Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, planted in Samaria 
 when he carried the Ten tribes into captivity, and who mixed with the 
 ration, and adopted a corrupt form of the Jewish religion, are meant 
 all the false sentiments to which the human understanding is naturally 
 prone. But the apostles are commanded not to go into the way of 
 the Gentiles, by which is meant not to turn aside to any false senti- 
 ment, having its origin in evil, and not to enter into any city of the 
 Samaritans, by which is meant not to support any doctrine having its 
 origin in false principles. But why this prohibition, if it is to be 
 understood as relating to heavenly principles ? These, in themselves, 
 can have no tendency to go out of the right course or countenance 
 anything evil or false. But as they are in us frail and fallible creatures 
 they may turn, or rather be turned aside by being perverted, as 
 many truths of Scripture sometimes are, to countenance the sins and 
 practices that are inconsistent with the principles of pure Christianity. 
 In this command we have the momentous direction, that on no account 
 are the gifts of heaven to be defiled and abused. They are to be 
 regarded as sacred in all the variations of our affections and thoughts, 
 and preserved unsullied in all their native purity. On no account 
 are they to be presented so as to seem to favour any evil lust which 
 the heart is prone to, or any false persuasion which the mind is 
 disposed to adopt. Our duty is to “ go not in the way of the 
 Gentiles, and enter not into any city of the Samaritans; but to go 
 rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” By this is meant 
 that the spiritual apostles — the reclaiming principles of goodness 
 and truth present with us from the Word — are to be applied to tho 
 cherishing and purifying of everything in us that partakes of good — 
 of every power and faculty of our constitution into which good can 
 enter. As the Israelites, in a general sense, are all the members of 
 the true church, so, in a particular sense, they are all the principles 
 and faculties in the human mind into which the graces constituent 
 of the church in man can enter. Sheep are constantly mentioned 
 in Scripture as types of the principle of charity, which is the same 
 thing as goodness; for genuine charity is the affection of spiritual 
 love, and it is what a man loves that he denominates good. All the 
 sheep of the house of Israel are all the affections of charity or goodness 
 
254 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. X. 
 
 which have an affinity with the principles constituent of the church 
 in man. But those here mentioned are the lost sheep of the house of 
 Israel ; by which are meant affections of charity as existing in a state 
 not genuine, in consequence of not being in union with genuine truth ; 
 for without the guidance and purifying efficacy of genuine truth, 
 charity is blind natural affection, capable of being easily led astray 
 and drawn into connection even with grievous evils. Truth, in fact, 
 is the keeper of good — the shepherd of the sheep, without whose 
 guardianship they wander from the fold or become scattered abroad. 
 These lost sheep are to be reclaimed by the preaching of the 
 gospel ; our natural charity is to be made spiritual by admitting the 
 influence and operation of the divine emanation of pure goodness and 
 truth constantly proceeding from the Lord, and communicated to our 
 minds through the medium of the instructions of his life-giving 
 Word. 
 
 7. When the apostles were sent forth, the first thing they were to 
 do, as they went, was to preach , saying , The kingdom of heaven is at 
 hand. How momentous and blessed the announcement of the first 
 preaching of the gospel ! And how beautifully and emphatically is 
 here pointed out, spiritually, the first impression and impulse under 
 which man acts in the beginning of his regeneration, and which con- 
 tinues to urge him on through the whole course of his progress in the 
 heavenly life ! The preaching of the apostles denotes the impressions 
 which the truths of the Lord’s Word make upon man’s mind ; it is 
 the perception and dictate, accompanied with an impelling influence, 
 which is felt by every one who is awakened to a sense of the import- 
 ance of eternal things, calling and prompting him to attend to the 
 things that are essential above all others to his real welfare ; it is the 
 truths which he hears, reads, and learns from the Word, accompanied 
 with suitable affection and desire, and filled with an influence from 
 above, continually reminding him that but one thing is needful — to 
 provide for his eternal salvation. Hence the constant theme of this 
 genuine preaching is, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom 
 of heaven is the government of the Lord’s divine truth — that is, of his 
 wisdom united with his love, as it proceeds from heaven into the 
 human mind. This kingdom is pre-eminently heaven itself, where 
 the Lord’s divine love and wisdom ever reign, and when received in 
 heaven by the angels, makes heaven to be really heaven. 
 
 8. But it is not only by proclaiming these good tidings that the 
 spiritual apostles, or the graces of heaven communicated by the Word, 
 are commissioned to benefit us. They are to act as well as to teach; 
 
Chap. X.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 2 jo 
 
 and the beneficent acts which they are empowered and enjoined to 
 perform are expressed by the command, Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, 
 raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. 
 These are the ills from which we are to be delivered by the ministry 
 of the apostles, if we will accept their aid for the purpose ; and 
 whether we are aware of it or not, their assistance herein is of the 
 most indispensable necessity to us all ; for whether w T e are aware of it 
 or not, we are all the subjects of those deplorable miseries. Spiritually, 
 and by birth and inheritance, we are all sick, leprous, and dead ; and 
 being dead, we are animated by a life worse than death : we are pos- 
 sessed and actuated by demons. By these miseries are summarily 
 described the selfish nature of man, or the exact state of the natural 
 mind as it exists by birth. The term here rendered sick is one that 
 properly means weak or infirm. Owing to the corruption which 
 reigns in his natural mind, he is mere weakness and infirmity in 
 regard to all that is good, and has no power to resist evil; but 
 would, if he allowed himself to be led by his natural inclinations and 
 prudence, surrender at the first assault ; and not only so, but would 
 yield himself up a willing slave. Man is in his natural state called a 
 leper, because, owing to the same ingenerate corruption, he is in the 
 continual tendency to pervert and profane the truth : for, as we have 
 seen (viii. 2), the terrible disease called leprosy is representative of the 
 state of profanation. In the same manner, also, man is what the 
 Scriptures call dead; he is void of all spiritual life, being alive only to 
 the objects of sense and nature, but dead to everything of God and 
 heaven. This is the hereditary and natural state of every one. It is 
 being dead in trespasses and sin; for, viewed in itself, the life of the 
 natural man is, in its real quality, a life of mere evil and of false 
 sentiment. What a man loves supremely is his life. The ruling 
 love which constitutes man’s life comes either from heaven or from 
 hell. If his love or life be merely natural, and therefore evil, it con- 
 nects him with the kingdom of darkness, makes him the organ of 
 infernal influence, and he is possessed as to all the active faculties of 
 his mind by “ devils,” or, as the original expresses it, demons, by 
 which are specifically meant those evil spirits who are in a life of faj.se 
 persuasions springing from evil lusts. Such is the picture of all man- 
 kind as they actually are in themselves, as drawn by him who knows 
 the heart, and who has declared that it is naturally deceitful above all 
 things and desperately wicked. But the Lord only portrays this 
 state that we may be delivered from it, and restored to life and 
 health. He sends forth from himself agencies for our deliverance from 
 
2-56 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. X. 
 
 the ills under which we labour, and for our restoration to a state of 
 soundness and true enjoyment. He has given his Word, wherein is 
 laid open the path of salvation. He has endowed us with faculties 
 for receiving its divine truths; and as we yield to his leading, he 
 accompanies those with a living influence from himself. These are 
 the living and active apostles whom he sends forth to purify us from 
 our corruptions, and restore us to the order into and for which we 
 were created. These living agents he empowers and employs to heal 
 the sick, to cleanse the lepers, to raise the dead, to cast out devils. 
 By this means he bestows upon us the power of resisting evil, and of 
 receiving truth without perverting or profaning it ; he raises us from 
 the death of our natural corruptions, and casts out those principles and 
 agents of living death which, by an influx from the lower world, cause 
 us to regard such death as life. 
 
 9. When the Lord commanded his apostles to take neither gold , 
 nor silver , nor brass in their purses , his meaning, in a general sense, 
 is that nothing of their own was to be mixed with what was from 
 him. Gold, silver, and brass are the three kinds or degrees of love 
 and goodness of which man is receptive from the Lord, — gold express- 
 ing the highest degree of pure goodness or love, which is love to the 
 Lord; silver, pure spiritual truth, which in itself is love to the 
 neighbour ; and brass, natural good, which is the good of obedience ; 
 and which may be otherwise expressed as charity, faith, and good 
 works. To have these in our purses is to have and claim these things 
 as our own, and not depend upon the Lord as their Source and Giver. 
 Besides, gold, silver, and brass in purses do not represent the graces 
 of charity, faith, and good works as living and quickening principles, 
 but only as knowledge in the memory, of which faculty a purse, 
 like any other similar receptacle, is the symbol. 
 
 10. Neither were they to have scrip for their journey, neither two 
 coats , neither shoes, nor yet staves. The scrip was a bag for carrying 
 food. They were not only to take with them no money, but no food 
 or extra clothing. Food is the symbol of the good which supports the 
 soul, clothing, of the truth which protects it, and the staff, of the ulti- 
 mate power on which it rests. Here, again, there are three things not 
 to be taken, — food, clothing, a staff; representing things that belong to 
 the will, to the understanding, and to the outward life ; the prohibition 
 implying that nothing that ministers to the life of either must be 
 self-derived, but derived solely from the Lord, whose gifts and graces 
 are to be preserved single, unmixed with anything of our own. 
 In this simple injunction surely all Christians may see there must 
 
Chap. X.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 257 
 
 have been some other than the mere literal meaning, since this law, 
 literally interpreted, is seen to be not now applicable to the preachers 
 of the gospel. Yet how beautifully instructive is it in its spiritual 
 sense, and how true is it in that sense, since nothing is more necessary 
 to the members of the church, and to the minister of the gospel, than 
 simplicity of character and a single eye to the Lord’s glory in all the 
 labours of the Christian life ! The Lord, while he prohibits the dis- 
 ciples from taking their scrip, teaches them to depend on their labour 
 for their daily bread — for the workman is worthy of his meat. In 
 spiritual and heavenly things labour is its own reward. We acquire 
 good by doing good. TJse is the channel through which the Lord 
 supplies us with the bread of life. So the Lord testifies of himself : 
 “ My meat is to do the will of him that sent me.” 
 
 11. While the apostles were enjoined to attend to those rules that 
 were necessary to qualify them for being suitable agents for preach- 
 ing the gospel, they were also required to attend to certain rules in 
 regard to those to whom they were sent. Into whatsoever city or 
 town ye shall enter , inquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye 
 go thence. Cities are constantly mentioned in the Word to signify 
 doctrine, because it is always in some general principles, assumed as 
 positive truths or settled conclusions, which are matters of doctrine, 
 that the mind, and every distinct faculty in it, feels at home. And 
 when, as here, cities and towns (or villages) are mentioned, cities 
 denote what is interior and principal, and villages what is respectively 
 exterior and subordinate. A city symbolizes the mind itself, especially 
 the intellectual faculty, in which all the affections and thoughts, as its 
 living inhabitants, are contained. To this the apostles are to come, 
 and they are to inquire who in it is worthy. Understanding this in 
 relation to the mind itself, we are instructed that in the work of 
 regeneration we are to seek to embody our principles in suitable 
 and worthy forms of doctrine and life. To be more precise, when 
 we seek to bring down the holy truths and goods from the inner 
 into the outer man, we are to examine ourselves to see that they 
 enter into worthy thoughts and affections, which will afford them a 
 habitation suitable to their heavenly character, and a centre from 
 which they can extend their influence and operation in all directions 
 outward. And who are these worthy ones that are thus to be selected 
 from the general mass ? In every mind, as in every land, God has 
 reserved a witness for himself. There is some good ground in 
 every heart. Not, indeed, by birth has man this witness and ground 
 in himself; but it is of providence that every human being shall 
 
 s 
 
258 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. X. 
 
 receive tlie faculty of understanding and loving the good and truth 
 of heaven — a faculty which is formed by the Divine operation upon 
 the soul during the innocence of infancy and youth, and preserved by 
 the Spirit of God in every subsequent period of life. In every faculty 
 and principle of the human mind, both interior and exterior, there 
 is something that is of the Lord. Every part of the human mind, by 
 virtue of creation, is good, however it may have been perverted and 
 misapplied ; every one has a proper use ; and in its use the Lord 
 can be present and his apostles received. That which is worthy in 
 any faculty of the human mind must be the end for which, when 
 man was created, such a faculty was bestowed upon him, — it must be 
 the proper use of the faculty, separate from the abuse of it ; and 
 there can be nothing in the whole man, either in his mind or body, 
 which has not a proper use belonging to it. It is even indubitable 
 that no evil can be committed by man but by the exercise of power 
 entrusted to him for a nobler purpose. It is the perversion of something 
 which by creation is good, and to which a proper use is annexed ; 
 whereas when use is duly regarded, the faculty is restored to order, it is 
 the abode of such heavenly principles as are represented by the apostles, 
 and is made co-operative with them and by them for conducing to man’s 
 eternal benefit. It is in the proper use of the faculty that the apostles 
 are to abide till they go thence. This abiding, or dwelling, has always 
 reference to a state of good, and confirmation in it. To abide till they 
 go thence means that the heavenly principles must continue their 
 presence in every recipient faculty or principle till a state of good is 
 completed and confirmed, and are thence to proceed into use in good 
 deeds. For it is not the purpose of the Lord that good should be 
 confined to one faculty of the mind, or be locked up in the heart, 
 but that it should pervade the mind, and extend itself to the outer- 
 most activities of man’s life. The apostles are to go through the 
 cities of Israel, and everywhere do the will of their divine Master. 
 
 12. The apostles received the command, And when ye come into an 
 house , salute it. As the city has relation to the intellectual part of 
 the mind, the house has more especial relation to the will. The saluta- 
 tion refers, therefore, to the exploration which the sacred principles 
 of goodness and truth are to make in the affections of the will. The 
 salutation which was used, as we learn from Luke, was, “ Peace be to 
 this house.” How heavenly and happy this gospel salutation ! Yes, 
 peace is the wish and aim of the gospel, and such should be the spirit 
 and end of its propagation. The principles of heaven, as they flow 
 into the human mind, bring this heavenly sphere with them. The 
 
Chap. X.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 259 
 
 Lord’s “ doctrine drops as the rain, his speech distills as the dew, 
 as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon 
 the grass.” “The wisdom that cometh from above is peaceful, 
 gentle, meek.” But not only is the message one of peace, but when it 
 gives its peaceful salutation, it desires to receive an answer of peace. 
 “If the house be worthy,” says the Lord to his apostles, “let your 
 peace come upon it.” Its worthiness is expressed in Luke by, “ If the 
 son of peace be there.” It appears from this, that heavenly peace, to 
 be received, must find the son of peace already in the recipient mind. 
 But whence is this pre-existing element ? We have had frequent 
 occasion to remark that the Lord, when he comes to man as his 
 Begenerator, comes to complete a work which he has already begun 
 — to call out those latent affections and perceptions which he has 
 already produced and laid up in the heart and understanding as the 
 germs of the heavenly life. Without these there could be no 
 ground of reception, no sympathetic feeling, no reciprocating thought, 
 no answering voice to the heavenly salutation. The son of peace 
 must already be there, to make the home worthy, before the heavenly 
 messengers can enter and take up their abode. And what is this son 
 of peace but the perception which is the offspring of the peace and 
 innocence of childhood. He that would enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven must become a little child. Regeneration changes the inno- 
 cence and peace of ignorance into the innocence and peace of wisdom. 
 The first peace is that to which the second appeals — is that which 
 must give the welcome, and with which alone it can abide. In the 
 mind without this, there can be no tarrying. 
 
 13. If the house be 'worthy , let your 'peace come upon it. The peace of 
 the apostles coming upon the house which was worthy, wherein was 
 the son of peace, describes the imparting of spiritual peace to the will 
 in which there is reciprocating natural peace ; for the good qualities of 
 the mind before actual regeneration, though in themselves spiritual, are 
 naturally apprehended and loved. They do not constitute the kingdom 
 of heaven, but only bestow the faculty of acquiring it, the stems on 
 which its principles may be grafted. But if the house be not worthy 
 let your peace return to you. A principle of the utmost importance, 
 and a lesson of the greatest moment, are contained in this rather 
 singular injunction. If spiritual principles are allowed to enter into 
 natural principles that are not in harmony or correspondence with 
 them, they become weakened and finally dissipated, since it is a law 
 of influx, that life is modified and even changed by the forms into 
 which it flows. Goodness and truth, as they flow from the internal 
 
260 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. X. 
 
 can only find their proper abode in honesty and decorum in the 
 external. If these are not found, the heavenly principles must return 
 to the internal, till they find suitable receptacles for them in the 
 natural man. For the meaning of the Lord’s words is, not that this 
 return of peace into their own bosom was to be permanent, but only 
 till a worthy house was found for their reception. 
 
 14. A contingency of a more general and of a more serious character, 
 involving a rejection of a more aggravated kind, and demanding a 
 more solemn protest against it, is now spoken of. And whosoever shall 
 not receive you , nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house 
 or city, shake off the dust of your feet. In the instances of unworthy 
 persons already mentioned, there is nothing said of their refusing to 
 receive the apostles into their houses, but only of the unfitness of 
 these holy men being their guests. The Lord now speaks of those 
 who will not receive them, nor even he^r their words. We have seen 
 that the inquiry of the apostles, as to who in a city or house is worthy, 
 is intended to teach us that it is necessary carefully to scrutinize the 
 character of the doctrinal sentiments and moral principles that have 
 entered the external part of our minds from the world, and to do this 
 under the influence of higher principles and the direction of a higher 
 intelligence, before we allow the spiritual to enter into the natural, 
 and “ there abide.” The refusal being in the present case on the part 
 of the householders and citizens, we are to understand not only incon- 
 gruity, but a moral hostility on the part of the external man or natural 
 mind. Such a condition of the whole of the natural mind is not to 
 be supposed ; for only some of the cities and houses visited are assumed 
 to be hostile. It is possible for the natural mind generally to be 
 debased, and yet the voice of the inquiring apostle to be heard asking 
 who in it is worthy; for heaven sometimes speaks through the con- 
 science of the sinner even when he is meditating the darkest crimes. 
 But this is not the state represented here. The apostles are here 
 going not only on a mission of saving mercy, but on a journey of 
 spiritual progression. And it is possible that they may find in their 
 progress not only unworthy but hostile inhabitants among those they 
 seek to benefit. Do not all of us imbibe from the world, and more or 
 less adopt as our own, intellectual doctrines and moral principles that 
 are directly opposed to the truths and goods of religion ? A different 
 duty is imposed on the disciples in regard to these, from that which 
 is laid upon them with respect to the unworthy. They are not simply 
 to let their peace return to them, but they are to shake off the dust of 
 their feet. This, in Mark vi. 11, is commanded to be done for a 
 
Chap. X.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 261 
 
 testimony against them. The literal sense speaks of judgment and 
 retaliation, but the spiritual sense, of the defence and preservation of 
 what is good and true. The apostles were to shake the dust off their 
 feet, to prevent it from adhering to and defiling them. Dust signifies 
 what is in the lowest degree earthly. Since the fall, dust has been 
 the serpent’s meat : the sensual man, and the sensual principle in man, 
 have no higher than earthly aims and satisfactions. The lesson our 
 Lord designed to teach us by his command to the disciples is this, that 
 if we find in our natural will and understanding any sensual inclina- 
 tion or sentiment that is directly opposed to our spiritual principles, 
 we must not allow it to cleave to them, but must shake it off — separate 
 it from all connection with the spiritual principle within — nor allow it 
 to affect our life and practice, which are especially the part of the new 
 man which must be preserved free from all contamination from the 
 world and the flesh. 
 
 15. Speaking of the cities that should refuse to receive the disciples, 
 the Lord says, Verily I say unto you , It shall be more tolerable for the 
 land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment than for that city. 
 Those who sin against the clear light of revelation are more guilty, 
 and will bring upon themselves greater condemnation, than those who 
 sin against the dim light of tradition. But this declaration of our 
 Lord has a more interior meaning. Every one may see that a whole 
 city could not be condemned because they did not receive the disciples, 
 and instantly acknowledge the new doctrine which they preached. 
 By Sodom and Gomorrha are meant those who are in evil of life, but 
 have known nothing of the Lord and of the Word; while by the house 
 or city which would not receive the disciples are meant those who are 
 within the church, but do not live according to the truth. In a more 
 particular application, the Lord’s words relate to the members of his 
 church individually, and to a judgment which takes place within 
 them. Their day of judgment is the time of separation between good 
 and evil in their own minds, with the condemnation and rejection of 
 the evil, and the approval and confirmation of the good. In this 
 judgment the deeper evils must be the subjects of a severer condemna- 
 tion. Those that belong to early life, which may be considered as 
 sins of ignorance, are less grievous than those committed at a more 
 advanced age, when the mind is more enlightened. As it is necessary 
 for us to judge ourselves, that we may not be judged, we must, if we 
 would escape final condemnation, bring our own evils into judgment, 
 and subject them to the condemnation of divine truth. 
 
 16. Behold } I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. The 
 
262 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. X. 
 
 sheep are the principles of charity in the spiritual mind, and the 
 wolves are the lusts of evil in the natural mind. This and the whole 
 history of the opposition and persecution which the disciples were to 
 experience from the world, to which they were sent on a mission of 
 peace, is strikingly true as an outward representation or type of the 
 enmity that exists in our own natural mind against the spiritual. 
 The labour of regeneration consists in bringing the natural mind 
 into obedience to the spiritual. The necessity for this, the way in 
 which it is to be effected, and the conflicts and trials with which it is 
 attended, as described by corresponding circumstances in the expe- 
 rience of the disciples, are most interesting and instructive to those at 
 least who are following the Lord in the regeneration. The spiritual 
 principles which the Lord implants in the inner man are truly like 
 sheep in the midst of wolves, when they first descend into the external, 
 for the purpose of making this an image of itself. It is not, how- 
 ever, until good comes into actual contact with evil, that the malig- 
 nity of the evil, as the opposite and enemy of goodness, is fully 
 exhibited. And as evil works by means of what is false, it is as 
 cunning as it is malignant. That they may be prepared to meet 
 this opposition without being overcome by it, the Lord exhorts 
 them in the memorable words, Be ye therefore wise as serpents , 
 and harmless as doves. How worthy was such an advice of Him 
 who is Wisdom itself and Goodness itself, and in whom, and in 
 all whose works, these attributes are perfectly united. The Chris- 
 tian, whether contending with evil in the world or in himself, is 
 to aim at uniting these two elements of a perfect character. The 
 union of wisdom and simplicity is the surest means of success, as 
 well as of defence, against the evils that assail us in our upward course. 
 But the wisdom of the serpent is, in a more specific sense, that 
 which the children of this world so largely possess, and which makes 
 them wiser in their generation than the children of light. In the 
 Word the serpent is emblematical of the sensual part or principle of 
 man’s nature, — that which is most external, and by which he communi- 
 cates immediately with the world. The serpent is in consequence the 
 emblem of circumspection, which man exercises through the sensual 
 principle of his nature. The sensual principle performs the same office 
 to the mind that the senses do to the body, which act as sentinels to 
 guard the avenues to the seats of life, to warn them against evil, as well 
 as to minister to them for their good. It was through the sensual prin- 
 ciple, meant by the serpent, that man was betrayed to his fall, and it 
 was through this principle also that he was redeemed and provided 
 
Chap. X.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 263 
 
 with the means of restoration. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in 
 the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoso- 
 ever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John iii. 
 14). It was by assuming and glorifying the sensual principle of human 
 nature that the Lord can regenerate man even as to this principle. 
 And it is through this principle, now glorified, that the Lord exercises 
 divine circumspection over the human race, and protects them from the 
 cunning and malice of their spiritual enemies. When, therefore, he 
 exhorted his disciples to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves, he 
 exhorted them to be in this, as in everything else, imitators and images 
 of himself. 
 
 17. The Lord proceeds to show the necessity that would arise for 
 the exercise of this wisdom. Beware of men; for they will deliver you 
 up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues. As 
 the distinguishing faculty of man is reason, natural men specifically 
 signify, in relation to ourselves, natural reason. The disciples are 
 exhorted to beware of men, to teach the Christian disciple that the 
 greatest danger he has to encounter is from the opposition of his own 
 natural reason to the truth of the Word and religion. The subtle 
 reasonings of the natural mind are as the Pharisees and Sadducees, who 
 contrived ingenious devices to entangle in his talk him who was the 
 Word and the Truth itself, and from whose sensual and subtle reasonings 
 the Lord called them a generation of vipers. This reasoning character 
 of the “ men” of whom the disciples were to beware is indicated in 
 the Lord’s words, — “ they will deliver you up to the councils for what 
 are those councils to whom the disciples were to be delivered up, but 
 those reasonings by which the natural-rational man tries to invalidate 
 the truth of the spiritual man, and give a show of judgment and 
 justice to its premeditated condemnation ? As the award of their 
 seemingly impartial and dispassionate but unjust judgments, the dis- 
 ciples were to be scourged in their accusers’ synagogues — indicating 
 that good and truth are often subjected to violence under the influence 
 of superstition or in the name of religion. For the natural man and 
 the natural mind have their religion as well as the spiritual ; and we 
 know, both from history and experience, that conventional religion 
 not unfrequently comes into conflict with that which is universal and 
 essential, and makes men, by no very remote figure, scourge the dis- 
 ciples in their synagogues, — -since all false doctrines of the church and 
 religion, which these synagogues of Satan signify, oppose the divine 
 truths of the Word, which is meant by scourging the disciples. But 
 there is a synagogue in ourselves in which the disciples may be 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. X. 
 
 261 
 
 scourged. Every man has a religious principle of his own, which has 
 its root in his self-love, and is supported, even when not confirmed, by 
 his own self-intelligence ; and his synagogue is that spurious or false 
 conscience in which his religion finds its sanctuary and its worship. 
 Here the truth may be scourged, and is scourged when it is pre- 
 sented. 
 
 1 8. Besides the religious, there is a worldly side of men’s opposition 
 to the truth. After telling the disciples that they would be scourged 
 in the synagogues, the Lord adds , — And ye shall he brought before 
 governors and kings for my sake , for a testimony against them and the 
 Gentiles. When in an orderly state, governors and kings signify 
 governing principles of goodness and truth ; but here they denote evils 
 and falsities opposed to good and truth. The opposition here spoken 
 of is that which evils and falsities, originating in worldly love, offer to 
 the Christian principles that originate in the Lord’s humanity — that is, 
 to the Lord’s government in the heart and mind. The disciples were 
 to be brought before kings and governors, for a witness to them and the 
 Gentiles. The -Jews and the Gentiles were those within and those 
 out of the church, and represented those principles in us that are 
 acquired and those that are natural. The disciples witnessing to them 
 of Jesus, is a communication of the divine truth and its influence to 
 the intellectual and moral principles of the natural man, and is one 
 of the leading uses of the operation of the internal upon the external 
 man. The Lord said of himself, that for this end he came into the 
 world, that he might bear witness unto the truth. And the witness 
 of him is the witness of the truth. But what is the truth that is thus 
 witnessed 1 It is the truth that exposes and condemns evil, and that 
 teaches the good that is to be introduced in its place. The witness of 
 Jesus is the testimony which the Word bears to the Lord in his 
 humanity — the great truth that comprehends all salvation in itself. 
 
 19, 20. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye 
 shall speak : for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall 
 speak. There was, no doubt, with the apostles in their teaching the 
 presence of a divine influence not given to ordinary men; but the pre- 
 sent promise had reference to extraordinary occasions. This was the 
 promise rather of inspiration than enlightenment. And no better 
 idea of the inspiration by which the Word was given can be obtained 
 than the Lord’s words express : it is not ye that speak , but the Spirit oj 
 your Father which speaketh in you. It is somewhat surprising it should 
 be believed that the apostles should be gifted with this plenary inspi- 
 ration when they testified of their Lord before kings and governors, 
 
Chap. X.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 265 
 
 and that they should be left partly, if not wholly, to themselves when 
 writing the sacred truths of the gospel for the use of the church in all 
 future ages of the world. No just idea of the Scriptures as the Word 
 of God can be obtained but by admitting the fact, that the sacred 
 writers wrote not from guidance, but from the Spirit of the Lord. In 
 regard to the spiritual sense of these words ; when divine principles 
 are brought to the bar of human opinion, in the world or in the indi- 
 vidual mind, as the disciples were before kings and governors, it is for 
 the purpose of exhibiting to the understanding the purely spiritual 
 and heavenly — nay, the divine, character of the principles which the 
 Lord has implanted in the inner man, and of causing their power to 
 be felt and their authority to be acknowledged both by the ruling 
 affections and thoughts of the natural mind — the governors and kings — 
 and by the common and subordinate principles, which are the nations 
 over whom the kings bear rule. The injunction to the disciples to 
 take no thought, not to be anxious or solicitous, about what they should 
 speak, implies the absence of man’s own will, and also of his own 
 wisdom, in such a case. For so far as our own will and wisdom enter 
 into the witness we bear to the truth, so far it fails to produce its 
 desired effect — conviction. The Spirit of our Father is the truth that 
 is from love ; and as this is the spirit that is constantly flowing into 
 the heart and mind of every one that will receive it, so should we 
 endeavour to allow it to have free course to run and be glorified, 
 preserving it, as far as our frailty admits, pure and inviolate. Such 
 should be our inward desire. But the very purity and spirituality of 
 the principles of the new life, as they exist in the inner man, must, as 
 a necessary consequence, excite the greater opposition to them in the 
 outer man, when they descend into the natural mind for the purpose 
 of bringing it into order. Therefore the Lord proceeds further to 
 say- 
 
 21. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death , and the 
 father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, 
 and cause them to be put to death. There are here three different kinds 
 of opposition. Brother against brother is falsity against truth, the 
 father against the son is evil against truth, and the children against 
 their parents are falsities against goods. The enmity between these is 
 described as being carried out even to the death of the good and true — 
 that is, to their extinction. In those who are being regenerated this 
 does not involve the idea of actual extinction, but the extreme of con- 
 flict, in which death is the means of life, the passage into the new life, 
 the true resurrection. This enmity of the natural to the spiritual is so 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. X. 
 
 great that the disciples themselves are spoken of as suffering the 
 extreme of human dislike. 
 
 22. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake : but he 
 that endureth to the end shall be saved. This is expressive of a 
 repugnance of the whole natural mind to the principles of heavenly 
 truth and good, or a conflict in which all the selfhood is exercised 
 in opposition to what is the Lord’s in the mind. It is promised, 
 however, that he that endureth to the end shall be saved, which 
 means that those spiritual principles that do not yield in temptation 
 shall become confirmed principles of both the inward and outward life. 
 This is to be saved ; for what is salvation but the Lord’s saving prin- 
 ciples of love and truth wrought into the mind by persevering stead- 
 fastness in faith and obedience against all the allurements and 
 temptations that our own corrupt selfhood can use to draw us away 
 from the path of duty. But, to be able to persevere unto the end, we 
 must have wisdom as well as harmlessness and fortitude. The serpent 
 must direct while the dove must influence. 
 
 23. When they persecute you in this city, fee ye into another. Clowes, 
 on this passage, which he renders, “When they persecute you in this 
 city, flee into the other,” remarks, — “ The internal meaning appears to 
 be this, that when man is opposed in the doctrine of faith, he ought to 
 take refuge in the doctrine of charity; and when he is opposed in the 
 latter, he should take refuge in the former : in other words, when he is 
 opposed in truth, he should flee to good ; and when opposed in good, he 
 should seek refuge in truth. This alternation is of the Divine Provi- 
 dence, and is probably intended for the perfecting of each principle in 
 the regenerate, since without it man might be induced to rest in one 
 principle separate from the other, or to cherish one at the expense of 
 the other ; whereas the end of regeneration is, they should be both 
 distinctly perfected and both distinctly conjoined.” The Lord gives a 
 reason for the disciples fleeing from one city to another, — Verily I say 
 unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son oy 
 man be come. According to the literal sense, this is generally under- 
 stood to mean that before the disciples had been persecuted in every 
 city, the Lord would have come as an avenger in the destruction of 
 Jerusalem. In the internal historical sense it means that the days of 
 persecution and of the Jewish church should be shortened, not as a 
 work of vengeance, but of love; for unless those days should be 
 shortened there should no flesh be saved. No church or religious age 
 is allowed to come naturally to a full end; for if it should, there would 
 be no possibility, because no means, of forming a new one, which must 
 
Chap. X.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 2G7 
 
 be raised np out of the remains of the old. That a remnant may be 
 saved, to become the initiament of a new church, the days of every 
 expiring church must be hastened by the performance of a judgment 
 upon it, signified by the Son of man coming before the disciples had 
 gone over the cities of Israel, before the church had completed its con- 
 summation, by extinguishing every principle of good and truth. In 
 the internal sense, in which it relates to the work of regeneration, it 
 may, when applied to the doctrinals of the church signified by the 
 cities of Israel, denote the consummation and perfecting of those 
 doctrinals ; and in proportion as this is effected the Son of man comes, 
 or, what is the same thing, divine truth is manifested. 
 
 24, 25. The disciple is not above his master , nor the servant above his 
 lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the 
 servant as his lord. This truth was uttered for the immediate purpose 
 of reconciling the disciples to the treatment they were to receive at 
 the hands of those whom they were sent to bless with the tidings of 
 joy and peace, knowing that their Lord and Master had been treated 
 no better than themselves. But the Lord’s declaration is not to be 
 understood as being limited to his immediate disciples, but as appli- 
 cable to those of all times. In a universal sense it signifies that man 
 ought not to make himself equal with the Lord, but that it is sufficient 
 for him that he has everything that he possesses from him, — and thus 
 the disciple is as his master, and the servant as his lord; for the Lord 
 is in him, and enables him to will what is good and think what is true. 
 The call is similar in the particular sense, as relating to any individual 
 man who is led of the Lord ; the external or natural man in such a 
 person is a disciple and servant, and the internal or spiritual man is a 
 master and lord ; and when the external or natural man serves the 
 internal or spiritual by obeying and effecting, then he also is a master 
 and lord, for they act in unity, as it is said of the principal and instru- 
 mental causes that they act as one cause. This particular sense 
 coincides with the universal sense, that when the spiritual and natural 
 act in unity, then the Lord himself acts ; for the spiritual man acts 
 nothing of himself, but when he acts, he acts solely from the Lord ; 
 for so far as the spiritual man or mind is open into heaven, so far he 
 does not act from himself, but from the Lord. And as disciple and 
 master, servant and lord, have reference to good and truth, or will and 
 understanding, we are instructed that as the interior things of the will 
 and understanding suffer from the opposition of the loves of self and 
 the world in the natural mind, so must exterior things suffer also. 
 If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub , how much more 
 
268 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. X. 
 
 shall they call them of his household? The master of the house is the 
 ruling principle of the mind : to call him Beelzebub is to oppose and 
 endeavour to pervert essential principles ; for to call the Lord Beel- 
 zebub was in the highest possible degree to call good evil, and light 
 darkness. And those who thus pervert the primary things of good 
 and truth, much more will they pervert their secondary things, which 
 are them of the household. 
 
 26. Fear them not therefore : for there is nothing covered , that shall 
 not he revealed ; and hid, that shall not he known. The disciple is 
 not to fear his persecutors. This does not exhort them to have con- 
 fidence in themselves, but to have confidence in the Lord. The 
 Christian is like the Israelite, — he is not to fear his enemies, however 
 strong and numerous they may be ; for it is the Lord that fights for 
 him, and delivers him, and gives him the victory. Fear indicates 
 that the disciple is one of little faith. The reason the Lord gives 
 for dismissing fear is, that “ there is nothing covered, that shall not be 
 revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.” This is a universal truth 
 with regard to man — the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed in the 
 eternal world, and all outward disguises shall be stripped off, and every- 
 thing, even the darkest and most hidden thoughts and intentions, 
 come into open day. So, correspondingly, everything covered and 
 hidden shall be brought to light in our own minds; and nothing in 
 the minds of the regenerate shall remain covered or concealed by the 
 fallacies of the senses, or falsities, but everything shall be brought 
 under the influence of the light of truth, and its true value revealed. 
 In a more interior degree the remains of goodness and truth shall be 
 uncovered and brought into manifestation, to the succour of the 
 heavenly principles that act upon the outer mind, in the interiors of 
 which those remains are stored up and concealed till the regeneration 
 brings them forth for use. 
 
 27. The result of thus uncovering what is evil and false on the 
 one hand, and what is good and true on the other, is spoken of. What 
 1 tell you in darkness , that speak ye in light : and what ye hear in the ear, 
 that preach ye upon the housetops. What the Lord speaks to his disciples 
 in darkness is the truth which he reveals interiorly to their under- 
 standings, and what they hear in the ear is the good which they 
 receive interiorly in their wills. What is given in the interior is 
 obscurely seen and indistinctly felt, and only becomes clear and sen- 
 sible when it comes forth into the understanding and will of the 
 rational faculty of the mind. This meaning appears plain from the 
 same words, used on a different occasion and for a different purpose, 
 
Chap. X.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 2G9 
 
 in Luke xii. 3, where we have an additional clause, that serves as a 
 key to the explanation, — “ that which ye have spoken in the ear in 
 closets shall he proclaimed upon the housetops.” The closets are the 
 interiors of the mind, and, relatively to them, the housetops are the 
 exteriors on which there is manifestation. So with regard to light. 
 “ Light does not exist in wisdom itself, but in the thought of the 
 understanding, and thence in speech,” just as heat does not exist in 
 love itself, but from it in the will, and thence in the body. Love and 
 wisdom are the essence of heat and light ; heat and light are things 
 proceeding. The Lord is said to dwell in the thick darkness, not 
 only because he is in his own essential nature incomprehensible, but 
 also because he is so to the mind in its highest habitation. The 
 teachings of the Lord through the inner man come first as whisper- 
 ings in the ear and mutterings in the darkness; and it is not till 
 they descend into the will and thought that they become sonorous 
 and intelligible, perceptible and communicable. In the upper 
 regions of the atmosphere sound is tacit, and light is imper- 
 ceptible; it is when they descend into the lower air that sound 
 becomes audible and light truly visible. The true preacher, like 
 the true disciple, is one who receives from his Master impressions 
 and ideas, faint in their outline, but pregnant with meaning, — souls 
 not yet clothed with bodies, ideas not yet formed into visible 
 images. These he brings down into the region of conscious feeling and 
 distinctive thought, and there gives them intellectual form and moral 
 expression, and, clothing them in intelligible language, makes them 
 perceptible to others. What he hears in the darkness he speaks in 
 the light ; what he hears in the ear he proclaims upon the house- 
 tops. But the disciple is to be a teacher to himself as well as to 
 others ; and what he has learnt from his Lord he is to proclaim in 
 deeds as well as in words. He must bring forth the inward dictates 
 of divine truth clearly into the thoughts of his own understanding, 
 and the inmost impressions of divine love into the affections of his 
 own will, and must thus bring them out into manifestation in his own 
 life and conversation, that we may see his good works, and glorify 
 Him who is their true Author. 
 
 28. In laying this duty on his disciples the Lord speaks of two 
 opposing influences that would act upon them — one from the world 
 and one from himself — and exhorts them accordingly. And fear not 
 them which kill the body , but are not able to kill the soul : but rather 
 fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. We are to 
 act, not with the fear of men, but with the fear of God before our 
 
270 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. X. 
 
 eyes. The power of man extends only to the body, that of God to 
 soul and body alike. But the literal sense of these words express 
 an apparent, not a real truth. God destroys not the soul in 
 hell, and the material body in all alike is killed by death, and 
 survives not beyond the grave. Its spiritual sense is that which dis- 
 closes the true meaning and real force of this rather singular declara- 
 tion. Soul and body are predicated of the spirit, and signify the 
 internal and the external man, which are indeed as soul and body to 
 each other. In the spiritual sense him we are to fear does not mean 
 the Divine Being, who never destroys, but some principle in ourselves 
 which is the cause of our destruction. What, then, is it that kills 
 the external, but cannot reach the internal h and what is it that 
 reaches and can destroy both ? The partial destroyer is falsity, the 
 entire destroyer is evil. False persuasions may greatly injure the 
 external man by perverting the understanding, but evil alone is 
 able to destroy the whole man, for the man is wholly such as 
 his will is. This destruction is not only wider but deeper than 
 the other. For the Lord says of him whose power extends only 
 to the body, that he kills it ; but of him whose power extends to 
 both body and soul, that he destroys them both in hell. Hell implies 
 a deeper state of immersion, in the state opposite to what is expres- 
 sively called life in the Word, than death. This appears from the 
 Lord’s words as given in Luke xii. 4, where the disciples are warned 
 to beware of him who, after he hath killed, hath power to cast into 
 hell. Death and hell are therefore mentioned distinctly ; and 
 where both mean final states, death is the abode of satans, hell of 
 devils. How solemn a lesson is this, and how practical in its inner 
 meaning ! 
 
 29. To show them how little cause they had to fear men, the Lord 
 directs his disciples to the Providence that is ever over them, and 
 which enters. into the minutest particulars of their lives. Are not two 
 sparrows sold for a farthing ? and one of them shall not fall on the 
 ground without your Father . If the last was to excite fear, this is to 
 inspire hope and trust in God and in his goodness. Birds are the 
 emblems of thoughts, and sparrows of the commonest and least precious; 
 and when two are mentioned, they mean thoughts of truth and thoughts 
 of good, or true and good thoughts. Two sparrows are sold for one 
 farthing, or are worth only one farthing, when the lowest of our 
 thoughts of good and truth are united to the lowest degree of the 
 knowledge of good and truth, of which knowledge money is the emblem. 
 Yet it is declared that even one of these shall not fall to the ground 
 
Chap. X.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 271 
 
 without your Father. We are to reflect that the trials and persecu- 
 tions of the disciples is the subject to which these beautiful analo- 
 gies relate. A sparrow falls to the ground when, in times of trial, 
 the thoughts, instead of soaring into the heaven of the inner man 
 fall drooping and even dead to the earth of the outer man. The reason 
 of this is obvious. Affection is the life of thought ; and when the affec- 
 tions or the feelings are depressed, the thoughts languish and even die. 
 Every one knows the effect of natural trial. The death of some beloved 
 one in whom the affections are bound up seems for the moment to leave 
 the world a blank, and the thoughts seem as if they had fallen to the 
 ground, never to rise again. How much more in severe spiritual 
 trial ! Yet even in these states we are under the care of our heavenly 
 Father, who controls and overrules even the least of our thoughts, if 
 we are his disciples. The promise is, therefore, that when in these 
 states the thoughts, or rather one such thought, falls, it shall 
 not fall without our Father. Where there is sincere trust in God, 
 the divine love enters into and preserves the least of our thoughts, so 
 as that even in their depression to the earth they shall not be without 
 its influence to sustain them. 
 
 30. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. The hairs of 
 the head are the ultimate things of wisdom, or of the rational prin- 
 ciple, as sparrows are of the natural. And here again the minuteness 
 of the Lord’s providence is declared and promised to watch over us, 
 especially in times of temptation. The declaration teaches us that all 
 things, even to the least and lowest, are not only known to God, but 
 ordinated (numbered) by him, and are thus under the superintending 
 care of an all-provident Father. How much reason have we, there- 
 fore, to take courage from the words of the Lord in the next verse! 
 
 31. Fear ye not , therefore , ye are of more value than many sparrows. 
 If the Lord takes care of the least and lowest, he will assuredly not 
 forget the highest and the best. The disciples represent these highest 
 and best principles. Those principles that are nearest to the Lord 
 and heaven, that love him above all things, and seek to carry out his 
 purposes and fulfil his commandments, are of more value than many 
 lower thoughts and affections that concern themselves with matters 
 of less importance — that relate to the concerns of the world and the 
 body. And, indeed, some of our trials relate to these ; some of our 
 temptations come through them. It is about these things that we are 
 inclined to take thought for the morrow, and that brings our thoughts 
 down to the dust, when they should be elevated to the Lord in trust 
 and thanksgiving. It is these that lead us to inquire “ What shall we 
 
272 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. X. 
 
 eat, and what shall we drink, and wherewithal shall we he clothed V* 
 not remembering, or rather not fully believing, that our Father 
 knoweth that we have need of all these things, and that he who feeds 
 the fowls of the air and clothes the grass of the field will not leave 
 unprovided those who are much better than the fowls, and more 
 enduring than the grass, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into 
 the oven. 
 
 32. Whosoever, therefore, shall confess me before men , him will I 
 confess also before my Father which is in heaven. If we confess the 
 Son before men, the Son will confess us before his Father. The Son 
 is the Divine truth, the Father is the Divine good. If we do the truth, 
 the truth will lead us to good. We confess the Son not only by openly 
 avowing our faith in him, but by faithfully doing his commandments. 
 This is practical confession. And this is the confession of the truth 
 that leads to good. For the truth itself is then in us as a witness, and 
 it acknowledges us as sons, and gifts us with the good of truth as the 
 result and reward of our consistent profession. The Father is said to 
 be in heaven, and the Son is understood to be on earth. The promise 
 further implies, therefore, that a consistent and presevering practical 
 acknowledgment of truth in the external man will be the means of 
 raising that truth into the internal man, and so change the govern- 
 ment of wisdom into the government of love. 
 
 33. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny 
 before my Father which is in heaven. The denial of the Son 
 before men involves the denial of the denier by the Son before 
 the Father. If truth is practically denied in the life, it cannot lead 
 to the good to which it continually points and was intended to con- 
 duct us. But we find here a more serious consequence of denying 
 the Son than his not confessing us before his Father : he will deny us. 
 And this denial means that when the truth is known and yet dis- 
 honoured, the truth itself condemns us, and deprives us of all the 
 good which it teaches, resulting in a greater opposition against both 
 truth and good than if we had never known and professed the truth. 
 
 34. Tliinh not that I am come to send peace on earth : I came 
 not to send peace, but a sword. The literal meaning of this 
 declaration is not that the Lord came to create discord among men, 
 but that a necessary result of his teaching was difference of opinion, 
 and division as a consequence. The world could not be awakened 
 from its lethargy and sinfulness without causing commotion and 
 conflict among men. In the spiritual sense it teaches, in a very 
 striking manner, the result, in the mind of the believer, of the coming 
 
Chap. X.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 273 
 
 of the Lord to him as his Saviour. That result is, to excite into 
 hostility the whole of the thoughts and affections of the natural mind 
 against the spiritual. This is the subject we have already said is 
 treated of in this chapter. And here it is directly declared, and as 
 plainly as directly, to those who look at this declaration spiritually. 
 For the natural mind of man is meant by the earth. The Lord came 
 not to give peace, nor does he ever come to give peace, to the natural 
 mind of man in its state of disorder and corruption. The sword of 
 divine truth must go forth against the principles of evil and falsity in 
 the mind, which are equally the enemies of God and of the man him- 
 self. Before regeneration, there is peace; but it is the false peace 
 which is not peace, but the mere acquiescence of the whole mind in 
 the disorder, and infidelity, and sin which are the natural man’s 
 chosen inheritance. The coming of the Lord to the soul, and his 
 acceptance as the Saviour, introduces the sword, and initiates a war 
 that continues till victory is obtained over evil, and peace established 
 on the principles of justice and truth. The war which the Lord’s 
 reception creates is between the external and the internal man. The 
 evils of the external being no longer acknowledged as the ruling prin- 
 ciples of the mind and life, but another law — the law of God — being 
 now acknowledged in the inner man, the lusts and imaginations of the 
 natural mind rise up in hostility against the new and inward law, and 
 strive in all the bitterness of hatred to wage a successful war against 
 it. The nature of this warfare is described in some of the verses that 
 now follow. 
 
 35. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father , and 
 the daughter against her mother , and the daughter-in-law against her 
 mother-in-law. The man, a son, the daughter, and the daughter-in- 
 law are the new principles and affections of good and truth in the 
 internal man ; and the father, mother, and mother-in-law are the old 
 principles and affections of evil and falsity in the external man. 
 The man is truth, and the daughter and daughter-in-law are the affec- 
 tions of good and truth. These are the principles of the inner man. 
 The father is evil, and the mother and mother-in-law are the affections 
 of evil and falsity ; and these are the principles of the external man. 
 The Lord’s coming to the soul sets these at variance ; for the mind 
 that has been enslaved to what is evil and false cannot receive the 
 truth, whose very nature it is to make its recipients free, without 
 striving to be freed from the bondage of sin, and resisting therefore 
 the tyranny of his evil passions. In this struggle the Christian finds 
 the truth of the Lord’s words as expressed in the next verse. 
 
 T 
 
274 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. X. 
 
 36. And a marts foes shall be they of his own household. The house 
 is the man’s own mind. And truly are his foes they of his own 
 house. His hereditary nature is nothing but evil. To love himself 
 and the world before the Lord and his neighbour is his very nature. 
 The loves of self and the world are always his enemies, since they 
 deprive him of the true riches and of true happiness. But they are 
 not known and regarded as enemies so long as the principles of truth 
 and life are unknown. When a man becomes in purpose a friend of 
 God, and of men as the images of God, he soon finds how deep is 
 the enmity of his yet unregenerate heart. His foes are truly seen 
 and felt to be those of his own house. 
 
 37. He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of 
 me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of 
 me. When a man has made the discovery that his enemies are they 
 of his own house, there is a danger to which he is exposed, as indeed 
 all trial and conflict are attended with danger. For the conflict or 
 warfare of the Christian life is between the love of God and the love 
 of self — the love of the neighbour and the love of the world ; and the 
 very fact that there is a conflict between these opposite loves indi- 
 cates a balance of power that makes it possible for either side to 
 gain the victory. If self and the world were not deeply rooted in 
 our affections, there would be no ground for a serious contest, nor 
 any danger of the natural overcoming the spiritual. As it is, this 
 result is possible. Therefore our Lord guards us against such a 
 calamity: “He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy 
 of me ; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy 
 of me.” Father and mother are the loves of self and the world, which 
 are the parents of all evil loves ; and son and daughter are the affections 
 of all falsity and evil, which are the offspring of these two principal 
 loves; thus they include all evil, hereditary and actual. The object 
 of the conflict is to determine whether self is to be loved more than 
 the Lord, or the Lord more than self. And in this warfare we have 
 need to be reminded of the truth, that he that yields, and gives the 
 predominance to self is no more worthy of Him whose love is life. 
 Evil is the devil, especially the evil of self-love ; and if we are of our 
 father the devil, we are utterly unworthy, because utterly unfit, to be 
 called or to be the sons of God. 
 
 38. A nd he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy 
 of me. A necessary duty, and one that is essential to success in the 
 Christian warfare, is that work of self-denial of which the cross is the 
 expressive symbol. To crucify the world and the flesh is the Christian’s 
 
Chap. X.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 275 
 
 daily labour, and to follow the Lord is his daily duty. He must not 
 only struggle against the evil lust within, but against the evil habit 
 without; and must not only cease to do evil, but he must also learn 
 to do well. He must take up his cross by resisting evil, and follow 
 the Lord by imitating his holy example. And if he do not, he is not 
 worthy of him who at once bore his cross and lived a life of beneficence 
 and love. To perform the important duty of bearing the cross, it is 
 necessary to know what that duty is, or to understand what the cross 
 means. Bearing the cross does not consist in afflicting the body, but 
 in purifying the mind ; not in denying either body or mind its proper 
 and natural gratifications, but in resisting whatever is impure and 
 selfish in them ; so that whether we eat or driuk, or whatsoever we do, 
 we may do all to the glory of God. Bearing the cross means more 
 especially to endure temptation; and temptation is an inward struggle 
 against spiritual evil, as it rises up in our hearts against the good 
 which the Lord has implanted there. 
 
 39. To bear the cross implies constant self-denial ; but it includes 
 also, as its end and final result, the crucifixion and death of the self- 
 hood ; and if it effect not this, we have borne it in vain. He that 
 jindeth his life shall lose it ; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall 
 fnd it. Love is life. The love of self and the world is our own or 
 unregenerate life ; the love of the Lord is our new, our regenerate life. 
 He that findeth his life, by allowing self-love to rule in his heart, must 
 lose his life, which is the love of God, and which alone is true life. 
 But he that for the Lord’s sake loses or lays down his life shall find 
 it in love to him. For to lay down our life for the Lord’s sake is to 
 die to self, that we may live to God; it is to exchange evil for good and 
 falsity for truth, and to do this because the Lord’s will is thereby 
 done and his glory advanced. It may be remarked that the original 
 word for life in this passage is one of two that are both rendered by 
 this term in the Hew Testament. But there is a distinction between 
 them, and the propriety, if not necessity, of attending to it will appear 
 from an example. We read of our Lord that “ in him was life, and 
 the life was the light of men” (John i. 4); and we read also that our 
 Lord himself said, “ I lay down my life for the sheep. I have power 
 to lay it down, and I have power to take it again” (John x. 15, 18). 
 The life he derived from the Father was not the same as the life he 
 laid down, and is not expressed by the same term. The life which 
 the Lord laid down is expressed by the same word as that which he 
 used when he said, “ My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” 
 The reason of the distinction will at once be seen when we reflect that 
 
276 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. X. 
 
 the life which the Lord had in him, by virtue of his being begotten 
 by the Father, was the Divine love ; and that the life which was 
 sorrowful, and which he laid down, was the Divine truth : for the Lord 
 was tempted and put to death as divine truth ; but as divine love or 
 good, he was above all temptation, and incapable of death. Let us 
 here remark that, when we speak of him suffering and dying as divine 
 truth, we do not mean divine truth as it is in itself, but of divine 
 truth as clothed with appearances of truth derived from his descent 
 into the world by means of a finite and frail humanity. We may 
 express the doctrine otherwise by saying, that the life which the Lord 
 had in him from the Father was the life of his internal man, and 
 that the life which he laid down, and which he derived from the 
 mother, was the life of his external man. The life, therefore, which 
 he that findeth shall lose, and which he that loseth, for the Lord’s 
 sake, shall find, is the life of his external man, specifically the life of 
 his intellectual mind. To lay down this life is to put off the falsities 
 and fallacies with which the truth we possess is surrounded, and thus 
 remove from our faith the doubt and unbelief which adhere to it 
 from the natural man. Intellectual pride is, in this application, the 
 life or soul that we are required to lose ; and when this life is laid 
 down we find a new life, which is the living soul that God breathes 
 into us, and which makes us new creatures. We may remark, in con- 
 clusion, that these two promises express summarily the doctrine of 
 divine providence, which includes that of the Lord’s permissions, as 
 well as of his provisions, in regard to us as his disciples. We have 
 remarked that the Lord never permits any evil to befall us but for 
 the purpose of preventing a greater, and for our good as an end. 
 A sparrow never falls to the ground without his permission and 
 control; and the very hairs of our head are all numbered. The num- 
 bering of the hairs of our head signify not only the preservation but 
 the arrangement by the Lord, and in agreement with his divine order, 
 of all the least things and minutest activities of our natural mind and 
 life. It is by this, indeed, that the Lord preserves; for he operates by 
 order, and order is power. 
 
 40. We come now to another and still brighter side of the subject 
 of the process by which the natural mind, and consequently the man 
 himself, is regenerated. He that receivetli you , receiveth me; and he that 
 receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me. The disciples were sent of 
 Jesus, and Jesus was sent of God. We are not to understand that 
 Jesus Christ was a separate person from the Father, as the disciples 
 were separate persons from him. The Divine Essence is one and indi- 
 
Chap. X.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 277 
 
 visible, and that which is begotten of God is God, and therefore 
 infinite. But men are created, and therefore finite; and between the 
 infinite and the finite there is no comparison : the infinite is life itself, 
 the finite is a mere receptacle of life — a life which cannot exist for a 
 moment separate from its source. But although the Divine Essence 
 is one and indivisible, yet there is in it a plurality of Divine Essentials. 
 Love and wisdom, or goodness and truth, in God are distinct, though 
 inseparable, as are the will and understanding in man. This distinc- 
 tion in God is expressed in the Hew Testament as that of Father and 
 Son — the Father being the Divine Love or Goodness, the Son being the 
 Divine Wisdom or Truth. Wisdom proceeds from love, or truth from 
 goodness, comparatively as a son proceeds from a father; this, at least, 
 is the natural similitude by which this divine subject is expressed to 
 men in the natural world. Divine wisdom is thus sent by divine love. 
 In this sense Jesus is the sent of God. In a corresponding sense the 
 disciples are sent of Jesus; for the disciples whom the Lord sent in 
 his name represented the truths that proceed from the Lord as the 
 Truth itself — truths accommodated to the lower apprehensions of the 
 human mind. Thus, we may say, there is a gradation of life from 
 God to man. Divine truth is sent of divine good, and truth divine is 
 sent of divine truth. So also the spiritual principle proceeds from the 
 celestial, and the natural from the spiritual. The lower leads to the 
 higher, and the higher to the highest; and not only so, but the lowest 
 includes the higher in it. He, therefore, who receives the lowest in 
 all sincerity receives the others also. So with respect to the Word: 
 all its interior senses are contained in its ultimate or natural sense. 
 So is every one that is taught of God. He who receives the truth in 
 its simplest sense receives in it its higher wisdom. He who is in 
 simple obedience to God has in that obedience both the love of the 
 neighbour and the love of God ; and if he continues to progress in the 
 religious life, those loves which are potentially in his obedience will 
 successively come to be active principles in his mind, and raise him 
 into a correspondingly perfect life. “ If a man love me, he will keep 
 my words : and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, 
 and make our abode with him” (John xiv. 23). Here we have the 
 blessed promise, that if we hear — that is, hearken to and obey — the 
 Lord’s words, our minds will become the habitation both of his love 
 and wisdom, and thus the tabernacle of God will be with us, and we 
 shall be his people, and the Lord himself shall be with us, and be 
 our God. 
 
 41. The Lord proceeds to say , — lie that receiveth a prophet in the 
 
278 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. X. 
 
 name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth 
 a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous 
 mari's reward. A prophet, who taught the truth, and a righteous man, 
 who did it, signify truth and righteousness. To receive a prophet in 
 the name of a prophet is to receive truth for its own sake ; and to 
 receive a righteous man in the name of a righteous man is to receive 
 good for its own sake. The reward of receiving what is true and good 
 for their own sake is to have the affection of truth and goodness. In 
 love is happiness, for spiritual love is the Lord’s love in us, and in 
 this love are contained, and in it are bestowed, both happiness and 
 heaven. 
 
 42. And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup 
 of cold water only in the name of a disciple , verily I say unto you , he 
 shall in no wise lose his reward. Little children are the emblems of 
 innocence; and to give the little ones to drink is to instruct the 
 ignorant who are in innocence, and to insinuate truth into innocence 
 itself. But the reward which is promised for this duty extends to 
 those who give to drink only a cup of cold water. As warmth is love 
 or affection, cold is the absence of love, or rather a defect of love. 
 Cold water is the truth, not of love, but of obedience. And 
 the promise that he who gives even a cup of cold water to a little 
 one shall not lose his reward, is an assurance that even the simplest 
 act of goodness done from a dutiful obedience to the Lord’s will shall 
 have its own reward, as well as the highest, and not less in its degree 
 than the most loving virtue. But to be entitled to a reward, this 
 simple duty must be done in the name of a disciple; it must not be 
 done in our own name. It must have respect to the teaching of the 
 Word, and not be the offspring of natural benevolence. To give it a 
 spiritual quality and a heavenly result, duty must proceed from a 
 spiritual principle. Christians often lament their want of love to 
 God. If they have not much love, they need have no lack of obedience. 
 No one can force himself to love, but every one can compel himself to 
 obey. And he who begins with honest, though it be but cold obedi- 
 ence, will, by a conscientious discharge of duty, gradually come to 
 have and to feel that love the absence of which he laments. Although 
 love cannot be willed into existence, it can be wrought into existence. 
 If we give God obedience, he will give us love. 
 
Chap. XI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 279 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 1. And it came to pass , when Jesus had made an end of commanding 
 (or ordaining) his twelve disciples , he departed thence , to teach and to 
 preach in their cities. The Lord’s operations are of two kinds — mediate 
 and immediate. He acts mediately through his Word and through 
 his church, in heaven and in the world, and immediately from 
 himself. His immediate operation is into the inmost of the soul, and 
 thence as far as possible into the faculties of the miud below. But 
 this inmost and immediate operation must, to effect its purpose in our 
 regeneration, be seconded by outward agencies, by whom knowledge 
 and other means are supplied for opening the way for the descent of 
 life and light from within, thus far preparing the way of the Lord. 
 This two-fold operation is treated of in these chapters. When the 
 Lord disposes in heavenly order the principles of goodness and truth 
 in the inner man — which is meant by ordaining the twelve disciples — 
 and causes them to descend into the outer man, to bring him into a 
 corresponding heavenly order — which is meant by sending the dis- 
 ciples forth to gather in the lost sheep — the Lord himself operates 
 from within to accomplish his beneficent end in our salvation ; and 
 this is meant by his departing thence to teach and to preach. The 
 cities into which he went to preach are doctrines, these being the 
 receptacles of his divine influx, and the ground of his operation. 
 
 2. Now yjhen John had heard in the prison the works of Christ , he 
 sent two of his disciples. Historically considered, the fact of John’s 
 sending to inquire of Jesus if he were the Messiah, or only, like him- 
 self, a forerunner of the expected Saviour, seems rather unaccountable, 
 seeing that he had himself pointed out Jesus to the people as “the 
 Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.” Various con- 
 jectures have been made on the subject, which it would profit little to 
 repeat. Our object is to derive from the circumstances of the history 
 some lesson of spiritual wisdom. John had been shut up in prison 
 for bearing noble testimony to the truth, in reproving the reigning 
 tyrant, Herod, for having taken his brother Philip’s wife. This 
 criminal connection well represented the state of the Jewish church ; 
 and John’s imprisonment as fitly represented the treatment by that 
 church of the Word, which John represented, for its testifying against 
 the gross and glaring sinfulness into which the Jews had fallen. But, 
 considered in reference to the regeneration of the man of the true 
 church, this subject has another meaning. John representing the 
 written Word, or the truth which it teaches, the imprisonment of John 
 
280 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XI. 
 
 represents a state of temptation, when the truth is shut in and 
 deprived of its freedom of action by the enmity and opposition of the 
 natural man, whose evils it condemns. In this state doubts regarding 
 the Lord in his humanity arise in the mind, and these doubts relate 
 to the salvation which the Incarnate Word has provided. In 
 these states of spiritual trial the Lord appears to be absent, and it 
 seems as if he had forgotten to be gracious, and that he comes not to 
 give deliverance. These doubts do not, indeed, originate in the Word 
 itself, which John represented; but the truths of the Word not unfre- 
 quently, in times of temptation, are so construed by us as seemingly 
 to favour them. But there is a time of light in the darkest states of 
 trial, which comes when the mind seeks and is prepared to receive it. 
 This time is when the thoughts and affections, like the two disciples 
 of John, are sent forth to the Lord himself, to see if he will remove our 
 doubts, and give ns from his lips, or by immediate influx, an assurance 
 of the truth. 
 
 3. But the Lord himself is the subject of the doubt. Art thou he 
 that should come , or do we look for another ? To understand this in 
 relation to ourselves, we must reflect that the period to which this 
 belongs represents a transition state in the regenerate life. John’s 
 life and ministry, in relation to the Lord’s, represented the state of 
 reformation, the Lord’s own life representing the state of regeneration ; 
 and the end of John’s ministry, and the beginning of the Lord’s, 
 represented the transition state which is between them. John’s own 
 words were now about to be fulfilled : “He must increase, but I must 
 decrease.” The one state is the inverse of the other. As the second 
 increases, the first decreases. The truth which leads to good, which 
 John’s ministry represented, decreases in its influence and power, as 
 truth derived from good, which the Lord’s ministry exemplified, 
 increases. The office of the first is superseded by that of the second. 
 The ministry of the letter gives way to that of the spirit ; the ministry 
 of repentance, to that of holiness ; the labour of sowing, to the work 
 of reaping. In the trial attending this change of state, the doubt 
 of John is felt. This question then arises in the mind, — Is this the 
 very Good itself, and the very Truth itself — the Lamb that removes 
 the sins and sorrows of the soul ? Is this the very principle and state 
 which the soul, through her repentance and tribulation, has looked 
 for 1 or is it but another stage in the preparatory state of labour 
 which is to prepare the way of Him who is yet to come as the Prince 
 of Peace 1 
 
 4. How significant was the Lord’s answer to John’s disciples ! Go 
 
Chap. XI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW*. 
 
 281 
 
 and show John again those things which ye do hear and see. This was 
 saying in effect, “ If you are looking for one whose coming is not in 
 word but in power, judge whether I am the Christ or no.” And if 
 we interpret aright what our affections hear and what our thoughts 
 see, allowing experience to be the interpreter, no other evidence will 
 be required to convince us that He whom we look for has indeed come ; 
 for what more convincing evidence can we receive of the Lord having 
 come to us, than his beneficent works being wrought in us 1 But the 
 lesson which it teaches is most consoling and encouraging to those 
 who are passing through states of temptation, represented by John in 
 prison. It tells them that even while their external man is bound in 
 affliction and iron, and is darkened by doubt and oppressed with the 
 worst apprehensions, tempted even to doubt if the Lord is a Saviour 
 or no, that Lord is at the very time present with them, working 
 deliverance for them by his miracles of goodness, healing all their 
 diseases, and restoring their souls. Let us see what those beneficent 
 works are. 
 
 5. The blind receive their sight — the understanding, blind from igno- 
 rance or error, is restored to the power of perceiving truth ; and the 
 lame walk — the life, distorted with the evil of ignorance and error, is 
 restored to rectitude ; the lepers are cleansed — the truths that were 
 known, but falsified and profaned by perverse interpretation so as to 
 countenance sin, are purified from defilement; and the deaf hear — 
 the will, deaf to the voice of truth and love, is brought to hearken and 
 obey ; the dead are raised up — natural love, which is death, gives place 
 to spiritual love, which is life ; and the poor have the gospel preached to 
 them — poverty of spirit becomes the ground of a new and higher recep- 
 tion and love of the truth, while the gospel becomes to the soul truly the 
 glad tidings of salvation. This brief enumeration of the Lord’s works, 
 which the disciples of John beheld, includes almost all the kinds of 
 miracles He performed, and are such as prophecy had declared the 
 Messiah would perform. To John, therefore, if he had doubts, these 
 wonders must have been sufficient testimony that Jesus was the 
 Christ. To those who, like John, are in prison, tempted with doubts 
 as to the Saviour, in relation to themselves as the objects of his saving 
 mercy, the testimony here given is that which is to be seen in them- 
 selves, in the removal of the very evils in which temptations originate, 
 or with which they are connected. 
 
 6. When the Lord had shown John all these things, he pronounced 
 the words, And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. 
 While prophecy had foretold the Lord’s works of mercy and power, it 
 
28 2 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XL 
 
 had also declared that he would be a stumbling-stone and rock of offence. 
 The time in which our Lord came was one when trial and decision were 
 necessary. He was the stone on which men were to fall, the Truth 
 by which they were to be tried. To the evil, or those confirmed in 
 sin, he was a stone of offence, to the repentant he was a rock of 
 safety. Blessed are they who are not offended in him. This blessing 
 is ours when, having cast out all things that offend, and brought our 
 minds into a state of holy submission to the laws of divine order, the 
 Lord’s love and truth rule in our hearts and understandings, and 
 thence govern the life and conversation. The Lord had given testimony 
 to John respecting himself as the Eternal Word in human nature, 
 and he now turns to the multitude to give his testimony to them re- 
 specting him who represented the written Word in its literal sense. 
 This will be seen to be appropriate when we reflect that the out- 
 ward coverings with which divine truth, in descending from God out of 
 heaven to men on earth, had clothed itself, was analogous to the 
 humanity which Jesus, as the Word itself, had put on to come into the 
 world. What went ye out into the wilderness to see ? This question is 
 addressed to us as truly as it was to the Jews. For, as John was a 
 type of the revealed Word — which is still the subject of numerous 
 opinions, all which are comprehended in the Lord’s descriptions of the 
 different notions and expectations of those who went out to see John 
 in the wilderness — so we may each find a revelation of our own state 
 of mind in relation to the Word of truth. The wilderness — which 
 describes the desolate state of the Jewish church, where the revealed 
 Word was— describes also the state of the human mind when in a cor- 
 responding state of spiritual desolation or temptation. We go out to 
 see and examine the Divine Word with different expectations of what 
 it is and teaches, — too often with preconceived opinions ; not content, 
 as we should be, to see and hear in simplicity what the Lord com- 
 municates through that sacred medium concerning himself and his 
 kingdom. These different views, the false as well as the true, are 
 accurately expressed by the Divine Speaker, who had a perfect know- 
 ledge of the state of the church, as he has of the human heart. We 
 should therefore listen to his words of wisdom, that we may learn of 
 him respecting ourselves. 
 
 What went ye out to see ? A reed shaken with the wind l This 
 describes with great exactness and force the state of a large class as 
 to their ideas regarding the Divine Word. The Divine Word is “a 
 reed shaken with the wind” to those who regard it merely in its 
 literal sense, and who are dependent for their views of its teaching on 
 
Chap. XT.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 283 
 
 the opinions of others. The hollow reed is an exact emblem of the 
 Word when its outward literal sense is considered to be all that con- 
 stitutes it. As the literal sense of the Word consists for the most 
 part of apparent truths, it is capable of every different interpretation 
 which human expositors may be disposed to give it, and may be 
 made apparently to teach not only different but opposite doctrines, as 
 we know is actually the case. To all such the Word is as “a reed 
 shaken with the wind,” a revelation, in its origin Divine, made to yield 
 to the breath of human opinion. This character of the Word in the 
 letter adapts it to the states of all, and by admitting of different inter- 
 pretations, serves as a protection to its internal sense, being in this 
 respect the flaming sword that turns every way to guard the way of 
 the tree of life. But even.if the Word in the letter is interpreted 
 erroneously, yet, if this is done sincerely, it is not seriously injurious 
 to or destructive of faith, for even “the bruised reed will he not break.” 
 If, on the other hand, it is subjected to a sinister interpretation, it 
 becomes “the staff of a broken reed, whereon if a man lean, it will 
 go into his hand and pierce him ” (Isa. xxxvi. 6). If men wilfully 
 pervert it, so as to make it oppose its own essential principles, then do 
 they, like the blaspheming Jews, put a reed in the right hand of the 
 Son of man, and take a reed and smite him on the head, and spit 
 upon him, and mock him (ch. xxvii. 29, 30). When, however, the letter 
 is honestly interpreted, it becomes like the reed on which the sponge 
 with the vinegar was raised to the lips of the Lord upon the cross, by 
 which men minister to interior truth, when suffering at the hands of 
 its enemies. 
 
 8. Another class who go out into the wilderness are those who go 
 to see a man clothed in soft raiment. This class consists of those who 
 think that, to be worthy of God and attractive to men, the Word 
 should be clothed in more than the graces of the most perfect human 
 composition, and who are therefore offended with its hairy garment. 
 But our Lord teaches us that they who wear soft clothing are in kings ’ 
 houses. The kings’ houses are the mansions of heaven, which is the 
 house of the King of kings ; and consequently not in its literal, but 
 in its spiritual sense, is the Word to be found in the soft and gorgeous 
 attire in which some unwisely desire to see it in this lower world. 
 In this world, indeed, it is possible to behold the Word in some- 
 thing of this soft and flowing apparel. To those who are in heavenly 
 states of mind, Divine Truth will disclose some of its heavenly 
 beauties. Those who are in kings’ houses are spiritually those who 
 are in the good of spiritual truth; for houses signify the affections 
 
284 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Ciiap. XT. 
 
 of the will, and kings the spiritual truths of the understanding, 
 and those truths which reside in these affections are soft and beautiful. 
 They have cast off the rough garment of the prophet, when, as a 
 preacher of repentance, he reproves, and prohibits, and threatens the 
 sinner with divine wrath and judgment, and have put on the soft 
 raiment of those in kings’ houses, where, the reign of order being 
 established, God is felt as well as seen to be love, and his kingdom to 
 be the rule of righteousness and peace. 
 
 9. Besides these two classes who form a wrong estimate of the 
 essential character of the Word, by judging of it from their own 
 disordered states, there is a third class who regard it with a juster 
 appreciation of its nature, and wffio are meant by those of whom 
 the Lord says — But what went ye out for to see ? A prophet ? yea , 
 I say unto you , and more than a prophet. It is difficult to see what 
 can be meant by its being said that John was not only a prophet, 
 but more than a prophet ; unless it be allowed that the term prophet 
 has some spiritual meaning, and that John was not merely a man 
 entrusted with a divine commission, but a man who was invested 
 with a representative character. A prophet, whose office it was to 
 teach the doctrines of the Word, signifies doctrine derived from the 
 Word. We regard the Word of God in its true character when we 
 look to it as the source of all true doctrine, and seek earnestly and 
 honestly to learn its doctrines from it. But the Lord said of John, 
 not only that he was a prophet, but that he was more than a prophet. 
 Although the Word contains all doctrine, the Word itself is more 
 than all doctrine; it is, even in the letter, Divine Wisdom itself revealed 
 for the use of men, to serve for their instruction and edification in all 
 states of the regenerate life, and through all generations. 
 
 10. In consequence of the Word being more than all doctrine, and 
 thus more than a prophet, it is the Lord’s forerunner as well as mes- 
 senger to the church, and to every member of the church. For this is 
 he, of whom it is written , Behold , I send my messenger before thy face , 
 which shall prepare thy way before thee. The Word, we have seen 
 (iii. 3), which John represented, is the voice of him that crieth in the 
 wilderness, “ Prepare ye the way of the Lord ; make his paths straight.” 
 The truths of the Divine Word, by whoever preached, are alone 
 capable of preparing the Lord’s way into the human heart. The 
 Lord speaks in the passage before us as if another sent the messenger 
 to prepare his way, as if Jehovah had sent John to prepare the way of 
 Jesus. But Jehovah and Jesus are the same Being, yet distinct as the 
 Divinity and the Humanity of the one Lord and Saviour, and as the 
 
Chap. XI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 285 
 
 Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom. Jeliovah may here be said to 
 send his messenger before the face of Jesus, since it is the Divinity 
 that is the sender or the origin of the Word, while the whole Word 
 has reference to J esus as God manifest in the flesh, the Redeemer and 
 Saviour of men. It is said that John came before the face of Jesus; 
 for the Lord’s face is the internal of the Word, which Jesus was, and 
 the letter of the Word, and true doctrine as its interpreter, go before 
 the internal truths of its spiritual sense, to prepare the mind for its 
 reception. 
 
 11. But not only is the Baptist more than a prophet, but Among 
 them that are horn of women there hath not risen a greater than John 
 the Baptist. Those who are born of women are opposed to and dis- 
 tinguished from those who are born of God. The letter of the Word 
 is formed of images taken from nature, and is thus adapted to the 
 natural apprehensions of men. Its literal truths are therefore meant 
 by those born of women. As the truths revealed to us in the Word, 
 even in its literal sense, are greater than those to be found in the 
 writings of men, it is said of the Word even in the letter, that a 
 greater hath not risen than John the Baptist. Yet immeasurably 
 greater as the Word is than all human compositions, its literal sense 
 is far less glorious than its spiritual sense. The highest apprehension 
 of divine truth by men can bear no comparison to the lowest appre- 
 hension of divine truth by angels. Therefore, although “ Among them 
 that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the 
 Baptist;” notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is 
 greater than he. 
 
 12. The Lord proceeds to say, And from the days of John the 
 Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence^ and the 
 violent take it by force. Assuming, as we think we justly may, that 
 the authorized version expresses the true meaning of the passage, the 
 question is, What does it mean ? The common interpretation is, that 
 the violence used and the force exerted are such as holy men can 
 employ. This interpretation may be considered as on the whole 
 correct. But it may be understood that the violence and force here 
 spoken of, though such as indeed are consistent with the nature of the 
 heavenly kingdom and of the heavenly life, are yet of a character 
 such as belongs to the church, and to the member of the church, in 
 that stage of their progression meant by the days of John the 
 Baptist, which is a state of initiation. In the beginning of the 
 Christian dispensation, as in that of every other, its truths were 
 received intellectually rather than morally, or men endeavoured by 
 
286 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XL 
 
 the power of intellect alone to enter into the mysteries of faith. 
 Some seized on the truth with avidity, but did not, as they ought to 
 have done, unite to it the good which makes it truly useful, except, 
 indeed, that many whose first reception this describes might come to 
 accept the good as they advanced in the knowledge of what the 
 gospel required. According to Luke, the first reception of the gospel 
 was the same with all. “ The law and the prophets were until John; 
 since that time every one presseth into it,” or enters into it by 
 violence. This does not mean that all men entered it, but that those 
 who did so, entered by force. The language seems also to imply, in 
 the spiritual sense, that entrance was not effected without severe trial, 
 and that temptation, of an external but violent kind, is a means by 
 which every one, in the days of John, enters into the kingdom 
 of God. 
 
 13. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. It is 
 the time of the prophets with us when we are yet only learning of 
 the Lord; it is the time of John when the Lord has indeed been 
 born in the inner man, but has not yet been fully manifested in the 
 outer man, in which, however, a way is being prepared by repentance 
 and obedience for his coming into it and passing through it into 
 the life. 
 
 14. And if ye will receive it, this is Elias , which was for to come. 
 Why was it promised (Mai. iv. 5) that Elijah should come to prepare 
 the way of the Lord ? It may be admitted that Elijah was a type of 
 J ohn ; but the reason he was selected from among the prophets to be 
 so was, because, like John, he was an eminent representative of the 
 written Word. It is the Word itself that prepares the Lord’s way 
 both into the church and into the human mind. It is, moreover, the 
 function of the prophet, and not the prophet himself, that represents 
 what is divine and holy; and therefore the personal question is one of 
 no moment. 
 
 15. When the Lord had finished his address to the people respect- 
 ing John, he added these words, He that hath ears to hear , let him 
 hear. This was to call their attention to what he had said to them, 
 and also to remind them that his words demanded a willing and 
 attentive hearing. The ear, as being the sense through which the 
 sound as well as the meaning of articulate language is conveyed, 
 is the organ that more especially communicates with the will, as the 
 eye is the organ that communicates more especially with the under- 
 standing. He that hath ears to hear is one whose will is inclined to 
 hearken to the lessons of divine wisdom, and who has a disposition 
 
Chap. XI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 287 
 
 to obey. This submission of the will to the Lord’s teaching is better 
 than any offering we can make ; for “ to obey is better than sacrifice, 
 and to hearken than the fat of rams.” 
 
 16, 17. Few, it would appear, were ready to incline their ear to 
 either the Lord’s teaching or to John’s, which the Lord proceeds to 
 point out in a parable. But whereunto shall I liken this generation ? 
 It is like unto children sitting in the markets , o,nd calling unto their 
 fellows , and saying , We have piped unto you , and ye have not danced; 
 we have mourned unto you , and ye have not lamented. The J ews had 
 refused to mourn with John or to rejoice with Jesus. John had 
 appeared as an ascetic, living in retirement, clothed in his hairy 
 garment, and feeding on locusts and wild honey, and teaching the 
 hard lesson of self-denial. He mourned unto men, but they refused 
 to lament. The Lord came without any sign of austerity, and 
 mingled with the people in the ordinary concerns and even the pleasures 
 of life. He piped to them, but they refused to dance. Besides this 
 meaning, as applicable to the Jews, this beautiful parable has a mean- 
 ing still more instructive for us. The little boys here spoken of, 
 sitting in the markets, are manifest figures of the truths of love and 
 innocence contained in the holy Word ; and their calling to their 
 companions is a figure equally plain of the application of those truths 
 for reception with man. “We have piped unto you,” denotes the 
 celestial affection with which they are replenished, and which they 
 are calculated to inspire, for pipers and piping signify such affection. 
 “Ye have not danced” denotes that that affection had not been admitted, 
 so as to produce a corresponding joy in the natural mind, for dancing 
 denotes such joy and delight. “We have mourned unto you,” 
 denotes truth without affection. “ Ye have not lamented,” denotes 
 that they had not acted in conformity with such truth, by obeying it, 
 as they ought to have done. A still more personal application of it 
 may bring its lesson nearer to our common spiritual states and expe- 
 rience. The want of sympathy between the children and their 
 juvenile companions, expresses a want of harmony between the 
 internal and external affections of our own minds. The children 
 that piped and mourned are the affections of the spiritual mind, 
 which call to their companions, the affections of the natural mind, 
 to reciprocate their joys and their sorrows; for the joys of the spiritual 
 mind should be reciprocated by pure delights of good and truth in 
 the natural mind, and its sorrows should be reciprocated by contrition 
 and humility. It is the Lord’s purpose in his divine operations to 
 produce harmony between the spiritual and the natural affections 
 
288 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XI. 
 
 and thoughts in our minds, to bring the natural mind to respond 
 to and co-operate with the spiritual. The slowness of our natural 
 disposition to yield a ready and hearty compliance with the calls of the 
 spiritual affections is a matter which most of us must have learnt 
 by abundant experience. The Lord’s parable may remind us of our 
 natural want of sympathy with what is spiritual, and should lead us 
 ♦ to listen to the calls and pleadings of the conscience, which has been 
 formed within us by the good of truth. 
 
 18, 19. The Lord openly applies and explains the parable in refer- 
 ence to himself and John the Baptist. John came neither eating nor 
 drinking , and they say , He hath a devil. The Son of man came eating 
 and drinking , and they say, Behold a man gluttonous , and a wine- 
 bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. We see this disposition to 
 maguify and distort, so as even to turn virtues into vices in those we 
 are disposed to condemn. Its spiritual meaning is our principal object. 
 John came neither eating nor drinking, because the work of refor- 
 mation, which John’s ministry represented, consists essentially in the 
 removal of evil by self-denial. The Son of man came eating and 
 drinking, because the work of regeneration, which the ministry of 
 Jesus, as distinguished from that of John, represented, consists essen- 
 tially in the doing of good. Self-denial, or desisting from evil, is spiritual 
 fasting, and doing good is spiritual eating and drinking. The Jews 
 said of John that he had a devil, for the natural man regards self- 
 denial as an evil, and as destructive of all true life and enjoyment; 
 and they said of the Son of man that he was gluttonous and a wine- 
 bibber, for the natural man has so little relish for the good and truth 
 of religion that the very idea of them is surfeiting to his spirit. But 
 this objection to the Lord was no doubt made chiefly by the Pharisees, 
 who affected great sanctity, and who regarded the Lord’s life as that 
 of a man of the world, because he refused and condemned nothing of 
 the world but its evil and hypocrisy. They therefore coupled with 
 this accusation that of his being a friend of publicans and sinners. 
 He was indeed their friend, for his object, in his intercourse with them, 
 as with all others, was to do them good. In this feature of his 
 character, our Lord was the pattern of the perfect man. He did not 
 shun sinners, as many do, either because they contemn them or fear 
 contempt. His love for their souls was so great as to draw him towards 
 them, and so pure as to prevent his being contaminated by contact 
 with them. The Lord concludes by saying, Bat Wisdom is justified of 
 her children. In the literal sense, the children of wisdom are the wise; 
 and of all these, but of these only, is wisdom justified. He who is 
 
Chap. XL] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 289 
 
 Wisdom itself is justified only of those who have become wise from 
 him; for who but the wise can appreciate wisdom? In the spiritual 
 sense, the children of wisdom are the truths and goods of wisdom. In 
 Scripture usage, wisdom is not so much an intellectual as a moral 
 quality. As folly means depravity, so wisdom means goodness 
 grounded in intelligence. Wisdom is justified of her children when 
 the fruits of wisdom bear testimony before men of the excellence of 
 the principles that produce them. 
 
 20-24. The Lord now turns to those cities in which most of his 
 mighty works had been done, and upbraids them because they did 
 not repent. Woe unto thee, Chorazin ! woe unto thee, Bethsaida ! for 
 if the mighty works, urfiich were done in you, had been done in Tyre and 
 Sidon , they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But 
 I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day 
 of judgment , than for you. A nd thou, Capernaum, which art exalted 
 unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell : for if the mighty works , 
 which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom , it would have 
 remained until this day. But I say unto you, That it shall be more 
 tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee. 
 These cities afforded solemn examples of the truth he had just delivered 
 in his parable. How striking and solemn an answer is this to those 
 who demand signs and wonders that they may believe. The mighty 
 and beneficent works of the Saviour did not produce conviction or 
 conversion generally in the cities in which they were done. Men 
 could witness the greatest and most beneficent miracles ever performed, 
 and yet remain in unbelief and sin. External evidence cannot 
 produce internal conviction ; there must be an internal witness before 
 there can be internal belief. There is only one way in which the 
 Lord’s miracles can produce saving faith — by being spiritually wrought 
 in our own souls. The Lord’s miracles represented the saving works 
 which are the means of restoring the soul to a sound state ; and these 
 are the only works that carry their own evidence with them, since 
 they give us an experimental knowledge of the Lord as our Saviour. 
 Those who do not thus witness the works of the Lord are the 
 Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, on which rests the woe of 
 unbelief and unrepented sin. 
 
 In the literal sense of this passage some find a difficulty. If those 
 works would have led Tyre and Sidon to repent, why were they not 
 done in them ? The answer to this is, had the Lord saved Tyre and 
 Sidon, he could not have saved Chorazin and Bethsaida. Had he come 
 into the world at an earlier period, he could not have provided for the 
 
 u 
 
290 
 
 ST. MATTHEW, 
 
 [Chap. XI. 
 
 salvation of those who lived after his coming. Iniquity had to he 
 consummated or full before the remedy for it could be applied, that 
 the remedy might be a complete one. Yet the Lord’s mercy provides, 
 as far as possible, against any disadvantage to those who lived before 
 his coming. It was to be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day 
 of judgment than for the cities who rejected the Saviour. “ To whom 
 much is given, of them much is required.” “ This is the condemnation, 
 that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than 
 light.” The spiritual sense teaches a still more solemn and important 
 lesson. It appears evident that the intellectual principle of the 
 natural man in general is represented in this passage by Tyre and 
 Sidon, and the false persuasions in that principle by Chorazin and 
 Bethsaida. In like manner, the will principle of the natural man in 
 general seems to be signified by Sodom, and the evils inherent in it 
 by Capernaum. According to this view, we find that the intellectual 
 principle itself of the natural man, represented by Tyre and Sidon, is 
 capable of being saved by the “mighty works” or redeeming mercy 01 
 the Lord ; whilst the false persuasions of it, represented by Chorazin 
 and Bethsaida, being diametrically opposed to the divine truth of the 
 Lord, must be rejected and condemned. A woe is pronounced against 
 them, and we can only escape being subject to it by separating our- 
 selves from them, and concurring in the judgment by which they are 
 anathematized. So also we find that the mighty works of the Lord’s 
 redemption extend even to the saving of the will principle of the 
 natural man, represented by Sodom; but the evils of it, represented 
 by Capernaum, being diametrically opposite to the divine love of the 
 Lord, must be extirpated and removed. A woe is here also pro- 
 nounced, and we can only avoid being included in it by leaving every 
 evil, especially that of self-love, to sink into hell ; whilst, by appro- 
 priating principles from heaven which have an opposite gravitation, 
 we are borne up and saved from sinking into perdition with them. 
 
 25, 26. At that time Jesus answered and said , I thank thee , 0 Father , 
 Lord of heaven and earth , because thou hast hid these things from the 
 wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, 
 Father : for so it seemed good in thy sight. The subject we have been 
 considering has another side, a divine and heavenly one. Whilst 
 men reject the overtures of divine mercy, that mercy is employed 
 in tempering both the malignity and the consequences of their 
 rejection, by hiding from them, as far as may be, the knowledge that 
 would aggravate their state and criminality. When Omniscience sees 
 that the impenitent will not accept the good that would make them 
 
Chap. XL] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 291 
 
 happy, mercy withholds from them the truth that would but increase 
 their sin and misery. It is a part of God’s providential operation that 
 man shall not be admitted into the interior acknowledgment of truth 
 further than that he can be preserved in it to the end of his life. 
 Such being the case, God’s goodness hides the things of salvation from 
 the wise and prudent. But it reveals them unto babes — to those who 
 have innocence of heart and simplicity of spirit sufficient to enable 
 them to receive it. How can God at once conceal and reveal the truths 
 of life? One way is this. The letter of the Word conceals its spiritual 
 truths from the wise, and reveals them to the simple. It is like the 
 cloudy pillar that came between the camps of the Egyptians and of 
 Israel — it was light to the one and darkness to the other. This 
 thanksgiving is addressed to the Father, and the concealing and 
 revealing is said to have seemed good in his sight. As the Father 
 signifies the Lord as to his divine love, we are instructed that this 
 providential dealing is one of pure love, which is further indicated by 
 its being good in his sight; for all good is of love. Yet the Lord’s 
 love acts by wisdom, which is meant by his sight, in which it seemed 
 good. 
 
 27. From addressing the Father as one distinct from and superior 
 to himself, the Lord turns to the multitude and instructs them respect- 
 ing the true nature of the relation existing between them. All things 
 are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son , but 
 the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to 
 whomsoever the Son will reveal him. If his thanksgiving seems to acknow- 
 ledge his inferiority to the Father, his address claims equality with 
 him. “All things” include “all that the Father hath” — all the 
 attributes and prerogatives of Deity. These the Father delivered to 
 the Son. It is almost needless to say that it was impossible for one 
 divine person to impart these personal attributes and rights to another. 
 When we know that the Father is the Lord’s indwelling divinity, 
 and that the Son is the humanity in which his divinity dwells, we 
 can see the possibility and reasonableness of “ all things” belonging to 
 the divinity being delivered to the humanity. We see an image of this 
 in the soul delivering all things that it hath to the body. The soul 
 does not by this act divest itself of any of its attributes or authority, 
 but only invests the body with them — at once giving them to another 
 and retaining them in itself. The Lord’s delivering the attributes of 
 his divine to his human nature made the human itself divine — a 
 fitting divine body for the habitation of a divine soul. The human 
 thus became the very form and manifestation of the divine. In Jesus 
 
292 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XI. 
 
 the Divine is human, and the Human is divine. Both are alike infinite. 
 Hence, “ no one knoweth the Son, but the Father \ neither knoweth 
 any one the Father, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal 
 him.” If no one knows the Son, but the Father, and no one knows 
 the Father, but the Son, their knowledge of each other must be infinite. 
 But the Son is the only source of our knowledge of the Father. We 
 cannot know the Divine but in and through the Human. How appro- 
 priate, therefore, is the invitation which now follows ! 
 
 28. Come unto me , all ye that labour and are heavy laden , and I 
 will give you rest. This blessed invitation and assurance brings Jesus 
 before us as the Divine Man, who himself has passed through all 
 states of spiritual labour, laden with the burden of all human infirmity 
 and sorrow, and who is therefore able to comfort poor sinful creatures 
 in their afflictions, and sustain them under their heaviest trials. Evil 
 and error are the two oppressive burdens wdiich depraved humanity 
 bears, and under which it groans. But it is only those who have 
 come to feel these as a hindrance to their entrance on the spiritual 
 life who will answer the Lord’s call, for they only can be disposed to 
 exchange their own burden, oppressive as it is, for the easy yoke of 
 the meek and lowly Jesus. We must see evil to be sin before we will 
 listen to the Lord’s exhortation — before we will seek that rest which 
 he promises to the weary souls that come to him. “ I will give you 
 rest.” There is none but the Saviour can give that which the sinner 
 needs, and he needs rest. “There is no rest for the wicked.” 
 Best is only to be obtained in righteousness, and righteousness can 
 be found only in him who is Bighteousness itself. To obtain his rest 
 we must “ come unto ” him by forsaking the way of sin, and bringing 
 forth fruits meet for repentance. But we must advance beyond this, 
 by doing his commandments from love ; for it is love that draws us 
 to him as the Author of rest. 
 
 29. He who invites men to seek from him rest from their burden, 
 invites them likewise to take his yoke upon them, and learn of him. 
 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and 
 lowly in heart : and ye shall find rest unto your souls. When 
 we throw off the yoke of Satan, we must take upon us the yoke 
 of Christ. The yoke of sin must be exchanged for the yoke of 
 righteousness. To take the Lord’s yoke is to accept his love as the 
 guiding principle of our wills, and to learn of him is to accept his 
 truth as the directing principle of our understandings. The Lord 
 himself is meek and lowly of heart. He is meekness and lowliness 
 itself. He who is greatest is least ; he who is the highest is also the 
 
Chap. XII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 293 
 
 lowest : “ I am among you as him that doth serve.” Those who 
 imitate his blessed example will find rest to their souls; for there is 
 rest only in him who has conquered all the powers and cast out 
 from his humanity all principles of discord, and has made peace 
 in his reconciled humanity, now the Fountain of peace to all who 
 seek it. 
 
 30. My yoke is easy , and my burden is light. If the Lord’s yoke is 
 the yoke of love, it cannot be but easy ; if his burden is the burden 
 of truth, it cannot be but light. Truth makes us free, and love is 
 perfect liberty. Where these are there can be no sense of oppres- 
 sion or weariness, but a feeling of happiness and freshness, the 
 service which the state of our hearts prompts us to render being a 
 delight. Such must be the experience of all who take upon them 
 the yoke of Jesus. It is not so difficult to live for heaven as many 
 suppose. The Lord came into the world that he might make the 
 way to heaven more easy, and our entrance into it more certain. He 
 did this by first making the burden and the yoke of the law his 
 own, and then enabling us to bear it. He did not fulfil the law in 
 our stead, but on our behalf, not as one who relieves us of the duty, 
 but as one who, by doing the duty, makes it more easy for us to do 
 it. W^e are to take his yoke upon us ; and it is easy because it is 
 his. He has done all that he requires us to do, and he gives us 
 strength to do it, because he is with us as our Sustainer, as well as our 
 Example. The exhortation of the Psalmist is truly applicable to the 
 Christian and his Saviour : “ Cast thy burden on the Lord, and he 
 will sustain thee.” He does not say that the Lord will bear our 
 burden for us, but that he will sustain us under it. Such is the 
 Lord to us — a Friend and Helper, who will go with us in all our 
 journey, and will succour us, and hold us up in our goings, till he 
 introduce us into his own kingdom of joy and peace. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 1. In the previous chapter we find our Lord severely censuring 
 some of the cities of Judah for remaining unmoved by the mighty 
 works he had done in them; and in the very beginning of this 
 chapter we find the same people exhibiting their zeal for a traditional 
 observance of the Sabbath, condemning the Lord for an assumed 
 breach of its requirements. A t that time Jesus went on the* sabbath 
 day through the corn ; and his disciples were an hungred } and began 
 
294 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XII. 
 
 to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. It is the mark of a fallen church 
 that it is zealous for external observances, and careless about internal 
 principles, or, as our Lord expresses it, that its members pay tithe of 
 mint and anise and cummin, but neglect the weightier matters of the 
 law, judgment, mercy, and truth. This the Pharisees so completely 
 did, that they found great fault with the Lord for doing works of 
 mercy on the Sabbath day, as well as for walking through the corn- 
 fields. Our Lord did not, however, violate the Jewish sabbath, as 
 established by the Jewish law. He observed all the duties connected 
 with its rightful observance, but he did not conform to the ceremonial 
 additions that the church had made to them. But our Lord’s con- 
 duct, while consistent with the law, had a deeper cause and purpose 
 than the Pharisees dreamt of. The Sabbath was a representative 
 institution as well as a day of rest. The day is said to have -been 
 instituted to commemorate God’s having rested on the seventh day, 
 after the six days of creation. This assigned reason involves an 
 important spiritual idea. The account of the creation in Genesis is a 
 symbolical description of the spiritual creation or regeneration of 
 man, while in the highest sense it describes the glorification of the 
 Lord, which is regeneration in its divine degree. The six days’ work 
 are expressive of the states of spiritual labour which precede and 
 are preparatory to the state of spiritual rest. In the case of the Lord, 
 to whom the subject eminently relates, the six days’ work signifies 
 his states of temptation in his conflicts with the powers of darkness ; 
 while the sabbath signifies his state of glorification, which is rest 
 itself, and the origin of rest to heaven and to those who follow him 
 in the regeneration. All that the Lord did on the Sabbath day, 
 including his going through the corn, had therefore special reference 
 to the two works of glorification and regeneration. The Lord’s 
 glorification was the union of divinity and humanity in his own 
 person ; but this is a result of the union of goodness and truth in his 
 humanity. The image of this in man is the conjunction of goodness 
 and truth, or of charity and faith, in his external man, and the con-' 
 sequent conjunction of the external with the internal, which completes 
 his regeneration. The corn-field is an emblem of the church, and 
 consequently of the human mind, in an advanced stage of the regen- 
 erate life, the corn being a symbol of the spiritual good which the 
 church provides for thesupport of her children, and a type of that harvest 
 which t]ie Lord had just before sent his disciples forth to gather in. 
 And while we see in the corn a representative of the provision which 
 Jesus, as the Lord of the harvest as well as of the Sabbath, had made 
 
Chap. XII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 295 
 
 for the members of his church, the hunger of his disciples is expres- 
 sive of the desire or spiritual appetite which the Lord’s true disciples 
 have for the “ corn of heaven.” Standing or growing corn signifies 
 good as conceived and increasing in the mind, but not yet fully 
 brought forth into the life, and gathered into the garner of the 
 inner memory. The ears of corn signify the knowledge of what is 
 good ; while eating the com is expressive of the actual reception and 
 appropriation of the principles of goodness thus acquired, so as to 
 incorporate them with the inner life. 
 
 2. But when the Pharisees saw it , they said unto him , Behold , thy 
 disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day. The 
 Pharisees represent those persons whose religion consists in mere 
 formality and profession, and therefore also signify such thoughts 
 and feelings themselves in the natural mind. These offer opposition 
 to the spiritual principles there ; but this opposition only serves to 
 bring out the true spiritual ground of the orderly operation which 
 they oppose. All such opposition to what is good and true acts by 
 means of some perversion and misapplication of the truth, as was 
 in fact the case in the present instance. There was no violation of 
 the law in going through the corn on the Sabbath day ; while the act 
 of the disciples, when there, is expressly authorized: “When thou 
 comest into the standing corn of thy neighbour, then thou mayest 
 pluck the ears with thine hands ” (Deut. xiii. 25). 
 
 3, 4. The Lord justified the conduct of his disciples by what David 
 did , when he was an hung red, and they that were with him ; How he 
 entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not 
 lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only 
 for the priests. The Lord introduces this reference by asking the 
 Pharisees if they had not read what David did ; and it is presented 
 in this form for the purpose of teaching that the Lord desires to 
 excite inquiry in the minds of those with whom such suggestions arise. 
 That which the Lord cited was a very apposite case, for it was repre- 
 sentative, and therefore prophetic, of himself. David’s entering into 
 the house of God, and there receiving sacred bread from the officiat- 
 ing priest, represented the union of good and truth in the Lord’s 
 humanity. For the priest represented the principle of divine love or 
 goodness, and the king represented the principle of divine wisdom or 
 truth in the Lord’s humanity, the humanity itself being represented 
 by the house of God, in which the priest and the king were together 
 present. The union of divine good and truth in the Lord’s humanity 
 is described by the priest giving David the sacred bread — the bread 
 
296 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XII. 
 
 representing the principle of good ; the priest giving this bread to David 
 signifies the communication of divine good to divine truth, by which 
 union is effected between them. This does not, however, represent 
 complete and final union, for the Lord’s humanity was perfected suc- 
 cessively, or by distinct degrees, and one of those degrees is represented 
 in this historical fact. Besides receiving the hallowed bread, David 
 on that occasion received from Abimelech the priest the sword of 
 Goliath the Philistine, whom he had slain. As David represented the 
 Lord as divine truth, he represented him also as the Bedeemer, and in 
 this character he engaged in conflict with the powers of darkness. 
 Therefore David received from the priest, and in the Lord’s house, 
 both the hallowed bread and approved sword — the bread represent- 
 ing good and the sword truth — one for supporting, the other for 
 combating. 
 
 5. The Lord gives another case. Or have ye not read in the law , 
 how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the 
 sabbath, and are blameless ? What the Lord calls profaning the 
 Sabbath, consisted in preparing the sacrifices that were offered on that 
 day, this being servile work, like that of which the Pharisees accused 
 Jesus. This, like the previous case, is not to be regarded as being 
 adduced merely to justify what the Lord did, but also to describe 
 representatively his own divine work. For as the priest represented 
 the Lord as to divine good, so the priestly office represented the 
 Lord’s work of salvation. As the case of David and the priest, 
 which the Lord had previously mentioned, is descriptive of the union 
 of good and truth in the Lord’s humanity, the present case describes 
 the succeeding state, which is that of the Lord as divine good, in the 
 temple of his humanity, engaged in the work of salvation — the priests 
 representing the Lord in his priestly character, and the temple in 
 which they officiated representing the divine humanity. The Lord 
 speaks of their work on the Sabbath, because, as we have seen, the 
 Sabbath was the most sacred representative of the union of the 
 divinity and the humanity in the person of the Lord, and the conse- 
 quent divine rest into which the Lord entered after his temptation 
 conflicts. But this rest into which the Lord entered is not inaction, 
 but the most perfect activity. It is not labour, indeed, but work, and 
 is the great work of salvation, for the sake of which the Lord laboured 
 in effecting the work of redemption. The work of the priests in the 
 temple on the Sabbath eminently represented this work of salvation, 
 as did the Lord’s own works on the Sabbath, he having on that sacred 
 day performed many of his beneficent miracles, and on that day 
 
Chap. XII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 297 
 
 walked through the corn-fields, his disciples plucking the ears of 
 corn, that they might eat, and thus enter into the enjoyment of that 
 abundant provision which the Lord of the harvest and of the Sabbath 
 had made for them. 
 
 6, The Lord, however, justifies himself not only by parallel instances, 
 but by asserting his authority. But I say unto you , That in this 'place is 
 one greater than the temple. This assertion must have greatly offended 
 Jewish prejudice. One of the charges brought against the Lord, and 
 that on which he was condemned, was, that he had declared he would 
 destroy the temple and rear it up in three days ; on hearing which 
 the high priest rent his clothes, and pronounced the words to be blas- 
 phemy, when the whole Sanhedrim at once condemned him to be 
 guilty of death (Mark xiv. 58-64). The Lord spake of the temple of 
 his body (John ii. 21). In the Lord we are indeed to behold one 
 greater than the temple. How grand is the truth declared in the 
 Lord’s words! The temple, the glory of the Jewish church, when 
 seen to be a type of him who was to come, discloses the wonderful 
 truth, that the whole of the elaborate and splendid ceremonial revealed 
 from heaven was but the shadow of good things to come, whose sub- 
 stance Christ was. But the Lord is greater than the temple in a 
 higher sense. When he declared, “The Father is greater than I” 
 (John xiv. 28), he taught that the divinity was then greater than the 
 humanity, and that in heaven and the church divine good is greater 
 than divine truth. But when the Lord speaks of himself as greater 
 than the temple, his words, spiritually understood, are assertive of his 
 being the Father as well as the Son' — the divine as well as the human, 
 the essential Divine Good as well as the essential Divine Truth. He 
 is greater than the temple, as his habitation in us, when in our 
 estimation and experience his love is greater than his truth, or when 
 charity is greater than faith. 
 
 7. The Lord proceeds to point out to the Pharisees the real origin 
 of their having condemned the guiltless , which they would not have 
 done if they had known what this meaneth , I will have mercy , and not 
 sacrifice. This we have already considered (ch. ix. 13). This passage 
 occurs in Hosea vi. 6 : “ I desired mercy, and not sacrifice, and the 
 knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” Sacrifice, we have 
 seen, is here put for worship or piety, which the Pharisees regarded as 
 religion. This divine declaration shows that, even under the Jewish 
 dispensation, the superiority of mercy to sacrifice, or of charity to 
 piety, was distinctly taught. To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk 
 humbly with God, is really all that God requires. Other things are 
 
298 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XII, 
 
 included in human duty, but they are the means, of which these are 
 the end; for without these there is no religion. If the Pharisees had 
 cultivated the grace of mercy, as that which God requires both in 
 worship and in life, they would not have condemned the guiltless ; nor 
 will those condemn the guiltless who render mercy to God in their 
 conduct towards their fellow-creatures. 
 
 8. But how much less would they have been disposed to censure 
 the act of the Lord’s disciples on the Sabbath if they had known that 
 the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day ! The Lord’s claim to 
 this character is a claim to divinity : for no one can be Lord of the 
 Sabbath but he by whom the Sabbath was instituted. Spiritually, he 
 is Lord of the Sabbath, as being he whom the Sabbath represented, 
 and as being, through his divine work in the flesh, the Author of that 
 state of spiritual rest which the Sabbath signified. He is also the 
 Lord of the Sabbath as the Author and Pattern of the conjunction of 
 goodness and truth in the minds of his regenerate children. When 
 this, the sabbatical state, is formed in us, and the Lord’s love is the 
 ruling principle in our hearts and lives, then is Jesus practically to us 
 Lord of the Sabbath. This state of spiritual rest and peace is not 
 attained except by the overthrow of the kingdom of darkness within 
 us, and the submission of our natural thoughts and affections to the 
 laws of eternal order, the effecting of which is our six days’ work of 
 regeneration. The state of rest which succeeds is meant by the 
 Sabbath day, of which Jesus says he is the Lord; for day signifies 
 state. 
 
 9. The miracle and the circumstances connected with it, which come 
 now to be considered, afford a further exemplification of the difference 
 between the Lord’s doctrine and that op the Pharisees respecting the 
 Sabbath. When he was departed thence, he went into their synagogue. This 
 was on a Sabbath, though not the same day as that on which he and his 
 disciples walked through the corn (Luke vi. 6). A change of place is 
 a change of state. A synagogue being the symbol of doctrine, the 
 Lord’s entering into it signifies the influx of his divine truth into 
 the doctrine of the church, as it is in the minds of her members. 
 
 10. This influx is productive of different effects upon those who are 
 in the same doctrine, but in opposite states of life — the evil, like the 
 Pharisees, being excited to opposition, the good, like the infirm man, 
 brought into submission. Behold, there was a man which had his hand 
 withered. Palsied frames and withered members signify, as we have 
 seen, a state of the external man in which it refuses to obey the behests 
 of the internal. The hand is withered when any infirmity of temper, 
 
Chap. XII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 299 
 
 or other evil that has become habitual, prevents the concordant action 
 of the internal and of the external man, of the will and the life. But 
 the peculiar circumstance in this case was the tempting of Jesus by 
 the Pharisees. Before, it would appear, either the man had asked or 
 Jesus had spoken of a cure, the Pharisees proposed the question 
 whether it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath days. According to 
 Luke vi. 8, the Pharisees did not utter this question ; but J esus read 
 it in their thoughts, and addressed them accordingly — a singular 
 instance, showing that in the Lord’s sight speech and thought are one. 
 The question of the Pharisees proceeded from the evil intention of 
 drawing from the Lord a declaration that might injure him in the 
 estimation of the people. But every evil intention endeavours to effect 
 its purpose by ingenious reasonings, and some of these may even be 
 urged in the name of religion and virtue. So did the Pharisees when 
 they condemned the Lord’s merciful works of healing on the Sabbath 
 day. The insidiousness of such reasonings is marked by the Pharisees 
 attempting to carry out their opposition even to the Lord’s destruction ; 
 for false reasonings may proceed even to the destruction of truth. 
 These enemies of truth and goodness, as these principles were incar- 
 nated in the person of Jesus, asked him, Is it lawful to heal on the 
 Sabbath days ? that they might accuse him. Although J esus had as 
 yet performed no miracle on the Sabbath day, the Pharisees, who had 
 seen him walk through the corn-fields, supposed he would not be 
 more scrupulous about performing cures on that day, and therefore 
 resolved to try to draw from him a declaration that might be used 
 against him. 
 
 11, 12. One of the remarkable features in our Lord’s history is the 
 marvellous facility with which he defeats the attempts of the most 
 cunningly- devised schemes of his many and skilful enemies to entrap 
 him in his words ; and he defeats them generally, as he did the 
 tempter when he came to him, by means of that very Word in whose 
 laws they trusted, and by which they sought to betray him. When 
 asked, “Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day?” he answered by 
 demanding of them, What man shall there be am,ong you that shall have 
 one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day , will he not lay hold 
 on it, and lift it out ? This answer was sufficient not only to silence 
 them, but to put them to shame. In the law to which the Lord 
 refers (Deut. xxii. 4), there is nothing said about the Sabbath day, but 
 only about the duty of helping a brother’s beast out of the pit into 
 which it had fallen; yet the Jews did not scruple to do this on the 
 Sabbath day. How much more might the Lord on the Sabbath day 
 
300 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XII. 
 
 deliver from a more painful and helpless condition a much more 
 precious object ! But let us look at this as it applies to ourselves. 
 The sheep and the man are the symbols of two different affections — a 
 natural affection being meant by the sheep, and a rational or spiritual 
 affection, by the man. Thus understood, How much is a man better 
 than a sheep ? Of how much greater value are the affections that have 
 spiritual and eternal things for their objects, than those that are fixed 
 upon the things of sense and time ? Of how much more importance 
 is it also to attend to the spiritual than to the natural, both in others 
 and in ourselves? The natural man, even when from motives of bene- 
 volence he seeks the improvement of his neighbour or himself, seeks 
 only to elevate the natural affections, and place them on higher natural 
 objects. But the spiritual man, while he does not neglect the natural 
 affections in himself or others, makes the spiritual the object of his 
 chief regard. Thus he esteems the man as better than the sheep, 
 and seeks to deliver those whom disease has disabled or whom Satan 
 has bound (Luke xiii. 14). Like his Lord, he is ever ready to do this 
 on the Sabbath day. For while the Sabbath of the Pharisee is but an 
 outward sanctity, that of the true Christian is a spiritual state, in 
 which he works the works of God. 
 
 The conclusion which our Lord established from his address to the 
 Pharisees was, that it was lawful to do well, or rather to do good, on 
 the Sabbath day. Looking at the subject only in its literal sense, 
 this is a principle that it were happy for us faithfully to act upon. 
 The Sabbath is a day for religious instruction and for the exercise of 
 charity. This is the description of the Christian Sabbath, and it 
 accords with our Lord’s declaration and with his practice. And his 
 words are applicable to the Sabbath as a heavenly state of life, and to 
 heaven itself as well; for doing good is the essential of spiritual life 
 both on earth and in heaven. 
 
 13. When Jesus had ended his address to the Pharisees, who seem 
 to have made no attempt to gainsay his heavenly doctrine, Then saith 
 he to the man , Stretch forth thine hand . How was he to stretch forth 
 that withered hand ? Faith in him who gave the command induced 
 him to make the effort to obey, and in the effort he received the power 
 to do as he was commanded. Thus it ever is with the willing and 
 faithful. The power to do the Lord’s will is always given. The 
 power comes in the attempt to use it. But why attempt to use what 
 we seem not to possess ? The impotent man did not reason thus. 
 He knew his hand to be powerless; he had often essayed to use it, 
 and had as often failed. So do we fail when our attempts originate in 
 
Chap. XII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 301 
 
 our own strength; but so soon as we make the effort in obedience to 
 the Lord’s command, his strength is imparted to us, and the successful 
 result follows in due course. In the effort and the act the withered 
 hand was restored ; nor is it simply said to have been restored, but 
 restored whole like as the other. The two hands, like the two feet, 
 correspond to the power of the two faculties of will and understanding 
 — the hands to the power of these faculties in the internal man, the feet 
 to their power in the external man. When one of these two members 
 is diseased or powerless, it represents the want of correspondence 
 between the state and activity of the two faculties, which injures or 
 destroys their harmony and their use. When the will refuses to act 
 concordantly with the understanding, or the understanding with the 
 will, there we see a withered hand ; and when divine mercy effects 
 the removal of the obstructing cause, the hand is restored whole “like 
 as the other.” 
 
 14. The Pharisees, so far from being convinced by this exhibition of 
 the Lord’s power, or conciliated by the benevolence of his act, become 
 more stubborn in their unbelief and more exasperated in their opposition. 
 Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him , how they 
 might destroy him. Evil shuns the presence of goodness, falsehood the 
 presence of truth. It is thus that the evil, inwardly in this life and 
 outwardly also in the other, go out from the presence of the Lord. It 
 is thus, too, that the malignant thoughts of the unregenerate mind shun 
 the true light, and retire into their own darkness to plot against the 
 truth, how to destroy it. Falsity is the opposite of truth; but its destruc- 
 tive tendency is proportioned to the evil by which it is actuated. As 
 error may be redeemed by purity of intention, so falsity is rendered 
 more destructive in proportion to the mind’s hatred of goodness. And 
 when this hatred takes possession of the heart, the intellect becomes 
 inventive of means for accomplishing its purposes. Yet, however 
 cunningly devised the schemes of the unrighteous may be, there is no en- 
 chantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel. 
 How much less against Him whom Jacob and Israel represented, and 
 who is the Author of all that makes the church, both in its external 
 and internal principles ! 
 
 15. The action of our Lord in reference to the proceedings of the 
 Pharisees is deserving of our attention in its literal as well as in its 
 spiritual sense. When Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence. 
 This is not the only instance of the Lord withdrawing from a place of 
 threatened danger. He had at his command divine power; yet, 
 although he was God, he acted as a man, both because it behoved him 
 
302 
 
 ST. MATTHEW, 
 
 [Chap. XII. 
 
 to do so, and because in all things be was to be a pattern to men. 
 He instructs us in this practical way that we are to act with prudence, 
 and not leave ourselves to the machinations of our enemies. Even 
 when we may have the power to defend ourselves, it is not always wise 
 to use it. It is often better both for ourselves and our enemies to 
 imitate the example of Him who was as wise as he was good, and as 
 merciful as he was powerful, — to avoid rather than to resist evil. In 
 the spiritual sense, as this circumstance applies to individual man, 
 Jesus withdraws himself from the sphere of evil, by drawing his truth 
 inward towards the interiors of the mind, when evil in the external 
 is excited into active opposition to good, in order to draw after him 
 man’s better thoughts and affections, and there to carry on his divine 
 work of restoring them to a state of healthy activity. These are the 
 great multitudes that followed him, and of whom it is said, he healed 
 them all. May these believing multitudes be found in us, and be 
 ready to follow the Lord, when evil influences compel him, so to speak, 
 to withdraw himself from the more open and ordinary scene of his 
 saving operations ; and may they be delivered by him from the evils and 
 disorder that still adhere to them ! 
 
 16, 17. Those whom the Lord cured he charged that they should 
 not make him known. This charge differs from that given to the leper 
 (viii. 4), which we have already considered. The leper was desired to 
 “ tell no man” that Jesus had cured him : here the multitudes that he 
 cured are charged not to make him known. It cannot be supposed 
 that the Lord was literally afraid of the Pharisees, yet it is not incon- 
 sistent to suppose that the Lord’s reason for withdrawing himself from 
 them might also dictate the command that he should not be made 
 known. The Lord’s charge not to make him known was no doubt 
 grounded in the same benevolent cause that led him to thank the 
 Father that he had hid these things from the wise and prudent, and 
 had revealed them unto babes. To the well-disposed, knowledge is a 
 power for good ; to the ill-disposed, it is a power for evil — and there- 
 fore to the one it is a means of salvation, to the other, of condemna- 
 tion. The same mercy that grants it to the good withholds it from 
 the evil. That this is the distinction the Lord had in view would 
 seem to be indicated by the prophecy quoted from Isaiah ; for the 
 Gentiles are there the only ones mentioned to whom the Lord had 
 come to show judgment, and the Gentiles signify those who are in 
 simple good, and thence in the desire and capacity of receiving truth ; 
 while the Jews, as they then were, have a contrary representation, 
 and may be said to have almost destroyed that capacity in themselves. 
 
Chap. XII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 303 
 
 18. The prophecy relating to the Lord, as quoted by Matthew, 
 says, — Behold my servant , whom I have chosen; my beloved , in whom 
 my soul is well pleased. The Lord is called a servant — the servant of 
 Jehovah — with respect to his divine humanity, because he served his 
 Father by doing his will, as he frequently declared ; by which is meant 
 that he brought all things in the spiritual world into order, and at the 
 same time taught men the way to heaven. It is, therefore, the Divine 
 Humanity which is meant by “ my servant, whom I have chosen,” or 
 on whom I have laid hold, and by “ my beloved, in whom my soul is 
 well pleased.” The Lord is called a servant in respect to the Divine 
 truth by which these effects were produced, and beloved, with respect 
 to the Divine good from which they were produced. From this being 
 the case, the Lord is called chosen of the Father, and his beloved in 
 whom his soul is well pleased. To see the true meaning and force of 
 these words, we must reflect that all these expressions of relationship 
 and endearment between the Father and the Son are descriptive of 
 the relationship, and the infinite sympathy and infinitely perfect union, 
 that exist between the Divine and Human of the Lord, by which the 
 salvation of the human race is provided for. And when Jehovah 
 speaks of Jesus, those principles in the human which had been 
 received from the Divine, and by which union was effected between 
 them, are to be understood. Thus the Divine truth in the Son was 
 the servant, and the Divine good from the Father in the Son was 
 the beloved. It is therefore said of the servant that the Father had 
 chosen, or taken hold of him; for it was by the Divine truth in the 
 humanity that the Divine love took hold of man, both in the person of 
 the Saviour, and through him of the saved ; and therefore, also, is it 
 said of the beloved that the soul of the Father was well pleased in him, 
 because the “ soul” is the Divine wisdom, and good pleasure is the 
 Divine love. The soul of Jehovah was the Divine truth, which the 
 Lord was as to his humanity in the world, and in this was the Divine 
 love. The same great truth is expressed in these words of the prophet 
 as in those of the Father, — “ This is my beloved Son,” or the Son of my 
 love, “ in whom I am well pleased.” The Son of the Father’s love is 
 the Divine wisdom from the Divine love, which was and is the Sou. 
 The prophet proceeds to say, — I will put my spirit upon him, and he 
 shall show judgment to the Gentiles. The Spirit of J ehovah is the Divine 
 proceeding, which, it is said (John iii. 34), the Father gave without 
 measure to the Son; for the humanity received the Spirit of Jehovah, 
 or all the divine attributes, infinitely, and so became divine. But the 
 Spirit of God is, distinctively, the Divine truth; and in reference to 
 
304 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XII. 
 
 the Lord having this put upon him, it is said that he would bring forth 
 “judgment to the Gentiles” — meaning that the Lord would impart of 
 his saving truth to all who are in good, or who have in them the good 
 ground of an honest heart; and would thereby effect in them that work 
 of individual saving judgment which consists in separating their good 
 from their evil — gathering their good as wheat into the garner, and dis- 
 persing the chaff, which “ the wind driveth away.” 
 
 19. As a further effect of the Lord’s being the servant and beloved 
 of the Father, and receiving his Spirit, it is declared, He shall not strive 
 nor cry ; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. This does 
 not mean that the Lord would not teach in the streets; for the 
 unfaithful are represented as saying to him in the judgment, “ Thou 
 hast taught in our streets.” It only means, literally, that he would 
 not teach with noise and vehemence, but with gentleness and meekness. 
 The streets of a city are the truths of doctrine, or, personally con- 
 sidered, the thoughts of the understanding. In these the Lord teaches : 
 they are the avenues to the will, which it is the great purpose of his 
 labours to reach. But while the Lord teaches, he does not strive nor 
 cry, — he does not strive with or force the will, nor does he cry to or 
 overbear the understanding ; neither does any on^ hear his voice in the 
 streets, — he does not act compulsorily on the affections of truth, so as 
 to compel assent. 
 
 20. Therefore it proceeds to say, A bruised reed shall he not 
 break , and the smoking flax shall he not quench. The reed, as we 
 have seen (xi. 7), is a symbol of truth such as it is in the letter 
 of the Word. A bruised reed is such truth, as apprehended by 
 the Gentiles and by the young and the simple, who see it through 
 the fallacies of the senses, and therefore apprehend it sensuously. 
 Flax is also a symbol of truth, but of a higher order ; and the 
 slumbering fire, whose existence is faintly indicated by the smoke, 
 signifies some small degree of love in truth, feebly burning and 
 struggling for existence. That the Lord will not break the bruised 
 reed nor quench the smoking flax, is a promise that in acting on the 
 young and the Gentile mind, he does not break down their simple 
 faith, though not in agreement with the genuine truths of his Word, 
 nor will he extinguish their feeble love, though it be more natural 
 than spiritual. On the contrary, the Lord in his goodness leads his 
 creatures by whatever in their hearts is not opposed to his love, and 
 by whatever in their understandings is not hostile to his truth. Were 
 it not for this stooping to our infirmities, and taking hold of us by 
 our imperfect thoughts and feelings, we never could be brought to 
 
Chap. XII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 305 
 
 know and love God as he is. The Lord thus leads us till he send 
 forth judgment unto victory — that is, until genuine truth can be im- 
 planted in the mind, and its power can be exerted so as to overcome 
 our errors and evils. 
 
 21. Then in his name shall the Gentiles trust. The Gentiles trust 
 in the Lord’s name when good, at first natural, is made spiritual by 
 the reception of truth ; for truth spiritualizes good by directing it to 
 true objects and guiding it to right ends. 
 
 22. Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil , blind and 
 dumb. This double calamity, we ought thankfully to acknowledge, 
 is one of rare occurrence. Two cases only are known to have 
 occurred in recent times, of which that of Laura Bridgman, in 
 America, is the most interesting. In her case we see how much can 
 be done by intelligent Christian philanthropy to mitigate the worst 
 states of physical imperfection, and reach the mind through the 
 densest covering which Providence has permitted to be cast over it. 
 Such rare instances are sufficient to show us how great a blessing we 
 possess in sight and hearing, as the two great avenues to the heart 
 and intellect, and how much we should be disposed to do to aid 
 others in whom they are closed. The one whom our Lord cured had 
 not, however, been blind and dumb from birth ; but, like other of 
 the maladies then prevalent, this was the result of demoniacal posses- 
 sion. There is nothing directly stated in the narrative to authorize 
 this conclusion ; but in Luke xi. 14, where the same case is recorded, 
 we read that “when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake.” We 
 read of evil spirits taking possession of the organs of the human body, 
 but here we find that they can not only use them for their own ends, 
 but, when it suits their purpose, can entirely suspend their functions. 
 Great as such a calamity as this is, that which it represents is far 
 greater. For that which this singular case represents is nothing less 
 than the suspension of the functions of the understanding and will in 
 everything relating to spiritual life. A mind whose affections and 
 perceptions of the good and truth of heaven are dead, rendered of none 
 effect by the overpowering influence of some demoniacal principle, 
 combining in itself both falsity and evil, is the spiritual state represented 
 by the blind and dumb. The afflicted person does not represent one 
 whose heart and intellect are wilfully closed against the voice of love 
 and the light of truth, but one who is labouring under some strong 
 temptation, or under the pressure of circumstances that lay him open 
 to the seductive power of evil and deceitful spirits, by whom he is 
 held for the time in spiritual thraldom. Jesus healing this afflicted 
 
 x 
 
306 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XII. 
 
 man teaches us again, that he who came to destroy the works of the 
 devil is able to deliver from the power of evil spirits, and, curing the 
 most dreadful and hopeless of spiritual disorders, to restore the powers 
 of the soul to the freest exercise of their functions, insomuch that even 
 the blind and dumb both speak and see. 
 
 23. So extraordinary was this miracle felt to be, that the people were 
 amazed , and said , Is not this the son of David ? Amazement is the 
 effect of beholding some extraordinary and unexplained phenomenon, 
 and may be produced by beholding or contemplating the exhibition of 
 some extraordinary instance of moral excellence, as well as of physical 
 power. Amazement at our Lord’s works must have combined these 
 two; for his goodness was as great as his power. His beneficent 
 works could not fail to produce in the well-disposed of the beholders 
 reverence and admiration as well as amazement. We therefore find 
 that this miracle forced upon the minds of the multitude a conviction 
 of the true character of Jesus, as expressed in the affirmative question, 
 “ Is not this the son of David ?” This is equivalent to saying that he 
 was the Messiah. But the form in which it was expressed involves a 
 particular meaning. David was a type of the Lord as a king, or as 
 the Divine Truth, conquering and governing — conquering his enemies, 
 the powers of darkness, and governing his church — and, individually 
 considered, overcoming men’s evils and ruling in their hearts. The 
 Lord is called the son of David, the offspring of David, the branch or 
 germ that grows out of the roots of J esse ; and this idea of derivation 
 directs us to the Lord as divine truth in us, which subdues our evils 
 and enmity, and makes us his willing and obedient subjects, — branches 
 that grow out of and live in him as the true vine. 
 
 24. But if the people or multitude are thus led by his wonderful 
 works to acknowledge and receive him, not so the Pharisees. A 
 negative state is only made more negative by that which brings con- 
 viction or confirmation to the willing mind. And even the greatest 
 and most beneficent miracles, which some suppose so powerful to con- 
 vince, can do nothing to create belief. The Pharisees could not deny 
 the miracle which our Lord performed. They did not even attempt 
 to evade its force, or explain it away; but they showed that what men 
 cannot deny they will pervert. When the Pharisees heard it they said , 
 This fellow doth not cast out devils hut by Beelzebub , the prince of the 
 devils. By Beelzebub, who was the god of Ekron, is understood the 
 god of all falses, for the name of this Beelzebub literally means the 
 god of flies, and flies signify the falses of the sensual mind — thus all 
 falses. This is further evident from the Lord substituting Satan for 
 
Chap. XII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 307 
 
 Beelzebub, “If Satan cast out Satan” (v. 26), and opposing to this the 
 real power by which he cast out demons, the Spirit of God ( v . 28) ; for 
 Satan means all falsities, and the Spirit of God all truth. And here, 
 indeed, in the conduct of the Pharisees was both exemplified and 
 represented the sum and the essence of all falsehood, not simply the 
 denial of the Lord’s power to work miracles, but the ascription of his 
 miracles, and of this as one of the most marvellous and benevolent, to 
 the demoniac power itself. Can so great a wickedness be the symbol 
 of anything in us, or in any who confess the name of Jesus? This 
 crime is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and its nature and possi- 
 bility will come to be considered under verses 31, 32. 
 
 25. And Jesus knew their thoughts. This is one of those instances 
 that bring to view the divinity of the Saviour. “ Thou knowest my 
 thoughts afar off,” is one of the characteristics of Deity. From this 
 knowledge of their thoughts the Lord proceeds to show the fallacy of their 
 explanation, and then the wickedness of their charge. He answered 
 their explanation by saying, Every kingdom divided against itself is 
 brought to desolation , and every city or house divided against itself shall 
 not stand. The argument here is plain and conclusive. It is only sur- 
 prising that the hatred of the Pharisees should so blind them as to lead 
 them to propose the idea that Satan should overturn his own kingdom. 
 Leaving the literal sense, which carries its own weight with it, both as a 
 refutation of the Pharisees and an instance of the extraordinary wisdom 
 of Jesus, we turn to the spiritual sense, which is more profitable for 
 our spiritual instruction. The kingdom signifies the church, and a 
 city and house signify the truth and good of its doctrine, which do not 
 stand, but fall to pieces, if they are not in unanimous agreement. 
 This is to be understood of the church in its least form in the mind, as 
 well as of the church in its largest form in the world. This, too, must 
 be in harmony within itself, in order that it may stand; but if it be 
 divided against itself it must come to desolation. In this particular 
 sense, the house is a correspondent of the will, the city, of the under- 
 standing, and the kingdom, of both together in the life. Each must 
 be harmonious in itself and with the others, that there may be 
 stability ; but if each and all are divided, there must be dissolution. 
 
 26. And if Satan cast out Satan , he is divided against himself; how 
 shall then his kingdom stand ? Although the kingdom of darkness is 
 one of discord, yet it is not divided against itself as a power that is 
 opposed to its own principles, and one that desires and labours to 
 effect their destruction. In the practical application of the Lord’s 
 declaration we see its absolute truth. Falsehood and evil cannot, and 
 
303 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XII. 
 
 if they could they would not, deliver us from their own power and 
 dominion. Truth only can cast out what is false, good only can cast 
 out what is evil. Therefore, in casting out demons the Lord mani- 
 fested his true character as the enemy of Satan, and of all hell and 
 evil, and the only Deliverer of the world and of the soul from their 
 dominion. 
 
 27. And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils , by whom do your children 
 cast them out? This is one of those touching appeals which 
 the Lord in his wisdom and goodness sometimes makes to the 
 heart and conscience of man for the truth of his doctrine and 
 the beneficence of his acts. Therefore they shall be your judges. 
 How can men condemn in another what they justify in their 
 own? But let us see what is the spiritual sense of these words. 
 Whether the sons or disciples of the Pharisees really were able, or 
 only professed to be able, to cast out evil spirits is of no consequence. 
 If they were able to do it, it was as the Egyptian magicians were able 
 to perform wonders imitative of the miracles of Moses, — by means of 
 the truth which they possessed, and perverted to their own ends. But 
 if truth in the hands of a human and even insincere instrument was 
 able to cast out devils, how much more the Truth itself ! How much 
 more unreasonable and wicked, therefore, was the imputation of 
 sorcery against him who was the Truth in person ! The sons in this 
 case are their judges ; for the truths that the evil possess are the 
 witnesses that convict and the judges that condemn them. 
 
 28. But how different the case when it is acknowledged that devils 
 are, and can only be, cast out by the Spirit of God — that is, by the 
 power of divine truth proceeding from the Lord’s divine humanity. 
 This is the truth ; for none can really cast out evil spirits, and the evils 
 and falsities in which they reside, but the Spirit of God, that leads into 
 all truth, and makes us free from the slavery of sin. And when this 
 is experienced and acknowledged, then is the kingdom of God come 
 nigh unto us; for the government of the Lord’s truth and love can 
 only be established in the mind when the government of what is evil 
 and false is destroyed. 
 
 29. The Lord gives another illustration of the same general truth. 
 Or else how can one enter into a strong mans house, and spoil his goods, 
 except he first bind the strong man ? and then he will spoil his house. 
 Without recurring to the literal meaning, which is sufficiently obvious 
 and striking, we turn at once to the spiritual sense. And as falsity 
 as opposed to truth, and truth as opposed to falsity, is the subject of 
 the verses immediately preceding, evil as opposed to good, and good as 
 
Chap. XII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 309 
 
 opposed to evil is the subject of the present verse. The house here 
 mentioned is the mind, especially the will, the strong man is self-love, 
 and his goods are evils, which are the objects of that love. But how 
 can love to God enter into the will as its habitation, and remove the 
 evils that are there, unless self-love be brought under subjection, 
 bound by those truths which are the laws of order, and thus deprived 
 of the dominion which it has hitherto exercised ? 
 
 30. When the Lord had delivered these momentous truths, he laid 
 down this principle as a conclusion, — He that is not with me is against 
 me; and he that gather eth not with me scattereth abroad . In Mark ix. 
 40 we have the inverse of this : “ He that is not against us is on our 
 part.” He that is not with me in principle is against me, and he that 
 is not against us in principle is on our part. The end determines the 
 state of every one. This end is evil or good, and essentially determines 
 whether we are with the Lord as the essential good and truth. This 
 end has its seat in the will. And such as is the state of the will, such 
 is the state of the understanding. And as the will is either with or 
 against the Lord, the understanding either gathereth with him or 
 scattereth abroad. If the will is in good, the understanding gathers 
 truths which are in favour of the Lord, and gives the intellect harmo- 
 nious and united action with the Divine wisdom ; but if the will is not 
 in good, the understanding scatters truths — disperses and dissipates 
 them, leaving that faculty a prey to falsities. 
 
 31, 32. The Lord comes now, after refuting the Pharisees’ explana- 
 tion, to set forth the spiritual character of their accusation. Wherefore 
 I say unto you , A ll manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto 
 men : but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven 
 unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man , it 
 shall be forgiven him : but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it 
 shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. 
 The sin against the Holy Spirit, especially as distinguished from a word 
 against the Son of man, with the unpardonable nature of the one and the 
 pardonable nature of the other, has been felt to present some difficulties. 
 The sin of the Pharisees was directed against the Lord himself, and 
 yet it is treated as a sin against the Ploly Spirit. It is true that their 
 charge against him — that he performed his miracles by Beelzebub — 
 involved the denial that he did them by the Spirit of God, but in this 
 charge Jesus himself was implicated. The truth is, that the accusa- 
 tion which the Pharisees brought against the Lord involves both these 
 sins, since Jesus was and is at once the Holy Spirit and the Son of 
 mam The subject can only be understood by a knowledge of the dis- 
 
310 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XII. 
 
 tinction between the Spirit and the Son of man, not as divine persons, 
 but as divine principles. In relation to the Lord himself, the Holy- 
 Spirit is his Divine spiritual principle, and the Son of man is his Divine 
 natural principle. But this distinction may be best seen by consider- 
 ing the subject in relation to the Word; for whatever relates to the 
 Lord relates to his Word also. Thus considered, the Holy Spirit is 
 the spiritual sense of the Word, and the Son of man is its literal 
 sense. To violate the sanctity and pervert the meaning of the Word 
 in its spiritual sense is to be guilty of blasphemy against the Lloly 
 Spirit ; but wrongly to interpret the literal sense is to speak a word 
 against the Son of man. The former sin cannot be forgiven, but the 
 latter may. The reason is this, — The spiritual sense of the Word 
 consists of naked and genuine truths, or of divine truths as they are 
 seen in the light of heaven ; but the literal sense consists of truths 
 clothed with appearances — truths as seen in the light of the world. 
 The obscure and apparent truths of the literal sense of the Word may 
 be misunderstood, and may therefore be misinterpreted without a sinful 
 intention, and without producing errors of doctrine destructive of 
 spiritual life. The numerous sects among Christians are a standing 
 evidence of how various interpretations may be given of the letter of the 
 Word, and the history of the church is no less prolific in examples. In 
 many of the systems of Christian doctrine there is a word, in some of 
 them a cruel word, against the Son of man. Yet this can be forgiven • 
 for in every doctrine and sect men may be saved — because in every one 
 the heart may be sincere, though the understanding may be in error. 
 The case is different with those who receive and acknowledge the 
 spiritual sense. The truths of this sense being real and not apparent, 
 naked and not clothed, they cannot be misunderstood, and therefore 
 cannot be misinterpreted. He, therefore, who would evade their 
 meaning or their force has no alternative but to deny or pervert them. 
 This was the sin of which the Pharisees were guilty. The work which 
 the Lord performed by the Spirit of God was so plainly supernatural, 
 if not divine, that they could not deny it to be miraculous; but in 
 order to evade its force, they impiously ascribed it to diabolical powers, 
 and thus perverted the truth, even to a denial of the Lord — to believe 
 in whom is life eternal. The Lord provides, as far as can be done 
 consistently with man’s free-will, against this greatest of all sins ; and 
 that men may not presumptuously enter into the spiritual sense, and 
 profane its pure and holy truths, he has covered it with a vail of 
 apparent truths, as a protection and guard. This special providence 
 is the cherubim that stand at the gate of Paradise; and the flaming 
 
Chap. XII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 311 
 
 sword that turns every way to guard the way to the tree of life is 
 the Word in its literal sense. This serves as a protection to the internal 
 sense, because it is capable of being variously interpreted without 
 being destroyed; and is thus a means in the hand of the Lord for 
 guarding the way to the living truth of its spiritual sense, lest the 
 hand of the profane should be put forth to take of the fruit of the tree 
 of life, to eat of which would bring upon the evil a never-ending 
 living death. It has been a question whether the unpardonable 
 nature of this sin is to be understood as implying that one who com- 
 mits it is placed beyond the reach of possible forgiveness. The language 
 of the Lord is certainly peculiar, — Neither in this world , neither in the 
 world to come. Yet there is nothing inconsistent in it. It is literally 
 true in the contrasted cases ; for a wrong interpretation of the letter, 
 if not corrected in this life, can be corrected in the next; but not so a 
 violation of the spirit of the Word. In the spiritual sense, by “this 
 world” is understood the natural mind, and by the next world, the 
 spiritual mind. This sense teaches us that “a word against the Son 
 of man” may be confined to the natural mind, but that the sin against 
 the Holy Ghost extends to both the spiritual and natural. That which 
 is only of the natural mind can be removed in the other world, but 
 that which is engraven on both the natural and the spiritual parts of 
 the mind cannot, but remains to eternity. It is possible, however, 
 that the greater sin may be repented of in the present world, and 
 therefore forgiven. 
 
 33. One kind or degree of profemation is hypocrisy, which consists 
 in speaking and acting well and thinking and willing ill. This was 
 one of the sins of which the Pharisees were guilty. It is in reference 
 to this that our Lord said, Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; 
 or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt : for the tree is known 
 by his fruit. The tree itself is the man and the fruit is his works. Our 
 Lord teaches in these words that it is less sinful to be openly evil than 
 hypocritically good. It is not to be inferred from this that the evil 
 should be allowed freely to practise wickedness. The Lord’s words 
 only mean that, spiritually, an evil heart is hardened in evil by the 
 outward pretence of holiness. In the other world the universal law 
 is, that the tree and the fruit must be alike, both good or both evil : 
 the external and the internal make one ; the mind can no longer be 
 divided. In the more precise spiritual sense the tree is the will, the 
 leaves are the understanding, and the fruit is the outward life. As 
 we are not to judge of a tree by its leaves, but by its fruit, so we are 
 not to judge a man by his faith, but by his works. In this world, 
 
312 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XII. 
 
 indeed, even works may deceive; but it is enough for us that we judge 
 so far as we can see. No doubt, on the large scale, principles are 
 known by their results, though individually we may not always be 
 able to discover the true character of a man by his actions. This, 
 however, is a truth by which we are to judge ourselves more than 
 others, and by which we shall all be judged in the other life. 
 
 34. Our Lord now addresses the Pharisees in their true characters. 
 0 generation of vipers. The cunning and malignant, who deceive by 
 fair appearances, are spiritual serpents and vipers. The serpent is an 
 emblem of the sensual part of man’s nature ; and in this have origin- 
 ated all the fallacies that have ever presented evil under the guise of 
 good, or error under the name of truth, since man was first persuaded 
 by it to eat of the tree of knowledge, that he might be as God, know- 
 ing; g;ood and evil. To ascribe the Lord’s beneficent works to the 
 prince of the devils, was truly to put evil for good and darkness for 
 light. Error may be unintentional, but falsehood has its root in 
 cherished evil. How can ye, being evil , speak good things ? In the sight 
 of God nothing that evil men speak or that they do can be good — an 
 evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit. The word and the work are 
 essentially such as the will and intention are. Truth that is spoken 
 to deceive is falsehood ; good that is done from dissimulation is wicked- 
 ness. This was not, however, the case in the present instance with 
 the Pharisees : they spake the falsehood which their hearts prompted 
 and their thoughts conceived. Out of the abundance of the heart the 
 mouth speaketh was true of them. And it is true of all, though not 
 always discerned by all, except by Him who discerns the thoughts and 
 intents of the heart. 
 
 35. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth 
 good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil 
 things. The heart is the treasury whence issue the good or evil that 
 the lips utter or the hands perform ; and as our words and works are 
 effects from the good or evil intentions of the will, and of the true 
 or false thoughts of the understanding, so do they contain them. 
 Our words and works are reproductive of the good or evil that produces 
 them ; they, like fruit, have the seed within themselves that produce 
 trees of the same quality as that by which they were produced. The 
 tree which exists from a seed, exists again in the seed that it produces. 
 In the small seed treasured up in the heart of the fruit the whole tree 
 is comprehended ; its whole history is written ; its whole experience 
 is expressed. So in our words and works our whole being is embodied. 
 But to read our entire life and character in what we say and do, is the 
 
Chap. XII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 313 
 
 prerogative of Him only who is to judge every man according to his 
 works. Men and angels may see something of one’s true character in 
 his works, but these are only gleams of light from Him who is the 
 light itself. 
 
 36. The Lord therefore proceeds to say, But I say unto you , That 
 every idle word that men shall speak , they shall give account thereof in 
 the day of judgment. These words are spoken with immediate refer- 
 ence to the sin of which the Pharisees had been guilty. They are 
 designed to teach us how carefully we should guard the door of our lips. 
 Hot only blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and a word against the 
 Son of man, but every idle word that men speak shall be brought into 
 judgment. We are not to include in these idle words everything we 
 say that is not solemn or important. Words may be trivial and yet 
 innocent. We are to make a distinction, too, between the lighter 
 conversation that serves as an intellectual recreation, and the idle 
 talk that forms the business and delight of life. One of the most per- 
 nicious and sinful kinds of idle words is that of using the language of 
 Holy Scripture to garnish idle talk. When seriously and judiciously 
 introduced, the language of Scripture serves both to adorn and invigo- 
 rate human composition ; but nothing is so indicative of bad taste and 
 the absence of true religious sentiment, and, above all, of the want 
 of reverence for the most sacred things, as to drag in the language of 
 Scripture to give a quaint or ludicrous turn of expression. One 
 great evil arising out of this is, that sacred language becomes so con- 
 nected with profane ideas, that their separation is a matter of difficulty 
 even in the other life. 
 
 37. The Lord continues : For by thy words thou shalt be justified , 
 and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. That is but a part of the 
 doctrine that we shall be judged according to our works. Words are 
 acts, and come forth from the will as much as deeds. Whatever any 
 one wills from the love principle, he wills to do, to think, to under- 
 stand, and to speak. Words are verbal acts, and they reflect the 
 character as faithfully and completely as the deeds which the hand 
 performs. Every word we utter, as well as every act we do, is in- 
 scribed on the memory as distinctly and much more indelibly than 
 if written in a book, and will be read aloud in the day of our judg- 
 ment, as if it came from the hands, instead of the lips. How much 
 good and how much evil, how much sweetness and how much bitter- 
 ness, flow from the tongue ! How much may the tongue do to enlighten 
 and comfort, to promote harmony and peace ; and how much may it 
 do to darken counsel and disturb peace, to create discord and conten- 
 
314 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XII. 
 
 tion ! In the words which our Lord addressed to the Pharisees there 
 is something deserving of our particular attention. In nothing is 
 Christianity more distinguished from Judaism than in considering 
 words and actions as deriving their character from the motive which 
 gives them birth — the end they are intended to serve. The motive is 
 not measured by the act, but the act by the motive. Yet motive is 
 not the only thing taken into account. The will, as the motive power 
 of the mind, does not of itself determine the character of an action. 
 The understanding, as the directing power, has its share in every act 
 performed. It is to include both these faculties, which are united in 
 everything we say or do, that both words and works are spoken of as 
 certain to be brought into judgment. Good and evil are not of the 
 will alone, nor are truth and falsity of the understanding alone, 
 although we ascribe them distinctively to these faculties. Good and evil 
 are produced by the will acting through the understanding, and truth 
 and falsity are produced by the understanding acting from the will. 
 Both faculties are concerned in producing every word we speak and 
 every action we do, and both are included in every word and 
 action when produced. Whether, therefore, we are judged by our 
 words or works, or by both, we are judged as to our whole mind 
 and life. 
 
 38, 39. As if to show how little impression these solemn words had 
 made upon them, Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees 
 answered , saying , Master, we would see a sign from thee. They had 
 seen the Lord perform a great miracle, yet they ask him to give them 
 a sign. There would be no real meaning in this demand, nor in the 
 Lord’s answer to it, if there was no difference between a sign and a 
 miracle. By a miracle is meant that which excites, strikes, and occa- 
 sions amazement ; but by a sign is meaut that which declares, testifies, 
 and persuades concerning what is inquired after. Thus, a sign moves 
 the understanding and its faith, and a miracle moves the will and its 
 affections ; for the will and its affection are excited, struck, and 
 amazed, and the understanding and its faith are persuaded, and to 
 them declaration and testification are applied. The Lord’s miracles 
 were works of benevolence ; and their spiritual purpose, with regard to 
 those who beheld them, was to affect their hearts with a sense of the 
 Divine goodness, and incline them to listen to the teaching of his 
 truth. A sign, on the other hand, is a work of power, having nothing 
 in its character to affect the hearts of the spectators, but is a direct 
 appeal to their understandings, so as to produce conviction. The 
 Lord refused to give a sign, because it is no part of his providential 
 
Chap. XII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 315 
 
 economy to compel men to believe, or even persuade them to believe 
 with the understanding only. This it would be easy for Omnipotence 
 to do : if it pleased the Lord, he could exhibit every truth so clearly 
 before men’s minds that unbelief would be impossible. Their in- 
 tellects could be raised into such clear light as would enable them to 
 see the truth. This would be giving them a sign. But what would 
 it avail ? It would not produce true or lasting faith, but it would 
 render unbelief or error more inexcusable, and only increase their 
 condemnation. True faith is not produced by signs, but by reasons — 
 by the truth being rationally apprehended and spiritually discerned. 
 Nor does saving faith come from without, but from within ; nor by 
 truth alone, but by truth and love united. Truth must, indeed, enter 
 the understanding from without, but unless love comes into the will 
 from within, there can be no true faith. The Scriptures give the 
 knowledge of the truth, and without revelation there would be noth- 
 ing to believe, no means of belief in God and in spiritual and eternal 
 things ; but faith itself comes from the Spirit of the Lord acting upon 
 the heart, and inspiring it with the love of the truth which has been 
 acquired from the Word. If the Holy Scriptures themselves cannot 
 give faith, how much less any outward sign that neither informs the 
 understanding nor improves the heart ! An evil and adulterous 
 genefi'ation seeketh after a sign. This is the case individually as well 
 as generally. It is only those in whose minds unbelief has been gen- 
 erated by evil and impure affections that seek faith through other 
 means than the Word and the Spirit of the Lord. Such a demand is, 
 in fact, nothing else than asking God to convince us of the truth by 
 suspending the functions of that very faculty which he has given to 
 enable us to understand it. 
 
 40. The demand which the unbelieving make for a sign cannot 
 even for their own sake be granted. But there is one sign, and one 
 only, which the Lord grants. There shall no sign be given to it, but the 
 sign of the 'prophet Jonas: for as Jonas was three days and three 
 nights in the whale's belly ; so shall the Son of man be three days and 
 three nights in the heart of the earth. That which completed and for 
 ever sealed the Lord’s great work of redemption is the historical evi- 
 dence of the truth of the gospel ; and those who refuse to receive this 
 are not in a state to accept any other sign, even if it were given them 
 from heaven. Yet this is a sign which natural men are unwilling to 
 receive. But the Lord’s death and resurrection were themselves but 
 the outward sign of an inward glorious work. The Lord’s resurrec- 
 tion was the effect and the sign of his glorification. The Lord’s 
 
316 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XII. 
 
 glorification is eminently the sign of the prophet Jonas. The three 
 days and nights during which the Lord was in the tomb represented, 
 because they completed, the glorification of his humanity. The glori- 
 fication of the Lord’s human nature is in the highest sense the sign 
 which is given to all men, in all ages, in testimony of the truth. 
 Through that divine work the means and the power of faith were 
 provided ; and the Lord in his humanity, as he is the only true Object, 
 so is he the only Author of saving faith. But this pre-eminent sign 
 produces another, which is its reflected image. This other sign is 
 regeneration. The prophet Jonas was, therefore, the sign not only of 
 the Lord’s glorification, but of man’s regeneration, which is its effect and 
 image. The new birth is to us and all men the practical sign, the 
 inward and living witness, of the truth. If we would believe the 
 truth, we must both receive and live it. “ If any man will do his 
 will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God.” The evil 
 heart of unbelief must be removed before any sign can avail to pro- 
 duce faith, for faith is of the heart as well as of the understanding. 
 The sign of the prophet Jonas is, therefore, the only sign that can be 
 given unto men ; but it is one that cannot fail to produce conviction 
 of the truth, if they only admit it as the foundation and evidence of 
 their faith. 
 
 41, 42. The Lord now contrasts the men of that generation with 
 some of earlier times, who, without their advantages, manifested religious 
 qualities of which they were destitute. The men of Nineveh shall rise 
 in judgment with this generation , and shall condemn it : because they 
 repented at the preaching of Jonas; and , behold , a greater than Jonas is 
 here. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this gener- 
 ation, and shall condemn it : for she came from the uttermost parts of the 
 earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon 
 is here. In this and some other instances the Lord cites the case of 
 Gentiles, to show that they were more ready to receive the truth than 
 the Jews, who possessed the Word, and had even the presence and 
 teaching of Him who was the Word itself. The singular circumstance 
 of a Jewish prophet being sent to preach to a heathen nation, and the 
 Ninevites repenting at his preaching, typified the calling of the Gentiles 
 at the time of the Lord’s advent, and the successful preaching of the 
 gospel after his resurrection, the Christian apostles having at first 
 shown no less reluctance than the Jewish prophet to carry the great 
 tidings to the heathen. The Queen of Sheba, here called the queen of the 
 south, coming to Solomon at Jerusalem, with exceeding great riches, 
 with camels carrying spices, gold, and precious stones, like the wise 
 
Chap. XII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 317 
 
 men who came from the east to present their gifts to the infant Saviour, 
 represented the wiser Gentiles coming to the Lord to offer him the 
 precious gifts of their best affections, and to receive from him in return 
 the riches of his wisdom. The Queen of Sheba also represented the 
 celestial affection by which the Lord acquired all wisdom and intelli- 
 gence, meant by the queen’s precious gifts, the camels denoting the 
 knowledges of the natural man by which they were introduced. 
 Wherefore, when he whom they represented is come, truly may we 
 say, Here is one greater than Jonah, Solomon, and the temple 
 itself. Yet the change from the representation to the actual in 
 ourselves is not effected without opposition and conflict. Considered in 
 reference to ourselves, the Ninevites and the queen of the south, 
 Jonah and Solomon, are representative of different affections and 
 principles, as they exist in our own minds in early life, before the 
 commencement of regeneration. As actual regeneration commences 
 with the Lord’s birth in the soul, corresponding to his birth into the 
 world, the religious element which exists in the mind before this, is 
 rather representative of the kingdom of heaven than the kingdom 
 itself. Like the persons and events of the Old Testament, they are 
 the shadow of good things to come, whose substance Christ is, when 
 he makes his advent into the little world of the human mind. The 
 old man with his affections and lusts, of which the Pharisee and the 
 Sadducee, and the priest and the scribe, are the fit representatives, offer 
 a determined resistance to the new man, with his heavenly affections, 
 through whom the Lord shows his power by casting out demons and 
 healing all manner of sickness and disease, and his wisdom by teach- 
 ing and reproving. What, then, is specifically to be understood by 
 the men of Nineveh and the queen of the south rising up in the judg- 
 ment against this generation and condemning it? The judgment in 
 which they rise up with the men of this generation is the judgment 
 which takes place in the mind of every one who becomes regenerate, 
 by which a separation is effected in his mind between good and evil. 
 In the process of this judgment all states return, and the early states 
 of life rise up in judgment against the later, and condemn them. Our 
 contrition for the errors we committed in our youth, when, like so 
 many among the Ninevites, we could not distinguish between our 
 right hand and our left, rises up and condemns our impenitence for 
 the evils we have committed since we had the guiding power of a 
 clearer light ; and the simple affections of childhood, innocent though 
 natural, rise up, as experience often testifies, and condemn the loves 
 of our after-life. And what are the grounds of this condemnation? 
 
318 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XII. 
 
 The men of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonas, but those of 
 a later age could not be moved to penitence by the preaching of Jesus. 
 And so it is still. Not only were the sins of our youth more venial 
 than those of our manhood, but, when reproved by the Word, our 
 repentance was more ready and earnest. The queen of the south 
 came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, but the men of a later age 
 turned away from the wisdom of Jesus. And so it is still. The 
 affections of our childhjood drew us to the Word, and made us listen 
 with Relight to its lessons of wisdom, as conveyed in its charming 
 narratives and simple precepts ; and even when, like the Queen of 
 Sheba, we tried it with hard questions, we received from the lips of 
 parents solutions of all our difficulties, while its higher wisdom is 
 neglected or contemned by us in our riper years. When those rudi- 
 mentary states of penitence and affection are made to “rise up” in the 
 judgment with the impenitence and deadness of our after-life, they 
 cannot but condemn them ; and it is for condemnation that they are 
 brought into the judgment against them, that they may bring to light, 
 in order that we may condemn, our errors and evils, and so lead us to a 
 true and loving acknowledgment of the Lord as the supreme good 
 and truth, of whom all inferior goods and truths are the types and 
 foregleams. 
 
 43. The Pharisees, we have seen ( v . 38), demanded a sign, and the 
 Lord declared that no sign should be given them. He now returns 
 to the subject, and describes what the state of an impenitent man 
 would be, supposing he were brought by a sign to a conviction of the 
 truth. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man , he walketh through 
 dry places , seeking rest , and findeth none. By the power of a sign, the 
 spirit of unbelief would indeed be driven out for a time, but it would 
 eventually return with seven-fold greater force than before. The spirit 
 is here to be identified with the man, for a man’s heart belief or unbe- 
 lief is himself, and in going out of this, unless from a sincere conviction, 
 he goes out of himself. The spirit wandering in “dry places, seeking 
 rest, and finding none,” aptly describes the mental condition of one 
 in whom the singular contradiction exists of having obtained faith 
 without having received the truth — truth being meant by water, of 
 which there is none. The outcast spirit seeks rest, but finds none, in 
 the waste places of the soul. The mind can find no rest in a faith which 
 is forced upon it from without. The knowledge and the evidences 
 of truth come from without ; but faith, as a living principle, comes 
 from within, and is produced by the Spirit of the Lord operating upon 
 the heart. Faith which is impressed upon the understanding, with- 
 
Chap. XII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 319 
 
 out changing the heart, passes away with the force which produced it, 
 and leaves the mind more hardened in its infidelity. 
 
 44, 45. As the effect of the sign begins to pass away, as it must do, or 
 life would cease, the spirit begins to say, — I will return into my house 
 from whence I came out. And what a picture does the house present 
 of the faculty on which the sign had taken effect ! The spirit finds it 
 empty , swept , and garnished — empty of everything true, swept of every- 
 thing good, and garnished or disposed, brought into conformity of 
 state with evil and falsity, which the absence of everything good 
 and true implies. The spirit is represented as first returning to the 
 house alone, and then, when he found it empty, going and taking with 
 him seven other spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and 
 dwell there. By the former spirit returning, is signified the return of 
 the original spirit of unbelief ; but his going out and returning with 
 seven others, indicates that circle of life which every principle makes 
 before it is confirmed. It is like the blood that flows from the heart 
 and returns to the heart again, and may return either pure or defiled. 
 The mind thus empty becomes the prey of greater infidelity and 
 wickedness than before; for the seven other spirits more wicked than 
 the former one signify a complete and confirmed state of unbelief and 
 profanation. And this greatest of all sins makes the last state worse 
 indeed than the first. Our Lord concludes with the terrible declara- 
 tion, — Even so shall it he also unto this wicked generation. The genera- 
 tion to which these descriptions apply is the whole congregated mass 
 of evil and falsity, which not only deny the Lord’s love and wisdom 
 in the salvation of man, but pervert them to the destruction of 
 spiritual life and to the everlasting misery of the soul. 
 
 46-49. As if to relieve this dark picture by shedding upon it a ray 
 of divine light, we read that While he yet talked to the people , behold, his 
 mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Yet 
 here, too, there is a claim put in — not, it is true, by the evil and the 
 false, represented by the Pharisees, but by the naturally good and true, 
 represented by the mother and brethren of the Lord. Therefore, when 
 one told him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without , 
 desiring to speak with thee, the Lord did not comply with their desire, 
 but continued his discourse to the multitude, and changing the natural 
 into a spiritual idea, showed who were truly his mother and who were 
 his brethren. It is well known that the Lord never addressed Mary 
 by the name of mother. The name “ woman,” by which he addressed 
 her at the marriage in Cana, was expressive of respect. The Lord’s 
 avoiding the use of “ mother ” in relation to Mary had a deep spiritual 
 
320 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XII. 
 
 ground. Jesus was indeed the son of Mary according to the flesh, but 
 he was the Son of God according to the Spirit. The humanity he 
 derived from his human mother was but a natural and temporary 
 covering to the humanity he derived from his Divine Father; and it 
 was eventually put off*, and so entirely, that not the least vestige of it 
 remained; so that when his glorification was completed, at the time of 
 his resurrection, the Lord, as to his humanity, was purely the Son of 
 God — born, as he had been begotten, of the Essential Divinity. Even 
 at the time when he addressed Mary, as we first read of it in the 
 gospel, the Lord’s consciousness was so far in the paternal humanity, 
 and he so far spake immediately from it, that to have called Mary his 
 mother would have been to express an idea and a feeling that did not 
 at the time exist. But whatever the Lord spake was not to express 
 natural and temporary, but spiritual and eternal truth. One great 
 purpose the Lord had in never calling Mary by the name of mother 
 was to teach the church, in all ages, that the Lord’s humanity is 
 purely divine, and no longer the son of Mary. Another purpose was 
 to teach the important spiritual lesson which he delivered to the 
 multitude on this occasion, when he said, Who is my mother ? and 
 who are my brethren ? And he stretched forth his hand toward his 
 disciples , and said , Behold my mother and my brethren ! There is no 
 real relationship between the Lord and men but a spiritual relation- 
 ship. He has no saving relationship with men according to the flesh. 
 That which is born of the flesh is flesh. To come into saving relation- 
 ship with him, men must be born of the Spirit, for that which is born 
 of the Spirit is spirit. And in this new birth Jesus is not our God 
 only, but our Father. Whatever other degrees of relationship may exist 
 between the Lord and mankind, they are all derived from this, and com- 
 prehended in it. On our part, sonship lies at the foundation of brother- 
 hood, and of every other degree of relationship with Him who is all in 
 all to us. The disciples to whom the Lord stretched forth his hand 
 are all the true members of the church. His brethren are those who 
 are in the good of charity from him; his sisters are those who are in 
 truths derived from that good ; and mother signifies the church derived 
 and formed from those principles. 
 
 50. The question the Lord asked of the one who told and the many 
 who heard him he still asks of us, — “ Who is my mother? and who are 
 my brethren?” And it behoves us to prepare ourselves to learn from 
 him the true answer. And the answer is, — Whosoever shall do the will 
 of my Father which is in heaven , the same is my brother , and sister, and 
 mother. To do his Father’s will is to keep his commandments from 
 
Chap. XIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 321 
 
 love — from his own love in us. His Father’s will is his own divine 
 love. This closing declaration of the Lord’s discourse is an answer to 
 all demands made of him, as recorded in this chapter. Those who do 
 the Lord’s will require no sign, for it will enable them to know the 
 truth ; and they who do the Lord’s will will be recognized by him as 
 his true relations, and will not only be permitted to speak with him, 
 but to dwell with him in the mansions of heaven — the home which he 
 has prepared for his family, consisting of the faithful, the loving, and 
 the obedient. There will the blessed truth which these words contain 
 be truly and fully realized. In heaven, where all is spiritual, natural 
 relationship is not even known. Those who were related to each 
 other on earth may indeed dwell together in heaven ; but it must be 
 on the basis of spiritual, not of natural affinity. In heaven there is 
 but one Father, and all existing degrees of affinity are but degrees of 
 nearness to each other in him. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 1. Luke mentions, what Matthew has not recorded, that while 
 the Lord was delivering the preceding discourse, “a certain Pharisee 
 besought him to dine with him : and he went in, and sat down to meat” 
 (ch. xi. 37). It is in reference to this that the evangelist relates that 
 The same day went Jesus out of the house , and sat by the sea side. The 
 present discourse being delivered upon the same day with the preceding 
 one, implies its being adapted to the same general state, with the 
 difference, that in this instance the divine teaching is accommodated 
 to the mind in its more external condition. The sea is emblematical 
 of the Word in its natural sense; and when the sea and the land are 
 mentioned together, they refer to the two distinct principles of truth 
 and good, of which it consists. The Lord’s sitting by the sea side, 
 where the land and water meet, denotes his presence where there is 
 conjunction of good and truth in the letter of the Word, sitting also 
 denoting an interior state, the result of that conjunction. 
 
 2. A nd great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he 
 went into a ship, and sat ; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. 
 A ship signifies knowledge, and thence doctrine. The Lord spiritually 
 teaches from a ship in the sea when he instructs us from doctrine as 
 it is in the literal sense of his Word. And when he sits in the ship, 
 as he sat on the mount, we are instructed that he is in the inmost of 
 all the doctrine which he teaches from the Word; the whole multi- 
 
 Y 
 
222 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XIII. 
 
 tude standing on tlie shore denoting a state of external good which 
 is receptive of true doctrine, their standing being expressive of an 
 active state of thought to listen to the teaching of divine truth. 
 
 3. And he spake many things unto them in parables. The present dis- 
 course consists almost entirely of parables. These were delivered to teach 
 men by similitude the nature of the kingdom of heaven. They are not 
 to be considered as different illustrations of the same thing, or the plac- 
 ing the same subject in many different lights. The kingdom of heaven, 
 as a state of heavenly-mindedness and holiness of life, is formed progres- 
 sively, and is made up of many different and various graces and virtues, 
 the growth of years and the result of manifold experience. Every 
 different parable has, therefore, a meaning of its own, as descriptive of 
 a particular state. And the parables, as a whole, contain a circle of 
 instruction applicable to the entire religious life. It is not necessary 
 to assume that the whole may be matter of common experience to 
 every one who reads them; yet there is something in each that 
 comes home to all. They teach us much relating to regeneration 
 that may be useful to every Christian, as showing the nature 
 and magnitude of that divine work in the soul, and providing 
 spiritual knowledge that may aid us materially in our future life. 
 The first which the Lord delivers is the parable of the sower — one 
 on which more has been preached and written than on any other 
 in the New Testament; which is due to the circumstance, that the 
 delineations it gives of the characteristic differences of the several 
 classes of the hearers of the Word are so wonderfully confirmed by 
 observation and experience. The Lord begins by saying, Behold , a 
 sower went forth to sow. The Lord is the sower, and this character 
 belongs to him as the Author of all truth. As the sower, the Lord has 
 gone forth in every age of the world, and into every land. There is 
 no heart in which the truths of his kingdom have not been sown. 
 But the character and office of the sower are more especially ap- 
 plicable to the Lord in his humanity. He went forth as the sower, in a 
 peculiar sense, when he came into the world as the Word in person, that 
 he might accommodate his eternal truth to the altered states of men. 
 The Lord also inseminates his truth in the mind from the earliest 
 period of life, and afterwards to eternity. The Saviour is therefore 
 ever going forth to sow, and in all souls are the seeds of truth 
 scattered with a bountiful and impartial hand. There are, however, 
 various and very different kinds as well as degrees of reception, but 
 these depend on the recipient, not on the dispenser of the blessing. 
 The divine speaker describes four different kinds of ground, as sym- 
 
Chap. XIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 323 
 
 bolical of four different states of mind among those who constitute the 
 visible church. We shall consider these separately, together with the 
 explanation which the Lord gave to the disciples, when they asked 
 him why he spake unto the multitude in parables. 
 
 4-19. The first class is described in these words : And when he sowed , 
 some seeds fell by the way side , and the fowls came and devoured them up. 
 In the Lord’s explanation of the parable, he that received seed by the 
 way side is one who heareih the word , and understandeth it not. 
 Understanding is not mere intellectual apprehension. A right appre- 
 hension of divine truth is most important; but that which our Lord 
 means is, “ to understand with the heart,” which consists in receiving 
 the truth in love. Love or goodness forms the ground in which the 
 seeds of the eternal truth are sown. A difference of minds, in respect 
 to the principle of goodness, is that which is so graphically set before 
 us in the parable. The way side is where there is no proper soil, or 
 where it is so trodden down that the seeds that fall upon it never 
 enter it, but lie unchanged upon its hardened surface. These are 
 they in whom the good acquired from the Lord through parents and 
 others in early life has been so trampled upon by the practical errors 
 of later years as to have hardened the heart into a careless uncon- 
 cern about eternal life. Of the seeds that fell by the way side it is 
 said that “ the fowls came and devoured them up.” These the Lord 
 explains to mean the wicked one. Fowls are the emblems of thoughts, 
 and are the wicked thoughts originating, in the present case, in evil, 
 which is the wicked one that catcheth away that which was sown in his 
 heart. It is one of the temptations of early manhood to forget their 
 Creator, whom they had been taught to remember in the days of their 
 youth, and allow light pleasures and a vain philosophy to catch away 
 that which pious hands had been sowing in their hearts, and which 
 the Lord’s providence is continually scattering, although it be upon 
 an ungrateful soil. Let them reflect that there is a harvest as well as 
 a seed time, that the reaping is according to the sowing, and that he 
 who sows the wind shall reap the whirlwind. 
 
 5, 6-20, 21. The second class of unprofitable receivers of the truth 
 are those whose minds are like stony places , where they had not much 
 earth : and forthwith they sprung up , because they had no deepness of 
 earth : and when the sun was up, they were scorched ; and because they 
 had no root, they withered away. In his exposition the Lord tells us, 
 the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; yet 
 hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation 
 or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. No 
 
324 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XIII. 
 
 class is better known than this, its characteristics being so open to 
 observation. The readiness with which some persons accept views 
 and receive impressions is only equalled by the readiness with which 
 they part with them, and their warmth and zeal are quickly succeeded 
 by indifference, and their goodness is as the early dew that passeth 
 away. The reason is to be found in their ground being stony, where 
 there is not much earth. They have more intellect than heart; they 
 have a keen appreciation of the beautiful, but a small love of the 
 useful. Yet the seed which quickly genninates in the slender but 
 genial soil might come to a weak maturity were it fanned by zephyrs, 
 and refreshed with dews, and warmed by the tempered rays of the 
 sun of heaven. But this is not the unvarying course of Nature nor 
 of Providence. Nature has her floods and her tempests, her dense 
 clouds and her beaming sunshine ; and Providence has its tribulations 
 and persecutions. These strengthen the strong and healthy, but 
 destroy the feeble and sickly; they soon prostrate or wither that 
 which has no root in itself, however promising its beginning may be 
 in the eyes of men. No heavenly plant can be reared without tempta- 
 tion, and those which are unable to endure this ordeal must perish. 
 Some of those who, when they hear the word, anon with joy receive 
 it, sometimes have so little root in themselves that they fall away 
 under the outward tribulation of contempt or opposition; but still 
 more liable are they to fail when the inward persecution of tempta- 
 tion comes. Then it is that they are offended; the sun, not of 
 heaven, but of their own self-love, arising, scorches up everything 
 green and living in the mind. 
 
 7-22. The third class of unproductive recipients consists of those of 
 whom it is said And some fell among thorns ; and the thorns sprung up , 
 and choked them. The Lord explains the thorns to mean the care of 
 this world , and the deceitfidness of riches. Temporal care and a desire 
 to be rich doubtless have a tendency to stifle the spiritual affections 
 and repress the soul’s aspirations. We are, however, to distinguish 
 between distrustful care and mere absorbing worldly occupation, and 
 between the honourable pursuit of wealth and an ambitious or 
 avaricious desire to be rich. There is, however, another world 
 and other riches, the care and deceitfulness of which may 
 choke the Word and render it unfruitful. This world, individually 
 considered and spiritually understood, is the natural mind, and the 
 riches which belong to it are the knowledges of religion ; and its 
 riches are deceitful when we deceive ourselves with the false idea 
 that the knowledge of religion is religion itself. The Lord’s descrip- 
 
Chap. XIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 325 
 
 tion of this class leads us to suppose that they do not want capacity 
 but culture. The ground was neither deficient nor barren. The soil 
 which produces weeds can support something better. Wheat would 
 have grown where the thorns flourished. But the thorns required to 
 be rooted up, and the ground prepared to receive the good seed. 
 And here we see the great defect of those whose state is here described. 
 It is not enough to know the truth ; if we would be happy, we must 
 do it. And even here we may deceive ourselves. For it is not 
 enough to do good, we must cease to do evil. We must root out the 
 thorns as well as sow the wheat. And this is just what the class we 
 are considering neglect to do. And a large class it is, if theory be an 
 indication of practice, which it is not always, even when doctrine is 
 unfavourable to virtue. They may be pious, and studious, and exem- 
 plary, but they do not examine themselves to discover, with the view 
 to put away, the inborn and inbred evils of their neglected hearts. 
 The seed is indeed received and grows, but it never conies to perfec- 
 tion, but becometh unfruitful. 
 
 8-23. We come at last to those with whom the seed fell into 
 good ground. But other fell into good ground , and brought forth 
 fruit , some an hundredfold , some sixtyfold , some thirtyfold. The 
 divine Sower himself explains it thus : He that received seed into 
 the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it ; 
 which also heareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, 
 some sixty , some thirty. Some hear, but do not understand; some 
 understand, but fail to perform : but here we have one who, after he 
 has taken the first step, goes on perseveringly till he has reached the 
 end, from the sowing of the seed to the ingathering of the harvest. 
 The distinguishing mark of this class is — they bear fruit ; the other 
 parts of the process are necessary to precede, but this is the end and 
 fulfilment of them all. “Herein is my Father glorified,, that ye bear 
 much fruit ; so shall ye be my disciples” (John xv. 8). The fruit- 
 fulness of religion is different in different members of the church. 
 Every branch of the vine must bear fruit, otherwise the husbandman 
 taketh it away; but every branch is not alike productive, nor does 
 the husbandman demand that it should be. All that bear fruit are 
 branches of the true vine, but they may bear some thirty, some sixty, 
 some an hundredfold. Yet this does not mean a difference only in the 
 quantity of the fruit, but of the quality also. With some, good works 
 are the fruits of simple obedience; with some, they are the fruits of 
 charity; with others, they are the fruits of love. These are the three 
 degrees of perfection pointed out by our Lord in his thirty, sixty, 
 
326 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XIII. 
 
 and an hundredfold. The thirty, sixty, and an hundredfold are 
 expressive both of three distinct states and degrees of the regenerate 
 life, and of three distinct classes of regenerate persons. The numbers 
 are significative of the character of these states, and of those distin- 
 guished by them. These numbers are three tens, six tens, and ten 
 tens. Ten has perhaps the most comprehensive signification of any 
 number that occurs in Scripture. God gave his representative people 
 ten commandments, and he required of them a tenth of their produce; 
 the one being expressive of all their moral duties, the other of all their 
 divine worship. Ten therefore signifies a full or complete state, the 
 other numbers with which it is combined signifying the quality of the 
 state. These signify the three states and degrees which we call 
 natural, spiritual, and celestial. Ten signify remains; three tens, 
 the remains of good and truth acquired by instruction; six tens, 
 remains of good and truth confirmed by temptation ; and ten tens, the 
 remains of good and truth confirmed by life : this last is a complete 
 and perfect state, in which good and truth are equal and united. 
 
 We may remark in conclusion that, although we have explained 
 the parable in reference to different classes in the church, it is not 
 without an application to different but successive states in the regen- 
 eration of one. You will perceive from the parable that the ground 
 improves in each succeeding state, and the seeds enter more deeply 
 into the soil, and make a more successful effort to grow up, till the 
 effort is crowned with success in the producing of fruit. And then, 
 also, the threefold fruitfulness may be found in the fully regenerate 
 man. 
 
 As, in order to avoid prolixity and repetition, we have given the 
 spiritual sense and practical application of the parable of the sower as 
 our Lord explained it, combining with it whatever is peculiar in the 
 parable itself, we shall now return to verse 10, where we find the 
 disciples inquiring, and the Lord declaring, the reason of his teaching 
 by parables. 
 
 10. After the Lord had delivered the parable of the sower, the dis- 
 ciples came and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? 
 The disciples and the multitude are those who are within and those 
 who are without the church, and the question is, why those who are 
 without, differently from those who are within, are taught by parables. 
 This question and the Lord’s answer cover more than what is strictly 
 called the parabolic portion of the Word. The whole of the literal 
 sense of the Word, considered in relation to the spiritual, is parabolic, 
 — truth vailed, so as to make it apprehensible by the natural mind. 
 
Chap. XIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 327 
 
 To those within the church who are in genuine doctrine from the 
 letter of the Word, the spiritual sense can be opened. Not that a 
 mere intellectual reception of true doctrine can prepare the mind for 
 seeing the internal sense of the Divine Word; for the real reception of 
 genuine doctrine itself presupposes a state of love and holiness, since 
 they only who do his will know savingly of the doctrine. Those who 
 by goodness have received the genuine doctrines of the Word, and 
 have been introduced into the church, are prepared to see and receive 
 the spiritual sense. To them it is given to know the mysteries of the 
 kingdom of heaven; but to those who are without it is not given. 
 
 12. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more 
 abundance : but whosoever hath not , from him shall be taken away even 
 that he hath. The meaning of which seeming paradox is this — that 
 whoever has goodness will receive spiritual truth, and receive it 
 abundantly ; but whoever has not goodness, from him will be taken 
 away even the truth of doctrine that he hath. This law is fulfilled 
 in its perfection in the other life. Those who in this world have lived 
 in love to God and to their neighbour, although in comparative ignor- 
 ance, or even in error, will receive as much truth as their good admits 
 or requires ; rich in goodness here, they will abound in wisdom here- 
 after ; but they who have not lived in love and charity will be deprived 
 of that truth, however much it may be, which they had known in the 
 world. 
 
 13. Therefore , continues our Lord, speak I to them in parables ; 
 because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they 
 understand. Man has an internal and an external will and under- 
 standing, and there are internal and external goods and truths adapted 
 to them : the first are spiritual, the second are natural. We may see 
 with our natural understanding, and hear with our natural will, and yet 
 have no inward discernment or love of truth and goodness. Nay, the 
 internal will and understanding may be opposed to the external. The 
 outward will may prompt us to learn and even to teach the truths of 
 religion, and the understanding labour intelligently and unweariedly 
 in the work, and yet our inner natural mind may disbelieve and 
 contemn them. There is no real understanding where there is no 
 inward discernment, for the outward sight is derived from the inward 
 ])erception. 
 
 14. This, in the Jews, was the fulfilment of a prophecy by Isaiah, 
 the first part of which is similar to the statement of the Lord in the 
 preceding verse, and on which it is unnecessary to enlarge. 
 
 15. In this verse, however, it is declared that the heart of the 
 
328 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XIII. 
 
 people had waxed gross, intimating that the will had become sensual, 
 which is the ground of all other morbid conditions; for when the will 
 is debased, men close their ears and their eyes against the truth. 
 And their object in doing so is, lest at any time they should see with 
 their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, 
 and he converted a,nd he healed. To understand with the heart — that 
 is, from the will — is true discernment, and the gate of true conversion 
 and health. Conversion is a change of the understanding; healing is 
 a restoration of the will. When this salvation is deliberately and 
 determinately refused, it is a mercy to speak to men in parables — to 
 address the truth to them in dark sayings. Were it presented to 
 them in clear light, they would pervert and profane it. But why 
 present it to them at all ? Because, in the first place, the Word is of 
 much indirect benefit to even natural men; and in the second place, 
 salvation being possible with, and therefore offered to all, the Lord 
 provides all with his truth as they are able to bear it and are most 
 likely to profit by it. 
 
 16. But happy are those whose state is the reverse of all this, and 
 to whom the Lord can say, blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your 
 ears, for they hear. To have the understanding and the will open to 
 the admission of heavenly light and love must be a blessed state 
 indeed. In this is realized the Lord’s desire towards his creatures, and 
 their own true happiness. 
 
 17. The blessing connected with this state is spoken of as being 
 enhanced by the circumstance, That many prophets and righteous men 
 have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them ; and 
 to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. This 
 refers to the fulfilment of the prophecies and promises to which the 
 wise and good of all ages had looked forward with hopeful desire, but 
 which the disciples were privileged to behold in the person and work 
 of the Incarnate God. But, as we have seen, there is a spiritual state 
 in the life of every regenerate man corresponding to that which pre- 
 ceded the Lord’s advent; and there is a looking forward of truth in 
 the intellect, and a desiring of good in the will — which are the prophet 
 and the righteous in us — to the time and state in which the things 
 which once were objects of faith and hope shall be the realized 
 possession of the heart and life; when, indeed, things that existed 
 abstractly in the remote conceptions of the inner man will exist 
 actually in the practical experience of the outer life. To the former 
 state belongs the parable, to the latter its explanation ; for the second 
 state is the unfolding of the first. 
 
Chap. XIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 329 
 
 18-23. These verses contain the Lord’s explanation of the parable 
 of the sower, which has been incorporated with the parable itself, as 
 explained in verses 1-9. 
 
 24-30. Another parable put he forth unto them , saying , The king- 
 dom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field : 
 but while men slept , his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat , and 
 went his way. In the previous parable there is one sower and one 
 kind of seed; in this there are two sowers and two kinds of seed. 
 The Divine Sower is here followed by his enemy, who sows tares 
 where he had sown wheat. In the former parable there were pre-exist- 
 ing in the mind obstacles enough to the success of the sower’s labours; 
 here there is a new and extraneous aspect and element employed to 
 neutralize his work. This particular feature in the parable describes 
 a circumstance in the regenerate life similar to that recorded in the 
 4th chapter, where we read that Jesus was led of the Spirit into the 
 wilderness, to be tempted of the devil. The reception of the Lord’s 
 truth and of the Spirit of truth lays the mind open to temptation, as 
 induced by the spirits of darkness. Temptation is not, however, the 
 result of the mere admission of truth into the mind, even when 
 intellectually apprehended. There can be no temptation where there 
 is no goodness, for temptation is essentially a conflict between good 
 and evil ; yet evil assails good by means of falsity, and good defends 
 itself by means of truth. It is therefore the truth of good that lays 
 the mind open to temptation. That which the man of the present 
 parable sowed in his field is therefore called good seed, to indicate that 
 the implantation of the truth of good, and its confirmation by tempta- 
 tion, is the subject treated of. As this parable of the Lord contains 
 in it arcana relating to the separation of the evil from the good, and 
 concerning the last judgment as it took place in the spiritual world, it 
 is of importance it should be minutely explained. The kingdom of 
 heaven is the Lord’s church in heaven and on earth, for the church is 
 in both worlds. The man, called in ver. 37 the Son of man, who 
 sowed good seed in his field, is the Lord as to divine truth, which is 
 the Word; the good seed is the divine truth, and the field is the 
 church, where the Word is. “ But while men slept, his enemy came 
 and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way,” signifies that 
 whilst men lead a natural life, or the life of the world, then secretly, 
 or when they are not aware, evils from hell insinuate and implant 
 falsities. To sleep signifies to lead a natural life, or a life in the world, 
 which life is sleep compared with spiritual life, which is wakefulness. 
 The enemy signifies evils from hell, which affect the natural life 
 
330 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XIII. 
 
 separate from spiritual life; to sow tares is to insinuate and implant 
 falsities ; and his going his way signifies that it was done secretly, or 
 whilst they were unaware. But when the blade ivas sprung up, and 
 brought forth fruit , then appeared the tares also, means, when truth 
 grew and good was produced, falsities from evil were intermixed ; for 
 the blade springing up signifies truth, such as it is when first received, 
 fruit signifies good, and tares signify falsities derived from evil, in this 
 case intermixed. So the servants of the householder came and said unto 
 him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field ? from whence then 
 hath it tares ? By this is to be understood that those who are in 
 truths derived from good, perceiving that falses from evil were inter- 
 mixed, then make complaint; for the servants of the householder 
 signify those who are in truth from good; the householder signifies 
 the Lord as to truths from good ; the good seed, the field, and the 
 tares signify the same as already explained. He said unto them, An 
 enemy (or adversary) hath done this, signifies that those falsities were 
 from evil in the natural man. The servants said, unto him, Wilt thou 
 then that we go and gather them (the tares) up ? signifies the separation 
 and ejection of falsities derived from evil before truths derived from 
 good are received and increased. But he said, Nay ; lest while ye 
 gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them , signifies that 
 thus truth derived from good, and its increase, would also perish ; for 
 with the man of the church truths are intermixed with falsities, which 
 cannot be cast out and separated until they are reformed. Let both 
 grow together until the harvest : and in the time of harvest I will say to 
 the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles 
 to burn them : but gather the wheat into my barn. The separation of 
 false principles derived from evil, and their ejection, cannot be effected 
 until it is the last state of the church ; for then such falsities are 
 separated from the truths of good, and these falsities are delivered to 
 hell, and the truths of good — or, what is the same, those who are in 
 them — are conjoined to heaven. These things are done in the 
 spiritual world, where all who are of the church, from its beginning 
 to its end, are in such a manner separated and judged. The harvest 
 is the end or last state of the church; binding in bundles signifies to 
 conjoin together the several species of falsities derived from evil ; to 
 burn signifies to deliver to hell; and to bring together into the barn 
 to be conjoined to heaven. 
 
 31, 32. Another parable put he forth unto them, saying , The 
 kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man 
 took, and sowed in his field : which indeed is the least of all seeds ; 
 
Chap. XIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 331 
 
 but when it is groivn, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh 
 a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches 
 thereof. When the Divine Word declares the deep depravity of 
 the human heart, and points out the long and severe labour of the 
 regenerate life, we are sometimes disposed to be overwhelmed and 
 discouraged. There are not wanting, on the other hand, lessons that 
 give us relief and encouragement. The parable of the mustard seed 
 is one of these. It tells us, in language which every one can under- 
 stand, that if the kingdom of heaven is really received into the heart, 
 the smallest possible beginning is sufficient to ensure a successful 
 issue, if we only persevere. In its spiritual sense the parable teaches 
 this lesson still more clearly. The mustard seed is the symbol of 
 truth in which there is something of spiritual good. If only a little, 
 however little, of spiritual good has taken root in the heart, it grows 
 as seed in good ground. In the process of its growth the mustard 
 seed becomes first the greatest among herbs, and then a tree. When 
 faith is being conjoined to love, the spiritual principle within us is an 
 herb or a shrub, but when faith and love are actually united, it is a 
 tree. And then the birds of the heavens come and make their nests 
 in its branches. Birds are thoughts, branches are knowledges; in 
 which, when -man is regenerate, thoughts, or intellectual truths, are 
 multiplied. 
 
 Nor is the encouraging lesson of this parable confined to the growth 
 of spiritual principles in the present life. For any one who, by com- 
 bating against evil, as sin, has in the world procured anything 
 spiritual, however small, is saved, and his uses afterwards grow like a 
 grain of mustard seed into a tree. 
 
 “For so long as man lives in the body, the seed is in corporeal 
 ground, and is there entangled and obscured by scientifics and plea- 
 sures, and by cares and solicitudes ; but when these are put off, as is 
 the case when he passes into the other life, the seed is loosened from 
 them and grows, as the seed of a tree grows when it rises out of the 
 ground to grow into a shrub, and then into a tree, and next to be 
 multiplied into an orchard of trees; for all science, intelligence, and 
 wisdom, with their delights and felicities, thus fructify and are multi- 
 plied, and thereby increase to eternity, and this from the smallest seed, 
 as the Lord teaches respecting the grain of mustard seed ; which may 
 be sufficiently manifest from the science, intelligence, and wisdom of 
 the angels, which was ineffable to them at the time they were men.” 
 
 33. Another parable spake he unto them : The kingdom of heaven is 
 like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal. 
 
332 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XIII. 
 
 This parable describes the formation of the heavenly state in the mind, 
 as effected or promoted by temptation. Leaven itself signifies what 
 is false derived from evil; and meal or flour, truth, from which good 
 is derived. Meal or flour has two significations. Considered as 
 the product of wheat, meal signifies truth derived from good ; but, 
 considered as that from which bread is made, it signifies truth 
 from which good is derived. As bread-making is the subject 
 of the present parable, the meal signifies truth from which 
 good is derived. The leavening process, which is the prominent 
 idea of thp parable, is an expressive symbol of temptation. The 
 use of temptation is analogous to that of leavening or fermen- 
 tation : it serves to purify good and truth. The purification 
 of truth from falsity in the mind cannot be effected without that 
 tribulation to which fermentation corresponds, and which is the 
 combat of falsity with truth, and of truth with falsity. After the 
 conflict, when truth has triumphed, falsity falls down like dregs, and 
 leaves the truth pure like wine, which becomes clear after fermeuta- 
 tion. This conflict, meant by leavening and fermentation, belongs 
 chiefly to that turning-point or transition state in the regenerate life 
 where the Christian, who has hitherto acted from the truth of faith, 
 begins to act from the good of charity; or w T lien his religion, which 
 has been hitherto chiefly of the head, begins to be of the heart. This 
 distinction between a state of truth and a state of good was repre- 
 sented in a singular distinction ordained by the Jewish law between 
 the general meat offerings and that of the first-fruits. The passover 
 and other feasts were required to be celebrated with unleavened bread, 
 leaven being strictly forbidden ; but in the new meat offering at the 
 feast of the first-fruits, the wave-bread was commanded to be baked 
 leavened. The first-fruits, it is easy to see, represent a new state in 
 the regenerate life. This new state is the state of good which succeeds 
 a state of truth, or of love that succeeds a state of faith. And to mark 
 this distinction, the preceding feasts were to be celebrated with bread 
 unleavened, but this with leavened bread. Thus, when we have sown 
 our seed, and have succeeded in bringing our harvest to that degree 
 of maturity which enables us to offer the first-fruits to the Lord, who 
 has crowned the year with his goodness, we have at least entered on 
 that state which enables us to eat and to offer leavened bread — good 
 purified from evil by temptation. So is the kingdom likened unto 
 leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of meal. Let 
 us attend to the particulars. A woman represents affection ; here the 
 affection of that good on which the regenerate soul is entering, which 
 
Chap. XIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 333 
 
 it desires, and to which it looks forward, as the woman did to the 
 bread for which she was preparing. The woman’s taking the leaven 
 and hiding it does not imply that the regenerating man knowingly 
 adopts what is false, but that the false principle insinuates itself 
 into the mind through the affections. Her hiding it teaches that 
 falsity, when it has thus insinuated itself, lies concealed among the 
 truths which have been acquired, signified by the meal. And there 
 being three measures of meal, indicates that the mind, having attained 
 a full state of truth, is prepared to enter on a state of good ; and the 
 attainment of this state is indicated by the leaven remaining in the 
 meal till the whole was leavened. It is only when the whole is 
 leavened that the kingdom of heaven is realized. 
 
 Another lesson contained in this parable may be useful. Fermenta- 
 tion not only signifies the purification of the individual man, but of 
 the collective or social also. Spiritual fermentations are effected by 
 various methods, both in heaven and on earth. They are evils and 
 falsities together, which, being let into societies, produce effects similar 
 to those produced by leaven put into meal and new wine, by which 
 heterogeneous things are separated, and homogeneous things con- 
 joined, and purity and clearness are effected. 
 
 36. We here read that when Jesus had sent the multitude away, 
 he went into a house, and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare 
 unto us the parable of the tares of the field. This sending of the 
 multitude away, and going into a house with his disciples, evidently 
 signifies a change of state in which the natural thoughts and affections 
 recede, while the higher affections arid thoughts are elevated into a 
 higher region or faculty of the mind. It describes a state, indeed, in 
 which man retires from the world, and enters into a more immediate 
 communion with the Lord, and is enlightened by him respecting those 
 external truths which had been addressed to him while in a more 
 external state of apprehension. The Lord, therefore, expounds the 
 parable to his disciples. His exposition we shall now consider. 
 
 37-43. He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man , signifies 
 divine truth from the Lord; the field is the world , signifies the church 
 everywhere ; the good seed are the children (or sons) of the kingdom , 
 signifies that divine truth is with those who are of the church; the 
 tares are the children of the wicked one, signifies falsities with those 
 who are in evil ; the enemy that sowed them is the devil , signifies that 
 they have falsities from evil which is from hell; the harvest is the end 
 of the world (consummation of the age), signifies the last time of' the 
 church ; and the reapers are the angels, signifies that divine truth from 
 
334 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XIII. 
 
 the Lord effects separation. The Son of man shall send forth his 
 angels , and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend , 
 signifies that divine truths from the Lord are about to remove those 
 who shall hinder separation ; and them which do iniquity , signifies that 
 they are those who live in evil; and shall cast them into a furnace of 
 fire , signifies into hell, where they are who are in self-love, in hatred, 
 and revenge : there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth, signifies 
 where there is what is direful arising from evils and falsities. Then 
 shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father , 
 signifies that they who have done the Lord’s precepts will live in 
 heavenly loves and in their joys in heaven : they are called righteous 
 who acknowledge the Lord and do his precepts. 
 
 44. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in afield ; 
 the which when a man hath found, he liideth, and for joy thereof goeth 
 and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. In the previous 
 parable the kingdom is compared to leaven hid in meal; here it is 
 compared to treasure hid in a field. In the former case the worse is 
 hid within the better; here the better is hid within the worse — at 
 least, the precious within the common. Does not this point to that 
 inversion of state of which we have spoken in treating of the last 
 parable ? The internal was occupied by an evil and disturbing 
 element; now, when tribulation has spent its force and done its 
 purifying work, a treasure is found where impurity dwelt. And now 
 also the treasure is appreciated, and is a source of joy ; and to obtain 
 possession of it, the discoverer is disposed to sell all that he has. But 
 to obtain the treasure it is necessary to purchase the field in which it 
 lies hid. The treasure which the man found are the treasures of 
 wisdom and knowledge as revealed in the Divine Word, and the field 
 is the church and heaven, not the church that is without him, but the 
 church that is within him — the principles that constitute the church, 
 especially the good in which is truth. But if the church containing 
 the treasure is within, why should he sell all that he hath to obtain 
 it 1 Because these principles are as yet only in the inner man, and 
 they are not truly a man’s own till they have become principles of the 
 outer man also. And they cannot become so till the evils of self-love 
 and the love of the world, which have their abode in the outer man, 
 are removed to make room for them. These evils of the selfhood are 
 man’s own and only property — the all that he hath ; the treasure and 
 the field are the Lord’s. And these can be purchased and possessed 
 only by selling all that he hath, which is to give up his own will and 
 wisdom, that he may make the divine will the motive of his heart, 
 
Chap. XIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 335 
 
 the divine wisdom the guide of his understanding, and both the rule 
 of his life. Nor is this now felt to be so very difficult a work; for the 
 joy which he has in the newly-found treasure makes him willing to go 
 away and part with his old possessions. And when he has sold all, 
 the treasure is his, and he is the Lord’s. 
 
 45. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man 
 seeking goodly 'pearls. The man of the previous parable found tlie 
 treasure ; this man goes in search of the pearls. After the mind has 
 been freed by tribulation from its obscurity and deadness, truths are 
 seen and joys are felt to which the mind was before a stranger. And 
 when these hid treasures, thus brought to light, have been acquired, 
 they give the mind a desire for more, and prompt it to seek after them. 
 Now, too, there is a definite object in view : goodly or beautiful pearls 
 are the objects of his search. These pearls are the beautiful and 
 precious truths that enlarge the mind’s view of spiritual life and 
 eternal things, and that lead to a more perfect practice; and like the 
 pearly gates of the holy city, introduce the mind into the glories and 
 beatitudes of the second paradise. But this searcher also becomes a 
 finder : in seeking for pearls he finds one pearl of great price. This 
 pearl of pearls, this truth of truths, is the truth as it is in Jesus — 
 the knowledge of him whom to know is life eternal. It is not the 
 merely intellectual, but the saving knowledge of the Lord, the 
 saving truth, that makes him to us, not the Saviour of the world 
 only, but the Saviour of our souls. This is the pearl of great price 
 for which the merchant man sells all that he hath. But what has 
 the regenerate man to sell if he has already sold all ? A man may 
 part with all that is opposed to religion so far as he has become 
 religious, but a new advance in truth or goodness brings some new 
 principle of the mind into action, and discloses some new evil or error 
 hostile to it which requires to be removed. And that which is 
 opposed to the love of the Lord, which has now been found, is the 
 love of self ; as that which is opposed to the love of the neighbour, as 
 already remarked, is the love of the world. As there are two distinct 
 possessions that belong to the selfhood, so there are two distinct acts 
 of alienation ; the alienation of the lesser evil being meant by the 
 selling of the man’s all in the last parable, and the alienation of the 
 greater evil by the selling of his all in this. 
 
 47-50. The Lord gives still another parable, which forms the last 
 of the present discourse. Again , the kingdom of heaven is like unto a 
 net , that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when 
 it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into 
 
336 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XIII. 
 
 vessels , but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world : 
 the angels shall come forth , and sever the wicked from among the just, and 
 shall cast them into the furnace of fire : there shall be wailing and gnash- 
 ing of teeth. In a general sense the sea signifies the Word, and the fish 
 in the sea signify the living truths which the Word contains. Fishers 
 are teachers who draw truths from the Word that they may impart 
 them to others ; and their net is the science or knowledge they em- 
 ploy for the double purpose of acquiring truths and converting men. 
 The general subject, or the internal historical sense of this passage, 
 relates to the end of the church, and the judgment by which that 
 event is attended in the spiritual world. “ The separation of the evil 
 and the good is here likened to a net cast into the sea, which gathered 
 fish of every kind, because fish signify natural men as to scientifics 
 and knowledges ; and they, in the consummation of the age, or the 
 time of the last judgment, are separated from each other, for there are 
 natural good men and natural evil men. Their separation in the 
 spiritual world appears as a net cast into the sea, gathering and 
 drawing fish to the shore : this appearance is also for correspondence, 
 wherefore the kingdom is likened by the Lord to a net gathering fish.” 
 Judgment being the subject of the parable, we may extend the appli- 
 cation. Consider it first in application to those who draw truths from 
 the Word, and judge, and separate between them. When we first 
 learn from the Word, we draw truths of every sort, consisting, how- 
 ever, of two general kinds, which are genuine and apparent truths. 
 In the minds of the young, these are mixed or undistinguished ; but 
 when reason assumes its sway, it judges between them, gathering the 
 genuine into the vessels of true doctrine, and casting the apparent 
 away, — that is, removing them from the others, and placing them out of 
 the field of active use. But there is still another judgment, more prac- 
 tical, because entering deeper in the life than this. A time comes 
 when it is required of us to judge of principles, not as they relate to 
 doctrine, but to life ; not to the understanding, but to the will. So 
 far as we are natural, we cast our net into the sea of life, and take up 
 all that comes, indulging without distinction in lawful and unlawful 
 pleasures, gains, likes and dislikes, ends and means ; or if we 
 distinguish between them, it is by a worldly rule applied by worldly 
 motives. As we acquire, not the knowledge, but the conscience of 
 good and truth, and act from the will, which is meant by sitting down, 
 we gather the good into the vessels of the inner memory, which is 
 into the life, and cast the bad away, or remove worldly ends away from 
 the life’s love. That this judgment proceeds from a high spiritual 
 
Chap. XIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 337 
 
 principle is indicated in the parable. There is nothing said in the 
 parable as to who cast the net into the sea, or who drew it to the 
 shore ; but in the Lord’s explanatory application we learn that the 
 separation is effected by the angels. u In the consummation of the 
 age the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the 
 just.” That is to say, when we come to act from spiritual or heavenly 
 principles, the spiritual or heavenly principles of the internal man 
 “ come forth ” into the external, where the good and bad have been 
 mixed, and where the separation between them is to be effected. 
 Besides separating the wicked from the good, they are to cast them 
 into a furnace of fire, where shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 
 As the scriptural descriptions of the final place, and sufferings in the 
 other life, is only a description of their final state, operations, and ex- 
 perience, so, when understood of separated principles, these descriptions 
 are only revelations of their real character. This casting into the fur- 
 nace of fire means that these wicked principles are in themselves 
 burning lusts, and that it is their very nature to give birth to evil and 
 falsity, signified by wailing and gnashing of teeth. 
 
 The way to know the final state of the evil and the good is to know* 
 the nature of evil and goodness ; arid the way to avoid the furnace of 
 fire in the other world is to quench the fire of evil lusts while we live 
 in this. 
 
 In treating of this series of parables we have not always traced their 
 connection. This has been done by Clowes, whose remarks we 
 quote, as a summing up of the whole. The serious and intelligent 
 reader will be at once edified and delighted at observing that the 
 several parables contained in this chapter stand in a connected order 
 as to their internal sense, and thus follow each other in a regular 
 series, expressive of the whole process of regeneration, commencing with 
 the first reception of heavenly truth from the Word, and advancing 
 through all the gradation of its growths to the full maturity of heavenly 
 love and life. Accordingly, the first parable, of the sower , describes the 
 first insemination of truth, which is the first step towards the heavenly 
 life. The second parable, of the tares of the field , describes the mani- 
 festation of evils and falses in consequence of such insemination, which 
 is a second step, and an effect of the first. The third parable, of the 
 grain of mustard seed , describes the small increment of heavenly life, 
 whilst man supposes that he does good from himself alone, and not 
 from the Lord, which is the third state in the regeneration. The 
 fourth parable, of the leaven , &c., describes the temptation consequent 
 on the reception of heavenly truth and good, which is a fourth state. 
 
 z 
 
338 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Ciiap. XTIT. 
 
 The fifth parable, of treasure hid in a field, describes the farther effect 
 of heavenly truth and good, in leading man to renounce his proprium, 
 or his own proper life, that he may appropriate the life of heaven, 
 which is signified by selling all that he hath, and buying that field, 
 ■which is a fifth state. The sixth parable, of the merchant man seeking 
 beautiful pearls, describes the effect of heavenly truth in leading man 
 to the acknowledgment of the Lord as the alone source of all good and 
 truth, and the consequent renunciation of self-love and its guidance, 
 which is a sixth state. The seventh parable, of a net cast into the sea, 
 describes the last effect of the reception of heavenly truth and good, 
 in accomplishing a full and final separation between goods and evils? 
 and between truths and falses, so that goods and truths are brought 
 into conjunction with heaven, whilst evils and falses are cast down 
 into hell ; and this is the seventh and last stage of the regenerate life. 
 
 51. When he had finished his parables, Jesus saith unto them, 
 Have ye understood all these things .? Addressed to the disciples, this 
 question is still asked of every one by the Spirit of the Lord, that 
 dwells within him ; and every true disciple must be able to answer, 
 fea, Lord. Question and answer express reciprocation. Love asks, 
 and wisdom answers. And when the answer and the question corre- 
 spond, there is unity of heart and undestanding. 
 
 52. Then said he unto him, Therefore every scribe which is instructed 
 unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, 
 which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old. Literally, 
 a scribe was one skilled in the law ; a scribe instructed unto the king- 
 dom of heaven is one versed in the gospel. Things new and old, which 
 the disciples, as scribes instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, were 
 to bring out of their treasures, are the truths of the Old and New 
 Testaments. Every heaven-instructed scribe must bring out of both 
 these treasure-houses the precious things, new and old, in such due 
 proportion as may be required for edification ; for the law and the 
 gospel are intimately connected, forming but two parts of one great 
 whole. 
 
 There are, however, other two things included in these, which the 
 heaven-instructed scribe must bring forth ; which are the letter and 
 the spirit of the Word. In the Scriptures these are called old and 
 new, as where the apostle speaks of serving God, not according to the 
 oldness of the letter, but according to the newness of the spirit. The 
 letter without the spirit is not only old, but dead, and therefore killeth. 
 The letter and the spirit together afford the means of perfect instruc- 
 tion ; and these new and old things every scribe instructed unto the 
 
Chap. XIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 339 
 
 kingdom of heaven will bring unitedly to bear on the eternal concerns 
 of men, and not less on his own, which it is his duty and his privilege 
 to promote. 
 
 53. And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these parables, 
 he departed thence. When Jesus teaches men, and departs from the 
 scene of his labours, it is to represent that he first instructs his chil- 
 dren, and then withdraws himself, leaving them freely to act upon the 
 lessons of life he has imparted to them. We feel ourselves more in 
 the presence of the Lord when reading his Word; but when we are 
 engaged in the business of the world, we feel as if we were alone We 
 are not then less in his presence, but are permitted to feel as if we 
 were alone, that vve may act from liberty according to reason, and so 
 confirm by practice what he has taught us by precept. 
 
 54. But when the Divine Teacher withdraws from one place, he 
 goes to another. In the present instance he went to Nazareth, where 
 he had been brought up (Luke iv. 16). And when he was come into 
 his own country, he taught them in their synagogue. The Lord comes 
 to his own country in us, where he was brought up, when we con- 
 template him as he appeared to us in our early life, when our thoughts 
 of Him, though reverential, were yet natural, when we saw him as 
 man, but knew him not as God. When he returns, it is in the power 
 of the Spirit, to preach a new doctrine in our old synagogues, to infuse 
 into our early religious notions higher ideas, to emancipate us from 
 the dominion of the senses, as well as from the slavery of sin. This state 
 is accurately described in the narrative, which is instructive in itself. 
 If the Lord’s words and works did not produce belief, they caused 
 astonishment. The people were astonished, and said, Whence hath this 
 man this wisdom , and these mighty works ? The wisdom of the Lord’s 
 words, and the might of his works, were not questioned ; the doubt- 
 ing question was, whence he had obtained them. The inquiry is one 
 that may be legitimately and usefully made ; but we should strive to 
 obtain the true answer, which the Lord himself has given, — “ Of my- 
 self I can do nothing. As I hear I judge. The Father that dwelleth 
 in me, he doeth the works.” 
 
 55. 56. The Nazarenes had seen Jesus as an ordinary man, and they 
 could not bring themselves to believe that he was anything more. Is 
 not this the carpenter’s son ? is not his mother called Mary ? and his 
 brethren James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas ? and his sisters, are 
 they not all with us 'i Whence then hath this man all these things ? 
 They who asked these questions were more excusable than those in the 
 present day who look upon Jesus as a mere man ; for these obstacles 
 
340 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XIII. 
 
 to a belief in his divinity are now removed out of the way of the senses, 
 which draw down the mind to sensual judgment, and the record of his 
 whole life is presented in the gospels, while to the evidences which his 
 words and works presented to the people of his own country are added 
 his resurrection and ascension, which raise him out of the category of 
 ordinary men, and, truly considered, declare him to be God in a 
 divine humanity. But the Spirit of inspiration, in adopting these in- 
 quiries as a part of revelation, has embodied in them spiritual and 
 eternal truths. Joseph is not mentioned by name in this passage. 
 Jesus is called the carpenter’s son. His being apparently the son 
 of a carpenter, or worker in wood, confirmed the people in a natural 
 idea respecting him, not understanding its divine signification, as 
 being representative of the good of life derived from the doctrine of 
 truth.” In the general sense, Mary, the mother of Jesus, signifies the 
 church ; and the church is constituted by life, and not by doctrine 
 without it. To teach this representatively, the Lord on the cross con- 
 signed Mary to John as his mother, and John to Mary as her son ; 
 and John, who represented the good of love, took her to his own 
 home, to represent that where the good of love is, there is the church. 
 Those called the brethren and sisters of the Lord represented rational 
 good and truth. “ In the Lord himself is the celestial marriage, 
 being the essential divine good, and at the same time divine truth. 
 Angels and men are in the celestial marriage so far as they are in love 
 to the Lord, and in charity towards the neighbour, and thence in 
 faith — that is, in the Lord’s good, and thence in truth. Then they are 
 called daughters and sons, and amongst themselves sisters and brothers. 
 The reason why rational truth is called a sister is, because it is con- 
 ceived by an influx of divine good into rational truths ; the good 
 which is thence in the rational principle is called brother, and the 
 truth thence is called sister.” The contemptuous ascription of mere 
 natural descent and relationship to the Lord, when understood by 
 angels, as they may be obscurely by men, are changed into ideas of 
 spiritual affinity with him, according to his own declaration, “ He 
 that doeth the will of my Father, the same is my brother, and sister, 
 and mother.” 
 
 57. Those who pointed to his natural relationships were offended in 
 him. This is an example of the proneness of the natural mind to 
 judge of the Lord and his Word by appearances, and its repugnance 
 to connect visible effects with divine causes. The Word, as divine 
 truth, is precisely analogous to the Lord himself when on earth : it is 
 clothed with a natural body, which is its literal sense ; and those who 
 
Chap. XIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 341 
 
 judge of the Word by the letter alone are similar to those who judged 
 of Jesus by the outward humanity alone. In both cases, within 
 those human appearances, from which the natural man judges the 
 whole to be human, there is a true spirituality and divinity that raise 
 them entirely above ordinary men and ordinary writings. When the 
 Lord saw the effects of the reasonings of the people, he said unto 
 them, A prophet is not without honour , save in his own country , and in 
 his own house. The literal truth of this is well illustrated by the case 
 of the Lord himself. If any one could have escaped this common 
 fate of prophets, our Lord must have been that one; yet even he was 
 no exception to the rule. If such was the experience of the Perfect 
 One, how much more the frail members of his household. As to the 
 spiritual meaning of this, the prophets represented the doctrine of 
 truth which they taught. The native country and the house of the 
 prophet are the understanding and will of the natural mind. The 
 doctrines and truths of the Word are, at their first reception, laid up 
 in the memory as knowledge, having the same place, and being on the 
 same level, as other knowledge relating to the world. So long as 
 they occupy this part of the mind they are not honoured above the 
 other matters of science with which they are mingled. It is only when 
 they are separated from other and inferior things, and made the sub- 
 jects of a higher thought, and con^cted with higher ends, that they 
 obtain the honour that is due to them ; for they are then elevated 
 into the spiritual mind, and exalted in the affections and thoughts, 
 and invested with the authority which belongs to them. It is 
 possible, on the other hand, that when the time for decision comes, 
 the truths and doctrines of religion thus laid up in the natural memory 
 may be rejected and degraded, instead of being chosen and honoured ; 
 when the early disciple becomes offended in Jesus, and regards him 
 only as a man among men. 
 
 58. And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. 
 It is a very common opinion that one great purpose of the Lord’s 
 miracles was to produce belief. Here we find that unbelief was an 
 impediment to his performing miracles. Hence the question so 
 often put to applicants for cures, “ Dost thou believe that I am able 
 to do this h ” Miracles may confirm and exalt belief, but they cannot 
 produce it. The ground of belief is in an honest and good heart, and 
 this miracles cannot create. The same principle holds good in our 
 individual experience in regard to the Lord’s mighty works of regener- 
 ating power. He can do no mighty work in us if our unbelief is such 
 as to hinder the operation of his love and truth within us. The Lord 
 
342 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Ciiap. XIV. 
 
 works in ns through our faith. And if his mighty working in our hearts 
 and minds and lives is not experienced by ourselves, and made manifest 
 to others, it is assuredly because of our unbelief. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 In the eleventh chapter we read of John, in prison, sending two of 
 his disciples to Jesus, to ask him if he was the promised Saviour, or 
 if they were to look for another. The cause of that eminent servant 
 of the Lord being shut up in the prisoner’s cell, and the cause and 
 manner of his violent death, are brought to light in the beginning of 
 this chapter. Like many other teachers sent from God, he suffered 
 for his faithfulness and integrity. Although it may seem inconsistent 
 with an overruling providence that the just should suffer for their 
 righteousness, it evinces at least that God does not show any partiality 
 even in favour of those who serve him, but that it is the order of his 
 government that events should take their natural course, uninter- 
 rupted by his special interference. So far on the circumstances relat- 
 ing to John the Baptist as historical facts. As part of the Divine 
 Word, they contain a deeper sense, and convey a more instructive 
 lesson, which we now come to coniider. 
 
 1, 2. At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus , and 
 said unto his servants , This is J ohn the Baptist : he is risen from the 
 dead ; and therefore mighty works do show forth themselves in him. 
 Herod, as the ruler of Galilee, represented the ruling principle in the 
 unregenerate natural mind, and the natural man, of which Galilee 
 was the symbol (ch. ii. 22). He heard of the fame of Jesus. Evil is no 
 insuperable obstacle to men acquiring the knowledge of spiritual and 
 divine things. But the effect is very different on them and on the 
 good. With Herod the knowledge of the fame of Jesus revives in his 
 mind the recollection of his crime against John ; and superstition, 
 which is the natural man’s religion, leads him to see in this new power 
 the increased potency of an old and hated, and now dreaded enemy. 
 This is no unfaithful representation of the case of the evil in the other 
 life, where judgment follows crime. When they themselves are 
 risen from the dead, the Word which, because of its testimony against 
 their sins, they had destroyed in themselves, rises from the dead 
 with greater than its former power, as a testimony against them. For 
 the words which the Lord has spoken, and which he speaks in our 
 conscience, though silenced, are not absolutely destroyed, but will rise 
 
Chap. XIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 343 
 
 against us even out of our own minds in the day of judgment. But, in 
 regard to the regenerate, this circumstance has another aspect. With 
 these, when in temptation, the truth is imprisoned in their own 
 natural minds, among the evils and falses of the selfhood and when 
 the appearances of truth die, or are put off, the truth itself rises into 
 new life in a higher region of the mind ; and then it is no longer John, 
 but Jesus — not the letter, but the spirit of truth. Herod did not keep 
 his conviction of the identity of Jesus with John in his own heart, 
 but expressed it to his servants. His servants signify the thoughts 
 of the natural mind, and his telling them signifies the feelings of a 
 corrupt and guilty will finding utterance in the thoughts of a subser- 
 vient understanding. 
 
 3. The evangelist then begins to relate the events which had given 
 rise to this surmise of the guilty tetrarch. For Herod had laid hold 
 on John , and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias ’ sake, his 
 brother Philip's wife. This aggravated crime of Herod represented the 
 complete adulteration of good and truth in the church. Herod’s 
 hostile conduct towards John describes the sinner’s determination to 
 silence and repress the testimony of the Word against himself. And 
 in the description of Herod’s acts the completeness of this activity is 
 represented, for laying hold of John signifies opposition of the will 
 to the divine truth, binding him* signifies opposition of the under- 
 standing, and putting him in prison signifies the ultimate effect of 
 both in the life. 
 
 4. For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her. 
 John’s noble testimony against Herod’s aggravated and unnatural 
 crime represented the condemnation of sin, by the Word, as contrary 
 to divine order and to human happiness. When the lusts of the flesh, 
 or other natural concupiscences, tempt us to forbidden because debas- 
 ing pleasures, we should listen to the voice of God’s truth, which ever 
 speaks to us in the words of him who still comes to prepare in our 
 minds the way of the Lord — “ It is not lawful for thee to have her.” 
 
 5. In the disposition of Herod to put John to death, we see the 
 effect of the Divine testimony on the hardened sinner, who desires not 
 only to silence, but to destroy the truth. That there was some faint 
 trace of conscience even in the mind of Herod, appears from the record 
 of the evangelists; but the outward consideration was stronger than the 
 inward dictate. And when he would have put him to death, he feared 
 the multitude. The fear of man is not without its use : it prevents the 
 perpetration of many crimes. Yet the fear of man only restrains; the 
 fear of God constrains. Of this truth Herod is a striking example. 
 
344 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XIY. 
 
 Spiritually, the multitude are the affections and thoughts of the 
 natural mind — those which have been brought under the influence of 
 the principles of religion in early or in simpler states of life. Although 
 the lessons of truth may not have taken root in the heart, they yet 
 check us in our sinful career. Because they counted him as a prophet. 
 The Word is still acknowledged as a teacher of truth and righteous- 
 ness, whose authority is not to be entirely defied. 
 
 6. When the soul is progressing in sin, these suggestions of external 
 truth are easily and effectually silenced by the influence of inward 
 passion. The history of Herod’s crime against John, naturally and 
 spiritually understood, teaches this. But lohen Herod's birthday was 
 kept. Birth signifies the coming into actual existence in the external 
 of what has been purposed and deliberated in the internal — thus, the 
 bringing an intention into act. Here, indeed, we have not a birth, 
 but the celebration of a birthday ; but we celebrate birthdays only 
 because we rejoice in the birth, and our joy includes rejoicing in the 
 continuance and progress of a life which was commenced on the day 
 we keep in its honour. The rejoicing on a birthday denotes also a 
 state of the delight of the affections, which disposes the mind to yield 
 to the ruling tone of the person or principle born. The new state 
 represented by that of Herod on his birthday is pregnant with warn- 
 ing. A crime, from which he had been restrained by the fear of the 
 multitude, he is now led to commit through a promise to an unscru- 
 pulous woman. When the restraining influence of fear yields to the 
 promptings of corrupt affection, we have entered on a new stage of 
 sinful indulgence. The daughter of Ilerodias danced before them , and 
 pleased Herod. What is here rendered “ before them,” literally means 
 in the midst of them ; and this spiritually signifies what occupies the 
 centre of the affections and thoughts, and exercises a commanding in- 
 fluence over them. Dancing has been employed in the most profane, 
 as well as in the most sacred rites, acquiring a character from the 
 object it is designed to promote. It signifies the pleasantries and 
 joy of the affections, whether they be good or evil. The daughter of 
 Herodias signifies the affection of evil in the will ; and when this 
 puts itself, so to speak, into the most graceful or alluring attitudes 
 and exciting action, its influence on an already yielding intellect may 
 easily be imagined. 
 
 7. The effect of her dancing upon Herod is most striking, and 
 reads us a most useful lesson. He is first fascinated, and then blindly 
 abandons himself to the dominion of his enchantress, even binding 
 himself by an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask. And such is 
 
Chap. XIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 345 
 
 the progress of evil. The analogy with the spiritual life is easily 
 seen. The principal point here is the promise upon oath. An oath 
 signifies confirmation, either in good or evil, as the case may be. Con- 
 firmation belongs to the understanding. Consent is dangerous, but 
 confirmation is fatal. And the understanding may be so influenced 
 as to blindly give up the reins to passion, regardless of consequences. 
 When the understanding says to the will, “ Ask what thou wilt, and 
 I will give it thee,” we may be sure the result will be sinful and 
 disastrous. 
 
 8. And she , being before instructed of her mother , said , Give me here 
 John Baptist's head in a charger. The affection of evil, which is the 
 daughter, acts under the direction, or from the prompting, of the evil 
 and depraved will, which is the mother. And what should such a 
 will desire of the understanding? To give up to its power that 
 truth which had reproved it, to deny and reject the Word itself, 
 which is as a standing condemnation, to deprive it of all authority and 
 rule in matters of life — this is to give the head of John the Baptist. 
 She desired it should be given in a charger. All vessels siguify know- 
 ledges or scientifics. When truths are received into false scientifics, 
 they themselves become falses, being falsified ; so that even the 
 highest and principal truths are turned into the lowest and deadliest 
 of falsities. 
 
 9. And the king was sorry : nevertheless , for the oath's sake , and them 
 which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her. A new 
 step in sin is seldom made without compunction. Nay, some never 
 ‘repeat an old sin without awakening a feeling of remorse ; but the 
 sin is repeated nevertheless. The intellect may see an act to be 
 wrong, and yet consent to it, and lend itself to its commission. This 
 weak and sinful compliance arises from the fact that the intellect has 
 already bound itself as if with an oath to the corrupt will. Another 
 consideration that swayed Herod’s mind was what the world calls 
 honour, for them that sat at meat with him — those who are joined by 
 the appropriation of a common good or evil. All the affections, 
 therefore, that participated in the prevailing evil bound the mind 
 still more firmly to its sinful promise. When Herod, bound by his 
 oath and his honour, commanded that John’s head should be given to 
 her, he acted as those he represented act, from both evil and falsity. 
 
 10. And he sent , and beheaded John in the prison. This great crime, 
 committed against the law of God and man, on one who was more 
 than a prophet, because he had honestly reproved sin in the cause of 
 holiness, and in love for the sinner, represented a crime still greater 
 
34G 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XIV. 
 
 — the separation of the internal of the Word from its external, and 
 the consequent destruction of both, which is the beheading of him 
 who represented the Word. This separation of the principles from 
 the laws of truth reduces the divine laws to a dead letter, and 
 makes righteousness either lifeless or hypocritical. 
 
 11. And his head was brought in a charger , and given to the damsel : 
 and she brought it to her mother. The- purpose was the mother’s, and, 
 after its accomplishment through various agencies, it returns to her 
 in its present horrid shape — such, one might suppose, as would cause 
 the most obdurate sinner to tremble. Can it be supposed that any 
 one not utterly abandoned could be guilty of such a crime? If 
 under the law of Christ hatred is murder, and hatred of a person is 
 hatred of his principles, there is the possibility of this crime being 
 committed in another form, even by those who profess veneration for 
 that Word which John represented. Practically to deny any of the 
 great principles of the Word is spiritually to do as the wife of 
 Herod did. When an evil, proceeding as an intention from the will, 
 has been carried out into act, and obtains the approval of the will 
 which purposed it, the circle has been completed which makes it com- 
 pletely our own. Evil has returned to its origin, and that which in 
 this world gratifies the love of evil will in the next produce wretched- 
 ness and woe, "We cannot think of the death of John the Baptist with- 
 out reflecting on the seeming inscrutableness of Divine Providence. One 
 who was devoted from his mother’s womb to be the messenger sent to 
 prepare the way of the promised Saviour, and who went before him in 
 the spirit and power of Elias, we see smitten down by an unprincipled 
 ruler to gratify the personal revenge of a wicked woman. May we 
 not say with David, in his lamentation over Saul, “ How are the 
 mighty fallen !” But if we lament, need we be astonished ? Was 
 not the fate of John also the fate of Jesus ? And, no doubt, there is 
 some analogy between the case of the messenger and that of the Lord 
 whose way he came to prepare. John represented, and Jesus was, the 
 Word. John represented the written Word, Jesus was the Word in- 
 carnate. The rejection, like the reception, of the written Word pre- 
 ceded, and always precedes, the rejection of the incarnate Word. 
 J ohn prepared the Lord’s way in his life ; he prepared his way also 
 in his death. There is some difference, however. John fell a victim 
 to the kingly power ; Jesus to the priestly power. John was put to 
 death in Galilee ; Jesus in Judea. All these circumstances, repre- 
 sentative as they were, point to the fact that the men of the church 
 treat the Lord as they treat his Word. Those who deny the divinity 
 
Chap. XIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 347 
 
 of the Word deny also the divinity of the Lord. Those who be- 
 head John come also to crucify the Son of Man. 
 
 12. When Herod had put John to death, his disciples came , and took 
 up the body , and buried it, and went and told J esus. The disciples of John, 
 taking up his body and burying it, represented the transfer of the church 
 to others, when the former has been utterly perverted ; and also the 
 preservation of the Word, so as* that its pure truths shall be capable 
 of restoration in the interval between the end of a former church and 
 the establishment of a new one. The body of John is the letter of 
 the Word itself. Hence, then, we are taught that, while the Word 
 is utterly rejected in the minds of the corrupt members of a former 
 church, it is nevertheless preserved and reinstated among a new body 
 of people, who are willing to be disciples indeed. It has, how- 
 ever, a more particular application. In regard to the disciples of 
 John, it is to be considered that John’s imprisonment was to them a 
 trial, and their trial represented a temptation. The death of John, 
 though it represented the extinction of the Word or the Divine truth 
 in the minds of the evil, represented its exaltation in the minds of 
 the good. And the exaltation represented is effected by the putting 
 off of the letter, and the raising up of the spirit of the Word, as it is 
 received and acknowledged in the mind. And*whether we speak of 
 putting off the letter of the Word, and raising it up in the spirit, or 
 raising the Lord’s truth out of the natural mind into the spiritual, it 
 amounts to the same ; for divine truth in the letter is adapted to our 
 natural apprehension, and in the spirit to our spiritual apprehension ; 
 and its resurrection in us is its elevation into the perception of our 
 spiritual mind. This elevation of the Word brings the mind into 
 more immediate connection with the Lord as the divine good, indi- 
 cated by John’s disciples coming and telling Jesus — this name being 
 expressive of the Lord as to his divine love or goodness. 
 
 13. When Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert 
 place apart. This retirement of Jesus into the solitude of the desert 
 was, we learn from Mark and Luke, because of the multitudes which 
 were Ci coming and going.” Yet why should the Lord himself propose 
 (Mark vi. 31) to go with his disciples into a desert place apart, and 
 rest awhile, when he knew that the multitudes would follow him, and 
 even outgo him 'i Does not this teach us that the Lord had another 
 purpose, and that his departure has another meaning ? The Lord some- 
 times leaves us, that we may follow him. He withdraws into the desert 
 solitudes of our own minds, that we may go with him, there to behold 
 the wonders of his power, and see a table spread for us even in the wil- 
 
348 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XIY. 
 
 derness, that, where all natural and human resources fail, his power and 
 goodness may become more conspicuous in our deliverance and support. 
 This desert place also represents a lower or more external part of the 
 mind ; for it was on the east of the sea of Galilee, external to the land 
 of Palestine itself, though on that side where the two tribes and a half 
 had originally settled. And in descending into a more external part 
 of the mind, his purpose is to bring Ms regenerating power and opera- 
 tion down into our lower affections and thoughts, and into the words 
 and actions of our lives. It is in the ultimate degree of the mind, 
 also, that his power is most fully manifested. No doubt, also, the 
 Lord’s departure was on account of the death of John, to represent 
 that the rejection of his truth deprives the guilty mind of his presence. 
 The Lord, therefore, when he went into a desert place, not only knew, 
 but intended, that the multitude should follow him, as they eagerly did. 
 To follow the Lord is to follow the teachings of his truth, and imitate 
 Lis example ; to go out of the cities on foot is to live a life of natural 
 obedience from the doctrines of truth. 
 
 14. Those who follow the Lord will find the truth of the Divine 
 promise, that if they draw near to him he will draw near to them. 
 And Jesus went forth , and saw a great multitude , and was moved with 
 compassion toward them , and he healed their sick. As these great 
 multitudes represent the numerous affections and thoughts of the 
 natural mind, which have sought to be elevated to a more interior 
 communion and conjunction with the Lord, he whom the activity of evil 
 had caused to retire inwards now comes forth to communicate the 
 blessings desired and so much needed. When he saw the multitude 
 he “w T as moved with compassion toward them.” Jesus, as the Divine 
 Man, cannot be moved with compassion, for he is mercy itself. His 
 compassion is said to be moved when it moves us — when it works in us 
 penitence and humility, a sense of our own inherent destitution, and a 
 sincere desire to be replenished with the blessings of spiritual and 
 eternal life. And here we may point out the reference to the two 
 essential attributes of the Lord’s divine nature. For “to come forth” 
 refers to the activity of his love, while “to see” refers to the activity 
 of his wisdom; and, again, to be “moved with compassion” has 
 reference to the saving operation of his love, while “to heal their 
 sick” has reference to the saving operation of his wisdom. 
 
 15. When the Lord had healed their sick, and vJien it was evening , 
 his disciples came to him , saying , This is a desert place, and the time is 
 now past ; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, 
 and buy themselves victuals. The disciples did not yet understand, or 
 
Chap. XIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 349 
 
 did not on the occasion reflect upon, the Lord’s infinite resources. But 
 these circumstances were ordered, as they are recorded, to convey a 
 spiritual lesson. The suggestion of the disciples describes the state of 
 the regenerate while they are yet in an obscure perception of the 
 truth, signified by evening, which leads them to think that man must 
 acquire good by an external way, meant by going away into the 
 villages, and by his own power, meant by buying themselves victuals. 
 They are like Israel in the desert, — they turn to Egypt, instead of look- 
 ing to heaven, for the supply of their wants. 
 
 16, 17. But Jesus said unto them , They need not depart. The disciples 
 did not perceive the Lord’s meaning: their hearts were yet hardened. 
 When the Lord said, give ye them to eat, they looked to themselves, 
 and thought of their own small store, without reflecting on the Lord’s 
 power and resources, and more especially on what he himself had just 
 commanded them to do. And they say unto him, We have here but 
 five loaves, and two fishes. The bread and fish signify the spiritual 
 food, consisting of good and truth, which sustains the soul. They 
 here signify the remains of goodness and truth ; and the miracle, with 
 all the particulars connected with it, contains a most beautiful 
 description of the way in which these are brought out, and increased, 
 and appropriated, so as to make them the elements of the spiritual 
 body — of the life and character. The disciples are here to be con- 
 sidered as sustaining a twofold representation. On one side they 
 represent the interior affections of the natural mind, where the 
 remains of good and truth are stored up; while the multitude repre- 
 sent the exterior affections, among which the increase of these 
 remains are distributed. The interior natural principle, where re- 
 mains are stored up and preserved for future use, is more specifically 
 pointed out in John’s account of the miracle, and is signified by the 
 “ lad,” who had the five loaves and two small fishes. On the other 
 hand, the disciples represented the truths proceeding immediately 
 from the Lord, as the Truth itself, and the fountain of all 
 blessing. 
 
 18. When the disciples told the Lord of the scanty means they 
 possessed — but five loaves and two fishes — He said, Bring them hither 
 to me. This is the first, and an all-important condition of spiritual 
 increase. Stored up during early life, good and truth remain in the 
 mind as the means of commencing and forming the spiritual life in 
 mature years ; but they never enter into the life until, in obedience to 
 his command, they are brought to the Lord, or until the things 
 we have learned and imbibed relating to the Lord and to eternal life 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 350 
 
 [Chap. XI Y. 
 
 are turned to liim as their Author, and are acknowledged to be 
 his. 
 
 19. When remains, and, by their means, the mind that contains 
 them, are turned to the Lord, and are thus consciously connected 
 with him, he can bring into orderly arrangement the principles of the 
 natural mind, represented by his commanding the multitude to sit down 
 (or recline) on the grass. Grass signifies the lowest kind of knowledge, 
 and the people sitting on the grass represent the arrangement of 
 truths in knowledges. Another significant act follows. The loaves 
 and fishes that had been brought to the Lord he now takes. The 
 Lord’s taking the loaves and fishes signifies to adjoin to himself, as the 
 essential Good and Truth, the good and truth of remains in the human 
 mind. And then, looking up to heaven , he blessed, to represent the 
 opening of the spiritual mind — the heaven of the inner man, and the 
 descent through it, from the Lord’s Divine Love, which is the Father 
 in heaven, of that mercy and peace which bless our acquired good 
 and truth with spiritual life, and give them the power of supplying 
 all our spiritual wants, and satisfying our highest desires. When the 
 Lord had blessed, he brake the bread, and gave the loaves to his disciples , 
 and the disciples to the multitude. This breaking of bread is a beauti- 
 fully significant act, and has descended from the earliest times, when 
 every act had a distinct and understood meaning. In those times 
 bread was broken, when given by one to another, symbolically to 
 express the imparting of one’s own good to another; or when one piece 
 was broken among many, it expressed the communion of good; and 
 in both cases it was given and received as a token of brotherly love 
 and conjunction. And such w’as the meaning and the purpose of the 
 breaking of bread in the early Christian church. When, therefore, 
 our Lord brake the bread, he symbolically expressed his love for his 
 people ; while, by distributing the broken bread among the multitude, 
 he expressed his desire that they should be conjoined to him, and also 
 to each other, by their reception from him, and their partaking with 
 each other, of a common good — the good of love to him and to one 
 another. The Lord gave the loaves to the disciples to distribute to 
 the multitude, to represent that his good is communicated through 
 heaven and the church, by which it is accommodated to the different 
 states of human reception, and, more abstractly considered, that his 
 gifts descend by distinct degrees from himself to his creatures. In 
 the particulars recorded in these two verses we may observe a circle, 
 or an ascending and descending series, of operations. The loaves are 
 brought by the disciples to the Lord. By him they are, as it were, 
 
Chap. XIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 351 
 
 raised from earth to heaven, whence they descend with the blessing of 
 eternal love, to be given, thus enriched, to feed the hungering souls of 
 those who occupy the sphere from whence they came. 
 
 20, 21. We now come to that part of the transaction which places 
 it, in the list of miracles, as one of the greatest. And they did all eat , 
 and were filled. Here was a mighty work. Ten thousand fed to 
 fullness by a provision sufficient for a few persons ! This miracle is no 
 doubt of the same character as that of the manna, that for forty years 
 daily fed the ten thousands of Israel in the desert. Nor is the miracle 
 very difficult to explain. When we know that creation is an out- 
 birth from God, that the order of creation is from spirit to matter, 
 and that matter is but the natural form and covering of what is 
 spiritual, we can see that material forms may at any time be 
 instantaneously produced by an extraordinary influx of Divine Truth 
 from the Lord through the spiritual into the natural world. We need 
 not, however, suppose a creation of new matter, or of something out of 
 nothing; for the spiritual principle descending into the sphere of 
 nature clothes itself with the substances already existing, concreting 
 that which was previously abstract or diffused. This implies, of 
 course, a creation, and therefore a divine power; and this our Lord 
 possessed. What act could be more appropriate for the Lord Jesus 
 Christ to do than to multiply the loaves and fishes ? “ All things 
 
 were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that 
 was made ” (John i. 3). It is, however, with the spiritual meaning of 
 the miracle that we have mainly to do. Spiritually regarded, it tells 
 us of a work of divine goodness and wisdom not less wonderful, and 
 still more interesting to us, than the multiplication of the loaves and 
 fishes. It tells us that the remains of good and truth, small though 
 they be, and inadequate, as the acquisitions of youth, to supply the 
 spiritual wants of the full-grown man, are yet, when called forth 
 into use, and brought under the influence of him by whose providence 
 they were implanted, capable of immense and indefinite increase ; so 
 as to be not only sufficient to supply the immediate demands of the 
 soul, however great, but to leave a remnant greater than that from 
 which the supply was produced. For they took up of the fragments 
 that remained twelve baskets full. The twelve baskets of fragments 
 that remained signify fulness of instruction and appropriation. The 
 quantity left indicates the abundance of the supply. Naturally, the 
 abundance of the fragments of a feast is not of necessity a true index 
 of the quantity consumed. Spiritually, however, the more that is 
 taken the more there is left. The more we appropriate, the more 
 
352 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XIV. 
 
 fragments remain to be gathered up into the receptacles of the mind, 
 that nothing that God has blessed and multiplied may be lost, but 
 that all remains may be stored up in the affections of the will, of which 
 the baskets are the types. Baskets denote things of the will, because 
 they are vessels to contain meats, and because meats signify celestial 
 and spiritual goods, and these are of the will. It is worthy of remark, 
 that the multiplication of the loaves and fishes was not effected by a 
 single act, so as to produce the necessary quantity at once, before the 
 food was distributed, but was increased in the eating, to teach us the 
 momentous truth, that spiritual good is multiplied in the using. It is 
 like the cruse of oil and the barrel of meal : one continued to flow 
 while there was a vessel to receive it; the other never failed while 
 there was a use that required it. The extent of the demand but 
 increases the supply, for the source is infinite. Of the few loaves and 
 fishes, they that had eaten were about five thousand men , besides women 
 and children. These signify all who are of the church in truths from 
 good : men, those who are in truth ; women and children, those who 
 are in good. 
 
 22. After performing this miracle, straightway Jesus constrained his 
 disciples to get into a ship , and to go before him unto the other side, while 
 he sent the multitudes away. The circumstance which comes now to 
 be considered is of a singularly interesting character. It manifests 
 the Lord’s divinity in a most striking manner, and teaches us a lesson 
 of humility that it is most important for us to learn. We need not 
 dwell on the particulars that merely resemble those that have already 
 been explained. The leading features of the narrative are the Lord’s 
 walking on the sea and Peter’s unsuccessful attempt to imitate his 
 Master’s example. The scene presented before us in this and the next 
 verse is entirely different from that which we have just contemplated. 
 Here we have the Lord alone upon a mountain, the disciples on the 
 sea, and the multitude sent away to their own homes. This separa- 
 tion between those who were so near to each other is attended with 
 results which are descriptive of the Christian’s experience in corre- 
 sponding circumstances. Changes of state like the present, though 
 painful, are beneficial. They are under the directing hand of Pro- 
 vidence. And so the Lord constrained his disciples to get into a ship, 
 and go before him unto the other side. They were now passing over 
 into Canaan, and were therefore progressing from a less to a more 
 perfect state. 
 
 23. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a 
 mountain apart to pray : and when the evening was come, he was there 
 
Chap. XIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 353 
 
 alone. The Lord’s sending the multitude away, as well as the dis- 
 ciples, while he himself went up into a mountain apart to pray, 
 presents to our minds, if they are in any degree enlightened by 
 his truth, a scene of solemn grandeur, which we may see shadowed in 
 our own active duty and experience in corresponding circumstances, 
 when all lower thoughts and feelings are dismissed, and we ascend 
 into the holy mountain, to seek communion with God in contempla- 
 tion and prayer. The Lord’s desire for this communion was incon- 
 ceivably ardent; his prayers were inconceivably fervent; the union he 
 sought with God was inconceivably intimate. When we reflect that 
 the Divinity with whom he sought to be united was the Divinity that 
 dwelt within him, how much more intense must all his human feelings 
 have been than any that mere man ever experienced ! Apart from 
 its connection with the other particulars of the history, the scene 
 here presented to our view is sublime and impressive. Jesus in the 
 mountain, alone all night, and in prayer ! As the Lord was truly 
 man as well as truly God, the feelings that prompted him to withdraw 
 from the world, and spend a night in solitude and prayer, were real 
 human feelings ; and his doing so is instructive to us as human crea- 
 tures, who are to learn from his example. It teaches us that, however 
 useful and innocent our life may be, we yet require occasionally to 
 raise our minds above the cares and temporalities of the world, that 
 we may be alone with God, and enter into solemn communion with 
 him. These were among the means by which the humanity of the 
 Lord progressed towards that perfect union with his Divinity, which 
 is the origin and the pattern of the union of the external with the 
 internal in ourselves, and our consequent conjunction with him ; and 
 a similar course is necessary for us, who have a corresponding work to 
 perform. Nor is this lesson from the circumstance at all inconsistent 
 with, or even separate from, the representative character of our Lord’s 
 actions. The representative does not lessen, but greatly exalts the 
 actual. While we understand that all these events are transacted 
 spiritually in the human mind during regeneration, we see that if the 
 Lord is really in our understandings and hearts as the Truth and the 
 Life, his Spirit will constrain us to do as he has done, while passing 
 through the very states which he underwent. Not that we are to 
 imitate the Lord with a presumptuous literality, but to follow at that 
 distance which our finite nature and our feeble powers enable us to do. 
 To have these events realized in our experience is the object of the 
 spiritual sense which they contain. To have the Lord’s saving truth 
 exalted in our hearts — to have it there alone as our only ruling prin- 
 
 2 A 
 
354 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XIV. 
 
 ciple — alone from worldly, but not from that heavenly love which is its 
 true life, and to which its aspirations ascend, — this is to realize in our 
 experience the scene presented to our minds in the Lord’s going up 
 into the mountain. There may, indeed, be obscurity in this state, for 
 all prayer implies a desire for comfort and illumination ; and in some 
 cases it is the evening, to be followed by the night, through which wc 
 long for the morning. 
 
 24. But while the Lord was on the mountain in solitude and prayer, 
 his disciples were in the ship ; and the ship was now in the midst of 
 the sea, tossed with vjaves : for the wind was contrary. We have here 
 a representative description of the lower region of the human mind, as 
 subjected to the trial of temptation, when agitated by conflicting 
 passions — when the wind is contrary, and the sea is tossed with waves* 
 and sometimes even raised into a storm that threatens to shatter our 
 frail bark, or swallow it up, with every living affection it contains. 
 Temptation is a conflict between good and evil, thus between the 
 good affections and evil passions excited into action by an influx from 
 the kingdom of darkness, which, like the wind that raised the 
 waves in the sea of Galilee, is contrary to our progress towards the 
 holy land. 
 
 25. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, 
 walking on the sea. The disciples had spent the night in tribulation, but 
 the dawning of the day brings them relief. The Lord descends from 
 the mountain, and comes to them walking on the sea. We may 
 perceive in this beautiful and evidently^ymbolical incident a historical 
 representation of a matter of Christian experience. The Christian 
 disciple has sometimes the experience of a state at once of outward 
 tribulation and inward peace. The Lord, with his divine truth, may 
 be in the inward man, raising the affections and thoughts to heaven, 
 while the spirits of darkness may be exciting the lusts and passions of 
 the natural mind, and producing a feeling of apprehension almost 
 amounting to despair. And this sorrow may endure for a night, but 
 joy coraeth in the morning. This sense of danger arising from 
 tribulation, and the tribulation itself, are the result of the difference 
 and separation, or want of correspondence and conjunction, between 
 the internal and external man, or the natural and the spiritual mind. 
 But these tribulations are permitted for the purpose of producing the 
 desired correspondence as the means of conjunction. It is when the 
 tribulation has so far produced this effect that the morning dawns, 
 and the Lord descends from the mountain of the inner man, walking 
 upon the very element whose tempestuous Heavings had caused the 
 
Chap. XIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 3 55 
 
 danger and alarm, to give the troubled soul a sense of security and 
 promise of deliverance. And the correspondence and connection 
 between the spiritual and the natural is expressed by the fourth 
 watch — a number which, like two, signifies conjunction. 
 
 26. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea , they were 
 troubled , saying , It is a spirit : and they cried out for fear. The sphere of 
 the Lord’s immediate presence sometimes troubles the mind and inspires 
 fear. The feelings of the disciples arose, however, partly at least, 
 from misapprehension. They saw, but perceived not. They saw the 
 form, but did not perceive that it was the Lord who had come to 
 rescue them from their perilous situation. They supposed it to be a 
 spirit or apparition. In spiritual danger arising from temptation, 
 when the mind is in the dim twilight of intellectual perception, the 
 truth is seen, but not understood ; and not only not understood, but 
 misunderstood, and seen rather as a phantom to terrify, than a real 
 being to comfort. Sometimes, too, conscience invests an object with 
 a shape and character which are the coinage of its own apprehensions, 
 the Nemesis of its own state. The disciples were in such extreme 
 fear that they cried out; and, as the utterance of an oppressive feeling 
 brings relief, so, when spiritual fear finds expression, the mind is 
 prepared for deliverance. # The extreme or ultimate of any state of 
 spiritual trial opens the way to a state of tranquillity. But while 
 considering this circumstance in its spiritual sense, we must not pass 
 it over as a literal fact. 
 
 27. But straightway Jesus . spake unto them , saying , Be of good 
 cheer : it is I ; be not afraid. By a word, the deepest fear was turned 
 at once into the highest joy. So do the Scriptures describe, as well as 
 represent, the transition from one extreme to the other in the 
 experience of the righteous. “ Light shall arise in the darkness, your 
 sorrow shall be turned into joy,” are among the promises to those who 
 are plunged by spiritual tribulation into darkness and anguish of 
 spirit. And this is but the reaping of a harvest which they have 
 themselves prepared ; for “ light is sown for the righteous, and 
 gladness for the upright in heart.” The Lord’s night upon the 
 mountain prepared for the deliverance he was now about to afford his 
 suffering and terrified disciples; for it is when the truth has been 
 exalted in the inner man, and more fully united with its own good, 
 that it can descend into the outer man, and first walk in safety and 
 majesty upon its turbulent waters, and then hush the wind into silence, 
 and the waves into profound repose. How assuring and comforting in 
 the midst of the storm must be the voice of one who has so often helped 
 
35(5 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XIV. 
 
 us hitherto, our confidence in whom has grown out of our experience! 
 And even when the eye, as the emblem of the intellect, may be 
 deceived, as was Mary Magdalene’s, yet the ear no sooner hears the 
 familiar voice than recognition, with all its joy, ensues. “ It is I : be 
 not afraid,” is sufficient to cheer the heart in its deepest despondency, 
 as must have been the experience of the disciples. 
 
 28. A nd Peter answered him and said, Lord , if it be thou, bid me 
 come unto thee on the water. Among the disciples there was one who, 
 unlike the rest, was not satisfied with being restored to confidence 
 from a state of alarm, and willing to wait till the Lord should come to 
 them into the ship, but whose eagerness to meet his Divine Master 
 prompted him to ask to be invited to come to him on the water. 
 Peter represented faith, or that reception of the truth which makes the 
 Lord the object of faith. When that disciple said, “If it be thou, bid 
 me come unto thee on the water,” he wished to do naturally what we, 
 through faith, desire to do spiritually in corresponding circumstances. 
 When the truth is revealed to us through the affection of truth, our 
 intellectual zeal is excited to attempt what we are not always able, 
 because not prepared, to perform — to come to the Lord on the water — 
 without reflecting sufficiently whether our faith is strong enough to 
 support us on its troubled waves, and enablg us to make our way to 
 the Lord through the angry element that he, in his strength, is able 
 to tread upon. 
 
 29, 30. Yet the Lord, in his providence, sometimes permits us to try 
 our strength, that we may discover our weakness. Jesus indulged 
 Peter’s impetuous temper by inviting him to Come. Nor was there 
 anything inconsistent with his love and truth in answering Peter 
 according to the disciple’s love and faith. The Lord desires that all 
 should come unto him, and the attempt on our part is often the only 
 effectual means of teaching us the causes of our failure and the 
 conditions of success. Peter’s attempt to walk upon the sea has 
 left on record a lesson that will teach humility wherever the gospel 
 is preached. When Peter was come down out oj the ship, he walked 
 on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, 
 he was afraid; and, beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save 
 me ! How strikingly does this represent a feature in our Christian 
 conduct and experience ! Peter in the ship was bold and confident ; 
 bub when he came down from the ship, and planted his footsteps 
 on the angry sea, he became timid and doubting, and then he began 
 to sink. While we are in doctrine, and think and speak from 
 it, we have great faith in ourselves, which assumes to us the appear- 
 
Chap. XIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 357 
 
 ance of faith in the Lord, and we suppose that in the strength of that 
 faith we are able to do anything. But when we come down out of 
 doctrine, and enter on the labours, and face the difficulties and trials 
 of life, we soon find that doctrinal faith and practical faith are two 
 different things. This untried, and so far merely intellectual faith, 
 may endure for awhile, as Peter’s did, for its first impulse carries us 
 forward and upholds us for a time ; but when we see the wind bois- 
 terous, the thoughts excited into turbulent commotion by the influence 
 of the kingdom of darkness, fear seizes the mind, and we begin to fail. 
 This experience of our weakness is the lesson the Lord intends to 
 teach, by permitting us to make the trial. And it has the good effect 
 of leading us to feel our need of the Saviour, and to call upon him to 
 save us. When we can be brought by experience to such a sense of 
 our feebleness as to cry out from the depth of broken and contrite 
 hearts, “Lord, save me!” we have arrived at a state of mind far 
 nearer to the kingdom of God than when we boldly, in self-confidence, 
 confronted the danger. 
 
 31. We therefore find that when Peter cried out for the Lord to 
 save him, immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand , and caught him. 
 That hand, able to save to the uttermost, is ever ready to be stretched 
 out to take hold of the perishing sinner, or the self-confident disciple, 
 when the Lord’s power is sincerely and humbly invoked. The divine 
 power has been brought savingly near to us by the Lord’s assuming 
 our nature; but before his power can be manifested and magnified in our 
 salvation, it must have an humbled mind and contrite heart to act upon. 
 The Lord’s power is always with us, but it can only be manifested in 
 our weakness. It is through our sense of the need of his support that 
 he stretches out his hand ; and through our desire to be saved that 
 he takes hold of us. When the Lord had saved Peter, he administered 
 the loving and gentle reproof, 0 thou of little faith, wherefore didst 
 thou doubt ? The Lord’s words implicitly teach that, if Peter’s faith 
 had been sufficiently strong, he might have walked upon the sea. The 
 Lord’s reproof should remind us that failure in any attempt which has 
 his sanction originates in want of faith, and in the doubts that arise 
 iu our hearts. 
 
 32. When they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. In this 
 second time of calming the storm we see another instance of the 
 Lord’s power over the elements of the outer world, and have another 
 assurance of his power over those of the inner also, whose tribulation 
 he can still, if we but admit him into our hearts through love, and 
 into our minds through faith. But the wind ceased when Jesus and 
 
358 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [C jap. XIV. 
 
 Peter came into tlie ship. When the Lord enters through faith into 
 doctrine, or into our knowledge of his truth, the contrary influence of 
 falsity ceases, and prosperity attends us in our religious life. 
 
 33. The miracle of making the wind cease had the happy effect of 
 confirming the Lord’s disciples in the belief in his divinity. They 
 that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying , Of a truth thou 
 art the Son of God. Whatever this worship and acknowledgment 
 included in the minds of the disciples at the time, we are instructed 
 by the divine record that deliverance by the Lord produces in the 
 mind a conviction of his being the true Object of worship, and leads to 
 the profound worship of him as such. But when can we, as disciples, 
 say, “Of a truth thou art the Son of God” 1 ? When the power of his 
 Divine humanity has been displayed in working the truly divine 
 miracle of restoring tranquillity to the mind, which the prince of the 
 power of the air has been able seriously to disturb. But this title of 
 the Son of God is also expressive of the principle of Divine Good in the 
 Lord’s humanity ; so that he is the Son of God to us experimentally, 
 when the good of his love has been received in our will, and has thus 
 become the ruling principle of our life. And we worship him as the 
 Son of God, when our worship is not only directed to him as love and 
 goodness, but when it springs from his love and goodness in our hearts. 
 We can only worship the Lord, as he is in himself, from what he is in 
 us — only as far as his love is in us can we worship him as Love. 
 
 34-36. And when they were gone over , they came into the land of Gen - 
 nesaret. And when the men of that place had knowledge of him, they 
 sent out into all that country round about, and brought unto him all that 
 were diseased ; and besought him that they might only touch the hem of 
 his garments : and as many as touched were made perfectly vAiole. No 
 sooner did the ship reach the western shore of the lake than the 
 Lord’s work of mercy was renewed, in healing the multitudes of sick 
 that were eagerly brought to him from all parts of the surrounding 
 country. The scene of these cures is called the land of Gennesaret. 
 The sea of Galilee, or of Tiberias, was named also the lake of Gen- 
 nesareth. Gennesareth w r as in lower Galilee, and in it was Caper- 
 naum, the spot to which, according to John (vi. 17, 24, 59), Jesus and 
 his disciples came. As lower or southern Galilee signifies the in- 
 ternal of the external man (ch. ii. 22), Gennesareth must signify 
 a division of this region of the mind, the particular of which is meant 
 by Capernaum. Gennesareth represents the natural affection of truth, 
 but of truth connected with good, because called the land of Gen- 
 nesareth, which may therefore be considered as representing the good 
 
Chap. XT.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 359 
 
 of natural truth. This receives confirmation from Gennesareth, the 
 ancient Chinnereth, having been part of the lot that fell to the 
 tribe of Naphtali (Josh. xix. 35), which tribe represented the quality 
 of temptation by which man overcomes, and by which, therefore, 
 the internal is united to the external man. This multitude of 
 particular miracles are such as have been already explained, with 
 the virtue derived from the Lord through touching the hem of 
 his garment. The cure of the diseased represented the removal 
 of evils and errors, by which our faculties are restored to a healthy 
 state, and enriched with goodness and truth ; and touching the 
 hem of the Lord’s garment signifies taking hold of him through the 
 lowest truths of his Word. Virtue never fails to come forth thence 
 to the humble and contrite heart : “as many as touched him were 
 made whole.” This eagerness of the people of Gennesaret, and of all the 
 country round, to collect all that were diseased, arose, no doubt, from 
 the effect of his miracle of feeding the multitude ; and shows the 
 result of the inward reception of the Lord’s goodness and truth, in 
 creating a desire to have outward evils removed, and producing that 
 faith in the Lord the Saviour which is necessary to his working a 
 cure. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 1. This chapter commences with recording one of those transitions, 
 from the faith of the simple to the unbelief of the learned, which are 
 of frequent occurrence in the gospels. Then came to Jesus scribes 
 and Pharisees , — those, spiritually, who are principled in falsities and 
 evils. These were of Jerusalem, to indicate that they represent such 
 as are in the interior doctrines of the church, which Jerusalem repre- 
 sented. Yet those who are in the doctrine of the church can oppose 
 the truth, as these rulers of the Jewish church opposed themselves to 
 the Lord. 
 
 2. They assailed him in this instance through his followers. Why 
 do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders ? for they wash not 
 their hands when they eat bread. It is surprising how much import- 
 ance men of cultivated understanding can attach to outward forms 
 and ceremonies, which are but the shadow, of which religion is the 
 substance, and are nothing without it. The Jews had, indeed, cere- 
 monies prescribed to them by their law, and these they were bound to 
 observe. But the ceremony that formed the subject of the present 
 
360 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XV. 
 
 question was a “ tradition of the elders.” These traditions are like 
 parasites, that live upon the body that produces them. Like things 
 of the imagination, that are treasured up in the memory without 
 any view to use, they are rather hindrances than aids to vital religion. 
 This washing of the hands was but a sign of that kind of purifica- 
 tion which the natural man practises — the washing of the hands 
 instead of the heart. Washing the hands was, indeed, a testification 
 of innocence ; but when it was practised as a virtue in itself, the 
 neglect of which was a sin, it then became the emblem of an outward 
 assumption of purity to which there is no corresponding condition 
 of the heart. The demand of the Lord is, “ Wash thy heart from 
 wickedness the command of the elders is, “ Wash thy hands 
 as an appearance of innocency.” 
 
 3-6. The arbitrary and hypocritical rites of the Pharisees were set 
 aside by the Lord, the object of whose teaching was to induce his dis- 
 ciples to cleanse the inside, that the outside may be clean also. When, 
 therefore, the Jewish authorities asked him why his disciples trans- 
 gressed this mere ceremonial rite, he demanded of them, Why do ye 
 also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition ? For God 
 commanded , saying , Honour thy father and mother : and , He that 
 curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever 
 shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou 
 mightest be profited by me ; and honour not his father or his mother, he 
 shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none 
 effect by your tradition. It may be useful to understand what this 
 transgression consisted in. The Divine law required children to 
 honour their parents ; but the Jewish authorities had placed the 
 claims of the church above the claims of parents. Anything de- 
 voted to the church was sacred, and could not be diverted to 
 any other purpose. By this law unnatural children were able to 
 refuse the claims of their parents for aid, on the plea that any- 
 thing by which they might be profited by them was already corban 
 — that is, a gift, devoted, though not yet given, to the service of 
 religion. Thus the priesthood made the commandment of God of 
 none effect by their tradition. But what is the spiritual evil to which 
 this corresponds ? The father and mother whom God commanded 
 children to honour are, spiritually, the Lord and the church. In an 
 abstract sense they are the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom. To 
 honour these is to reverence and serve them ; and we reverence and 
 serve them when we love God and keep his commandments. But 
 when we exalt our own natural love and wisdom above those of 
 
Chap. XV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 or* i 
 oui 
 
 God, and devote that to the service of man, or to onr own service, 
 which we ought to devote to the service of God, we make the 
 Divine commandment of none effect. And we do more if we evade 
 the requirement of God’s law under the pretence or in the name of 
 religion. We then profane what is holy ; for we make religion itself an 
 apology for sin. 
 
 7-9. The Lord, therefore, concludes his address to the Pharisees by 
 calling them hypocrites; for such conduct is hypocrisy, which is mock- 
 ing God with outward service, while the heart is devoted to self and 
 the world. The Lord, therefore, proceeds to expose such heartless 
 wickedness. Well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people 
 draiveth nigh unto me with their mouth, and lionoureth me with their 
 lips ; but their heart is far from me. The mouth and the lips signify 
 the thought, which they are instruments for expressing, and the heart 
 is the will. When the w T ill or love is far from God, and devoted to 
 what is opposite to him, as the Supreme Love and Wisdom, what is 
 the service of the lips, proceeding from the thought, but emptiness 
 and profanity? Worship in such a state is vain. For what is 
 Divine- worship but vanity, when the doctrines we teach, the prin- 
 ciples that rule ns, are the commandments of men — the dictates of our 
 own natural lusts and worldly prudence? 
 
 10-13. Turning to and calling the multitude, the Lord summed up 
 the discourse he had delivered to the Pharisees in a parabolic statement 
 of the doctrine he had been teaching. Hear, and understand. Not 
 that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man ; but that which 
 cometh out of the mouth, this deiileth a man. When the Lord had 
 delivered this parable, the disciples came to him and said, Knowest 
 thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying ? 
 But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father 
 hath not planted, shall be rooted up. The Lord’s Father in heaven is 
 the Lord himself as to his divine love or goodness ; and no good in 
 the human mind but that derived from the Divine Good can remain, 
 but must, in the judgment, be rooted up. “ There is none good but one, 
 that is God.” From the one Good all real good is derived, as a stream 
 from its fountain, as a branch from its parent stem : and the stream 
 must dry up, and the branch must wither, that has not its source or 
 its root in the Divine Love. 
 
 14. Yet where hypocrisy exists there is no ground to work upon, 
 with the hope of producing reformation, especially when it is considered 
 that evil is united to and defended by what is false. Our Lorc^ 
 therefore said, Let them alone : and added, as a reason, they be 
 
362 
 
 1ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XV. 
 
 blind leaders of the blind. Their blindness was not that of involuntary 
 ignorance, but of voluntary error, or rather deliberate falsification of 
 the truth. A blind understanding led a blind will, and both fell into 
 the pit of infernal falsehood, as the prelude to the pit of everlasting 
 perdition. This is Pharisaic blindness — blindness of understanding 
 and blindness of heart. The understanding is the eye of the mind, 
 and was given as a guide to the will. The light of the body is the 
 eye ; but if the eye be not single, and if the light that is in the 
 intellect be darkness, how great is that darkness ! 
 
 15-16. Then answered Peter and said unto him , Declare unto us this 
 'parable. That to which the apostle referred was the parable the Lord 
 had delivered to the multitude in relation to the Pharisees, and which 
 we have passed over, to consider it as our Lord explained it. When 
 the Lord addressed the parable to the people, he prefaced it by saying, 
 as he so often did, “ Hear and understand and he now asks the 
 disciples, on whose behalf Peter spoke, Are ye also yet without under- 
 standing ? And this Divine inquiry is intended, like all that the Lord 
 addresses to his disciples, to awaken in them reflection and self- 
 examination, for the purpose of preparing them understanding^ to 
 receive the knowledge they desire to obtain, and dispose them to 
 receive the truth at the Lord’s mouth. 
 
 17-18. Do not ye yet understand , that whatsoever entereth in at the 
 mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught ? But those 
 things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart ; and 
 they defile the man. The lesson which our Lord here teaches is most 
 instructive. The mouth signifies the thought or the thinking faculty, 
 and the heart signifies the will. That which entereth in at the mouth 
 is everything that enters into the thought from the world ; but that 
 which proceeds out of the mouth from the heart is that which the 
 thought expresses from the will. How is it that what enters in at the 
 mouth does not defile, and that what comes forth from the mouth 
 does? That which enters into the thought, but is not permitted 
 to enter into the will, but is thrust out or rejected as unclean, does 
 not defile the man ; only that which is freely chosen, and so admitted 
 into the will, and is thence brought forth into the life, defileth a man. 
 This is a truth of very great importance, because of great practical 
 value. It serves as a guide to determine what is sinful and what is 
 not sinful in the operations of the mind. We have two faculties, a 
 will and an understanding ; and nothing is imputed to us, because 
 nothing becomes our own, till it has obtained the joint consent of 
 both. The understanding is given us to examine and judge whether 
 
Chap. XV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 3G3 
 
 anything that presents itself from without, or even anything that 
 rises as an impulse from within, is good or evil, and to tell us whether, 
 therefore, we should accept or reject it. The subject which our Lord 
 speaks of is the admission or rejection of evil. Now, there are many 
 evil suggestions and impure images that obtrude themselves into the 
 thought from the world, both directly and indirectly — both from what 
 we read, and hear, and see, and from what is already in the memory, 
 having entered through the senses. We cannot altogether prevent 
 these entering, nor would it be well if we could, for the mind is 
 thereby exercised, and may be perfected. Their entering the thought 
 does not defile us. It gives us the opportunity of discovering their 
 character, of ascertaining whether we like or dislike them, of knowing 
 ourselves, and exercising self-denial, if we are disposed to do so. If we 
 condemn the evils that thus obtrude themselves into our thought, and 
 resist any rising desire they may provoke, that which entered “ in at the 
 mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught” — is 
 rejected as unclean, and so separated from th^ life. The evils which 
 are thus resisted and cast out never enter into the heart, and therefore 
 never came forth out of the mouth, and therefore do not defile the 
 man. They rather tend to purify him; for an evil condemned is a good 
 justified, and an evil refused is a good accepted. This is plainly taught 
 in Mark vii. 14, where it is added that this going out into the 
 draught purges all meats ; which evidently means that good of every 
 kind is purified by this exercise of the mind. The understanding is 
 an alembic in which the affections are purified ; for, when subjected 
 to the operation of the thoughts, the evil is detected, and may thus be 
 separated from the good to which it adheres, and which it defiles. 
 But, on the other hand, if we admit evil into the will, and bring it 
 forth into the life, this is, indeed, to defile ourselves. In the heart 
 there are inherent tendencies to evil of all kinds. “The heart is 
 deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Such is the 
 testimony of him who made man, and knows what is in man. By 
 nature, man is nothing but evil ; and if he remains natural, his heart 
 is in the disposition to bring forth those hereditary evils into act. Yet 
 hereditary tendencies to evil are not condemnatory. Inherited evil is 
 involuntary, as in the case of infants and little children, who know 
 not the nature of evil as sin. Before evil can become sin it must have 
 the sanction of the understanding : it must be known to be evil, and 
 to be sin against God. Only the evil that comes forth from the heart 
 through the understanding or the thought is sin in the sight of God. 
 Our Lord, therefore, says those things that proceed out of the mouth 
 
3G4 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XV. 
 
 come forth from the heart. The mouth is the thought, and the things 
 that proceed out of the thought are the things that defile the man. It 
 is not their being in the heart, nor even their coming out of the heart, 
 that defiles the man ; but their coming into act out of the heart, with 
 the consent of the understanding, that defiles the man. It is their 
 coming out of the mouth which gives evils their sinful character. 
 
 1 9. For out of the heart 'proceed evil thoughts (or reasonings), murders, 
 adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness , blasphemies. The seven 
 general classes of evils here mentioned by the Lord all merit the most 
 profound consideration, especially on account of their connection with 
 each other in their internal sense and signification ; for “evil reason- 
 ings,” which is the first class, denote a perverted state of the will 
 and understanding, through self-love and the love of the world ; 
 hence come, secondly, “murders,” or the destruction of charity; 
 thirdly, “adulteries,” or the perversion of good; fourthly, “fornica- 
 tion,” or the perversion of truth; fifthly, “thefts,” or the claiming to 
 self what belongs to the Lord ; sixthly, “ false witnessings,” or the 
 calling good evil, and evil good ; seventhly, “ blasphemies,” or the 
 total rejection of what is divine. What a catalogue of evils is here ! 
 These evils exist in the world, and therefore must come forth from 
 the heart, which is their only fountain. And what a corrupt fountain 
 must that be which spontaneously produces them ! Yet the sin does 
 not consist in their being there, but in their being allowed to come 
 forth into act. 
 
 20. These are the things which defile a man. Whether we consider 
 them as natural or spiritual, they are such sins as pollute the soul ; 
 and it may be well to observe that the natural sin is not overlooked 
 or under-rated by attending to the spiritual evil. Indeed, the natural 
 sin is grounded in the spiritual evil, the spiritual being the cause in 
 which the natural originates ; for the spiritual sense of the Word, 
 properly considered, contains the knowledge of causes, as the literal 
 sense contains the knowledge of effects. The spiritual sense of this 
 series of evils which the Lord enumerates exhibits the evils in their 
 real character. It not only shows that every sin originates in the 
 spirit, but it points out the particular spiritual evil in which every 
 particular sin has its origin ; and it teaches us further, that the only 
 effectual way to prevent natural sin is to resist the spiritual evil. If 
 they are not rooted out by being resisted from spiritual principle, but 
 are only restrained by worldly considerations, they remain and defile 
 the man — that is, the inner man, which is the real man ; and when 
 he casts off his outer covering, and appears in the eternal world, all 
 
Chap. XV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 3G5 
 
 his spiritual impurity will be disclosed. These truly are the things 
 that defile a man, but to eat with unwashen hands defiletli not a man . 
 “O Jerusalem! wash thine heart from wickedness.” 
 
 21. Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and 
 Sidon. Tyre and Sidon represented the interior and exterior know- 
 ledge of spiritual things, or of things good and true. The description of 
 Tyre in Ezekiel xxviii. answers to its representative character. “With 
 thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee 
 riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures. . . . Thou 
 hast been in Eden the gar-den of God ; every precious stone was thy 
 covering.” But as Tyre and Sidon were situated on the borders of 
 Philistia, and were near the sea, they signify knowledges of a 
 relatively external kind. More especially was this the case at the 
 time of the gospel history, for Hiram, with his Sidonians, who had 
 hewed wood for the temple, and his Tyrians, who had wrought in 
 brass for it, had been long dead, and the plains were now inhabited by 
 ordinary Gentiles. 
 
 22. Behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts (or 
 borders), and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, 0 Lord, thou 
 son of David. This woman was one of these Gentiles ; she was not, 
 however, ignorant of the Lord being the promised Messiah, and was 
 therefore actually in possession of the knowledge which Tyre and 
 Sidon represented. She entreated the Lord to have mercy on her, 
 and this she sought for the sake of her daughter, who was grievously 
 vexed with a devil. Her daughter, like the daughters of Canaan 
 mentioned in Genesis xxviii. 8, signify an affection for truth, but 
 from a ground not genuine. By this we mean an affection sincere 
 but unenlightened — the affection of a well-disposed but uninstructed 
 mind. She comes to Jesus, and appeals to him as the son of David, 
 a name which is expressive of his divine truth, and entreats him to 
 show mercy to her daughter, which, spiritually, is to ask that the 
 Divine truth may enter into the human love of truth and goodness, and 
 deliver it from the evil whose presence and power it laments. But 
 the peculiar and interesting part of this miracle is the apparent 
 inattention of the Lord to this loving mother’s prayer, and his appa- 
 rent reluctance to extend his beneficent aid to the poor sufferer. No 
 one who reads this relation with any reverence for the Lord and his 
 Word, can for a moment doubt that there was a purpose — a wise and 
 merciful purpose — in his manner of acting towards the Canaanitish 
 woman ; and those who believe in the spirituality of his Word, know 
 that the record contains some hidden spiritual meaning. His seeming 
 
366 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XY. 
 
 inattention to the woman’s prayer was no doubt to increase her 
 fervency and her faith. But in the spiritual sense, her being a Gentile 
 furnishes a key to the meaning of the Lord’s demeanour towards her, 
 so unusual, and so unlike himself. There is one other instance like it 
 in the New Testament, which serves to account for and explain it. 
 When the Lord was asked by Pilate “What is truth ?” he gave him 
 no answer. It has been said that Pilate did not wait for an answer — 
 a human inference for which there is no good ground. The reason 
 the Lord did not answer was, that Pilate was a Gentile, and was 
 not in a state to receive a direct answer to his own question. 
 Bather, he represented the Gentiles who have a desire for truth, but 
 have no immediate divine revelation, and cannot therefore be answered 
 without preparation, even by the Word itself. One purpose of what 
 the Lord did when on earth was also to teach his church and people, 
 in all future ages, how theft states retard or accelerate the manifesta- 
 tion in them of the love which he ever and infinitely has for them. 
 It is our state that hinders, not his will that holds back, any good 
 thing that we ask or need. 
 
 23. When the woman cried to him for mercy, he answered her not a 
 word . How strange soever this may seem, it is plain the Lord 
 intended it only as a trial. He himself knew what he would do. But 
 he also acted in this manner to represent that there are states in 
 which prayers return into our own bosom, and the Divine oracles give 
 out no sound ; when some evil or imperfection in our mind prevents, 
 for the time, that communion with the Lord which gives the heart a 
 sense of his love, and the understanding a perception of his truth, 
 which conveys the assurance that he is indeed our deliverer from the 
 power of the devil. If our prayer proceedeth not out of feigned lips, 
 but expresses the real desire of the heart, “importunity” has the 
 promise of ultimate success. To our earnest prayer the Lord may 
 answer us not a word, and yet our redemption may be nigh. When 
 the agonized mother continued to plead with the Lord for her 
 daughter, his disciples came and besought him, saying , Send her away ; 
 for she crietli after us. The disciples now add their prayers to the 
 petition of the woman ; for they wished their Master to do as he was 
 wont — to send the supplicant away with the assurance of a cure. The 
 disciples representing divine truths as revealed in the Word, their 
 beseeching Jesus on the woman’s behalf is expressive of the mind’s 
 looking to the Lord through the truths of the Word, which have been 
 received and acknowledged. This, therefore, is a step in the progress of 
 the regenerate life. 
 
Chap. XV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 3G7 
 
 24. Still, this appeal does not succeed. The mind, though receptive 
 of the truths represented by the disciples, is not yet prepared to 
 receive the Supreme Truth, which the Lord himself is. So he 
 answers, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 
 The lost sheep of the house of Israel are the spiritual affections of 
 charity which have departed from the fold of the shepherd, or from 
 under the guidance of heavenly truth, which alone can lead them in 
 the way to heaven, which is their true sheep-fold. And to restore 
 these — which was to seek and to save that which was lost — was the 
 object for which the Lord was sent into the world ; for divine love 
 sends divine truth to redeem and save. But this affection was in the 
 mind of the supplicant herself, and it was to awaken and draw this 
 affection into connection with himself that the Lord thus addressed her; 
 for in every mind there are some remains of these spiritual affections, 
 and through them the Lord enters the willing mind. 
 
 25. When the Lord had uttered these words, which, though they 
 do not express a positive denial, give but little ground for hope, Then 
 came she and worshipped him , saying , Lord, help me. Utterance, 
 though not encouraging, gives more hope than silence. And, indeed, 
 the Lord speaking spiritually describes the voice of truth speaking in 
 the heart. And does not this voice sometimes tell us, in our anguish 
 of spirit, that we are not included in the number of those whom the 
 Lord came to seek and save 1 But this should not tempt us to utterly 
 despair. To doubt the Lord’s mercy may arise from a sense of our 
 own unworthiness ; to disbelieve it arises from a denial of the divine 
 perfection. Such doubts, when they arise in the minds of the penitent, 
 only stimulate them to more earnest and persistent prayer, with the 
 persevering use of all other means. The woman,. who had followed 
 the Lord, now comes before him and worships him, entreating his 
 help. Thus his seeming refusal to cure her daughter only increased 
 the depth of her humiliation and the earnestness of her prayer. 
 
 26. Still, these deep movings of the spirit within her do not bring 
 her the desired relief. lie answered and said, It is not meet to take the 
 children! s bread, and to cast it to dogs. Literally, this sounds some- 
 what harsh in our ears ; yet we know how much tenderness there 
 may and must have been in the tone in which it was uttered. Nor 
 does the language itself seem to have been regarded as offensive by 
 her to whom it was addressed. Times and usages give a peculiar 
 sense to such expressions. There is, however, a spiritual ground for its 
 being employed. Those out of the church were called dogs, because 
 dogs correspond to those who are natural, and even sensual, as sheep 
 
3G8 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XY. 
 
 do to those who are spiritual. Expressing himself in the sacred 
 language of correspondence, the Lord applied this name to the Gentile 
 woman without any purpose of reproach, much less of contempt. 
 “ The children’s bread” is the good of innocence such as it is in those 
 who are spiritual ; and this cannot be given to those who are only in 
 the good of innocence such as it is in those who are yet natural. 
 
 27. But the woman showed, by her willingness to accept the epithet 
 which Jesus had applied to her, that she possessed true humility, and 
 that she acknowledged the truth of his declaration. She therefore 
 said, Truth , Lord : yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their 
 masters table. To be content with the crumbs is to be content with 
 the least of the divine mercies — the smallest measure and lowest degree 
 of the good which the Lord bestows ; for the bread on the table 
 signifies spiritual good, but the crumbs that fall from the table signify 
 natural good, or good in the natural mind from a spiritual origin ; the 
 crumbs falling from the table, and being eaten under it, expressing the 
 idea of good derived from the internal and appropriated in the external. 
 This was the good, therefore, which was adapted to the woman’s state, 
 and that which she was content to receive ; and so it brought her to a 
 state capable of receiving what she had so perseveringly and trustingly 
 sought. 
 
 28. When, therefore, she had made this speech, which bespoke as 
 much wisdom as humility, Jesus answered and said unto her , 0 woman , 
 great is thy faith : be it unto thee even as thou wilt. Her faith was 
 great, because grounded in humility and love, and confirmed by trial 
 and perseverance ; and through that faith her daughter was made 
 whole from that very hour. That very state which brought her mind 
 into conformity with her Saviour’s will was that in which her 
 daughter was delivered, and restored to soundness of mind and health 
 of body. 
 
 29. And Jesus departed from thence , and came nigh unto the sea of 
 Galilee. From those in the external knowledges of good and truth, he 
 turns or accommodates himself to those who are in a more interior 
 state. And went up into a mountain, and sat down there — the symbol 
 of love — that from the depth and ardency of his love he may dispense 
 the blessings of his goodness, as from the mount he delivered, in his 
 memorable sermon, the lessons of his wisdom. 
 
 30. A nd great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that 
 were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, andj many others, and cast them down 
 at J esus' feet ; and he healed them, # Here, again, these maladies repre- 
 sent the different kinds of spiritual infirmity with which the souls of 
 
Chap. XV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 3G9 
 
 men are afflicted ; the lame, those in whom good and truth are 
 disjoined ; the blind, those whose understandings are in ignorance of 
 the truth, or in error ; the dumb, those who are not in the acknow- 
 ledgment of truth ; and the maimed, those whose faculties and powers 
 are impaired. 
 
 31. The Lord cured the numbers of diseased and afflicted, insomuch 
 that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak , the 
 maimed to be whole , the lame to walk , and the blind to see : and 
 they glorified the God of Israel. The wonder excited in the multitude 
 implies the admiration of the affections, arising from the experience of 
 the Lord’s healing and restoring power, and the exaltation in the heart 
 of the Lord in his humanity as the origin of these blessings. 
 
 32-38. When Jesus had performed these beneficent cures, he turned 
 to the multitude, for the purpose of feeding them. So, when the Lord 
 removes our evils, he communicates his goodness. This miracle 
 resembles that recorded in the previous chapter, and does not require 
 to be explained, further than it contains points of difference. It seems 
 less wonderful than the other, since the number of people was smaller, 
 and the number of loaves was greater. Spiritually, this difference is 
 very significant, and shows at once a reason for this miracle, which some 
 critics are disposed to identify with the other, and the important relation 
 it bears to the first. In the other miraculous feeding of the multitude 
 there were five loaves and five thousand men ; here there are seven loaves 
 and four thousand men. The fragments that remained also, though 
 naturally less, are spiritually more. Twelve baskets were gathered up 
 on the former occasion, and seven on this. How, five signifies remains, 
 and a few ; but seven signifies what is holy, and at the same time 
 ample, complete ; while the number four, like two, signifies conjunc- 
 tion — the conjunction, that is, of the will and the understanding, and 
 of goodness and truth. Seven is a holier, if not a more complete 
 number than twelve, and has more relation to a state of good, like the 
 Sabbath, from which its holy signification is derived. The second 
 describes, therefore, a more advanced state than the other, and so 
 lenders this more complete as the representation of such a state. It 
 is mentioned by the Lord that the multitude had now been with him 
 three days, and had had nothing to eat — three days describing an 
 entire state of truth ; that is, the multitude had been led by the Lord 
 through a circle of intellectual instruction and self-denial, meant by 
 their fasting or having nothing to eat, and now they were brought to 
 a state of hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and were about 
 to be filled w ith good in union with truth. 
 
370 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XYI. 
 
 39. When the divine Saviour had sent away the multitude , thus 
 fed with the bread of heaven, he took ship, and came into the coasts- 
 of Magdala. This place is famous as the town of that Mary who has 
 become the type, if not the pattern, of all that is most loving and 
 devoted to the Lord. Yet, in reference to the people generally of the 
 place, it has not so exalted a signification, or, rather, the principle it 
 represented is lower in degree than when the name is coupled with 
 that of Mary. Magdala seems to signify a principle of natural good. 
 Mary, who represented celestial good, when called, as she always is, 
 Mary Magdalene, represents celestial good in natural good, or the 
 union of the highest and lowest good, which forms the most perfect 
 state and character. When the Lord went by ship to Magdala, he 
 performed a natural journey, which represented a spiritual progres- 
 sion, by the doctrine of truth, to natural or external good — a pro- 
 gression in the mind which brings his divine truth, and his divine 
 presence and influence, down, by means of knowledge, into the outward 
 life. 
 
 CHAPTER XYI. 
 
 1. Again we find the adversaries of Jesus present, and at their 
 daringly evil work of tempting him. And if we look within our 
 own hearts, and into our own experience, shall we not find too many 
 of these subtle foes of the Lord’s love and truth 1 The Pharisees also 
 with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would show 
 them a sign from heaven. We have already considered a similar in- 
 stance of this (xii. 38). It was there shown that a sign is some won- 
 der that acts directly upon the understanding, whereas a miracle is a 
 wonder that acts directly upon the will ; and that Jesus refused a 
 sign, because it is contrary to divine order, and would be most injuri- 
 ous to man, to carry absolute conviction to his intellect by any evi- 
 dence that would leave his heart unchanged ; and that, therefore, no 
 sign is given but the sign of the prophet Jonas, because this is a sign 
 of regeneration, which is the only real confirmation of the Lord’s 
 truth to the mind. The additional particulars in the present narra- 
 tive are very interesting. The former demand was made by the 
 scribes and Pharisees ; this is by the Pharisees with the Sadducees. 
 And as the Sadducees, though less hypocritical, were more material 
 and infidel, so the present indicates a tempting of the Lord from a more 
 determined negation of his truth, while requiring a sign that might 
 
Chap. XVI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 371 
 
 convince them against their will. While there is this difference, there 
 • is an important addition, which is contained in the 2d and 3d verses. 
 
 2-4. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It 
 will be fair weather : for the sky is red . And in the morning, It will be 
 foul weather to day : for the shy is red and lowering. The reason our 
 Lord expressed himself thus was, because evening and morning sig- 
 nify his coming. And so the Lord says to the Pharisees, ye can dis- 
 cern the face of the sky ; but can ye not discern tlie signs of the times ? 
 The church being then devastated, a superficial serenity prevailed, be- 
 cause its members lived securely in an evil life, concealed by false per- 
 suasions ; this was their evening, when the weather was fair and the 
 sky red. But when they had come to know the Lord, but denied 
 and persecuted him, then was their morning, when the sky was red 
 and lowering. This is true of the individual in corresponding states. 
 While he lives without God in the world, he has that kind of serenity 
 which arises from the absence of concern for eternal life and of 
 spiritual temptation ; but when, having come to the saving know- 
 ledge of the Lord, the false and evil principles of the natural mind 
 rise in opposition to him, then does the horizon become red and lower- 
 ing, charged with the elements of an impending storm. If he endures 
 the shock, it will clear his moral atmosphere, and make his day bright 
 and heavenly; but if, like the Pharisees and Sadducees, he will not see 
 the signs of the times — signs of his own state — then will he harden 
 himself in a state of guilt, and become like the hypocrites whom the 
 Lord accuses of wilful blindness. The final consequence may be that 
 solemn one here recorded : and he left them, aiid departed. Beware 
 lest this departure be for ever. 
 
 5, 6. When the disciples were come over to the other side, they had 
 forgotten to take bread, then Jesus said to them, Beware of the leaden 
 of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. We forget to take bread 
 when we neglect to provide ourselves with the spiritual good by 
 which the soul is fed. It is because we do not sufficiently hunger after 
 the true bread that we forget to take it when we pass over to the other 
 side ; for the disciples were now in Canaan, the type of the church and 
 heaven. It is then we are to “ take heed and beware of the leaven of 
 the Pharisees and of the Sadducees,” because it is then we are most 
 liable to be tempted to accept the false for the true bread, and to admit 
 it into our hearts. It is then, therefore, that we are to beware of this 
 leaven. 
 
 7. But the disciples did not understand what the Lord meant. And 
 they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no 
 
372 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XVI. 
 
 bread. The Lord intended to direct their minds to something higher 
 than they themselves were yet prepared to perceive. He therefore 
 proceeds to remind them that although they had forgotten to take 
 bread, he did not require to warn them against taking of the bread 
 of the Pharisees. Had they forgotten the two miracles of the loaves 
 and fishes, with which the Lord had fed so many thousands, and how 
 many baskets they took up h He who had done these wonders could 
 supply the bread which they had forgotten, without the necessity of 
 taking of the leaven of the Pharisees. Then understood they that he 
 did not bid them beware of the leaven, but the doctrine of the 
 Pharisees, of which leaven was the symbol. And what is the lesson 
 it teaches us 'l That the Lord warns us against false doctrine, of 
 which we are to beware, especially when our moral goodness is not 
 present to our minds as a safeguard. But even then, if we call to re- 
 membrance the manifestation of the divine mercy, in giving us 
 spiritual good in all fulness, then the Lord, speaking to us through 
 the remains of good stored up within, at once enlightens and comforts 
 us. The whole of this relation shows that divine language is expressed 
 in the natural world according to the correspondence which exists be- 
 tween natural and spiritual things. 
 
 13, 14. The next subject that occurs in this chapter is one of the most 
 interesting and important that occurs in the whole of the New 
 Testament history — Peter’s famous confession of the Lord. Jesus, we 
 find, goes to Caesarea Philippi, one of the most northern ports of 
 Palestine; and as he approaches the borders, he asks his disciples, 
 Whom do men say that I the Son of man am ? The Lord thus led his 
 disciples to reflect and decide on the great question, as to who the 
 Lord was that had come into the world ; and the first question was 
 to ascertain what men thought of him. These were not men of the 
 world generally, but men of the Jewish church ; for their opinions 
 respecting the Son of man were such as only the members of the 
 church would form. Some thought the Lord to be John the Baptist, 
 some Isaiah, others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. None, it 
 appears, acknowledged Jesus to be what he really was. Many 
 thought him to be a prophet, but none thought him to be the prophet. 
 Some thought him to be the forerunner of the Messiah, but none 
 thought him to be the Messiah himself, although it is doubtful 
 whether those who thought Jesus to be John the Baptist thought 
 J ohn to be the Elias who was for to come. Spiritually understood, a pro- 
 phet signifies doctrine from the Word, and John the Baptist signifies 
 the Word itself- — that is, the Word as existing in the church, but not 
 
Chap. XVI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 373 
 
 the Word, or the very divine truth itself, which was made flesh. Every 
 one of these opinions, even the highest, made J esus human and finite. 
 Another remarkable fact in all these opinions respecting Jesus is this : 
 all those persons whom they supposed the Lord to be, were men who 
 had once lived on the earth. Jesus they therefore believed to be one 
 of those holy men raised from the dead. They were of those, there- 
 fore, who sought the living among the dead, as, indeed, all do who 
 seek or place Jesus among finite beings as one of them ; for all finite 
 beings are in themselves dead, having no life in them but what they 
 derive every moment from God, who is the only being who has life in 
 himself. And Jesus was and is that being, for he said, “ As the 
 Eather hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life 
 in himself.” All these opinions of Christ, therefore, were and are of 
 the earth earthly. 
 
 15, 16. Well then might Jesus turn from all these conjectures and 
 inquire of the disciples, But whom say ye that I am ? And now comes 
 the true and ever-memorable answer. Simon Peter answered and 
 said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Let us see the 
 true and full import of this confession. The acknowledgment of 
 Jesus as the Christ was literally the acknowledgment of him as the 
 Messiah — the Saviour whose coming into the world had been the 
 theme of prophecy from the beginning of Genesis to the end of 
 Malachi. And whatever had been foretold of the Messiah, either as 
 to his character or work, was included in that acknowledgment. 
 Spiritually, the Christ is expressive of the Lord’s character as the 
 Essential Divine Truth, by whom the world was created, and by 
 whom, as the Incarnate Word, it was to be redeemed. The confes- 
 sion of him as the Son of the living God is the acknowledgment of 
 him as having been the begotten of God, as the child born into the 
 world by the virgin Mary. And this acknowledgment of his Divine 
 paternity is, properly considered, the acknowledgment of his being 
 God, and, of course, the supreme and only God, as to his divine 
 nature, and the true and only Son of God as to his human nature. 
 For there can be no God but one, and that which is begotten of God 
 must, so far as derived from him, be divine, and one with himself. 
 But the Lord, as born of a human mother, was, of course, so far as he 
 partook of her nature, merely human, that is, finite. His internal 
 man or soul, as being from the Divine Father, was divine or infinite ; 
 but the external or body, as being from the human mother, was 
 human or finite. Now, this merely human part was gradually 
 glorified, and this glorification was completed by the passion of 
 
374 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XYI. 
 
 the cross ; and when the Lord rose from the dead, he rose in a 
 humanity wholly and purely divine. This is the humanity that is, 
 in the complete and exclusive sense, the Son of God. And Jesus be- 
 came the Son of God by glorification, as we become sons of God by 
 regeneration, by being born of God. Jesus was begotten of God 
 when he came into the world, and he was born of God when he went 
 out of the world. He was declared to be the Son of God with power, 
 by the resurrection from the dead. He then ceased entirely, and for 
 ever, to be the son of Mary, and was solely and purely the Son of the 
 living God. Hot, of course, that he was, according to the crude and 
 erroneous notion, a distinct divine person from the Father, but that 
 his humanity was divine, and one with his eternal divinity, as the 
 body is one with the soul. The writer of the Hebrews seems to 
 have had a clear view of this great truth when he spoke of J esus, as 
 represented by Melchisedec, being “ Without father, without mother, 
 without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life” 
 (vii. 3) ; for the Lord was himself the Father as to his divine nature. 
 He had no mother, for he entirely ceased to be the son of Mary as to 
 his human nature ; and in himself he has neither beginning of days 
 nor end of life ; for he is the first and the last, the beginning and the 
 end, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. Such 
 is the great truth confessed by Peter — the truth of Christianity, 
 which comprehends in itself the whole of salvation, as. the design and 
 result of the incarnation. 
 
 17. And Jesus answered and said unto him , Blessed art thou, Simon 
 Bar-jona : fur flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father 
 which is in heaven. The Lord here teaches that this great truth can- 
 not be seen and acknowledged by mere human wisdom grounded in 
 the human will. Flesh and blood — the will and wisdom of man — 
 cannot reveal this truth to any human soul ; and hence it is that mere 
 human reason cannot see the divinity of the Lord’s humanity, but can 
 only see Jesus as the son of Mary, and sometimes even as the son of 
 Joseph. The perception of this truth must come from God out of 
 heaven, entering as divine light through the interior of the human soul. 
 And, indeed, its true and spiritual acknowledgment comes in mostly, 
 not from the light, but from the love of God, not from divine light in 
 the intellect, but from divine love in the heart. This love in the will 
 of the inner man, in our heart of hearts, is the Father in heaven, by 
 whom alone it is revealed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the 
 living God. He is to us the Christ as the Divine truth in our under- 
 standing. He is to us the Son of God as the Divine good in our wills. 
 
Chap. XVI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 37 5 
 
 And the interior knowledge of this makes us blessed, for it has in it 
 all the blessings of redemption and salvation. 
 
 18. This blessing is not, however, left to be inferred. I say also 
 unto thee , That thou art Peter , and upon this rock will I build my 
 church. We need not dwell upon the mistaken notions and false appli- 
 cations of this declaration of the Lord to Peter, or rather to Simon 
 Barjona, for here Simon’s name was changed to Peter. It was 
 as Simon that he made the confession, but it was as Peter that he 
 became the foundation of the church, and the keeper of the keys of 
 the kingdom. Simon signifies hearing, hearkening, and obedience, 
 and is therefore expressive of faith as grounded in the affection of 
 truth in the will. Jona, which literally means a dove, signifies the 
 principle of spiritual love or charity ; so that the name Simon, son of 
 J ona, is expressive of faith derived from spiritual love, which is charity. 
 But his name was changed to Peter in consequence of the confession 
 he made of the Lord as the Son of God ; for Peter, literally a rock, 
 signifies the truth. As Simon is expressive of faith in the will, Peter 
 is expressive of that clear perception of truth in the understanding 
 which gives to faith the evidence of intellectual sight. When from 
 the heart we have made confession of the Lord as the Son of God — as 
 God in his humanity — this great truth becomes in the mind the sure 
 foundation, the chief corner-stone, on which all the principles of the 
 church rest. Peter represents faith as well as truth; and, indeed, the 
 one implies the other, for truth has no actual existence in the mind 
 except as the truth of faith. Thus the spiritual sense teaches, that 
 what the Lord addressed literally to Peter is spiritually applicable to 
 all whom Peter represented — to those who confess the Lord from the 
 heart, and trust in him with the confidence of a true and living faith. 
 Abstractly, it is applicable to the principle of truth and the grace of 
 faith themselves, so that it is upon them in the heart and mind of the 
 believer, and not upon him personally, that the gifts are conferred. 
 The heart’s confession of the Lord as the Son of God develops itself into 
 a living faith in his truth in the understanding, and this change in 
 our state is analogous to the change of Simon’s name to Peter, and the 
 change of Jacob’s name to Israel, by a further development of the 
 spiritual principle, and advance in the spiritual life. When from being 
 Simon we become Peter, the truth of Jesus becomes the rock on which 
 he builds his church ; for he, as the eternal truth revealed to and 
 dwelling in a sincere faith, is that on which all Christian graces and 
 virtues repose as on a foundation. These graces and virtues constitute 
 the church in the human mind. And when we have the true founda- 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XVI. 
 
 tion of the church within us, then do we receive the divine assurance — 
 and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Jesus came into the 
 world to overcome hell and hold it in subjection. And when he 
 himself is the foundation, how can the power of hell prevail against 
 the building that is reared and that rests upon it 1 This assurance 
 implies, that the powers of hell make the attempt to overthrow the 
 church in the mind of the Christian disciple. Of this the Lord’s 
 disciples, and Peter in particular, had sufficient experience after this 
 assurance was given ; but they found, with the exception of one who 
 never had this foundation in himself, that the Lord’s strength was 
 sufficient to enable them to overcome the greatest assaults of the 
 enemy. And such will be the experience of every Christian who 
 carefully preserves the same sure and tried stone as the foundation of 
 his hopes. 
 
 19. With this power of resisting the gates of hell there is also 
 given to the Christian the power of opening the gates of heaven. / 
 will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; and whatsoever 
 thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever thou 
 shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. As there is a connection 
 and series in the internal sense, we may see it here. Evil resides in 
 the natural mind, which is meant by earth in the Word ; and, indeed, 
 evil constitutes hell ; so that the natural mind, in its unregenerate state, 
 is a miniature hell, the image of the greater. In the natural mind are 
 the gates by which evil enters from the world and the kingdom of 
 darkness, and by which it goes out to assault the good of the kingdom 
 we have received from God. These are the gates of hell in our own 
 minds that assail the church when it has been built upon the Pock of 
 Ages. And it is when, by successful combat against evil, we have 
 shut these gates of hell in the natural mind, that we can use the keys 
 of the kingdom to open the gates of heaven in the spiritual mind ; for 
 the shutting of the one is the opening of the other. The keys of 
 heaven are not actually given to us till we have resisted evil and shut 
 the gates of hell. It is by the natural truths, precepts, and laws of the 
 Word, and, indeed, by those truths that say, “Thou shalt nob,” that 
 we resist and overcome evil, and so close the gates of hell. But it is by 
 the spiritual truths of the Word, and those laws that say, “Thou shalt 
 love the Lord above all things, and thy neighbour as thyself,” that we 
 are enabled to open the gate of heaven. Bepentance shuts the gates of 
 hell ; holiness opens the gate of heaven. These spiritual and eternal 
 truths are the keys of the kingdom, and they are given to us when 
 we have faithfully employed the prohibitory laws of the letter of the 
 
Ciiap. XVI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 377 
 
 Word in resisting evil. The keys of the kingdom were given to bind 
 and to loose. This mode of expression is a Hebraism for prohibiting 
 and allowing, as authority and power are meant by having the keys. 
 In the spiritual sense, binding and loosing are expressive of very 
 important acts in the regenerate life. By earth and heaven, as we 
 have already seen, we are to understand the natural and the spiritual 
 mind, or the internal and the external man. To bind on earth is to 
 restrain and control the evil lints of the natural mind, and to loose 
 on earth is to give liberty and free action to its good affections. 
 We are to bring our bad thoughts and affections under subjection 
 to the authority of divine truth ; and by the power of the same 
 divine truth we are to deliver our good thoughts and affections that 
 are imprisoned and oppressed. For in the natural mind, in its 
 unregenerate state, evil rules and good serves — the natural rules 
 the spiritual, the temporal the eternal. Thus the state of man is 
 inverted, and regeneration restores it to order, which consists in 
 the lower serving the higher. The keys of the kingdom give 
 us the power of binding the evil and loosing the good, giving 
 dominion to the good, and reducing the evil to subjection. What- 
 soever is bound and loosed on earth is also bound and loosed in 
 heaven. One of the grand features of regeneration consists in 
 the spiritual and natural minds being brought into harmony and 
 unity, and this is effected by bringing the natural into correspon- 
 dence with the spiritual, the earthly into harmony with the heavenly. 
 In man the spiritual mind acts and the natural mind re-acts. In his 
 unregenerate state the natural re-acts against the spiritual, and so 
 overcomes or neutralizes its action ; when regenerated, the natural 
 re-acts in obedience to and in harmony with the spiritual. Whatever, 
 therefore, is bound and loosed in the natural mind is bound and 
 loosed in the spiritual mind. Not that evil ever actually gains 
 admission into the spiritual mind, but the effect is the same as if it 
 did ; for every unrepented evil in the natural mind turns into evil the 
 good that flows into it from the spiritual mind. But when the evil is 
 bound in the natural mind, the effect is that it no longer perverts the 
 good that flows into it, so that what is bound on earth becomes bound 
 in heaven. On the other hand, the good affections and thoughts in 
 the natural mind, being loosed from bondage, become loosed aud free 
 in the spiritual mind also ; for good can flow into the natural affec- 
 tions and thoughts, and act through them, so as to come forth, as it 
 ever desires to do, in words of truth and works of goodness. This 
 may be seen by the analogy between the less and the greater. We 
 
378 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XYI. 
 
 know that no one can enter heaven unless he is made heavenly while 
 he lives upon earth. Only those persons who have fought the good 
 fight, and have bound the evil and liberated the good in themselves, 
 can ascend into heaven. In like manner, only those things that we 
 have loosed and bound on earth will be loosed and bound in heaven ; 
 for our works follow us. Ho evil can be bound, no good can be 
 loosed, in the other world, that is not first loosed or bound in this. 
 So is it in our own heaven and earth. As men are made angelic on 
 earth before they become angels in heaven, so our thoughts and 
 affections must be made angelic in the natural mind before they can 
 exist as such in the spiritual mind. As there is not an angel in 
 heaven who was not once an angelic man upon earth, so there is not 
 an angelic principle in the spiritual mind that was not first an angelic 
 principle in the natural mind. That is first which is natural, and 
 afterwards that which is spiritual. Vfhen we speak of a work being 
 done on earth before it is done in heaven, or in the natural mind 
 before it is done in the spiritual, we mean that it has no positive and 
 permanent existence in the higher till it is done in the lower. Ho 
 work is complete till it comes into its ultimate state. The reason our 
 Lord came into the world and assumed a natural humanity was, that 
 he might operate from first by last principles, and so accomplish 
 the work of redemption. And having while on earth bound hell 
 itself, and loosed mankind from spiritual bondage, and glorified his 
 humanity, he ascended far above all heavens. And now he has the 
 keys of hell and of death ; and he it is who opens, and no man can 
 shut; and who shuts, and no man can open. He.it is therefore who 
 binds and looses in us, and to whom belongs the glory. 
 
 20. When Jesus had delivered and expounded this great truth of 
 his kingdom to his followers, when he had been acknowledged by 
 them openly in his true character, and had delivered to them the keys 
 of his kingdom, Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no 
 man that he was Jesus the Christ. The time was not yet come for the 
 full preaching of this truth to the world. But there is a sense in 
 which it applies to us also. This injunction is to be understood in a 
 similar way to that which he gave to some when cured of their 
 diseases — to tell no man that he had done it — that this truth could 
 not yet be received rightly and profitably by the natural man — meant 
 by the men without — the Lord’s humanity being not yet glorified to 
 that degree which corresponded with^tlie degree of life and receptivity 
 in which they were. The disciples afford an example of this them- 
 selves, on the very subject which the Lord next introduces to them; 
 
Chap. XVI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 379 
 
 for although, it seems evidently to have made an impression upon 
 them, and was several times repeated to them, they had so entirely 
 forgotten it that even its fulfilment failed to bring it to their remem- 
 brance. Yet there were reasons for this truth being made known at 
 this time to the disciples themselves. 
 
 21. From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples, how 
 that he must go unto J erusalem , and suffer many things of the elders and 
 chief priests and scribes, and be hilled, and be raised again the third 
 day. This was one of the means by which his purpose in coming into 
 the world was to be effected, yet the Lord now only began to 
 show it to those who were to be the instruments of preaching Christ 
 and him crucified, yea, rather, risen again. This shows that it formed 
 no part of their first preaching of the gospel. Their commission then 
 was to preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand, and to 
 heal the sick and cleanse lepers. The preaching of the gospel in the 
 fulness of its spirituality and glory was yet to come. Jesus only now 
 “began” to show unto them the mystery of the cross, and through 
 this the majesty and glory of his kingdom. Gradually, and wisely, 
 and tenderly, as they were able to bear it, did the Lord unfold unto 
 them the mysteries of his kingdom. Through Peter they had confessed 
 the grand truth that he was the Christ, the Son of the living God, and 
 they were now prepared to hear, though not yet to understand, the 
 ultimate means of his glorification. In all this we see the progressive 
 unfolding of the Christian principle in the mind of every true 
 Christian, the history of the disciples being the history of every true 
 follower of the Lord. When a truth is once received and acknow- 
 ledged, it begins to unfold itself. The great truth of the Lord’s being 
 the Christ, when once received, must work itself out into a practical 
 principle. Between the reception and the realization of this truth 
 stands the cross — first, as an offence to the intellect, and then of terror 
 to the heart, but finally to become an object in which to glory, as the 
 symbol of the gate of life. 
 
 In directing the disciples to look forward to the cross, Jesus 
 told them he must go to Jerusalem, out of which it cannot be that 
 a prophet perish. Jerusalem represented the church. The Lord 
 went up to the holy city, not to provoke the hostility of the Jewish 
 priesthood, but to represent his entering into the interior states of 
 good and truth, which were the necessary parts of his glorification. 
 The opposition which there assailed him was the inevitable result of 
 that awful perversion of the sanctities of religion which then had 
 desecrated the holiest place. Jerusalem — or, rather, the elders, chief 
 
380 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XYI. 
 
 priests, and scribes of the church there — represented also the perverse 
 religious element in our own minds, — the old life, with its lusts, errors, 
 and prejudices, that opposes itself to the Lord’s new life in the soul, 
 especially to the humiliating means by which it is to be perfected, and 
 against which the natural mind revolts. The Lord, indeed, directs his 
 disciples to look beyond these means to the glorious end, when he 
 should be raised again the third day. But at this stage the disciple 
 cannot look to the end ; he does not relish it, and he cannot compre- 
 hend it. He questions what the rising from the dead can mean. 
 He cannot see Christ’s glory as an end, so long as he cannot see his 
 suffering and death as means. He understands nothing of these 
 things. They are hid from him. Yet it is necessary that the disciple 
 should hear them, that they may be laid up in his mind as knowledge, 
 to be brought forth when the time comes for him to realize them as 
 truth. 
 
 22. We now see how it was that Peter took him, and began to rebuke 
 him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. 
 Peter here, as is usual, represents faith, but it is intellectual faith, and 
 so far faith alone, and therefore a false faith. The offence of the cross 
 is one of universal experience in the early stages of the Christian life. 
 The cross is repugnant to our unrenewed nature ; and the old man, 
 yet unsubdued, casts his malign influence over our new faith, and 
 darkens our confession of Christ with a denial of his sufferings, and 
 therefore of the true glory that lies beyond them. 
 
 23. The Lord therefore turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind 
 me, Satan : thou art an offence unto me ; for thou savourest not the 
 things that be of God, but those that be of men. The Lord turned to Peter, 
 to bring the direct light and full force of his truth to bear upon him, 
 to disclose to him the depth and malignity of the error he had 
 expressed, and^ calling the apostle by the name of Satan, commanded 
 him to get behind him, as an offence unto him. The gravity of Peter’s 
 error is evident from the severity of the Saviour’s language. Yet this 
 is to be understood of the sentiment rather than of the man. It is 
 evident from Peter’s speech to his Divine Master, that he knew nothing 
 of the true nature of the Lord’s redemption. He was a fitter type 
 of the disciple who has yet learnt nothing of the true nature of the 
 cross of Christ in himself. The Lord called Peter Satan, to indicate 
 the origin and character of man’s offence at the cross. Satan is the 
 name which is applied to designate the spirits of darkness who are in 
 false principles, and to express the root of false persuasions in our own 
 minds. Peter still represents faith, but a false faith — faith alone — 
 
Chap. XVI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 381 
 
 which practically deprecates the passion of the cross. This was the 
 Lord’s final victory over all the powers of darkness, and at the same 
 time the full union of his humanity with his divinity. This being 
 unknown to those who are in the faith of what is false, our Lord said 
 further to Peter, “ Thou savourest not the things that be of God, but 
 those that be of men.” 
 
 24. How appropriate and instructive is the address which the Lord 
 next delivers to his disciples ! If any man will come after me, let him 
 deny himself and take wp his cross, a,nd follow me. Peter had depre- 
 cated his Master’s suffering the death of the cross : the Lord now 
 tells his disciples that if they would come after him, they must them- 
 selves endure it. This strikes at the very root of our offence at his 
 cross. We are offended at the idea of Jesus suffering, because wc 
 ourselves are unwilling to suffer. As the Lord himself was to suffer 
 many things, so we are to deny ourselves, and take up our cross ; for 
 we must, like him, resist and subdue evil, as the means of acquiring 
 goodness. We must also follow him, by living according to his truth 
 and after his example. We are to deny ourselves by resisting self- 
 love; we are to take up our cross by crucifying the lusts of the flesh ; 
 and are to follow the Lord by forsaking all, and devoting ourselves to 
 his service. The duty of taking up our cross involves the bearing it 
 even to the death of our corrupt selfhood. 
 
 25. The Lord therefore proceeds to say, For whosoever will save his 
 life shall lose it : and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find 
 it. The seeming paradox contains a very plain and momentous truth. 
 Love is life. The life of the natural mind is the love of self and the 
 world ; the life of the spiritual mind is the love of the Lord and the 
 neighbour. It is not, therefore, the same life that we save and lose, 
 nor that we lose and find. He that saves the life of selfish and 
 worldly love loses the life of love to the Lord and the neighbour ; but 
 whosoever for the Lord’s sake loses his carnal and worldly life gains 
 spiritual and eternal life. These two lives are present in the mind of 
 every disciple in the early period of the regenerate life. Were it not 
 so, there would be no conflict ; for all conflict is between opposite 
 loves, thus between opposite lives. It is the carnal life and the 
 spiritual life that contend with each other. The contest continues till 
 one is overcome, and one yields up the dominion to the other, when 
 that which conquers becomes the animating principle of the whole 
 mind and life. Our Lord speaks in the same way respecting himself. 
 Of his own life he says, “ I have power to lay it down, and I have 
 power to take it again” (John x. 18). That which he laid down 
 
382 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XVI. 
 
 was not the same life that he took again. The life he laid down was that 
 which he inherited from his human mother, and the life he took up 
 was that which he inherited from his Divine Father, and which became 
 the life of his whole humanity by glorification, completed in his 
 resurrection. 
 
 26. The Lord brings out his meaning and his lesson more fully in 
 what he now says. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the 
 whole world, <md lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in 
 exchange for his soul ? Truly the soul, or the life (for the word is the 
 same), is more precious to a man than the whole world, and nothing 
 would he take for it in exchange. If a man will not give his natural 
 life for the world, how much less should he be disposed to give spiritual 
 and eternal life in exchange for it. If spiritual life is as much superior 
 to natural life as natural life is to the whole world, how ready should 
 we be to lay down the natural, that we may take up the spiritual, 
 which is also eternal. The life to be laid down is self-love, and the 
 world that profits ‘nothing is the love of the world ; thus the two con- 
 stitute the whole natural man. 
 
 27. A powerful reason for laying down the life of self-love, and 
 rejecting the love of the world, is the certainty of final judgment. 
 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his 
 angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. A 
 general judgment is no doubt meant in these words, but not such as is 
 generally expected. The words are commonly understood to refer to 
 the end of the world, when all the dead shall be raised, and judged to 
 heaven or hell. This notion is derived from a misunderstanding of 
 the Scriptures, which nowhere teach that the world shall have an end, 
 nor that the bodies of the dead shall be raised, nor that this world is 
 the scene of the judgment. All judgment takes place in the spiritual 
 world, upon the souls which have passed out of the natural world, and 
 are still in the intermediate state, and at the end of the church, which 
 is meant by the end of the age. We need not, however, take up the 
 subject of the judgment in the eternal world, in which all are judged 
 according to their works, but will consider the Lord’s words in their 
 purely spiritual sense, as being applicable to the regenerate. The Lord 
 introduces the subject of his coming to judgment, to teach us that when 
 we have taken up our cross, and resisted the life of selfish and worldly 
 loves, and have placed above them the love of God and the neighbour, 
 the Lord will come as a judge, to effect a separation between the evil 
 and the good, and assign each a place according to its character. The 
 Son of man is the Lord as the Divine truth, which is the principle 
 
Chap. XYI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 383 
 
 that judges; for the Father judges no man, but hath committed all judg- 
 ment unto the Son, because he is the Son of man (John v. 21, 27). Yet 
 the Lord never judges from truth alone, separate from love; therefore he 
 is to come in the glory of his Father, or of his own divine love, and of 
 angels, which are the truths of the Word and of heaven. These come 
 to the man who successfully resists evil, and give the reward of righteous- 
 ness and peace for the labours of self-denial which he has performed. 
 
 28. The Lord concludes by giving this promise : Verily I say unto 
 you , There be some standing here which shall not taste of death , till they 
 see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. That coming could not be 
 at the end of the world. The declaration must be spiritually under- 
 stood. The Lord is, in regard to the general church, speaking pro- 
 phetically of the last times, which are the last states of religion, both 
 as to purity of doctrine and life. In John xxi. 22 we read that 
 Jesus said to Peter, respecting John, “ If I will that he tarry till I 
 come, what is that to thee ? ” and we read that a saving went abroad 
 among the brethren, that that disciple should not die. Did John tarry 
 till the Lord came % Those did whom John represented. This, there- 
 fore, was spoken of John in his representative character, as the Lord 
 had previously spoken to Peter as a representative man. The beloved 
 apostle represented the principle of love, but of practical love, which 
 is charity, and he therefore represented, also, those who are in this 
 love, and continue in it to the end. Those who should not see death 
 till they had seen the Son of man coming in his kingdom are those 
 whom John represented. The Lord’s meaning is, that amidst the 
 general corruption, when even faith itself should perish, some remains 
 of lpve and charity should survive, till the time of his second coming, 
 to form the rudiment of a new dispensation. It is persons of this 
 character, also, that see the Son of man coming in his kingdom ; for 
 they who are in charity see the truth and acknowledge it, and the 
 Lord’s truth is the Son of man ; and the Son of man comes in his 
 kingdom when his truth is admitted into the mind, and entrusted 
 with the government of the will and understanding. In the particular 
 application of the Lord’s words they relate to the regenerate, to whom 
 the Lord comes as a Judge and a Saviour. Love and charity are the 
 principles in the minds of the regenerate which see the Son of man 
 coming in his kingdom ; and the Lord provides that some of these 
 shall be preserved in every mind, and shall not taste of death till thev 
 see the coming of the Son of man. It is through these that the Lord 
 at his second coming enters into the mind, and it is among these that 
 he sets up his kingdom. 
 
3S4 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XYII. 
 
 CHAPTER XYII. 
 
 This chapter records the Lord’s transfiguration, which gave his 
 disciples a glimpse of his glory, and foreshadowed the coming splen- 
 dour of his resurrection and ascension, when the humanity, now par- 
 tially glorified, should be wholly divine. It is a fitting sequel to the 
 subject of the preceding chapter. There the Lord was confessed, here 
 he is exhibited, in his true character. There he began to reveal to 
 his disciples something of his sufferings and death ; here he manifests 
 before them something of his succeeding life and glory. There he pre- 
 sented to them the Son of man in his weakness and obscurity; here in 
 his power and majesty. In this, too, we shall find instruction for 
 ourselves individually, both in connection with preceding states and 
 as a distinct subject of experience. 
 
 1, 2. The relation begins by saying, And after six days Jesus taketh 
 Peter , James , and John his brother , and bringeth them up into an high 
 mountain apart , and was transfigured before them. How significant 
 is this mystic number of six days, as pointing to the states of labour 
 and self-denial that precede and usher in the state of succeeding rest 
 and peace, when the beatific vision is opened to the soul’s spiritual 
 sense ! These preparatory states are the subject of the preceding dis- 
 course. After these have been completed, the glory of the Lord is 
 revealed. But why is it that this glory is revealed only to these three 
 of the disciples ? Did not the rest require this assurance and confir- 
 mation of their faith in Jesus ? Did they not deserve it 1 The cause 
 is spiritual. These three disciples represent the three cardinal graces, 
 which, in a manner, include all the others, or to which they all 
 belong. Peter, James, and John represent faith, charity, and good 
 works. It was for this reason that these three were selected by the 
 Lord to accompany him on particular occasions, and as one, and the 
 most important, of these, on the occasion of the Lord’s transfigura- 
 tion. This teaches us that those who are principled in faith, charity, 
 and works are those who, after their six days’ labour and trial in the 
 vale of humiliation, are raised by the Lord into the mountain of his 
 love and holiness, and there enabled to see the Lord in the splen- 
 dour of his glory, in the divinity of his humanity. 
 
 2. In the form in which he appeared on the mount his face did 
 shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. The glory in 
 which the Lord appeared on the mount, so entirely different from the 
 ordinary appearance he presented during the time of his humiliation, 
 is an evidence that his frail humanity covered a glory that required 
 
Chap. XVII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 385 
 
 only to be unveiled to be seen by those who were prepared to behold 
 it. The glory which he exhibited was not that of his divine nature, 
 for no man can see God as he is. It was the glory of his humanity 
 in which the Lord was seen on the mount of transfiguration. But 
 how should his humanity exhibit itself in so different an aspect from 
 that which it usually presented ? The humanity of the Lord could not 
 have done so, had it been the same as that of an ordinary human being. 
 The humanity of the Lord was derived from a Divine Father as well 
 as from a human mother. Internally, therefore, his humanity was 
 divine from his birth, and during his life it became externally divine 
 also, on the same principle and in the same way that during regenera- 
 tion our external becomes gradually formed to the image of our in- 
 ternal. At the time of the transfiguration the Lord’s humanity had 
 become so far glorified as to be capable of being seen by the eyes of his 
 chosen apostles. The apostles themselves were prepared for the sight. 
 Their preparation consisted in opening their spiritual sight ; which 
 was simply to place them for the time in the state in which man is 
 when he lays aside his material body and becomes an inhabitant of 
 the spiritual world. Such a change may be effected in an instant ; 
 but there are indications of a gradual change of state in those who 
 saw the Lord in his glory. Luke records that “ Peter and they that 
 were with him were heavy with sleep : and when they were awake, 
 they saw his glory ” (ix. 32). The appearance which Jesus pre- 
 sented was not, therefore, any glory that was shed upon him, but a 
 glory that was inherent in him, and was but a manifestation of a de- 
 gree of the fulness of glory to which he was advancing, and in which 
 he afterwards appeared to John in Patmos, when “ His head and his 
 hairs were white like wool, as white as snow ; and his eyes were as a 
 flame of fire ; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a 
 furnace ; and his voice as the sound of many waters ; ” and at the 
 sight of whom John “fell at his feet as dead” (Bev. i. 14-17). 
 Such was Jesus in himself when he appeared to Peter, James, and 
 John. The appearance he then presented is full of meaning. The 
 Lord’s face signifies his divine love, and his raiment his divine truth. 
 And the Lord’s love is as the sun, which in itself is pure fire, and his 
 truth is as the light proceeding from it ; for the Lord in himself is 
 pure love or goodness, while divine truth flows from him as light 
 from the sun. 
 
 3. While the disciples saw Jesus in his glory, behold , there appeared 
 unto them Moses and Elias talhmg with him. These two men were 
 eminent representatives of the Word. Moses represented the histo- 
 
 2 c 
 
386 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XVII. 
 
 rical Word, and Elias the prophetical. We are told by Luke 
 (ix. 31) that they “ spake of his decease which he should accomplish 
 at Jerusalem” — that is, of his redemption and glorification, which was 
 completed by the passion of the cross. Their talking with him repre- 
 sented that the whole Word, both historical and prophetical, treats of 
 the Lord and the glorification of his humanity. In many parts of the 
 literal sense of the Word, the Lord’s coming and his work in the 
 flesh are openly treated of ; but in the inmost or celestial sense, the 
 Lord’s glorification is the only theme. This may seem surprising, but 
 there is a sufficient reason for it. The written Word is not only a 
 revelation, but an emanation, from the eternal Word, and contains 
 within it divine life and light, divine good and truth. The written 
 Word in its essential nature is therefore divine, its spiritual and 
 natural senses, known to angels and men, being no other than a ves- 
 ture which covers its ineffable divine glory, and makes it perceptible 
 to finite minds. Before the incarnation, the Lord, as the eternal 
 Word, was clothed with a vesture which made him visible to angels ; 
 but when he assumed humanity in the world, he covered himself with 
 a garment which enabled men to behold him. The natural humanity, 
 in which the eternal Word appeared in the world, was analogous to 
 the natural sense of the written Word; and then the written and the 
 incarnate Word corresponded to each other from first to last. As the 
 vestures in which both the written and the eternal Word clothed 
 themselves, so as to be visible in heaven and on earth, were taken 
 from the finite nature of angels and men, they necessarily consisted of 
 all that constitutes angelic and human nature, and therefore of angelic 
 and human thought and affection. As the Lord’s life was a fulfilment 
 of the Word, the Word must have been a revelation or history of his 
 life. The whole Word, then, both historical and prophetical, must 
 have treated of his glorification ; so that Moses and Elias could talk 
 with him of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. 
 And the disciples who are able to ascend with the Lord into the 
 mount of transfiguration, may still hear them talk with Jesus concern- 
 ing that work of infinite love and mercy in which they have a 
 spiritual and eternal interest. 
 
 4. When the disciples beheld this glorious sight, Then answered 
 Peter , and said unto Jesus , Lord , it is good for us to he here : if thou 
 wilt, let us make here three tabernacles’, one for thee, and one for 
 Moses, and one for Elias. In Luke’s account it is remarked that 
 Peter spoke thus, “ not knowing what he said,” an evidence that he 
 spoke under a higher influence than that of his own thought — from 
 
Ciiap. XVIL] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 387 
 
 divine inspiration. And the sentiment and purpose are worthy of 
 their divine origin, and are those of every devout mind when the 
 glory of the Lord is revealed, by the opening of his holy Word, in 
 its spirit and power. “ It is good for us to be here,” must be the 
 sentiment of every regenerate soul when the Lord is seen in his 
 Word, and when its relation to him and his beneficent work for the 
 redemption and salvation of sinners is open to the spiritual sight. 
 And the making three tabernacles in the mind for these divine and 
 saintly guests is expressive of a desire to build up in the inmost of 
 the soul a tabernacle for the Lord, as Cod in his humanity, and in 
 the mind and life tabernacles for Moses and Elias — habitations for the 
 Lord and the holy principles of his Word to dwell in. When the 
 regenerate will is a tabernacle for the Lord’s love, and the regenerate 
 understanding is a tabernacle for his wisdom, and a regenerate life 
 is a tabernacle for his holiness, the purpose of Peter is accomplished. 
 
 5. But, While he yet spake , behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them : 
 and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, 
 in whom I am well pleased ; hear ye him. The literal sense of the Word 
 is as a cloud, for it veils the glory and moderates the light of its 
 internal sense : the cloud of the letter is dark or bright according to 
 the state of the mind that looks upon it. The letter of the W ord is a 
 bright cloud when illuminated by the indwelling light of the spiritual 
 sense, which is when its truths are spiritually discerned. Such is the 
 cloud that overshadows the disciples who have seen the Lord in his 
 glory. It is out of this cloud that the divine voice comes which 
 proclaims to us who and what he is whose glory we have beheld, for 
 all revelation comes from the Word ; and, indeed, from its literal 
 sense, but from the literal sense illuminated by the light and glory of 
 its spiritual sense. And what is the divine testimony respecting Jesus 
 that proceeds from this bright cloud that overshadows us on the mount ? 
 The voice out of the cloud said of Jesus, “ This is my beloved 
 Son.” The truth thus declared from heaven is the same that Peter 
 had so recently uttered upon earth. We have already examined 
 these divine words as uttered at the Lord’s baptism (ch. iii. 17). 
 The Father, we have seen, is the Lord’s divinity, and the Son is his 
 humanity, which are actually related to each other as Father and 
 Son. Viewed more interiorly, the Father is the Lord’s love, and the 
 Son is his wisdom ; for wisdom is the offspring of love. The Father 
 and the Son are therefore the divine and the human in one person — 
 love and wisdom, life and light, in Jesus Christ, in whom all fulness 
 dwells. The Father also says of the Son, “ In whom I am well 
 
388 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XVII. 
 
 pleased.” The Father’s pleasure in the Son is the satisfaction of the 
 divine in the human, as the power of effecting man’s salvation. 
 This is the pleasure of Jehovah which should prosper in the hands of 
 the Messiah (Isa. liii. 10). The love of the human race was the 
 love which prompted the Lord to accomplish the work of redemp- 
 tion ; and this work finds its reward in the salvation of men. How 
 lofty and weighty, then, the command, “ Hear ye him ! ” He is the 
 power of God, the wisdom of God (1 Cor. i. 24) ; he is God manifest 
 in the flesh ; he is the Divine Wisdom, in which is the Divine Love ; 
 he is the Fountain of every saving grace, the Author of every saving 
 virtue ; and he alone hath the words of eternal life. Then let all 
 who would know the truth, and obtain this life, hear him ! 
 
 6. The effect of this divine voice on the disciples shows what effect 
 it will have on all who receive it sincerely. When the disciples heard it , 
 they fell on their face , and were sore afraid. Hearing the voice is 
 expressive of the Divine love entering into the will and its affections ; 
 and this produces profound humiliation and holy fear, meant by 
 falling on the face and being sore afraid. Prostration and fear also 
 imply the renunciation of our own will and wisdom, and a consequent 
 sense of our unworthiness and nothingness in the presence of Him to 
 whom belong all goodness and power. 
 
 7. When we thus profoundly humble ourselves, and renounce self- 
 righteousness, and present ourselves before the Lord in our own 
 inherent weakness, he can exalt us in his own power, and inspire us 
 with the love which casteth out fear. And Jesus came and touched 
 them , and said , Arise, and be not afraid. To arise in the Lord’s 
 might, and rejoice in his love, this is the privilege of those only who 
 practically acknowledge Jesus to be the Lord of life and glory. The 
 touch of Jesus is the communication of his power, the inflowing of 
 his Spirit into the lowly mind. To arise spiritually, is to raise the 
 affection from earthly to heavenly and divine things ; and to fear not, 
 is to have the confidence of a sincere and living faith. 
 
 8. And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus 
 only. The view which the disciples had of the Lord in his glory, and 
 of Moses and Elias, was given them by the opening of their spiritual 
 sight. Tbe closing of their spiritual sight shut out the glorious 
 spectacle, and they saw Jesus only, and him as he was wont to appear 
 amongst them. In the spiritual sense these words teach an exalted 
 truth. When, after being raised up by the Divine power from the 
 dust of humiliation, we lift up the eyes of our understanding, we see 
 no man but Jesus only. He to us is all and in all. He is also the all 
 
Chap. XVII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 389 
 
 of his Word. Moses and Elias may testify of him, but he himself is 
 the only true witness. He testifies by them. He is the truth itself, 
 which, when all human mediums and finite forms have been removed, 
 remains alone the sole Object of love and perception. 
 
 9. Here again, in the vision, as in the confession, of Jesus, silence is 
 enjoined on the disciples. And as they came down from the mountain , 
 Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man , until the Son of 
 man be risen again from the dead. The disciples representing the 
 affections and perceptions of the spiritual mind, the divinity and 
 glory of the Lord could be perceived by them, because the Lord’s 
 humanity was already so far glorified as to be capable of being brought 
 down to their degree of perception. But as the multitude, even the 
 believing multitude, represented the affections and perceptions of the 
 natural mind, these were not to be told of the confession and vision, 
 because the Lord’s humanity was not yet so far glorified as that this 
 truth could be brought down to the apprehension of the natural mind. 
 The Lord’s glorification was completed in his resurrection, and hence 
 the command to tell the vision to no man till the Son of man was 
 risen from the dead. This, too, is our experience. In us the trans- 
 figuration must precede the resurrection. As with the Lord the 
 first took place in the spirit, and the second in the body ; so in us the 
 first takes place in the spiritual mind, and the second in the natural ; 
 and in each, acknowledgment must arise from actual reception. The 
 truth exhibited on the mountain of the inner man cannot be imparted 
 to the outer man till that truth has come down to his state and 
 apprehension — till after the Lord has there risen from the dead. 
 We have an exemplification of this law in the circumstance that 
 only the three leading disciples were taken up into the mount to see 
 the transfiguration, the rest of the disciples being left below. 
 
 10. The disciples now put a question to the Lord. Why then say 
 the scribes that Elias must first come 2 The scribes would demand, 
 “ How can the Messiah be come, when Elias has not appeared ? ” 
 The disciples believed in Jesus as the Messiah, but saw and felt the 
 difficulty about Elias ; for they themselves evidently knew not the 
 truth on this subject — that the prophecy was fulfilled in John the 
 Baptist. And for what purpose were they allowed to remain in 
 ignorance on this point till after the transfiguration ? Because it 
 represents the experience of every disciple who follows the Lord in the 
 regeneration. The Christian disciple does not truly understand the 
 means till he has attained the end. When he is with Christ in the 
 mount, it seems to him as if a new light had broken in upon his mind, 
 
390 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XVII. 
 
 the coming of which no herald had ever proclaimed ; and that a new 
 joy had sprung up in his heart, that no experience had ever taught 
 him to expect. He can say, “ Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
 neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God 
 hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them 
 unto us by his Spirit” (1 Cor. ii. 9, 10). 
 
 11-13. Nevertheless, no state of light and joy, however much it may 
 exceed our previous states of knowledge and experience, is without its 
 harbinger. In every coming of the Lord to the mind, his way has been 
 prepared by the truths of his Word, however unperceived their agency 
 or silent their operation, as they are in the days of infancy, childhood, 
 and youth. Our Lord, therefore, answers the inquiry of his disciples 
 by saying, Elias trvly shall first come, and restore all things. This 
 restoration of all things is the forming in the human mind of the 
 rudiments of all states which can afterwards exist by being developed 
 and perfected by regeneration. To all who have reached maturity 
 Elias hath already come, even although they knew him not, but have 
 done unto him whatsoever they listed, — for the corrupt selfhood too 
 often, and to some extent always, treats the Lord’s messenger as the 
 Jews treated John the Baptist. Likewise shall also the Son of man 
 suffer of them, — for this hostility of the proprium continues till it 
 dies together with the Lord’s body, that the new man may rise with 
 him from the dead. But this rising from the dead is also unknown to 
 the disciple ; indeed, it is, like every other actual state of life, hid 
 from his eyes, so far as relates to its real character, till it comes into his 
 experience. When the Lord had explained the prophecy respecting 
 Elias, Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the 
 Baptist. The light of experience, shed back upon the path by which 
 we have reached it, reveals the true character of the means and 
 instrumentality by which the Lord has prepared it for bringing us to 
 him, and him to us. 
 
 14-17. And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a 
 certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on 
 my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed. In his picture of the trans- 
 figuration, Raphael has skilfully introduced this case below the 
 mountain, as a contrast to the scene of glory which was being 
 exhibited upon it above. Nothing could more strikingly exhibit the 
 spiritual glory of that great event, and the degraded state and deplor- 
 able condition of humanity which the Lord had come into the world to 
 redeem. The Lord took human nature upon him, to deliver his 
 human creatures from spiritual bondage and wretchedness, of which 
 
Char XV r II.] 
 
 GT. MATTHEW. 
 
 391 
 
 this case presented so appalling and affecting a type. Below, we see 
 fallen humanity in its utter helplessness as well as degradation; 
 above, we behold it in its greatest power and glory, the pattern of that 
 to which the Saviour came to raise it. And here, also, we see the 
 absolute necessity of his immediate divine interference. For while 
 the Lord is on the mount, the father has brought his child to the dis- 
 ciples, who are utterly powerless to cast the demon out. The Lord 
 lias now come down from the scene of his glory in the interior of the 
 mind, to be present and diffuse his influence amongst the multitude of 
 thoughts and affections in the natural mind ; where, in man’s un- 
 regenerate state, evil and disorder reign. But the subject relates to 
 the mind in which regeneration has commenced, and is in progress. 
 The kneeling father is spiritual love, producing profound humiliation 
 of heart before the Lord, as the only deliverer of natural love from the 
 infestation of evil and falsity. The son was a lunatic. Lunacy, or 
 insanity, although it may be a physical disease, has generally a mental 
 cause, which therefore it represents. The present case was produced 
 by the agency of evil spirits, who, indeed, in all instances, act through 
 the evils of the human mind. There is a spiritual as well as a natural 
 lunacy. We do not mean insanity on the subject of religion, but a 
 spiritual derangement which incapacitates the mind for judging and 
 acting sanely in spiritual things, however sound it may be in natural 
 affairs. And as, when reason is dethroned, the will becomes rather an 
 involuntary than a voluntary faculty — for there is no real volition 
 without reason, no liberty without rationality — the mind becomes 
 alternately the sport of ardent ungovernable feelings and of delusive 
 thoughts. The poor lunatic, ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into 
 the viater. Those possessed by evil spirits were not responsible for 
 what they did. Spiritual insanity, which is the result of internal 
 possession, is different. Evil spirits can now have no more power over 
 us than we give them. They cannot, at their pleasure, cast us into the 
 Are of evil and into the water of falsity ; we run into them of our own 
 accord. This freedom, however, may lead us into hopeless misery; 
 for by long indulgence we may bring ourselves into the most complete 
 thraldom to our lusts and imaginations. The cure of such cases 
 requires more than ordinary means and agencies. The father of the 
 child, as a reason for applying to Jesus, said, I brought him to thy 
 disciples, and they could not cure him. The Lord then exclaimed, 0 
 faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you ? how 
 long shall I suffer you ? As the subject comes up again, we need not 
 speak of it here, further than to remark, that the Lord’s words of 
 
392 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XYII. 
 
 lamentation and reproof have reference to that twofold condition of 
 the mind so often treated of in the divine Word, and of which several 
 instances occur in the present relation. The youth was lunatic and 
 sore vexed, and often fell into the fire, and into the water ; and the 
 Lord calls the generation faithless and perverse, and asks, “ How 
 long shall I be with you ? how long shall I suffer you ? ” All these 
 refer to the two faculties of the human mind — the will and the under- 
 standing — and to the principles of which they are receptive. Faithless 
 has relation to the want of truth or faith, and perverse to the want 
 of good or charity ; and the Lord’s question, “ How long shall I be 
 with you h ” relates to the Lord’s presence with man by the good of his 
 love ; and the question, “How long shall I suffer you ?” has relation 
 to his presence with man by the truth of his wisdom. But to show 
 that in judgment the Lord remembers mercy, he follows his reproof by 
 saying to them, of the child, Bring him hither to me , — at once showing 
 compassion, and his desire that his creatures should act reciprocally 
 with him in his will and operation to save. 
 
 18. And Jesus rebuked the devil, and he departed out of him ; and 
 the child was cured from that very hour. The Lord’s rebuke contains 
 in it the power of divine truth ; and when this finds faith as a medium, 
 which we learn from Mark ix. 24 it did with the father of the child, 
 evil cannot resist it. The devil departs, and the mind is restored from 
 that same hour, or the state of the reception of the power of the 
 Lord’s truth in faith, which the hour signifies. 
 
 19, 20. When the disciples saw the Lord eject the evil spirit, they 
 asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out ? He answered, 
 Because of your unbelief The disciples to whom the father brought his 
 child were those who had remained with the people on the plain be- 
 low, while Jesus and the three went up into the mountain. When the 
 disciples are regarded as thus divided, the three represent the cardinal 
 principles or graces of religion, while the others represent the subor- 
 dinate common principles that belong to them. When in the inferior 
 or natural mind, amongst the natural thoughts and affections, away 
 from the higher principles and from the Lord, who dwells more 
 immediately in them, they cannot act with effect on the evils of 
 the natural mind. The reason is, because of their want of faith ; for 
 effective faith is from the presence of internal in external principles, 
 The Lord said unto them, indeed, that if they had faith as a grain 
 of mustard seed, they would be able to say unto this mountain , 
 Remove hence to yonder place, and it would obey them. The mustard 
 seed is faith in which there is love, which is life. No matter how 
 
Chap. XVII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 393 
 
 small the truth is which men know, if that little has the germ of 
 heavenly love within it, it will perform any work, even the rooting 
 up and casting out of self-love — the mountain which faith removes. 
 But had the disciples no faith of this character ? Those who formed 
 the life of their faith were separate, and these, who had been left below, 
 could do nothing without them. Yet the lesson which the words 
 of our Saviour teach is one that may be profitably studied and 
 practised by every one, — that a living faith finds nothing impossible. 
 Indeed, possibility is on the side of virtue. All power, and con- 
 sequently all possibility, belong to God and to those who co-operate 
 with him. All is possible that is according to order. To the faithful, 
 therefore, who live according to divine order, nothing is impossible. 
 
 21. Jesus expresses this, in reference to the disciples, with the 
 reservation, Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. 
 Prayer is the aspiration of the internal man to God ; fasting is the 
 turning away of the external man from the world. The combined effect 
 of these must be to expel the worst of demons, for what can be more 
 conducive to thorough reformation than seeking .strength from God to 
 resist the devil ? Spiritual lunacy can be removed by no other means. 
 The demon by which the child was possessed represents a life of evil of a 
 grievous kind. And though, naturally, a child was not capable of any 
 grievous evil, yet, spiritually understood, a child being expressive of 
 innocence, the demon by whom the child was possessed must represent 
 the opposite of innocence, which is malignant evil. This, it is evident, 
 cannot be removed merely by grief on account of its existence, or on 
 account of the want of the opposite life of innocence and goodness. 
 Fasting, therefore, here means a steady abstinence from every act in 
 which the evil disposition would seek to vent itself. This is the 
 fasting enjoined as effectual for the casting out of the worst of 
 demons. But this is more than man is able to do of himself. There- 
 fore prayer is mentioned as equally necessary with fasting ; or looking 
 to the Lord is ever to be united with abstinence from evil by man as 
 of himself. Doing both, he will be enabled to surmount the greatest 
 obstacles ; and no evil so direful but may thus be cast out, as to its 
 influence on the mind and conduct, for ever. 
 
 22, 23. While they abode in Galilee, Jesus instructed the whole of 
 the disciples on that subject which he had begun to teach the three as 
 they descended from the mount of transfiguration. It is unnecessary 
 again to dwell on this prediction, further than to consider why it 
 should have been imparted to the disciples in Galilee. And as 
 Galilee represents the natural mind, and the Lord’s suffering and 
 
394 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XYII. 
 
 death have more especial reference to the glorification of the natural 
 or ultimate of his humanity, he chose the corresponding place to 
 reveal it to his disciples. 
 
 24. T Yhen they were come to Capernaum , they that received tribute 
 money came to Peter , and said, Doth not your master pay tribute ? The 
 tribute money was a tax levied for the support of the temple service, 
 but not imposed by the law of Moses. The Jews, though they hated 
 Jesus, were not averse to accepting tribute from him. A corrupt 
 church, while it despises and persecutes the truth, is willing to 
 recognize the Word, so far as it can be made tributary to it, and 
 subservient to its interests. But to be able to make the Word 
 tributary to a corrupt worship it is necessary first to obtain the 
 sanction of some of its secondary truths, which is to come through 
 Peter to his Master. 
 
 25, 26. When the Jews asked Peter if his Master paid tribute, He 
 saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him , 
 saying, What thinkest thou, Simon ? of whom do the kings of the earth 
 take custom or tribute ? of their own children , or of strangers ? We 
 see in this an illustration of the circumstance that the truths of the 
 Word give different testimony according as they are looked at from 
 without or from within, as they are interrogated by custom or by 
 principle. We learn also that even the faithful, of whom Peter was 
 a type, see the truth differently when they are in an external state, 
 in intercourse with men, and when they are in an internal state, in 
 communion with the Lord. Peter was without when he was asked 
 and consented to pay the tribute money ; it was when he was come 
 into the house that, in reply to the Lord’s question, he declared that 
 kings levied custom, not of their own children, but of strangers. When 
 Peter had given this answer, Jesus saith unto him, Then are the 
 children free. The principle which the Lord lays down is one of 
 much importance in relation to the church and its members, but one 
 which the Jews had, as in many other instances, violated. By paying 
 tribute or custom was signified to be subject or to serve, wherefore 
 tribute was imposed upon strangers, who were not of the children of 
 Israel, as is evident from the historicals of the Word. By the sons 
 of Israel, among whom was the church, were signified the spiritual, 
 and by strangers the natural ; and the natural principle is subject to the 
 spiritual and serves it, for the spiritual man is as a lord, and the natural 
 man is as a servant ; and since the natural are servants, and hence are 
 meant by tributaries, therefore it was effected that neither the Lord nor 
 Peter gave tribute, but a fLh, by which is signified the natural man. 
 
Chap. XVII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 395 
 
 27. But although the Lord did not acknowledge that himself or his 
 disciples were tributary, he said unto Peter, Notwithstanding , lest we 
 should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take wp the 
 fish that first cometh up ; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou 
 shalt find a piece of money : that take, and give unto them for me and 
 thee. The whole of the Lord’s minute directions to Peter are signi- 
 ficant and instructive. The sea, being a type of the Word in its 
 literal sense, the fish of the sea are the natural truths which the literal 
 sense contains. In the vision of the new temple seen by Ezekiel, the 
 waters that issued from under the threshold of the house went down 
 into the sea, the result of which was “ a very great multitude of 
 fish” (xlvii. 1-9). The opening of the spiritual sense of the Word, 
 and its effect in communicating life to the truths of the letter, which 
 by themselves are dead, are described by the river flowing into the 
 sea. We spiritually obey the command, “go thou to the sea,” w 7 hen 
 we go to the Word in our trials and emergencies, to obtain the means 
 of relieving our troubles or supplying our wants. And we “ cast an 
 hook,” into the sea when we intelligently search the Scriptures, with 
 a confiding, faith in the Divine promise that we shall obtain what we 
 require, however much appearances may be against its fulfilment. 
 What could be more unlikely than that the first fish that came to 
 Peter’s hook should carry in its mouth the coin that was required to 
 pay the tribute money? What more unlikely, in our times of spiritual 
 perplexity and need, than to find in the Word the very truth which 
 shall relieve and comfort us? We must not, however, interpret the 
 promise too literally. Not the first text that meets our eye, or comes 
 up in our mind, is to be expected always to have the needed and 
 promised piece of silver in its mouth. Not necessarily that which is 
 first in regard to time, but that which is first in regard to state, brings 
 us the tribute money. Truth must be first in our estimation before 
 it can yield the desired supply. And when the truth that bears the 
 treasure in its bosom has been, by the Lord’s providence, brought to 
 us, we must “ take it up,” or raise it out of the general treasure- 
 house of the Word into the particular treasure-house of our own 
 mind, and elevate it in our thoughts and affections. Then we must 
 further “ open his mouth,” for the literal sense must be opened by 
 right interpretation, to discover in it and obtain from it the treasure 
 it contains, and which we require. The reason the Lord gave to 
 Peter for paying the tribute money at all was, “ lest we should offend 
 them.” The collectors of the tax, no doubt, knew nothing of the 
 miracle that had been performed to discharge the debt which Peter had 
 
39G 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XVIIX. 
 
 mistakenly acknowledged ; they believed that his Master had paid it. 
 And those who pervert order, by making tributary the children who 
 should be free, are under a corresponding delusion. They pervert 
 order, indeed, in themselves; and it seems to them as if things 
 spiritual and divine were tributary to them, when yet they themselves 
 are only in the knowledge of what is spiritual ; and think they have 
 drawn down wealth from heaven, when they have in reality derived 
 it from the waters under the earth. 
 
 Before concluding, we would offer a remark on the miracle itself. 
 It certainly is one of the most striking exhibitions which the New 
 Testament supplies of the Lord’s divinity. One who performed it by 
 his own internal power could be no other than the omniscient and 
 omnipotent, the ruler of the world and controller of events. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 1. This chapter commences with an incident tender and beautiful 
 in itself, and one in which, like so many others recorded in the gospel, 
 the wisdom of the Lord Jesus is seen to flow as a living stream from 
 the fountain of his love. Children of frailty, the disciples had been 
 contending among themselves for pre-eminence, and they come to 
 their Master, that he may settle the dispute, and ask him, Who is the 
 greatest in the kingdom of heaven ? Each of the disciples desired to be 
 greatest, and to rule; none were willing to be least, and to serve. 
 This is the condition of the natural man, and continues to be that of 
 every man till he is brought under the dominion of him who was 
 himself the least of all and the servant of all. 
 
 2, 3. In appealing to the Lord as the arbiter in this dispute, the 
 disciples acknowledged his authority as supreme, and were disposed to 
 abide by his decision. They expected, however, that he would decide 
 for them what they had been unable to agree upon among themselves 
 — which of them should be greatest in his kingdom. Great must 
 have been their surprise and humiliation when Jesus called a little 
 child unto him , and set him in the midst of them, and said , Verily I say 
 unto you , Except ye he converted , and become as little children , ye shall 
 not enter into the kingdom of heaven. This was a question that had 
 not entered into their thoughts, much less into their discussion. 
 Believing they had been called to the kingdom, they only concerned 
 themselves about the stations of dignity they were to occupy in it. 
 But the little child in the midst of them, and the Lord’s few words, 
 
Chap. XVIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 397 
 
 told them that the love of dominion, which had led them to contend 
 for the highest place, unfitted them even for the lowest; and that 
 unless they were converted, and became as little children, they could 
 not so much as enter into the kingdom of heaven. This conveys 
 a most instructive lesson. Without conversion there is no salvation. 
 The ruling love must be turned from self to the Lord, and from the 
 world to heaven. But the disciples are also to become as little children. 
 Born anew, they are to be innocent, confiding, teachable, in all things 
 conforming to their heavenly Father’s will. In the spiritual sense, 
 the Lord’s beautiful and significant act teaches us that innocence, of 
 which a little child is the emblem, must be in the midst, or be the 
 inmost, of all the graces and virtues that form the kingdom of heaven 
 in the mind and life of man. Without conversion of the soul to God, 
 and a childlike dependence upon him, no one can enter into his kingdom. 
 
 4. But the question of the disciples did not directly relate to what 
 was required to gain admission into the kingdom, but to who should 
 be greatest in it. It was necessary, and our Lord saw good, first to 
 instruct them in what was required in order to their being admitted 
 into the kingdom at all. Now he comes to the subject of their 
 inquiry, concerning which they had contended among themselves, — 
 “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” The Lord had 
 already (ch. v. 19) taught his disciples that whosoever should do and 
 teach his commandments should be great in the kingdom of heaven ; 
 this was the first time he had occasion to instruct them respecting who 
 was the greatest. The same image that served to illustrate the nature 
 of heaven serves to illustrate greatness in it. Whosoever therefore shall 
 humble himself as this little child , the same is greatest in the kingdom of 
 heaven. Innocence is the grace which qualifies us for heaven, and our 
 greatness in it depends on the depth and fulness in which that grace 
 is received. Heaven most intimately dwells in innocence, and where 
 there is more of innocence there is more of heaven; and he who is 
 most deeply imbued with this, the essence of all heavenly virtues, 
 must possess the largest share of all the excellencies in which heaven 
 consists. As innocence is the essence, humility is the soil, of every 
 grace and virtue. Our growth in grace is in proportion to our 
 humility. The most humble is the most exalted, the least is the 
 greatest. This is more than a figure. Every regenerate one has 
 within him the old man and the new. The more the old man is 
 humbled, the more the new man is exalted; he in whom the old is 
 least is he in whom the new is greatest. The highest angels are they 
 who have most completely humbled self ; they are, therefore, the most 
 
398 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XYIIT. 
 
 innocent; they are, spiritually, the little children to whom we are 
 sent to learn wisdom, and like whom we must humble ourselves if we 
 wish to be greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 5. They who are in this state of innocence, which is a state far 
 removed from self and self-seeking, are pre-eminently in the Lord and 
 the Lord in them. This is meant by the words, Whoso shall receive one 
 such little child in my name receiveth me. To receive one such little 
 child is to receive such a principle of innocence from the Lord ; and 
 to do this in the name of the Lord is to do so, not in outward 
 appearance only, by a mere affectation of humility, but really and 
 from the heart. And as in such genuine innocence the Lord himself 
 dwells, it being only attainable by gift from him, it is evident that he 
 who receives it receives with it the Lord himself, and with him every 
 angelic grace and virtue. 
 
 6. Since the reception of this principle of innocence is of such 
 indispensable necessity, no wonder that the rejection and destruction 
 of it is attended with such awful consequences, expressed in the 
 remarkable words, But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which 
 believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about 
 his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. The word 
 offend is used in the sense of causing to stumble. Hence, in the 
 spiritual sense, to offend one of these little ones which believe in the 
 Lord, is wilfully to pervert and turn aside from his innocence one of 
 the faithful ; and also to pervert in ourselves any principle of 
 innocence in which the Lord is, by turning to self, the world, and the 
 flesh. The figurative expressions which follow describe the dreadful 
 state occasioned. “ It were better for him that a millstone were hanged 
 about his neck,” means, that it were better he had always remained 
 confirmed in evil lusts and false persuasions — confirmation being 
 meant by a millstone — so that no communication had ever been 
 opened between his internal man and his corrupt external, the neck 
 denoting the communication between them ; and to be “ drowned in 
 the depth of the sea,” is to be immersed in the false persuasions of the 
 natural mind, and plunged, in consequence, into the abyss of woe. 
 Dreadful as a confirmed state of evil is, it is yet less so than that 
 which is incurred by perverting any divine principle — anything 
 in which is innocence received from the Lord ; because the state 
 induced is one of profanation, which is far worse than any that can 
 result from unmixed evil, when goodness and truth have never been 
 received into the affections, and consequently are not sinned against 
 and rejected, after having once been known and loved. 
 
Chap. XVIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 309 
 
 7. The Lord now exclaims, Woe unto the world because of offences ! 
 for it must needs be that offences come ; but woe to that man by whom 
 the offence cometh! To offend, we have seen, is to cause to stumble ; 
 and an occasion of stumbling is given to the weak when one who 
 makes a profession of religion acts in such a manner as shows that 
 religion has but little influence on his mind ; and this takes place 
 always in consequence of his religion not being genuine, because his 
 heart is a stranger to the scriptural grace of innocence. From this 
 cause what great injury has in all ages been done to the cause of 
 religion! But what is the reason of this “ needs be” that offences 
 will come ? Does it mean that there are any persons who are so 
 utterly enslaved to Satan that they have no power to break their 
 bonds, and must be the cause of scandal to the religion they profess, 
 whether they will or not 'l Nothing like this is meant. It is 
 a certain truth that man has grace given to him every moment, by 
 which he may turn from his evil ways and come to a better state, if 
 he would make use of it, which also he has continual power given 
 him to do. The meaning is, that Divine Providence sees it necessary, 
 in order that man may be kept in a state capable of salvation, that he 
 should be left at liberty either to cultivate sincerity in his religious 
 profession or not, since, if it were attempted to infuse heavenly graces 
 into him by compulsion, the injury would be still greater. But 
 there is a possibility of becoming a stumbling-block in a different 
 and still worse way than this ; and that is by designedly turning the 
 simple from their integrity, by teaching them to imbibe sentiments 
 subversive of the doctrines of genuine truth, or to indulge in evil 
 practices that destroy or injure their capacity of receiving the 
 heavenly graces of the Lord’s kingdom. But whoever is guilty of 
 such infatuation does it at his peril ; for it is expressly said, “ woe to 
 that man by whom the offence cometh !” Woe is an expression used in 
 Scripture to express lamentation for any deplorable perversion of the 
 sacred things of the church, and also to indicate the grievous penalties 
 which they incur who are agents in such perversions. In the present 
 case such penalties, it is declared, are unavoidable by those who have 
 been the occasion of throwing a stumbling-block in the way of others. 
 Woe is the result of offence even to those who stumble, for suffering 
 is ever and unavoidably the fruit of sin. But the woe is especially to 
 that man by whom the offence or stumbling cometh. This shows 
 the wise and merciful discrimination which the Lord makes between 
 degrees of guilt, as well as the difference of results arising out of the 
 nature of the case itself. 
 
400 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XYIII. 
 
 8-9. But we do not need to go out of ourselves to look for the 
 stumbling-block : the hand, and the foot, and the eye may offend us. 
 And although this fact brings the criminality of offending home to us, 
 it also affords opportunity of removing the cause of offence, which we 
 are able to do by removing the offending member. Wherefore if thy 
 hand or thy foot offend thee, cut themoff, and cast them from thee . . . and 
 if thine eye offend thee , pluck it out , and cast it from thee. Every one 
 can see that this is not to be understood and acted on literally, and yet 
 that it teaches us the lesson of self-denial. We have already considered 
 a passage similar to this in the Lord’s sermon on the mount (ch. v. 29), 
 where it is shown that by removing the offending members is meant 
 to prevent the intentions of the mind from coming into act. There 
 is, however, some difference between the two passages. In the sermon 
 on the mount the order in which the members are mentioned is the 
 reverse of that which is observed here. And as the first in a series 
 gives its character to the whole, we conclude that the precept, as 
 given in the fifth chapter, where the eye, a symbol of the intellect, is 
 mentioned first, relates to the spiritual class ; and that, as it occurs 
 here, where the hands and feet, symbols of the will, are first spoken 
 of, it relates to the celestial. In regard to the place of punishment, 
 there it is hell, here it is hell-fire ; and as fire is emblematical of 
 love, the fiery hell is that where the love of self reigns, and this is 
 opposite to the highest heaven, where love to God is the ruling prin- 
 ciple. 
 
 10. Since innocence is that which is to be restored, it is that also 
 which above all things is to be preserved. How important, then, the 
 warning, Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones 1 We are 
 guilty of this when we despise innocence and simplicity. Some regard 
 these excellences as weaknesses, and are therefore little inclined to 
 cultivate them. But the warning here is not to the natural man, but 
 to the spiritual ; and is intended to guard him against allowing any- 
 thing of self-conceit and self-confidence to insinuate itself into his 
 mind, which cannot fail to injure or destroy that purity of heart 
 which enables him to see God. Hence the reason the Lord gives why 
 we should not despise one of these little ones. For I say unto you , 
 That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father 
 which is in heaven. No doctrine of Scripture is more clearly taught 
 than the ministry of angels. Unconscious as we are of their presence, 
 we are constantly attended by these celestial beings, who are mediums 
 through whom the Lord conveys his gifts to us, and instruments by 
 whom he protects us against the spirits of darkness. The angels 
 
Chap. XVIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 401 
 
 attendant on men are such as are suited to their state and character. 
 Infants and little children are attended by angels of the highest 
 heaven, and these constantly see the Lord as a sun ; for they are in 
 love to him, and in innocence, and this is meant, in the sense nearest 
 to that of the letter, by their always beholding the face of the Father. 
 The face of the Lord is the divine love which was in the Lord, conse- 
 quently the essential divinity, which is Jehovah; for the Father was 
 in him, and he in the Father, and they were one. But in the purely 
 spiritual sense these words mean that the Lord, as to his divine good, 
 is in the good of innocence ; for the good of innocence is meant by 
 a little child, and the Divine good by the face of the Father. 
 Whether, therefore, we regard the Lord’s words in the immediate or 
 remote sense, the warning is solemn, and should teach us to take heed 
 that we despise not either the infant innocents or the innocence of 
 which they are the emblems. 
 
 11. The words which the Lord now addresses to his disciples do 
 not, in their natural sense, seem to be connected with the subject on 
 which he had been instructing them, but, when it is spiritually con- 
 sidered, will be found to have an intimate relation to it. The Son of 
 man is come to save that which was lost. In these beautiful words how 
 strongly is expressed the intense ardour and boundless universality of 
 the Divine love ! Who can read or hear them without being in 
 some measure impressed by the love which breathes through them, 
 without beholding his God and Father in the amiable light in which 
 they so plainly present him — as a God of boundless mercy, whose will 
 is gratified when his creatures receive his saving grace, and, returning 
 from their wanderings in the paths of evil, find their true home in the 
 shelter of his arms ? When it is said that the Son of man is come to 
 save that which is lost, it seems plain that the words must refer, not 
 so much to persons as to principles, or rather to one grace, which it 
 was the Divine purpose to restore, and the restoration of which to its 
 true place in the human heart is the restoration of man to a state of 
 salvation and happiness. Innocence was that which man lost by the 
 fall, and innocence was that which the Lord came to restore by his 
 redemption. 
 
 12. The Lord illustrates the truth he had been declaring, by a 
 parable. How think ye ? if a man have an hundred sheep , and one of 
 them be gone astray , doth he not leave the ninety and nme, and goeth 
 into the mountains , and seeketh that which is gone astray 1 There is a 
 beautiful truth in this as illustrative both of the Lord’s love and the 
 unity of his flock. What love does it bespeak in the Infinite to 
 
402 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XYIII. 
 
 come down from heaven, by assuming human nature, to seek those 
 who had wandered from his fold ! In the Lord’s sight angels and 
 men form but one flock, having one fold and one shepherd. Their 
 safety and felicity result from their unity. When one sheep wanders 
 from the fold, the whole flock suffers. If man’s happiness is de- 
 pendent on his connection with angels, the happiness of angels must 
 be proportionally dependent on their connection with men. If there 
 is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, there must be sorrow 
 in heaven over those who live on in impenitence. The shepherd is 
 therefore represented (Luke xv. 4) as leaving the sheep in the wilder- 
 ness, when going to seek the wanderer whose feet had stumbled upon 
 the dark mountains (Jer. xiii. 16). Look now at the subject in its 
 individual application. The Lord comes down from heaven to earth, 
 in us, when he comes from the internal down into the external, there 
 to seek and restore the affection of innocence and charity, which had 
 been lost in consequence of having separated itself from the corre- 
 sponding principles in the internal. The remains of heavenly prin- 
 ciples are preserved in the internal of every one, but the external in 
 every one goes more or less astray. The shepherd leaves the ninety 
 and nine, and goes after that which is lost, that he may restore it to 
 the fold, and make that completeness which can only result from the 
 union of the principles of the internal and external man. 
 
 13. And if so be that he find it , verily I say unto you , he rejoiceth 
 more of that sheep , than of the ninety and nine which went net astray. 
 Why should there be more joy over the lost one recovered than over 
 those who remained in the fold? Because the affections of the inner 
 man find their true joy only in their connection with the corre- 
 sponding affection of the outer man. While the internal affections 
 are alone, they are like the ninety and nine sheep left by the shepherd 
 in the wilderness; and it is not until he has returned to them, bring- 
 ing the lost sheep upon his shoulders, and restoring it to his fold, that 
 there is joy in heaven ; for the Lord’s rejoicing is his glory imparted 
 to us and felt in us. It is evident that the Lord cannot rejoice 
 more in one than in another ; but when we know that what is spoken 
 of in the Word as his feeling is to be understood as his love as it 
 affects us, we can see both the propriety and instructiveness of the 
 language of inspiration. 
 
 14. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that 
 one of these little ones should perish. The parable of the lost sheep had 
 been delivered to illustrate this truth. It embraces within its mean- 
 ing and purpose the bringing of little children ultimately to the 
 
Chap. XVIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 403 
 
 kingdom of heaven, and imposes upon parents and others concerned 
 in the education of the young, the church as a body included, the 
 duty of devoted attention to their true welfare ; for what God wills, 
 he requires our agency to effect. But how is this result to be secured, 
 but by securing a state of innocence 1 ? We cannot, it is true, by the 
 best teaching and example, make the salvation of a human being a 
 matter of certainty ; but we, no doubt, can do much to promote it. 
 And the best way to do our part in this important work is to cultivate 
 in our children, and no less in ourselves, the innocence which makes 
 men the children of God. The more of this celestial grace we have, 
 the more we are of the character of those “little ones” of whom our 
 Lord says, “ Of such is the kingdom of heaven.” How beautiful, how 
 tender is the love which expressed itself in the words of the Lord 
 regarding little children ; and how anxious should we be to be able to 
 feel and act according to it ! 
 
 15-17. But the Lord turns to a duty seemingly of another kind, and 
 one most difficult to perform — the duty of forgiveness. Moreover if 
 thy brother shall trespass against thee , go and tell him his fault between 
 thee and him alone. We need not expect to pass through life without 
 both giving and receiving offence. We must carefully distinguish 
 between real and fancied injuries. The sense of injury is often the 
 result of sensitive self-love. When we are satisfied that our brother 
 has really trespassed against us, our conduct in regard to him is to be 
 regulated by this law. We are to tell him his fault personally and 
 privately. If this rule were acted upon, much scandal would be swept 
 away, and our social atmosphere cleared of one of its most pestilential 
 vapours. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. We 
 must, of course, have told him his fault for the purpose of gaining 
 him. And this implies that we have told him the truth in love — 
 neither magnifying his fault nor showing resentment against him on 
 account of it. And we must be desirous, not only of gaining him as a 
 friend, but gaining him as a Christian brother — gaining him from 
 his evil, and thus gaining him to God as well as to ourselves. If this 
 effort fail, and we are convinced it has failed through no fault of ours, 
 we are then to seek the aid of others. But if he will not hear thee , 
 then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three 
 witnesses every word may be established. These are not intended to be 
 simply witnesses against the offender, but they are to witness between 
 the parties — to see that the complainant has acted justly and kindly 
 in his cause, as well as to testify on what ground the effort to gain his 
 brother has been unsuccessful. These also are understood to be 
 
404 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XVIIT. 
 
 brethren, and to nse their brotherly influence to effect an amicable 
 adjustment of the difference. And if he shall neglect to hear them , tell 
 it unto the church : but if he neglect to hear the church , let him be unto 
 thee as an heathen man and a publican. The church must exercise a 
 firm but temperate discipline, that a sickly sheep may not be unneces- 
 sarily driven from the fold, nor a diseased one be allowed to remain 
 in it to infect the whole flock. So much on the literal sense of this 
 important law. We now turn to its spiritual sense. In the spiritual 
 sense, brethren are those who are united in the bond of charity, and 
 belong to the household of faith. Abstractly, brethren are the prin- 
 ciples of charity and faith themselves ; they are also the will and the 
 understanding, and also the internal and the external man. The 
 trespass in this case is a trespass of charity against faith, or of faith 
 against charity, and is one that takes place in ourselves. Nor does 
 this deprive it of its personal application, for it is just in proportion 
 as we commit this inward sin in ourselves that we are liable to 
 commit the outward sin against a brother. But can charity and faith 
 sin against each other ? True charity and faith cannot, but these 
 graces exist in their perfection in no human mind, and the corruption 
 that adheres to them sometimes makes one offend against the other; 
 and as there is offence, so may there be reproof ; for charity may act 
 undirected by faith, and faith may act uninfluenced by charity. 
 Every act of self-reproach is an instance of this. It is our faith 
 reproving our charity, or our charity reproving our faith, for some tres- 
 pass it has committed against its brother. These are called the acts of 
 an accusing conscience, and they are rightly so called. Conscience is 
 formed by the union of charity and faith. So far as this union extends, 
 so far conscience exists ; and conscience condemns acts done contrary to 
 its dictates. How does the law, to tell the offending brother alone, 
 apply in this case ? It teaches us that in any disagreement that may 
 arise between our charity and faith, or, what is the same, between our 
 will and understanding, we are to employ the one who has received 
 the offence to correct the one who gave it. If our will acts against 
 our understanding, so as to cause a breach of charity, we are to employ 
 our understanding to convince and gain the offending brother; and if 
 our understanding gives way to doubt or error, so as to cause a breach 
 of faith, we are to employ the will to correct our understanding; and 
 the desired result is that, by removing the cause of offence and 
 estrangement, the two may be reconciled. If this first and direct 
 attempt fail, the next step is to seek for aid and testimony from the 
 truths of the Word. “One or two” of these mean truths of faith 
 
Ciiap. XVIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 405 
 
 and truths of charity. These are to be employed, that in the mouth 
 of two or three witnesses every word may be established. The two 
 witnesses have been explained to mean the will and the understand- 
 ing, and the three to mean will, understanding, and action. Men will 
 be judged from the testimony of these three, or from the witness of two. 
 But in the purely spiritual sense the two or three witnesses are the 
 goods and truths of the Word. And the idea here set forth is, that 
 if evil or falsity cannot be removed by the action of its opposite good 
 or truth alone, testimony is to be sought from collateral goods and 
 truths, that every word may be established. If the evil or error do 
 not yield to this, the ultimate appeal is to the church. As the church 
 includes all who are in the goods and truths of religion, the church, 
 spiritually, signifies all these goods and truths themselves. To tell 
 the complaint against an offending brother to the church is to call in 
 the whole testimony of the Word; and if this do not succeed, then 
 the resisting member is to be rejected, as opposed to all the laws of 
 goodness and truth, of heaven and the church. In the nearest 
 application of this law, understood in reference to those who are 
 being regenerated, the offending brother is not positive evil or falsity, 
 but spurious good or truth, or the principle of charity or faith. Spurious 
 good is good which is not united to truth, and spurious truth is truth 
 not united to good ; so, spurious charity is that which is not united to 
 faith, and spurious faith is that which is not united to charity. So 
 far as either of these is spurious, it trespasses against the other; and 
 so far as either is genuine, it endeavours to correct and seek recon- 
 ciliation with the other. But if the spurious principle is so opposed 
 to the genuine that it cannot be brought into compliance and agree- 
 ment with it, it must be rejected, as having in it no real agreement 
 with either the good or truth of the church, which is meant by being 
 an heathen man and a publican. 
 
 18. In connection with this disciplinary law, there is again intro- 
 duced the declaration of the Lord to Peter, after his confession of 
 Jesus as the Christ. Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind 
 on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on 
 earth shall be loosed in heaven. In explaining these words as they 
 occur in ch. xvi. 19, we have seen that heaven and earth are the 
 internal and external man, or the spiritual and the natural mind. 
 Whatever is bound and loosed in the external, is bound and loosed 
 in the internal. By this the internal and the external are brought 
 into agreement, and so form one mind. This result follows the estab- 
 lishment of an agreement between good and truth, charity and faith, 
 
406 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XYIII. 
 
 will and understanding; for, in reality, good and charity and will are 
 internal, and truth and faith and understanding are external. Our 
 Lord, we may conclude, introduced this statement here for the sake 
 of the connection which the truth it teaches has with the present 
 subject. The internal and the external of the mind being the 
 brethren who may offend and be at variance with each other, we 
 are here instructed that the way to bring the internal and external 
 into harmony, is to bring the external into order, by binding and 
 loosing the principles that require these operations — to bind the evil 
 and set the good at liberty. This subject our Lord continues to treat 
 of in the words which now follow. 
 
 19. Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth 
 as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall he done for them of 
 my Father which is in heaven. These words clearly instruct us that 
 whatever man can do for himself amounts to no more than putting 
 himself in the attitude in which the mercies that the Lord is ever 
 willing to bestow can be imparted to him, but that everything really 
 good that he enjoys is afforded him as a free gift from the Lord alone. 
 When man asks, that which he needs is done for him of his Father 
 who is in heaven. We need not insist on the necessity of prayer; 
 the point here that demands our attention is the promise, that the 
 harmonious petition of two or three shall secure an answer. There is 
 a special lesson taught in these divine words. It does not follow that 
 every prayer that two on earth may agree to offer shall certainly be 
 answered ; but the two that are meant in the spiritual sense must 
 agree in the prayer, both in him who prays in his closet and in every 
 one who prays in the church. Numbers, as we have seen, do not 
 mean quantity, but quality. The number two denotes conjunction or 
 union, and as all conjunction results from love, which is the same 
 thing as goodness, the number two denotes the quality of a thing in 
 respect to goodness. The number three denotes what is full and com- 
 plete, because there are three essentials, answering to love, wisdom, 
 and use, or to soul, body, and operation, which enter into the consti- 
 tution of everything that exists, — from the Lord himself — in whom 
 this unity is called Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — to man, who 
 was created in his image and likeness, and to everything in creation, 
 all of which, in some way or other, bears a reference to man. 
 And as this threefold arrangement of everything in the universe 
 is the result of the eternal laws of divine order, which are the 
 laws of divine truth, therefore, as the number two, in a good sense, 
 denotes the quality of a thing as to good, the number three denotes 
 
Chap. XVIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 407 
 
 the quality of a thing as to truth. The number two here bears its 
 primary signification, that of conjunction, and also its secondary signi- 
 fication, that of good ; and the meaning of the declaration is, that if 
 man desires anything good, not with a divided but with a united 
 mind — that is, if he desires it with the whole heart, and asks it from 
 the Lord from such desire — he shall obtain it. Whatsoever is 
 asked from a state and principle that is truly good, and from the 
 conjunction of goodness and truth in the mind, as this is under the 
 control of the man himself, signified by the two being agreed on earth 
 touching anything they shall ask, shall assuredly be done for us of 
 our Father which is in heaven, — the term Father being used to 
 denote, not another divine being separate from the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 but the divine love of his own essence ; divine love being the uni- 
 versal Father, and it being from that love as its only source that any 
 and all good can be experienced and received by man. 
 
 20. To those encouraging words the Divine speaker adds the 
 reason of this assurance : For where two or three are gathered together 
 in my name , there am I in the midst of them. These words do 
 assuredly, in the sense nearest to the letter, convey the promise of 
 the Lord’s continual presence with his church, wheresoever any branch 
 of it, however small, is assembled in his love and fear; and thus 
 illustrate the advantage and necessity of united worship. But in their 
 purely spiritual sense the words carry on the same general subject 
 respecting effectual individual worship as the preceding verse, and teach 
 us that, in everything good and true that is genuine, in the mind of 
 man, the Lord himself is present, filling it with his divine life, and 
 making it fruitful of continual and eternal peace and blessedness. 
 The two gathered together, we have seen, are goodness and truth 
 conjoined; the three signify a state that is full and complete, in 
 consequence of the good in the will and the truth of the understand- 
 ing being determined to action. The name of the Lord is his nature 
 and quality, and is applied to whatsoever is truly from him, and by 
 which, therefore, he is truly worshipped. And where there are such 
 s :ates as have been described, deriving their character from the Lord’s 
 nature and quality, there is the Lord himself, with all his divine 
 perfections, ever filling with his divine fulness what has been 
 received, and eternally conjoining the happy subject of it with himself. 
 
 21, 22. Peter, who had heard the Lord speak of one brother 
 trespassing against another, now inquires of him, Lord , how oft shall 
 my brother sin against me, and I forgive him ? till seven times ? Jesus 
 saith unto him , I say not unto thee , Until seven times: but , Until seventy 
 
408 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XYIII. 
 
 times seven. Considered literally, the Lord here teaches unlimited 
 forgiveness. He does not mean to inculcate forgiveness to a brother 
 who is always sinning and repenting. The Lord’s words are to be 
 understood to inculcate a merciful and forgiving disposition, an ever- 
 readiness to forgive, in imitation of him who is mercy itself and 
 forgiveness itself. The same truth is taught in a higher degree in 
 the spiritual sense. Here, too, forgiveness is to be perpetual. The 
 inclination of truth to good and of good to truth is to be constant, 
 and the desire for union to be unceasing. The numbers seven and 
 seventy times seven express the character of this forgiveness, as well 
 as its extent and constancy. Seven is a holy number. And our 
 Lord’s answer to Peter’s question implies that we are not only to 
 forgive from the holy principle of faith, which Peter represented, but 
 from the most holy feeling of love, which Jesus expressed, — for this 
 name is expressive of the Lord’s love, as Christ is of his truth. 
 
 23. The momentous lesson which the Lord delivered on the subject 
 of forgiveness he now illustrates by a parable, and one of the most 
 instructive and edifying that occur in the Word. Therefore is the king- 
 dom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his 
 servants. The king is the Lord, his servants are the human race; 
 more specifically, they are the professing members of his church, 
 who, being in possession of the Word, and thus in the knowledge 
 respecting the Lord and their duties, are more peculiarly qualified to 
 be his servants: and in the particular sense, all the principles which 
 are from the Lord in the human mind. The king reckoning with his 
 servants denotes a state of reflection, into which man is brought 
 when regeneration commences, upon his spiritual state and his 
 prospects in eternity, with the anxiety which arises upon a perception 
 of his deficiencies, and of his consequent liability to eternal ruin. 
 No one who has learnt from the Word something of his true 
 state, of the eternal world, and of the innumerable benefits he has 
 received from the Lord, can, if he ever reflects at all, avoid regarding 
 himself in the light of a debtor who owes to the Lord all that he is 
 or has. And when he reflects further upon the use he has made of 
 the Divine mercies, he must be strongly blinded by self-love and pride 
 indeed, if he does not feel how ill a requital he has made for such 
 benefits, and how impossible it is that he should ever make such a 
 requital for them as they deserve. When he reflects upon the matter, 
 under the illumination of divine truth, he will perceive that, while 
 the talents with which he has been intrusted have been confided to 
 him for this one end — to enable him to attain eternal life and happi- 
 
Chap. XVIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 409 
 
 ness — he has directed them chiefly to worldly and transient objects; 
 and that though he may have laid up treasures for himself in this 
 life, he is not rich towards God. Such must be the reflections of 
 every man when first awakened to a serious consideration of the 
 things of eternity. The excitement of such reflections as these, by an 
 influx from the Lord himself, is the experimental form of the king’s 
 reckoning with his servants. 
 
 24. And when he had begun to reckon , one was brought unto him , 
 ivhich owed him ten thousand talents. Its being said that one was 
 “ brought unto him,” denotes the first perception in the mind of man 
 of the infinite obligation he owes to the Lord. This debtor owed his 
 lord the debt before he was “ brought unto him ; ” just as man has 
 received from his birth immense natural and spiritual endowments, 
 whether he ever reflects thereon or not ; but the bringing the servant 
 under the eye of his lord, in the character of a debtor to this great 
 amount, expresses a vivid perception awakened in the mind of man 
 of the state in which he stands. 
 
 25. It is found that the debtor, while he owes this incalculable sum, 
 has not to pay , which denotes the perception which man has in this 
 state of trial — for such it is — of his nothingness and worthlessness. 
 This is a perception that these talents have not been put into the 
 bank, or employed in any other profitable way, so that the Lord, at 
 his coming, might have received his own, and that with usury. The 
 consequence is, that his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, 
 and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. This 
 denotes a further perception, presented to the mind of man in this 
 state, that he is liable to have all the ennobling excellences of his 
 nature taken away, and to be consigned, a wretched slave, to the 
 regions of eternal darkness ; and that this must be his lot if he makes 
 no better a return for the Divine bounties than he has hitherto done. 
 The lord’s commanding the servant to be sold does not mean that the 
 Lord is disposed to exact with severity all that is due to him ; but it 
 denotes a perception, on the part of man, that such consequences as are 
 here stated must follow from a perseverance in a course of im- 
 penitence. Although the servant is a great debtor, yet he is con- 
 sidered as being still in the service of his lord ; by which we learn 
 that, notwithstanding man’s rebellion and ingratitude, still, until he 
 has finally confirmed himself in his refusal to make that return to his 
 bountiful Lord and Saviour which his mercy requires, he is regarded 
 as being in his service — a subject of his kingdom. To be sold is to 
 be entirely alienated from the service of so good a Master, which is 
 
410 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XVIII. 
 
 perfect freedom, and consigned irrecoverably to the dominion of another 
 master, all whose servants are most abject and cruelly-treated slaves ; 
 in other words, to be consigned to the dominion of hell and the powers 
 of darkness. And not only is the servant himself to be sold, but his 
 wife, and children, and all that he has. The man and his wife denote 
 the two leading and general powers of the mind, which are the will 
 and understanding ; his children denote all the sentiments respecting 
 what is good and true that are spontaneously produced in the mind 
 from the activity of the will and the understanding ; and all that he 
 has denotes all determinations to action thence resulting, and every- 
 thing of a lower degree that belongs to his mind. For these to be 
 sold is to be for ever alienated from the Lord and his kingdom : it 
 denotes a state in which the will is utterly incapable of loving any- 
 thing but what is evil, which it regards as its only good, and the 
 understanding is incapable of any apperceptions but what are fantas- 
 tical and false, which it regards as true ; and in which, whatever 
 sentiments are produced by the activity of these principles are of the 
 same perverted order, to which everything that has a place in the 
 mind tends, and which it confirms. 
 
 26. The parable proceeds to describe representatively the effect pro- 
 duced in the mind by the discovery that has been made to it of its 
 state, and the dreadful ruin to which it is exposed by its neglect 
 of the duties it owes in return for the great mercies received. This 
 is expressed by its being said, The servant therefore fell down , and 
 worshipped him , saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay 
 thee all. These words express the dread that has been excited by 
 the view, before perceived, of the lost state in which man is while he 
 remains immersed in merely natural pursuits, without any regard to 
 higher things ; and they also express the first commencement of a 
 desire and attempt to make the return required by the Lord for his 
 mercies, accompanied with most earnest supplication to him for a 
 continuance of those bounties without which man can do nothing. 
 The servant’s falling down before his lord denotes deep humiliation 
 on the part of man before his God, with those feelings of the heart 
 without which no real humiliation can exist, which are, that in and 
 of himself he is utter worthlessness and helplessness. To worship the 
 Lord from this state is to acknowledge, with lively conviction, that 
 all good is from him alone. To say to the Lord, “ Have patience 
 with me, and I will pay thee all,” is to entreat to be allowed to con- 
 tinue under the government, not of divine truth alone, as is the case 
 with those who are condemned, but of the Divine goodness and 
 
Ciiap. XVIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 411 
 
 mercy, being the result of a perception that nothing but pure mercy 
 in the Lord can bear with the multiplied provocations of man. And 
 to say, “ I will pay thee all,” does not mean to undertake to cease to 
 be a debtor to divine bounty, for this no man can do, and no man in 
 the possession of his reason can think he can do it, but it denotes an 
 engagement to make that return for boundless mercies which the 
 Lord accepts as payment, — which is to appropriate by actual life the 
 good which the Lord offers to our acceptance, living to him alone, or 
 making the pure goodness and truth of which he is the author the 
 supreme object of our affections, and referring all our mercies to him, in 
 heartfelt gratitude and love. 
 
 27. Nothing, however, it is evident, was yet done by the convicted 
 servant — this type of man in general — towards the payment of his 
 debt, beyond entreaties and resolutions. But how were these accepted ? 
 Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion , and loosed 
 him , and forgave him the debt. Here we have a true picture of the 
 boundless universality of the Lord’s divine love and mercy towards 
 every individual of the human race. Great as are our delinquencies, 
 the Lord freely remits them all, not imputing our transgressions unto 
 us. And this he in fact does whether we are sincere penitents or not — 
 whether we remain immersed in our evils, or, in compliance with soli- 
 citations for our real welfare, we relinquish them, and accept his 
 saving graces indeed. That such is the unbounded nature of the 
 Lord’s mercy is evident from the part of the parable which now 
 follows. 
 
 28. But the same servant went out , and found one of his fellow- 
 servants , which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on 
 him , and took him by the throat , saying , Pay me that thou owest. It is 
 important to mark the transition of state here expressed by the signi- 
 ficant act of the servant, after the tender scene that had taken place 
 between him and his master, — the servant “went out.” All that has 
 hitherto been recorded of the servant and his lord is descriptive of a 
 transaction that had taken place in the mind ; the conviction, the 
 remorse, the prayer, the forgiveness, have as yet been acts of the inner 
 man. The concurrence of the outer man is necessary to give effect 
 and endurance to these inward operations ; the thoughts and affections 
 of the mind must be confirmed by the words and actions of the life. 
 It is not how we think and feel, but how we speak and act, which 
 determine our real state. How different may we be in our conduct, 
 when we “go out” into the world, from what we are when within in 
 our closet, — when the internal man, which is in immediate connection 
 
412 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XYIII. 
 
 with heaven, is active, and when the external man, which is iu im- 
 mediate connection with the world, is active ! When it is so explicitly 
 said of the servant that he went out, it is intended to express descent 
 from an interior into an exterior state ; and that in this state he was 
 not prepared to bring the mercies he had experienced into act, and to 
 exhibit that love and disposition to forgiveness which, he had just 
 learned, dwell so infinitely in the breast of the Lord, whom man ought 
 to take for his pattern, is evinced in the manner in which he imme- 
 diately behaved. His fellow-servant whom he found denotes the 
 external man as to the faculty of receiving divine grace from the 
 Lord ; for that the external man has also such a faculty must be 
 evident, otherwise it never could be conformed to the image of the 
 internal, and then man could never be regenerated and saved. The 
 one hundred pence which this servant owed to the other denotes the 
 fulness of the capacity of reception in the external or natural man ; 
 the number one hundred denoting fulness, and a penny, or denarius, 
 denoting what is peculiar to the natural man — all the truths suited to 
 its nature, and, in fact, all its capacities and talents. The hundred 
 pence, then, have a similar signification, in regard to man as a natural 
 being, to that which the ten thousand talents bear to the whole man, 
 more particularly when he is regarded as a spiritual being. And 
 these hundred pence are said to be owing by this fellow-servant to the 
 first, because all man’s capacities as a natural being are designed to 
 minister to his use as a spiritual being ; or because all the endow- 
 ments of the external man are designed to be subservient to the 
 spiritual man, and are considered as the property of the internal. 
 The second servant has the same relation to the first servant as the first 
 has to his lord. As the internal man receives his gifts and endow- 
 ments immediately from the Lord, the external man receives them 
 immediately from the internal. Strictly speaking, the internal man 
 receives his endowments from the Lord immediately, and the external 
 receives his endowments from the Lord mediately through the 
 internal ; as we should say, the soul receives life directly from the 
 Lord, and the body receives life from the soul. But the internal man 
 has no more right to claim these endowments of the external man as 
 his own, than he has to claim as his own those which he has received 
 immediately from the same Divine source of all power and virtue. Yet 
 this, we find, is what he does, and what man is prone to do. This 
 claim is meant by its being said of the servant that he laid hold of his 
 fellow-servant. And the way in which he laid hold of him was by 
 taking him by the throat — literally, he strangled or choked him. How 
 
Chap. XVIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 413 
 
 strikingly does this expression present to us what man does when he 
 desires to possess the gifts and endowments of his natural man in a 
 disorderly manner, not submitting them to higher ends, or enjoying 
 them in dependence on the Lord ! For the neck, as we have seen 
 (v. 8), denotes the communication between the internal and the 
 external man; wherefore, whatever intercepts the passage by the 
 neck from the head to the body represents the closing of the commu- 
 nication from the internal man ; and as natural death results in the 
 one case, so spiritual death results in the other. Such interruption, 
 then, of the communication between the internal and external man is 
 represented by the one servant taking the other by the throat, or 
 choking him. And the words with which the merciless creditor 
 accompanied his significant action, “ Pay me that thou owest,” imply 
 more explicitly still a demand on the natural powers for all the 
 enjoyments they can give, and a determination to arrogate all the 
 endowments of the natural man to ourselves, as if we had a right to 
 indulge unrestrictedly in all the pleasures they can afford — as if to 
 live as merely natural or animal beings were the sole end of our 
 existence. In this state, also, whatever divine graces may have been 
 internally received will all appear as if they belonged to the natural 
 man ; and hence, in the demand, “ Pay me that thou owest,” is 
 included an idea as if all that man had in any way received from 
 the Lord were his own, and a claim to himself of merit for every good, 
 whether real or apparent, that he possesses. 
 
 29. But, it may be asked, is man, then, to make no use of his 
 natural endowments 1 Are all natural pursuits prohibited by religion, 
 all natural pleasures regarded by it as criminal ? The Lord has given 
 an answer — “ Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and 
 to God the things that are God’s.” The same doctrine of the allow- 
 ableness of natural pursuits, when kept in subordination to spiritual 
 ones, and that it is then only that man’s natural endowments are 
 truly valuable to him, and afford him true enjoyment, is taught in the 
 fellow-servant’s answer upon being thus roughly handled. It is said 
 that he fell down at his feet , by which is signified acknowledgment that 
 the faculties of the natural man are designed for man’s use ; and he 
 besought him , saying , have patience with me, and I will pay thee all; 
 being the same words as the other servant had used when called to 
 account by his Lord. In that case they implied a determination and 
 engagement on the part of man to fulfil the duties required of him by 
 the Lord ; here the meaning must necessarily be modified to adapt 
 them to the case of their being given to a fellow-servant, who denotes, 
 
. 414 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XVIII. 
 
 not the man himself, but a certain faculty of his mind. Here, then, 
 they express the great truth, that man’s natural powers only render 
 him their proper use when he does not arrogate them to himself, and 
 apply them merely to minister to his natural man without regard to 
 anything further. The request, “ Have patience with me,” denotes a 
 perception, which is even in this state communicated to man, that he 
 is not to subject his natural endowments to this cruel bondage : and 
 the promise, “I will pay thee all,” denotes the further perception 
 that in this case he will derive from them that just use which they 
 are given to afford ; that when they are made subordinate to eternal 
 ends, they convey the greatest delight that can be derived from them, 
 at the same time that they conduce to the well-being and support of 
 his internal man, and thus to man’s true happiness. 
 
 30. This limited, though in reality more full use of the faculties of 
 the natural man does not satisfy the desires of man while he is in this 
 external state : unless he makes his natural gifts his all, it appears to 
 him as if they were nothing. This is represented when it is said of 
 the first servant that he would not accede to his fellow-servant’s 
 request. On the contrary, he cast him into prison till he should pay 
 the debt ; by which is meant, that when man regards external and 
 worldly things only, he makes the endowments of his natural man 
 slaves to his perverted lusts and corrupt inclinations, and that while 
 he continues to view these as his all, he is always requiring of them 
 more assistance in the prosecution of his gross pursuits than they are 
 able to give. He deprives them of their proper liberty by turning 
 them from their proper use, and continually regards them as his 
 debtors, to whose service he has an unbounded right. 
 
 31. However, it appears, through the divine mercy of the Lord, 
 that these abuses, which, if they continued unchecked, would destroy 
 the man entirely, do not pass unnoticed, and divine means are 
 employed to bring the sinner to a sense of his error. There are 
 fellow- servants, we find, who note what is done, and who bring upon it 
 the animadversions of the lord. These other fellow-servants denote all 
 the truths which man has received in his mind and memory from the 
 Holy Word, and from the Lord by means of the Holy Word, whether 
 immediately or otherwise. By these the principle called conscience is 
 formed in the mind, and with them and it there is a communication 
 still preserved with the Lord and heaven. For as man of himself is 
 utterly corrupt and evil, it is evident that the Lord cannot commu- 
 nicate with anything that is man’s own ; wherefore there are insinuated 
 into the mind of every one knowledges of divine truth, and affections 
 
Chap. XVIII. ] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 415 
 
 therewith conjoined, which are not naan’s own, but are of the Lord 
 with him. From this source it is that a sense of pain and remorse is 
 often felt when man falls into the practice of evil, or confirms himself 
 in the inclination of the natural man alone ; and into these the Lord 
 can flow, to operate what is necessary for man’s reformation, so far as 
 he does not decidedly confirm himself against it : if he does, after a time, 
 the truths received from the Word become in a manner abolished from 
 his mind, and the remonstrances of conscience, having long been stifled, 
 at last cease to be made. The pain then which is first felt when man 
 plunges into evil and disorder, after his mind has been furnished with 
 such knowledge from the Word as might teach him better, is denoted 
 by its being said that the fellow-servants, when they saw what was 
 done , were very sorry , their sorrow denoting contrariety between the 
 man’s conduct and the dictates of divine truth. 
 
 32. But this not being sufficient to withhold him, it is necessary 
 
 that he should be subjected to a severe discipline, which is denoted 
 by the servants telling their lord, and his rebuking and punish- 
 ing the servant. Then his lord, after that he had called him, said 
 unto him, 0 thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because 
 thou desiredst me. This evidently denotes the perception com- 
 municated to man of the enormity of his conduct — a conviction of 
 the judgment which is based upon it by the Divine truth ; and bitter 
 indeed are the pangs of conscience which are endured by this con- 
 viction. “ O thou wicked servant.” What can this imply, when 
 pronounced by the Lord, but a declaration and discovery of his own 
 utter depravity and liability to eternal ruin ! And what can it 
 imply as apprehended by man but a perception of the corruption of his 
 entire nature both by inheritance and choice — a perception that in 
 himself he is indeed nothing but evil ! “ I forgave thee all that debt, 
 
 because thou desiredst me.” This evidently is a bringing to mind of 
 the pure mercy of the Lord, which giveth liberally and upbraideth not, 
 and which is such as requires nothing of man but a desire on his part to 
 receive it. This is introduced to point out what is the conduct which 
 is plainly the duty of man, and without a compliance with which even 
 the boundless mercy of the Lord is not sufficient for his salvation. 
 
 33. For the Lord adds, Shouldest not thou also have had compassion 
 on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee ? This instructs us 
 that man is to make charity the rule of his conduct as to his external 
 man, even as the Lord acts from love towards him, and is willing to 
 communicate charity to his internal man. Certainly nothing can be 
 stronger, more pathetic, more impressive, than the mode in which 
 
416 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XYIII. 
 
 this remonstrance is stated in the literal sense. It is impossible to 
 convey in a more forcible maimer the precept, that man is to culti- 
 vate in his bosom the feelings of charity and forgiveness. And to 
 remind him of this duty, he has the Lord’s divine words before him, 
 “I forgave thee all that debt.” Does it not assure him of the con- 
 stant presence of the Divine mercy, love, and forgiveness, from 
 whence he may take as much as is sufficient to enable him also to act 
 under the principle of love, and so to remove his evils that they may 
 be forgiven or remitted indeed. 
 
 34. The consequence of man’s not doing so is stated in its being 
 said, His lord was wroth. Such expressions do not mean that there 
 really are any vengeful passions in the Source of all good, but by such 
 language the contrariety between the state of the wicked and the Lord’s 
 divine love is what is intended, and their inability to view him such 
 as he really is, because they do not receive his love in their own hearts 
 and minds ; for it is always through the medium of his own state that 
 man forms his interior ideas of the Divine nature. So, by the ex- 
 pression of the Lord being wroth, we are taught that when man 
 plunges into evil, or desires to enjoy the powers of his natural man to 
 promote merely selfish designs, he so averts himself from the Lord 
 that he can no longer, as before, enjoy an inward perception of him 
 as a God of love, remitting his debts and deficiencies. Before this can 
 be restored, states of severe temptation are to be undergone ; for it is 
 only by means of temptations that evils can be removed from the 
 affections, so that the heart shall lust after them no longer. This 
 process is what is described by its being said that the lord de- 
 livered him to the tormentors , till he should pay all that was due unto 
 him. The payment of all that was due unto him, in this view of the 
 subject, is that species of payment which is that alone which the Lord 
 requires, which consists in the grateful acceptance of the Lord’s 
 mercies, the appropriation of them to the use for which they are given, 
 and the return of all to the Lord, in the sincere acknowledgment that 
 all are from him. But should man determine to continue in the con- 
 firmation of his evils, then these words describe, not the temptations 
 by which evils are removed, but the desolations by which he is 
 deprived of every real good which he had received, and every noble 
 faculty which he had abused ; and the payment of the debt is then to 
 be understood in the other sense which we have seen it bears, — that of 
 the resumption, as it were, by the Lord, of all the endowments which 
 man continues to pervert. When once evil has been confirmed in the 
 mind, it can only be removed by the discipline of temptation ; and 
 
Chap. XVIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 417 
 
 removed it must be before good can become predominant, and the 
 man prepared for a state wherein good ever reigns. So when once 
 any good or truth has been received in affection, and confirmed, it 
 only can be removed, if evil obtains the mastery, by desolations ; and 
 it must be removed before the wretched victim can be consigned to 
 his final home in the abodes of darkness ; and if it cannot be 
 removed, it is because a state of profanation has been induced, which 
 is attended with worse horrors even than one of unmixed evil. 
 
 35. Since, even at the best, evils once confirmed can never be re- 
 moved from the interiors but by painful temptations, how strongly 
 should come home to us the divine words with which the Lord 
 makes the application of his parable, — So likewise shall my heavenly 
 Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his 
 brother their trespasses. In the natural sense this teaches us that we 
 cannot be in the reception of the Lord’s love towards ourselves, but 
 in proportion as we are in the exercise of charity towards others. 
 And, spiritually, we are reminded by it of the necessity of putting 
 away evils, by man himself, in order to their removal and remission 
 by the Lord. In the Lord’s prayer we are desired to pray, “ Forgive 
 us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;” thus the forgiveness of debts 
 by us is prescribed as the measure of the forgiveness which will be 
 awarded to us by our Divine Judge; and we are in the strongest 
 manner forbidden to look for forgiveness on any other ground, when 
 we are even commanded in our prayers to recognize the unalterable 
 nature of this rule of the Lord’s divine order. The meaning is, that 
 so far as we have ourselves power over our conduct and inclinations, 
 we are to regulate them by the dictates of the laws of ^ eternal truth 
 and goodness. Now we have such power over all that belongs to 
 our natural man. We can control our actions so as to refrain from 
 the commission of actual evils. We can control our inclinations and 
 thoughts so far as not to encourage and wilfully dwell upon such 
 tendencies or imaginations as we know to be e^il. So far as this, we 
 can spiritually forgive our brother his trespasses ; we can make good 
 or charity our rule of action, and remit or remove whatever would 
 violate it. So far then our heavenly Father will forgive our tres- 
 passes ; will remit or remove the tendencies and lusts towards evil 
 which exist in our interior, and will pass upon us eventually the 
 judgment of charity and mercy. 
 
418 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XIX. 
 
 CHAPTEK XIX. 
 
 Two most momentous questions are settled in the present chapter — 
 one on the nature of marriage, the other on the conditions of salvation. 
 To hear the truth on these subjects from the lips of Him who created 
 man, and who came to redeem him, and thus to restore marriage to its 
 primeval purity, and man to his original order and happiness, is a 
 privilege we should greatly prize. 
 
 1. And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he 
 departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judea beyond Jordan. 
 This describes a progression of the Lord’s love or goodness in man from 
 the external, which is Galilee, to the internal, which is .Judea, through 
 the knowledges of good and truth, which is Jordan. Yet it was only 
 to the coasts of Judea that the Lord came, implying an elevation of the 
 Lord’s love, not into the internal itself, but to its externals or borders. 
 
 2. Here the Lord, as was his wont, engaged in works of benevolence. 
 Great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there. Those affec- 
 tions and thoughts in us that follow the Lord with a desire to be freed 
 from their hereditary and acquired infirmities, and to be elevated by 
 him, and into conjunction with him, are restored to soundness, and 
 brought into heavenly order, so as to fit them for useful and happy 
 activity. 
 
 3. But where good is present, there evil shows itself. The Pharisees 
 also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for 
 a man to put avjay his vnfe for every cause 1 When the good affections 
 and thoughts are attracted to the Lord for instruction and teaching, 
 the evil are excited into opposition, seeking too often to overturn the 
 authority of divine truth by insidious reasonings. Like Satan among 
 the sons of God, the Pharisees, or some other enemies of the truth, are 
 sure to appear where the good and faithful assemble. But these at- 
 tempts are turned by the Lord to advantage, and are made to end in the 
 clearer perception and fuller confirmation of the truth. And such is 
 the result of all the doublings and reasonings of our rebellious selfhood, 
 if we are faithful to the Lord and to our own best interests. The 
 questions here raised by the Pharisees, and answered by the Lord, are 
 of great importance as general principles, and deserve our most serious 
 attention. The question about the law of divorce has already been 
 considered in ch. v. 31, where the Lord himself introduces the subject. 
 It is only necessary here to notice the opinion and practice in the 
 Jewish church which gave rise to the present question. As Moses 
 assigned no precise cause of divorce, it came to be a question among 
 
Chap. XIX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 419 
 
 the Jews of a later period what were the legitimate causes of divorce, 
 or whether a man might not put away his wife for any cause what- 
 ever. The difference of opinion on this question came to be repre- 
 sented by two distinct schools of divinity among the Jews, one of 
 which restricted the causes of divorce to what was scandalous and 
 dishonourable, while the other held the husband’s displeasure to be 
 a sufficient reason. When the Pharisees came to the Lord it was to 
 hear which of these opinions he maintained. 
 
 4, 5. When the Lord answered the Pharisees he did not so much as 
 notice their opinions and disputes, he did not even go back to Moses 
 to point out the true meaning of the law on which their different 
 opinions rested. Instead of referring to the temporary law of divorce, 
 he went back to the primeval law of marriage, and sjiowed that both 
 creation and the law of the Creator rendered the bond of marriage 
 indissoluble, except for one cause. Have ye not read , that he which 
 made them at the beginning made them male and female , and said , For 
 this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to 
 his wife : and they twain shall be one flesh ? These divine words 
 establish marriage on its original and true foundation. The man and 
 the woman were created for each other, and their union was designed 
 to be spiritual, like their nature, and eternal, like their existence. Of 
 all God’s creatures man only was formed in his image and likeness. Plis 
 image and likeness are stamped upon his whole nature and constitu- 
 tion. And as God in the beginning made them male and female, the 
 Divine image has a profound reference to the characteristic difference 
 on which their union rests. The man may be said to have been 
 created in the image of God, and the woman in his likeness. The 
 double resemblance in which man is said to have been formed can only 
 be understood when it is known that God in his essence is Love itself 
 and Wisdom itself, and that man was created to be a recipient of love 
 and wisdom from God. God’s wisdom in man makes him God’s 
 image ; God’s love in man makes him God’s likeness. In order that 
 male and female might be so closely united as to be “ no more twain, 
 but one flesh,” the man was created to be an image of God and the 
 woman to be a likeness : in other words, the man was created to be a 
 recipient and a form of God’s wisdom, and the woman to be a reci- 
 pient and a form of his love. And as love and wisdom in God are 
 perfectly united, so love in the woman and wisdom in the man were 
 designed to become so intimately united as to be spiritually and eter- 
 nally one — the image of the union of Love and Wisdom in God. The 
 image in the man and the likeness in the woman aspire after union. 
 
420 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XIX. 
 
 The union of love and wisdom in the Divine mind gives rise to this 
 aspiration after union in human minds. And two whose union in 
 marriage has been the result of this united aspiration, untainted by 
 impure desires and unworthy motives, are those whom Cod hath 
 joined together, and whom man may not put asunder. We have 
 spoken of the nature of marriage, as derived from its first and highest 
 origin in the union of love and wisdom in the Lord, but true marriage 
 has its immediate origin in the union of love and wisdom, or of charity 
 and faith, in the minds of the married partners themselves. Those only 
 who are in the heavenly marriage of love and faith are capable of that 
 union of heart and soul which is true marriage. True marriage is a 
 spiritual union, and it is evident that none but the spiritually-minded 
 can be united in true marriage. No wonder, then, that divorce was 
 so common among the Jews, who were a natural-minded people; 
 nor is it surprising that in the world there are so many unhappy 
 matrimonial connections. Unhappy marriages do not result so much 
 from unsuitable pairs, as from ill-conditioned individuals, who could 
 not be happy partners in marriage under any circumstances. If 
 one or both of the parties in the marriage covenant have neither 
 the principles of true union nor the elements of true happiness in 
 themselves, how can the bond that unites them be otherwise than 
 superficial or galling ? True and happy marriage can only exist in 
 connection with true religion. Such marriages, and such only, are 
 spiritual and eternal : for that only which descends from heaven can 
 ascend to heaven again, and that only which comes from the Eternal 
 can endure for ever. The remarks we have made upon marriage, as 
 the union of male and female, of a youth and a maiden, drawn to each 
 other by love truly conjugal, has, to some extent, anticipated our 
 exposition of the Lord’s words according to the spiritual meaning. 
 The subject of their spiritual sense is the union of love and wisdom, 
 or of charity and faith, in the human mind, of which we have already 
 spoken. This union is the marriage to which heaven is compared, 
 and which makes heaven, for heaven is love and faith, and love and 
 faith are heaven. Heaven as a place derives it character from heaven 
 as a state. 
 
 5. The conditions on which true marriage, both as a union of 
 principles and of persons, exists, are stated by our Lord in the purpose 
 which he, as our Creator, had in making them at the beginning male 
 and female. For this cause shall a man leave father and mother , and 
 shall cleave to his wife ; and they twain shall he one flesh. Marriage 
 does indeed alter a man’s condition, since it makes him the head of a 
 
Chap. XIX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 421 
 
 new household ; but more than this is involved in the Lord’s words. 
 Father and mother, in the internal sense, mean the nature which we 
 inherit from our parents, which is comprehended in the two ruling 
 affections of the natural mind, the loves of self and of the world. 
 As the old nature which we inherit is meant by father and mother, 
 the new nature which we choose is meant by the wife. The wife is 
 the spiritual love of what is good and true, which the Lord provides 
 for those who desire to become new creatures. It is the appointed 
 order of our Creator and Regenerator, that we leave the old and 
 cleave to the new. The husband and wife of this new and spiritual 
 household are the new understanding and will which form the new 
 mind, and thus the new man. This leaving of father and mother — 
 this relinquishing of our corrupt selfhood — is equally necessary to our 
 entering into spiritual and natural marriage ; since, as we have seen, 
 there is no true marriage but the union of the good and the true 
 either in one mind or between two. In human pairs nothing is 
 truly married but truth in the husband and good in the wife ; every- 
 thing opposite to these is the cause of division, not of union — of 
 discord, not of happiness. 
 
 6. When two are thus joined together, they are no more twain , hut 
 one jiesh. The Lord’s declaration, both here and in Genesis, of the 
 unity of husband and wife, is as striking as it is emphatic. “No 
 more twain, but one flesh,” — what could be more expressive of tw^o 
 becoming one? Their duality is quite as emphatic as their unity. 
 Man and woman are much more twain than man and man, or than 
 woman and woman \ and so much the more twain, so much the more 
 one. They are not different shades of the same colour, but are com- 
 plementary colours ; rather, they are the two elements of light and 
 heat, whose union is the origin of all colour. They are two parts of 
 one humanity, each having what the other wants to make the perfect 
 man. Sex is of the soul as much as of the body; and every thought 
 and affection of the man is masculine, and every thought and 
 affection of the woman is feminine, not copies, but counterparts of 
 each other, so diverse are they. But their diversity is the ground 
 of their unity. It is because they are so distinctly two that they 
 can become so completely one. And when two, created by Infinite 
 Love and Wisdom for each other, are united in true marriage, they 
 are no more twain, but one flesh, being one man, having one will 
 and one way. Of such may it be truly said that God hath joined 
 them together. What therefore God hath joined together , let not man 
 yut asunder. Without dwelling on this prohibition in reference 
 
422 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XIX. 
 
 to judicial separations, let us rather advert to its more interior 
 sense. In every sense and in every case marriage is of God, and 
 separation is of man. God is the author of union, man is the author 
 of division. Let us beware then of admitting anything of our own 
 self-will into that which is of the Divine will. What therefore God 
 hath joined together , whether it be love and faith in our hearts, or 
 husband and wife in our homes, let not man put asunder. 
 
 7-9. When the Lord had thus shown that marriage, being of God, 
 is not to be dissolved by man, the Pharisees objected — Why did Moses 
 then command to give a writing of divorcement , and to put her away ? 
 To which our Lord answered, Moses because of the hardness of your 
 hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it 
 ivas not so. And I say unto you , Whosoever shall put away his wife , 
 except it be for fornication , and shall marry another , committeth adul- 
 tery : and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit 
 adultery. Having already considered the subject and law of divorce 
 (ch. v. 31), we need not enter on it here. The fact which the Lord 
 here states, that the permissive law of divorce owed its origin to the 
 hardness of heart of those to whom it was given, is most important. 
 God, as we have remarked, never permits a lesser evil but to prevent 
 a greater. To consider this subject spiritually, the dispensation of 
 Moses represented the natural state of man as preparatory to the 
 spiritual state. In that state there is no true marriage of goodness 
 and truth ; there is not conjunction, but adjunction, and this admits 
 of loosing as well as binding. Yet this arises from there being as yet 
 no spiritual will, but “ hardness of heart,” which is a state at variance 
 not only with man’s original state, but with the first principles of 
 spiritual order, signified by “the beginning,” which spiritually means, 
 not first in respect to time, but first in respect to state. With the 
 spiritual man, therefore, there is no putting away, except for the cause 
 of fornication. 
 
 10. But when the Lord had declared the indissoluble nature of 
 marriage, the disciples themselves were astonished, and their Jewish 
 prejudices being shocked, they said, If the case of the man be so with 
 his wife, it is not good to marry. The disciples were as yet more 
 Jewish than Christian in their ideas and character, and represented 
 man in a transition state, while passing from his natural to a spiritual 
 state. And to one in this state the pure truth relating to the 
 heavenly marriage cannot appear as good, but seems to impose a 
 burden that is heavy to bear — a bond that is inconsistent with true 
 freedom. And so with the heavenly marriage of love and faith. 
 
Chap. XIX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 423 
 
 11. To this the Lord answers, All men cannot receive this saying , 
 save they to whom it is given. One would think there could be no 
 great difficulty in admitting the rectitude of the law which the Lord 
 had delivered. Yet the Divine law of marriage is repugnant to the 
 natural man. The polygamy of the heathen world affords too abun- 
 dant evidence of this ; and the Jews themselves, who were natural 
 men, were in the same gross and dark state in regard to marriage. 
 Those only to whom it is given can see the true law. 
 
 12. The Lord proceeds to show who these are. For there are some 
 eunuchs , which were so born from their mother s womb : and there are 
 some eunuchs , which were made eunuchs of men : and there be eunuchs , 
 viliich have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. 
 He that is able to receive it, let him receive it. The eunuchs, then, are 
 they to whom it is given to receive the Lord’s saying respecting the 
 law of marriage. Naturally, these are incapable of marriage. That 
 the Lord intended to convey, under this imagery, some profound 
 truth respecting those who become fit for his kingdom, is evident, not 
 only from the declaration itself, but from the concluding remark, “He 
 that is able to receive it, let him receive it,” and which more correctly 
 means, “ He that is able to comprehend it, let him comprehend it.” 
 Does not this direct us to a hidden meaning ? The Lord’s words yield a 
 consistent and instructive meaning only in the spiritual sense. Other- 
 wise, what can be meant by eunuchs born, made of men, and made of 
 themselves 1 And yet in the spiritual sense all this yields a mean- 
 ing as beautiful as it is edifying. By these are described the three 
 classes of the regenerate — the celestial, the spiritual, and the natural. 
 The celestial are meant by those wdio have been born eunuchs from 
 their mother’s womb ; the spiritual, by those who have been made 
 eunuchs of men ; and the natural, by those who have made themselves 
 eunuchs. The womb signifies celestial love and innocence ; and they 
 who are eunuchs from their mother’s womb are those who are born 
 again into a state of celestial love, which is love to the Lord. Man 
 signifies the understanding ; and those who are made eunuchs of men 
 are those who are regenerated into a state of spiritual love, which is 
 love to the neighbour. Those who make themselves eunuchs for the 
 kingdom of heaven’s sake are those who acquire truth in the memory, 
 and by a life according to it are regenerated into the good of obedience. 
 The description of male purity which our Lord here gives is analogous 
 to that of female purity given in the Revelation (ch. xiv. 4), where the 
 regenerate are described as virgins, who have not been defiled with 
 women, and who follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. As men 
 
424 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XIX. 
 
 signify intellect, and women will, these two different descriptions of 
 masculine and feminine chastity relate to purity of intellect and of 
 will, or of thought and of affection ; and, combined under one view, 
 describe the regenerate mind, or full man, as consisting of the new 
 understanding and will, or the new heart and the right spirit, which 
 God creates in those who suffer themselves to be born again from 
 above. 
 
 13. When we understand the passage as relating to spiritual 
 purity, and the different degrees of excellence to which the regenerate 
 attain by subduing the lusts of the flesh, we can see the connection of 
 the subject with the incident which immediately follows the Lord’s 
 discourse. Then were there brought unto him little children , that he 
 should put his hands on them , and pray. The distinguished place 
 which little children hold in the gospel history is one of the most 
 beautiful of its truly human features. It is but natural that these 
 little innocents should stand forth prominently in a history which 
 begins with the birth of the infant Saviour as innocence itself incar- 
 nate. This bringing of little children to J esus represented the ascrip- 
 tion to the Lord of all the innocence we have received from him, that 
 his blessed influence may descend through it into our hearts and 
 minds. This is spiritually to bring little children to Jesus, and to ask 
 him to lay his hands on them and pray. And the disciples rebuked 
 them. Little sympathy had they with these little innocents, because 
 as yet they had little of that spiritual innocence of which these little 
 ones were the types. And they exemplified in their conduct the 
 character of that principle and state which they represented. The 
 Lord’s love flows immediately into innocence in the will, and not into 
 it through intellectual good or truth ; and therefore the disciples, who 
 as yet represented these intellectual principles, rebuked those who 
 brought the little children to Jesus. 
 
 14, 15. But Jesus said, Suffer little children , and forbid them not, 
 to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. And he laid 
 his hands on them. These gracious words, how much do they express, 
 how much do they teach ! The innocence of infancy and childhood is 
 a remnant of that which existed in paradise— the only good, perhaps, 
 that has survived the fall ; not that this innocence has been trans- 
 mitted, but that the capacity for receiving it has been preserved. In 
 the innocence of childhood we see a faint outline of what man has 
 been, as well as the shadow of what he may become, by being created 
 anew, and restored to the image and likeness of God. We see in it, 
 moreover, something of that which the Lord can infuse into the human 
 
Chap. XIX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 425 
 
 mind when the selfhood is not active, and which he does impart to 
 the angels of that heaven with which infants are connected, and 
 through which their innocence descends. We may learn, lastly, how 
 much we are influenced by innocence, through a disinterested love for 
 little children, which our Lord exhibited in such perfection. Only 
 the disinterested love for children can have this effect. The natural, 
 as well as the spiritual, may adopt the first half of the Lord’s address 
 to his disciples, “ Suffer little children to come unto me ; ” but the 
 spiritual only can use the second, “for of such is the kingdom of 
 heaven.” The true love of little children is for the sake of their inno- 
 cence as the gift of heaven, and for the sake of leading them to heaven 
 by the innocence with which heaven inspires them. Their innocence 
 is the object of all true love, and their happiness in heaven is the end 
 of all true education. It is on the innocence of childhood that the 
 Lord still lays the hand of his Omnipotence, to keep the little ones 
 under his influence and protection, and lead them if possible to the 
 kingdom of heaven. “ And he laid his hands on them,” and departed 
 thence. And this brings us to a new state, and introduces us to a 
 new subject. 
 
 16, 17. And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master , 
 what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life 2 The subject 
 of this inquiry is, like that of the Pharisee on marriage, so important 
 as a plain and practical truth, that we propose to view it first and 
 principally in this aspect. We have first to consider the young man’s 
 salutation of the Lord — “Good Master;” and what has been con- 
 sidered the Lord’s refusal of the title in his answer — Why callest thou 
 me good 2 there is none good but one, that is, God. These words are 
 capable of two literal interpretations compatibly with the divinity of 
 the Lord. Either the Lord speaks with reference to the intelligence 
 of his questioner (who probably had no idea of the relation that Jesus 
 had to God), and wishes to remind him that, if such a teacher be 
 called good, it can only be from his having and exhibiting any of the 
 goodness of him. who alone is good; and then the words (so far from 
 denying that the Lord was good) tacitly assert that his goodness must be 
 from God, and might lead the questioner to suspect a higher character 
 in the Lord than he presupposed. Or, the Lord speaks under the 
 human consciousness of his not yet complete oneness with the Father — 
 that is, realizes at the time the view that the Essential Divinity is 
 alone goodness, and that it is not yet, or then, conscious of being one 
 with the Father. In any case it does not follow, because the Lord 
 asked him why he called him good, that the Lord refused to be so 
 
426 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XIX. 
 
 called by any one. Suppose an emphasis on the thou , and the ques- 
 tion would not in the least imply a refusal to be so called. We only 
 mention this last as an argument, for there is no emphatic thou in the 
 Greek. Or place the emphasis on vlhy, then the sentence need not 
 imply any refusal. If the questioner were one whose heart, as known 
 to the Lord, did not love keeping the commandments, to ask him why 
 he called the Lord good might be due wholly to the character of the 
 questioner. It has been well observed that the Lord calls himself 
 (John x. 11) “the Good Shepherd,” which is itself sufficient to con- 
 vince us that he could not intend to refuse, as too exalted for him, the 
 title of “ Good Master.” The design of the Lord was rather to excite 
 in the mind of the young man who uttered the salutation, and in the 
 mind of every one who reads it, an inquiry as to the real import of the 
 term in reference to J esus. As if the Lord had said, “ Thou callest 
 me good : there is none good but one, that is, God. Dost thou 
 acknowledge me to be that one — to be that God who alone is good ? ” 
 Such Jesus was, and such the acknowledgment of him as the Good 
 legitimately implies. He is the supreme, the only Good, and as such 
 the Giver as well as the Teacher of eternal life. The Lord’s words, 
 more literally rendered, are — “Why askest thou me concerning good ? 
 there is one good, God.” This does not, however, materially affect 
 the sense, or the ground of the opinion or argument we have noticed. 
 The Lord, we know, questioned men to excite them to reflection; and 
 the demand which he here makes is one which it is most necessary 
 every one who proposes to be a disciple of Jesus should answer for 
 himself. 
 
 But the Lord, without waiting for a reply to a question which every 
 one will answer according to his state, proceeded to give an answer 
 to this momentous inquiry; and that answer contains one of the 
 most momentous truths which the Lord ever uttered or revealed. 
 If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. It is most worthy 
 of our consideration that this question should have been providentially 
 put to our Lord, who, as the Saviour, was best able and entitled to 
 give the full and final answer. And his answer, stating the condition 
 of salvation, is in harmony with the often-repeated declaration, that 
 he will judge every one according to his works. It is true that faith 
 is also given as a condition of salvation : “ Believe on the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts xvi. 31); and some, supposing 
 that faith and works are opposed to each other, have, to reconcile these 
 two apparently opposite statements, assumed that the Lord, in 
 answering the inquiry of a Jew, stated the legal, but not the gospel 
 
Chap. XIX. J 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 427 
 
 conditions of salvation. It is true that Judaism, as the dispensation 
 of the law, is entirely different from Christianity, as the dispensation 
 of the gospel ; but the works of the moral law are not opposed to the 
 faith of Jesus Christ. The conditions of salvation are the same under 
 both covenants. The keeping of the commandments is as much a 
 Christian as it was a Jewish condition of life. The difference is, that 
 the Jew was to live according to the letter of the law; the Christian 
 is to live according to its spirit. The old covenant was the law as 
 written upon tables of stone ; the new covenant is the same law as 
 written upon the table of the heart. “ This shall be the covenant 
 that I will make with the house of Israel ; After those days, saith the 
 Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their 
 hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people,” (Jer. 
 xxxi. 33; Heb. viii. 8, &c.) This is the covenant under which we 
 live, as expressed by our Lord when he said, “ If thou wilt enter into 
 life, keep the commandments.” 
 
 18-21. When the young man had been told that he must keep the 
 commandments, he inquired, Which ? Jesus said , Thou shalt do no 
 murder , Thou shalt not commit adultery , Thou shalt not steal , Thou 
 shalt not bear false witness , Honour thy father and thy mother : and , 
 Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself This was a singular question, 
 since the Lord’s answer included the whole, and no partial obedience 
 can be considered as the fulfilment of the law. Our Lord points out 
 some which, however, may be considered as representing the whole ; 
 in the spiritual sense this is the case. To kill is to extinguish in 
 one’s self the love of good, which is life, and to commit adultery is to 
 profane it ; to steal is to alienate truth, and to bear false witness is to 
 falsify it; to honour father and mother is to love the Lord as the 
 supreme good and truth ; and to love his neighbour as himself is to 
 love good in another, and another’s good as he loves his own. In the 
 supreme sense, all these acts that are forbidden and required have 
 immediate reference to our relation to the Lord ; as for example, to steal 
 is to claim for ourselves the merit of doing good and believing truth, 
 which belongs to God only. And this is just one of the evils, as we 
 shall see, of which the young man had been guilty. He had lived up 
 to the standard of the law according to the letter. He could respond 
 to the Lord’s enumeration of the commandments, All these things have 
 I kept from my youth up. He answered in sincerity, and according to 
 truth, so far as he knew it. Our Lord did not dispute his claim to 
 having lived a righteous life. Indeed, we are told (Mark x. 21) that 
 the Lord regarded him with love, as he loves all sincere obedience, 
 
428 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XIX. 
 
 however imperfect it may be. But that the righteousness of this 
 man wanted the inward spiritual life which makes obedience perfect, 
 is evident from its being unable to bear the test which Jesus applied 
 to it, and by which all righteousness is to be tried. When he bad 
 declared that he had done all the things which the law demanded, he 
 asked, What lack I yet ? Jesus said unto him , If thou wilt be perfect, 
 go and sell that thou hast , and give to the poor, and thou shalt have 
 treasure in heaven : and come and follow me. Those who believe that 
 the law is no longer a condition of salvation have supposed that the 
 one thing this man lacked was faith. But from the requirement of 
 our Lord it would seem as if he rather lacked charity ; for the Lord 
 did not ask him to believe, but to do — to sell his possessions and give 
 to the poor. He had obedience, but he lacked charity or love; this 
 he required to make his obedience perfect; and this was what the 
 Lord demanded of him. He required him to give up the inordinate 
 love of the world, and love his neighbour as himself. It is possible 
 to fulfil with exemplary fidelity the whole law in the letter, without 
 having the love of self and of the world removed from the heart. 
 Obedience to the commandments comprehends two things — self- 
 denial and active virtue, which is ceasing from evil and doing good. 
 Nor is it necessary only to put away evil before the eyes of man, but 
 to put away the evil of our doings from before the eyes of God (Isa. 
 i. 16). And this evil is that which enters into our good deeds, and 
 defiles them with the hidden impurity of our unregenerated nature. 
 The young man, while scrupulous in his observance of the law, had 
 never, perhaps, thought that he was still under the dominion of the 
 love of the world. Our Lord, who knew his heart, touched this 
 tender part, and immediately it shrunk as a punctured fibre, or as the 
 apple of the eye when covered with a flood of light. Here was 
 something to be undone and to do which he had never dreamt of as 
 coming within the requirement of the law. To become poor on earth 
 that he might be rich in heaven had not occurred to him as a duty. 
 And, indeed, this is the difference between legal and Christian righ- 
 teousness, and between the religion of the natural and of the spiritual 
 man. Poverty of spirit is, however, that which the spirit of our 
 Lord’s teaching inculcates. For a man may even part with all his 
 wealth, and yet not be poor in spirit. And on the other hand, he may 
 be poor in spirit without parting with all his wealth, except it be the 
 possessions which minister to his spiritual pride — the possessions that 
 constitute his selfhood, which leaves the stamp of self on everything 
 he does. Only those who sell this can follow the Lord ; for he was 
 
Ciiap. XIX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 429 
 
 meek and lowly of heart, and those who follow him must take up 
 their cross, and walk with him in patient self-denial, and in loving 
 beneficence. 
 
 22. But when the young man heard that saying , he went away 
 sorrowful: for he had great possessions. How natural is such an 
 answer to one who had never dreamt that the love of the world as a 
 ruling passion should be incompatible with the kingdom of heaven ! 
 Yet we are to observe that the young man did not, like some of those 
 who questioned the Lord, depart impenitent and scoffing. He went 
 sorrowful. He was desirous of entering into tfie kingdom of heaven, 
 but was not yet prepared to make the necessary sacrifice. His great 
 possessions he was not yet prepared to relinquish. These possessions 
 included wealth of knowledge, but that knowledge was grounded in 
 natural love ; and it was this love which he was required to sell, that 
 he might become poor in spirit. 
 
 23. When the young man had gone away sorrowful, unable as yet, 
 because unwilling, to part with his great possessions, the Lord turned 
 to his disciples, and said unto them, Verily I say unto you , That a 
 rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. It is almost 
 self-evident that the Lord intended to convey a higher than the 
 natural truth in these declarations. In regard to wealth, he himself 
 so far expounded his own statement by saying, that it was not 
 possessing but trusting in wealth that excluded men from heaven. 
 It is not, then, riches themselves, but the selfish or sordid love of 
 them, that is condemned and is condemnatory. But this judgment 
 not only applies to natural but to spiritual riches. Spiritual riches 
 are the knowledges of spiritual things; for knowledge is mental 
 wealth, and religious knowledge is but a higher kind, intended to 
 minister to the purposes of spiritual life. But spiritual knowledge, 
 like natural and material wealth, may be employed for noble purposes 
 or used for unworthy ends. It may be treasured up, too, for its own 
 sake, without a view to any useful end; or, what is more akin to the 
 present subject, it may be considered sufficient of itself to secure a 
 place in the kingdom of heaven. Those who thus regard knowledge 
 are the rich, against whom the Word pronounces such severe judg- 
 ments, and against whom heaven is closed ; and their knowledges are 
 the great possessions in which they trust, but which they must sell 
 and give to the poor if they would have treasure in heaven. Know- 
 ledge, even of divine and spiritual things, is earthly treasure when laid 
 up in the natural mind ; and it prevents man from acquiring treasure 
 in heaven or in the spiritual mind, till it is severed from all connec- 
 
430 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XIX. 
 
 tion with his own self-love. He sells that which he hath, also, when 
 he ceases to claim the ownership both of temporal and spiritual riches, 
 and ascribes them to God, and employs them in his service. He who 
 thus parts with his possessions, to become poor in spirit, exchanges 
 empty knowledge for substantial goodness, and is raised by it from 
 spiritual poverty to eternal wealth. 
 
 24. But trust in knowledge is vain. It is easier for a camel to go 
 through the eye of a needle , than for a rich man to enter into the king- 
 dom of God. They who think to enter heaven by their riches are 
 they who think to perceive the truth of heaven by intellectual pene- 
 tration alone, — differently from the apostle, who asserts that spiritual 
 things must be spiritually discerned. This is trying to make the 
 camel go through the eye of the needle; for a camel signifies know- 
 ledge and science, and the eye of a needle spiritual truth. The 
 natural cannot enter into the spiritual. No wealth or perfection of 
 science can ever enable man to discover the things which are above 
 nature. Spirit and matter are separated by a discrete degree, and are 
 united by correspondence, and therefore have nothing in common. 
 So is it with all natural and spiritual things. Those who attempt to 
 enter into spiritual truth by merely natural means “carry their 
 riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the 
 bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them. For the 
 Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose : therefore have I 
 cried concerning this, Their strength is to stand still ” (Isa. xxx. 6, 7). 
 To enter into spiritual truth from oneself is to enter from without; 
 to enter from God is to enter from within. In the one case, it is to 
 endeavour to see spiritual things from natural light; in the other, it 
 is to see them from the light of heaven. If men will but still their 
 self-intelligence, and listen reverentially to the voice of God as it 
 speaks to them through his Word, they will find themselves strong, 
 and their efforts successful, when before they were weak, and were 
 baffled in all their attempts. They will not need to give up science and 
 silence reason; their scope will be increased instead of being diminished. 
 For although reason, by means of science, cannot find out God, or 
 discover the soul, or discern spiritual things, it can find in nature 
 abundant means of confirming the truth on these subjects, when 
 accepted from revelation. When spiritual truth is once admitted, 
 science, which seemed only fertile in negations, is found to be bound- 
 less in means of confirmation. When “ the glory of the Lord is risen 
 upon thee : the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee; the mul- 
 titude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and 
 
Chap. XIX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 431 
 
 Epliah : all they from Sheba shall come; they shall bring gold and 
 incense : they shall show forth the praises of the Lord ” (Isa. lx. 1, 5, 
 6). When a man has admitted spiritual wisdom into his mind, all 
 the wealth of science will be added to him for glory and praise. 
 
 25. When the disciples heard the Lord’s declaration, that it was 
 easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich 
 man to enter into the kingdom of God, they were exceedingly amazed , 
 saying , Who then can he saved 'l It appeared to them as if the Lord 
 had made entrance into his kingdom almost an impossibility. And 
 this at first sight appears to every disciple to be the consequence of 
 the law of order which our Lord declared. But this arises from their 
 not understanding what the truth teaches on the subject. Our Lord 
 therefore proceeds to explain it. 
 
 26. But Jesus heheld them , and said unto them , With men this is 
 impossible; hut with God all things are possible. That which in its 
 own nature is contrary to order is still more impossible with God than 
 it is with men. But the opposition to order in this case consists in 
 man attempting to do in his own way, and by his own power, what 
 can only be done in God’s way and by his power. Man fails because 
 he begins from himself; to succeed, he must begin from God. 
 
 27. Then answered Peter and said unto him , Behold , we have for- 
 saken all , and followed thee; what shall we have therefore ? This is a 
 question which faith may ask when it is able to make so honourable 
 a declaration, — one that contrasts so favourably with the conduct of the 
 young man. In those days, when spiritual states and truths were to 
 be embodied in representative acts, those who became the Lord’s dis- 
 ciples were sometimes required to leave all their temporal goods and 
 homes, and follow him in his pilgrimages. We all have to for- 
 sake self and the world, of which these are the symbols, and to follow 
 the Lord’s divine example in a life of holiness. Can we, in the Lord’s 
 presence, say in truth, “We have left all, and followed thee” ? It would 
 be well for us were we able to profess truly that we had earnestly 
 desired and faithfully endeavoured to do the disciple’s duty. Then we 
 might ask with humility, “ What shall we have therefore ? ” Let us 
 listen to the gracious reply. 
 
 28. Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which 
 have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in 
 the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the 
 twelve tribes of Israel. This is an instance of the Lord addressing his 
 disciples according to their own notions of things. They were yet in 
 the belief that the Lord had come to restore Israel, and set up a 
 
432 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XIX. 
 
 kingdom upon earth ; and the Lord here answers their question, 
 according to their views and desires, by promising to make them 
 judges in Israel. And thus it ever is that the truth of the Word falls 
 into men’s ideas. But, as in the present instance, that which they 
 apprehend naturally when they themselves are natural, they appre- 
 hend spiritually when they become spiritual. The Lord’s promise 
 to the disciples speaks for itself, as to its containing a spiritual 
 meaning, and being intended to have only a spiritual fulfilment. As 
 the Lord’s glorification was the pattern of human regeneration, those 
 who follow him in the regeneration are those who become like him, 
 by doing as he did. The life of regeneration is a life of humiliation, 
 including suffering and the death of the old man. This humiliation 
 leads to glory. And the Son of man sits on the throne of his glory 
 when his holy truth, glorified in us, is throned on the highest affections 
 of our hearts. The disciples, who represented all the goods and 
 truths of the Word, derived from the Lord and ruling under him, sit 
 on twelve thrones when these principles enter into and govern all our 
 states of life. The Lord’s throne is in the inner man ; the thrones of 
 the apostles are in the outer man. The twelve tribes of Israel are 
 spiritual truths in the natural mind, which are arranged by and under 
 the general truths, meant by the apostles, and which arrangement is 
 meant by judging. For the idea here presented is not that of a single 
 act of judgment, at the time of the end, but continual judgment, like 
 that of the judges of Israel. The Lord and his apostles are always 
 judging, and keeping in order the thoughts and affections of the 
 regenerate mind. 
 
 29. If the promise to the apostles to sit on thrones has an evidently 
 spiritual meaning, that which follows it is still more evidently remote 
 from a literal fulfilment. For the Lord continues : And every one 
 that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or 
 ivife, or children , or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundred- 
 fold, and shall inherit everlasting life. By these are not, of course, 
 meant a man’s natural possessions and relations. He who requires us 
 to love our enemies cannot command us to hate our friends. And, 
 indeed, if anything like a literal compliance with such a requirement 
 were meant, why should it be demanded of the man, or husband, and 
 not of the woman, or wife 1 But the truth is, the whole relates to the 
 spiritual, and not to the natural life of the disciple. These members 
 of his house are the principles of the old man, the hereditary and 
 acquired qualities of his unregenerate nature. It begins with houses 
 and ends with lands, and by these are meant the mind itself as to its 
 
Chap. XIX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 433 
 
 inmost and outermost recipient faculties. These faculties in our unre- 
 generate state are perverted and corrupt, and their perversions and cor- 
 ruptions are to be rejected. The members of the household are merely 
 natural affections of our unregenerate nature. Father and mother 
 are the loves of self and the world, and brethren and sisters are the 
 thoughts and affections derived from these. The wife is the ruling 
 love which the understanding has chosen for and united to itself, 
 and the children derived from this marriage are the worldly affections 
 and thoughts that spring from this union. To forsake these is 
 a positive duty ; to forsake our natural relations would be a positive 
 crime. But the promise is, that every one that forsakes them shall 
 receive an hundredfold of the same. An hundredfold is the symbol 
 of completeness and perfection. And the promise implies, that he 
 who puts off the old man with the lusts thereof, and puts on the 
 new man with his pure and holy affections, will find himself rewarded 
 an hundredfold for the sacrifice he has made. But to receive this 
 reward he must forsake these enemies of his own household for the 
 Lord’s sake. To forsake evil for his own sake — that is, for the sake of 
 his own reputation or interest — is not truly to forsake it, but only 
 to desist from it ; but to forsake evil because it is sin against God, 
 is truly to forsake and hate it. With the promise of an hundredfold 
 is given also that of life everlasting. For this implies not only 
 eternal life in heaven, which is the ultimate reward of the righteous, 
 but new life and delight, as the result of new principles. 
 
 SO. Our Lord concludes by saying, But many that are first shall be 
 last ; and the last shall be first. Many that occupy the first rank in 
 worldly, and even in religious estimation, shall be in the last place in 
 the other life ; while many of those who are in the lowest place here 
 will occupy the highest hereafter. In the spiritual sense it teaches 
 that regeneration inverts the state of man. It puts in the last place 
 those things that were first, and in the first place those that were 
 last. In his unregenerate state the world is first and heaven is last 
 in his thoughts and affections ; in his regenerate state heaven, which 
 was last, becomes first, and the world, which was first, becomes last. 
 And so with body and soul, nature and spirit, time and eternity. 
 These, as ends, change places with man’s change of state. In another 
 respect, also, things that were first become last, and the last first. In 
 the regeneration, states and principles change places, those first 
 acquired becoming last, and those last acquired becoming first. Thus 
 is it with truth and goodness, faith and charity, obedience and love. 
 In the early stage of the new life, truth is before goodness, faith 
 
434 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XX. 
 
 before charity, obedience before love ; in the later stage the first of 
 these becomes last, and the last first. Then are they in their right 
 order, as they were in the beginning. And he who came to restore 
 the order which man inverted by the fall has, in these words, 
 pronounced and given the promise of paradise restored, when all 
 things that are first in intrinsic worth shall be first in man’s esteem, 
 and those that are in themselves of least value will occupy the lowest 
 place in his affections. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 This chapter commences with the parable of the labourers in the 
 vineyard. In the general sense it relates to the calling of the Jews 
 and Gentiles, the Jews being meant by the labourers first called into 
 the vineyard, and the Gentiles by those called at the eleventh hour. 
 In a more interior sense, it relates to the universal call of the gospel, 
 and the different characters of those who accept it. Those first called 
 are such as claim merit for their works, and those called last, and, 
 indeed, all who entered the vineyard after those first hired, are such as 
 do good from charity and love. The character of the self-righteous 
 is described by their bargaining for their hire, while the character of 
 those who do good from charity and love is described by their being 
 satisfied with the assurance of the householder that they would 
 receive what was right, and by the murmuring of the first and the 
 contentment of the others. 
 
 As every part of the Word in the internal sense relates to the 
 regeneration of man, this parable is to be understood as descriptive 
 of a certain part of that divine work. To see it in this application 
 we must consider the transaction as taking place in the mind of one 
 who has entered on the new life ; and the various persons mentioned 
 in the parable are to be regarded as corresponding principles, in their 
 relation to, and connection with, each other. These consist of three 
 different characters — the householder, the steward, and the labourers. 
 Then there are three different places with which these are more 
 immediately connected — the house, understood, though not expressed, 
 from which the householder went out, the vineyard, and the market- 
 place. These correspond to certain principles, and to faculties of the 
 human mind, to which they belong. The house denotes the will, the 
 vineyard the understanding, and the market-place the memory; and 
 the householder, the steward, and the labourers are the three different 
 
Chap. XX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 435 
 
 kinds of principles that respectively belong to these faculties, or are at 
 least found in connection with them at that stage of the regenerate life 
 which the parable describes. There are also three different times, and 
 three different classes of labourers hired — those hired first, at the dawn, 
 those hired during the progress of the day, and those hired last, at the 
 eleventh hour. As these successive times denote successive states, the 
 first is a state of obedience, the second a state of faith, and the last a 
 state of love. Having presented this general view of the meaning of 
 the parable, we proceed to consider the particulars of the parable itself. 
 
 1. The parable commences by saying that the kingdom of heaven is like 
 unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning 
 to hire labourers into his vineyard. The kingdom of heaven is the 
 Lord’s government in the heart and understanding. The kingdom of 
 heaven is formed in the mind by regeneration; therefore, whether we 
 speak of the regeneration of man, or the establishment in his mind of 
 the kingdom of heaven, it amounts to the same. The kingdom of 
 heaven is like unto a man, an householder, which went out early in the 
 morning to hire labourers into his vineyard, because this going out of 
 the householder at the early dawn describes the commencement of 
 regeneration, or of that stage of it which is here represented. lie- 
 generation, we have often had occasion to remark, consists in bringing 
 the external man into conformity with the internal. The internal 
 itself, indeed, has first to be reformed. But as the great labour of the 
 regenerate life consists in regenerating the external, this is described 
 in the present parable. This work is begun when a man, no longer 
 satisfied with thinking and feeling within himself that religion is true 
 and good, begins to carry it out in the business and the pleasures of 
 life — to go with it into the market and the vineyard. It is then that 
 the regenerating man, like the householder, goes out , by bringing his 
 principles forth from their place in the interiors of his mind into the 
 active duties of life, to call into action his lower faculties, with their 
 acquirements, that by their means he may work out the true end of 
 life, which is to bring forth the fruit of righteousness. The beginning 
 of this work is the early morning, the dawn of actual regeneration. 
 
 2. The object of the householder in going out early was to hire 
 labourers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labourers 
 for a -penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. We have said that 
 the market where the householder went to hire the labourers is the 
 memory. The labourers are the truths which have been acquired 
 and laid up in the memory, but have not as yet been employed in the 
 active labour of cultivating the higher faculties of the mind, with a 
 
436 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XX. 
 
 view to produce the good things of a useful and righteous life. In 
 order to enable us to enter into the meaning of this part of the parable, 
 a few remarks on that part of the process of mental development to 
 which this parables relates, may be offered. Of the three faculties of the 
 mind meant by the house, the vineyard, and the market, the highest 
 and the lowest are the first developed. The will and the memory are 
 the first of the faculties that come into active existence. It is well 
 known that in children the will and the memory are active and 
 powerful long before the understanding is in any great measure 
 developed. Indeed, it is by the united action of the will and the 
 memory that the understanding is formed. Children must will or love 
 knowledge, that they may know, and they must know, that they may 
 understand. It is for this reason that the young are inspired by the 
 Almighty with the love of knowledge, and that they are gifted with 
 a memory so capacious, to receive it, and so retentive, to retain it. 
 The rational faculty is gradually developed during the years of early 
 education; but it is not till a later -period of life that it comes to such 
 maturity and independent action as to make man, in the true and full 
 sense of the word, an intelligent as well as a knowing creature. It is 
 then, too, that he finds his previously-acquired knowledges as labourers 
 that he can hire and send into his vineyard, to do the work of real 
 life, in producing the fruits that God has ordained to be the means 
 both of employing and rewarding the faculties that produce them. 
 Now, as regeneration is a second and higher birth, the spiritual is an 
 exact antetype of the natural life of man. The Christian has his 
 infancy and childhood, and the early states of the spiritual man 
 are as necessary as are those of the natural man to bring him to 
 maturity — to bring him to the full measure of the stature of Christ. 
 His first education, too, is of the same character as that of the 
 natural man. He has first to learn the principles of the doctrine 
 of Christ, that he may leave them and go on unto perfection. He 
 must acquire truths from the Divine Word, and lay them up in 
 his memory. There they remain for a time as knowledge, unem- 
 ployed and unproductive. The beginning of regeneration, as an 
 active or actual work, consists in, or is marked by, the calling forth 
 of these knowledges out of the memory, and elevating them into 
 the understanding, and there making them active labourers in advanc- 
 ing the interests of the soul, by contributing to the performance of 
 deeds of charity. This is the hiring of the labourers in the market- 
 place, and sending them into the vineyard. In agreement with this 
 view, the labourers are waiting in the market-place, and ready and 
 
Chap. XX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 437 
 
 even anxious to be employed ; for it is the nature of the truths which 
 have their origin in the God of truth, that they are not only adapted 
 to perform works of good use, but that they have an inherent desire to 
 be actively engaged in the labour of the spiritual life, but they cannot 
 work in man’s vineyard till he hire them. They have no power of 
 independent action. They do not act, but are acted upon. They do 
 not operate, but co-operate. Theirs is not action, but re-action. 
 Action in this matter must begin in the will. And when the will of 
 the inner man becomes active in the business of salvation, a man will 
 find that the truths he has learnt will be ready to go and do the work 
 which he requires to be done. Such is the state which is depicted in 
 this instructive parable. When the householder went out to hire 
 labourers, he agreed with the first he engaged to give them a 
 penny a day. It is laid down as a principle in the Word that the 
 labourer is worthy of his hire ; for it is a law of divine order, and 
 therefore of heaven itself, that every heavenly work brings with it its 
 own reward. In the parable, tire reward to be given by the house- 
 holder to the labourers is a penny a day. The denarius, or silver 
 penny, is the symbol of truth. But here, the penny which is the hire 
 of the labourer is to be given by the householder to the labourers. 
 As the labourers were to receive from the householder a penny a day 
 as their hire, this is intended to express the idea that, when truths are 
 raised out of the memory into the Understanding, and employed in 
 carrying out the purposes of the internal man, they receive their 
 reward in a higher perception of truth, and this is communicated to 
 them on the completion of every state that the mind passes through, — 
 a state being meant by a day. There is something in the contract 
 entered into between the householder and the labourers that illus- 
 trates the nature of the state of the regenerate man which this early 
 period of the day represents. He agrees with the first-hired labourers 
 for a penny a day, but there is no such agreement entered into with 
 the others, who go on the simple assurance that they will receive what 
 is right. We have said that the early morning, when the first 
 labourers were hired and went to work in the vineyard, is the beginning 
 of the regenerate life, when a man is in a state of obedience. He does 
 good from a sense of duty. Good works are not to him as yet a labour 
 of love. In this state the reward is not reckoned of grace, but of debt 
 (Rom. iv. 4). He rests on the letter of the law; he must have his 
 bond. He has not yet entered into the spirit of the law, which leads 
 him to confide in the goodness of the Lord, and trust to be rewarded 
 by his righteousness and bounty. 
 
438 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XX. 
 
 3-5. But another and better state succeeds this first and initiatory 
 one. Besides the first, there were other labourers hired afterwards by 
 the householder at different hours of the day. And he went out about 
 the third hour , and saw others standing idle in the market-place , and 
 said unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I 
 will give you. And they went their way. Again he went out about the 
 sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. The truths that have been 
 received into the natural mind, and laid up in the memory, are not 
 all called forth and elevated into the understanding at once. The 
 truths themselves differ from each other, and the mind passes through 
 successive states. Every general state consists of many particular 
 states. The day advances from morning to evening ; but besides the 
 natural periods of morning, noon, evening, and night, we mark it off 
 into artificial periods of hours and lesser divisions. “ Are there not 
 twelve hours in the day V 1 So did our Lord teach that the day, 
 whether understood as the day of probation or the day of a realized 
 state of life, has a succession of lesser times, each having a distinct 
 character and a different use and experience. The day in which the 
 householder went forth to hire his labourers is divided here into 
 periods of three hours. He went out at the third, sixth, and ninth 
 hours. These advancing hours are expressive of advancing states, in 
 which the particular truths suited to these states are desired and 
 sought for, and therefore seen and chosen. Truths in the memory are 
 like truths in the Word. When we search the Scriptures with a par- 
 ticular object, we see or attend to those truths only which relate to it. 
 At another time, when our object is different, truths which before 
 passed unobserved are readily seen and eagerly seized upon. So with 
 those truths which have entered the memory, and there await the 
 calls of the higher and active faculties of the mind — calls that are 
 made and answered according to its changing and advancing states. 
 But the successive times of the day here mentioned not only express 
 successive mental states, they express also the nature, quality, or 
 character of those states. The number three, whenever it occurs in 
 the Word, is expressive of states of faith as distinguished from states 
 of love ; and this number, while it forms the first of the series, enters 
 into the two others. Yet the more a number is increased, the higher 
 the state which it describes ; so that the present progression by 
 periods of three is expressive of progress into higher or more interior 
 states of faith and intelligence. The nature of the states through 
 which the regenerate pass, and which are successively formed in them, 
 is also indicated by the different hours at which the labourers were 
 
Chap. XX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 439 
 
 hired. Three is expressive of a holy state, of which truth is the 
 foundation and faith the superstructure. This state, once com- 
 menced, is purified by temptation, which is signified by the number 
 six, and is perfected by experience, which is meant by the number 
 nine. 
 
 6, 7. But another stage in the regenerate life, and the formation of 
 another state of the heavenly life, follows that which has now been 
 explained, and is described by the hour at which the last of the 
 labourers were hired. And about the eleventh hour lie went out, and 
 found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all 
 the day idle ? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. 
 He saith unto them , Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is 
 right, that shall ye receive. It seems as if the householder hired at the 
 different hours all he found waiting in the market-place. After hiring 
 some at day dawn, when he “ went out about the third hour, he saw 
 others standing idle in the market-place.” Yet he asks those he 
 found at the eleventh hour, “ Why stand ye here all the day idle ?” 
 and they answer, “ Because no man hath hired us.” Understood as it 
 commonly is, the parable presents, in this particular, either a serious 
 difficulty or a very extraordinary doctrine. If it relates to the call- 
 ing of persons into the church, and the exercise of God’s right to 
 bestow the same reward on those who are converted at the last 
 hour of life and those who have borne the burden and heat of 
 the day, we are constrained to believe that these late converts 
 are the victims of divine neglect, since they had remained all the 
 day idle, only because no man had hired them. But if we under- 
 stand the parable as applicable to every regenerate man, and as 
 descriptive of the progress of his regeneration, we can see not only the 
 consistency, but the beauty and truthfulness of the imagery. As the 
 labourers in the market-place are the truths which have entered the 
 memory during the early period of life, or, indeed, at any period of life 
 before regeneration has actually commenced, the labourers hired at the 
 eleventh hour not only may, but must, have been standing all the day 
 idle. Those truths that are last called into the vineyard are really 
 those which have been longest in the market-place, and have stood 
 there all the day idle, because no man hath hired them. The truths 
 that are last called out of the memory are really the first that entered 
 it. We have more than once had occasion to remark that regenera- 
 tion is a retracing of our steps back towards the Eden of our infancy ; 
 and that in this backward, or rather upward, progression, truths are 
 called forth in the inverse order to that in which they were acquired, 
 
440 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XX. 
 
 and states are perfected in tlie inverse order to that in which they 
 were formed. The rudiments of our best states are formed in our 
 earliest life, and the best are the last to be realized. The highest state 
 of the regenerate life is that which a man acquires when he returns 
 to the innocence of his infancy, enriched with the knowledge and 
 experience of his after-life. Then does he truly become one of those 
 little children of whom our Lord said that of such is the kingdom of 
 heaven. Those labourers, then, that were called into the vineyard at 
 the eleventh hour, are the truths of innocence that have been in the 
 mind from the earliest period of life — truths that were then implanted 
 by the hand of the divine Householder himself, for he only reaps 
 where and what he has sown, and sends forth labourers he has pro- 
 vided and prepared. Of these labourers it may be said that they have 
 stood all the day idle ; for the state of the regenerating man, during 
 the previous stages of his advancement, has not been such as to require, 
 or even admit, of their being actively employed, nor even of being 
 observed as labourers standing ready to be engaged for active duty. 
 The character of these truths, like that of those hired at the third, 
 sixth, and ninth hours, as distinguished from that of the labourers 
 first hired, is again expressed by the absence of anything like demand, 
 on the part of the labourers, of the amount of wages they were to 
 receive for the time they were to labour ; but the assurance of the 
 householder, that whatsoever is right, that should they receive, is held 
 by them to be sufficient guarantee that they would obtain their due. 
 If anything is wanted, besides the general scope of the parable, to point 
 out the last of the labourers as the types of the truths of innocence, 
 and their period of hire and labour as signifying a state of love and 
 goodness, we may derive additional confirmation from the spiritual 
 meaning of the hour at which they were hired. When the labourers 
 are considered as symbols of persons, eleven signifies a state not yet 
 full, but still a receptive state, such as pertains to well-disposed chil- 
 dren. Therefore, when applied to the regenerate, it signifies the 
 truths implanted and the rudimentary states formed during early life, 
 and which, being the purest, because the freest from selfish feelings 
 and worldly considerations, are the germs of the highest and holiest 
 states that can exist in the human mind, and to which the regenerate 
 can attain. 
 
 8. The kingdom of heaven having been thus gradually formed, and 
 finally established in the human heart, the time has come for reward- 
 ing those by whose labours it has been established. So when even was 
 come , the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers , 
 
Chap. XX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 441 
 
 and give them their hire , beginning from the last unto the first. There 
 are some particulars in this part of the parable which mark the transition 
 state which it describes. The householder is now called the lord of the 
 vineyard, to express the idea that, in the regenerate, the internal man 
 has obtained the lordship or dominion over the external, having 
 succeeded in bringing external things into subordination to internal 
 principles. Now, also, for the first time, his steward is introduced. 
 He himself hired the labourers ; the steward is commissioned to pay 
 them their hire. We have said that the steward, as occupying a place 
 and acting as a medium between the householder and the labourers, 
 denotes the rational principle, which is a faculty or principle inter- 
 mediate between the internal man, as a lord, and the external man, as 
 a servant. The steward is himself a servant, yet he represents his 
 lord ; for the rational is but an interior natural principle, and exercises 
 the power and authority of the spiritual principle in the natural 
 mind, acting at the same time as a medium between them. There is 
 an important reason for the steward being now first introduced into 
 the parable. We have remarked (v. 2) that the will and the memory 
 are more early developed and active than the understanding. The 
 rational principle, indeed, is formed by the united action of the will 
 and the memory, and partakes of the nature of both ; and therefore is 
 qualified to act as a medium between the internal and external man. 
 As this, which may be called the second part of the parable, describes 
 the influx of the internal man into the external, for the purpose of 
 communicating to him something of his own perceptions and affections, 
 of his own satisfactions and delights, as the reward of his labour, this 
 influx of the spiritual mind into the natural is through the rational. 
 The lord of the vineyard desires his steward to call the labourers and 
 give them their hire. But this command is accompanied with the 
 particular direction that the steward, in paying the labourers, is to 
 begin from the last, and proceed regularly down to the first. There 
 is here the introduction of a new arrangement among the labourers. 
 The last hired are the first paid. The last labourers hired being 
 types of the truths first acquired, and the truths first acquired, and 
 the states of life formed by their means, being the highest and best, 
 they corne nearest in perfection to the principles of the inner man, 
 and therefore they first receive the influx that descends out of the 
 spiritual mind, through the rational into the natural. 
 
 9. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour , they 
 received every man a penny. The silver penny which the labourers 
 received from the householder is the perception, and with it the satis- 
 
442 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Ciiap. XX. 
 
 faction and delight, of what is spiritual and heavenly flowing from the 
 spiritual into the natural mind. This is the reward of the labour by 
 which the natural mind is brought into harmony with the spiritual, — 
 that the perceptions and satisfactions of the spiritual mind are im- 
 parted to the natural, so that all the natural thoughts and affections 
 become animated by a higher life, and as a consequence come into 
 the possession of a clearer light and purer love, with their perceptions 
 and delights. This is their reward ; for the rewards of the religious life 
 do not come from without, but from within. They come from the 
 Lord, who is the fountain of happiness, as w T ell as of everything that 
 deserves the name of reward ; but they come from him through the 
 higher down into the lower faculties of our nature, and through the 
 spiritual into the natural affections of our minds. And the delights 
 of heaven can only be received in their true state into those principles 
 in us that have been brought into conformity with the order and life 
 of truth and love. Every truth that has been thus brought into con- 
 nection with love, as its life and end, becomes receptive of the reward 
 of its labour. Thus every man receives a penny, so that the measure 
 of his joy is full. 
 
 10. But when the first came , they supposed that they should have 
 received more ; and they likewise received every man a penny. The first 
 had made a special agreement to receive for their labour a penny a 
 day, and would have been satisfied with their hire had they not seen 
 others receive comparatively more. It is characteristic of the earliest 
 state of the regenerate life, in which we do good from obedience, or when 
 we do so much work for so much reward, that we are never satisfied 
 with the reward we obtain. Our righteousness is meritorious, and in 
 this state we think that our merit is never sufficiently rewarded. 
 Yet, so far as respects the Lord, the reward is impartially dispensed. 
 Every man receives his penny. Hor does this express only the 
 impartial goodness of God in giving, but the equal capacity of men 
 for receiving, the gifts of his mercy and grace. It is like the half 
 shekel which every Israelite gave as a ransom for his soul unto the 
 Lord, and respecting which it was ordered that the rich should not 
 give more, nor the poor less (Exod. xxx. 12). But the first hired 
 labourers, when they came to receive their hire, supposed that they 
 should have received more. There is a show of reason in this 
 expectation, but it is reason in favour of self, and would not be 
 allowed, much less suggested, were self-sacrifice, instead of self-interest, 
 concerned. Viewed in relation to the regenerate, it is highly ex- 
 pressive of the character of the state which it describes. The true 
 
Chap. XX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 443 
 
 religious principle is, that the reward is not of work, but of grace. 
 We are not rewarded for our work, but through it and in it. The 
 divine power that rewards us through our works is the same power 
 that enables us to perform them. Works that are not wrought in 
 God can bring no reward from him, and for the reason, that the 
 reward is in the work. So far, therefore, as we are hirelings, or do 
 our w T ork for the sake of hire as an end, so far will our expectations be 
 greater than our deserts, and than our capacity of reception. Until 
 we are in the heartfelt conviction that the least of the divine mercies 
 exceeds all our deserts, and is of the divine bounty, we are in bondage 
 to our own self-righteousness. 
 
 11, 12. But those who had expected more than their hire, when 
 they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house , 
 saying, These last have wrought hut one hour , and thou hast made them 
 equal unto us, which have home the burden and heat of the day. This 
 murmuring of the labourers against the goodman of the house expresses 
 contrariety between the external man and the internal. This con- 
 trariety was only on the part of the labourers first hired, these being 
 the types of the first imperfect thoughts and feelings, or of the truths 
 first received and not yet united to good, or the first faith not yet 
 united to charity. But they murmured, not because the householder 
 had been unfaithful to them, but because he had been charitable to 
 others — because those who had wrought but one hour had been made 
 equal to them, who had borne the burden and heat of the day. Yet, 
 spiritually understood, the one hour’s labour of the last was of more 
 value than the whole day’s labour of the first. One, in its best sense, 
 is expressive of the principle of goodness. Truths are many, but good 
 is one. It is the one thing needful — the one thing which the young 
 man lacked, and without which his great possessions were but a 
 hindrance to his entering into the kingdom of heaven. Without this, 
 great labour, as well as vast wealth, is an obstacle to admission into 
 the kingdom. Without it, work is tainted with ideas of merit, which 
 lead men to grudge another’s gain, and think they themselves are 
 never sufficiently rewarded. Their work, too, is a toil to them. They 
 bear the burden and heat of the day; the pride of self-intelligence 
 makes labour burdensome, the heat of self-love makes it oppressive. 
 Such as the self-righteous man is, such is every one in the earliest stage 
 of his religious life, and such are the early principles themselves : they 
 rise up and murmur against the higher and purer principle that rules 
 in the inner man. 
 
 13. But he answered one of them , and said, Friend, I do thee no 
 
444 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XX. 
 
 wrong : didst not thou agree with me for a penny ? In the individual 
 application, this is to be understood as a perception of the inner man 
 as to the quality of the natural mind, as still under the influence of 
 self-interested feelings. The householder addresses the murmuring 
 labourer as a friend, but this does not express the correct idea of the 
 original ; for the natural man is not yet in the state which makes him 
 the friend of the spiritual, but is only as a companion, being in fact a 
 hireling, because labouring for the sake of the reward. The householder, 
 to the complaint of the labourer, answers that he did him no wrong, 
 since he gave him the penny which had been agreed upon as his hire. 
 The householder representing the internal, and therefore the right 
 perception of the truth, his statement to the labourer, that he had 
 done him no wrong, implies an interior perception and conviction of 
 rectitude and justice in the abnegation of all self-righteousness and merit. 
 
 14. He therefore says to the labourer, Take that thine is, and go 
 thy way : I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. This expresses 
 a perception that the natural man should be satisfied with what the 
 spiritual had agreed to dispense to him; in other words, it expresses a 
 spiritual perception that the natural desire of undue reward should 
 be suppressed, and submission to the law of righteousness should be 
 cultivated. In order to lead the natural man to this duty, the house- 
 holder says to the labourer, “ Go thy way” — that is, he counsels him 
 to live in agreement with the truth, as the means of realizing it in 
 practice. This will enable him also to see the justice, as well as 
 mercy, of the householder’s conduct, according to his words, “ I will 
 give unto this last, even as unto thee for it is the will and desire 
 of love and goodness, which form the essential principle of the inner 
 man, to bestow equally upon all the natural thoughts and affections 
 the capacity of receiving and enjoying the reward of satisfaction and 
 delight, which a grateful reception and faithful practice of the truth 
 never fail to ensure. 
 
 15. The householder further appeals to the labourer’s sense of right 
 by demanding of him, Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with 
 mine own 1 Is thine eye evil, because I am good 1 Here we find the 
 principle laid down, that all reward — all the power of perceiving and 
 receiving heavenly truth, with its joys and delights, which the 
 natural mind can experience — is derived from the spiritual, and is 
 indeed his own. And when the householder says, “ Is it not lawful 
 for me to do what I will with mine own ?” we are instructed that all 
 which the natural mind can enjoy ought, by the laws of order, to be dis- 
 pensed according to or in agreement with the will of the internal man ; 
 
Chap. XX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 445 
 
 that is, that the spiritual will should rule over the natural will, and 
 spiritual wisdom, should guide and direct natural wisdom, but that 
 the natural will and wisdom of man should not be allowed to dictate 
 to and overrule his spiritual. And when the householder further 
 says, “ Is thine eye evil, because I am good?” we are further in- 
 structed that the natural understanding, meant by the eye, is evil 
 when it is under the influence of the natural will ; and that in such 
 case it opposes itself to spiritual good, which forms the will of the 
 internal man. 
 
 16. The householder concludes by saying, So the last shall he first , 
 and the first last: for many he called , hut few chosen. We have 
 already explained the meaning of this first statement. The truths 
 first actuated and the states first formed in the progress of the regene- 
 rate life are the most external and imperfect, and the last are the 
 most perfect. When man is regenerated, that which was first becomes 
 last, and that which was last becomes first; for that which is 
 most perfect becomes first in his estimation, highest in his regard, 
 while that which is least perfect he esteems least. It is according to 
 order, also, that the principles we have acquired should finally have 
 this arrangement in our minds ; for that which is less perfect should be 
 subordinate to that which is more perfect. We begin our religious 
 life Avitli obedience, we end with love, and when this state is attained, 
 the last should be first, and the first last. The parable is summed 
 up in the words, “ For many be called, but few chosen.” Whether 
 this be true literally, in regard to the human race, as the called of 
 God, is not necessary now to be discussed. According to the spiritual 
 meaning, which we are now considering, numbers express quality, not 
 quantity. Many mean those who are in truth, and few mean those who 
 are in good ; and the true are “ called,” while the good are “ chosen.” 
 We are not to understand that those who are only called, but not 
 chosen, are rejected or excluded from the kingdom, but only that they 
 occupy the lowest place. We therefore find them spoken of in the 
 Word as belonging to the army of the King of kings, for “ they that 
 are with him are called , and chosen, and faithful ” (Rev. x\ T ii. 14). 
 
 17*19. When the Lord had finished the parable of the labourers, 
 he went up to Jerusalem , and taking the twelve disciples apart 
 in the way , he told them of his passion. He said unto them , 
 Behold , we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall he betrayed 
 unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him 
 to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, 
 and to crucify him : and the third day he shall rise again. The 
 
446 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XX. 
 
 Lord told the disciples this after Peter’s confession (ch. xvi. 21). 
 But as an important addition is made to what he then said to them, 
 not to break the connection, it will be well to explain the whole. 
 “ The spiritual sense of these words is, that divine truth in the 
 church where mere falsities have rule, will be blasphemed, the truth 
 of the church perverted, and its good destroyed. The Son of man is 
 divine truth, which is the Word, and Jerusalem the church where 
 mere falses and evils have rule. The chief priests are adulterations of 
 good, and the scribes falsifications of truth, both from diabolical love. 
 By condemning him, and delivering him to the Gentiles, is signified 
 to adjudge divine goodness and divine truth to hell, and to deliver 
 them to the evils and falses which are from it. Gentiles signify evils 
 from hell which destroy the goods and truths of the church. To 
 mock, to scourge, and to crucify, signify the blasphemation, falsifica- 
 tion, and perversion of truth, and the adulteration of the good of the 
 church and of the Word. On the third day he shall rise again, 
 signifies the complete glorification of the Lord’s humanity.” This 
 statement differs but little from that which we find in chapter xvi. 
 21. But to the general statement the Lord adds this particular 
 information, that he would suffer many things from the elders and 
 scribes, that they would deliver him up to the Gentiles to mock, and 
 to scourge, and to crucify. The Lord was now on his last journey to 
 Jerusalem; and as the event of his passion drew near, he became 
 more specific in his description of it. In adding the Gentiles, he 
 introduces a new representative agency into the transaction ; for the 
 Gentiles represent evils, especially those of an external kind. But 
 the Gentiles here mentioned are the Homans, to whom the Lord was 
 delivered up by the Jews. And as the Homans represented the 
 natural rational principle, the evil which they, as Gentiles, signified, 
 is one of greater malignity than evil that proceeds from minds less 
 instructed. The elders and scribes denoting interior evils and falsities, 
 it is said of them that they shall condemn him to death ; but as the 
 Gentiles denote exterior evils, it is said that the Lord shall be delivered 
 to them to carry out the purpose of the Jews, and that they shall mock, 
 scourge, and crucify him — mocking having reference to the opera- 
 tion of evil, scourging to falsity, and crucifying to the combined action 
 of both. But the Divine promise is given, “he shall rise again.” Those 
 very acts of direful hostility, intended to falsify all his claims and 
 predictions, were turned into the means of their accomplishment, by 
 their being made instrumental in finishing the Lord’s great works of 
 redeeming the world and glorifying his humanity. 
 
Ciiap. XX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 447 
 
 20. Then came to him the mother of Zebedee' s children with her 
 sons , worshipping him , and desiring a certain thing of him. This 
 incident shows how little the disciples knew at that time of the 
 nature of the Lord’s kingdom. Their views and hopes of an earthly 
 kingdom were not yet overthrown. They had yet to endure the 
 cross, and rise with the Lord from the dead. But they knew not yet 
 what was signified by the cross, and questioned among themselves 
 what the rising from the dead should mean. These things were 
 mercifully hid from them. The event was now approaching that 
 was to unseal their eyes and remove the hardness of their hearts. 
 But even now, when all the powers of evil on earth and in hell were 
 conspiring to make their last grand effort to prevent the establish- 
 ment of his spiritual kingdom, the two sons of Zebedee, not the least 
 among the apostles, were seeking, through their mother’s agency, to 
 obtain the two highest places in the temporal kingdom which they 
 still believed he had come to set up. But theirs was the natural 
 form of a spiritual ambition that lurks in the heart of every disciple. 
 The disposition to be exalted to the chief seats is inherent in every 
 fallen heart, and is carried into the religious life, where it never yields 
 but to the cross, and never ceases to trouble till buried in the tomb 
 with the Lord’s body. But there is a higher sense in which this 
 incident is to be understood, to see which we must raise our thoughts 
 from the temporal kingdom of the disciples’ early notions to the 
 spiritual kingdom of the Lord, as it was about to become after his 
 resurrection. And in this sense it will be seen to be an appropriate 
 sequel to what precedes it. The Lord had been speaking of his death 
 and resurrection, when his new kingdom was to be established; and 
 the circumstance of the mother of James and John coming to Jesus, 
 to ask that her sons might sit on his right and left hand, representa- 
 tively describes an exaltation that has place in the new and spiritual 
 kingdom of the Lord. The mother of Zebedee’s children represents 
 the church, and James and John represent charity in will and in 
 act. The right hand signifies the good of celestial love, which is 
 the good of love to the Lord ; and the left hand signifies the good of 
 spiritual love, which is the good of love to the neighbour. The true 
 church, like the mother of Zebedee’s children, still brings her two 
 sons to Jesus, earnestly desiring that they may sit, the one at his 
 right hand and the other at his left in his kingdom. It is the con- 
 tinual desire and effort of the Lord’s church to see her children 
 exalted to sit with the Lord in his throne. And the children of the 
 church are comprised in the two classes whom the two sons of Zebedee 
 
448 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XX. 
 
 represented — those who are in charity and in the good of charity, and 
 these are they who are capable of being exalted in the Lord’s 
 kingdom. 
 
 22, 23. But there is a condition that stands between this desire and 
 its accomplishment, and which must be performed before men can 
 truly understand the nature of their own prayer. Jesus answered and 
 said , Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I 
 shall drink of and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized 
 with ? The Lord’s cup and baptism are inward and outward tempta- 
 tion. It is only they who “ overcome ” in these that the Lord grants 
 to sit down with him in his throne, as he also overcame, and is set 
 down with the Father in his throne (Rev. iii. 21). There is no way 
 of being with the Lord in his glory without first being with him in 
 his humiliation and sufferings. Therefore the Lord asked, “ Are ye 
 able ? ” They say unto him , We are able, to which the Lord answered, 
 Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that 
 I am baptized with. This confirmation by the Lord of their testimony 
 respecting themselves implies not merely the Lord’s promise, but his 
 power. With man alone it is impossible ; but with God, during man’s 
 co-operation, all things are possible. The disciple can do all things 
 by Christ strengthening him. But the Lord told the two that even 
 this was not enough. He added, but to sit on my right hand, and on 
 my left, is not mine to give, but for whom it is prepared of my Father. 
 The Father is the Divine Love, the Son is the Divine Truth. The 
 Divine Truth cannot exalt without the Divine Love. We must, 
 indeed, drink of the Son’s cup, and be baptized with the Son’s 
 baptism, for it is truth that is tempted, and that supports us in, and 
 purifies us by means of, temptation ; but we must also be receptive of 
 the Father’s love, for it is love that exalts us, or prepares us for true 
 exaltation. It may be necessary to remark that the authorized 
 version makes Jesus say absolutely that the favour the two sons 
 asked was not his to give ; but to make the passage express this idea 
 a few words have been added in italics, the omission of which is all 
 that is required to make the sense clear, as we have given it in the 
 explanation. Jesus himself was and is both Father and Son; but 
 when we know the spiritual meaning of these two names, we can see 
 the peculiar force of the Lord’s declaration, and the practical lesson to 
 be drawn from it — that the Lord, from pure love and mercy, gives 
 heaven to those who are in the good of love and of faith, thus who 
 are in celestial and in spiritual good. When the Lord speaks of his 
 Father, he means his own divine love; and those for whom the 
 
Chap. XX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 449 
 
 kingdom is prepared of his Father are those who are principled in 
 love to the Lord, which is the Lord’s love in them. 
 
 24. And when the ten heard it , they were moved with indignation 
 against the two brethren. It is not surprising that the other apostles 
 should be indignant at this request, seeing the whole of the apostles 
 had disputed among themselves which should be greatest. 
 
 25-28. Our Lord took occasion from this to deliver one of those 
 beautiful lessons which lie like most precious gems among the 
 general truths of the gospel, and the brilliancy of which these ex- 
 hibitions of human infirmity serve to display. Ye know that the 
 princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that 
 are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so 
 among you; but whosoever will be great among you , let him be 
 your minister ; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your 
 servant ; even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but 
 to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. This expresses 
 the true spirit of religion, as opposite to the spirit of the world. 
 It is the spirit of Christianity, as it was the spirit of its Author. 
 The practicability of the precept he has shown by his own blessed 
 example, which enabled him to require of his disciples, “ ye should 
 do' as I have done to you” (John xiii. 15). True greatness is in 
 usefulness, and usefulness is service. Outward greatness is but the 
 outward sigu of great usefulness. He is greatest who performs 
 the highest use. In this sense the Lord was at once the greatest 
 and the least ; and that disciple comes nearest to his Lord in these 
 characteristics who most nearly imitates his example. The Lord 
 did not seek, nor did he need to seek, to be great. He was great. 
 His disciples need not contend amongst themselves who shall be 
 greatest. Each must work out his own greatness. He must not 
 attempt to do it as the princes of the Gentiles, by exercising authority 
 over them. This kind of greatness is a perversion of true greatness. 
 It arises from exalting the external above the internal, the shadow 
 above the substance of greatness. Wherever true order prevails, 
 true greatness will rule, for the greater uses will be exalted to the 
 higher place. We should seek greatness through usefulness; or rather, 
 seek use, and leave the outward greatness that belongs to it to follow 
 of its own accord. “ Whosoever will be great among you, let him be 
 your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be 
 your servant; even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, 
 but to minister.” There is a spiritual sense in these divine words, 
 which leads to the spirit and origin of the moral wisdom they 
 
450 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XX. 
 
 express. The mother of James and John represents, as we have seen, 
 the church; and these two disciples represent those who are in charity 
 and goodness, or in spiritual and celestial love, to whom greatness and 
 exaltation belong. But these two brethren and the ten represent 
 those who form the internal and the external members of the church, 
 as Joseph and Benjamin and their ten brethren did before them. 
 Their being designated as “ the two ” and “ the ten ” spiritually 
 expresses their qualities: for two signifies conjunction, and those who 
 are in the conjunction of good and truth constitute the internal 
 church; and ten is expressive of truths, and those who are in 
 truths form the external church. But each of us has internal and 
 external principles in himself. Good and truth conjoined in the 
 internal man form the internal of the church in us, and truths form 
 the external of the church in us. And we know by experience that, 
 in the progress of regeneration, the external man has indignation 
 against the internal, as the ruler of the external as its proper subject. 
 But the state here described is not one in which the rule of the 
 internal is established, but in which it is sought to be established; 
 and it is then that the indignation on the part of the external takes 
 place. It is for this reason that the Lord warns them against 
 imitating the princes of the Gentiles, who here denote evil exer- 
 cising dominion over the natural thoughts and affections. The 
 Lord said, “ It shall not be so among you ; ” for in those who are 
 regenerated all principles are in harmonious agreement. All those 
 principles are not equally important, but all are equally necessary ; 
 and when all look to one end, and co-operate to produce one result, 
 and each is in its right place, performing its proper use, good minis- 
 tering to truth, and truth serving good, they have peace one with 
 another. Those which minister are great, and those which serve are 
 chief ; for greatness is predicated of goodness, and chief of truth ; and 
 each has eminence in its own function and use. 
 
 But what in this application is the meaning in regard to the Lord’s 
 declaration, that “the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but 
 to minister” ? Good, we have seen, is a minister, and truth is a servant ; 
 and good ministers to truth, and truth serves good. The Lord’s 
 humanity, before it was glorified, was a servant, because it was divine 
 truth, and then the Son of man was ministered unto ; but when the 
 humanity was glorified, it was no longer divide truth and a servant, 
 but divine good and a minister ; and then the Son of man was no 
 longer ministered unto, but ministered. And as this glorification of 
 the humanity was the end of the Lord’s coming, he came not to be 
 
Chap. XX.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 451 
 
 ministered unto, but to minister. There was another object of his 
 coming. He came also to give his life (soul) a ransom for many. 
 The term soul means the intellectual life in the Lord — the life of his 
 divine truth. It was this life that the Lord gave as a ransom or 
 redemption ; for by the power of his divine truth the Lord redeemed 
 the world. The giving his soul as a redemption is a kindred 
 operation to his ministering ; the first being expressive of the opera- 
 tion of his truth, and the second that of his goodness. Therefore is it 
 said that he gives his soul a ransom for many, for many is predicated 
 of truth, and of those who are in truth ; for truths are many, but good 
 is one. But let us look at this subject more especially in relation to 
 ourselves. The Son of man is a servant in us during reformation, 
 when truth is in the first place, and then he is ministered unto ; but 
 when we are regenerated, the Son of man is a minister in us, for then 
 good is in the first place, and ministers ; and then the truth of good 
 ransoms or redeems us from all evil and falsity. 
 
 The miracle which follows exemplifies the redemption which the 
 Lord came to accomplish, as indeed all his miracles did, each repre- 
 senting some specific result. 
 
 29. The Lord in his progress to Jerusalem had departed from 
 Jericho. This place is well known as the first station of Israel 
 on entering the promised land, and represents the first stage of 
 introduction into the church. It signifies instruction, and also the 
 good of life, for no one can be instructed in the truths of doctrine but 
 he who is in the good of life. The great multitudes which followed 
 him are those who seek instruction for the sake of this good. 
 
 30-34. As the Lord, followed by the multitude, was departing, 
 behold , two blind men sitting by the way side , when they heard that Jesus 
 passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, 0 Lord , thou Son 
 of David. A similar circumstance occurs in the ninth chapter ( v . 27), 
 but this is different in some particulars. Spiritual blindness is 
 ignorance of truth. But these blind men were sitting by the way 
 side ; and as a way signifies truth, and sitting signifies a state of 
 the will, this implies a disposition to know and live according to the 
 truth. As we learn from the corresponding accounts in Mark and 
 Luke, these men were begging ; and to beg is to be dependent 
 on others for the knowledge of truth, not having the power of 
 procuring it for themselves. The desire to receive that power is 
 expressed in the prayer of the blind men to Jesus, that he would open 
 their eyes. They heard that Jesus passed by. Their first knowledge 
 of his presence reached them through the ear — that is, through the 
 
452 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Ciiap. XXI. 
 
 will, of which the ear is more especially the symbol. But they desired 
 to see — to know by the understanding and the light of truth, — and 
 they cried to him, that he might open their eyes ; and he heard them, 
 and restored to them the blessing of sight. And they followed him. 
 They no longer sat by the way side, as poor dependents on the bounty 
 of their fellow-men, but walked in the light and in the footsteps 
 of him who is the way, the truth, and the life. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 1, 2. The Lord had journeyed from Jericho in his way to Jerusalem, 
 performing his last journey in the same line, or between the same 
 extreme points, as the children of Israel had done from the time of 
 their first entering the Holy Land till their taking possession of 
 Jerusalem. This resemblance was not accidental, and is not without 
 a meaning. Both represented the same spiritual journey — the same 
 heavenly and divine progression, from the lowest to the highest, in 
 the last and supreme degree of the regeneration of man and of the 
 glorification of the Lord. And that this last journey of the Lord to 
 Jerusalem might represent his last progress towards glorification, he 
 entered the holy city as a king, and took possession of its temple — the 
 symbol of the temple of his body — and drove out the buyers and sellers, 
 and in his house healed the blind and the lame. In these acts he 
 represented the expelling from his humanity of the last remnant of 
 hereditary evil and infirmity, and his dispensing from the temple of 
 his glorified humanity the gift of salvation to his lost creatures. Such 
 being the general import of our Lord’s journey to and entiy into 
 Jerusalem, the particulars must be deeply interesting. And when they 
 drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and ivere come to Bethpliage, unto the mount 
 of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, saying unto them, Go into the 
 village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, 
 and a colt with her : loose them, and bring them unto me. Mount 
 Olivet was the symbol of celestial love, or love in its highest 
 degree ; and Bethphage, which means the house of figs, was the 
 symbol of natural love, or heavenly love in the lowest degree. In 
 the gospel by Mark, Bethany is also mentioned, and the three signify 
 good of all the three degrees, celestial, spiritual, and natural. This 
 completeness is here to be understood, though it is not expressed, for 
 Olivet and Bethphage being the highest and the lowest — the supreme 
 
Chap. XXL] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 453 
 
 and the ultimate — include the whole. The Lord had come to this 
 place, to represent that he had now glorified his humanity as to the 
 interiors of all the degrees of life, and was about to glorify it as to the 
 exteriors of those degrees also, that he might be the Word in ultimates, 
 as from eternity he had been in first principles (John i. 14). 
 
 The Lord’s sending forth from thence two of his disciples into 
 the village over against them, represented his opening up a commu- 
 nication, by means of good and truth proceeding from himself, meant 
 by the two disciples, between the internal and external of his 
 humanity, the external being meant by the village over against them. 
 The purpose of this communication is, to bring the principles of the 
 lower into subordination to and harmony with those of the higher, 
 and so unite them. This is signified by their loosing and bringing the 
 colt to Jesus, and setting him thereon. The ass signifies the natural 
 principle and the colt the rational ; and the subordination of both to 
 the spiritual is meant by the Lord riding upon them. The ass was to 
 be found tied, and the colt with her. This represented that' the 
 natural principle, with the rational, was yet in bondage, but that the 
 Lord came to set them free, first in himself, and then in those of his 
 creatures who suffer themselves to be regenerated, as he was glorified. 
 And the command, to bring them, when loosed, to Jesus, expresses the 
 truth, that the natural and rational principles, when liberated, are 
 to be brought into connection with the Lord’s good and truth in the 
 inner man, and to be made subservient to them. 
 
 3. But in sending the disciples for the ass and the colt, the Lord 
 desired them, saying, If any man say ought unto you , ye shall say , 
 The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them. 
 Although Matthew does record the circumstance, Mark relates that 
 certain asked this question, and that when the apostles repeated the 
 Lord’s words to them, they yielded to the divine requirement. He 
 who, as the Lord foresaw and foretold, asked this question, is man 
 himself, to whom the natural and rational principles belong, but who 
 has become willing to yield the ownership of them to the Lord, and 
 to “ let them go,” to become his, and be employed in his service. The 
 Lord still spiritually sends his disciples to each of us to loosen the ass 
 with her colt — to make our natural and rational faculties free, and 
 bring them under a willing submission to his eternal love and truth. 
 We may feel some inward repugnance to comply with the object of 
 the heavenly message — some principle within us may say, “ Why 
 loose ye the colt?” but let the blessed words of Jesus — “The Lord 
 hath need of them” — be sufficient for us, and induce us joyfully to 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 454 
 
 [Chap. XXI. 
 
 consent to the demand, enforced by a reason which expresses at once 
 the highest honour and the greatest blessing. 
 
 4, 5. The evangelist tells us that All this was done, that it might be 
 fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter 
 of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an 
 ass , and a colt the foal of an ass. These prophetic annunciations 
 serve as links to bind the old and the new covenant together. Old 
 Testament prophecy and New Testament fulfilment are like the 
 eternal Word, and that Word made flesh: the second is the incarna- 
 tion of the first. They answer, therefore, to each other as the internal 
 and the external in man. The daughter of Sion is the celestial 
 church, and therefore that affection in the mind which receives the Lord 
 as divine truth, but as divine truth that rules from love, for the King is 
 said to be meek. The meek are they who are in the good of charity; 
 and as human meekness is from the good of charity, divine meekness is 
 from the good of love. The Lord comes to the daughter of Sion as a 
 king, meek, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an 
 ass, when his divine truth and love are received into the highest 
 affection of the heart, with the concurrence and co-operation of the 
 natural and rational principles of the mind. Heavenly order is then 
 established in the mind, the natural serves the rational, the rational 
 the spiritual, the spiritual the celestial, and the celestial the divine. 
 
 6, 7. And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them , 
 and brought the ass, and the colt, a,nd put on them their clothes, 
 and they set him thereon. The garments of the disciples are spiritual 
 truths. As two of the disciples were sent to bring the ass and 
 the colt to Jesus, to represent that the natural and rational are 
 liberated and brought to the Lord by the instrumentality of the 
 spiritual ; so when they had brought the ass and the colt, the disciples 
 put their garments on them, and set Jesus thereon, to represent that 
 spiritual truths are necessary to connect the natural and rational 
 truths with the divine. 
 
 8. And while the disciples placed their garments on the ass and 
 the colt, a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others 
 cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. As trees 
 signify the perception and knowledge of good and truth, branches 
 signify truths themselves; and the multitude strawed them in the 
 way, because the way signifies the truth by which the man of the 
 church is led to goodness. As the disciples represent the spiritual, 
 the multitude represent the natural affections and thoughts. There- 
 fore, while the disciples placed their garments on the colt, the 
 
Chap. XXL] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 455 
 
 multitude spread theirs in the way. The multitude is said to be very 
 great, to express the idea of the whole of the affections and thoughts 
 of the natural mind uniting with those of the spiritual mind in 
 celebrating the Lord’s entrance into the heart, there to set up his 
 kingdom, to take up his abode with the daughter of Sion, the 
 expressive name of the highest affection of love in the soul. 
 
 9. And the multitudes that went before , and that followed , cried , 
 saying , Hosanna to the son of David : Blessed is he that cometh in the 
 name of the Lord ; Hosanna in the highest. They that went before 
 are the affections, and those that followed are the thoughts; thus all 
 the natural principles, from first to last, from highest to lowest ; and 
 these unite, and all conspire, to exalt the Lord, to sing to him the 
 hosanna of welcome and the blessing of praise. To describe the 
 exaltation of the Lord both in the affections and in the thoughts, the 
 multitude are represented as both crying and saying ; for crying is 
 expressive of affection, and saying of thought. To describe further 
 this sacred duality, so often observable in the Word, the multitude 
 not only sing hosanna to the Lord, but blessing. And to teach us 
 that this twofold exaltation of the Lord is the exaltation of his 
 truth in the understanding, and of his good in the will, hosanna is 
 sung to him as the son of David, and blessing to him as he that 
 cometh in the name of the Lord ; for the son of David is the Lord as 
 to divine truth, and he that cometh in the name of the Lord 
 (Jehovah) is the Lord as to divine good. But the multitude sing, 
 not hosanna only, but hosanna in the highest, expressing the exaltation 
 of the Divine good and truth above every other good and truth of 
 which the mind is receptive, making the Lord practically above all 
 and within all. 
 
 10, 11. And when he was come into Jerusalem , all the city was 
 moved , saying , Who is this ? And the multitude said, This is Jesus the 
 'prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. Jerusalem represents the church and 
 heaven, and the Lord’s entering the holy city as a king means his 
 ruling in his spiritual kingdom by his divine truth. The spectacle of 
 Jesus making his triumphant entry into Jerusalem with the symbols 
 of royalty naturally produced great excitement, and led the people 
 to inquire who this was, to whom the multitude rendered the homage 
 due to a king. And here again we have a distinction between 
 Jerusalem and the city. The city means the people, but the term 
 by which they are indicated signifies doctrine; and the commotion 
 which the Lord’s entrance into Jerusalem produced through the city, 
 signifies the effect of the Lord’s presence on those who are in a know- 
 
456 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXI. 
 
 ledge of its doctrines. We are not told by what feeling the people 
 were moved. It could not be a feeling of indignation or hatred 
 against Jesus, for they knew not at the time who Jesus was, since it 
 led them to inquire, “ Who is this?” They appear to have been 
 moved by astonishment. The commotion and inquiry represent the 
 feelings and inquiry in the church, here signified by Jerusalem, 
 which the Lord’s presence produces. The inquiry by those who 
 belong to the city, and the answer of those who do not, may be under- 
 stood like the responsive voices of those within and those without the 
 gates of the city, as so graphically described in the 24th Psalm, when 
 the ark of the Lord was introduced into Jerusalem. Those who carried 
 up the ark, when they came to the entrance of the city, cried, “ Lift up 
 your heads, 0 ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and 
 the King of glory shall come in.” And when those within demanded, 
 “ Who is the King of glory?” those without replied, “ The Lord strong 
 and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle — the Lord of hosts, he is the 
 King of glory.” The introduction of the ark and the Lord’s entry 
 into Jerusalem have both the same representative signification, and 
 the first may be regarded as a type of the other. There is this 
 further resemblance between them, that as the ark was carried into 
 the tabernacle, so he whom the ark represented went into the temple. 
 In reference to the Lord, both these events represented his ascension, 
 when he passed through the Jerusalem which is above into the holy 
 of holies, thence to send out his light and his truth, to lead all men to 
 himself. Practically, in relation to us, they represented the Lord’s 
 upward progress in the regenerate mind, till he enters into the inmost 
 of our affections, there to place his law of righteousness, and dwell for 
 ever in our purified souls as temples of his presence. The answer of 
 the multitude to the inquiry of those of the city was indeed different 
 from that of those who accompanied the ark. Their answer to the 
 inquiry was, “This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.” Jesus 
 in the New Testament is equivalent to, and has the same significance 
 as Jehovah in the old. Both signify the Lord as to his divine love. 
 The Lord, as the prophet, was the Word, or the Divine Truth itself. 
 Jesus, the prophet, is the Lord as divine love and divine truth; 
 and Nazareth of Galilee, from which he was, signifies the Divine 
 love and truth in ultimates. 
 
 12-14. And Jesus went into the temple of God , and cast out all them 
 that sold and bought in the temple , and overthrew the tables of the 
 money-changers , and the seats of them that sold doves , and said unto 
 them, It is urritten, My house shall be called the house of prayer ; but 
 
Chap. XXI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 457 
 
 ye leave made it a den of thieves. And the blind and the lame came 
 to him in the temple ; and he healed them. We have already men- 
 tioned that this cleansing of the temple represented the final and 
 complete glorification of the Lord’s humanity, by the expulsion of 
 everything of hereditary evil and infirmity that adhered to him. The 
 particulars demand our attention. The temple is called the temple of 
 God. In the next verse it is called “ my house of prayer,” which 
 in John ii. 16 is expressed as “my Father’s house.” The name 
 temple, like the divine name God, signifies the spiritual church, and 
 the divine spiritual principle in the Lord ; and the name house, like 
 the divine name Father, signifies the celestial church, and the divine 
 celestial principle in the Lord. Or, to express the same truth other- 
 wise, in relation to ourselves, the temple is the understanding, and 
 the house is the will ; and the understanding is the temple of God 
 when the Lord’s truth is in it, and the will is the Father’s house 
 when the Lord’s love is in it. And the mind is a house of prayer when 
 the Lord is worshipped from love. But the human mind, at the time 
 our Lord was upon earth, had become a den tif thieves. Evil had taken 
 possession of the human will, and falsity of the understanding — those 
 faculties which God had formed to be the dwelling-place of his own 
 goodness and truth. But a still greater sin than this had been com- 
 mitted. Evil and falsity had entered into and taken possession of 
 good and truth, and profaned them, — men claiming for themselves 
 what belongs to God, which is meant in the spiritual sense by theft. 
 This had come to be the practice of the church, as it is in every time 
 of great corruption. By those that sold and bought are signified 
 those who make gain to themselves of things holy ; the tables of the 
 money-changers signify those who make gain from holy truths, and 
 the seats of them that sold doves signify those who make gain from 
 holy goods : wherefore it is said, that they had made the temple a den 
 of thieves, for they are called thieves who steal truths from the Word, 
 and pervert them, and apply them to confirm falses and evils, and 
 thereby extinguish them. These the Lord cast out of the temple. 
 For that divine work which the Lord performed in the temple of his 
 own body, was followed by a corresponding work in man, and in the 
 church. The humanity which the Lord assumed from the fallen 
 daughter of a fallen race inherited all human imperfections. When 
 he had cast them out from his own humanity, he could then cast them 
 out from men and from the church, and dispense the blessing of salva- 
 tion to suffering humanity. 
 
 15, 16. And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things 
 
458 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXI. 
 
 that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna 
 to the son of David ; they were sore displeased. These unspiritual men 
 seem ever to furnish a dark background to the fairest scenes ever pre- 
 sented before the eyes of men in this sublunary world. But our own 
 hearts present too often the same sad spectacle. The selfhood forms 
 as dark a background to every heavenly scene which the hand of 
 Infinite Wisdom traces upon the table of the most yielding heart. The 
 conduct of these men, while it can hardly fail to excite indignation, 
 should also produce humility ; for we who condemn them do the same 
 things. The evil and falsity of the old man are ever ready to oppose 
 the good and truth of the new. But, of all things, innocence stirs up 
 in the corrupt mind the bitterest feelings of resentment. When the 
 children shouted their hosannas, the priests spoke out, and with 
 mingled feelings of contempt and anger, addressed Jesus in the re- 
 proachful words, Hearest thou what these say ? W e find that during 
 the Lord’s progress to Jerusalem the multitudes shouted hosanna to 
 him, but when he came into the temple this shout was taken up by 
 the children. The Lord in the temple represented Jehovah in his 
 humanity — the temple of his body. Children shouting hosanna to 
 Jesus in the temple represented that innocence of heart is that from 
 which springs the acknowledgment of the Lord in his Divine humanity. 
 Heavenly innocence is the sinlessness which results from overcoming 
 sin — the good which is acquired by the conquest of evil. This is the 
 innocence which the Lord became by glorification, and it is his inno- 
 cence in us that enables us to acknowledge him as Innocence itself. 
 But the state here represented is not one of complete glorification oil 
 the Lord’s part, nor of complete regeneration on ours. He had been 
 casting out the mercenary dealers, and healing the diseased in the 
 temple, representing the removal of evil from his humanity, and also 
 from the human mind, and the restoration of its faculties to soundness 
 and right action. But the scribes and the priests of the old and corrupt 
 dispensation were still present, and watching with malignant jealousy 
 his good and benevolent works, and the acceptance he found with the 
 people, and with the very children. The priests demanded of the 
 Lord, “Hearest thou what these say?” To hear means to hear 
 approvingly — to accept the homage which this salutation implied. 
 From the Lord’s answer to the Jews, it would seem that, in their 
 estimation, it involved something reproachful for a wise man to listen 
 with approbation to the applause of children. But the Lord did hear 
 them. To the priests’ sneering question, Jesus said unto them, Yea. 
 And as he heard and accepted their innocent and hearty praise, he 
 
Chap. XXL] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 459 
 
 justified both them and himself. Have ye never read, Out of the mouth 
 of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise ? Since their angels 
 always behold the face of the Father, we may conclude that the 
 hosanna to the son of David, sung by the children in the temple, 
 brought angels and men nearer to each other. On this principle, the 
 praise of the children was more perfect than that which had been 
 offered by the multitude. But the Lord in this, as in all other cases, 
 expressed a spiritual truth within the natural truth. The babes and 
 sucklings out of whose mouth the Lord perfects praise are those who 
 are in the innocence of celestial and spiritual wisdom. Praise is per- 
 fected when worship proceeds from innocence and wisdom united, 
 when a good understanding, from a pure heart, gives to the Lord the 
 praise which is his due, and which includes, as all true praise of the 
 Lord must, a confession of him as God-man, the root and the offspring 
 of David. 
 
 17. The objections of the chief priests and scribes to the hosannas 
 of the children showed their depravity, and the hatred of the Jewish 
 church against the Lord as Innocence itself ; and as such a state 
 indicates the end of all true religion amongst them, which is the con- 
 summation of the church, therefore our Lord left them, and went out 
 of the city into Bethany. The Lord leaves the church only when the 
 church leaves him, or when she has degenerated so far as to reject all 
 truth and goodness, for in rejecting these she rejects the Lord, from 
 whom they proceed, and who is present in them. The J ewish church 
 was represented by the city Jerusalem, and the evil and false principles 
 of that church by the chief priests and scribes, whom the Lord left. A nd 
 when he left these rulers of the church, and departed from the city, 
 he went to Bethany, and lodged there. Bethany was the town of 
 Martha and Mary, whose brother Lazarus the Lord raised from the 
 dead. The raising of Lazarus represented the raising up of a church 
 among the Gentiles. The Lord’s leaving Jerusalem and going to 
 Bethany represented, that when the Lord was rejected by the Jews, 
 he was received by the Gentiles — when the church among the Jews 
 should have come to a full end, then would the Lord raise up a church 
 among the nations. When the Lord went from Jerusalem to Bethany, 
 he did not remain, he only lodged there. His sojourn there was tem- 
 porary; his work was not yet finished. 
 
 18. When the Lord had passed the night in Bethany he returned 
 in the morning into the city. This mode of representatively express- 
 ing a new state is connected with an incident which describes, by a 
 striking symbolism, the state and consummation of the Jewish church, 
 
460 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Ciiap. XXL 
 
 notwithstanding the Lord’s desire to save it. Now in the morning as 
 he returned into the city, he hungered. Natural hunger the Lord might 
 no doubt feel ; but there was a deeper cause for his hunger, and a 
 deeper significance in it, than the natural man may be able to conceive. 
 He had meat to eat that men knew not of : his meat was to do the 
 will of him that sent him, and to finish his work. The Lord’s 
 hunger was therefore hunger after righteousness. He desired righ- 
 teousness in his church and people. He desired this, because without 
 righteousness on the part of the church and her members, they can 
 have no part in the Lord, and he can have no part in them. This 
 was the hunger which Jesus felt, on returning in the morning to the 
 city. It was his intense desire to save his people. 
 
 19. And when he saw a Jig tree in the way, he came to it, and jound 
 nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on 
 thee henceforward for ever. And 'presently the fig tree withered away. 
 No one who has any faith in the divinity of Jesus, or any conception 
 of the spirituality of his Word, can suppose that this incident has no 
 deeper than the literal meaning. In the other gospels where this 
 incident is recorded, Jesus is represented as expecting to find fruit on 
 the fig tree, and cursing it for its barrenness, as if in the indignation 
 produced by disappointment. Does not the whole character and the 
 omniscience of the Lord entirely set such an idea aside 1 He who 
 knew what was in man could not be ignorant of w T hat was on the fig 
 tree ; and he who meekly endured the cruelest treatment from sinners, 
 could not be angry at the unoffending and unconscious fig tree. Is it 
 not obvious that the fig tree which the Saviour met with on his way 
 to Jerusalem was but a type of the church towards which his desires 
 were directed ? We need only recognize this general truth, to see the 
 appropriateness of the symbol which the barren tree presented of the 
 state of the Jewish church, and to perceive in the curse pronounced 
 upon it an annunciation of the fate which awaited the unfaithful dis- 
 pensation. In Scripture a tree is the figure of a member of the church, 
 and thence of the church itself. The character of the church is described 
 by the particular tree selected to represent it. The celestial church is 
 described by the olive tree, the spiritual church by the vine, and the 
 natural by the fig tree. The most ancient church was an olive tree, 
 the ancient was a vine, and the Israelitish church was a fig tree. The 
 fig tree to which the Lord came on his way to Jerusalem was there- 
 fore a type of the Jewish church. The church was not, however, 
 rejected or condemned because it was natural. For when we speak 
 of the Jewish church in its normal state being natural, we do not 
 
Ciiap. XXL] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 461 
 
 mean that it was natural as opposed to spiritual, hut only as inferior 
 to it. This clmrch was natural from its commencement; it had no 
 knowledge of spiritual truth, and hardly any of life and immortality. 
 But so long as it continued faithful to the knowledge it possessed, and 
 was obedient to the laws which had been revealed for its government, 
 it remained in a state which gave it conjunction with God, and 
 secured to its members the blessings of salvation. It was only when 
 it had departed from the simplicity and sincerity of its original state, 
 that it became separated from God, and subject to the judgment of 
 condemnation. This was its state at the time our Lord came into the 
 world, and this was indeed the immediate ca\ise of his coming. All 
 that constituted the church had died out among the Jewish people, 
 and nothing could provide for the existence of a church, as a means of 
 salvation, but the Lord’s coming into the world. The Lord came in 
 the ardency of divine love, desiring to find the church yielding the 
 fruits of righteousness, but he found it, as he found the fig tree, having 
 nothing thereon but leaves only — the leaves of barren knowledge, of a 
 fair but fruitless profession. And the Lord is represented as being 
 deceived by its luxuriant growth and promising appearance, and 
 disappointed in his just expectation of obtaining fruit to satisfy his 
 hunger, to express that hypocrisy had entered so deeply into the heart 
 of the church, that it desired to deceive not men only but even God 
 himself. Hypocrisy, or simulated religion, eats into the very heart of 
 man, and destroys the roots of goodness, or kills the germs of life in 
 the seeds that have been sown in the heart; and when these have 
 been destroyed, the means of restoration no longer exist. The Lord 
 taught this when he pronounced upon the fig tree the judgment, “Let 
 no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever.” Divine judgments are 
 not the awarding of consequences only, but the disclosing of states. 
 The .Lord’s judgment on the fig tree was the utterance of divine 
 truth respecting the Jewish church, that it was utterly devastated — 
 that it would produce no fruit of spiritual goodness for ever. And 
 how fully has that j udgment been accom plished ! The nation continues, 
 but the church is gone. If the church can be said to exist, it is but 
 in name — the lifeless form of the once goodly tree under whose shadow 
 the nations of the earth reposed. 
 
 20. A nd when the disciples saw it , they marvelled , saying , How soon 
 is the fig tree withered away! Marvellous, indeed, must have been 
 the change in the tree, transformed at once from a state of luxuriant 
 beauty to one of blasted ugliness. No less marvellous, though less 
 sudden, the change in the state of a church, when stripped of its fair 
 
4G2 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Ciiap. XXL 
 
 appearances, and reduced to its real condition. To change our view 
 of the subject, not less astonishing and appalling is the change wrought 
 upon those in corresponding states, when they are brought into judg- 
 ment — when the fair appearance they have assumed and maintained 
 in the world is removed, on the soul’s entrance into the other life. 
 The change may not be so sudden, but it is no less certain, as 
 certainty in the spiritual sense, and in the spiritual world, corresponds 
 to suddenness in the natural. According to Mark (xi. 20), it was on 
 the morning of the day after that on which the fig tree had been pro- 
 nounced for ever fruitless that the disciples beheld it dried up from 
 the roots. So, when our day of probation is done, and the morning 
 of an eternal day dawns upon us, our state is utterly changed. If we 
 have had “ no root in ourselves,” but the growth of the heavenly seed 
 has only been in the rank soil of our own self-righteousness, the fair 
 appearance will quickly vanish, and leave nothing but the stump in 
 the earth, fit only to be cast into the fire and burned. 
 
 21. But this subject has another side — one that affords us a lesson 
 of encouragement after this lesson of warning. The Lord told the 
 disciples, when they expressed their astonishment at the withering 
 away of the fig tree, that they might do what he had done ; and he 
 intimated to them that they could do this by faith. If ye have faith , 
 and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but 
 also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou 
 cast into the sea, it shall be done. The Lord mentions the mountain as 
 well as the fig tree, to intimate to us that there are two kinds of prin- 
 ciples to be removed from the mind. The fig tree signifies a false 
 principle that has to be removed from the understanding, and the 
 mountain signifies an evil love that has to be removed from the will. 
 Our faith and love are at first both natural ; the one is tainted with 
 the pride of intellect, the other with the pride of life. A spiritual 
 principle underlies the natural, and ultimately, if we persevei’e, over- 
 comes it. Saving faith, which comes by an internal way, works its 
 wa y downwards, and expels that historical and scientific faith which 
 has come from without ; and that faith, grounded in and working by 
 love to God and man, casts out the love of self and of the world from 
 the heart, as well as self-confident faith from the understanding. But 
 the mountain is not only to be removed, but cast into the sea. This 
 declaration is very significant, and shows how much wisdom is con- 
 tained in those expressions of the Word that seem merely rhetorical. 
 The sea is a symbol of hell, and to cast the mountain into the sea is to 
 cast evil love forth into the kingdom of evil, whence it came. But 
 
Chap. XXL] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 463 
 
 what is meant by doing this, and how are we to do it? We cast evil 
 into hell when we believe evil in its origin and nature to be infernal. 
 If we really believed that all evil comes from hell and all good from 
 heaven, we would neither appropriate evil nor claim the merit of good- 
 ness. We make evil our own by identifying it with ourselves; for 
 what we believe to be our own, we love as a part of ourselves ; and 
 we fail to make good our own, by claiming the authorship of it, for we 
 then sever it from God, and defile it with ideas of our own merit. If 
 therefore we would remove the mountain and cast it into the sea, we 
 must practically acknowledge evil as in itself diabolical in its nature 
 and origin, and, as such, resist it in mind and shun it in action. 
 
 22. To these particular results of faith, the Lord adds a general 
 promise as the fruit of believing prayer. All things , whatsoever ye shall 
 ask in prayer , believing , ye shall receive. The previous promise relates 
 to the removal of evil, this refers to the reception of good. And here 
 we see the order according to which regeneration proceeds — the bad 
 must be cast out before the good can be appropriated. We do not say 
 before the good can be received, for evil could not be removed if theie 
 was no good in the heart to remove it. Satan does not cast out Satan. 
 We must receive the Spirit of God before we can remove the spirit of 
 evil ; but the Spirit of God does not obtain undisputed possession of 
 the heart till the spirit of evil has been dislodged from it. Regenera- 
 tion consists, therefore, of two parts, — the removal of evil by good, and 
 the substitution of good for evil. Christ casts out demons, and then 
 restores us to a sound mind, by himself dwelling where demons had 
 been. So when faith has cast out the mountain of evil, and withered 
 the fig tree of falsity up from its roots, then all things are given to 
 confiding prayer. True prayer springs from good in the heart, and is 
 directed by truth in the understanding. Such prayer asks only what 
 is consistent with the will of God, and the welfare of the supplicant. 
 It is wild enthusiasm to suppose that, ask what we will, if we only 
 believe, we shall receive it. Every true prayer comes from God, and 
 therefore ascends to him again. If it is God that worketli in us both 
 to will and to do of his good pleasure, it is he also that worketh in us 
 to desire and ask according to his good pleasure. Prayer is the 
 incense that ascends to God from the altar of a renewed heart, and 
 the holy fire that burns upon it is kindled from heaven, being the 
 Lord’s love dwelling in the affections. It is enough for the largest 
 legitimate desire, that whatsoever we ask in faith shall be granted us. 
 Let us only have the faith of God, and we shall receive whatever 
 that faith embraces in its petitions. 
 
464 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXI. 
 
 23-25. When the Lord, after instructing his disciples, was come into 
 the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as 
 he was teaching , and said, By what authority doest thou these things ? and 
 who gave thee this authority ? And Jesus answered and said unto them, 
 I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell 
 you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, whence 
 was it ? from heaven, or of men ? These functionaries did not con- 
 cern themselves with the character of the Lord’s teaching and miracles ; 
 they questioned his right to do them. In his doings they no doubt 
 included his casting the buyers and sellers out of the temple. In our 
 Lord’s answer we see the same wisdom that characterized ail his replies 
 to the questions or objections of his subtle adversaries. He would tell 
 them the origin of his authority, if they would tell him the origin of 
 John’s baptism. But what, may we suppose, was the Lord’s object in 
 submitting this question to their decision, and making his answer 
 contingent upon theirs? If Jesus intended only to nonplus these 
 wily and wary objectors, we can see how well his purpose was 
 answered by the test to ^hich he subjected them. But he who was 
 wisdom itself in person, did everything for a wise end. He did not 
 foil cunning with ingenuity, but turned the attempt to defeat the 
 truth into a means of advancing it. Literally considered, there is no 
 very intelligible lesson to be learned from it. We must look at the 
 subject spiritually. Thus regarded, what may we learn from it? 
 What relation had the origin of John’s baptism to the origin of 
 Christ’s authority to purge the temple and heal and teach within its 
 sacred precincts? John represented the Word, Jesus was the Word 
 itself made flesh. The acknowledgment of the origin of John’s bap- 
 tism is still the condition of acquiring the knowledge of the origin of 
 Christ’s authority. Those only who acknowledge the real origin of the 
 written Word can know the real origin of the incarnate Word ; those 
 only who recognize the heavenly origin of the purifying truths of 
 revelation can recognize the saving power of him who was revealed 
 once for all as the Truth itself. The baptism of John in Jordan 
 represented the purifying of the external man, by which there is in- 
 troduction into the church; Jesus purging the temple, and healing and 
 teaching in it, represented the purifying of the internal man. The 
 one work is the necessary precursor of the other. The second cannot 
 be acknowledged, much less experienced, without the first. The Lord 
 himself underwent the baptism of John, preparatory to his entrance 
 on the great work of his ministry. Those who spiritually follow the 
 Lord must be spiritually baptized with the baptism of John; they must 
 
Chap. XXL] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 405 
 
 pass through the purifying work of repentance before they can become 
 the Lord’s disciples. Thus understood, the subject is seen to be one 
 of great practical importance to ourselves. Our own natural reason 
 still demands of the Lord by what authority or power he does his 
 works, and whence he derives it. The Lord said to his disciples that, 
 if they would believe, and doubt not, they would be able to do as he 
 had done to the fig tree. But we may believe, and yet doubt ; and 
 active doubt implies latent denial, for doubt is the offspring of belief 
 and unbelief, and the two opposite natures are in it struggling for the 
 mastery, and the result of the conflict is undoubting faith or utter 
 denial. The priests and the elders are the principles of unbelief 
 which rise up in the mind against, and question the Divine authority, 
 even when the Divine power is manifested in ourselves ; and against 
 this unbelief the Lord still has to contend. Let us see the result, as it 
 comes out in the present instance. 
 
 25, 26. The priests and elders reasoned with themselves. These 
 dignitaries did not reason which was true, to believe, but which it was 
 safe to acknowledge. Like the natural man, they no doubt could 
 have confirmed either proposition, as they would evidently have 
 acknowledged either, according as it might have suited their purpose. 
 It happened to suit their purpose to confess neither, and therefore they 
 asserted their inability to decide. They could not tell whence was the 
 baptism of John. There were two influences acting upon them, which 
 led to this neutral decision, — that of Jesus on the one hand, and that 
 of the multitude on the other. If we shall say , From hea,ven ; he will 
 say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him ? but if we shall say, Of 
 men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet. We are told 
 that when the highest and the lowest principles in man are in a state 
 of order, intermediate principles are ruled and brought into order by 
 their means. Such a state is here represented. The Lord is the 
 highest, the people are the lowest, the priests and the scribes are the 
 intermediate. Yet these intermediate principles have a greater affinity 
 with the lowest than with the highest, for they are the priests and 
 scribes of the people. They were not, indeed, convinced by the in- 
 fluences acting upon them, but they were awed into submission ; their 
 hostility was neutralized, so far as its active operation was concerned. 
 And such will ever be the case with us individually. The remains of 
 the old man within us will be checked in its operations when the 
 highest and the lowest, the first and the last things, are in right order. 
 The highest and lowest things of religion are right motives and right 
 actions ; right motives are those which have respect to the Lord, and 
 
4 GS 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXI. 
 
 right actions are those which have respect to the neighbour. If our 
 love and obedience are sincere, however imperfect, no corruptions of 
 our nature will be able to injure us. The evil promptings and false 
 suggestions of our selfhood will be defeated or neutralized, and finally 
 overcome. 
 
 27. And they answered Jesus , and said, We cannot tell. And he said 
 unto them , Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things. The 
 power of right ends and actions operates in two ways, — it restrains the 
 selfhood from bringing forth falsehood and evil, and from profaning 
 goodness and truth. When the evil desire to know truth, it is that 
 they may use it to serve their own evil ends. As the Jewish hierarchy 
 desired to entangle Jesus in his talk, so they seek truth to pervert 
 and destroy it. To prevent this great sin, the Lord’s providence is 
 exerted to hide the things of his Word and the mysteries of his king- 
 dom from the wise and prudent, and reveal them unto babes. For 
 this end he spake in parables ; for this end he defeated the cunningly 
 devised questions of the chief among the Jews; and for this end he 
 refused to tell the priests and scribes by what authority he did those 
 things which they beheld him perform in the temple. This teaches 
 us that when we find our own perverse reason casting stumbling- 
 blocks in the way of the Son of man, by insinuating doubts of the 
 power and authority of his truth, and seeking to evade its chastening 
 but beneficent operations upon ourselves, we must save the truth from 
 such profanation, by shutting the mouth of the evil ones speaking in 
 our hearts, and defeat their end by denying them the means. We 
 must not encourage evil thoughts respecting the truth and good of 
 heaven, when they arise in our hearts, but silence them and put them 
 down by a wise and temperate exercise of the authority with which 
 the Truth itself has invested us. 
 
 28-32. When the Lord in his wisdom had made his haughty 
 interrogators defeat their own object, he proceeded to instruct them 
 by parables, that he might lead them to a knowledge of their own 
 character, and show them the danger to which they were exposed. 
 The first which our Lord addressed to them was the parable of the 
 man who had two sons ; and he came to the first , and said , Son, go 
 work to-day in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not : but 
 afterward he repented, and went. And he came to the second, and 
 said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and ivent not. 
 Whether of them twain did the will of his father ? They say unto him, 
 2' he first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you , That the publi- 
 cans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. On the 
 
Chap. XXT.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 4G7 
 
 Lord’s asking the priests and scribes “ Whether of them twain did the 
 will of his father V 1 they at once answered, “ The first.” Having drawn 
 from them an acknowledgment of right and wrong in relation to the 
 conduct of the persons of the parable, he pointed out to them that 
 their own conduct to John the Baptist had been that of the fair but 
 false son of the parable to his father, while the conduct of the publi- 
 cans and harlots had been like that of the disobedient but repentant 
 son, whom they themselves had pronounced to be the one who did 
 the will of his father. John came unto you in the way of righteousness, 
 and ye believed him not : but the 'publicans and the harlots believed him : 
 and ye , when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might 
 believe him. This parable is instructive, as showing how mere form- 
 alism in religion has a tendency to harden the heart and engender 
 spiritual pride, and render men less capable of being awakened to a 
 sense of sin than some who live a less correct external life. The 
 Lord’s teaching offers no encouragement to sin, but only gives a 
 warning against self-righteousness. Difficult as it may be to bring 
 sinners to repentance, it is still more difficult to produce penitence in 
 those who “ think themselves righteous, and despise others.” This 
 useful lesson lies upon the surface of the parable. There are deeper 
 truths in its spiritual sense — truths that reveal the causes and nature 
 of the internal states which are outwardly exhibited as the parable 
 represents them. That pharasaical element, which says and does not, 
 and which comes out in professional holiness and formal piety, exists 
 either as an active or latent principle in every human mind, where 
 also are the publican and the harlot. Under the smooth and tranquil 
 surface of ecclesiastical order and religious observance in the church 
 we see a struggle going on for honour and self-aggrandizement; we 
 have only to turn our sight inward to see the same condition of 
 things either in act or in effort in ourselves. All have in them the 
 same elements of character, the only difference being that some allow 
 them free course, whilst others strive conscientiously against them. 
 With all, too, there are some evils that lie more upon the surface, and 
 are therefore better seen, but which may be less malignant than others 
 that are more deeply seated and less observed. Infirmities of temper 
 are less malignant than corrupt dispositions, such as hatred and 
 revenge; for the temper may be ruffled by a momentary excitement, 
 while revenge often lies as a smouldering fire, ready to burst forth 
 when opportunity occurs. A hasty temper, like the first son of the 
 parable, may say No to the father’s command, but as quickly turn and 
 do his will; while an evil heart may, like the second son, say Yes, 
 
4G8 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Ciiap. XXL 
 
 without any intention of doing what he requires. The first son of 
 the parable typifies those persons whose internal is better than their 
 external ; while the second son typifies those whose external is better 
 than their internal. The first are they who, notwithstanding their 
 evil lives, have some remains of good left, upon which the Lord can 
 operate so as to produce repentance ; while the second are they who, 
 notwithstanding the profession of righteousness they make, are yet 
 inwardly in the spirit and intention of disobedience, which hardens 
 the heart, so as to produce intentional and settled impenitence. 
 Individually applied, evils of the external man are meant by the first 
 son ; evils of the internal man are meant by the second. By evils of 
 the external man we mean evils in act; by evils of the internal we 
 mean evils in intention. Evil actions cannot, indeed, proceed from 
 good motives ; but some good actions may proceed from worse motives 
 than some evil actions. The worst state in regard to spiritual and 
 eternal life is that of saying and doing not ; more hopeful is the state 
 of saying Ho, for it indicates some amount of honesty and consistency 
 that may be worked upon by the truth. The difference in these 
 cases is something like that between a word against the Son of man 
 and the sin against the Holy Spirit — the one is an offence against 
 the letter, the other against the spirit, of the law; the one offends 
 against its outward command, the other against its indwelling spirit. 
 Therefore, when the Word comes to us in the way of righteousness, 
 calling us to repentance, and offering to wash us from our impurities 
 in the living stream of divine truth — the Jordan through which we 
 must pass if we would enter the Canaan of the church and heaven — 
 we should obey the call, and come with an undivided mind, earnestly 
 desiring to be made cleaD, knowing that the righteous only shall pos- 
 sess the land. 
 
 33-41. The Lord put forth another parable. A householder lets out 
 his vineyard to husbandmen, who not only refuse to render the fruit 
 of the vineyard, but injure or kill those who are sent to receive it. 
 In the internal historical sense this parable relates to the Jewish 
 people, who had been entrusted with the Divine oracles, and formed 
 into a church. To them the Lord sent prophets and other messengers, 
 to induce them to render to him the fruits of righteousness, but these 
 messengers they condemned, or persecuted, or destroyed ; and when 
 at last he sent his Son, or came in the form of a man, they conspired 
 against him as the heir, that they might make his inheritance their 
 own. And the conclusion of the parable is, that the kingdom should 
 be taken from them, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 4G9 
 
 Chap. XXL] 
 
 thereof; which was fulfilled when the church was transferred from 
 the Jews to the Gentiles. The spiritual sense does not relate to any- 
 one particular church, but is of universal application, having reference 
 neither to time nor place, but to states of spiritual life, which are 
 states of truth and goodness, or to the opposite states of falsity and 
 evil. In this sense, as in the other, the vineyard signifies the church, 
 but the church as formed in man by the Lord implanting in his mind 
 the principles of goodness and truth. These principles constitute the 
 church, or, what amounts to the same, religion. Where there is no 
 religion, there is no church. And neither religion nor the church 
 can exist amongst men except so far as they exist in them. But the 
 church, while it exists in its principles in the mind, exists in its fruits 
 in the life. Between the implanting of religion in the mind, and the 
 producing of its fruits in the life, the great struggle takes place ; for 
 conflict and sorrow are experienced in bringing forth into actual life 
 that which has been implanted in the mind. In the purely spiritual 
 sense, in reference to individual regeneration, this struggle is described 
 by the resistance of the husbandmen to the will of the householder, 
 which means the resistance of the external man to the will of the 
 internal. The servants who were successively sent by the householder 
 to the husbandmen, to receive the fruit of the vineyard, are the truths 
 proceeding from the internal into the external man, to cause or enable 
 him to yield the fruits of righteousness, and induce him to ascribe 
 them, not to himself, but to the internal, and through the internal to 
 the Lord, by whose power he produces them. The Son, who is sent 
 last of all, is good proceeding immediately from the internal, and 
 appealing to the highest affections of the natural mind. In all these 
 cases the husbandmen are represented as hating, stoning, and killing 
 those who were sent unto them, and, lastly, casting out and slaying 
 the Son himself. Like the historical facts which this so plainly 
 describes, this murderous conduct does not represent the actual 
 rejection or destruction of the good and true principles that come 
 from the Lord through the inner man, but only the temptations and 
 trials which those principles undergo in the natural mind, ending in 
 their dying, and rising into a new and higher life, as our Lord himself 
 did after he had been crucified by the Jews. The parable ends, 
 indeed, by the vineyard being taken from those husbandmen to whom 
 it had been let, and given to others. But when these two different 
 husbandmen represent different faculties in the same mind, the taking 
 of the vineyard from one class and giving it to another represents 
 only the transfer of the church from one faculty to another. The 
 
470 
 
 [Chap. XXL 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 first husbandmen signify the thoughts of the understanding, and the 
 second signify the affections of the will. The effect of regeneration 
 is to elevate the principles of the church out of the understanding 
 into the will. To describe this, the Lord says, “ The kingdom shall 
 be taken from you (the Jewish people), and given to a nation bringing 
 forth the fruits thereof for the term nation, as distinguished from 
 the term people, signifies the will as distinguished from the under- 
 standing; and as the principles of the church, or of good and truth, 
 when they are elevated into the will, come forth into the life in works 
 that are really good, the vineyard is said to be given to a nation 
 “ bringing forth the fruits thereof.” This is a brief outline of the 
 meaning of the parable, when viewed in its application to the indi- 
 vidual man who is passing through the regenerate life ; but many 
 significant and interesting particulars are contained in it which it may 
 be useful to consider. 
 
 33. There was a certain householder , which 'planted a vineyard, , and 
 hedged it- round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, 
 and let it out to husbandmen , and went into a far country. The Lord 
 no doubt intended to make this parable not simply graphic, but 
 instructive, every particular having a spiritual meaning. The 
 planting of a vineyard signifies, we have seen, implanting the prin- 
 ciples of the church in the internal man, and the setting a hedge 
 about it signifies the establishment of order in the external. 
 Principles of life and laws of order are to each other as a vineyard 
 and a hedge, or as a city and its walls. Principles constitute the 
 kingdom of God in man, and laws are its guard and protection. 
 Every work of order has its laws. The universe is hedged about with 
 laws, without which it would fall into confusion and dissolution. The 
 church and state have their laws, and so have social and domestic 
 life. Principles and laws are the first and the last things in the 
 Lord’s kingdom in man, and these form its beginning. But there are 
 intermediate principles necessary to its completeness and perfection, 
 and these are meant by the winepress and the tower. The winepress 
 and tower are emblematical of principles of the rational mind. The 
 pressing of the grape is analogous to the thrashing of the corn, as the 
 subsequent fermentation of the wine is to the leavening of the bread. 
 On this account the treading of the winepress is frequently used as an 
 emblem of judgment, which is called the treading of the winepress 
 of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God (Rev. xix. 15). Yet 
 judgment is not only God’s general work of separating the good from 
 the evil in the spiritual world, but his particular work of separating 
 
Chap. XXI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 471 
 
 good from evil in the human mind. When the householder had made 
 every preparation necessary for the working of the vineyard, he let it 
 out to husbandmen, and went into a far country. When the Lord, 
 as the Creator, has formed the human being, and endowed him with 
 every faculty that belongs to his nature, and provided him with every 
 means that may be requisite for the proper and profitable exercise of 
 his faculties, he leaves him to work out his own salvation. His 
 leaving him to himself is only an appearance, or rather, it is a mode 
 of expressing the fact of man’s being left to act from liberty, and 
 under a full sense of his responsibility. 
 
 34. But although the owner of the vineyard went into a far 
 country, when the time of the fruit drew near , he sent his servants to the 
 husbandmen , that they might receive the fruits of it. The servants 
 whom the Lord sends are the truths of his Word, which seasonably 
 remind us of our stewardship, and require us, while we enjoy the 
 Divine bounty, to acknowledge whence we derive the blessing. Nor 
 is it enough to make this acknowledgment in words; we must make it 
 in deeds; not with the intellect only, but with the heart. This 
 practical acknowledgment is meant by rendering unto the Lord of the 
 fruit of the vineyard; the verbal and intellectual acknowledgment 
 had been made when the vineyard was hired, for this was the con- 
 dition. Here our real labours and temptations begin. It is easy to 
 acknowledge with the understanding that all our blessings come from 
 God ; to acknowledge this with the heart and in the life can only be 
 accomplished with trial and perseverance. The natural mind resists 
 with all its power, and many struggles are required to overcome its 
 opposition. This is described in what now follows. 
 
 35. And the husbandmen took his servants , and beat one , and hilled 
 another, and stoned another. The temptation of which we have spoken 
 is in some sort the result of the labour; for when by labour we have 
 procured fruit, we are tempted to think that we owe it entirely" to 
 our own exertions, and may therefore claim it as our own. The 
 Divine Husbandman sends his messengers to us, to claim his share 
 of the fruit which the vineyard that his hand has planted in our 
 hearts has yielded. Although we are left free, we are not left with- 
 out a witness, to remind us of what is our duty, that we may freely 
 do it. And even then we are left at liberty ; for the husbandman 
 did not command his servants to take of the fruits by force, but only 
 to require what was his due. The natural mind manifests its enmity 
 to the truth in various ways and degrees of malignity. It is disposed 
 to pervert the truth, which is meant by beating one of the servants; 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 472 
 
 [Chap. XXI. 
 
 to reject it, which, is meant by killing another; and to falsify it, 
 which is meant by stoning another. 
 
 36. But the Divine mercy does not leave them to themselves. 
 A gain , he sent other servants more than the first : and they did unto 
 them likewise. As the unregenerate man falls into deeper states of 
 evil, and as the regenerate man falls into deeper states of temptation, 
 the Lord applies to them other truths more suited to their states, and 
 therefore capable of enabling them to resist evil and do good, and to 
 render to him the fruits of their life and experience. But those to 
 whom the vineyard had been let out did to the second as they had 
 done to the first servants. Their state and conduct were not such as 
 the mercies they had received should have produced. 
 
 37. The Divine mercy of the Lord still follows his sinful creatures 
 with the means and offer of salvation. But last of all he sent unto 
 them his son, saying , They will reverence my son. The sending 
 of his son — the coming of the Lord into the world — is the crown- 
 ing act of Divine Goodness to his rebellious subjects. The son is 
 God himself in human nature — the Divine truth coming forth from 
 and manifesting the Divine love. This truth, the offspring and the 
 express image of the Divine love, is the truth, the knowledge of which 
 makes us free indeed, but the rejection of which makes us hopeless 
 bondmen. Those who reject the truth of doctrine from their under- 
 standings are too liable to reject the truth of love from their hearts. 
 This truth it is that puts in the strongest claim for the Lord’s share 
 of the fruit of the vineyard, by urging the practical acknowledgment 
 of his claim to the merit of our works, and the authorship and owner- 
 ship of the faculties that produce them. 
 
 38. But it is this that provokes the natural desire most strongly to 
 claim that merit and ownership for itself. The united cry of the 
 husbandmen is, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize 
 on his inheritance. To extinguish the voice of divine love, and set up 
 our own right to what is the lawful inheritance of the Lord — to claim 
 righteousness as our own, instead of acknowledging the Lord as our 
 righteousness, — this is the sin that separates finally and fully between 
 us and our God. 
 
 39. The rejection of the truth, which offers to make us free, is described 
 by the husbandmen’s treatment of the son. And they caught him, and 
 cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. This is expressive of com- 
 plete rejection : for their taking him is expressive of rejection from 
 the will ; casting him out of the vineyard, of rejection from the under- 
 standing; and slaying him, of rejection from the whole mind and life. 
 
CiiAr. XXL] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 473 
 
 40. Then comes the judgment. When the lord therefore of the 
 vineyard cometh — a coming of the Lord to judgment, which takes place 
 when the state of evil is full, and ripe for decision. This takes place 
 with a church only when its state is so completely devastated as to admit 
 of no restoration. Such was the state of the Jewish church when it 
 had consummated its wickedness by slaying the Lord, w r ho came in 
 the character of a Saviour ; then did the Lord return to judgment, 
 making a complete end. It is only when the evil are guilty of 
 corresponding conduct that their judgment overtakes them. The 
 Lord does not himself describe the judgment, but demands of those 
 who were to be judged what the judgment should be. Vihat will he 
 do unto those husbandmen ? 
 
 41. And the husbandmen give the answer, — Re will miserably destroy 
 those wicked men , and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen , 
 luhich shall render him the fruits in their seasons. This involves an im- 
 portant truth in relation to judgment. In the spiritual world no one 
 is judged till he himself is not only convicted but convinced of the 
 character of his own state, and of its necessary consequences. Every 
 one, so to speak, judges himself. “ I,” said the Lord, “judge no man : 
 the word which I have spoken unto you, the same shall judge you in 
 the last day.” The unpractised truth that we carry with us into the 
 other world is that which judges us to perdition. Every one is judged 
 by and according to the light he has received. Here is justice as 
 well as mercy. The less light, the less condemnation to those who do 
 evil; for it is light that makes evil to be evil — that makes man 
 responsible for his actions, and blameable for his evil deeds. “ To whom 
 much is given, of them much will be required.” To the Lord’s ques- 
 tion — “What will he do to those husbandmen?” the Jews answer, 
 “ He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his 
 vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits 
 in their seasons.” This expresses another truth or law of judgment, 
 as enunciated by the Lord himself : “ Take from him the talent, and 
 give it to him that hath ten talents;” “Unto him that hath shall be 
 given ; but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that 
 which he seemeth to have.” From those who have only truth, that 
 truth will be taken away ; to those who have only good, that good 
 will be enriched with truth. It is therefore said that the vineyard 
 should be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof; for the 
 term nation, as distinguished from that of people, signifies those who 
 are in good, as distinguished from those who are in truth. 
 
 42. When our Lord had finished his parable, and drawn from his 
 
474 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXI. 
 
 auditors its practical meaning, he proceeded to point out an important 
 prophecy relating to himself, as rejected by the Jews and received and 
 acknowledged by the Gentiles. Did ye never read in the Scriptures , 
 Tlie stone which the builders rejected , the same is become the head of the 
 corner: this is the Lord’s doing , and it is marvellous in our eyes? 
 This stone, this precious cornerstone, this sure foundation, is the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. But there is a profound truth in this symbolism. 
 The Lord is called a stone because a stone is a symbol of truth — he is 
 called the Stone because he was the Truth itself. And he is called a 
 foundation and corner-stone because, by assuming humanity as it 
 exists in the world, he brought himself, as the Eternal Truth, or 
 the Word, into manifestation in the ultimate sphere of existence, 
 for the redemption and salvation of the human race, and so became 
 the foundation on which the church and heaven should rest, the 
 corner-stone by which they should be held together. As the Stone, 
 he was rejected by the builders of the Jewish church, or by the 
 carnal builders in the church universal; but he, nevertheless, not 
 only without their aid, but against their will, became the head of the 
 corner. As this figure relates to the building of the temple, in the 
 highest sense it refers to the Temple of the Lord’s body, the glorifica- 
 tion of which was completed by the stone becoming the head of the 
 corner, when heaven and the church, angels and holy men, shouted 
 grace, grace unto it. This was indeed the Lord’s doing, for it was a 
 work purely divine ; and it is marvellous in the eyes of angels and 
 men, for it is the great mystery of godliness — the great marvel of 
 divine wisdom as well as of divine love. Subordinately to, and 
 correspondently with, this work, the Lord becomes the head of the 
 corner when he is acknowledged in his Divine Humanity as the 
 head of the church ; and especially when he has become the supreme 
 good and truth in the heart and mind of man. 
 
 43. As a consequence of their refusing him as the chief cor- 
 ner-stone, the Lord said unto them, The kingdom of God shall 
 be taken from you , and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits 
 thereof Those who receive him form the “ nation ” to whom the 
 kingdom is given — the good to whom truth is imparted ; while those 
 from whom the kingdom is taken away are such as have been in evil, 
 and who, though they had known, had not obeyed the truth. 
 
 44. Reverting again to the figure under which prophecy had spoken 
 of him, the Lord delivers a solemn admonition to all to whom he, as 
 the Truth, is revealed. Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken : 
 but on whomsoever it shall fall , it will grind him to powder. This no 
 
Ciiap. XXL] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 47 5 
 
 doubt describes two different kinds of opposition to the truth, with 
 their different results. We fall upon the stone when our opposition 
 to the truth arises from falsity, and the stone falls upon us when our 
 opposition to it arises from evil. Of those who fall upon the stone it is 
 said they shall be broken ; of those on whom the stone falls, that it 
 shall grind them to powder. To dbreak in pieces is to divide and 
 separate the parts which together form one whole ; thus the truths 
 united under one good may have their connection with that good 
 broken, which may involve the serious damage or destruction of a 
 man’s faith. To grind or reduce to powder denotes not only the divid- 
 ing of truths from their good, and from each other, but the dissipation 
 of the truths themselves, and the consequent destruction of every 
 principle of faith and love. Understood in relation to the regenerate, 
 it no doubt has a favourable meaning. J udgment is the separation of 
 the good and the evil, and the determination of both to their final 
 state. Individually, judgment separates all that is good and true from 
 the wicked, and everything evil and false from the righteous. What 
 is here rendered, “ground to powder,” literally means dissipated like 
 chaff — a mode of expression applied to the wicked, who are like chaff 
 which the wind driveth away (Ps. i. 4). But the righteous stand in 
 the judgment; the only effect upon them is, that it sifts them as 
 wheat, removing what imperfections and infirmities have obscured 
 their excellences. 
 
 45, 46. When the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables , 
 they perceived that he spake of them. But when they sought to lay hands 
 on him , they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet. 
 In this conduct we see a not uncommon result of reproof. Instead of 
 being humbled, the sinner is too often exasperated by having his sins 
 pointed out. The enmity manifested in all ages against the written 
 Word, by wicked and impenitent men, is caused by its laying 
 open their secret sins, and announcing the condemnation they bring 
 upon themselves. And many of these, too, would willingly lay 
 hands upon the Word, were it not that they fear the multitude, 
 whose faith reposes on its teaching and promises. The inward 
 belief of the faithful secures for the Word and religion the outward 
 respect of many of the unbelieving. Outward respect or restrained 
 hatred will not avert, and may not even mitigate, the final judgment; 
 but it has the effect of aiding the cause of external decency and order 
 in the present world. But how much do the priest and the Pharisee 
 in ourselves rise up against reproof ; and how often would they seek 
 to lay unhallowed hands upon the truth, were they not restrained by 
 
470 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXII. 
 
 the influence of our better feelings. Let us cultivate those feelings, 
 and love to bring under their dominion the tempers and dispositions of 
 our corrupt selfhood, till they submit themselves to the Divine will 
 and wisdom. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 This chapter, though it introduces a new subject, is a continuation 
 of the same discourse which our Lord had commenced in the temple. 
 The last chapter concludes with the parable of the householder, who 
 planted a vineyard and let it out to husbandmen ; the present begins 
 with the parable of the king who made a marriage for his son. The 
 moral of this parable is much the same as that of the last. Those 
 who are called refuse to come, and are rejected; others are invited, 
 who come, and are accepted. Those who refuse, and lose their elec- 
 tion, are the J ews ; those who come, and are chosen, are the Gentiles. 
 But however similar their moral, the parables teach a different lesson ; 
 however similar in their structure, each delivers a different truth. 
 Relatively to each other, the parable of the vineyard has more refer- 
 ence to the intellectual life of man; that of the marriage of the king’s 
 son has more respect to his moral life. The vineyard produces the 
 grape, from which is expressed the wine, which is the symbol of spiritual 
 truth ; the marriage is celebrated by a dinner, which is the symbol of 
 spiritual good; the drink and the meat being symbolical of nourish- 
 ment for the understanding and for the will. 
 
 2. The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king , vdiich made a 
 marriage for his son. No symbol for the church and heaven is higher 
 than that of marriage. Marriage is the highest emblem of the union, 
 in all its forms and degrees, that constitutes heaven and gives felicity. 
 Marriage is the union of two souls, which were so created that each 
 finds in the other what it has not in itself, but which is essential to 
 complete life and perfect happiness. The masculine and feminine 
 souls are the impersonations of the two essential principles of all being, 
 and of all perfection and happiness — the true and the good, the 
 intellectual and the voluntary. Lleaven and the church are, in them- 
 selves, nothing but the union of goodness and truth. This union must 
 exist in the mind, before any one can be a true member of the church 
 or an inhabitant of heaven. The church and heaven must be in 
 man, before he can be in the church and heaven. This is only saying 
 that every one must have in himself the heavenly marriage of goodness 
 
Chap. XXII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 477 
 
 and truth, or of love and faith, before he can belong to “the kingdom 
 of heaven, which is like unto a king who made a marriage for his son.” 
 The son for whom the king made a marriage is Jesus, considered as the 
 Son of God. The Lord, from the Divine, in and by the human, desires 
 to enter into a covenant with the church, as his bride and wife. The 
 consummation of this union was the end for which the Lord came into 
 the world. The humanity which God assumed and glorified in the world 
 was the Bridegroom of the divine nuptials; for actual conjunction 
 between God and fallen man, or a fallen church, could only be effected 
 through a humanity born of the church, and raised by glorification into 
 union with the Divine nature. The Father, who made the marriage 
 for the Son, is called a certain king, or rather, a man, a king. These two 
 titles are expressive of the Divine love and wisdom, as existing united 
 in the Divine nature ; and they are no doubt introduced in harmony 
 with the nature and object of the parable, to indicate, that as the 
 divine marriage of love and wisdom existed eternally and essentially 
 in God, so it was the object of the incarnation that it might exist also 
 in man — first in the man Christ Jesus, and through him in every man 
 willing to be saved and made happy. 
 
 3. And sent forth his servants to call them that ivere hidden to the 
 wedding. This is in accordance with ancient custom. The guests 
 were invited long before the marriage took place, and even before the 
 time for its celebration was fixed ; and when the day came, and all 
 things were ready, servants were sent out to call the guests to the 
 marriage feast. In this respect the symbol accurately corresponds 
 with the fact. Long before the Lord came into the world, God, by 
 his servants the prophets, had bidden his people to this approaching 
 marriage. The invitation had been given to the Jews, but through 
 them to all others. No time had been fixed for it, but its accomplish- 
 ment was declared to be certain. When, in the fulness of time, the 
 Bridegroom appeared, and sent forth his servants the apostles to 
 call them that were bidden to the marriage, it was only to give effect 
 to an invitation which had previously been given and accepted. And 
 they would not come. Those who with pride had accepted the invita- 
 tion, and had longed for the time when they should be called to the 
 wedding, were found, when the blessed moment had arrived, to be 
 utterly disinclined to come to it. Something like this comes within 
 our ordinary experience. Events and occasions that we look forward 
 to with eagerness sometimes find us indifferent or disinclined when 
 they come. And if this is the case in natural things, much more is it 
 so in spiritual things. The Jews refused the call of the apostles, 
 
478 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXII. 
 
 because the kingdom of Jesus disappointed their expectations. They 
 looked for a king and a kingdom surrounded with pomp and glory, 
 and saw nothing but meanness and obscurity. Moral grandeur had 
 no charms for them. They would not come to a marriage where the 
 union of love and wisdom was to be solemnized, where mercy and- 
 peace were to meet together, and righteousness and truth kiss each 
 other, and where the table spread for the guests should present a feast 
 for the gratification and nourishment of the soul. This conduct is not 
 peculiar to the Jews. They were too faithful types of the natural 
 man in all ages of the world. The religion of Jesus is too pure and 
 unworldly to be otherwise than repulsive to the merely natural mind. 
 We all know it by experience. And if there were none but the prin- 
 ciples of the natural man in us — if in the little world within there 
 were none but the chief priest, and the scribe, and the Pharisee — we 
 should all be as unbelieving and unwilling as the sophisticated Jews. 
 And so far as we are merely natural, the call to the blessings of the 
 gospel will remain unheeded. But Divine mercy does not leave us 
 even when we refuse its call. 
 
 4. As in the case of the Jews, so in ours, he sent forth other ser- 
 vants, with a still more urgent call, enforced with still higher induce- 
 ments, — Tell them which are hidden, Behold, I have 'prepared, my dinner ; 
 my oxen and my failing s are killed, and all things are ready : come unto 
 the marriage. It is thus we ever find striking and affecting instances 
 of that long-suffering and abundance in goodness and truth so con- 
 sistent with the Divine nature. As in the former parable, so in this, 
 we must regard the second message and the second messengers, as 
 having a distinct character from the first. The appeal is now more to 
 the will than to the intellect ; the guests are not called to the marriage 
 simply, but to the dinner, all things being ready. The king has done 
 his part to the uttermost, and only waits to receive those for whom 
 the provision has been made. And what is that provision? It is 
 first expressed by the one word, dinner. Dinners signify the good of 
 charity, in which the Lord dwells with man ; their dining and supping 
 together denoting consociation by love, and all conjunction. The 
 marriage feast is that good which the Lord’s incarnation has provided, 
 as the means of a blessed consociation and conjunction between his 
 children and himself. And that good proceeds from the Lord’s 
 humanity, the glorification of which was the preparation of the feast, 
 which stands ready for every willing guest. But the dinner itself is 
 described : “ My oxen and fatlings are killed.” Oxen are emblems of 
 the good of the natural affections, and fatlings of the good of innocence. 
 
Chap. XXII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 479 
 
 The term killed should rather be sacrificed; and to sacrifice is to 
 make holy. The Lord made the natural affections and the natural 
 innocence of the humanity he assumed holy in himself, when he 
 purified and consecrated them to his indwelling Divinity. And now 
 they are offered to us as holy and divine things, living aud life-giving. 
 And has not the Lord said, “ He that eateth me shall live by me” h 
 In him all fulness dwells; all things are ready; and the perpetual 
 Divine call is, “come to the marriage.” 
 
 5. But how many imitate the Jews of old, who made light of it, 
 a,nd ivent their ivays, one to his farm , another to his merchandise. The 
 natural man is not only indifferent to the good and truth offered to 
 him in the gospel, but he turns away from them, his will to evil, and 
 his understanding to falsity — “ one to his farm, and another to his 
 merchandise.” It is only the inordinate love of the world that is 
 antagonistic to the love and life of heaven. It is not by employing 
 the hands, but by devoting the heart to the world, that we despise 
 the call, and forfeit our right to the kingdom of God. Here, as in 
 the Scriptures generally, the effect is put for the cause, the labour for 
 the love; by mistaking which, some have sought heaven by renounc- 
 ing the active duties of life, which is neither a means nor an evi- 
 dence of being crucified to the world. This neglect of divine and 
 heavenly things for those that pertain to this life is a too common one. 
 But we are to reflect at the same time that it is not the world itself, 
 with its labours and rewards, that is opposed to the kingdom of God, 
 with its duties and blessings. 
 
 'd. When the heart and intellect are turned away from heavenly 
 things, and devoted to earthly things, a further progress in iniquity 
 must follow. The husbandmen were not satisfied with refusing the 
 call of their lord, and giving themselves up to the world. The rem- 
 nant took his servants , and entreated them spitefully , and slew them. 
 The word remnant here is the same that, in reference to the virtuous, 
 signifies the remains of goodness and truth, whose awakening in the 
 mind forms the beginning of regeneration, and which are more and 
 more developed in its progress. But the evil have remains stored up 
 in their minds as well as the good. Or rather, remains are stored up 
 in infancy and childhood in all minds, though differing in quality 
 and quantity. It is through these remains that the well-disposed 
 are regenerated, and it is through these that the ill-disposed are 
 called, or by which the call is heard. And when they turn to evil, 
 it is the remains of goodness and truth in themselves that they 
 destroy. It is in this way that they lay hold of the Lord’s servants, 
 
480 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXII. 
 
 and entreat them spitefully, and slay them. For all the evil and 
 destruction of good and truth that the wicked effect, they effect in 
 themselves. And these three acts of violence mark the complete 
 rejection of everything true and good: for the remnant taking the 
 servants is expressive of violence offered to heavenly truths in the 
 will; spitefully using them, of violence offered to those truths in the 
 understanding; and slaying them, of violence offered to them in the 
 life, which is their death or extinction. 
 
 7. But every consummated state of evil is followed by judgment. 
 Those who destroy heavenly truth in themselves, turn that truth into 
 an instrument of their own destruction. The servants who were sent 
 to invite the guests to the wedding are slain, but in their stead there 
 comes forth an army to avenge them. When the king heard thereof, he 
 was wroth : and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those mur- 
 derers, and burned up their city.' The crime of the guests — for they 
 had previously accepted the invitation — has armed the truth against 
 them, and the sword which their sins have unsheathed will not 
 return to the scabbard till it has cut them off, and wiped out the 
 stain which they had left upon the law of righteousness. The law of 
 retaliation, which exists in its perfection in the spiritual life and in 
 the spiritual world, does not imply anything like vindictive justice in 
 the mind or dealings of God. It is simply the result of a law of order, 
 that action and re-action are equal, and that their actual equality is 
 necessary to the existence of equilibrium, on which the conservation 
 of all things depends. The king is represented as hearing what those 
 he had bidden to his son’s marriage had done to his servants. Hear- 
 ing is that sense which communicates more immediately with the 
 will, as sight does with the understanding. The king hearing implies 
 that the evil committed was not only a crime against the Divine 
 wisdom, but against the Divine love — not only against the truth, but 
 against the good of truth. The armies he sent forth are the truths of 
 the Lord’s Word and kingdom, which subdue opposing evils and falsi- 
 ties, and deprive them of the power of doing violence to the principles, 
 and through them to the inhabitants, of heaven. The king’s armies 
 killed those murderers and burned their cities, — everything possessing 
 or relating to life, both in the will and the understanding, is destroyed 
 and consumed, every truth relating to life or doctrine is removed, and 
 death reigns in the will and desolation in the understanding. Such 
 is the final result of refusing the offers of salvation, and continuing in 
 enmity and deadly hostility to the Author and the means of life. 
 Even this is exhibited to some extent in the present world, if not in 
 
Chap. XXII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 481 
 
 the case of persons, yet in that of churches. Such a consummation 
 overtook the Jewish church, whose crimes and devastation are 
 described in the natural sense of the parable. On that occasion, when 
 the Jews had refused the call to the kingdom of the Messiah, and had 
 slain the Messiah himself, the church amongst them was consummated, 
 and the Lord turned to another people. 
 
 8, 9. Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, hut they 
 which were hidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, 
 and as many as ye shall find, hid to the marriage. The freeness 
 of the gospel, and the offer of salvation to all, could not be more 
 clearly set forth than in this parable, and especially in this part of it. 
 Human benevolence often gets soured by disappointments, and the 
 deserving frequently suffer for the sins of the undeserving. Not so 
 with the Divine benevolence. In fact, the present parable is con- 
 structed as if to teach us that the Divine benevolence is even enlarged 
 by human perverseness and malignity — on the principle that where 
 sin has abounded, grace has much more abounded. Oh the richness 
 of the wisdom and goodness of God ! its depths are past finding out. 
 
 10. When they that were bidden had refused to come, the king’s 
 servants went out into the highways , and gathered together all as many 
 as they found, both had and good : and the ivedding was furnished with 
 guests. Figuratively, those who were called to supply the place of 
 the first-bidden guests are the Gentiles, who were adopted to form a 
 visible church, in place of the unbelieving Jews. Spiritually, they 
 are those who are in ignorance of the truth, but who are not indisposed to 
 receive it. The servants are commanded to go out into the highways 
 in search of the new guests. These are literally ways of ways, places 
 where two or more ways meet or cross, places like the Latin compitum , 
 where the country people assembled to keep their wakes and perform 
 their sacrifices, where, therefore, numbers of persons were likely to be 
 found. These central places, into which the converging ways poured 
 their numerous contributions, represented the rational mind, where 
 the thoughts assemble, some entering from the natural mind and 
 some from the spiritual, or some from the world and some from 
 heaven, and where, therefore, there are “both bad and good.” 
 Viewed in relation to persons, the Gentiles, who are historically 
 meant, being without the light of revelation, were guided by the light 
 of nature, thus of reason, with such spiritual aids as tradition and 
 the reflected light of the Word afforded them. They were, therefore, 
 in the highways of intellectual and moral truth when called to the 
 wedding, to which, whatever their defects, they willingly came. 
 
4S2 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXII. 
 
 11. And when the king came in to see the guests , he saw there a man 
 which had not on a wedding garment. The prominence given to the 
 circumstance of a man coming into the guest-chamber without a 
 wedding garment is striking, and must be instructive. It no doubt 
 teaches us that besides receiving and accepting the call, there is still 
 something else required to make us children of the marriage. We 
 must put on the marriage garment. We must be clothed with the 
 garment of righteousness. The guests were not admitted into the 
 guest-chamber in their own raiment, but in garments provided for 
 them by the king. So we are not admitted into the heavenly 
 marriage in our own righteousness, but must be clothed in a righ- 
 teousness derived from the Lord. This is the only true, and therefore 
 the only saving righteousness, for all our righteousness is of him. We 
 must not imagine that the righteousness we receive from the Lord is 
 put on to cover and conceal our corruptions. Righteousness cannot 
 be acquired but by living it. “He that doeth righteousness is 
 righteous.” It may seem as if the righteousness we acquire by doing 
 it is our own righteousness. Self-righteousness and Christ’s righ- 
 teousness are both alike acquired by doing righteousness : the difference 
 is, one is acquired by doing righteousness from self, the other by doing 
 righteousness from the Lord. Christ does not impart or impute to us 
 right thoughts and affections, words and works, without any cultiva- 
 tion or practice of our own; but he, as the Spirit and power of 
 righteousness, worketh in us to will and do what is righteous, and 
 that righteousness which we will and do from him is his, because he 
 is its author. As we do not derive it from ourselves, we are not to 
 ascribe it to ourselves, but must give him the glory. “Not unto us, 
 0 Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, 
 and for thy truth’s sake” (Ps. cxv. 1). Understood in its particular 
 sense, the guests who came to the wedding are the thoughts and 
 affections of the rational mind, and the king coming in to see the 
 guests is the influx of divine truth into them. The object of 
 this is to see, or enable us to perceive, the quality of our thoughts 
 and affections, to distinguish and separate between the good and 
 the bad, that the good may receive spiritual light, and the bad be 
 cast into outer darkness. This is the judgment effected in every 
 human mind, when brought under the influence of divine truth. 
 And as every work is like itself in all its degrees, the judgment 
 which takes place on good and evil persons is of the same character, 
 and has the same results. The divine, present in the light of truth, 
 reveals the character, “ for whatsoever doth make manifest is light ” 
 
Chap. XXII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 483 
 
 (Epli. v. 13); and the revelation of the inward character brings the 
 good into the fulness of light, and leaves the evil in the depth of 
 darkness. The description of the judgment in the parable is written 
 for our admonition, and it is no doubt profitable to reflect upon it. 
 
 12. When the king saw the strange guest, he saith unto him , 
 Friend , how earnest thou in hither not having a wedding garment ? 
 And he was speechless. When, in this world, God questions us through 
 his Word, it is for the purpose of leading us to self-examination, as 
 the means of forming a just estimate of our own state. In the other 
 world there is a conformity between state and place which admits of no 
 violation. No heavenly state, no heavenly place; no heaven within, 
 no heaven without. Not only the Lord himself sees, but he gives 
 every soul to see, that there can be no possible violation of this law. 
 Plausibly as we may reason ourselves into the contrary belief in this 
 world, in the other world, when all sophistries are removed by the 
 all-penetrating and revealing light of truth, the self-convicted soul 
 remains speechless. The evil in the other life are not sent to their final 
 abode in hell until they are not only convicted but convinced of sin 
 — till they see their evil condition, and are convinced that they are 
 unfit for any place but that to which their evil, like a millstone about 
 their neck, draws them down into the deep. How solemn and 
 impressive ! And how fearful are the consequences ! 
 
 13. Then said the king to the servants , Bind him hand and foot, and 
 take him away , and cast him into outer darkness ; there shall be weeping 
 and gnashing of teeth. In conformity with the condition of things in 
 this world, the Lord is represented in Scripture as casting the wicked 
 into hell, and in the other world they appear as if cast headlong into 
 the infernal abodes; while the real truth is, the evil cast themselves 
 into hell, or rather, evil itself casts or drags them down into hell, 
 their headlong course being but a symbol of their inverted state. 
 But there is a gradation in the vastation of the evil, which this 
 parable unfolds. They are bound hand and foot, and cast into outer 
 darkness. This implies total deprivation of all seeming good and 
 truth. The hands are the powers of the internal man, the feet of the 
 external. In this world these are free ; in the other world, with the 
 evil, they are bound. In this world the external man can do good, 
 while the internal man wills evil. This is necessary here for the 
 preservation of external order, and of man’s capability of reformation. 
 In the other life, where reformation is no longer possible, no seeming 
 can exist; the external acts as the internal wills. An evil internal 
 brings the external under subjection to itself, and that subjection is a 
 
484 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXII. 
 
 state of bondage. And while the powers of the will are deprived of 
 good, and become subject to evil, the understanding is deprived of 
 truth and immersed in falsity, which is meant by being cast into 
 outer darkness. There are two kinds or degrees of falsity — one that 
 originates in the will, another in the understanding. Intellectual 
 falsity is darkness, voluntary falsity is outer darkness. The one is 
 the negation of truth, the other is its perversion; the one shuts out 
 the light, the other turns the light into darkness : “ And if the light 
 that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness !” In this 
 state of spiritual darkness “ there shall be weeping and gnashing of 
 teeth.” These are signs and symbols of anguish, but not simply of 
 the anguish of suffering. In the other world the wicked no doubt 
 weep, but theirs are partly the tears of a disappointed devouring sel- 
 fishness and insatiate ambition. Their tears are like those of Alex- 
 ander, who, having conquered the world, wept that there were no 
 more worlds to conquer. They gnash their teeth ; but they do so as 
 did the infuriated Jews when, rushing on the saintly Stephen, they 
 “ gnashed on him with their teeth.” Weeping is expressive of a state 
 of the will, gnashing the teeth of a state of the understanding. The 
 will weeps when its desires are resisted; the understanding gnashes 
 when its notions are opposed. Gnashing of the teeth is the continual 
 dispute of falses with each other, consequently of those who are in 
 falses ; these disputes are heard out of hell as gnashings of the teeth, 
 and are actually turned into gnashings of the teeth when truth from 
 heaven flows in. 
 
 14. Our Lord concludes his parable with the moral : For many are 
 called , but few are chosen. We cannot, of course, understand this to 
 apply literally to the relative numbers of the called and chosen of the 
 last invited guests, although it might seem to be so intended. If it 
 refers to relative numbers, it must be of the whole of those invited 
 from first to last. But the remark is understood to be true with 
 respect to the whole human race. Numbers in the W T ord do not, 
 however, signify quantity, but quality. The few are those who are in 
 charity and its faith ; the many are those who are in faith without 
 charity. The guest who came without a wedding garment represents 
 not an individual, but a class — the class who have faith without works, 
 and who, being destitute of the garment of righteousness, cannot be 
 admitted to the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 lo. Not conciliated, but rather exasperated, by the Lord’s teach- 
 ing, in which there was an obvious allusion to the Jews, then went the 
 Pharisees , and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. 
 
Chap. XXII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 485 
 
 The Pharisees representing and even personating those who are religion- 
 ists in name, but not in deed, we see the same opposition to the Lord’s 
 love and truth that we had so often occasion to observe in these 
 malignant and deceitful enemies of the Just one, — their opposition to 
 the Lord’s love being meant by their “going,” and their opposition to 
 the Lord’s truth being meant by their “taking counsel,” their purpose 
 to “entangle him in liis talk” being expressive of the lust of pervert- 
 ing and destroying the truth. To accomplish this, 
 
 1 6. They sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians. The 
 Lord’s disciples represent all the principles of the church, those of the 
 Pharisees represent all the principles opposed to and subversive of the 
 church. These signify especially false principles, the kindred evils of 
 which are meant by the Herodians. These, therefore, are sent out or 
 put forth to entangle Jesus in his talk. They address him with feigned 
 respect, saying , Master , we know that thou art true , and teachest the way 
 of God in truth , neither carest thou for any man : for thou regardest not 
 the person of men. The truth is often spoken by those who in their 
 hearts deny it. The Lord is indeed true, and teaches the way of 
 God in truth. He is the truth and the way, and he is the good to 
 which it leads. He cares not for any man, for he regards not the 
 person of men. He cares not for mere human good, and still less for 
 mere human truth. He regards not the person of men, is, literally, 
 he looketli not on the face of men. The same expression occurs in 
 the Old Testament. Man looketh on the face, but the Lord looketh 
 on the heart. The face signifies the understanding, the heart signifies 
 the will. The Lord looks not on the face, on the understanding, at a 
 man’s intelligence and belief only, but he looks on the heart, at a man’s 
 goodness and love. In this, therefore, the deceitful messengers spake 
 truly. But they had a purpose in speaking and describing the truth, — 
 that they might make the truth speak falsehood, or might be able so 
 to construe the words of truth as to make it appear false, and so 
 compass its destruction. And now comes the grand question, by which 
 they had hoped their object might be gained. 
 
 17. Tell us therefore , What thinkest thou ? Is it lawful to give tribute 
 unto Caesar , or not 1 The clever deceitfulness of this question is 
 universally admitted. It was so framed that either a negative or an 
 affirmative answer, one of which they supposed must be given, would 
 equally answer their purpose. Had he said it was lawful to give 
 tribute to Caesar, he would have become odious to the Jewish people; 
 had he said it was not lawful, he would have become obnoxious to the 
 Homan government. 
 
486 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXII. 
 
 18-22. But Jesus 'perceived their wickedness , and said, Why tempt 
 ye me, ye hypocrites ? Shoio me the tribute money. And they brought 
 unto him a penny. And he said unto them, Whose is this image and 
 superscription 1 They say unto him Caesar's. Then saith he unto 
 them, Render therefore unto C cesar the things which are Ccesar’s, and 
 unto God the things that are God's. Who can read this answer with- 
 out being struck with wonder and admiration at the wisdom it dis- 
 plays? It is a perfect exemplification of the Lord’s own teaching, 
 when he sent his disciples forth, as sheep in the midst of wolves: 
 “ Be ye, therefore, wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” Complete 
 was the discomfiture of his enemies, and great must have been their 
 dismay, when Jesus answered their question, so as to close their lips 
 in silence, without even approaching the snare they had so cunningly 
 and confidently laid for him ! But the Lord not only defeated his 
 enemies, but instructed them. And this wicked attempt has appar- 
 ently procured for the world one of the finest lessons of wisdom that 
 it possesses. “ Bender unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and 
 unto God the things that are God’s,” has become a maxim that 
 felicitously expresses in a sentence the whole duty of man, as a 
 subject of the Divine and of human govermnent. The Christian 
 religion thus inculcates the duty of rendering obedience and giving 
 support to the civil government under which we live, since by this 
 we are maintaining the cause of order ; while at the same time, we 
 are to render unto God the obedience and service which are due to 
 Him, as the Author of spiritual order, and through this, of civil order 
 also. The Pharisees and Herodians coming to Jesus with praise upon 
 their lips and malice in their hearts, to submit to him their pretended 
 difficulty, spiritually means, that they who are in hypocritical worship, 
 while they outwardly reverence the Word, inwardly disbelieve and 
 hate it, secretly labouring to pervert its holy truths, because they 
 expose and reprove their evils. When they inquire at the Word, it 
 is about the regulation of the external man, without any regard to the 
 government of the internal. The Lord saying to them, when they 
 acknowledged the image and superscription on the tribute money to be 
 Caesar’s, “ Bender, therefore, unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, 
 and unto God the things that are God’s,” signifies that the Word 
 teaches, by representatives and significatives, that, as the external man 
 bears the image and superscription of this world, for which he was created, 
 he ought therefore to submit to and be regulated by its laws of moral and 
 civil life ; but that as the internal man bears the image of heaven, for 
 which he was created, he ought to submit to and be regulated by the 
 
Chap. XXII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 487 
 
 laws of heavenly and spiritual life. When they had heard these words , 
 they marvelled , and left him , signifies that the truth which the Lord 
 taught is incomprehensible to those who are in hypocritical worship, 
 therefore they reject the internal of the Word. 
 
 23-30. The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there 
 is no resurrection , and asked him, saying , Master, Moses said, If a man 
 die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise wp 
 seed unto his brother . Now there were with us seven brethren: and the 
 first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his 
 wife unto his brother: likewise the second also, and the third, unto the 
 seventh. And last of all the woman died also. Therefore in the resur- 
 rection whose wife shall she be of the seven ? for they all had her. Jesus 
 answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor 
 the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry , nor are 
 given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. The denial 
 of the resurrection was equivalent in those days to the denial of man’s 
 immortality. This is evident from the argument ; for the impossi- 
 bility of restoring every wife to her own husband was intended to 
 show the absurd results of the doctrine of immortality. But in the 
 spiritual seuse, which is here necessary to obtain from the relation its 
 proper instruction, the denial of the resurrection is the denial of 
 regeneration. In the spiritual sense resurrection signifies regenera- 
 tion. Regeneration is a resurrection from the death of sin unto the 
 life of righteousness. The denial of resurrection therefore represents, 
 and, indeed, involves, the denial of regeneration. If man had no hope 
 of rising again, he would have no desire to be born again. The affirma- 
 tion or denial of the one doctrine implies that of the other. The 
 spiritual Sadducee is one who says there is no spirit, therefore no 
 spirituality. Such is the character of those who now come to Jesus, 
 and endeavour to wrest from him an admission of the truth of their 
 opinion. It is not to be supposed incredible that men should en- 
 deavour to confirm from the Word a doctrine which it was the main 
 object of the Word to reveal. Did not the Sadducees believe in 
 Moses, and yet disbelieve in the soul’s immortality? But what is 
 regeneration ? It is the heavenly marriage, or the union of good and 
 truth in the human mind. Therefore, the Sadducees proceed to speak 
 about marriage. And as their belief was, that there is no resurrection, 
 they endeavour to prove their doctrine by a question on the subject 
 of marriage. If seven men had successively one woman to wife, 
 whose wife could she finally be of the seven ? It is one of the prin- 
 ciples of regeneration, that in the heavenly marriage every good must 
 
488 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXII. 
 
 have its own truth, and every truth its own good. The marriage is 
 heavenly only in proportion as the good and truth are really each 
 other’s. If a good and a truth, not having this mutual relation, are 
 externally conjoined, they are not truly united, and remain unfruitful 
 in good affections and true thoughts, and in the use and happiness that 
 result from them. In the progress of regeneration there must some- 
 times be repeated external unions and dissolutions, before the true union 
 takes place. It was in reference to this, and to represent it, that in 
 the representative church it was a law, that if a man died leaving no 
 seed, the next of kin should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his 
 brother. The case which the Sadducees proposed was one in which 
 a woman had been the wife of seven brothers. In the spiritual sense, 
 seven does not mean a certain number, but a particular quality ; it 
 means what is complete, and also what is holy. A woman who had 
 had seven husbands, and at last herself dying childless, represents a 
 good, to which truths of every kind and degree had been adjoined, 
 but between which and itself there had been no real union, and from 
 which there had been no spiritual offspring — no works of love and 
 wisdom as the fruits of true marriage. Such a good must be a spurious 
 good ; perhaps an ardent feeling of natural charity or benevolence, 
 that may be successively wedded to many different schemes of useful- 
 ness, but all equally unwise and equally fruitless of good results ; and 
 the end of all may be, that, cheated and baffled, the feeling itself at 
 last may die out, and leave the heart hardened by disappointment and 
 disgust. If, instead of learning wisdom, we only increase in folly by 
 experience, there can be no profitable end of our exertions. The final 
 state is only a more perfect or complete form of the present. If the 
 soul has been betrothed on earth, it may be married in heaven ; but if 
 good has had no real love for truth, or truth for good, on earth, it can 
 have none in heaven. In the resurrection they neither marry nor are 
 given in marriage. If the heavenly marriage of good and truth is not 
 effected here, it cannot be effected hereafter. Greatly do those err 
 who suppose that any one of a succession of fruitless marriages 
 between the will and the intellect, while man lives in the body, can 
 become the one final and fruitful marriage of the will and intellect 
 when he comes to live in the spirit. They err, not knowing the 
 Scriptures ; for it is the unalterable law of divine truth, that as the 
 tree falls so it lies. The eternal state is but a continuation of the 
 temporal state — the heavenly of the earthly. No heavenly marriage 
 here, no heaven hereafter. They err, not knowing the power of God. 
 Divine love itself, though it can exalt and bless every legitimate union 
 
Ciiap. XXII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 489 
 
 of the good and the true, cannot change the false into the true, or the 
 evil into the good, nor can it change the infernal into the heavenly 
 marriage. Those who attain the blessed resurrection into the new life 
 on earth, and into the abodes of the blest in heaven, are as the angels 
 of God there. An angel-man is already in the heavenly marriage; 
 for the union of love and wisdom form the angel, or the angelic state. 
 With the angel there is no marrying and giving in marriage, — no new 
 union of the understanding with the will, or of the will with the un- 
 derstanding, for this reciprocal union is already perfect. They are 
 Hephzibah, and their land Beulah, for the Lord delighteth in them, 
 and their land is married. 
 
 We may observe that resurrection is not only to be understood of 
 the whole man, but of every part of the man, and in every stage of 
 his regeneration. Every elevation of a good and truth out of the 
 natural mind into the spiritual is a resurrection. Every principle 
 thus raised up puts off the natural body and puts on the spiritual. 
 Thus it is that the Christian dies daily and rises daily. But the prin- 
 ciples thus elevated out of the natural into the spiritual mind consist 
 not of single truths or goods, but of goods and truths united. Their 
 union is essential to their elevation. It is only by living the truth 
 received into the natural mind, and so uniting it with good, that it 
 becomes spiritual. Here, too, the marriage takes place on earth, or 
 in the natural mind, and not in heaven, or the spiritual mind. The 
 principles thus raised up are neither married nor given in marriage, 
 but are as the angels of God in heaven; for the union of the good 
 and the true is as essential to the angelic principle as to the angel. 
 
 We have said nothing here on the subject of marriage in heaven. 
 Of this we have spoken elsewhere. Our Lord, it is commonly sup- 
 posed, here teaches that marriage does not exist in heaven. It is 
 true that in heaven they are neither married nor given in marriage. 
 This does not mean that there is no marriage in heaven, but that 
 there can be no marriage in heaven but between those who are in the 
 marriage of goodness and truth; and as this marriage cannot be given 
 in heaven except to those in whom it existed upon earth, so neither 
 can true marriage. As the distinction of the sexes is essentially of 
 the soul, and is therefore spiritual and eternal, so also is the union of 
 the sexes. In heaven marriage exists in its highest perfection and 
 blessedness. The kingdom of heaven is compared to a marriage, and 
 marriage is the most perfect type and realization of heaven. 
 
 31, 32. But , continues our Lord to the Sadducees, as touching the 
 resurrection of the dead , have ye not read that which was spoken unto 
 
490 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXII. 
 
 you by God , saying , I am the God of Abraham , and the God of Isaac , 
 and the God of Jacob ? God is not the God of the dead , but of the living. 
 In the Old Testament there is no very direct revelation of the immor- 
 tality of the soul; but our Lord shows it to be taught where none had 
 ever before suspected any evidence of it to exist. When God pro- 
 claimed out of the bush that he was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and 
 Jacob, these patriarchs had long been dead. Our Lord gives this to 
 the Sadducees as a proof of the resurrection. These, dead to men, 
 were alive to God. They were living in the eternal world. Unless 
 they had been so, God could not have called himself their God; for he 
 is not the God of the dead, but of the living ; for all live unto him. 
 Resurrection, we may here perceive, is applied to the spirit, not to 
 the body : for the bodies of the patriarchs were in the grave, their 
 souls had ascended to heaven. This is the resurrection of the Scrip- 
 tures — the rising of the living from the dead, the soul from the 
 body. 
 
 In the spiritual sense Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are the celestial, 
 spiritual, and natural principles derived from the Lord in man. 
 These are formed in him by regeneration, and therefore are living : 
 what is of man, as an unregenerate being, is dead. God is the God of 
 the spiritual principles in man, because, being derived from him, they 
 are in connection with him ; but he is not the God of the natural 
 principles of man’s selfhood, for these have no connection with him 
 as the Life. In a more specific sense the Lord is the God of the 
 affections of good and perceptions of truth, because they have his life 
 in them ; but he is not the God of the outward knowledge in which 
 they are received and dwell ; for this, being of the world, is put off 
 like a body, when the spiritual, as the soul, ascends above the regions 
 of time and space. 
 
 33. We read that when the multitude heard this that the Lord 
 had said, they were astonished at his doctrine. Well they might. He 
 had opened up a new view of the resurrection, and drawn a light from 
 the Scriptures which neither the Sadducees nor the Pharisees had 
 ever known them to contain. But this astonishment implies admira- 
 tion. And as the multitude represented the simple affections and 
 unsophisticated thoughts of the human mind, their approbation 
 teaches us that common feeling and common sense are not so closed 
 against the admission of heavenly truth as sentiment and philosophy. 
 
 34-36. But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees 
 to silence, they were gathered together. Truth, when it does not con- 
 vince, hardens; and even when it silences one faculty, does not satisfy 
 
Chap. XXII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 491 
 
 another. If the Sadducees represent the natural understanding, and 
 the Pharisees the natural will, we see how the defeat of the one may 
 rouse the opposition of the other. The Pharisees, who were antag- 
 onists of the Sadducees, though they could unite with them in pur- 
 suing the common purpose of compassing the Lord’s destruction, were 
 not dissatisfied with the defeat they had sustained. As the Pharisees 
 were gathered together, so are the affections and thoughts drawn into 
 closer connection with each other, when their power is to be exerted 
 to effect a common object. They put forward a lawyer, as the mind 
 puts forth its science to refute or entangle. Then one of them, which 
 was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, 
 which is the great commandment in the law ? No vain or unimportant 
 inquiry certainly, if it w r ere honestly intended. It was meant as a 
 temptation. And do we not sometimes tempt the truth, by endeavour- 
 ing to extort from the Word an answer to our questions that will 
 enable us to evade the force of its injunctions ? And even then we 
 sometimes outwardly honour it the most, as the lawyer did when he 
 addressed Jesus as Pabbi, or Master ; for this title is expressive of the 
 Lord’s character as divine truth, as Lord is of divine good. Thus to 
 address the Lord is equivalent to saying, “ Thou art the Truth itself, 
 the Great Teacher ; I come to thee as the only authority in questions 
 relating to eternal life.” Whether or not the lawyer profited by the 
 answer, it is one that has settled a great and momentous question, and 
 must ever remain on the page of revelation as one of the memorable 
 sayings of Him who spake as never man spake. 
 
 37-40. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with 
 all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the 
 first and great commandment. To this the Lord added, the second is like 
 unto it , Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. And he summed up 
 the declaration by saying, On these two commandments hang all the law 
 and the prophets. Love to God and love to man are the sum of all 
 revelation and the essence of all religion. God and man are the only 
 objects to which our affections can be directed or our services ren- 
 dered. They exhaust all our aims, and employ all our powers. Love 
 to God and man are, in Revelation and religion, what the heart and 
 lungs are in the human body. They are the vital principles on which 
 the life of all the other parts depends. “ On these two commandments 
 hang all the law and the prophets.” The other precepts and truths of 
 the Word are but the particulars and singulars, of which these are 
 the generals and universals. The other precepts all proceed from 
 them, and return into them again. They are as the rays of the sun, 
 
492 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXII. 
 
 which, while they reveal their source, return not to him void, but 
 accomplish his purpose, that which he pleases — to clothe the 
 earth with beauty and enrich it with fruit. Love to God is to be 
 manifested in love to man. God and man are loved when God’s love 
 to man is manifested in man’s love to his neighbour. Love to God 
 is not strictly a personal affection, but an affection for the attributes 
 which constitute his nature. God is goodness itself and truth itself. 
 To love these is to love God. And to love these is to do them. To do 
 good from him is to love his goodness ; to speak truth from him is to 
 love his truth. “ He that doeth my commandments,” said our Lord, 
 “ he it is that loveth me.” Love to God is said to be the great require- 
 ment of the law ; for to have respect to God in all we do is the great 
 essential of religion. To shun evil because it is sin against God, 
 and to do good because it is agreeable to his will, — this is to love 
 God; and this is the first and great commandment; because to have 
 respect to God in all we will, and think, and do, is the first and great 
 excellence of character. This is to love God with all the heart, and 
 with all the soul, and with all the mind. We love our neighbour as 
 ourselves when we do to another as we would that another should do 
 to us. Yet we are to love our neighbour with a love like that with 
 which we love God. For the second commandment is “like unto” 
 the first. We love God as goodness itself ; we are to love our neigh- 
 bour as the image of goodness. Good in our neighbour is that which 
 we are to love, for good is our neighbour ; and a human being is only 
 our neighbour in so far as he has God’s goodness in him. Yet we are 
 to love every man, but we are to love him for his good, that good 
 may be in him, and that the good in him may be increased and per- 
 fected. We may love a man so as to injure him, as we love 
 our children so as to spoil them by injudicious fond indulgence ; in 
 which case we love the person, but hate the neighbour — we love 
 him, not for his good, but for our own gratification. 
 
 41-46. While the Pharisees , to whom the Lord delivered this great 
 lesson, were gathered together , Jesus asked them, saying , What think ye of 
 Christ ? whose son is he ? In teaching his interrogators to love God, 
 the Lord endeavours to draw their minds to the God they ought to 
 love. His question, What think ye 'of Christ 1 ? may indeed seem to 
 have no relation to the subject on which he had been speaking. But 
 there is an important connection between the first of all the com- 
 mandments of the law, and the first of all the doctrines of the Bible. 
 In some respects they are identical. We therefore find that in the 
 record of this conversation, as given by Mark, the Lord answers the 
 
Chap. XXII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 493 
 
 question of the scribe by saying, “ The first of all the commandments 
 is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord : and thou shalt love 
 the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with 
 all thy mind.” The question, then, which is the great commandment, 
 leads us to the supreme Object of love, as well as to the supreme love 
 with which he is to be regarded. And this is the more evident when 
 we reflect that Christ was God, yea, the one God whom Israel was 
 taught to believe in and love as their one Lord. Jesus asks the 
 Pharisees, “ whose son is he ?” But this is the very question by which 
 the great doctrine of Christ’s divinity, consequently his sole divinity, 
 was and is to be determined. The Pharisees answered that he was 
 The son of David. Our Lord’s object in asking the question was to 
 refute the error and overturn the belief in his being the son of a finite 
 being, and therefore himself finite. When he demanded of them, How 
 then doth David in spirit call him Lord , saying , The Lord said unto 
 my Lord , Sit thou on my right hand , till I make thine enemies thy foot- 
 stool ? He silenced them as he had done the Sadducees ; for they per- 
 ceived at once that If David then call him Lord , how is he his son ? And 
 what is the result of this 1 It is, that J esus is the Son of God. This, 
 indeed, conveys to the natural mind the idea of Christ as the personal 
 son of a personal father. But properly understood, it conveys the 
 idea of his identity with the Father; for it involves the idea that the 
 Son is divine; and as the humanity which the Lord assumed and 
 glorified in the world is the Son of God, it teaches the great truth 
 that the Lord’s humanity is divine, and one with the essential divinity, 
 as the body i3 one with the soul. The Lord’s question, therefore, has 
 an intimate connection with that of the Pharisees. He is, indeed, the 
 God who is to be loved with all the heart. In him we see the Being 
 whose love is life. He brought the Father forth to view. He rendered 
 the invisible Divine visible, the Incomprehensible comprehensible; in 
 him God was and is brought near to our thoughts, and made dear to 
 our affections; and the Christian is able, far more perfectly than the 
 Jew, to love the one God with all his heart and soul, because that God 
 who was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, has given the 
 believer an object that he can truly and supremely love. So complete 
 was the Lord’s demon st nation of his own divinity, that no man, among 
 the Pharisees, was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man 
 from that day forth ask him any more questions. 
 
 So important and so precious is this great doctrine of Christianity 
 that we have thought it desirable to dwell at some length upon it. 
 We may offer at the same time a few words having reference to its 
 
494 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXIII. 
 
 internal sense. There is an actual duality in the Lord, pointed out 
 in this passage, as in that in the psalm to which it refers. The nature 
 of this duality is not so clearly preserved in our translation. In the 
 original of the psalm the Lord who sits at the right hand is not called 
 by the same name as the Lord at whose right hand he sits. It there 
 reads, “ Jehovah said unto my Adorn” Jehovah is the name of the 
 Lord as to his divine love, while Adonai is a name of the Lord as 
 to his divine wisdom. And wisdom sits at the right hand of love, for 
 all the power of love is by wisdom. The enemies of God are placed 
 under the dominion of wisdom, for it is by wisdom the Divine love 
 subdues and holds all disorder under subjection. But the subjugation 
 here sjDoken of is not only general, but special. It relates to the sub- 
 jugation of the powers of darkness and of nature under the power of 
 the Lord’s humanity. It was Adonai specifically that assumed the 
 human nature : it was the Word that was made flesh. And the Word 
 was made flesh, that the enemies of the Word might be subjugated 
 and made his footstool. The enemies were the powers of darkness 
 and the refractory powers of human nature. The Lord in the flesh 
 conquered hell, and glorified himself by making his humanity divine. 
 In both of these great works he made his foes his footstool. He 
 reduced all under submission to himself. And as he did so in and to 
 himself, he does so now in man. His foes in us are the evils that 
 rise up against the rule of his divine government, and the powers of 
 the mind that have become perverted. By regeneration the Lord 
 makes these foes his footstool, so that his rule is established in our 
 hearts and souls, by every thought being brought into subjection to 
 the authority of Christ. It is by this that we come experimentally 
 to know that Christ is not the son of David, but the Son of the living 
 God. It is by this that the power of his divinity, or of his divine 
 humanity, is felt within our consciousness and our conscience. It is 
 this that, from a different cause and in a different way, silences all 
 questions and completes all the Lord’s answers — that ends all mental 
 controversy between truth and error, and all conflict between good 
 and evil. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Having defeated the machinations of the Pharisees, and refuted the 
 error of the Sadducees, and brought forth from the treasures of his 
 wisdom some of the most important truths of the Divine religion he 
 
Chap. XXIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 40 o 
 
 came to establish among men, the Lord now turns to the multitude, 
 and to his disciples, to teach them the character of those sectaries, and 
 warn them against the sins they concealed under an ostentatious sanc- 
 tity, and the errors they made plausible by a perverted rationality. 
 He afterwards addresses the scribes and Pharisees themselves, point- 
 ing out to them the character and consequences of their corruptions. 
 
 1. Then spake Jesus to the multitude , and to his disciples. The 
 disciples and the multitude represented the internal and external 
 principles of the new man, or of man so far as he is new ; while the 
 scribes and Pharisees represent those of the old man, or of man so far 
 as he is yet unrenewed ; and these, we know, are contrary one to the 
 other. It may, however, be as well to look at its individual through 
 its general application. 
 
 2, 3. Saying , The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat. Sitting 
 is a state of the will, as standing is of the understanding. To sit in 
 the seat of any one is to enter into and possess his will, or his loves 
 and ends of life, of which his will is the seat. This was done by the 
 scribes and Pharisees with regard to Moses, in whose seat they sat. 
 They taught and enforced the law which Moses represented, but they 
 did so to promote their own ends. The true end of the law is the 
 glory of God and the salvation of man ; but they had no other end in 
 teaching it than their own glory and advantage. When this is the 
 case, the will of man rules, and the truth of God serves. Yet men 
 can be zealous for the truth even when they are trampling goodness 
 under their feet, or at least when their heart has no sympathy with it. 
 The Lord exhorted the people, saying, All therefore whatsoever they bid 
 you observe , that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for 
 they say , and do not. Their teaching was to be followed, but their 
 example was to be shunned. This is a distinction which it is highly 
 necessary to observe. Truth is true, from whose lips soever it pro- 
 ceeds. True it is, that they who instruct by their teaching should 
 lead by their example. But when the teaching of those who sit in 
 Moses’ seat is better than their lives, it is our duty to accept the truth 
 and leave the evil. The Lord requires his people to “ observe ” and 
 “do” the truth, which is to receive it into their understandings and 
 wills, and to manifest it in their words and works. 
 
 4. The Lord proceeds to describe the conduct of those who had 
 assumed to themselves the authority of the law. For they bind heavy 
 burdens and grievous to be borne , and lay them on mens shoulders. 
 The Jewish hierarchy, not content with the onerous duties of the law, 
 refined upon its plain precepts, and multiplied its ceremonial observ- 
 
496 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXIII. 
 
 ances, laying upon the shoulders of others a burden which they did 
 not touch themselves. It is the duty of the priesthood to help others 
 to bear the necessary burden of life; but the Pharisees increased that 
 burden with unnecessary labours, and left the people unaided to sustain 
 it. But do we not sometimes lay such burdens on ourselves? Do we 
 not lay on ourselves the burden of unnecessary observances, even to 
 the neglect of positive duties? We load our minds with trifles, to the 
 neglect of solid acquirements; we oppress life with unreasonable cares 
 and anxieties, to the neglect of prudent circumspection. But let us 
 see what this conduct of the scribes and Pharisees spiritually implies. 
 The Pharisees were a kind of spiritual taskmasters, who exacted an 
 unreasonable tale of bricks from the people, and yet required them to 
 make bricks without straw. And they no doubt represented those 
 infesting spirits who endeavour, by fallacious reasonings and deceitful 
 appearances, to subject the well-disposed to their power. Their require- 
 ments are a burden, because they oppress the spiritual life of the soul ; 
 the burden they impose is heavy and grievous, because, though outwardly 
 good and true, the requirements are inwardly evil and false, and oppress 
 the life both of the will and of the understanding; they bind these 
 burdens, because it is their desire to unite evil and falsity together ; 
 they lay them upon men, for men signify the spiritual principles of 
 good and truth, that make us truly human ; their desire to oppress 
 and overpower these is meant by laying their burdens on men’s 
 shoulders, for the shoulder signifies the greatest degree of power — 
 shoulders, the powers both of the will and the intellect. The shoulders 
 of those who bear the burden are contrasted with the fingers of those 
 who impose it — the greatest power with the least. The burdens that 
 the Pharisees laid on others’ shoulders, they themselves will not move 
 them with one of their fingers , because those whom they represent, while 
 they desire to subject to themselves the whole power both of the will 
 and intellect of others, will not, if possible, allow the least aid, either 
 intellectual or voluntary, to be extended to them. 
 
 5. But all their works they do for to he seen of men — not to be seen of 
 God. Man-pleasers care nothing but for the outward show of piety 
 and holiness. This is to make broad their phylacteries , and enlarge the 
 borders of their garments. The phylacteries were fillets, on which were 
 written certain passages of Scripture, and bound on the forehead and 
 hands. The custom, which does not seem to have existed till the cap- 
 tivity, was derived from the command of Moses respecting a certain 
 ordinance, — “It shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for 
 a memorial between thine eyes, that the Lord’s law may be in thy 
 
Chap. XXIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 497 
 
 mouth” (Exod. xiii. 9). Fringes were worn by the Israelites on the 
 borders of their garments, as a means of remembering the command- 
 ments of the Lord (Hum. xv. 38). As these were but outward signs 
 of inward principles, the Pharisees, while they narrowed and diminished 
 the inward spirit of religion, widened and enlarged its outward forms : 
 they made broad their phylacteries, and enlarged the borders of their 
 garments. The phylacteries which they made broad signified goods in 
 the outward form ; the hands on which the phylacteries were worn 
 signifying deeds which the hands are employed to perform ; the 
 borders of their garments, which they enlarged, signified external 
 truths, which are those contained in the literal sense of the W ord ; 
 outer garments denoting general truths, the ultimates of which are the 
 borders. 
 
 6, 7. But the Pharisees, like all who enlarge the borders of their 
 professional garments, looked to something more substantial and 
 gratifying to their self-love than the reputation of superior sanctity; 
 for they, it is said, love the uppermost rooms at feasts , and the chief seats 
 in the synagogues , and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, 
 Rabbi, Rabbi. Here, again, we have the idea of ruling. They who sat 
 in Moses’ seat were also ambitious to occupy the chief places in the 
 social and religious assemblies of the people, and to receive public 
 homage and dignified titles. Spiritually, feasts signify the communi- 
 cation of good, and synagogues the communication of truth ; and to 
 occupy the chief seats at these signifies to insinuate one’s own self-will 
 and self-love into the good and truth of heaven, and so make them the 
 means of self-exaltation. The market, where goods are bought and 
 sold, signifies the knowledge of good and truth ; and to receive greet- 
 ings there, is to receive the credit and praise of superior wisdom ; and 
 therefore it follows, that they loved to be called Babbi, Master or 
 Teacher — that is, to be acknowledged as not only excelling in wisdom, 
 but being its exclusive and authoritative teachers. 
 
 '8, 9. The Lord then says to his disciples, But be not ye called Rabbi : 
 for one is your Master, even Christ ; and all ye are brethren; and he 
 proceeds to say to them, And call no man your father upon the 
 earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. This is one of the 
 many instances which show that our Lord expressed spiritual truth in 
 his plainest declarations. Our Lord could not mean to prohibit the 
 use of the language that expressed the ordinary and necessary rela- 
 tions between teachers and their scholars, and between children and 
 their parents. He who is a doctor or teacher may be so called and 
 so addressed, and not less he who is a father. But in the spiritual 
 
 2 K 
 
498 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXIII. 
 
 and exalted sense, Christ is our only Teacher, God our only Father. 
 A teacher is one who communicates truth : a father is one who com- 
 municates good. Although one man may be instrumental in leading 
 another into truth and goodness, the Lord is the only Author and 
 origin of these heavenly principles. The teacher is in this respect on 
 a level with the scholar, and both are alike recipients of these gifts 
 from heaven; the one excels the other only in regard to the time and 
 measure of reception. One is the Teacher of all, and all the taught 
 are brethren. Christ is a name expressive of the Divine Truth itself ; 
 and whence but from the Truth itself can we receive truth ? By this 
 declaration of our Lord we are also instructed that all the authority of 
 truth belongs to the Lord alone. We are not to look to any man as an 
 authority : Christ is our only authority in matters relating to eternal life. 
 “ To the law and to the testimony ” is the rule of Christian evidence, 
 and to this ultimate test every dogma is to be brought. “ If they speak 
 not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them.” 
 If the Lord alone is our teacher, no less is he alone our Father. He 
 is especially, because spiritually, our Father when we are born again 
 of him. Can we in this sense call any man our father ? That which 
 is born of the flesh is flesh ; that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 
 And although human help is required to bring us to the second birth, 
 yet the human instrument is not the author of the new life. He only 
 who is the Life can make us alive, and to him alone belongs the glory. 
 His infinite love is life, and that love in us is life eternal. Yet all 
 this does not prevent the use of language which describes the relative 
 condition of men. There is no sin in calling one Babbi who is our 
 teacher, nor in calling one father who is our parent. Nay, there is a 
 propriety in doing so. The sin is committed only when we put man 
 in the place of God, and, in the purely spiritual sense, when we put 
 any human good and truth in the place of the Divine good and truth, 
 and give tlmm a name and ascribe to them a power which belong to 
 the Infinite and Eternal only. 
 
 10. Our Lord seemingly repeats an exhortation he had previously 
 given ; but as there are no mere repetitions in the Word, a distinct 
 meaning is contained in the prohibition, Neither he ye called masters : 
 for one is your Master, even Christ. There is indeed a difference. In 
 v. 8 the disciples are not to be called Babbi ; in this they are not to 
 be called masters. Though of the same purport, Babbi involves an 
 assumption of greater importance and dignity than master, and is 
 more directly opposed to the Divine truth itself. And when master 
 is altered to masters, we are directed not to truth as a whole, but to 
 
Ciiap. XXIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 499 
 
 some separate or particular truths, and to the knowledges of truth. 
 Even these we are not to claim as our own, but ascribe to Him to 
 whom all knowledge and wisdom belong. 
 
 11. It is not our being served and exalted by others that makes 
 us great or happy. Accordingly, when the Lord said to his dis- 
 ciples, He that is greatest among you shall he your servant , or minister, 
 he delivered one of the greatest truths that can be carried out in life, 
 — one that would work an entire revolution in the practice and condi- 
 tion of the world. This requirement is in harmony with his great 
 principle — “ Seek ye first the kingdom, and all things shall be added 
 to you.” Let usefulness have the first place, and recompence the 
 second, and there can be no fear of the result. Seek not honour 
 and exaltation : leave them to seek thee. If you seek an office, seek 
 it primarily for the sake of the use it will enable you to do for 
 others, and secondarily for the use it will enable you to do for your- 
 self. When we consider that this was addressed to the disciples, w 7 ho 
 represent not only all the members of the church, but all the principles 
 of the church in every member, we learn from it that the principle 
 which prompts us to do the greatest good is itself the greatest and 
 contributes most to the improvement of our character, and to the 
 advancement of our happiness. And what principle is that which 
 prompts us to do the greatest good, but the principle of love — love to 
 God and love to man ? Its greatness consists in, or arises from, its 
 use. It is like the heart in the human body. It is the greatest and 
 the most laborious: the ruler, and yet the servant of all. Such should 
 be the measure of human greatness, as that which the Creator has 
 appointed, and which the Saviour taught. 
 
 12. And as with greatness, so with humility. Humility does not 
 consist in occupying a lowly place, but in cultivating a lowly state : 
 and a lowly state is one in which there is an abnegation of self. Self- 
 seeking is self-exaltation ; self-abnegation is humiliation. And whoso- 
 ever shall exalt himself shall he abased ; and he that shall humble himself 
 shall he exalted. When self is exalted, self itself becomes abased, and 
 the whole man degraded. But when self is humbled, by being made 
 to take the lowest place, it is exalted ; for self-love itself is purified 
 and dignified by being subordinated and made subservient to the love 
 of God and the neighbour. And, indeed, "when man denies his own 
 selfhood the Lord gives him a new and heavenly selfhood. A man’s 
 selfhood is really himself — his inner life — the complex of all the thoughts 
 and affections that form his conscious being — that which he calls me. 
 This by nature is evil. But so far as it is subdued, so far the Lord 
 
500 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXIII. 
 
 gives him a new selfhood ; for he makes him a new creature, having 
 new thoughts and affections, and the me becomes the consciousness of 
 another and higher life. And this new selfhood which the Divine 
 power builds up on the ruins of the natural selfhood is a truer self 
 than that which it disinherits and succeeds ; for the more completely 
 a man becomes the Lord’s, the more perfectly he becomes his own. 
 His conscious life is exalted. His liberty and rationality, his percep- 
 tions and delights, are of a higher order : they were natural, now they 
 are spiritual ; they were earthly, now they are heavenly. 
 
 13. While this is the happy experience of those who have found 
 true greatness in serving, and true exaltation in humility, unhappy is 
 the experience of those who live in the exaltation of self above all 
 that is divine and heavenly. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, 
 hypocrites ! As true life consists in making all that is of self to 
 humble itself under and serve God, so false life consists in making all 
 that is of God submit to and serve self. This is hypocrisy, for it makes 
 the life holy outwardly, and profane inwardly. The effect of this our 
 Lord describes. Ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men. 
 Considered in reference to the individual, heaven is the spiritual mind, 
 whicn is an image of heaven, as the natural mind is an image of the 
 world. This heaven is closed by evil, and especially by the sin of 
 hypocrisy. The “men” against whom it is closed are the truths of 
 the Word, which have been learnt, but only admitted into the natural 
 mind, and there kept to serve a natural purpose. The Lord says 
 further, ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are enter- 
 ing to go in. Themselves — their thoughts and affections, which 
 constitute themselves — they never raise above nature and the natural 
 mind into the spiritual world and the spiritual mind, that they may 
 become spiritual, nor do they suffer the truths of the Word, which, in 
 their very nature, seek an upward course, to enter into that region of 
 the mind for which they were designed ; for as they came down from 
 God out of heaven, so have they an inherent desire to ascend into 
 heaven, and return to God again. He who remains natural does not 
 suffer them to enter there ; and both they and their recipient remain 
 natural and dead — nay, truths, in themselves holy, are profaned, because 
 made instruments of evil ends. This state of life is that to which 
 the woe belongs ; for he who shuts his mind against the inward and 
 sincere reception of goodness and truth, shuts it against the blessing 
 which these heavenly principles carry in their bosom. 
 
 14. But these are not the only evils they commit, or the only 
 blessings they exclude. Woe unto you , scnbes and Pharisees , hypocrites l 
 
Chap. XXIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 501 
 
 for ye devour widows' houses , and for a pretence make long prayer. 
 Widows signify those who are in good and desire truth; abstractly, 
 good which desires truth. The house of the widow denotes the faculty 
 itself, the will, in which the good resides, and also the means by which 
 the principle of good is supported ; for the house includes the living as 
 well as the dwelling of the widow. To devour widows’ houses is to 
 take away the very faculty of loving and doing good. This hypocrisy 
 does. It deprives the will of all good, and even of all the power of 
 willing good ; for it destroys not only good itself, but the remains of 
 good, on which the very faculty depends. Connected with the devour- 
 ing widows’ houses there is the making of long prayers for a pretence. 
 What can be more profane than a practice or a single act which at once 
 mocks God and deceives men ? It was by their long prayers that the 
 Pharisees deceived and robbed the widows. So it is, when the under- 
 standing becomes the slave of the will, that it garnishes the foulest 
 deeds with the fairest appearances. But the greater the pretence 
 the deeper the degradation; he who steals into the hearts of others 
 eats out his own. Therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. 
 This is a warning to avoid that which brings upon the soul the more 
 grievous punishments. 
 
 15. But there are other charges against the hypocrites, and more 
 woes, as the consequence of their sins. Woe unto you , scribes and 
 Pharisees , hypocrites ! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte , 
 and when he is made , ye make him twofold more the child of hell than 
 yourselves. This other charge is a severe rebuke to the sectarian spirit 
 and zeal which seek to make converts, not for their sake, but for the 
 sake of a particular faith. It does not condemn the propagation of the 
 truth, but it condemns the making of proselytes for purposes of power 
 and ostentation. Spiritually, it has a still more practical meaning. 
 Sea and land are the literal sense of the Word as to truth and good. 
 To compass sea and land to make one proselyte, is to search the whole 
 Word to pervert one truth to favour self-love, and assist that love in 
 attaining its object. The proselyte is said to be made twofold more 
 the child of hell than those who convert him ; for truth falsified is 
 worse than simple falsity. It unites in itself what is evil and false, 
 which is its twofold character; for such is the character implied in 
 being a child of hell ; hell being the evil that gives birth to falsity, 
 and the child of hell being the falsity that is born of evil. 
 
 16-19. From the doings of the scribes and Pharisees the Lord 
 turns to their teaching. Woe unto you , ye blind guides. They were 
 intellectually blind, — keen-siglited enough to see what related to their 
 
502 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Ciiap. XXIII. 
 
 temporal interest, but unable to discern what concerned their eternal 
 welfare. Blind guides are all those who are of such a character, and 
 a blind guide is the understanding that is under such an influence. 
 Which say , Whosoever shall swear by the temple , it is nothing ; but v:ho- 
 soever shall swear by the gold of the temple , he is a debtor / Ye fools and 
 blind: for whether is greater , the gold , or the temple that sanctifieth the 
 gold? And , Whosoever shall swear by the altar , it is nothing; but v:ho- 
 soever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. Ye fools and 
 blind: for whether is greater , the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the 
 gift? From these words it appears that the Pharisees instructed the 
 people that to swear or vow by the temple or the altar was nothing, 
 but that to swear by the gold of the temple and by the offering upon 
 the altar made one a debtor. It is difficult to conceive how human 
 ingenuity could devise such perverse trifles; and this shows how the 
 learned among* the Jews had multiplied observances, and laid upon 
 men burdens grievous to be borne. It is well for us that these parti- 
 culars have a higher sense, and teach us lessons of deeper interest to 
 our souls. To swear, in the Word, spiritually means to confirm truth; 
 and the question is, Whence is confirmation? We must know the 
 spiritual meaning of the things which are here mentioned, as the 
 objects that were and were not to be sworn by. The temple repre- 
 sented the Lord as to his Divine humanity, which is the temple of 
 his body, specifically, the Lord as to divine truth; and the altar re- 
 presented the Lord as to divine good. The temple and the altar 
 were, for this reason, most holy objects, and the origin of all sancti- 
 fication. And so is the Lord, whom they represented, the origin of 
 all confirmation. God must be his own witness. He is the author of 
 faith as well as of truth; of love as well as of good. We must, 
 therefore, swear by the temple and the altar. To swear by the gold in 
 the temple, and by the gift upon the altar, is to confirm truth and good 
 by something lower and less than the Lord’s truth and good : it is to 
 seek in the finite what can only be found in the infinite; it is to place 
 our trust in something that is not holy in itself, but is dependent for 
 its sanctity on him who is holiness itself. The gold of the temple 
 had the same signification as the gold of the tabernacle; and this was 
 contributed by the Israelites themselves out of that which they had 
 borrowed from the Egyptians. The gold of the temple owed all its 
 sanctity to the temple, as the offering laid upon the altar owed all its 
 sanctity to the altar on which it was laid. To swear by the gold of 
 the temple and the gift that is laid upon the altar, is therefore to 
 confirm good and truth, not by that which is divine, but by that 
 
Chap. XXIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 503 
 
 which, at the best, is sanctified thereby. He that confirms good and 
 truth by the less excludes the greater, but he who confirms them by 
 the greater includes the less. 
 
 20-22. Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar , sweareth by it , and 
 by all things thereon , and so with the temple. The supreme authority 
 includes in it every lower authority in harmony with it, or that is 
 sanctified by it. But the Lord adds, And whoso shall swear by the 
 temple , sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. And he that shall 
 swear by heaven , sweareth by the throne of God , and by him that sitteth 
 thereon. It seems as if this were swearing by the lower, and that the 
 lower included the higher. We must attend to the meaning of the 
 Lord’s declaration. To swear by something less than the temple, is 
 to appeal to an authority that is less than divine; and this, as it 
 excludes the temple of the Lord’s body, excludes the divinity that 
 dwelleth therein; but the acknowledgment of the Lord’s humanity 
 includes the acknowledgment of his indwelling divinity. “ He that 
 hath the Son hath the Father.” On the same principle the acknow- 
 ledgment of heaven as God’s throne includes the acknowledgment of 
 him that sitteth thereon. Heaven as God’s throne is the Lord’s divine 
 truth in heaven, and his government* derived from it there. But 
 heaven signifies also the spiritual sense of the Word, the divine sense 
 therein is his throne, the Divine itself being him that sitteth thereon. 
 To swear by heaven is to acknowledge the spirituality and divinity of 
 the Word, as to swear by the temple is to acknowledge the divinity 
 of the Lord — that is, the divinity of his humanity. And he who 
 acknowledges the divinity of the Word and the divinity of the Lord, 
 swears by none other. To them he looks for all truth and goodness, 
 and to them for that confirmation that can make them principles of 
 the heart and life. 
 
 23. Our Lord proceeds to pronounce the woe of other evils upon 
 the scribes and Pharisees, as hypocrites. Woe unto you , scribes 
 and Pharisees, hypocrites l for ye pay tithe of mint and anise 
 and cummin , and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, 
 judgment, mercy, and faith. They were scrupulous about the observ- 
 ance of the ceremonial law, but neglected the observance of the moral 
 law. While the Lord condemns this conduct, he does not, on the 
 other hand, teach men to observe the moral and neglect the ceremonial. 
 These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. The 
 moral is the essential, the ceremonial is the formal. The formal may 
 exclude the essential, but the essential does not exclude the formal. 
 He who does the greater will not leave the less undone. He who 
 
504 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Ciiap. XXIII. 
 
 pays tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin may omit judgment, 
 mercy, and truth ; but he who does justice, mercy, and truth will not 
 forget the mint, and anise, and cummin. There may be piety without 
 religion, but there cannot be religion without piety. There must 
 be the judgment of intelligence in the understanding, the mercy of 
 love in the heart, and the works of truth or faith in the life. And 
 these, while they go forth in service to men, will also go forth in piety 
 to God. 
 
 24. Further, the Pharisees were called blind guides , which strain 
 at a gnat , and sivallow a camel . As the Pharisees’ love of virtue was 
 shown only in trifles, so was their hatred of vice. How much is this 
 still the case ! Many who would think it a sin to do or permit any- 
 thing inconsistent with a rigid observance of the Sabbath see no sin 
 in pursuing a devouring selfishness all the other six days of the week. 
 But all are prone to this inconsistency. The ruling love blinds us to 
 selfishness, and the love of reputation makes us scrupulous about 
 little things that come not in the way of our leading object. But 
 this saying of our Lord has a more interior sense. The gnat and the 
 camel, considered as food, were both unclean ; but the gnat, as a 
 winged insect, signifies an object of thought ; and the camel, as a 
 beast, signifies an object of affection : that belongs to the under- 
 standing, this to the will. In this view we strain at a gnat and 
 swallow a camel, when we are scrupulous about trifling errors and 
 unscrupulous about great evils. 
 
 25. We come to the cause of all this Pharisaic conduct and teach- 
 ing. Woe unto you , scribes and Pharisees , hypocrites ! for ye make 
 clean the outside of the cup and of the platter , but within they are full of 
 extortion and excess. The inside and outside of the cup and platter are 
 the internal and the external man. In the internal are principles, in 
 the external are rules ; in the internal are motives, in the external 
 are actions. He who observes rules, but disregards principles — he 
 who attends to his actions, but pays no attention to his motives — 
 cleanses the outside, but leaves the inside corrupt and unclean. But 
 this difference between the internal and external extends both to the 
 understanding and will, and to things both good and true. The cup 
 is the understanding, because it contains wine or other liquid, which 
 signifies truth ; and the platter is the will, because it contains food, 
 which signifies good. The cup is clean without but unclean within, 
 when a man speaks well and thinks ill ; and the platter is clean with- 
 out and unclean within, when a man acts well and intends ill. When 
 a man utters habitually with his lips what he disbelieves in his 
 
Chap. XXIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 505 
 
 thoughts, and when he habitually does in his outward life what in 
 his heart he hates or despises, then, however clean the outside may be, 
 the inside is full of extortion and excess — that is, of evil and falsity. 
 
 26. The Lord exhorts the blind Pharisee to cleanse first that which is 
 within the cup and platter , that the outside of them may be clean also. W e 
 are instructed in these words that the cleansing of the inside secures 
 the cleansing of the outside, although it does not follow that the cleans- 
 ing of the outside effects that of the inside. There is no purification of 
 the moral and spiritual life without that of the motives. While the 
 ends of life remain unchanged, the whole man remains unchanged. 
 Man is such as his ends are. The ends of life with every one, by 
 nature, are to love himself and the world above all things. A man 
 may pursue these ends by a virtuous as v T ell as by a vicious life and 
 conversation. If the ends remain and have possession of the mind, 
 no essential change is effected by a respectable life, even should it be 
 saintly in appearance. It is above all things necessary, therefore, to 
 attend to the state of the internal, and remove evil from the motives, 
 as well as from the actions, and falses from the thoughts as well as 
 from the words, which, is, to remove them from the sight of God as 
 well as of men. We must not, however, run into the error that it is 
 only necessary to attend to the internal, or to imagine that if we take 
 care of the motives, the actions may be left to take care of themselves. 
 It is highly important to attend to the actions as well as the motives. 
 Although the actions may be good and the end evil, the end cannot 
 be good and the actions evil. We may do good to serve a bad end, 
 but we cannot do evil to serve a good end. While evils continue to 
 disfigure the life, we may be sure that there are evil motives behind 
 them. But the object of our Lord’s present exhortation is, to make 
 the inside clean where there is an appearance of cleanness outwardly. 
 And mere outward cleanness is only apparent. Outward goodness is 
 produced and maintained by pressure from without ; and whenever 
 that pressure is removed, good gives "way, and evil flows from its 
 fountain in the heart. The really clean external can only be produced 
 from a clean internal. And the cleansing of the external is, even 
 when the internal has been cleansed, a distinct and divine w r ork. 
 The Lord taught this both representatively and verbally when he 
 washed the disciples’ feet. “ He that is washed,” said our Lord, 
 “ needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit.” Though 
 cleansed within, we still require to be cleansed without. And this 
 cleansing, as well as the other, must be effected by the Lord. “ If 
 I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.” 
 
506 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXIII. 
 
 27-28. Another and still stronger image of the Pharisaic state is pre- 
 sented by the Lord in his address. Woe unto you, scribes and Phari- 
 sees, hypocrites ! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres , which indeed 
 appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead mens bones, and 
 of all uncleanness. In the figure here presented before us we see that 
 both the internal and external of a man who is spiritually dead are 
 unclean, and that there is nothing to conceal or relieve the gloom of 
 the living death, and of man’s unrenewed nature, but the colour that 
 has been laid upon the surface of the external, as the sepulchre in 
 which the internal is entombed, to make it “ appear beautiful out- 
 ward.” How startling is it to think that mere outward good is but 
 the gilding of a tomb, and that if sin be our state, when a few short 
 years shall usher us into eternity, nothing will be seen but death and 
 corruption. Then will it be revealed that evils, like sepulchres, are 
 full of falsities, which are as dead men’s bones, and of all unclean 
 thoughts and desires. The expression, “ dead men’s bones,” is signifi- 
 cant ; for men signify truths, and dead men are truths deprived of 
 good, which is the life of truth ; and the bones of “ dead men ” are 
 the mere scientifics or knowledges of truth. As the bones, though 
 the beautiful framework of a human body as the organ of life, are 
 in themselves inert, and by themselves serve but to symbolize and 
 show the work of death, so do the mere knowledges of truth serve 
 but as a foundation on which to build a body of faith and love that 
 may live, and breathe, and act, but without which they are but the 
 spectral evidences of spiritual and eternal death. Even so ye also out- 
 wardly appear righteous unto m,en, but within ye are full of hypocrisy 
 and iniquity. 
 
 29, 30. Another woe is pronounced on the Pharisees, because, said 
 our Lord, ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepvlchres 
 of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we 
 would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. 
 The building of these sepulchres seems like a pious acknowledgment; 
 of the merit of the prophets, and a mark of disapprobation of the con- 
 duct of their forefathers for having killed them. But we are to 
 consider that our Lord, as one who knew the heart, spoke to the 
 conscience of the Pharisees, and appealed to that inward witness, that 
 yet, even in these pious acts, they were playing the hypocrite. Like 
 their other good deeds, these were done to deceive others into a belief 
 that they were friends of the prophets and righteous men whom their 
 fathers had slain — that they were doing homage to their worth and to 
 their faithfulness as servants of God. 
 
Ciiap. XXIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 £07 
 
 31. The Lord therefore says, Wherefore ye be witnesses unto your - 
 selves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Their 
 conscience bore witness to the truth of his accusation. To understand 
 the meaning of the accusation, it may be necessary to call to mind the 
 words of the Lord to a disciple who, in answer to his request to be 
 allowed to go and bury his father, was addressed in the striking words, 
 “Let the dead bury their dead, but come thou and follow me.” The 
 dead Pharisees were burying their dead. They were honouring the 
 dead messenger while they were dishonouring his living message. To 
 see its spiritual lesson, we must consider the spiritual sense of the 
 particulars. Prophets and righteous men are the principles of truth 
 and goodness. The fathers of the Jewish people killed the prophets, 
 and they built their sepulchres. “A sepulchre, in the internal sense of 
 the Word, signifies life or heaven, and in the opposite, death or hell. 
 It signifies life or heaven, because the angels, who are in the internal 
 sense of the Word, have no idea of a sepulchre, since they have no idea 
 of death. Instead of a sepulchre, therefore, they perceive the con- 
 tinuation of life, consequently resurrection; for man rises again as to 
 his spirit, and is buried as to his body. And since burial signifies 
 resurrection, it signifies also regeneration; for regeneration is man’s 
 first resurrection, inasmuch as he dies as to the old man, and rises again 
 as to the new. By regeneration, man, from being dead, becomes alive. 
 Hence the signification of a sepulchre. But a sepulchre, in the 
 opposite sense, signifies death or hell, because the wicked do not rise 
 again to life ; and therefore, when the subject treated of is concerning 
 the wicked, and mention is made of a sepulchre, then there occurs to 
 the angels no other idea than that of hell : this is the reason that hell 
 in the Word is called a sepulchre.” The tombs which the Pharisees 
 built for the prophets, and the sepulchres they garnished for the 
 righteous, have this last signification. Not that the prophets were 
 wicked, but that the Pharisees built their sepulchres for the wicked 
 purpose of making religious capital out of the hypocritical homage 
 they thus rendered to those whom their fathers had slain. Their 
 fathers killed the prophets, and they completed what their fathers had 
 done. And, indeed, their “fathers” signify the evils of self-love and 
 the love of the world, and they, as their “sons,” signify the falses 
 derived from these evils. And evils kill, and falses cast out and bury, 
 or, as in the case of the Pharisees, build and garnish the tombs into 
 which rejected good and truth have been cast. To build the tombs of 
 the prophets is to rear up false persuasions over the truths that have 
 been destroyed — yet false persuasions, that have the appearance of 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 508 
 
 [Chap. XXIII. 
 
 truth, that seem to honour the dead, while they are only intended to 
 do honour to those who buried them. 
 
 32. While blaming the conduct of their fathers, and protesting that, 
 if they were in the days of their fathers, they would not have been 
 partakers with them in the blood of the prophets, they were perse- 
 cuting Jesus as the prophet whose blood they finally shed, as their 
 fathers had done the blood of them who were but his servants and 
 representatives. In this did they truly and terribly fulfil the Lord’s 
 words: Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. But this has a 
 lesson for us. The sons fill up the measure of their fathers when false 
 principles are replete with evil. There are false persuasions which 
 have good within them ; but false principles that have an evil purpose, 
 and are constantly employed to promote it, are of the character of the 
 descendents of the murderers of the prophets. 
 
 33. Well, therefore, might our Lord, who knew their hearts and 
 saw their end, address them in the language of an awful condemna- 
 tion. Ye serpents , ye generation of vipers , how can ye escape the 
 damnation of hell ? When the principles of good and truth are 
 destroyed in the inner man, and their tombs are built and their sepul- 
 chres adorned in the outer man, the man has become entirely sensual 
 both as to will and understanding, his affections being serpents, and 
 his thoughts thence derived a generation of vipers, — a state that 
 cannot escape the judgment of hell, because in itself it is all which 
 that dreadful word implies. 
 
 34. But our Lord not merely shows the scribes and Pharisees 
 what they were, and what they had done and become: he tells 
 them also what they would in future do — that they would in fact do 
 with the prophets of the new dispensation as their fathers had done 
 with those of the old. Wherefore , behold , I send unto you prophets , 
 and wise men, and scribes. Spiritually, prophets are the truth of 
 doctrine, wise men are the good of doctrine, and scribes are the truths 
 of the Word relating to both. In the present instance these are 
 principles that proceed from the Lord, and testify of him, for he says, 
 “ / send unto you.” The prophets whom their fathers killed were those 
 that Jehovah sent; the prophets the sons killed were those that Jesus 
 sent. Of the individual, equally as of the race, the Lord’s remarkable 
 words are true, “ My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” And 
 this successive working is with the children of disobedience as well as 
 with the children of obedience. The Divine love works especially in 
 early life, and the Divine wisdom works especially in mature 
 life. He who receives the teaching of love is likely to receive 
 
Chap. XXIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 509 
 
 the teaching of wisdom ; hut he who rejects the teaching of love is 
 likely to reject the teaching of wisdom. He who kills the prophets 
 and righteous men of Jehovah, is likely to kill the prophets and wise 
 men of Jesus. Our Lord gives a description of this sin. And some 
 of them ye shall kill and crucify. There were two kinds of capital 
 punishment among the Jews — stoning and crucifying. The first of 
 these represented the extinction of the life of truth by falsity, and the 
 other represented the extinction of the life of good by evil. The same 
 is signified here by killing and crucifying. But the Lord says further, 
 And some of them ye shall scourge in your synagogues, and 'persecute them 
 from city to city. It is still true of the evil, that some of the principles 
 of spiritual life they kill and crucify, and some they persecute and 
 scourge. That is spiritually killed which is rejected from the heart 
 and understanding, and has no share in the regulation of the life; that 
 is scourged and persecuted which, though not entirely rejected, is yet 
 hated and condemned. A synagogue and a city both signify doctrine; 
 but one signifies the doctrine of internal, the other of external good 
 and truth, or, in the opposite sense, of evil and falsity. To scourge is 
 to pervert, and to persecute from city to city is to falsify the truth in 
 every doctrine of the church — always to hate, and ever to oppose the 
 truth. Taking the particulars of the passage in a series, we find that 
 to kill has reference to the truth of the doctrine of the church, which 
 is a prophet ; to crucify has reference to the good of doctrine, which 
 is a wise man; and to scourge has reference to the Word, which is a 
 scribe ; and so, to kill is to extinguish, to crucify is to destroy, to 
 scourge is to pervert, and to persecute from city to city is to pursue 
 from one false doctrine to another. The whole implies, therefore, 
 every degree of hostility and opposition to the heavenly principles of 
 good and truth, and to the Word itself, consequently to him from 
 whom the Word and all its saving principles proceed. 
 
 35. The Lord concludes by saying that they had done all this, 
 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, 
 from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son 
 of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. 
 Although this at first sight may seem to favour the notion that the 
 sins of one generation are sometimes punished on another, yet the 
 reasonable view of the passage, even in its literal sense, is, that as 
 the generation whom the Lord was addressing had filled up the 
 measure of their fathers’ sins, so they had filled up the measure of 
 their punishment. But the Lord’s declaration has a spiritual sense, 
 which its nature almost necessarily suggests. In the spiritual sense, 
 
510 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXIII. 
 
 Abel means those who are in the good of charity, and, abstractly, that 
 good itself; and Cain, who slew Abel, means those who make faith 
 alone the means or condition of salvation, and disesteem the good of 
 charity, and therefore slay it. Zacharias signifies those who are in 
 the truth of doctrine, and, abstractly, the truth of doctrine itself. 
 Hence the blood of both signifies the extinction of all good and truth. 
 Slaying Zacharias between the temple and the altar signifies all 
 manner of rejection of the Lord ; for the temple signifies the Lord as 
 to divine truth, and the altar the Lord as to divine good, and 
 between them signifies both together. 
 
 36. When the Lord said, Verily I say unto you, All these things shall 
 come upon this generation, his words spiritually express the fact, that 
 with the Jewish church the whole series of dispensations expired. 
 That which was begun in the first church, and which had gradually 
 declined, became extinct by the consummation of the Jewish. The 
 soul of lives — the lives of love and faith — breathed into the first 
 Adam, had been quenched in the blood of the righteous and faithful, 
 and in the last generation was completed what had been begun in 
 the first. 
 
 37. But this ruin had not progressed to completion without the 
 efforts of Infinite love to prevent it. Our Lord, apostrophising 
 Jerusalem as the symbol of the entire church, as well as of the 
 Jewish, exclaims, 0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, 
 and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have 
 gathered thy children together, even as a lien gatlieretli her chickens under 
 her wings, and ye would not! Not only rhetorically, but morally and 
 spiritually, sublime and beautiful is this passage of the holy Word — 
 these words of Him who spake as never man spake, because he felt and 
 thought as never man did. How full of tenderness, how overflowing 
 with love, is this marvellous address ! It displays the Divine character 
 and dealings in the most touching and convincing manner. But let 
 us venture to look at it more closely, and examine it more minutely. 
 Notwithstanding Jerusalem killed and stoned the messengers he sent, 
 the Lord never ceased to desire and endeavour to draw her children 
 under the shelter of his own loving wisdom. The Lord, as Jehovah, 
 had done what, as Jesus, he had come to do — to seek and to save that 
 which was lost. As Jehovah he uses the same language to express 
 his tender care over his people. “ As an eagle stirreth up her nest, 
 fluttereth over her young, spreadetli abroad her wings, taketh them, 
 beareth them on her wings : so the Lord alone did lead him, and 
 there was no strange god with him ” (Deut. xxxii. 11, 12). All com- 
 
Chap. XXIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 511 
 
 parisons in the Word are grounded in correspondence. The flutter- 
 ing of a bird over her young, and her solicitude to gather the little 
 wanderers under the shelter of her soft and downy wings, present a 
 series of beautiful and expressive images. But expressive as the 
 images are, feebly can they express the infinite, omnipresent, and all- 
 embracing love of God in his providential care of his people. Wings 
 are the emblems of preservation and defence ; and those are exercised 
 over us by the Lord from his infinite love by his infinite wisdom. 
 Since the Incarnation, this imagery has a still more expressive and 
 comforting significance. As the Lord was the Word or the Wisdom 
 made flesh, in the humanity we see the wings, the stretching out of 
 which “ shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel ” (Isa. viii. 
 
 8) ; the wings under the shadow of which men put their trust, as 
 sufficient for their protection (Ps. xxxvi. 7); in the shadow of which 
 they make their refuge, till the calamities of trial are overpast (Ps. 
 lvii. 1); and in the shadow of which they rejoice when they find in 
 Jesus their Comforter, after successful temptation and faithful proba- 
 tion (Ps. lxiii. 7). The Jews refused to be gathered under the ever- • 
 lasting wings ; but let us accept the call, and place ourselves under 
 the protecting and cherishing care of Him who invites all to himself. 
 
 38. To those whom he would have gathered, but who would not, the 
 Lord said, Behold , your house is left unto you desolate. Literally, this 
 relates to the temple, as their “ holy and beautiful house, where their 
 fathers praised Jehovah,” and the desolation of which our Lord declared 
 to be so complete that one stone should not be left upon another 
 that should not be thrown down. The taking of Jerusalem and the 
 destruction of the temple were the political effects, as they were the 
 awfully expressive symbols, of the complete end and utter desolation of 
 the Jewish church. Considered in its spiritual application to the evil 
 individually, the house is an emblem of the mind. And when every- 
 thing spiritual and heavenly is destroyed within it, and the Lord 
 himself is spurned as evil, desolation reigns. Evil and falsehood 
 desolate ; they are the destruction of all that is good, and beautiful, 
 and happy. 
 
 39. The Saviour concludes : For I say unto you , Ye shall not see me 
 henceforth , till ye shall say , Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the 
 Lord. This has caused perplexity to those who think of no sense but 
 that of the words in their mere literal meaning. We shall not enter 
 into the difficulties of the literal sense, but offer some remarks on the 
 passage as containing a spiritual meaning. The declaration of our 
 Lord contains this great lesson, that as evil blinds the understanding 
 
512 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Ciiap. XXIY. 
 
 to the perception of the Lord’s truth, so good only can open our 
 intellectual eyes to see the blessed vision of the Lord coming as the 
 Saviour of the soul. Jesus coming in the name of the Lord is divine 
 truth coming in the spirit and power of divine love. But we cannot 
 say “ Blessed ” to this messenger of peace until we have the love of God 
 dwelling in us. “ Ho man cometh unto me, except the Father, 
 which hath sent me, draw him.” One cause of our not seeing the 
 Lord with the eye of faith is, that we do not desire him with a heart 
 of love. In fact, we look at him as coming in his own name, and not 
 in the name of the Lord, or Jehovah. That is to say, we regard him as 
 truth, but not as good. And he who sees Jesus as the truth only, 
 sees him not — acknowledges him not. It is only when he is seen as 
 the good also, that he is hailed as the blessed, and that he makes us 
 blest. And what is the reason of this difference? We see the Lord 
 as truth alone when we ourselves are in truth alone, or when we 
 regard the Lord from the intellect ; and we see the Lord as truth full 
 of goodness and love when we ourselves look at him from the heart, 
 or from good and love in ourselves. Happy are they who thus regard 
 the Lord. They indeed can say, “ Blessed is he that cometh in the 
 name of the Lord.” 
 
 CHAPTER, XXIY. 
 
 1. After the Lord had delivered his discourse to the scribes and 
 Pharisees, in which he described, under their awfully corrupt and 
 hypocritical character, that of the church of which they were the 
 representatives, he went out , and departed from the temple. This was 
 the Lord’s last visit to the temple, and his final departure from it. 
 How solemn and significant, under such circumstances, are the words, 
 he “went out, and departed from the temple!” — a sign to the Jews 
 that their house was left unto them desolate. He was the glory of 
 their house, and his departure from the temple, after this his last visit 
 to it, made it truly like Israel when the ark of God was taken — 
 “ Ichabod, the glory is departed.” But this symbolical act, as well 
 as the prophetic discourse that followed it, is not to be understood in 
 reference to the Jewish church only, but is descriptive of the state of 
 the Christian church — of that dispensation of the church, at least, 
 which had its commencement at the time of our Lord’s first advent. 
 For the church itself, as consisting of the essential principles of reli- 
 gion, never dies, though dispensations come and disappear. The 
 
Chap. XXIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 513 
 
 Christian church will continue for ever; but the dispensation which 
 was formed after the Jewish had passed away was destined to come 
 to an end, to be succeeded by another ; that is, the Lord’s first coming, 
 in the flesh, was to be succeeded by his second coming, in the spirit. It 
 is reasonable, indeed, to suppose that the Christian church should con- 
 sist of more than one dispensation. We are to date the upward pro- 
 gress of the church, and of the human race, from the time of the Lord’s 
 birth into the world. From the fall to the Incarnation, the church 
 and the world had progressively descended, till they had become 
 so utterly corrupt that the remedy could be no longer delayed. 
 Yet we know that the church did not decline by imperceptible, but by 
 distinctly-marked degrees : it consisted not of one dispensation, but of 
 several. There was the first dispensation, commencing with, or called 
 Adam ; there was a second, commencing with, or named Noah ; and 
 there was a third, commencing with Israel. This last was, however, 
 rather the representative of a church than a real church : it was the 
 shadow of what was to come. Excluding this, the Israelitish, there 
 were two other dispensations possessing the real characters of a church. 
 If, then, the church descended by two distinct dispensations, it is 
 reasonable to suppose that it should also ascend by two. And such 
 may be seen to be the case. The New Testament, while it records the 
 Lord’s first coming, gives the promise of a second. As the progress of 
 the church and of humanity must be, in a certain sense, a return 
 towards the state of innocence and wisdom from which they departed, 
 we find this shadow'ed forth in the Scriptures themselves. Revelation 
 ends, as it begins, with the description of an exalted state of the church 
 and of man ; and, by the same figures, at the end of the Apocalypse, 
 there is the creation of a new heaven and a new earth. On this new 
 earth there is a paradise, with the river of the water of life flowing 
 through it, and the tree of life growing in it. Yet there is a differ- 
 ence between this and the first paradise, such as is entirely consistent 
 with the altered state and condition of man. The second Eden unites 
 a garden and a city, for man has added science to wisdom; and the 
 tree of life not only bears fruit that is good for food, but produces 
 leaves that are good for medicine, for man now requires not only to 
 be fed but restored. The Lord’s second coming is commonly connected 
 with the end of the world; but this arises from misapprehending the 
 meaning of the Scriptures, the end of the church being meant by the 
 end which they predict. The knowledge of this was, no doubt, pro- 
 videntially hid from the members of the first dispensation of the 
 Christian church* and is only now revealed because the event itself 
 
514 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XX IT. 
 
 lias revealed it. It is in reference to these dispensations of the 
 Christian church that we are to understand this remarkable prophecy. 
 It treats of the decline and end of one, and the beginning and progress 
 of the other. It is fraught with matter of the deepest interest and of 
 the greatest importance. To read it aright will enable us to see some 
 of the deepest mysteries of the kingdom, in the providential operations 
 of the Lord, in relation to his church on earth, as an instrument of 
 his saving mercy. When Jesus had departed from the temple, his 
 disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple. The 
 Lord knew more of the temple than the disciples could show him, but 
 this took place and is recorded for the purpose of teaching us that the 
 Lord explores the church by means of the truths of his W ord. Ex- 
 ploration always precedes judgment. And when the Lord leaves a 
 church, which is a consequence of the church having so profaned the 
 sanctuary that he can no longer dwell therein, he only returns to it as 
 a Judge; for when the church completely rejects the Lord’s truth, or 
 places itself in opposition to it, the truth cannot act otherwise towards 
 it than as a judge. Although the grand object of the Lord’s coming 
 was for salvation, it was also, though secondarily, for judgment 
 (John ix. 39). 
 
 2. After the disciples had shown him the buildings of the temple, 
 Jesus turns to them and pronounces the doom of the sacred structure 
 to which his attention had been drawn. See ye not all these things ? 
 verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon 
 another , that shall not be thrown doivn. How solemn and expressive ! 
 Not less so spiritually than naturally. The stones of the temple were 
 symbols of the truths which constitute the church — collectively, of those 
 truths built up into a system of religious doctrine. The temple aptly 
 represented a system of doctrinal truths framed by the wisdom of 
 man ; for the temple which then existed was not Solomon’s, but had 
 been built by Herod. Nevertheless it represented the principles of 
 the church as a unity — such as that which the Jewish hierarchy 
 elaborated, but which was no more like a heaven- derived form of pure 
 and sound doctrine than the temple of Herod was like that of Solomon. 
 Yet there it stood in its entirety and seeming stability. But the 
 hand of him whose touch reduces things of human creation to their 
 original elements was upon it. Its stones were to be thrown down 
 and dispersed. The result in such cases is, that the unity of the 
 church is broken up, though the elements are preserved. And so we 
 find even in our own day that amid the desolation of the Christian 
 sanctuary, many single truths are preserved, though they no longer 
 
Chap. XXIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 515 
 
 exist in such a unity as to form a whole. Their connection is broken, 
 their unity is destroyed. We may see and admire many particular 
 truths, but we no longer see them in combination, such as that which 
 made them rise in a form of beauty, a house of prayer, the place 
 where God inscribed his name. There is not left one stone upon 
 another, that is not thrown down. 
 
 3. Having uttered this general declaration respecting the fate of 
 the temple, the Lord retired, and sat upon the mount of Olives, where 
 he revealed, in all its length and breadth, the series of events connected 
 with and leading to that great overthrow of which the destruction 
 of the temple was the general type. His first prediction regarding 
 the destruction of the temple was addressed to the disciples generally ; 
 his discourse on the mount appears to have been uttered in the ears 
 of a few. Mark (xiii. 3) mentions Peter, and James, and John, and 
 Andrew. These representing the higher graces of the religious life 
 are capable of entering into the deeper mysteries of the kingdom, or 
 of seeing the particulars of those truths that come to the general 
 apprehension. Jesus sat on the mount of Olives. This mount itself 
 was the symbol of a high and holy principle. A mountain means 
 the principle of love ; and as the olive signifies the celestial prin- 
 ciple, the mount of Olives is the symbol of celestial love, — that 
 is, of the most heavenly of all loves — love to God. But in 
 reference to Jesus, who is now upon the mountain, it is the symbol 
 of divine love ; and when, as now, he sits upon it, and thus speaks 
 from it, we have a representation of the Lord, from the inmost of his 
 divine love, uttering the highest truths of his divine wisdom. Such 
 truly are the Lord’s words, spiritually understood. Indeed, he who 
 sees all the future, and who exercises a wise and beneficent providence 
 in all lie foresees, must be infinite both in love and wisdom. The dis- 
 ciples came unto him privately , and he speaks privately to them. They 
 enter with him, as it were, within the veil, and are there privileged 
 to see the unrolling of the book on which is written lamentations, 
 and mourning, and woe. Aware of the general import of the Lord’s 
 predicted destruction of the temple, the disciples say unto him, Tell 
 us, when shall these things he? and what shall he the sign of thy coming, 
 and of the end of the world? The disciples speak as persons who 
 understood the subject, and only ask about the time and the signs of 
 their occurrence. Time signifies state, for time is not predicable of 
 spiritual, but only of natural things. States are to the church and 
 the soul what times are to the world and the body. It is not the 
 knowledge of time, but of state, that enables us to see the character 
 
516 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXI V. 
 
 of the church. The disciples asked also to know the signs of the 
 Lord’s coming, and of the end. What are those signs 1 Spiritual 
 things are exhibited in natural things; and spiritual truths are 
 revealed in the symbolic language of the natural world by corre- 
 spondence. Correspondences, therefore, are the signs of the Lord’s 
 coming. These, as Luke (xxi. 11) terms them, are signs from heaven, 
 because correspondence has its origin in heaven. And these signs 
 are said ( v . 25) to be in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, 
 for these are symbols of love, faith, and knowledge, which are the 
 ruling principles of the church, and whose states they mark, having 
 been appointed for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years. 
 It is by these correspondences, as signs, that we are able to know the 
 nature of the Lord’s coming and of the end of the world. By them, 
 as the means of the right interpretation of the Word, we learn that 
 the coming of the Lord is not a personal coming, but a coming in 
 spirit, by a revealing of himself as the Truth, and by a perception 
 and reception of him as the Truth in the hearts and minds of men. 
 By the same means we learn that his coming is not to be attended by 
 the end of the world, but by the end of the church. Indeed, the 
 “ world” does not here mean the material frame of our globe : it means 
 an age or period in the history of the world, as when we speak of the 
 golden or of the silver age. The end of the world means, therefore, 
 literally, the consummation or conclusion of the age, or religious dis- 
 pensation. And this is the true meaning of the end of the world, 
 when the phrase occurs in the !New Testament, as is' evident from 
 other parts. Thus in Hebrews ix. 26, “ How once in the end of the 
 world hath he (Christ) appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of 
 himself.” And in 1 Cor. x. 11, “How all these things happened 
 unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, 
 on whom the ends of the world are come.” This is not, therefore, a 
 question of interpretation, but of translation. The end at which our 
 Lord came was, it is obvious, the end of the Jewish age, or dispensa- 
 tion ; and the passage can have no reference to the end of the physical 
 world. And the times in which the apostles lived were the ends of 
 the age which had come upon them. That which is connected with 
 the Lord’s second coming is an end of the same kind as that which 
 attended his first coming. The language in which they are described 
 is the same. What reason can there be for giving them an entirely 
 different signification ? If the end that marked his first coming was 
 the end of a church, it is only consistent to believe that the end that 
 is to mark his second coming must be the end of a church also. It 
 
Chap. XXIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 517 
 
 is difficult, indeed, for the members of the Christian church to believe 
 that the dispensation to which they belong can have an end as a 
 church. The Jews to this day reject the idea that their dispensation 
 has ceased, or can cease, to exist as a church. But the fact that the 
 first Christian dispensation would have an end ought to be admitted on 
 the simple ground of consistent interpretation, not to speak of trans- 
 lation. The Lord has promised to come a second time into the 
 world. That coming is to be accompanied with the end or consum- 
 mation of the age. What can this end be but the end of the age or 
 period of his first coming ? The end of the first age and the beginning 
 of the second are the end of the dispensation of his first advent and 
 the beginning of the dispensation of his second. It is true that the 
 end, and also the beginning, are described by other “signs” or images, 
 as the darkening of the sun and moon, and the falling of the stars ; 
 by the passing away of the heavens and the earth, and the creation of 
 a new heaven and a new earth in their place. We shall see that the 
 darkening of the luminaries of heaven is the darkening of the lights 
 of the church — the love, and truth, and knowledge by which the 
 church is enlightened and sustained. As to the passing away and 
 re-creation of heaven and earth, unfettered reason and common sense 
 may give the interpretation. What wisdom can there be in destroy- 
 ing one earth to create another? The material world is not at fault, 
 nor unfit for its purpose, that another should be required. But the 
 moral world, or rather the moral and religious age, may be at 
 fault, and require to be replaced by another and a better. The 
 church may wax old like a garment, and another suited to the 
 wants of the body — that body which never dies — may be absolutely 
 necessary. And such is promised — “ a new earth, wherein dwelleth 
 righteousness.” 
 
 4. To the inquiries of the disciples as to the time of the end and 
 the signs of his coming, the Lord answered, Take heed that no man 
 deceive you. This caution is greatly necessary in all matters of spirit- 
 ual and eternal interest, and not least in those which relate to Christ 
 himself and his kingdom, and still more in relation to his second than 
 to his first coming. The disciples are those who are principled in the 
 goods and truths of the church, and, abstractly, these principles them- 
 selves. That such persons require care in perilous times appears from 
 the Lord’s declaration, that in the last times such will be the power of 
 false Christs and prophets that “ if it were possible, they shall deceive 
 the very elect.” And then the truths themselves come to be so 
 ingeniously explained in favour of that which men love and practise, 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 518 
 
 [Chap. XXI Y. 
 
 that they lose the quality and power of truths, and virtually become 
 falsities. 
 
 5. While the Lord cautions the disciples against deception, he 
 describes the character of those who will try to deceive them. For 
 many shall come in my name , saying , I am Christ; and shall deceive 
 many. In the second century one appeared who called himself 
 the Christ — certainly, this has never yet been done by “ many.” 
 This, however, is not the Lord’s meaning. The Lord’s name 
 signifies that by which he is worshipped, and Christ is especially 
 expressive of his character as divine truth, as Jesus is of divine good. 
 Ealse Christs are false doctrines respecting Christ — falses which have 
 the appearance of truths. All false systems of Christianity are false 
 Christs. Christ in Christianity is all that is divine and saving in it: 
 in fact, he is Christianity itself, in its purity and perfection. Ealse 
 Christs are falsifications of the truth and perversions of the principles 
 of Christianity, which deprive it of its beneficent character and 
 saving power. Of such false Christs there may be, and doubtless have 
 been, and now are, many in the world. A Christianity without Christ 
 is itself false and deceptive. Emptied of the great truths which 
 Christ taught for the salvation of sinners, and filled with the ideas of 
 erring or interested men, such forms of false Christianity deceive 
 many ; for too many incline to the deception, and too readily fall under 
 it. Corruptions of Christianity, particularly as respects the character 
 of Christ, were early introduced into the Christian church ; and with 
 the division of the godhead and the degradation of Christ, the 
 doctrine of salvation by him has proportionally suffered. The result 
 is that state of things which our Lord next declares. 
 
 6. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars. Since it is not 
 the physical world, but the church, that is the subject of the prophecy, 
 these are not to be understood as political wars among the nations of 
 the earth, but spiritual wars among the members and parties in the 
 church. Natural wars come, indeed, of these spiritual discords, but 
 it is to the spiritual, and not to the natural, that the spiritual sense 
 of Scripture relates. The first wars that arose in the Christian church 
 were wars of opinion, and after them came wars of passion. These 
 are the wars and rumours of war of which our Lord speaks. Who- 
 ever is acquainted with the history of the early ages of the church, 
 when these disputes and conflicts prevailed, must be astonished to see 
 with what violence and bitterness they were conducted. The simple 
 and sincere members of the church must have been shocked and 
 appalled at the tremendous conflicts, and might well suppose such 
 
Ciiap. XXIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 519 
 
 perversions and divisions to be the signs of the final consumma- 
 tion predicted by the Lord, for they well knew it did not mean the 
 end of the world. To prevent such from being led into delusion, or 
 having their faith in the truth of Christianity destroyed, when they 
 thus saw it in a manner torn to pieces before their eyes, the Lord says, 
 see that ye be not troubled : for all these things must come to pass, but 
 the end is not yet. In reference to these, the Lord tells his disciples 
 to see that they be not troubled. The reason of this exhortation is, 
 that these first indications of troublous times are debates and 
 disputations about truth, arising from different views and feelings 
 respecting what it teaches ; and these are not such as to involve serious 
 opposition or danger to the principles of truth and good, which the 
 disciples represented. When the church has begun to decline, all these 
 things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. In these differences 
 there is neither the moral end of destroying the truth, nor the end of 
 the church, as its result. 
 
 7. But more serious calamities arise after, and out of these. For 
 
 nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom : 
 and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in 
 divers places. In the spiritual sense of Scripture nations mean 
 
 those who are in the love of evil, and, abstractly, evil itself as 
 
 an object of love ; and kingdoms or peoples mean those who are 
 in the belief of error or falsity, and, abstractly, the error or falsity 
 which is believed. This describes a state of the church in which 
 there was not simply a war of opinion about the doctrines of 
 
 religion, deplorable as that was, but a conflict of evil against 
 
 good, and of one evil against another; and also a conflict of 
 falsity against truth, and of one false persuasion against another. 
 This implies not disputation and contention only respecting the 
 principles of goodness and truth, which constitute religion and the 
 church, but the rejection to some extent of these Christian principles, 
 and the proportionate adoption of evil and error in their place. The 
 natural and necessary result of these conflicts is, that there are 
 famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes — that is to say, there is a 
 defect of the knowledge of good and truth, signified by famines, and 
 infestation from evils and falsities, signified by pestilences, and changes 
 and inversions in the state of the church, signified by earthquakes ; 
 and these being in divers places, means that they exist in the church 
 in various parts — though not an entire, but partial change has as yet 
 taken place in the state of the church. 
 
 8. All these are the beginning of sorrows. They describe the first 
 
52 0 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXIY. 
 
 state of the perversion of the church, which is, when men begin no 
 longer to know what is good and true, but dispute with each other on 
 these subjects, from which disputes come some errors of doctrine and 
 evils of life. These are indeed the beginnings of sorrows — sorrow to 
 the church, sorrow to religion, and sorrow to the soul. Sorrow is ever 
 the attendant of sin, whether it be against righteousness or truth. 
 In the description thus far of the sorrows of the church, we see very 
 strikingly the progress and end of the first stage of religious corrup- 
 tion. First men dispute about goodness and truth, then they adopt 
 and contend for some false principles, and lastly, they proceed to 
 pervert goodness and truth, so as either to invalidate them or bend 
 them to favour their own principles and practice. These religious 
 disputations and contentions, meant by wars, arose early in the 
 Christian church, and were carried on with great bitterness and 
 acrimony, as history abundantly testifies ; and could not fail to be 
 followed by a famine, not of bread or water, but of the hearing of the 
 Word of God, and, as a consequence, by pestilent disease of mind, 
 and by convulsions and revolutions of both opinion and principle, 
 
 9. A second state of the decline of the church, and of her sorrows, 
 is described by what now follows. Then shall they deliver you up to 
 he afflicted, and shall kill you : and ye shall he hated of all nations for 
 my name’s sake. The disciples represented the principles of goodness 
 and truth; and this describes the treatment which these heavenly 
 principles would come to experience, after the members of the church 
 had, by disputations and contentions, obscured their perceptions of 
 truth and goodness. To afflict, to kill, and to hate the disciples, 
 means to pervert, deny, and contemn the spiritual principles which 
 they represented. Nations denote those who are in evils of life ; and 
 to be hated of them, is to be held in aversion by the men of the 
 church, on account of the prevalence of such evils amongst them. 
 But the Lord said not only that they would be hated by all nations, 
 but that they would be hated for his name’s sake. Those within the 
 church who hate goodness and truth, hate them as religious principles, 
 as coming from the Lord, and leading to him through the obedience 
 and worship which he requires. And, indeed, all hatred against the 
 principles of goodness and truth has in it, and fundamentally is, hatred 
 against the Lord, who is goodness itself and truth itself, and the origin 
 of everything good and true in the Word and in the church. 
 
 10. The Lord proceeds to say, And then shall many he offended, and 
 shall hetray one another, and shall hate one another. This follows, and 
 is a consequence of, the disciples being hated and persecuted. If the 
 
Chap. XXIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 521 
 
 principles of goodness and truth, as revealed in the Word, and as they 
 relate to the Lord, are persecuted, many must be offended, or stumble. 
 The disciples, or the truths of the Word, are instructors and guides to 
 the members of the church ; and when these are deprived of their aid, 
 they cannot but stumble, and even fall. The Word is a lamp unto 
 our feet, and a light unto our path; and when its teaching is obscured 
 by error, the members of the church must suffer. And not only will 
 they be offended, but they will offend. They shall betray one another, 
 and hate one another. As mutual love is the result of true and un- 
 defiled religion, and of walking uprightly in it, so mutual hatred is 
 one of the fruits of error, and of the stumbling which it causes. 
 
 11. Betrayal and hatred are followed by falsehood and deception. 
 And many false prophets shall rise , and shall deceive many. In the 
 New Testament a prophet means a preacher, and, abstractly, the doc- 
 trine which is taught. Therefore, false prophets mean not only false 
 teachers, but false principles. Error could not fail to be multiplied 
 when the Lord, who is the Truth, was virtually denied, and a false 
 Christ was set up in his stead. The true acknowledgment of the 
 Lord’s divinity is an acknowledgment of the divinity of his humanity. 
 When this is denied, Jesus Christ must either be regarded as a divine 
 person separate from the person of the Father, or a finite being. 
 Such false persuasions cannot fail to seduce men from the true faith, 
 and from a righteous life, which have their origin in the Lord God 
 and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 1 2. A nd because iniquity shall abound , the love of many shall wax 
 cold. Increase of error never fails to cause an increase of evil ; and 
 when evil abounds, love must wax cold. The love which is here 
 spoken of is charity, or love to the neighbour. When error leads 
 men to believe that salvation is attainable by faith without works, 
 virtue must fail, and as a consequence, charity must wax cold. 
 Where there is no true faith, there can be no genuine charity. In 
 the purely spiritual sense, which is abstracted from persons, this 
 means that many truths would be deprived of love or charity, and 
 thus of all vitality. When this is the case, there is neither charity in 
 the heart nor faith in the understanding. Faith without charity is 
 dead, and charity without faith is blind. Love to the Lord is the 
 origin of love to the neighbour, and holiness of life is its foundation. 
 
 13. The Lord now gives encouragement to those who avoid the 
 prevailing corruptions, and are disposed to go forward in the life of prac- 
 tical religion. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be 
 saved. The end of these afflictions is one that must be applicable to 
 
5 22 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXIV. 
 
 the members of the church in their individual experience. Those who 
 see the perversions of truth in the church must not consent to them, 
 and suffer themselves to be seduced by them into a careless or evil life, 
 as men are so liable to be, by a prevailing state of belief and character* 
 To be saved amid corruption, we must strive against the corruption 
 Perseverance is persistent continuance in well-doing, and it is con- 
 stancy in the midst of temptation. Trial is implied in the promise. 
 To fail in fidelity and duty to Gfod, in troublous times, is not only a 
 possibility, but a thing to be feared ; for liable as we all are to fall 
 away, even with the best influence and example to aid us, how much 
 more when defect of faith and morality surround us ? 
 
 14. A sign of another and very different kind from any of those 
 which the Lord had as yet pointed to, he now announces. And this 
 gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness 
 unto all nations; and then shall the end come. If these words be 
 applied to the time when the corruptions which virtually included the 
 utter destruction and consequent end of the church — which is indicated 
 in the next verse as the abomination of desolation — first gained ad- 
 mission, they will denote the period when the profession of Christianity 
 was established by the Roman empire, which is often called in the 
 New Testament (by the word translated as here) the world, and which 
 took place in the reign of Constantine the Great, soon after the end of 
 the third century. But “end” in Scripture, and “the last days,” 
 often denote a long period of time. There was a period in the history 
 of the church which formed the beginning of the end, and another 
 period which formed its completion. The beginning of the end 
 belongs to the reign of Constantine, by whose power and influence the 
 Christian religion, which is the gospel of the kingdom, was preached 
 or propagated throughout the whole Roman world • and the comple- 
 tion of the end belongs to our own times, when the gospel may be said 
 to be universally proclaimed, especially by the circulation of the letter 
 of the Scriptures, throughout the whole globe, through the agency of 
 the Missionary and Bible Societies. Thus, the periods called in 
 Scripture “the time of the end” and “ the last days ” were marked 
 by the setting up of the profession of a nominal Christianity through 
 the Roman empire ; and its termination is marked by the actual 
 extension of the Scriptures, through the proclaiming of the gospel over 
 the whole globe, as we see effected at this day. This is certainly 
 a very remarkable sign indeed, alone sufficient to convince us, if wc 
 think there is any truth in the prediction of Omniscience, that we are 
 living in the days prophesied of as those in which the Son of man was 
 
Chap. XXIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 523 
 
 to make his second and spiritual appearing. But it may seem in- 
 credible that two such events as the establishment of the Christian 
 religion, or that of the Boman empire, and the circulation of the 
 Scriptures throughout the whole habitable globe, should be considered 
 as signs of the end — not of the world, but of the church. In regard to 
 the first of these events, nothing can be more true. No sooner almost 
 had the Emperor Constantine declared himself Christian, and made 
 Christianity the religion of the state, than, to condemn the destructive 
 doctrine of Arius, the famous general council, at which were present 
 about 318 bishops, was held at Nice. The Arian heresy was indeed 
 then condemned, though it was far from being extinguished. But the 
 only way which the fathers of the council could find of opposing the 
 Arian doctrine, which denied the proper divinity of Christ, was by 
 asserting his distinct divinity, and that of the Holy Spirit, thus giving 
 origin to the notion of three distinct persons in the godhead, which 
 cannot be distinguished in idea from the notion of a trinity of gods. 
 The establishment of this awful perversion as the orthodox doctrine 
 of Christianity is, in fact, that which is denoted by the abomination 
 of desolation set up in the holy place, of which our Lord now speaks. 
 
 15. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation , spoken 
 of by Daniel the prophet , stand in the holy place [whoso readelh , let him 
 understand). The holy place, in the language of Scripture, always 
 means, in its literal sense, the interior part of the temple, which was 
 considered as being the immediate seat of the Divine presence. Of 
 course, it must representatively signify the most holy part of Christian 
 doctrine and worship. To set up an abomination and desolation, or 
 an abomination that makes desolate, in this holy place, can be nothing 
 else than to introduce some principle destructive of all genuine 
 Christianity. In regard to the doctrines of the church, there is none 
 so holy as that which relates to the true nature and character of the 
 God whom the church is to worship. The inmost of the doctrine of 
 the church — that which occupies her holy place — -is the idea she forms 
 of her God. To set up an abomination in this holy place must be 
 to introduce a false notion of God, instead of the true one. This is 
 what the prophecy, understood according to its true meaning, would 
 lead us to expect to see take place in the professing Christian church. 
 Accordingly we find by history, and indeed see in the present day, 
 that this was done when the doctrine of three separate persons in the 
 Divine nature was introduced into the Christian church, and decreed 
 to be the orthodox doctrine by all her leading ministers and members. 
 This was first effected at the Council of Nice, previous to which the 
 
524 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXIY. 
 
 doctrine was entirely unknown to many, and liad only been partially 
 entertained by some. It was then first declared to be the authentic 
 doctrine of the church, and such it continues to be held at the present 
 day. As this is a subject of the very highest importance, it may be 
 expedient to point out some of the steps by which the belief of. a 
 Trinity of separate persons or gods, which has desolated the sanc- 
 tuary and driven all true religion out of the church, or at least com- 
 pelled it to quit Judea and take refuge in the mountains, successively 
 obtained so universal a reception. 
 
 The formulary of faith called the Apostles’ Creed, though not com- 
 posed by the apostles, is yet the most ancient document in the form 
 of a creed that has existed in the Christian church. Although no 
 nice discrimination is attempted in it, and nothing is expressed but 
 general truths, nearly in the language of Scripture, yet it contains 
 nothing inconsistent with the genuine truths of Christianity. Nothing 
 is said about either three persons in the godhead or a Son of God 
 born from eternity. Respecting the three essentials of the Divine 
 Trinity, called Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the words of the creed 
 are : “ I believe in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ his 
 only Son our Lord : who was conceived of the Holy Ghost, and born 
 of the virgin Mary.” There is no mention here of a Son existing 
 from eternity, but only of one begotten and born in time ; nor is any- 
 thing said of the distinct personality of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 
 According to this, the Son of God is the humanity assumed by 
 Jehovah through the instrumentality of the Virgin. And as the 
 divine essence is incapable of division, Jehovah himself is in that 
 humanity as the soul in the body, by virtue of which, through a pro- 
 cess of temptation and suffering, the humanity itself was made divine. 
 Thus “ Jesus Christ” is the proper name both of the humanity 
 assumed by incarnation and also, by virtue of the indivisibility of the 
 divine essence, of Jehovah in that humanity. All this is taught or 
 implied in the formulary of faith called the Apostles’ Creed. The 
 doctrine of that creed is thus in perfect harmony with the genuine 
 doctrines of the Word of God. So long as the Christian church 
 adhered simply to this faith, and held nothing inconsistent with its 
 genuine import, it was, so far as faith or doctrine is concerned, the 
 pure church of the Lord in the world. 
 
 However, very strange and extravagant doctrines respecting the 
 Lord Jesus Christ speedily began to be promulgated, some of which 
 denied his divinity, and separated him entirely from the Supreme 
 God. To guard against any mode of explaining the subject which 
 
Ciiap. XXIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 525 
 
 would rob the Lord Jesus Christ of his divinity, a teacher named 
 Praxeas, about the close of the second century, strongly insisted that 
 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are but different names for the One 
 God, or the One God viewed under different characters or relations. 
 As none of his writings now exist, it is difficult to know with perfect 
 accuracy what the views of this leader on the subject were, beyond 
 the general fact, that he held Father, Son, and Spirit to be one person. 
 If, from want of being acquainted with the important doctrine of the 
 progressive glorification of the Lord’s humanity, he maintained, as his 
 opponents affirmed, that the Father himself, or the Divinity, suffered 
 on the cross, he certainly erred in a very important particular. How- 
 ever, his doctrine of One God in one person — the person of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ — was so consonant with the feelings of all simple-minded 
 Christians, that it was in a fair way of being acknowledged throughout 
 the Christian world. Even the Bishop of Rome, who, though without 
 the popish power assumed by his successors, was regarded as the chief 
 bishop of Christendom, declared himself in favour of Praxeas. But 
 Praxeas was soon violently opposed by Tertullian, an eloquent pres- 
 byter of Carthage, but a man of harsh and gloomy temperament, and 
 whose notions of the distinct personality of Father, Son, and Holy 
 Spirit were so positive, that he had embraced the monstrous heresy of 
 Montanus, who had the madness to pretend that he himself was the 
 Holy Ghost in person, or, at least, that the Holy Ghost as a distinct 
 person dwelt within him. On the vehement representations of this 
 Tertullian, who is still venerated as one of the principal fathers of the 
 church, the Bishop of Rome withdrew his patronage from Praxeas, 
 and he began to be generally regarded as a heretic ; while the doctrine 
 of the far greater heretic, Tertullian, was favourably regarded, and at 
 length was adopted as the standard of orthodoxy in the Christian 
 church. 
 
 But the doctrine of Tertullian, in behalf of the notion of three 
 absolutely distinct persons in the Godhead, though generally favoured 
 (or though something approximating towards it began to be generally 
 held), was not yet authoritatively established. About a hundred 
 years later, Arius, being imbued with the notion of the completely 
 distinct personality of the Father and the Son, pursued this to its 
 proper consequence— the denial of the real divinity of Christ. He 
 saw that if the Father and Son are two Persons, they must, if each is 
 God, be also two gods. But as he was fully persuaded of the great 
 truth, that God is and can be but one, on seeing the incompatibility 
 of this with the notion cf separate divine persons in the Godhead, he 
 
526 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXIV. 
 
 solved the contradiction the wrong way. Instead of inferring that 
 as God is One, and Jesus Christ is a divine person, Jesus must be that 
 one God manifested in human nature, he argued, that as God is one, 
 and Jesus is a distinct person, Jesus cannot truly be God at all. He 
 therefore invented the notion, that, as the Scriptures testify, the 
 world was created as well as redeemed by Jesus Christ; he was in fact 
 the first of all created existences — a being invested with great but 
 delegated powers, and only called God by courtesy. 
 
 In modern times this genuine doctrine of Arius has but few 
 adherents. The notion of a created Creator does such violence to 
 reason, that the modern deniers of the Lord’s divinity deny his 
 creatorship, and believe him to have been a mere man also, and the 
 Scripture passages which assert it, they divest of their proper meaning 
 by violently forced explanations. Indeed, most of those who in 
 modern times deny the Lord’s divinity, deny his pre-existence in any 
 character whatever. This, however, is an excess of daring and of 
 contradiction to the plainest Scripture evidences to which the early 
 impugners of his divinity ventured not to go ; and the doctrine of 
 Arius, irrational as it is regarded to be by modern humanitarians, 
 repeatedly threatened, during several centuries, to become the reputed 
 orthodox doctrine of the Christian church. The first serious check 
 which it received was at the Council of Nice, called by Constantine the 
 Great. At this council was framed the doctrine afterwards digested 
 into the famous creed called the Nicene Creed. But the fathers of 
 the Council of Nice being imbued with the notion of Tertullian about 
 the distinct personality of the three subsistences of the Trinity, saw 
 no other way of maintaining the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and his eternal existence, in opposition to the denial of it by 
 Arius, than by asserting his existence from eternity in the character 
 of a Son, or in adopting the doctrine of the eternal sonship. 
 
 16. When this great evil is seen to be done, the Lord’s direction is, 
 Then let them which be in Judea jlee into the mountains ; by which is 
 meant that the church would no more truly exist with those who are 
 confirmed in its received doctrines, but with those who shunned the 
 abomination, and, betaking themselves into a state of retiring love, 
 continued to worship the Lord in simplicity and truth, not dividing 
 liis divinity from the divinity of the Father, whether or not they had 
 distinct ideas of the manner of their unity. And this is a direction 
 now to be regarded by those who witness the corruptions of a perverted 
 church. When truth of doctrine is in obscurity, they are to flee to 
 the mountains, which always means, in the language of Scripture, to 
 
Chap. XXIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 527 
 
 take refuge in the principle of love, cultivated in the inner recesses 
 of the soul. They are not to shut themselves up in the beleaguered 
 city, and defend its errors and corruptions; neither are they to join 
 the besieging heathen army of infidel foes, that would fain bring 
 everything of the church to destruction. They are to stand aloof 
 from the tumult, cultivating the graces of love and charity, in 
 dependence on the Lord, and in reliance on his protection. So will 
 they be recognized by him as his true disciples, will be admitted to 
 form the first fruits of his new church in the world, and will certainly 
 be finally elevated to his kingdom in heaven. Of this class there are 
 large numbers at the present day. Many who are afraid to look 
 narrowly into the doctrines of religion as held by the professing 
 church, find a sanctuary in the good of religion, where they can pour 
 out their hearts in acts of piety to God, and extend their hands in 
 deeds of benevolence to men. 
 
 17. Again, Let him which is on the house-top not come down to take 
 anything out of his house. It is evident that this exhortation is not 
 to be literally understood. It is commonly supposed to be a figura- 
 tive mode of expressing haste. But the Word contains no mere 
 figures of speech. Every figure is a correspondence or spiritual 
 analogy. The house is an emblem of the mind, the top of the house, 
 of the highest or inmost faculty and degree of the mind, and the lower 
 part a lower faculty or degree. The top of the house is the will, 
 where there is love to the neighbour or charity, and the lower part is 
 where there is faith or truth. The exhortation, spiritually under- 
 stood, is, that he who is in a state of charity is not to come down to a 
 state of faith. 
 
 1 8. Neither let him which is in the field return hack to take his clothes. 
 He who is in the field is one who is in the good of faith and 
 his clothes are the truths of faith. To return back from the field 
 to take his clothes, is to recede from the good of faith to the 
 truths of faith, which is to recede from a good life to mere empty 
 profession and nominal Christianity. In the three cases we have 
 now considered there is a receding from a state of good to a state of 
 truth, or from a religion of the heart to a religion of the intellect ; 
 but there is a gradation which shows the distinctions that are so 
 frequently presented in the Word, of which little trace is discernible 
 in the literal sense. “ There are men of three kinds described in the 
 Word — they who are in love to the Lord, they who are in charity to the 
 neighbour, and they who are in the affection of truth. They who are 
 in love to the Lord are meant by those who flee from Judea into the 
 
528 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXIY. 
 
 mountains ; they who are in charity to the neighbour are meant by 
 those who are not to come down from the house-top to take anything 
 out of the house ; and they who are in the affection or the good of 
 truth, are meant by those who are not to return from the field to take 
 their clothes.” It is but another way of expressing it, to say, that 
 the three classes are the celestial, the spiritual, and the natural ; who 
 form the three degrees of the Lord’s kingdom on earth, and the three 
 degrees that are still more distinctly marked in his kingdom in heaven. 
 
 19. And woe unto them that are with child , and to them that give 
 suck in those days ! It is almost unnecessary to say that this must 
 have another than the natural sense. In the Word nothing is more 
 common than to compare man’s spiritual to his natural birth. And, 
 indeed, there is a perfect analogy between them. To be with child 
 and to give suck is therefore to be understood of the spiritual life. 
 To be with child is expressive of that state or stage of the regenerate 
 life when good is conceived in the internal man, but is not yet 
 brought forth into the external — that is, when religion is in the mind, 
 but not yet in the life. To bear in the womb is to conceive the good 
 of celestial love. To give suck is to imbue innocence with spiritual 
 truth from a celestial origin. But why should the woe to which these 
 are subject be attached to or attendant on these states 1 This is not 
 a woe of punishment, but of affliction ; and most expressive is it when 
 seen in reference to the present subject, in the troublous times in 
 which the state exists. As natural birth is attended with anguish 
 and danger, so is spiritual. Pain as of a woman in travail is the very 
 expression in which we recognize the pains of spiritual parturition. 
 In fact, the time of “ labour ” and pain in the spiritual life is the 
 time of “ bringing forth ” our religion, or religious principles, as con- 
 ceived in the inner, into actual existence in the outer man, or from 
 the mind into the life. If this is afflictive in the most favourable 
 circumstances, what must it be under circumstances the most un- 
 favourable ? It is sufficiently difficult to bring our religion into the 
 life, our principles into practice, even when we have the aid and en- 
 couragement of proper teaching and good example ; how much more 
 so when we are beset on every side by temptation to sin ! But 
 whence the woe to them that give suck ? If, in evil times, it is 
 difficult to bring our principles to the birth, it must be also difficult, 
 after they are born, to sustain and nourish them, and this more espe- 
 cially when they are but new-born, or in their early infancy, and are 
 tender and susceptible, and unable to bear the cold and privation 
 from which even a mother’s love may not be always able to preserve 
 
Ciiap. XXIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 529 
 
 them. And let us remember that these states derive much of their 
 afflictive character from being connected with one that immediately 
 follows, symbolized by flight. 
 
 20. Bid pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the 
 sabbath day. Flight denotes the last time of the church ; it signifies 
 also the last period of life, when the good flee away and are at rest 
 from the tribulations of this world ; and the wicked flee from one set 
 of troubles to meet another. Flight has therefore two opposite 
 meanings, because it is applicable to two opposite states. Spiritually, 
 it denotes recession from good, or escape from evil. When it denotes 
 recession from good and innocence, it involves the sin of profanation, 
 which is the last state of the church; when it means escape from evil, 
 it is a deliverance, and is the prelude of a new beginning. In either 
 case the exhortation is to be attended to. As summer and its 
 heat are emblematical of love, winter and its cold are emblematical 
 of the absence of love ; and when there is no love there is no life. 
 Winter, therefore, denotes a state of the church when there is, indeed, 
 the light of truth, but not the warmth of love, — when there is 
 a complete end of vital religion. The Sabbath, the consecrated 
 emblem of a holy state, is also the emblem of a state of seeming 
 holiness — of a holy external without a holy internal — of sanctity 
 in the manner, without piety in the heart. This is descriptive of 
 the last state of the church, or religion, among men. The end of the 
 church does not imply a universal, or even a general state of open 
 infidelity, wickedness, and impiety. On the contrary, the church 
 may be virtually at an end, while there is greatest outward appearance 
 of religion — a church establishment, with all its pomp and circum- 
 stance. The church really is as seen by the eye of Omniscience. There 
 may be abundance of light, but it is the light of winter — without 
 heat ; there may be abundance of piety, but it is the formal piety of 
 the Sabbath, without the holiness of every-day life. If the church 
 does recede from goodness and innocence, it is to be prayed for that it 
 should not be when the church is in the very last stage of dissolution, 
 so that no remnant can be saved — no remains left, out of which a new 
 church can be formed. What the consequences of this would be, we 
 shall see when we come to the 22nd verse. Those who, on the other 
 hand, are fleeing from the wrath to come, may pray that their flight 
 be neither in the winter nor on the Sabbath day — neither in a state of 
 too much cold nor in a state of too much heat. 
 
 21. For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the 
 beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. The greatest 
 
 2 M 
 
530 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXTY. 
 
 good is capable of the greatest perversion, — the greatest blessing may 
 be turned into the greatest curse. Truths of a higher order and of a 
 more interior kind were revealed to the Christian than had been 
 revealed to the Israelitish church, and were capable of being more 
 falsified and profaned. The tribulations are said to be greater than any 
 that had been from the beginning of the world ; but the world 
 spiritually means the church, and the beginning, not its first time, 
 but its first state. Its beginning and its end are spiritually its first 
 and last principles, and the last are more profaned than the first. The 
 times and the states of a falling church, no doubt, to some extent run 
 parallel; but it is not time, but state, that affects it, and it is only when 
 its last principles are corrupted that the church comes to an end. 
 While these remain, the foundations are not entirely destroyed; but 
 when these give way, the entire fabric falls into ruin, ^nd the last 
 state is worse than the first : the last affliction is the accumulated 
 intensity of all the others. But the affliction of these last times is 
 greater than ever shall be, as well as greater than ever has been. This 
 is, in fact, a promise that there shall be no more end, or, as the Word 
 expresses it, that there shall be no more death, no more curse, no more 
 sorrow nor crying — in a word, no more affliction : for the former things 
 and states are passed away. The new heavens and the new earth that 
 the Lord will create shall remain before him. The last shall be the 
 crown of all dispensations, and shall stand for ever. 
 
 22. But in order that better days should begin, the evil days must 
 be shortened : for except those days should be shortened , there should no 
 flesh be saved. It is a law of Divine order, or rather an arrangement 
 of Divine mercy, that no dispensation is ever allowed to come to a 
 complete end, or die completely out. Its end must be hastened, or 
 rather anticipated. It must be brought, and not allowed to come to 
 its end. If the end of a dispensation were not anticipated — if its days 
 were not shortened — there should no flesh be saved, for the reason that 
 there would be none left, — all would be consumed. Flesh spiritually 
 means the principle of good, and, personally, those in whom there is 
 some principle of good. Every declining church is brought to an end 
 by a process of judgment, before all the good that belongs to it has 
 died out, or been consumed, that the small remnant of good saved from 
 the old may form a germ out of which the new may be produced. 
 Those in whom this remnant of good exists are the elect , for whose sake 
 the evil days shall be shortened. These are not any number chosen 
 without respect to their merits. Whom God elects, he elects because 
 they are worthy. Men are not good because they are elected, but 
 
Ciiap. XXIY.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 531 
 
 they are elected because they are good. The elect are the good, and 
 the good are the elect. For their sakes the days of affliction are 
 shortened ; for they are the ones that are to be gathered together, and 
 out of them the new kingdom is to be formed. 
 
 23. The elect are not saved without tribulation. A series of 
 seducing evils, similar to those which arose at the beginning of the 
 church, are to prevail at its end. When the disciples asked the 
 Lord what would be the sign of his coming, the first sign he 
 warned them of was, that many would come in his name, saying, 
 I am Christ. Here he says, there shall arise false Christs and also 
 false prophets. There is a difference between the former and the 
 latter Christs not undeserving of attention, and which will be noticed 
 as we proceed. Then if any man shall say unto you , Lo, here is Christ , 
 or there : believe it not. Here and there have a similar meaning to 
 near and distant. Here signifies what is internal, and there signifies 
 what is external ; and place signifies state. As the state of the 
 church is treated of, here and there signify the internal and external 
 of the church, thus of her doctrines and worship. That we are not 
 to believe a man when he says, Lo, here is Christ, or there, implies 
 that Christ is not to be found either in the internal or in the external 
 of the church. Christ signifies divine truth ; and when the church is 
 corrupted, there is no longer the truth in her doctrines and worship, 
 either in their internal essence or in their external manifestation. 
 
 24. But although the one true Christ is no longer there, there shall 
 arise false Christs and false prophets. False Christs are falsified 
 truths, and false prophets are those doctrines formed from them, as 
 well as those who teach them. Those here spoken of are called false 
 Christs; but this is not said of those mentioned at the 9th verse. There 
 it is only said that many would come in the Lord’s name, saying, 1 
 am Christ. The reason of this difference no doubt is, that in the 
 beginning of decline falses prevail, but in the end falsified truths. 
 And truths falsified or perverted are much more deceitful and dan- 
 gerous than simple errors. It is therefore said of these false Christs 
 and false prophets, that they shall show great signs and, wonders; 
 insomuch that , if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Signs 
 and wonders are evidently means that these pseudo- Christs are to 
 employ to induce people to believe their teaching. And the means 
 which the designing employ to induce others to believe their doctrines 
 are persuasion and influence — persuasion for the understanding, and 
 influence for the will : the first appeals to their fallacies, the second 
 to their cupidities. A sign is that which acts upon the understand- 
 
532 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXI Y. 
 
 ing ; a wonder is that which acts upon the will. A sign is not a 
 means of convincing, but only of persuading. Our Lord therefore 
 refused the Jews a sign, because he would exert no power over 
 the understanding to induce upon it a blind, unreasoning, and un- 
 perceiving faith. He performed wonders or miracles, because they 
 only impressed the will with a sense of awe, but did not interfere with 
 man’s rational liberty. The very object of the false Christs and pro- 
 phets, in performing their signs and wonders, is to take away the power 
 of reason and freedom from others, or so bring them under their own 
 influence as to make them their devoted followers. Unscrupulous 
 men have an extraordinary power over untrained minds, especially 
 when not balanced by fixed principles, and most of all when religion 
 is the engine they employ to effect their purpose of deception. The 
 best safeguard against such influence is a principle of real, genuine 
 goodness. Those who have this principle are the elect, whom it is 
 impossible to seduce. Eor when the mind is established in goodness 
 as the very essential element of religion, there is the best protection 
 against evil. It is true that goodness defends itself by truth ; but 
 genuine goodness implies the presence of truth and of life as their 
 embodiment. 
 
 25. And while goodness is the best protection against the deceitful 
 teaching of false Christs, it is the best ground in which to receive 
 the teaching of the true Christ. It is to such that the Lord gives 
 salutary warning. Behold , I have told you before. Those who are in 
 good receive truth. And they also receive it internally. This is 
 signified by being told before. For here again we have to translate 
 the natural into the spiritual — the natural idea of time into the 
 spiritual idea of state. For time, like place, signifies state. There is 
 this difference between them, that place or space signifies state in 
 reference to the will, and time, state in reference to the understanding; 
 or, what is the same, space refers to states of good, and time to states 
 of truth. Before and after are correlations of here and there, and of 
 before and behind ; before, has relation to the internal, and after, to 
 the external. To be told before is therefore to receive truth from the 
 Lord by an internal way, and into the internal of the mind; and they 
 who thus receive are prepared to resist the seductive machinations of 
 the wonder-working prophets. 
 
 26. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; 
 go not forth : behold, he is in the secret chambers ; believe it not. Some- 
 thing similar to there and here are meant by the desert and the secret 
 chambers. As here and there mean internal and external, the secret 
 
Chap. XXIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 5 33 
 
 chambers and the desert mean what relates to the will and under- 
 standing, or to good and truth. The church is called a desert when it 
 is devastated as to truth ; and the human understanding is described 
 by the same figure when it is in the same state. And, indeed, it 
 amounts to the same, whether we speak of the church or the human 
 understanding as a desert ; for it is the devastation of truth in the 
 understanding of her members that brings the church into that state. 
 It amounts to the same, whether we say that the church is devastated 
 as to good, or that the human will is ; for it is because there is 
 devastation of good in the wills or hearts of the members of the 
 church generally, that the church can be in that state. The will is 
 meant by the secret chambers, as the understanding is by the desert. 
 And as the consummated church is devastated both of good and truth, 
 both as to will and understanding, therefore the truth is neither in 
 the one nor the other. Christ is neither in the secret chambers of 
 her moral principles nor in the desert of her intellectual ideas. Her 
 moral principles, or secret chambers, are full of lewdness, where the 
 pure good of the Lord’s love cannot enter ; and her intellectual prin- 
 ciples are a desert, where there is only barrenness and desolation, the 
 haunt of the serpent and the basilisk, with which the lamb cannot 
 herd together. And when this is the case with the church, it is also 
 the case with the Word, — not with the Word itself, but with the 
 Word so far as the church is its expositor. If we look into the secret 
 chambers of the church, what do we see ? Mysteries that are not only 
 above, but contrary to reason, rendering the exhortation, “ Believe 
 them not,” a necessity as well as a duty. Again, we see the moral 
 attributes of God so brought into conflict with one another as to 
 refuse reconcilement, without a satisfaction that involves a violation 
 of the highest moral principle. How can the elect believe that Christ 
 is there 1 On the other hand, has not faith alone made the church a 
 desert ? How can the elect expect to find in the dogma, that man is 
 saved by an act of faith, Him who said, “ If ye would enter into life, 
 keep the commandments ? ” When such is the state of the church 
 and of religion, the advent of Christ must be at hand ; for truly, 
 except these days should be shortened, there should no flesh be 
 saved. 
 
 27. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shinetli even unto 
 the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man he. This coming 
 of the Lord is not his future grand advent, which forms the com- 
 mencement of a new dispensation, and which is described a little 
 further on, by his coming in the clouds ; but it is his coming to the 
 
534 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXIY. 
 
 old dispensation in the last stages of its decline. For the coming of 
 the Lord is not according to the literal expression, that he is to appear 
 again in the world, but it is his presence within every one, which 
 occurs as often as the gospel is preached, and holy thought is excited. 
 The Lord, therefore, is constantly coming. The nature of his coming; 
 or, what is the same, of his reception, differs as the state of the church, 
 and is described by the different modes in which his Word represents 
 it. The nature of his coming and reception at the end of the church 
 being described in this instance, we can derive an idea of its character 
 and results from the correspondences by which it is described. The 
 figure here employed by the Divine speaker presents the idea of an 
 appearance that is sudden and brilliant, but evanescent — a flash that 
 lights up the horizon for a moment, but is instantly dissipated, leaving 
 a profounder darkness than that which it dispelled. And this, in 
 truth, is just that kind of coming of the Lord which takes place at the 
 end of a church, when deadness and darkness prevail. There is no 
 continuous spiritual light, no sustained spiritual thought, no reigning 
 spiritual affection. The prevailing state is deadness of the affections, 
 darkness of the intellect. By the preaching of the gospel, or rather, 
 while the gospel is preached, or some exciting cause acts upon the 
 mind, the faculties may be awakened and lighted up, but it is only for 
 the moment. If the mind has no light and life in itself, one is only 
 religious by fits and starts, as some external agency moves and per- 
 suades. When the world is within and religion without, religious 
 states are emotional and imaginative. Vivid impressions and notions 
 can be conveyed and entertained. The lightning may come out of the 
 east, and shine even unto the west. Heavenly light from the east 
 may flash in upon the soul, through the feelings of charity excited in 
 the mind, but it as soon disappears in the west, where an antagonistic 
 selfishness prevails. Lightning is the emblem of the heavenly light 
 of truth ; the east, whence it comes, is love and charity ; and the 
 west, sometimes the continuation and termination of a holy state, is 
 also, as here, its opposite, where a good commenced is neutralized. 
 
 28. We come now to the last state of the church, represented by a 
 figure that can at once be recognized : it is that of a dead body. And 
 what an image of death and desolation does it present ! The carcase and 
 the vultures are the only remaining objects in the scene of desolation. 
 The body of the church is dead, — fallen in the desert which she herself 
 has created ; and the vultures are hastening to the scene, to contend 
 for their share of the foul banquet which the carcase offers. For 
 wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles he gathered together. We 
 
Chap. XXIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 535 
 
 can hardly render the state of the church represented by the dead 
 body more intelligible or expressive by explanation. But there is 
 something to be said about the rest of the picture. Although it is only 
 the vulture that feeds upon carrion, the eagle has no doubt been 
 employed by the Lord on account of its signification. The vulture 
 can only have a bad correspondence, but the eagle has both a good 
 and a bad meaning. And the eagles are here introduced to represent 
 principles in the church which were once good, having, like everything 
 else, become perverted and profaned. Eagles correspond to the rational 
 principles of the mind. And these may be either true or false. A 
 man can reason in favour of truth or error, nay, of good or evil, as the 
 motives prompt him. Reason is a noble faculty, and when employed in 
 the service of truth and righteousness, can give them excellent support; 
 but when it is degraded, and is made the slave of* passion and self- 
 interest, it becomes as mischievous as it was formerly beneficent. 
 When reason is the minister of good, it is as the wings of eagles, with 
 which the renewed mind mounts up; when the minister of evil, it 
 is like the eagles that scent the carrion and hasten down to the prey. 
 Do we not find that such is the case? — that mere reason, which is 
 rather ratiocination, has been gathered around the Word itself, which 
 is treated as a dead letter, possessing no inherent divine life ; and 
 have not many of those critics in these last days contended over the 
 soulless body as vultures over their prey? And when the Word is 
 thus regarded and thus treated, how can the church and religion fare 
 better ? for the Word is the origin and support of both. 
 
 29. But we now come to the end, out of which comes the beginning. 
 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened , 
 and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from 
 heaven , and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. This is a 
 most important prophecy. Considered in connection with the words 
 which follow it, and which announce its sequel, it foretells the most 
 momentous future event that the New Testament treats of. Its 
 importance demands a proportionate share of our attention. 
 
 The impression which this prophetic declaration has made upon the 
 centuries of the Christian church has been almost universally such as the 
 simplest literal apprehension of the language could convey. It is here 
 supposed that the event predicted in this address of our Lord is the 
 end of the material world, and the present passage is understood to 
 describe the catastrophe. It is not, perhaps, surprising that such a 
 notion has prevailed. No event can be clearly understood before it is 
 accomplished ; and it may be assumed that the language in which 
 
536 
 
 ST.. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXIY. 
 
 future events are announced in Scripture is designedly framed so as to 
 preserve a belief in their approach, but to conceal their exact nature. 
 It is a law of Divine order that we cannot see the Divine in his 
 approach : we can only see him on the back, after he has passed. This 
 has been the case hitherto. The Jews, who possessed and studied the 
 whole range of prophecy relating to the end of their dispensation and 
 the coming of the Lord to establish a new one, were so ignorant of 
 the exact nature of the events that they refused to recognize them 
 when they occurred before their eyes. Christians might learn from 
 their example, both to be less positive in believing that they clearly 
 understand the prophecies relating to the second coming of the Lord, 
 and more ready to examine the claims of an expositor who offers a 
 new interpretation, and one professedly founded on or supplied by 
 their actual fulfilment. If they would adopt a course which is at 
 once scriptural and reasonable, they might reach a satisfactory con- 
 clusion. That course is, to ascertain how predictions of a similar 
 character in the Old Testament have received their fulfilment. We 
 will adopt this course; and the result will show that prophecies in the 
 Old Testament, almost identical in their character, and even in 
 their language with this in the Hew, have never received a literal 
 accomplishment. In a prophecy in Isaiah (ch. xiii.) relating to the 
 destruction of Babylon, it is said ( v . 10), “ For the stars of heaven 
 and the constellations thereof shall not give their light : the sun shall be 
 darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to 
 shine.” The same language is employed by Ezekiel in describing the 
 fall of Egypt (ch. xxxii. 7), “I will cover the heaven, and make the 
 stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon 
 shall not give her light.” It is evident that these are not to be 
 literally understood. There is a prophecy of this class in Joel which 
 may have more force, since an apostle has declared that it relates to 
 the Jewish church at the time of its end. When the multitudes that 
 were gathered together saw the effects of the pouring out of the Spirit 
 on the apostles on the day of Pentecost, they were amazed, and some 
 mocked ; but Peter, standing up with the eleven, said, “ This is that 
 which was spoken by the prophet Joel ; And it shall come to pass in the 
 last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh . . . and 
 I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath : 
 blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke : the sun shall be turned into 
 darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day 
 of the Lord come : and it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call 
 on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” How, here is a prophecy 
 
Chap. XXIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 537 
 
 in which precisely the same figures occur. Interpreted literally, the 
 last days could mean nothing else than the end of the world; but the 
 apostle gives us clearly to understand that these were the “ last days” 
 of the Jewish church; and the extinction of the sun and moon can 
 mean nothing else than the extinction of love and light in the church. 
 As, therefore, this prediction of Joel had only a spiritual fulfilment, 
 it is but reasonable to conclude that the Lord’s prophecy must have a 
 spiritual fulfilment also. We now know that a literal fulfilment of 
 such a prophecy is impossible. The darkening of the sun would 
 involve the ruin of our entire solar system ; and the falling of the 
 stars the destruction of the whole sidereal heavens — in fact, the literal 
 fulfilment of the prophecy involves no less a catastrophe than the end 
 of the natural universe. If the natural sense is utterly impossible, 
 the prediction must have a spiritual meaning. We must inquire 
 what that meaning is. 
 
 The sun is mentioned in many places in Scripture, and always as an 
 emblem of love. It is in reference to its vivifying qualities of sup- 
 porting all things on earth by its heat, that the sun has this significa- 
 tion. For as the body is warmed by heat, so is the mind (and the 
 body too, very often) by love. The moon, however, which is also 
 mentioned, gives no perceptible heat, but only light, and that the 
 reflected light of the sun ; and as light is a clear emblem of truth, 
 therefore the moon is always employed in Scripture to denote the 
 principle of faith, which is a belief of truth. The stars, too, which to 
 us are lesser lights, denote the knowledge of what is good and true 
 derived from the Word of God. The symbolical nature of these 
 luminaries, and almost their exact signification, may be gathered from 
 a remarkable passage in the twelfth chapter of Revelation, which is also 
 prophetic in its character. “ There appeared a great wonder in heaven ; 
 a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon 
 her head a crown of twelve stars.” This woman is a symbol of the 
 church. She is clothed with the sun, to represent the church as in- 
 vested with love ; she has the moon under her feet, to represent that 
 a true faith is that on which the church rests ; and she has a crown of 
 twelve stars, to represent that the wisdom and intelligence of the 
 church are derived from the knowledges of truth and love revealed in 
 the Scriptures. When, therefore, the Lord declares that, at the time 
 of his second coming, “the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall 
 not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven,” he teaches 
 that at the time of his second coming there will be no love to him 
 and to the neighbour remaining in the church, signified by the 
 
538 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXIV. 
 
 sun’s being darkened ; that all true faith in him will be lost, signified 
 by the moon not giving her light ; and that all genuine knowledges of 
 truth derived from the Word will be banished, signified bv the stars 
 falling from heaven. To the same purpose it is said, in the sixth 
 chapter of Revelation, that, at the opening of the sixth seal, “ the sun 
 became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and 
 the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her 
 untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.” Here the mean- 
 ing is the same, except that the moon is said not simply to cease 
 giving her light, but to be turned into blood ; and as blood, in a bad 
 sense, always signifies truth falsified, therefore, by the moon’s under- 
 going this transformation, is meant that a false faith would be estab- 
 lished instead of a true one. Nearly the same is signified in the 
 eighth chapter, when it is said that, at the sounding of the fourth 
 angel, “ the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of 
 the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them 
 was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the 
 night likewise.” In all cases, by such language is implied a mani- 
 festation of the state of the church in regard to its love, faith, and 
 knowledge of divine truth derived from the Word. The luminaries 
 of heaven are the source of light and heat, and as such they are the 
 symbols of spiritual principles which are to the church what light and 
 heat are to the earth. In Scripture, the sun is the emblem of love, 
 the moon of faith, and the stars of knowledges. The Lord is the 
 grand source of all the life and light of the church, but he communi- 
 cates these through love, and faith, and knowledge. It is only in the 
 human mind, too, that the Lord’s life and light can be interrupted or 
 intercepted. The darkening of the sun and moon, and the falling of 
 the stars, result from the corruptions of the church, or, what is the 
 same, of the human mind. Self-love intercepts love to God ; false 
 persuasions intercept the light of faith ; and disregard of knowledge 
 causes it to fail. The stars are said to fall from heaven, and the 
 powers of heaven to be shaken. In Genesis we read that, when God 
 made the two great lights, he set them in the firmament of heaven, 
 which is an allegorical mode of describing the elevation of love and 
 faith in the internal of the mind, which heaven signifies. The falling 
 of the stars from heaven is the degradation of spiritual knowledge 
 from the internal to the external man; which means that spiritual know- 
 ledge is placed on a level with natural knowledge, and is regarded as 
 earthly, and esteemed for earthly ends. Then it is that the powers of 
 the heavens are shaken ; for when spiritual things are regarded and 
 
Chap. XXIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 539 
 
 loved for natural ends, the foundations of heaven are removed, and 
 heavenly principles lose their stability and power. 
 
 30. When the whole fabric of the church, internal and external, 
 thus trembles and totters to its fall, then is the time for the Divine 
 power to be exerted to uphold it, and restore it to a state of stability. 
 When the luminaries are darkened, and the powers of heaven are 
 shaken, then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven : and 
 then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn , and they shall see the Son of 
 man coming in the clouds of heaven ivith power and great glory. This 
 is the grand announcement of the Lord’s second advent — that event 
 to which the church has never ceased to look for eighteen centuries. 
 It. seems to have been the purpose of God’s providence to keep the 
 church in uncertainty and constant expectation of the great event. 
 Watchfulness was required : “ Watch ; for ye know not the day nor 
 the hour when the Son of man cometh,” That the nature of the 
 event is different from the expectation is a point on which we have 
 already spoken, and does not affect the question of its vastness and 
 importance. The first great difference between the reality and the 
 expectation is, that the Lord’s coming is not a personal coming, but 
 a coming in spirit; not a visible, but an invisible advent. If this is 
 seen to be true, it alters the entire signification of the description of 
 his coming. If his coming is not personal and visible, he cannot 
 come in the clouds of the material heaven. If the circumstances 
 attending the Lord’s coming are entirely different in their nature 
 from what a literal interpretation of his words would lead us to 
 suppose, it is but reasonable to believe that his coming must be 
 entirely different also. If one part of the prediction is to be under- 
 stood spiritually, so must the other. A just interpretation of this 
 particular will reveal to us the true nature of his advent. If the 
 Lord is not to come in person, but in spirit and power, how is such a 
 coming to take place ? He can come in the hearts and spirits of his 
 people , and this, indeed, is his real, his practical and saving advent. 
 Yet this coming to the minds and souls of men must be effected 
 through some medium, and the only medium through which it can 
 take place is the Holy Word, in which the Lord reveals himself to 
 man. His Holy Spirit operates upon their hearts, but the Spirit 
 of truth cannot operate savingly but by the Word of truth. This 
 Word of truth is the medium through which the coming of the Lord 
 takes place. The clouds of heaven in which he is to appear are the 
 truths of the Word in its literal sense. This sense is compared to 
 and imaged by a cloud, because it covers the inner spiritual sense as 
 
540 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXIV. 
 
 a cloud covers tlie glory of the heavens, or shades the brightness of 
 the sun. The literal sense of the Word is meant by clouds in those 
 passages where it is said that the Lord’s righteousness is in the clouds, 
 that his truth reacheth unto the clouds, that he maketli the clouds 
 his chariot, and that the clouds are the dust of his feet. Unless 
 the Word is acknowledged to be divinely inspired, and expressed 
 according to the law of correspondence, these expressions will only be 
 regarded as figurative, and as such, understood as having a certain 
 undefined sublimity. To those only who see the true nature of 
 divine revelation can the spiritual sense be acceptable. Having, 
 then, stated the facts generally, that the Lord’s coming is not natural 
 but spiritual, therefore not to the sense but to the mind, and that it 
 is to be effected through the medium or teaching of the Word, we 
 will proceed to explain this important prophecy as it stands. 
 
 “ Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven.” Be- 
 tween the appearing of the sign and the coming of the Son of man 
 there is a distinction, but there is also a connection. We will first 
 state this distinction in technical language, and then explain it. The 
 sign of the Son of man is truth divine, the Son of man is divine 
 truth. The first is truth from the Lord, the second is the Lord as 
 the truth. The first gives us to know the Lord out of ourselves, the 
 second gives us to know the Lord in ourselves. The difference 
 between them is, in fact, expressed by the Lord in speaking of himself 
 as the Spirit, when he said, “ He dwelleth with you, and shall be in 
 you.” Truth divine is with us, divine truth is in us. The first is 
 not the truth itself, but its sign. It is its precursor. The sign comes 
 before the thing signified, and prepares the way for it. This prepara- 
 tion is not made without the tribulation of temptation, for it is by 
 anguish and trial that the mind is humbled and purified, and made 
 fit to receive the truth in its fulness and perfection. It is therefore 
 said that, on the appearing of the sign of the Son of man in heaven, 
 “ then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn.” The tribes of the 
 earth are those within the church who are in good and truth, and 
 their mourning is expressive of the tribulation and sorrow they 
 experience in passing from the first state to the second. And, indeed, 
 all new truth induces spiritual trial, for it disturbs the old states of 
 the mind, which it is its purpose to remove. In the purely spiritual 
 sense this is more easily seen. In this sense the tribes mean the 
 principles of good and truth themselves, and the earth is the natural 
 mind, in which these principles are. WTien the sign of the Son of 
 man appears in heaven — that is, when truth divine is first perceived 
 
Chap. XXIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 541 
 
 in the spiritual mind, which is heaven — its influx into, or influence 
 upon, the natural mind causes distress and mourning, and the days of 
 mourning continue till the state is inverted, and inversion of state 
 takes place when the Son of man comes, and is received at his 
 coming. We may here remark that there is and must be an analogy 
 between the first and second coming of the Lord. We are in- 
 structed that, when the Lord was in the world, he first made his 
 humanity truth divine, and then made it divine truth. This may be 
 otherwise expressed by saying that he first regenerated his humanity, 
 and then glorified it; he first made it an image of the Divinity, and 
 then made it divine, or, what is the same, he first made it heavenly, 
 and then made it divine. And this was not effected without the 
 bitterness of mourning or temptation. Although the Lord cannot 
 now undergo these states in himself, he still undergoes them in his 
 church and people. At his second coming he has to make his 
 humanity in us truth divine before he can make it divine truth. 
 And a corresponding progression goes on in the church and in the 
 world in general. And the first we see going on before us. We see the 
 sign of the Son of man in all new truth that is manifested in the 
 world, and not only all new religious truth, but all truth in philo- 
 sophy, and science, and government; for all such truth is from the 
 Lord, though it is not the Lord. Some do not even know the source 
 from whom it comes. Yet it is the sign of his coming, though here 
 also we see that the tribes of the earth mourn; for all the mighty 
 changes that are going on are not effected without blood, and fire, 
 and vapour of smoke. 
 
 We have already explained what is meant by the Son of man 
 coming in the clouds of heaven. The Lord comes as Divine Truth, 
 and he comes in and through the Word of truth. The internal sense 
 of the Word, like the internal of the human mind, is meant by 
 heaven, and its external sense is meant by the clouds of heaven. We 
 have now to explain the meaning of “ the Son of man coming in the 
 clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” The Lord comes in the 
 literal sense of the Word, revealing its spiritual sense. He comes in 
 the literal sense, because from the literal sense all doctrine is to be 
 drawn and confirmed; and genuine doctrine derived from the literal 
 or natural sense of Scripture is the very vehicle in which the Lord 
 comes to his church and to the human mind. “He maketh the 
 clouds his chariot;” and a chariot signifies doctrine, and doctrine, 
 deduced by right interpretation from the letter of the Word, is the 
 necessary receptacle and medium of all the higher degrees of know- 
 
542 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXIY. 
 
 leda*e. But while the Son of man comes in the clouds of heaven, he 
 comes with power and great glory. These are the properties of the 
 internal or spiritual sense of the Word, the revelation of which forms 
 one of the essential and peculiar features of the Lord’s second advent. 
 The cloud of the letter is indeed the chariot in which he comes, but 
 the power and great glory in which he appears are the attributes that 
 give a distinctive and transcendent character to his second coming. 
 His first coming in the flesh was in weakness, his second coming in 
 the spirit is with power; his first coming was in humility, his second 
 is with glory. The spiritual sense of the Vv 7 ord has power, because 
 by it the Lord is more able to regenerate the human will, which he 
 does by the principle of spiritual goodness, which power signifies ; 
 and the spiritual sense has glory, for by it the Lord has more light to 
 enlighten and regenerate the human understanding, which he does by 
 spiritual truth, which glory signifies. Yet in all the power and glory 
 of his divine majesty the clouds are under his feet, nor can we see 
 him invested with the power and glory of the internal sense of his 
 Divine Word but in the cloud of the letter, for none are or can be 
 admitted into the spiritual sense of the Word but those who are in 
 the genuine doctrines of its literal sense. The spiritual sense of the 
 Word does not set aside the letter, nor does it even diminish its 
 importance and sanctity ; on the contrary, it increases and exalts 
 them. As the glory of the Lord filled the temple where he had his 
 habitation, so does the glory of the spiritual sense fill the temple of 
 the letter, where it dwells, and through which alone it can be 
 approached by men on earth. 
 
 31. It is remarkable that the second coming of the Lord is not 
 followed by any such catastrophe as it is generally considered shall 
 accompany or follow that event. The first act of the Lord after his 
 coming is to send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet , and they 
 shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of 
 heaven to the other. Spiritually understood, this description is highly 
 expressive. The church, not the world, having come to its end, the 
 Lord has come through his Divine Word to establish a new one. His 
 first act therefore is, to gather together the remnant of the faithful — 
 the elect — those who have in them as much spiritual principle as can 
 be laid hold of by the power of the Lord’s love and truth, and can be 
 gathered together into the Lord’s fold. No doubt angels are em- 
 ployed in this beneficent work, but the angels here are emblems as 
 well as agents; for while they are agents of the Lord, they arc 
 emblems of his divine attributes, and their trumpets are symbols of 
 
Chap. XXIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 543 
 
 the truths of his Word. The angels are emblems, too, of the angelic 
 heaven, whence descend the influences that draw men into the Lord’s 
 church, gathering and holding them together in the unity of the 
 Spirit and the bond of peace. But this, though it varies, does not 
 alter the signification, for the Lord is the all of heaven, as well as all 
 that constitutes the angelic nature. Whatever mediums he uses, the 
 origin and essence of everyone of them is from him. The Lord’s 
 sending his angels with a great sound of a trumpet is his divine 
 influx through angels by the truths of his Word. These truths are 
 the trumpets that sound in the ears of the faithful, and draw them 
 into the Lord’s church and kingdom. The trumpets used in the 
 Israelitish church for proclaiming their festivals and calling the 
 scattered members to the holy convocations, were types of the holy 
 truths of the Word, by which, as by the voice of God, the children of 
 God are brought together. Here they are called from the four winds, 
 from one end of heaven to the other. The calling the elect from the 
 ends of heaven is the calling of all who have anything of heaven in 
 them. The four winds or quarters are expressive of every kind and 
 degree. The same thing is meant here by the four winds as by the 
 east, and the west, and the south, and the north, from which men 
 should come to the kingdom when the rebellious Jews should be cast 
 out. Those from the east and west are those in all degrees of good, 
 from the most internal to the most external ; and those from the south 
 and north are those in all degrees of truth, from the clearest to the 
 obscurest. All, therefore, who are in any degree whatever of the 
 love and practice of good and truth are invited, and will be received 
 into the Lord’s church as the gate of heaven. The Lord speaks of 
 the four winds, and of the extremities of heaven; and although 
 naturally they mean the same, spiritually there is a difference between 
 them. The winds are symbolical of the spirit of intellectual life, and 
 the heavens are symbolical of voluntary life, and are applied to the 
 spiritual and the celestial. We may remark, in conclusion, that, 
 understood in reference to the individual mind, to whom the Lord’s 
 coming is the beginning of regeneration, the gathering together of the 
 elect from the four winds is the gathering of all the affections of 
 goodness and perceptions of truth, which is effected when they are 
 directed to one supreme object, and subordinated to one ruling end. 
 That one object is the Lord, that one end is to do his will. 
 
 32. We now come to contemplate the first fruits of the Lord’s glorious 
 coming. In the parable of the fig tree we have a picture of life, and 
 freshness, and promise. Now learn a parable of the fig tree ; When 
 
544 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXIV. 
 
 Ids branch is yet tender , and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer 
 is nigh. No image of the church is more common, both general and 
 individual, than the fruit-bearing tree, whether it be the fig, the vine, 
 or the olive. These are the emblems of the three great characters by 
 which all churches, and all the men of the church, are distinguished 
 • — natural, spiritual, and celestial. That the fig tree should furnish 
 the emblem of the first signs of returning life is not surprising ; for 
 should it not begin at the lowest, that it might ascend to the highest? 
 The natural is before the spiritual, and the spiritual before the 
 celestial. And although this church of the second advent is to be the 
 crown of all churches, on the banks of whose living stream the tree of 
 life, first planted in Eden, is to grow and bear its monthly fruits ; yet 
 for that very reason its life should be developed from the humblest 
 and commonest of its forms. The sign of returning summer — for in 
 Scripture there is no word for spring — is, that the branch of the fig 
 tree is tender, and putteth forth leaves. The branches of a tree are 
 the emblems of the affections in man ; for the affections grow out 
 from the will as branches do from the stem of the tree. And as the 
 will produces affections, like as the tree sends forth branches, so the 
 affections produce thoughts, as the branches put forth leaves. The 
 branches and leaves of the fig tree are therefore the symbols of affec- 
 tions and thoughts ; and the quickening of the affections and the 
 unfolding of the thoughts are the spiritual ideas presented in the 
 natural imagery of this brief parable. While the branch is yet 
 tender. And what makes the branch tender 1 Is it not the gentle 
 warmth and the early dew ? And are not these themselves the 
 emblems of returning love and faith, under whose genial influence 
 and refreshing power the affections grow tender and the thoughts 
 expand ? This is equally true of the members and of the body — of 
 the parts and of the whole. In the external church this beautiful 
 parable has been strikingly exemplified. The second coming of the 
 Lord has already taken place. More than a century ago a solitary 
 voice, but one clear, and calm, and solemn as an angel’s trumpet, 
 sounded in the ear of Christendom the awful but joyful tidings that 
 the judgment had come, and that the dispensation of the first advent 
 had passed away, and that of the second advent had commenced. 
 The Son of man had indeed come as a thief in the night, unseen and 
 unacknowledged; and men slept and waked, and bought and sold, as if 
 nothing had occurred to disturb the dead calm of their settled 
 naturalism. But old things are passing away, and all things are 
 becoming new. A new influence has begun to descend, and new 
 
Ciiap. XXIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 5i5 
 
 truths have begun to be diffused ; and ignorant as men generally are 
 as to the cause, all confess that a new power operates on the world, 
 and that signs of a new life are everywhere visible. The branch of 
 the fig tree is tender, and putteth forth leaves. Men’s affections have 
 received a new impulse, and their thoughts a new direction. True, 
 this mental activity has as yet been manifested chiefly on the natural 
 side. But how great has been that activity, how extraordinary its 
 results ! Knowledge has increased, science has advanced, invention 
 and discovery have progressed with a rapidity and to an extent alto- 
 gether unprecedented. It is not, however, to the facts only, but to 
 their results, that we are to look for the signs of a new life. Steam 
 has been turned into a beast of burden, and electricity has been 
 endued with the power of speech. The first has supplied the world 
 with a new muscular power, the second with a new nervous system. 
 They have brought the inhabitants of the earth nearer to each other, 
 and established amongst them a community of goods. These confer 
 upon the inhabitants of the world material advantages chiefly. Ad- 
 mitting this to be the case, they are not in themselves unimportant, 
 and they give the promise of higher things. They do not bring us 
 the summer, but they tell us that the winter is past, and that the 
 summer is nigh. They are but the leaves of the fig tree, and those 
 leaves but in their budding forth. Their unfolding is yet to come, and 
 in this they will display yet greater beauty, and produce yet greater 
 results. But although the human mind has been developed chiefly 
 on the natural side, it has by no means been developed on this side 
 only. The moral and religious side has been to some extent developed 
 also. This we see in the growing desire and increasing efforts to 
 ameliorate the condition and improve the character of the masses, and 
 in the greater tolerance and more liberal views that are beginning to 
 prevail in the religious world. All these are signs of the spring, and 
 give the promise of summer. Spring is the time for the tree to unfold 
 its leaves and put forth its blossoms ; summer is the time for it to 
 produce its fruits. That season will come, but the time of figs is not 
 yet. This is the age of intelligence, but behind that intelligence there 
 is a prevailing selfishness. Men generally serve others with a view 
 to serve themselves. Each does a little for others, and as much as he 
 can for himself. There is, therefore, in the world a much greater 
 inequality of natural and spiritual wealth than is consistent with 
 general happiness. The summer will bring the fruits of righteousness 
 to fill up the measure of human good, to make men brothers of a 
 common family, whose Father is Christ, and give that evidence of 
 
 2 N 
 
546 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXIV. 
 
 their being what they profess to be, which our Lord pointed out: 
 “ By this shall all men know that ye ai*e my disciples, if ye love one 
 another.” 
 
 33. Our Lord directs us to the use of his parable, by saying, So like- 
 wise ye , when ye shall see all these things , know that it is near , even cut 
 the doors. Those who see all these things, which include the darken- 
 ing of the sun and moon, the coming of the Son of man, and the 
 budding of the fig tree, must see them sjnritually ; and the sjnritual 
 discernment of these things will indeed enable the mind to know that 
 these great events and changes are near, even at the doors. Nearness 
 is not nearness of time and place, but of state. This proximity of 
 state will be best understood when it exists in ourselves. And these 
 doors at which these things are, where are they but in our own minds 
 — these doors by which spiritual things enter into the mind from 
 within, and natural things from without? The doors are those of the 
 natural mind, because good and truth first gain admission into this 
 degree of the mind when man is being regenerated and made a 
 church. 
 
 34. The nearness of these things is presented under another form 
 in the next words : Verily I say unto you , This generation shall not 
 pass, till all these things be fulfilled. This is sometimes understood to 
 be a promise that all these predictions would be fulfilled during the 
 time of those who were then living. In the historical sense, the 
 generation meant is the race of the Jews ; and the promise is, that 
 that race should continue even to the time of the second advent. This 
 promise has had a literal fulfilment. And this is the more remark- 
 able, considering that for eighteen centuries the people have had no 
 national existence, but have been scattered and persecuted in most of 
 the countries of the world. Among the purposes of Providence in 
 preventing the extinction of this extraordinary people, the preserva- 
 tion of the Hebrew Scriptures was undoubtedly one ; for it is probable 
 that but for their conservative care, neither the books nor the 
 language of the Old Testament revelation would have survived. 
 Spiritually understood, generation means regeneration ; and in this 
 sonse the promise is, that these things are fulfilled in regeneration and 
 in the regenerate, and that regeneration shall not be completed until 
 the corresponding states are realized. 
 
 35. From the time, the Lord proceeds to the certainty, of the 
 events. Heaven and earth shall pass away , but my words shall not pass 
 away. In explaining the 29th verse, we took occasion to show that 
 the darkening of the sun and moon was not to be expected to have a 
 
Chap. XXIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 547 
 
 literal accomplishment. We may here also show that a similar 
 prophecy to this had previously been fulfilled, but of course without 
 disturbing the Existing order of the physical universe — being fulfilled, 
 in fact, spiritually. In Isaiah li., at the 6th verse, there is a 
 similar prediction connected with the work of human redemption 
 at the time of the Incarnation. “ Lift up your eyes to the heavens, 
 and look upon the earth beneath : for the heavens shall vanish away 
 like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that 
 dwell therein shall die in like manner : but my salvation shall be for 
 ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.” Independently of 
 its application to the time of the first advent, the prediction has the 
 appearance of a figurative enunciation. And other passages in the 
 prophecies confirm this view. Take, for instance, one from the same 
 prophet : “ Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth : and the 
 former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” The prediction 
 in which this occurs relates to the calling of the Gentiles at the 
 Lord’s coming in the flesh, when it could have received only a 
 spiritual fulfilment. Indeed, the heavens and the earth are figures of 
 the church — heaven its internal, and earth its external. And that this 
 prediction relates to the church is made almost absolutely certain from 
 the words which immediately follow : “ Be ye glad and rejoice for ever 
 in that which I create ; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and 
 her people a joy.” It is surprising that, with such obvious reference 
 to the church, these prophecies should still be regarded as declaring the 
 approaching end of the visible world, — an event which, supposing it to 
 be destined to take place, can have no real connection with the religious 
 condition of mankind. Science has now come to the aid of theology, 
 and gives its testimony to the youth and stability of the universe, — 
 for these prophecies, literally understood, involve no less than the 
 destruction of the whole. When the Lord declared that heaven and 
 earth should pass away, he taught that the church would come to its 
 end ; yet he gave a promise that his Word would endure, which was 
 equivalent to promising that, while the eternal truth which formed 
 the church remains, there is a sure ground of hope for the human 
 race ; that, in brief, the endurance of the Word is a promise of the 
 renewal of the church — of the creation of a new heaven and a new 
 earth. And so we find that he who here declares that heaven and 
 earth shall pass away, in showing John the vision of future events, 
 enabled him to record : “ I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for 
 the first earth had passed away, and there was no more sea.” And 
 here, again, Jerusalem was created a rejoicing and her people a joy: 
 
548 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXIY. 
 
 for John beheld the holy city, new J erusalem, descending from God out 
 of this new heaven to this new earth, “ prepared as a bride adorned 
 for her husband.” Who can doubt that the whole of the splendid 
 vision was a symbolic representation of the glorious church of the 
 future ? 
 
 36. The Lord returns again to the time of the end, and speaks of its 
 being hid in the mind of the Eternal. But of that day and hour 
 knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven , but my Father only. 
 Time means state. Not the time of the end of the world, but the 
 state of the church at its end, is the subject of which the Lord here 
 speaks. Why should the Lord mention the day and the hour ? Be- 
 cause the day means the general state of the church, and the hour 
 means its particular state, which is the particular state of every person 
 in it. This no man or angel knows, nor can know. It is remarkable, 
 and whispers to us the existence in it of a secret and sacred meaning, 
 that in Mark (xiii. 32) the Lord mentions himself as one of those 
 from whom the time is concealed. Is it supposable that the very 
 person who was to come should be ignorant of the day of his coming 1 ? 
 — that he who was to judge the world knew not the time when the 
 judgment was to take place? Impossible. Does not this teach us 
 that the Lord’s words are spirit and not flesh ? The reason that the 
 Father alone knew the time of the end is to be found in the signifi- 
 cance of the names and principles of the Godhead. The Father is the 
 infinite Divine Love, the Son is the infinite Divine Wisdom, and angels 
 and men are but the finites answering to these infinites. Yet why 
 should not the Son, who is the infinite Wisdom, know this time ? One 
 might think that he was the very one to possess this knowledge. The 
 reason is to be found in the character of the time — in the nature of 
 the state of the church at its consummation. The Lord is said in 
 Scripture to know those who know him, and not to know those who 
 know not him ; and the same is said of finite beings. When it is said 
 that the day and hour were not known to men and angels, we are 
 instructed that in the church at its end there would remain nothiug 
 truly human or angelic ; that the church, both general and particular, 
 would be entirely destroyed, internally and externally. This is 
 analogous to the declaration that heaven and earth would pass away, 
 for as angels are inhabitants of heaven and men are inhabitants of the 
 earth, when these had ceased to exist, there was no ground for the 
 perceptions of the truly human and angelic mind, and, indeed, no 
 reception of truly human or angelic principles ; and when men reject 
 all good and truth of heaven and the church, there is no longer in 
 
Chap. XXIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 549 
 
 them anything by which holy men and angels can know them. But 
 even the Son did not know, but the Father only. And this singular 
 declaration teaches us that, in the end which was coming upon the 
 world, there would be no remains of truth or wisdom left in the 
 church, or in the minds of its members, so that there would be noth- 
 ing for the Divine wisdom to know or acquire. All that would be left 
 in the church, or in the human mind, would be some remains of good 
 or love, which would preserve them in some connection with the 
 Divine love and goodness, and by which the Divine Father might 
 spiritually know them. This the Lord taught in another form, when 
 he said to Peter, respecting John — “If I will that he tarry till I 
 come, what is that to thee 1 follow thou me ; ” meaning that some 
 remains of good or charity would be preserved to the time of the 
 Lord’s second coming at the end of the church, but that truth or faith 
 would pass away. 
 
 37. The same truth which we have now considered is carried out in 
 the words that follow. But as the clays of Noe were , so shall also the 
 coming of the Son of man be. The devastation of the church is here 
 described. But Noe signifies the spiritual church, or the church 
 which is principled in truth or wisdom ; as Adam signifies the 
 celestial church, or the church which is principled in goodness or love. 
 This comparison of the state of the church with that of Noe implies 
 that the church was devastated as to truth ; but as no comparison is 
 made between its days and those of Adam, it was not devastated as 
 to good, of which some still remained. And, indeed, as celestial 
 remains are stored up in infancy, and are the most interior, they are 
 the last to be destroyed ; and if they were destroyed, the restoration 
 of the church and the salvation of men would be impossible. Then 
 the day and the hour would be unknown, not only to the Son, but to 
 the Father also, and the day and hour of the church would be blotted 
 out for ever. But, blessed be God, whose mercy never faileth, a 
 very small remnant is ever preserved, which divine love can take hold 
 of to form a new seed in the earth ! The state of the first Christian 
 church at its end is compared to that of Noe, because the first 
 Christian church was analogous to the ancient church. The Christian 
 church was the ancient church unswathed, for its principles lay 
 infolded in the representatives of the ancient church. But the 
 analogy may seem not to hold good here, since the days of Noe, to which 
 those of the Christian church are likened, are not the last days of the 
 ancient, but of the most ancient church, before the flood came and 
 swept them all away. The seeming incongruity will disappear when 
 
550 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXIV. 
 
 we reflect that the course of the Christian churches is the inverse of 
 that of the pre-Christian. The first church was analogous to the 
 ancient church, and the second is analogous to the most ancient. 
 The states of the devastation of the Christian church are compared 
 to those of the most ancient church, which were of a direful character. 
 Yet they are called the days of Noe, to indicate their spiritual origin. 
 But Noe’s is a name of promise as well as of devastation. His 
 name means comfort ; and as Noah signifies those who can be saved 
 by temptations, the comfort which succeeds temptation, which is the 
 flood, is included in the name of the last of the most ancient and the 
 first of the ancient church. So may we say of the coming of the Son 
 of man. He comes as the Judge and as the Comforter ; for it is the 
 same divine truth that condemns the evil and comforts the good. 
 
 38. The nature of the states signified by the days of Noe are 
 next described. For as in the days that were before the flood they 
 vjere eating and drinking — that is, they appropriated evil and 
 falsity; marrying and giving in marriage — that is, they conjoined 
 evil and falsity. This “marrying and giving in marriage” is 
 expressive of the mutual and reciprocal desire and activity of evil 
 and falsity to unite with each othei*. Evil marries what is false, and 
 what is false gives itself in marriage to evil. This is the infernal 
 marriage — the union of will and intellect, of heart and head, in loving 
 and thinking evil; and it is also the union of heart and hand in 
 willing and doing it. This continued until the day that Noe entered 
 into the ark. Noe was the remnant saved out of the earliest church, 
 as the germ out of which the second might be produced. The ark 
 was the means by which he was preserved during the flood, and 
 carried him, as it were, from the old over into the new world. And 
 what is the ark of safety for the church, and for the man of the church, 
 but the Word of God? It is from that we derive the materials, as 
 it is from God we receive the wisdom, to form a refuge and covert 
 from the tempest. And this is just that which the wicked despise, 
 and to which they will not betake themselves. The day when Noe 
 entered into the ark is the state when the pure are separated from the 
 impure, the righteous from the wicked, and when the faithful separate 
 themselves from the world, and place themselves under the protection 
 of the Most High. 
 
 39. The evil knew nothing of the coming judgment until the flood 
 came , and took them all away. The flood, spiritually understood — and 
 it had no historical existence — is an inundation of falses. It was this 
 that brought the first church to an end. This it was that took them 
 
Chap. XXIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 551 
 
 all away. So shall also the coming of the Son of man be. This does 
 not mean that the end of the Christian church would come with a 
 flood. The end of this dispensation or “ world ” is declared to be 
 with fire. Eire is an emblem of love, and evil love is the fire by 
 which the church of the first advent has been consumed. When it is 
 said, “ So shall also the coming of the Son of man be,” it is in refer- 
 ence to the evil not knowing the time of their visitation. The Word 
 always speaks of the day overtaking the evil in the midst of their 
 traffic and their pleasures. The righteous know not, indeed, the day 
 or the hour, but they watch, that the Lord at his coming may find 
 them ready. 
 
 40, 41. And the Lord at his coming finds both evil and good. For 
 Then shall two be in the field ; the one shall be taken , and the other left . 
 Tvjo women shall be grinding at the mill ; the one shall be taken , and 
 the other left. These twos are evidently in opposite states. The two 
 in the field are those of whom some are in good and some in evil ; and 
 the two grinding at the mill are those of whom some are in truth and 
 some in falsity. The two are therefore not two persons, but two 
 classes ; and these the two classes everywhere treated of in the Word 
 — those who act more from the will, and those who act more from the 
 understanding. In the figure by which the Divine Speaker repre- 
 sents the second class there is a peculiarity that deserves attention. 
 There are two “grinding at the mill.” Grinding is the symbol of inquir- 
 ing and investigating, and therefore implies an intellectual operation. 
 The two grinding at the mill are two who are in the same doctrine, 
 but who are in opposite states of life — a circumstance which is always 
 possible, but which is more common in a declining or degraded state 
 of the church. And from this we learn that it is not doctrine, but 
 life, that determines the real and final state of man. The same 
 doctrine may be studied and maintained from opposite loves, which is 
 indicated by those grinding at the mill being women. 
 
 42. The Lord now turns from the immediate subject of the con- 
 summation of the age and his second coming, to teach his disciples, 
 and us through them, some solemn lessons for our guidance in relation 
 to it. The first is an admonition and a warning combined. Watch 
 therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. Spiritual 
 watchfulness is not merely an act, but a state ; not a duty only, but a 
 principle. Watchfulness implies devotion to an end, and faithfulness 
 in keeping that end constantly in view, and in doing everything 
 necessary to secure it. Watchfulness is a state of the good of faith, 
 or a state of truth and a life according to it ; and the good of faith is 
 
552 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXIV. 
 
 the life of faith. Watchfulness is thus preparedness. The reason 
 a'iven for watching is, that we know not what hour our Lord doth 
 come. The end of a church and the end of life are equally hid from 
 us, that we may be influenced, by the general knowledge, to do what 
 the particular knowledge would incapacitate us for doing. And as 
 the Lord comes to each of us at the time of the end, as truly as he 
 comes to the church at the time of its consummation, we may, with 
 more direct practical advantage, consider the remainder of the Lord’s 
 address as it applies more immediately to ourselves. In relation to 
 our own last day and hour, Divine Providence has wisely and merci- 
 fully concealed them from us, for the very purpose of making us 
 watch, and being always ready. We are not to watch as one does 
 who is to meet and repel an enemy, but as one who is to meet and 
 welcome a friend. The coming of the Son of man is in itself 
 inevitable and irresistible. It is an event that most of us would 
 ward off or avoid if we could. But as there is no use in attempting 
 this, we ought to do that which alone is wise — prepare ourselves for 
 the event. We know not what hour the Lord shall come, but we 
 know that he will come. This is all we require to know in order to 
 be always ready. 
 
 43. But this seems to be rather set aside by our Lord’s next words. 
 But know this , that if the good man of the house had known in what 
 watch the thief would come , he would have watched , and would not have 
 suffered his house to he broken up. At first sight this seems as if it 
 would be an advantage for the possessor of the house to know when 
 the thief would come. This, however, is rather a description of what 
 man would do, than of what he should do. A man would indeed 
 watch if he knew in what hour he should be called away; but, then, 
 he would never think of watching till the hour approached. We see 
 this disposition and its consequence in the world. Many speak of 
 giving up their pleasures or their business in time to devote them- 
 selves to religion, as advancing age gives its monition of their 
 approaching end. All such plans are the results of spurious feelings 
 and mistaken views. They proceed on the mistake that religion is 
 something separate from the duties and enjoyments of common life. 
 Common life is the appointed and congenial sphere for the daily 
 cultivation and practice of religious virtue. Beligion is to be infused 
 into all the actions of life. Life is a school for practically learning 
 the way to heaven. That way lies through active usefulness. He 
 leads a heavenly life who sanctifies his earthly deeds with heavenly 
 ends. The heavenly life must be lived without reference to time. 
 
Chap. XXIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 55 3 
 
 We know not what a day may bring forth. There is some difference 
 in the expression here. The Lord does not speak of the hour, but of 
 the watch. “ If the good man had known in what watch the thief 
 would come.” A watch in the Old Testament times was four hours ; 
 at this time it was three. A watch therefore indicates a more 
 general state than an hour. It also has relation to a state of truth, 
 or an intellectual state, as the idea of watching and watchfulness 
 implies. In the good, watchfulness is truth terminating in good, or 
 intellect grounded in will; with the evil, it is truth without good, 
 intellect grounded in concupiscence. This is the state of the man 
 who, if he had known the time of visitation, “ would not have suffered 
 his house to be broken up ” — more literally, to be “ dug through.” 
 And here again we have an expression that has reference to intellectual 
 action ; for to dig is to inquire, to investigate, or search thoroughly 
 into anything. Here, it is true, digging is not cultivating the soil 
 in order to sow and reap, but digging into the house to obtain by 
 stealth what one is too indolent to procure by industry. How would 
 this supposed watcher not have suffered his house to be dug through % 
 His intellect would have been awake, so as to keep the character of his 
 mind from being discovered ; for the house is a symbol of the mind, 
 digging through which is to enter into it, and take away the know- 
 ledge it has acquired. 
 
 44. Therefore be ye also ready , says our Lord ; for in such an hour 
 as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Readiness is now substituted for 
 watchfulness. To be ready is to be prepared as to the will and good- 
 ness, as to be watchful is to be prepared more especially as to the 
 understanding. Watchfulness prepares the way for readiness; truth, 
 for goodness. He that is watchful will find himself ready — he that 
 faithfully uses knowledge will come to the virtue which it teaches. 
 To be in this state is to be ready. And this is a state at which all 
 should aim. When that hour comes that the Son of man appears, 
 that hour which we know not, then shall we feel the value of being 
 prepared. 
 
 45. The Saviour now illustrates the subject of his teaching by a 
 parable. In this he describes the man that watcheth as a servant 
 whom his lord made ruler over his house, and whom he found faithful 
 at his coming ; and the man who does not watch he represents as a 
 servant who, thinking his lord delayed his coming, began to smite his 
 fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken. The end of 
 the one was honour, that of the other, degradation. We proceed to 
 examine this divine simile. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, 
 
554 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXIV. 
 
 whom- Ids lord hath made ruler over his household , to give them meat 
 in due season ? We are servants of God, who created us to serve 
 him. And we find in what our service to him consists. We too 
 often make our service to God to consist in serving him in wor- 
 ship. The service he requires is here described as ministering to his 
 household — doing good to our fellow-servants, both as members of his 
 church and of his human family. The name “ servant” has spiritually 
 reference to those who are in possession of the truth ; but these may 
 be either good or bad servants, as they employ the truth to do good 
 or to do evil. The servant is made ruler over his lord’s household. 
 The house is the church, and the household are its members. The 
 servants in the church are its ministers, whose office it is to give to the 
 members of the household, which they have been called to rule or 
 feed, meat in due season — suitable and seasonable instruction. In an 
 enlarged sense every one is a servant, for it is the duty of every mem- 
 ber of the household of faith to serve, or do service to the brethren ; 
 so that every one is accountable for the way in which he discharges 
 his duty as a servant of God by serving his neighbour. Those espe- 
 cially who are in truth above others are able to serve their simpler 
 brethren, and lead them where the truth directs them to walk. If 
 they perform their duty, the servants will be blessed ; if they do not, 
 their final lot will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The general 
 lesson of the parable lies near the surface. The purely spiritual sense 
 leads us into a more interior and even more practical wisdom, and on 
 this sense we offer a few remarks. It is a characteristic of this sense 
 that it applies to the individual mind, leading one to look into the 
 state and workings of his own heart and interior life. In the internal 
 sense, we may find the lord, and the servant, and the household in 
 ourselves. The internal man is the lord, and the external is the 
 servant ; more interiorly, the principle of good in the internal is 
 lord, and the principle of truth in the external is servant, and the 
 household, or family, are the affections of goodness and perceptions of 
 truth. The servant is appointed by his lord to rule over his house- 
 hold. The household being the affections and thoughts of the natural 
 mind, truth is ruler over them ; for it is the office of truth to produce 
 and maintain order. Good may indeed be called the ruling power ; 
 but good rules by means of truth, or, what amounts to the same, the 
 will rules by means of the understanding. Good and the will cannot 
 rule by themselves, or immediately ; for good is mere affection, and will 
 is blind impulse. To truth and intellect belong discrimination and 
 judgment — in one word, laws by which rule and order exist. Hence 
 
Ciiap. XXIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 555 
 
 it is that to bring and keep the affections and thoughts in order, good 
 must employ truth, or the will must employ the understanding. Rule 
 is not exercised by the higher as an active power through the lower 
 as a passive instrument. If this were the case, the servant could have 
 no choice, and incur no blame, and would have no title to either 
 praise or blame. But the internal and external of man are distinct. 
 They form the inseparable parts of every man, but they have a dis- 
 tinct will and action. The internal acts upon the external, but it 
 does not act through it. The external is a re-agent, and so much is it 
 so, that it can re-act either with or against the internal, and may then 
 be either a “ faithful and wise,” or “ an evil ” servant. Besides these 
 two parts of the mind, there is a third — a sort of intermediate. Of the 
 existence of this we are conscious ; for we can look into and see both 
 sides of our own mind and character, both the good and the bad, the 
 true and the false. Who then is a faithful and wise servant ? The 
 external is such a servant when it submits itself to the will of the 
 internal, and carries out its purposes by ruling over the natural affec- 
 tions and appetites, and giving them their meat in due season, which 
 is to give them the nourishment which they require to sustain them, 
 including seasonable orderly gratification. Meat more especially 
 ineaus the good necessary to support them. Yet that good is not so 
 much imparted as acquired. The Lord showed how the mind was to 
 be fed when he said, “ My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, 
 and to finish his work.” Just as the Lord’s humanity was fed by doing 
 the will of the indwelling divinity, or, just as his external man was 
 fed by doing the will of his internal, so are the affections of our 
 external man fed by a faithful and wise subordination of the external 
 to the internal — of the natural to the spiritual. The servant is to 
 give the household their meat in due season, which is, to make them 
 do good according to truth, or to exercise charity according to faith, — 
 or, as it may be expressed, to do good with discrimination ; for truth 
 discriminates, as good desires and loves. 
 
 46. Blessed is that servant , whom his lord when he corneth shall find 
 so doing. The blessing promised, or pronounced, on the wise and 
 faithful servant, is the result of his fidelity and wisdom. The result 
 of ruling and feeding the affections and perceptions of the external 
 man, in obedience to the will of the internal, is, that these two parts 
 of our nature become harmonized and united. And this union is 
 itself blessing, for it introduces the mind into a tranquil, peaceful, 
 happy state. Naturally, the inner and outer man are entirely oppo- 
 site. This opposition is the cause of mental disorder and misery; and 
 
556 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXIY. 
 
 it is only when their opposition is removed, and true peace between 
 them is restored, that the Divine blessing is received. The blessing is 
 promised to him whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 
 The lord is represented as being absent, the servant being left with 
 the entire charge of the family, indicating that our natural man is as 
 it were left to himself in the exercise of his freedom, to do or not to 
 do as his will may determine. It implies also the necessity of per- 
 severing unto the end, when the Lord cometh to judgment. 
 
 47. And what is in this case the result of judgment Verily I say 
 unto you , That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. When the 
 Lord was speaking of his union with the Father, he said, “ All things 
 that the Father hath are mine.” The divinity and the humanity 
 were related to each other as the internal and the external man. All 
 that was accomplished in the Lord was the grand prototype of what 
 can be effected in man. As by glorification the Lord’s humanity 
 became possessed of all the attributes of the divinity, so by regenera- 
 tion the external man becomes possessed of all the properties of the 
 internal. They are not, indeed, his own as independent possessions. 
 Such a claim would deprive him of them. He is only appointed over 
 them, and holds them and uses them under the internal as their 
 owner, under whom they ought to be administered. It is enough 
 that all the good and truth, and, with them, all the joys and delights, 
 of the inner man should be enjoyed by the outer, as the reward of 
 fidelity in the use of his own. He that is faithful over a few things 
 is made ruler over many things, and enters into the joy of his 
 Lord. 
 
 48. But the opposite side of the external man is presented in con- 
 trast to this. But if that evil servant shall say in his heart , My Lord 
 delayeth his coming. The case of a wicked servant is here supposed, 
 but one who has been entrusted with the charge of the household, 
 and who so far feels his obligation as to look for his lord’s return, 
 but who abuses his trust when he thinks his lord delays his coming. 
 He represents one, therefore, who is nominally a Christian, but who 
 is really, as this servant is called, a hypocrite. Considered as a type 
 of the natural man, he presents to our view the external of one who 
 has been trained in the forms and habits of religion, and has preserved 
 an outward conformity with the order of spiritual life. In this case 
 the inner man, flowing into the orderly external, gives it that power 
 which is necessary to its free and independent action. And, indeed, 
 the servant denoting not only the external man in general, but truth 
 in the external man in particular, we here see the character of the 
 
Chap. XXIV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 55 7 
 
 mind wlien it lias truth, but has no corresponding good. The first 
 manifestation of the true character is in the servant saying in his 
 heart, “ My lord delayeth his coming.” Spiritually, this is more 
 than a secret doubt ; it is a thought, the offspring of a wish. A voice 
 within the heart is a thought that springs out of the will, which is 
 desire speaking. Delay has in it something more than the idea of 
 procrastination. Time being the symbol of state, haste and delay sig- 
 nify certainty and uncertainty. When the Lord said to John, 
 “ Behold, I come quickly,” he did not promise to come soon, but to 
 come certainly. When the evil servant said his lord delayed his 
 coming, he entertained a secret disbelief that his lord would come at 
 all. This is the spiritual idea it contains, and the spiritual state it 
 describes. And this disbelief in the lord’s coming is spiritually a 
 denial of the existence of an internal man, and with it a doubt of 
 every corresponding internal — a denial of the internal of the church, 
 of heaven, of the Word, and of the Lord. This state results in a state 
 and in acts described in the next verse. 
 
 49. And shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink 
 with the drunken. The fellow-servants are co-ordinate and subordi- 
 nate truths. Truths disagree, not that truths have any disagreement 
 among themselves, but they are set at variance in ill-regulated and 
 contentious minds, and among discordant men. It is good that makes 
 men agree with one another, and it is good that makes truths agree 
 with one another. So far as we are evil, so far do the truths we 
 possess come into conflict. We see this exemplified in open and ex- 
 treme cases in infidel minds, who consider that revealed religion is a 
 system of contradictions. This is more or less the case, though dif- 
 ferently manifested, in every mind where evil has a controlling influ- 
 ence. And that ruling truth which evil has perverted, smites every 
 other. It is the Ishmaelite whose hand is against every man. And 
 when truths are silenced or rejected, there is then the appropriation 
 of evil and falsity, which is to eat and drink with the drunken. The 
 drunken are they who imbibe falsities, so that this being opposite to a 
 state of truth, which a good servant signifies, the servant’s conduct is 
 expressive of the falsification of truth. 
 
 50. But a day of reckoning comes. The lord of that servant shall 
 come in a day when he looketh not for him , and in an hour that he is 
 not aware of. If the lord signifies the internal man, and yet the evil 
 have no proper internal, what are we to understand the lord’s coming 
 to mean ? Every man has an internal, although the internal of the 
 evil is different from that of the good. Evil closes the true internal, 
 
558 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXIY. 
 
 and makes it as if it did not exist ; and in this state it is that the 
 servant says in his heart that his lord delays his coming. His coming 
 as the author of good and the dispenser of blessing is indeed delayed — 
 delayed or prevented by the evil itself that rules in the external. 
 But the lord does come, if not in this world, at least in the next. 
 For judgment is effected by laying open the internal — opening the 
 book of the internal memory, where all the life is written — not the 
 actions, but the ends from which they have been performed. For 
 while the word and deed are written in the external memory, the 
 motive is engraven at the same time in the internal memory. And 
 when this is laid open, and explains every recorded word and deed in 
 the external, then does the lord come. And he comes in a day when 
 he looketh not for him ; for the inner memory of the spirit is 
 unknown to man while he lives in the world, and therefore, during it, 
 it remains silent, till death breaks the seals and reveals its contents. 
 And so complete is this revelation of every one’s interior state that 
 men are not only convicted but convinced of their evils, 
 
 51. The consequences of the lord’s coming are described by the lord 
 saying of the servant that he shall cut him asunder , and appoint him 
 his portion with the hypocrites. This cutting asunder describes the 
 result of judgment, or the opening the internal, in separating from 
 the nominal and deceitful disciple everything good and true. Those 
 who are of this formal religious character have good and truth out- 
 wardly, which they have put on, as the false prophets put on a hairy 
 garment to deceive. Stripped of this outward vesture, they stand out 
 in their own undisguised character, as evil servants. And those 
 assumed excellencies of good and truth, of love and faith, adhere only 
 to the external man, and have had no real conformity with their 
 essential character. They are therefore appointed a portion with the 
 hypocrites, or profane; and where these are, there shall he weeping and 
 gnashing of teeth. Weeping is misery arising out of evil, and gnash- 
 ing of teeth is misery arising from falsities. Weeping is grief of 
 heart, gnashing of teeth is sorrow of intellect — not, alas ! weeping or 
 sorrow for sin, but rather of rage and disappointment; grief for the 
 restrained evil of a malevolent will and the transparent fallacies of a 
 perverse and deceitful understanding. Evil and falsehood carry their 
 own punishment in themselves, and in the other life it comes out and 
 returns upon the evil doer. 
 
Ciiap. XXV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 559 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 This chapter is a continuation of the discourse which our Lord 
 addressed to his disciples on the subject of his second coming, and of 
 the judgment connected with it. The whole of this concluding por- 
 tion of his discourse relates to judgment. This is presented under 
 three different images, — the parables of the ten virgins, of the talents, 
 and of the sheep and the goats. The last may not be strictly a 
 parable, but it is, no doubt, in some of its features parabolical. These 
 parables, like the others delivered by our Lord, are distinguished for 
 their beauty, richness, and instructive wisdom. 
 
 Before proceeding to consider these parables, it may be useful to 
 say a few words on the subject of general and particular judgments. 
 This distinction is not sufficiently attended to, and seems not to be 
 well understood. Most Christians have an impression, amounting 
 almost to a conviction, that the soul enters immediately after death 
 into heaven or hell ; and yet a belief almost universally prevails, that 
 all are to be judged at the last day, which is understood to mean the 
 end of the world. A revelation of the spiritual sense of the Word, 
 and of the nature and economy of the spiritual world, has shown how 
 these two ideas may be reconciled with each other. What the reli- 
 gious world has hitherto understood to mean the end of the world, is, 
 we have seen (ch. xxiv. 3), the end of the church, or the close of the 
 religious dispensation. And as there have been several dispensations 
 in the world, there have been several general judgments. There has 
 been such a judgment at the end of every dispensation ; for the 
 general judgment is that which brings the dispensation to a close, 
 and prepares for or forms the commencement of a new one. The 
 judgment which is described in this chapter, is that which our Lord 
 predicted would take place at the end of the dispensation which he 
 then established. And this is called the last judgment, both because 
 that dispensation is the last which will ever come to an end, and 
 because the judgment upon it is the last general judgment that will 
 ever take place. The church of the Lord’s second advent is the 
 crowning dispensation, and will endure for ever. No general judg- 
 ment will therefore ever again take place, because none will ever be 
 required. Every individual will in future be judged immediately 
 after death. It is only when circumstances exist that prevent the 
 regular occurrence of particular judgment, that a general judgment 
 can take place. We will explain how this is. The whole spiritual 
 world consists of three general divisions. Heaven and hell form two of 
 
5G0 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXY. 
 
 these, and are opposite to each other in situation, as they are in state. 
 Between these there is a third region ; and this is intermediate in 
 situation, because its inhabitants are intermediate in state, between 
 the two opposite kingdoms we have mentioned. Heaven and hell are 
 the ultimate and eternal abodes of the good and the evil. But the 
 intermediate region, called the world of spirits, is the immediate and 
 temporary abode of all who depart from the natural world. Both 
 the good and the evil pass through it on their way to their final 
 abode. Here they are prepared for their ultimate destination. The 
 preparation consists in separating from the good any evil that adheres 
 to them before they enter heaven, and in separating from the evil any 
 good that adheres to them before they enter hell. The time they 
 remain in the world of spirits is determined by the ease or difficulty with 
 which this separation is effected. This is the normal state of things 
 — the appointed order of progression. That which gives rise to a general 
 judgment is an interruption of this order, a derangement of that state. 
 Circumstances arise out of the decline of the church on earth 'which 
 prevent the regular and progressive separation of good and evil in those 
 who enter the world of spirits ; and the consequence is, that those in 
 whom the separation cannot be effected, remain in that intermediate 
 place till the end of the dispensation, when a general judgment effects 
 upon all what a particular judgment could not previously accomplish 
 upon each. So long as evil and good are mixed in the minds of 
 departed spirits, so long good and evil spirits, like good and evil 
 men on earth, can remain together ; but when an extraordinary 
 divine operation separates good and evil in the minds of such spirits, 
 then, as a natural and necessary consequence, good and evil spirits 
 are separated from each other, and the good pass into heaven, and 
 the evil into hell. This is the judgment which is treated of in the 
 present chapter — a judgment that took place in the spiritual world, 
 where all judgment must and does take place, and which was effected 
 on those only who had belonged to the Christian dispensation, not on 
 all who had lived from the beginning of the world. This mingling of 
 the evil and the good in the world of spirits, or intermediate state, 
 is described in the parable of the wheat and tares being allowed to 
 grow up together until the harvest, which is called the end of the 
 world — literally, the consummation of the age — and which spiritually 
 means the end of the church. The general judgment which took place 
 at the time of the Lord’s incarnation was upon the Noetic dispensa- 
 tion, which commenced after the event described as a flood. The dis- 
 pensation that succeeded this, called the Israelitish, was not, as we 
 
Chap. XXV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 561 
 
 have seen, a church in the proper sense of the term, but only the 
 representative or shadow of a church, and may be considered as a pro- 
 longation of the dispensation proper, till the fulness of time, when the 
 Lord should come into the world. The good and the evil belonging to 
 this dispensation, who, like the wheat and the tares, had been allowed 
 to grow up together in the world of spirits until the harvest, were 
 those on whom the Lord performed a general judgment at the time of 
 his first coming. This judgment could not be effected till after the 
 Lord had completed the glorification of his humanity and the subju- 
 gation of the powers of darkness ; for these two works prepared the 
 way for the separation of the good and the evil in the intermediate 
 state, and for the evil being cast into hell, and the good raised into 
 heaven. Besides being described in these parables, this work is 
 spoken of in other parts of the Scriptures. We read that the Lord 
 was “put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by which 
 also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison ; which sometime 
 were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the 
 days of Noah” (1 Pet. iii. 18). These spirits in prison were of the 
 Noetic dispensation. The prison in which they were cannot mean 
 hell, from which there is no deliverance, but must be the intermediate 
 state, to the temporary inhabitants of which the Lord could preach 
 redemption. These spirits were the prisoners of hope spoken of by 
 the prophet Zechariah (ix. 12), and the bound and in prison whom the 
 Bedeemer came to deliver (Isa. lxi. 1 ; xlii. 7). In agreement with this, 
 the Apostles’ Creed states as an article of early faith, that the Lord, when 
 put to death, descended into hell — that is, into hades , the name, among 
 the early Christians, of the intermediate state. The spirits in prison who 
 accepted the deliverance which the Lord preaphed, he carried with 
 him into heaven at the time of his ascension ; as it is written, “ Thou 
 hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive ” (Ps. lxviii. 
 18). The whole subject of the Lord’s ascension into heaven after his 
 descent into hades is stated by the apostle Paul. “ When he ascended 
 up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Now 
 that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the 
 lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that 
 ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things ” (Eph. 
 iv. 8). 
 
 The description which the Scriptures give of the judgment which 
 took place at the Lord’s first coming enables us to form an idea ot 
 that which took place at his second advent, a vision of which was 
 presented to the Apocalyptic seer, which he thus describes, — “ And I 
 
562 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XX V. 
 
 saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the 
 earth and the heaven fled away ; and there was found no place for 
 them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God ; and 
 the books were opened : and another book was opened, which is the 
 book of life : and the dead were judged out of those things which 
 were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave 
 up the dead which were in it ; and death and hell (hades) delivered up 
 the dead which were in them : and they were judged every man 
 according to their works. And death and hell (hades) were cast into 
 the lake of fire. This is the second death” (Rev. xx. 11-14). Hades is 
 clearly a different place from the burning lake, and is evidently the 
 temporary abode of souls, preparatory to the final judgment. This 
 intermediate world presents to us in this instance its evil side, as it 
 sometimes does in the Word. We have here only to concern our- 
 selves with the fact that, as hades was cast into the lake at the time 
 of the judgment, it must be a different place from it. 
 
 In all the parables recorded in this chapter there are three leading 
 points in which they have a common resemblance. The good and the 
 evil form one company, or congregated mass of human beings, mixed 
 together, and undistinguished from each other as to their opposite 
 characters. This is the first aspect in which they are presented before 
 us. Then comes the judgment. Its first effect is to distinguish and 
 separate the evil from the good — the wise from the foolish virgins, the 
 faithful from the unfaithful servants, the sheep from the goats ; and 
 its second effect is to consign the good and the evil to their proper and 
 final habitations. 
 
 1. Having offered these remarks on the subject of judgment, we now 
 proceed to consider the parables in which it is described. The parable 
 of the ten virgins is one of the most attractive of the many which our 
 Lord delivered and has left for the edification of his church. Impor- 
 tant as it is to have right views on the nature of the general judgment, 
 yet particular judgment is that in which we have the deepest, because 
 an immediate personal interest. It will therefore be most profitable 
 for us to consider the parable in this application. For every divine 
 work is like itself in its general and particular operations. The less 
 is an image or epitome of the greater; aud the same description 
 applies to both. So with the parable of the ten virgins. Then shall 
 the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins , which took their lamps , 
 and went forth to meet the bridegroom. A virgin is a common .symbol 
 of the church, and of the church both in its pure and corrupt state. 
 The virgin daughter of Zion and of Jerusalem are other names for the 
 
Chap. XXV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 563 
 
 church, but even the virgin daughters of Israel can do a very horrible 
 thing (Jer. xviii. 13), and in doing it, must represent the church, and 
 the members of the church, in a corrupt state. Among the reasons 
 for virgins being taken to represent the church in the present instance, 
 there is one that appears to deserve attention. The three parables 
 which the Lord employs in this chapter to describe the same event, 
 we cannot suppose to be mere variations of the same idea. The 
 things signified are as different as the symbols. The three parables 
 are descriptions of the judgment on three different classes of persons. 
 The virgins are they who are judged as to their affection for and 
 against the principles of goodness ; the servants to whom the Lord 
 delivered talents are they who are judged as to their affections for or 
 against the principles of truth ; and the sheep and the goats are they 
 who are judged as to their affections for or against goodness and truth 
 in the actions of life. Thus discriminated, the parables may be under- 
 stood in relation to an individual as well as to a multitude. There 
 are ten virgins. In the natural sense this may be considered to mean 
 an indefinite number, but in the spiritual sense numbers have a 
 definite signification. Both revelation and creation bear testimony to 
 these numbers being the result of a divine law. All the laws of 
 divine order are collected into the ten commandments. But these 
 are still more summarily expressed in the two general precepts of 
 love to God and love to man, as the ten commandments were 
 written on two tables by the finger of God. The number of the 
 virgins in the parable, spiritually understood, has therefore a distinct 
 and instructive meaning. The virgins are ten in number, not only 
 because that is an indefinite number, used to express all who were to 
 be judged, but because it expresses all who have been instructed in the 
 knowledge of the Divine laws, and have had the ability, the means, 
 and the opportunity of preparing themselves to enter with the bride- 
 groom into the marriage — with the Lord the Saviour into the kingdom 
 of heaven. One of the particulars in which these ten virgins were alike 
 was that they took their lamps. The lamp, as the means of affording light, 
 is employed here, and in other parts of Scripture, as a symbol of light 
 itself ; and light is a universally recognized emblem of truth, which is 
 intellectual light. As a lamp is the emblem of truth that enlightens 
 the mind, so is it of the Word itself, from which all true enlighten- 
 ment comes. “ Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto 
 my path ” (Ps. cxix. 105). The possession of the Word as an imme- 
 diate revelation from God is that which peculiarly distinguishes the 
 members of the Lord’s visible church from the heathen. God has 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XX7. 
 
 564 
 
 nowhere left himself without a witness, but the direct light of revela- 
 tion is the highest testimony which he vouchsafes to man. It is not, 
 however, the Word as a book, precious as it is, that makes it a lamp 
 which we can take ,to light us on our way, but it is the Word as a 
 record in our mind. The Word can only be a lamp to guide us on 
 our way so far as its truths are engraven on our heart or inscribed on 
 our memory. The parable assumes that the ten virgins were each 
 possessed of a lamp. Each one of those whom they represent is in 
 possession of the Word, even to having its general truths impressed 
 upon their minds. But the parable begins by saying of the virgins 
 that they took their lamps. To take the lamp is to apprehend the 
 truths of the Word, and even to take hold of them by faith ; for those 
 who belong to the church, and profess to be Christians, must at least 
 have some nominal belief in its principles. There is another parti- 
 cular in which the ten virgins resembled each other : they v:ent forth 
 to meet the bridegroom. The taking of their lamps and going forth 
 to meet the bridegroom describes the commencement of the religious 
 life, when the Word, previously possessed, becomes an object of mental 
 apprehension and personal faith, when men go forth to meet the bride- 
 groom, by coming to the Lord, either really or nominally, as the 
 [Redeemer and Saviour. 
 
 2. But while all possessed the Word, and had a knowledge of its 
 truths, and professed belief in them, the virgins were yet essentially 
 different in character, for Jive of them were wise , and five were foolish. 
 No words could express greater opposition of state and character than 
 this. In the language of Scripture, wisdom and folly do not mean 
 keenness and obtuseness of intellect, but moral excellence and deprav- 
 ity. The wise and the foolish of the Scriptures are the good and the 
 evil. Wisdom and knowledge are sometimes confounded with each 
 other, but they are entirely different. Wisdom is knowledge reduced 
 to practice ; knowledge teaches us the way of life and happiness, and 
 the wise are they who walk in it. But he who knows how to be 
 happy, and yet acts in such a way as to bring certain misery on him- 
 self, cannot be considered wise, but in the most emphatic sense is 
 foolish. There can be no wisdom without knowledge, but there may 
 be knowledge without wisdom. 
 
 3, 4. The Lord, after telling us that five were wise and five were 
 foolish, shows in what their wisdom and folly consisted, and in what 
 it was exhibited. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no 
 oil with them: but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. 
 All alike had the lamp of truth, but the wise only had the oil of 
 
Chap. XXV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 56o 
 
 love. Here is the grand distinction between wisdom and folly. 
 Splendid talents, high intelligence, ardent zeal, may not be claimed by 
 the wise more than by the foolish. In all matters of intellect, the 
 spiritually foolish may even outshine the spiritually wise. Intellectual 
 acuteness does not constitute wisdom, and is not incompatible with 
 folly. But this is a point that will be more clearly seen in a future 
 part of the parable. We need only remark here, that wherever oil is 
 mentioned throughout the Scriptures, love is the grace which is meant 
 by it. And the Scriptures throughout as invariably teach that love 
 is the essence of religion : “ God is love, and he that dwelleth in love 
 dwelleth in God, and God in him” (1 John iv. 16). If Christian love 
 is that which enables us to dwell in the bosom of divine love, it is 
 evident that those who are destitute of that heavenly grace cannot 
 enter heaven. 
 
 5. The bridegroom whom the ten virgins went out to meet did not 
 immediately come. And while the bridegroom tarried , they all slum- 
 bered and slept. Whether we consider the scene of this transaction to 
 be in the natural or in the spiritual world, it teaches us here an 
 instructive lesson. As the lord, when he delivered talents to his 
 servants, left them and went into a far country, whence he returned 
 to receive his own with usury, so does the bridegroom tarry, after he 
 has invited the guests to the wedding. His tarrying is the interval 
 between our being endowed with the means of living for heaven, and 
 our entering into the spiritual world, to realize what we have pre- 
 pared ourselves for receiving. During this important period the wise 
 and foolish live undistinguished from each other, and even are all 
 slumbering and sleeping. This common condition is significant. An 
 external state of life is meant by sleep, and an internal state by wake- 
 fulness. Life in this world is as sleep, compared with life in the eter- 
 nal world, which, comparatively, is wakefulness. The spirit of man, 
 which is the real man, while in the body, is in a state of comparative 
 dullness and obscurity, both as to the will and understanding, which 
 in the parable' is expressed by slumbering and sleeping. This is a 
 state or condition of being which is incident to the real and the 
 nominal members of the church alike, the difference being, that the 
 same external condition covers two different states of mind. 
 
 6. And at midnight there was a cry made , Behold , the bridegroom 
 cometh; go ye out to meet him. Midnight is the time of the end, and 
 the midnight cry is the announcement of a new beginning. The end 
 of the church, the end of life, the end of a particular state, is expressed 
 in the Scriptures by night, and especially by midnight. When the 
 
566 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXY. 
 
 midnight of the Jewish church arrived, there was a cry made of the 
 same purport as that in the parable. John was “The voice of him 
 that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make 
 his paths straight.” So with every one individually at the end of life. 
 When the day of preparation is ended, the midnight cry is raised, that 
 the bridegroom cometh, and that we must go out to meet him. The 
 Lord comes to us by the messenger of death, and calls us to go out of 
 the body and out of the world to meet him. 
 
 7. Awakened by the midnight cry, then all those virgins arose , and 
 trimmed their lamps. When we pass out of time into eternity, we 
 awaken to the consciousness of a new and higher state of existence. 
 The material body and all the conditions of time and space being 
 removed, the soul is set free ; and the spiritual world, which before 
 was a matter of faith, becomes an object of sight. What an awaken- 
 ing is this ! Its immediate effect is to call into activity the faculties 
 both of the will and the understanding, which is expressed by the 
 virgins arising and trimming their lamps. Arising is predicated of 
 the will and its affections, and trimming the lamp, of the understand- 
 ing and its thoughts. When, even in this life, the affections are 
 greatly excited, they rise above their ordinary condition into one of 
 intense feeling, and when the thoughts are powerfully directed to a 
 subject, they concentrate their energies, and endeavour to bring 
 increased light to bear upon it. How much more must this be the 
 case with us all when we awake in the eternal world, and hear the 
 midnight cry, “ Prepare to meet thy God ! ” 
 
 8. And now the fatal truth dawns upon the minds of the foolish 
 ones. The lamps which they have trimmed are going out, and they 
 have no oil to feed the dying flame. And the foolish said unto the wise , 
 Giveus of your oil; for our lamps aregone (going) out. During their abode 
 in the world they were able to keep the lamp of faith from dying out 
 by that fictitious love which simulates the true — the love of know- 
 ledge, that simulates the love of truth. But in the spiritual world, 
 where earthly counterfeits are of no avail, the fictitious fountain 
 dries up, and the lamp of faith which has no true spiritual love to 
 support it gradually dies out. But the foolish see that the wise 
 have oil, and they desire to receive from them what they had 
 neglected to acquire for themselves. 
 
 9. But the wise refused to supply the need of their destitute com- 
 panions. They answered , saying , Not so; lest there he not enough for 
 us and you : hut go ye rather to them that sell, and huy for yourselves. 
 Works of supererogation find no place here. “None of them can by 
 
Chap. XXV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 567 
 
 any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him, that 
 he should still live for ever” (Ps. xlix. 7, 9). The wise know that 
 the greatest measure of goodness is little enough for themselves, and 
 that, little or much, it is incapable of being imparted to another. 
 They therefore give the sage advice, “ but go ye rather to them that 
 sell, and buy for yourselves.” The heavenly oil cannot be obtained 
 as a gift; it must be bought with a price. But who are they that 
 sell ? The Divine Being himself is the only Author of love and 
 goodness, and he calls upon all to come to him and buy. But the 
 laws of divine order are the delegated sellers of the holy oil, and they 
 tell us the price at which we must purchase it. We must sell all that 
 we have, do the work of repentance, and bring forth the fruits of 
 righteousness. These laws are holy truths, which yield the oil of love 
 and goodness to all who obey them. We must therefore go and buy 
 for ourselves. Eor although the Lord gives without money and 
 without price, yet he cannot give of his own love except to those who 
 relinquish their self-love to obtain it. 
 
 10. A nd while they went to buy, the bridegroom came ; and they that 
 were ready went in with him to the marriage : and the door was shut . 
 The bridegroom’s coming during the absence of the foolish virgins, or 
 their absence at the time of his coming, is expressive of an entire 
 dissimilarity of state between them and him, and of their consequent 
 unpreparedness to enter into the marriage. But the wise, who were 
 ready, entered with him. Entering with the Lord into the marriage 
 is not only entering into heaven as a place, but into heaven as a state, 
 and this is a state of the internal mind, and of the conjunction of 
 goodness and truth there; for the Lord enters with the righteous into 
 the heaven of their inner man, and there dwells with them eternally 
 in the union of love and faith. And when he has entered with them 
 into this heavenly and eternal marriage, the door is effectually and 
 for ever shut against the intrusion of all external things that can 
 disturb their peace and happiness. But the door which shuts the 
 righteous in shuts the unrighteous out. The door that is shut against 
 the foolish is the door of their own minds — in particular, that by 
 which there is a communication between the spiritual and natural 
 minds ; for the spiritual mind is man’s particular heaven. During a 
 man’s life in the world that door is never absolutely shut — at least, 
 never so fixedly closed as to be incapable of being opened by sincere 
 repentance. For the Lord stands at this door and knocks ; and the 
 door at which God knocks, man must be able to open. But in the 
 other life he can no longer do so. He who has not opened the door 
 
568 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXV. 
 
 of his heart in this world, cannot open it in the next. And when 
 the door that opens into the inner man is closed, the natural mind is 
 left in darkness and death. The darkness of the outer mind, when all 
 light from the inner mind is shut out, is the outer darkness into which 
 the wicked are said to be cast at the judgment ; and is that in which 
 the virgins are understood to have been left, when, with extinguished 
 lamps, they were shut out from the glory of the marriage in heaven. 
 
 11. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying , Lord , Lord , 
 open to us. As the desire to be happy is common to all mankind, so 
 the desire to enter heaven is common to all who have belonged to the 
 church, who believe heaven to be the abode of happiness, admission 
 into which many think is all that is necessary to be made for ever 
 happy. And if heaven be considered as the heaven of the inner 
 man, the evil still desire that the door that gives admittance into it 
 should be opened by the Lord even in the other life. 
 
 12. But the Lord answers the foolish virgins : Verily I say unto 
 you , I know you not. God’s knowledge of the evil is like their know- 
 ledge of him. The evil may know the Lord intellectually, but they 
 know him not savingly. So the Lord with them. As God, the Lord 
 knows the evil ; but as Saviour, he knows them not. Their names 
 are not written in the Lamb's book of life. They have no saving 
 knowledge of, no saving interest in, his incarnation and redemption. 
 Neither have they the mark of his children. The Lord’s name is not 
 written in their foreheads, nor in their hands — neither in their hearts, 
 nor in their lives, — how, then, can the Lord know them ? Their names 
 are not written in heaven, how can they be known there ? They are 
 not in the Lord, and the Lord is not in them. The inevitable con- 
 sequence is, that there is no ground of communion, no means of 
 conjunction, between them ; nothing but the great gulf, which makes 
 complete and eternal separation. 
 
 13. How solemn, then, is the warning, Watch therefore , for ye 
 know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh! Our 
 happy ignorance of the time when we shall be called into the presence 
 of the Lord, affords us the opportunity of preparing for the judgment. 
 Our preparation must be begun when we are free from the immediate 
 apprehension of the event which ends it. We must keep watch even 
 when we see no signs of danger. We know that the thief uhll come, 
 therefore our watching can never be in vain. And unless we are 
 constantly watchful, we may at any time be surprised, and all our 
 previous anxiety and labour lost. Watch, therefore. But what is 
 the duty of a spiritual watchman? It is not to live in fear and 
 
Chap. XXV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 50 9 
 
 apprehension ; for this rather exposes us to danger than preserves us 
 from it. Those who are prepared for the intruder watch with a tran- 
 quil mind ; it is the unready that need to fear the enemy. To watch, 
 therefore, is to have set our house in order, and wait the coming of the 
 event which we know must come. And come when he may, may the 
 Lord then find us ready ! 
 
 14-30. The parable of the talents presents the subject of proba- 
 tionary life and final decision, under another aspect than the parable 
 of the ten virgins. It throws considerable light upon the nature of 
 the state which awaits us hereafter, and the conditions on which 
 our future happiness or misery depends. Nothing can be more clear 
 than the testimony it gives to the doctrine, that every human 
 being has faculties given him by the Lord, which he is at liberty 
 either to use or to abuse, and that in the use which he makes of 
 them he is left to his own free determination. It, indeed, is plain 
 that this faculty of free determination, and everything else that he 
 possesses, is given him by the Lord ; and that, if he is saved, the Lord 
 is sole Author of his salvation. This is the reason that all the traders 
 in this parable are described as the Lord’s servants, who of course 
 ascribe all that they possess to him, as properly his own, both 
 what they had originally received and what they had gained by 
 trading. Regarded in the light of the spiritual sense, it brings 
 before us another class of minds, or the human mind in another 
 of its conditions than the previous parable. The virgins representing 
 those who are favourable or opposed to that principle of the kingdom 
 of God which is the object of the will and its affections — the principle 
 of love, — the servants represent those whose affections are favourable 
 or opposed to that principle of the kingdom which is the immediate 
 object of the understanding and its thoughts — the principle of truth. 
 
 14. The first thing we have to notice in the parable is the Lord’s being 
 compared to a man travelling into a far country, who called his own 
 servants , and delivered unto them his goods. This teaches two im- 
 portant particulars relating to the manner in which the Lord proceeds 
 in his dealings with his creatures. The first is, that all that man 
 possesses, by the use of which he may attain to eternal happiness, is a 
 free gift to him from the Lord alone, and which, if he makes right use 
 of it, is finally given to him as his own — that is, is confirmed to him so 
 as never to be taken from him — although he himself will ever ac- 
 knowledge with thankfulness that it, together with himself, of right 
 belongs wholly to the Lord. This is plainly taught by the circum- 
 stance that the talents which each of the servants received were 
 
570 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXY. 
 
 given them by their lord, who evidently is the Lord the Saviour. 
 Another important truth we learn is, that during man’s abode in the 
 world, he is left so much to his own disposal that, according to all 
 appearance, he is entirely his own master, independently of the Being 
 from whom all that he has is derived. Of the Divine presence he has 
 no sensible perception, insomuch that if he were to judge by outward 
 appearance only, as exhibited by his senses, or even as suggested by 
 his consciousness, without the testimony of revelation or the dictates 
 of enlightened reason, he might fall into doubt even of the existence 
 of a God, as we know many actually do. This is evidently taught by 
 the circumstance of the lord of the servants “ travelling into a far 
 country.” In this, as in many other sayings in the Holy Word, an 
 action or proceeding is ascribed to the Lord which in reality is an 
 appearance produced by a change of state which takes place in man. 
 Heaven, and the spiritual world in general, being the scene of the 
 Lord’s more immediate presence, is called “ a far country,” in respect 
 to the natural world, as is also the natural world in respect to 
 heaven. But man is so created that he possesses in his own mind 
 both a spiritual world and a natural. His soul, or spiritual part, 
 which is to live after death, is his spiritual world ; and his body, or 
 natural part, is his natural world. His soul or spiritual part, again, 
 is divided into distinct regions, in the inmost of which the Lord him- 
 self has his residence, and by virtue of possessing which he receives 
 from the Lord, who dwells in it, the faculties of liberty and ration- 
 ality, and with these, the faculty of living to eternity. In the order 
 of his creation, the inmost region is first formed by the Lord, and the 
 lower regions of his mind and body in their respective order ; and it 
 is in the lowest of th.ese that he first comes to be sensible of his exist- 
 ence. While the Lord remains ever present in the inmost of his soul, 
 man, as it were, recedes from the Lord, which is expressed by the 
 Lord’s going into a far country. Here, then, we see, man stands in 
 this world of nature, and having come from God, he is to return to 
 God again. In the meantime, he is endowed with talents to trade 
 with, on the use or abuse of which his eternal happiness or misery 
 depends. Those on whom the Lord bestows his goods are called his 
 own servants. They are called his own, because the parable relates 
 more especially to those who are within the church, and who nomin- 
 ally, at least, belong to the Lord, from their possessing that Divine 
 revelation through which there is a more immediate communication, 
 and may be a more intimate connection, between God and men. 
 There is a special reason, also, for their being called servants. The 
 
Chap. XXV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 571 
 
 servants so often spoken of in Scripture were not free, but bond ; and 
 being the property of their masters, their entire gains, like themselves, 
 belonged to him who bestowed the talents upon them. In the 
 spiritual sense, servants denote those within the church who are 
 possessed of truth — of that truth which makes men free, if they employ 
 it to attain to a state of good, which is a state of freedom. 
 
 15. The goods which the lord gave consisted of talents, and these 
 are given to three different servants. And unto one he gave Jive talents , 
 to another two , and to another one ; to every man according to his 
 several ability ; and straightway took his journey. As the parable 
 describes the divine economy more especially with the professing 
 members of the church, the number of members is limited to three, 
 because this number expresses the idea of completeness, as applicable 
 to those of the spiritual class, or who are receptive of truths, and who 
 are especially meant by servants not only here, but wherever they 
 are mentioned in the Word. The servants, too, receive each a dif- 
 ferent number of talents. The talents denote the knowledges of divine 
 truth which are given by the Lord to every man, with the faculty of 
 apprehending and using them aright. But are we to understand that 
 these are given in allotted portions — to some more, to others less ? 
 PI ere again the language is adapted to express the appearance rather 
 than the reality. The Holy Word and the influences of the Holy 
 Spirit are offered in equal fulness to all, and are received by every one 
 “ according to his several ability,” the measure of reception being only 
 limited by the capacity to receive, which every one acquires for him- 
 self, chiefly by his habits and manners of life. Thus, out of the 
 treasury of infinite wisdom some take five talents, some two, and some 
 one. And when it is said that the Lord gives them, the meaning is, 
 that whatever each takes is a free gift from him. But the numbers 
 of the talents, like that of the servants, has a distinct spiritual signifi- 
 cation. And here also the appearance is different from the reality. 
 Numbers signify quality rather than quantity. The larger number 
 does not therefore always stand for more, and the smaller for less ; but 
 each has a meaning determined by its relation to the principles whose 
 quality it is intended to express. The five talents signify goodness and 
 truth stored up in the human mind as remains, which is done chiefly 
 during infancy, childhood, and youth ; the two talents signify good and 
 truth acquired by instruction and study at a more advanced age, and 
 possessed as knowledge; and the one talent signifies truth alone, acquired 
 from some degree of choice at a still nearer approach to manhood, and 
 laid up in the memory. These may be said to include all principles 
 
572 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXY. 
 
 acquired, and all states formed during that period of life when, by the 
 Lord’s providence, man is being gifted with the possessions which pro- 
 perly constitute the talents necessary for every one to possess, that he 
 may be qualified for entering on the regenerate life. Spiritually under- 
 stood, the talents are not bestowed all at once; they are given gradually, 
 and the period occupied in Cod’s bestowing and man’s acquiring them 
 extends from earliest infancy to the age of manhood and womanhood, 
 and includes both the storing up of remains and the acquisition of 
 knowledge. 
 
 16, 17. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded 
 with the same , and made them other five talents. A nd likewise he that had 
 received, two , he also gained other two. The talents bestowed by the 
 Lord were given to trade with, and in this their true value consists. 
 In all the comparisons which infinite wisdom has adopted to instruct 
 us as to the nature of the kingdom of heaven, there is one prevailing 
 idea ever presented before us. That one idea is the earnest use of 
 means to attain some great practical end ever presented before us. 
 There must be fervent prayer, earnest seeking, determined striving and 
 persevering labour, — and all these with the promised end in view of 
 securing a blessing, finding a treasure, reaching a goal, gathering the 
 clustered grapes, or reaping the abundant harvest. The whole duty 
 of man as a probationary being may be expressed in the Lord’s one 
 word, “ Labour.” God gives the means and the power ; man has to 
 use the means. In this his great duty consists ; on this his salvation 
 depends. God cannot do more for man than give him the talents ; 
 man should not do less for himself than use them, that he may render 
 them back to their Giver with increase. To say that the Lord does 
 not save his creatures without their own exertions is the same as to 
 say that he cannot. There is no doubt he would if he could. He who 
 made man what he is must deal with him as he is, — a free agent. He 
 who gave him free-will cannot force or act against it. This would be 
 a contradiction, which with God is impossible. We must therefore 
 use our talents : we must trade with them. The knowledge, of which 
 the talents are the symbol, is the knowledge of our duty, and at the 
 same time the faculty of doing it. Our duty is to do the will of God, 
 which is, that we do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our 
 God. Spiritual life is not separate from natural life, but within it. 
 We trade with the Lord’s talents when we employ the Lord’s princi- 
 ples in doing our daily work. 
 
 But here we come to the ever-recurring fact, that while a bountiful 
 Providence sees that all receive talents sufficient for their need, and 
 
Chap. XXV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 5 73 
 
 which only require to be used to make their possessors rich towards 
 God, yet some only of these favoured servants carry out the purpose 
 and do the will of their merciful Benefactor. Happily, there are some 
 who are wise and grateful enough to apply their talents to the great 
 use for which they were bestowed. “ Then he that had received the 
 five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five 
 talents. And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other 
 two.” They who gain five talents by trading, and they who gain two, 
 are such as make a good use of divine mercies, and acquire to them- 
 selves intelligence and wisdom by living a life of charity and faith. 
 And here we observe that each gains by trading a sum equal to that 
 with which he had commenced his career in life. In this circumstance 
 there is an instructive truth. The trading of the servants signifies 
 that part of man’s duty and labour which consists in reducing one’s 
 knowledge to practice — in making the religion of the mind the religion 
 of the life. This is the true labour, and the result is the true gain of 
 life. Our great labour consists in bringing the external into harmony 
 with the internal, the natural mind with the spiritual, our words and 
 works with our affections and thoughts. And this is done gradually 
 by intelligence, zeal, and perseverance. Every evil that we success- 
 fully resist removes some principle or element of discord, and every 
 good we do establishes a harmony between the inner and the outer 
 life. And as we go on in this progressive way, ceasing to do evil and 
 learning to do well, our principles grow out into habits. Every talent 
 that we faithfully use gains another talent ; and it is indeed a solid 
 and eternal gain ; for that which has become practical has become 
 confirmed, and remains with us for ever. 
 
 18. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth , and 
 hid his lord's money. This one talent, if it were to be considered as 
 representing the most limited capacity which man can have for the 
 reception of God’s spiritual gifts, and the least of the gifts which God 
 bestows, is yet evidently intended to be understood as sufficient for 
 all the purposes for which God’s gifts are bestowed. The servant 
 who received the one talent was left, like the others, to occupy till his 
 lord came ; and he, like the others, had it in his power to double his 
 sum by trading. So far, therefore, the Lord is equal, giving all the 
 capacity and the means of eternal life ; and so far all men are equal, 
 in being placed every one in a condition to work out his salvation. 
 Considered in its spiritual sense, it teaches a still more distinct and 
 instructive lesson. For, understanding the one talent as the symbol 
 of truth which the Lord teaches every one through Holy Scripture, 
 
574 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXV. 
 
 every one has it in his power, because the power is ever given him, to 
 add to his truth goodness ; and this is all that God requires of man, 
 and all that is necessary for his salvation. But this servant, instead 
 of employing his one talent, went and digged in the earth, and hid his 
 lord’s money. Every one sees in this slothful servant a type of those 
 who neglect to improve the talents and means which God bestows 
 upon them for spiritual and eternal uses. But the spiritual sense 
 gives emphasis to this lesson. For the earth, as we have often had 
 occasion to point out, is a symbol of man’s earthly or natural mind. The 
 picture here is most instructive. This servant did not spend his lord’s 
 talent as the prodigal son wasted his father’s substance. He carefully 
 preserved it ; and that he might be able to restore it to its owner, he 
 buried it in the earth, where it might safely remain till the time of 
 restitution. This servant is the type of those in the church who 
 cultivate a knowledge of the truth, not from any spiritual love or 
 for any practical purpose, but for the mere pleasure of knowing it for 
 the vanity of display. This cultivation of the truth, or of the natural 
 mind for its reception, is meant by digging; and to express the idea 
 that the end for which the mind was cultivated was earthly, he who 
 hid the talent is said to have digged in the earth. This servant is by 
 no means necessarily a singular character. Many an intellect may be 
 dazzled with the light and charmed with the beauty of truth, without 
 the heart being influenced by its moral excellence, or brought under 
 its moral power. These, and all others who make an intellectual 
 acknowledgment of the truth, but go no further, “ hide their lord’s 
 money.” They do not conceal or neglect the knowledge of which the 
 money is the symbol. Men hide the talent, as their Lord’s, when 
 they do not in heart acknowledge the talent they possess to be his, 
 and when they hide its spiritual w r orth in their unspiritual lives, not 
 letting their light so shine before men that they may see their good 
 works, and glorify their Father who is in heaven. 
 
 19. But the day of reckoning comes at last; and then is it seen 
 who have been faithful and who unfaithful to the trust reposed in 
 them ; and then are to be revealed the opposite consequences of 
 industry and idleness. After a long time the lord of those servants 
 cometh, and rechoneth with them. We speak of the brevity, the uncer- 
 tainty of even the longest time allotted to man on earth. But time 
 spiritually is state. The long time of the Lord’s coming to judgment 
 is his long-sufferiug. This i§ the experience of each of us, how long 
 or short soever our stay may be in this present probationary 
 world. His unerring wisdom measures out our needful period of 
 
Chap. XXV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 575 
 
 existence in this world; and his unfailing love attends us in every 
 state through which we pass. And all that a watchful Providence 
 can do is done to make our time of reckoning a time of joy and the 
 realization of eternal happiness. This long time is with the Lord a 
 time of striving with us, prompting us with his love, guiding us with 
 his wisdom, and aiding us with all the agencies he has appointed, to 
 lead us to repentance and holiness. But, long as the period may be 
 that the Lord affords to his servants to improve their talents, the 
 time comes when he “ reckoneth with them.” Beckoning is an 
 ordeal through which all must pass. 
 
 20. When the lord reckoned with his servants, he that had received 
 Jive talents came and brought other Jive talents , saying , Lord , thou 
 deliveredst unto me Jive talents : behold , I have gained beside them Jive 
 talents more. It is a principle plainly laid down, and a duty 
 strenuously enforced, in the Divine Word, that man is to regard 
 nothing as his own, but that whatever he acquires or possesses is to 
 be ascribed to God as its true Owner. It may seem, as to many it 
 has seemed, that God is jealous of his honour, and makes this demand 
 upon his creatures that he may receive from them what is his due. 
 The true view of this important matter is, that the Lord makes this 
 demand, not because he can derive any honour from the homage of 
 his creatures, but because it is the means of increasing their own 
 perfection and blessedness. Spiritual gifts and acquirements are 
 blessings, because they are the means of connecting us with the Lord, 
 who is the only source of blessing. They are the channels through 
 which the love and light of God flow down into the soul, and can only 
 be so in virtue of man looking through them to him as the Author of 
 every good. This is the reason the Lord comes to reckon with us, as 
 we shall see in the result to the faithful servants. The Lord comes 
 indeed to every one at an hour when he thinks not, by the solemn 
 visitation which brings us into his more immediate presence in the 
 eternal world. And as this is an event that is common to all, the 
 subject of the final reckoning is to all one of deep and solemn interest. 
 In the parable the lord reckons first with the servants who had 
 improved their talents. They bring the original sum, with the 
 increase they had acquired by industry, and give the whole to their 
 lord as his, — thus not only acknowledging him as the giver of the 
 means of acquiring riches, but as the rightful owner of the wealth 
 acquired. And in this they are figures of those who claim no merit 
 for their works, but ascribe all the merit of goodness to him who alone 
 has a title to it. We have already spoken of the important practical 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXY. 
 
 57 6 
 
 truth expressed in the servants doubling the sum which had been 
 entrusted to them for the purpose of trading with it. This, we have 
 seen, is done when we use truth so as to make it the means of 
 acquiring goodness — faith as the means of acquiring charity. 
 
 21. But the doubling of our talent by trading not only implies that 
 what was received into the mind has been reproduced in the life, but 
 that this has been done faithfully and fully, as expressed in the 
 salutation of the lord, Well done , thou good and faithful servant. 
 Good is a quality of the will, and faithfulness is a quality of the 
 understanding : the one is an attribute of charity, the other of faith. 
 To be entitled to the approbation of having done well, we must be 
 both good and faithful. To have the Divine approbation for fidelity 
 and goodness is great comfort. But this is followed by reward. 
 Thou hast been faithful over a few things , I will male thee ruler over 
 many things. The principles of goodness and truth which have been 
 confirmed in the life are, in the other life, greatly multiplied and 
 exalted. This is the general lesson which this award of the lord to 
 the servants teaches us. But it contains a more specific meaning. 
 Few and many, we have seen (ch. xx. 16), signify principles of goodness 
 and truth. But how does this apply in the present case? We have 
 seen that their receiving talents and trading with them means 
 receiving truth, and by means of that truth acquiring goodness. 
 When goodness is acquired, it gives the capacity of being further 
 enriched with truth, but with truth of a higher kind. We have, on 
 a former occasion, shown that there is truth which leads to good, and 
 there is truth which is derived from good. The truth which is 
 derived from good may be rather called wisdom than truth. It is not 
 the light of knowledge, which teaches us what goodness is, and shows 
 us the way to attain it, but the light of love, or the truth .by which 
 love goes forth in wise, and therefore beneficent acts — deeds of 
 enlightened charity. That the reward of the servants of this parable 
 consists in enriching goodness with truths of wfisdom, appears from 
 the manner in which the reward is expressed in Luke, where the 
 lord says to the servant who had gained ten pounds, “ Be thou over 
 ten cities ; ” and so of the other who had gained five pounds, “ Be 
 thou over five cities” (ch. xix. 16, 19). Cities, wherever mentioned in 
 the Word, have relation to the understanding, and to truths and 
 doctrines of which the understanding is receptive. But the servants 
 being made rulers over many things is further expressive of the good 
 and faithful being gifted with the rule and government of all their 
 lower affections and thoughts, which implies the complete submission 
 
Chap. XXV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 577 
 
 of the external to the will and wisdom of the internal man. Besides 
 all this, there was one other and final reward bestowed upon them in 
 the blessed words addressed to each, Enter thou into the joy of thy lord. 
 This is the highest award that the Lord can make to the regenerate 
 man. The joy of our Lord is the joy of having his love dwelling in 
 the heart, and manifesting itself in all the delights of heaven for ever. 
 In accordance with the particular sense, in its application to the 
 mind, the servant enters into the joy of his lord when the joy of the 
 internal man and his spiritual affections is imparted to the external 
 man and his natural affections; for when these two parts of the 
 mind are brought into harmony and unity, all internal joys descend 
 into external joy and delight, that the Christian’s joy may be full. 
 Then, too, it is that the joy of the Lord is imparted to man, and that 
 he is prepared to enter into the joy of heaven. 
 
 22, 23. What is said of the servant who gained five talents is 
 repeated in these verses of him who gained two, the meaning of which 
 it is unnecessary further to explain. 
 
 24, 25. We come now to the less pleasing, but not less necessary 
 and profitable, subject of neglected talents, as presented to us under 
 the character of the unfaithful servant. Then he which had received 
 the one talent came. This servant comes into the presence of his lord 
 with as much confidence as the others. He does not confess to 
 having been guilty of any want of fidelity to him ; on the contrary, 
 he considered that he had discharged his duty when he restored 
 to him the money he had placed in his hands. He even justifies 
 himself in the course he had followed, on the ground of his master’s 
 severity. Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man , reaping where 
 thou hast not sown , and gathering where thou hast not strawed : and I 
 was afraid , and went and hid thy talent in the earth : lo , there thou hast 
 tlcat is thine. In these words we have an exact description of the 
 manner in which every merely natural man views the merciful Lord, 
 the Author of all good. Although every blessing he enjoys is from 
 the Lord, he still regards him as a hard man, reaping where he has 
 not sown, and gathering where he has not strawed. In their hearts 
 all view the Lord as a hard master whose state of mind is wholly 
 uninfluenced by a spirit of love, of which he is the Source, and is 
 immersed in love of an opposite nature, as is the love of self and of 
 the world. And as they nevertheless know that the Lord requires of 
 man the fruits of charity and faith, whilst they are conscious of being 
 destitute of both, they in their own minds throw the blame on the 
 Lord, endeavouring to justify themselves by pretending that their 
 
578 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXY. 
 
 deficiency is owing to his not having implanted those gifts in their 
 nature. It is indeed true that genuine charity and faith are not 
 implanted in our nature, which by birth is replete with contrary 
 sentiments; yet it is equally true that the means are afforded, the 
 talents given, by which we may acquire them; but because such per- 
 sons as are here spoken of live only according to their natural inclina- 
 tions, they never make the acquisition. To be afraid is a term 
 expressive of the inward dread which such persons feel, when they 
 think of the Lord, from a consciousness of the contrariety between 
 their own state and his nature ; as to go and hide their talent in 
 the earth is to immure the noble faculties with which they are 
 endowed in the corruptions of the natural man, by making them 
 subservient to merely natural ends and objects. 
 
 26, 27. But it may appear remarkable that the lord, instead oi 
 expressing any displeasure at the injustice of calling him a man who 
 reaps where he has not sown, goes in his answer on the supposition 
 that he is so, but thence infers a duty to have devolved on the servant 
 which he had not performed. His lord answered and said unto him , 
 Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou kaewest that I reap where I 
 sowed not , and gather where I have not strawed : thou oughtest therefore 
 to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should 
 have received, mine own with usury. By this he teaches us that the 
 duty of serving him is incumbent even on the natural man, and that 
 those who are so engaged in outward things as not to acquire a prin- 
 ciple of pure and exalted charity and faith, ought nevertheless to do 
 good from the simple motive of obedience, and to keep the divine 
 laws, if only with a view of being rewarded in heaven. To do good 
 merely with a view to reward, though that be a reward in heaven, is 
 the lowest motive from which man can do anything like real good at 
 all; yet if those who do it are sincere in their obedience, and in 
 shunning evils as sins, their motive may be purified, and they will not 
 be finally rejected. In brief, a service which begins in fear may end 
 in love ; if not in the perfect love which casteth out fear, at least in 
 love that casts out the slavish element that makes fear unworthy of 
 him who is its Object. 
 
 28. While the servants that improved their talents were made 
 rulers over more than they had thus faithfully used, the slothful 
 servant was deprived of the one talent which he had neglected to 
 improve. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him 
 which hath ten talents. We know it is a universal law that any power 
 is enfeebled by neglect, whilst it is increased by action. Spiritual 
 
Ciiap. XXV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 579 
 
 gifts are subject to the same law. If we neglect the right use of our 
 faculties, they become enfeebled or depraved. If we neglect the use 
 of knowledge, it •will vanish away. The use of knowledge does not 
 consist in teaching it to others, but in applying it to ourselves ; not in 
 communicating it to another’s understanding, but in applying it to 
 our own heart. If religious knowledge is not thus applied, it will be 
 taken from us. Not that the Lord forcibly deprives us of it, but 
 because, having no spiritual capacity or love for it, it cannot remain. 
 There can be no truth where there is no good, no faith without love. 
 Those who enter the other world with knowledge which they mistake 
 for truth, and with persuasion which they mistake for faith, soon find 
 themselves destitute of even the semblance of any. On the other 
 hand, they who have doubled their talents, by adding goodness to 
 their truth and charity to their faith, have increased their capacity, 
 and find themselves enriched with a great and endless increase. The 
 one talent is taken from the unfaithful servant and given to him that 
 hath ten talents. It is not given unto him that had two, although 
 he had been as faithful, and had gained as much, according to the 
 extent of his means, as the other. There is a reason for this. The 
 five talents, we have seen ( v . 15), denote a state less full and perfect 
 than the two. The two signify the knowledge of good and truth in 
 equality, and the two gained besides them signify good and truth, or 
 charity and faith, acquired as principles of life ; and this practical 
 union of charity and faith constitutes the heavenly marriage. But the 
 number five signifies the remains of good and truth; and, indeed, a 
 defective state of remains, such as they may be supposed to have 
 acquired who have enjoyed to but a limited extent the advantages of 
 a right education. That these were able to gain their other five 
 talents, teaches us that even a defective state of remains is no hin- 
 drance to salvation. A full state of remains is meant by ten. Such a 
 state as that meant by five, though imperfect, may be filled up and 
 perfected in the other life. And such a state is perfected by know- 
 ledges. Therefore it was that the talent of received knowledge, of 
 which the mere intellectual cultivator of truth was deprived, was 
 given to him w r ho had ten talents. 
 
 29. The contrast, expressed as a seeming paradox, that unto every 
 one that hath shall he given , and he shall have abundance : hut from him 
 that hath not shall he taken away even that which he hath, is thus to be 
 understood : he who has good shall be enriched with truth ; but he 
 who is destitute of good will be deprived of truth. In the Gospel of 
 Luke (viii. 18), “that which he hath” is called “that which he 
 
5 SO 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXV. 
 
 seemeth to have for with the evil and faithless truth is but a seem- 
 ing possession. They have it in their memory, but not in their hearts ; 
 and the memory is but the storehouse of the mind — the Scripture 
 “barn” of hoarded wealth, of which death deprives a man for ever. 
 “ This night thy soul shall be required of thee : then whose shall these 
 things be?” The great law of heaven, and indeed of life, is, — so 
 much of good, so much of truth ; so much of charity, so much of faith. 
 He who has no good has in reality no truth ; he who has no charity 
 has no faith. Good and charity can, however, have a certain existence 
 without truth and faith. Men may live in this world, of which the 
 heathen furnish an example, without the knowledge of revealed 
 truth, and therefore without the faith of Jesus Christ as revealed in 
 the gospel ; but they may nevertheless live in charity and virtue, as 
 far as their own knowledge extends. Such, in the other life, will have 
 truth added to their goodness, and faith to their charity. 
 
 30. The sentence upon such is : Cast ye the unprofitable servant 
 into outer darkness. We have already spoken of the meaning of this 
 language. The darkness into which the evil are cast is the darkness 
 of their owm minds, from which the light of saving truth has been 
 excluded, the light in which they lived in the world being only the 
 light of knowledge. It is like that which the earth is said to have 
 enjoyed before the sun was made and placed in the firmament, — a 
 temporary light which precedes that of the permanent, but which 
 cannot continue to be a substitute for it. But this is called not 
 simply darkness, but outer darkness ; for this is the darkness not of 
 ignorance, nor even of error, but the darkness of perverted truth — the 
 light turned into darkness ; “and if the light that is in thee be dark- 
 ness, how great is that darkness ! ” There shall be weeping and gnashing 
 of teeth , which is expressive of the bitterness of suffering arising from 
 the absence of all good and truth, and the presence of evil and falsity 
 in the moral and intellectual life. 
 
 Here again we find a solemn lesson. Life and death are set before 
 us in strong terms. Life, if we are faithful to the mercies we enjoy ; 
 death, if we are unfaithful and unprofitable. 
 
 31-46. Another parable the Lord puts forth, that of the sheep and 
 the goats, which is one of the most impressive that he delivered, 
 or the Word contains. The certainty of a final judgment by a 
 just and omniscient Judge is one of the most solemn admonitions 
 that Revelation addresses to the children of men. God has wisely 
 implanted in our nature a dread of pain and a love of pleasure ; and 
 on this parent stem he engrafts the religious fear and- hope which 
 
Chap. XXV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 581 
 
 become our guard and incentive in the progress of the Christian life. 
 Without these to keep the mind awake and active, there could be no 
 determination of its powers, either of understanding or will, to the 
 concerns of eternal life ; for without fear and hope there could be no 
 interest awakened in the doctrine of heaven and hell, nor, conse- 
 quently, in that of a judgment to the one or the other. Certain that 
 we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, to receive 
 according to the things done in the body, whether they be good or 
 evil, we may see in this parable, as it may be called, the nature of the 
 ordeal through which we must pass. 
 
 31. The scene presented before us is of the utmost grandeur and 
 solemnity. When the Son of man shall come in his glory , and all the 
 holy angels with him , then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. By 
 outward glory, which affects the sense, the Scriptures describe inward 
 glory, which affects the mind. The glory in which the Lord comes is 
 the lustre of his divine truth. But the glory of the Lord’s second 
 coming in the Spirit is presented as a contrast to the humility in 
 which he made his first advent in the flesh. He is still, indeed, “ the 
 Son of man.” And this name is descriptive of the Lord as the Word 
 that was made flesh, the Divine truth accommodated to the appre- 
 hension of men ; which, being that by which men were redeemed and 
 are saved, is that by which they are to be judged. But while the 
 Lord is still the Son of man, he is the Son of man glorified. He 
 comes in his glory. Instead of being attended by a few humble dis- 
 ciples, as on earth, he has “ all the holy angels with him.” These are 
 not, indeed, a different race from the disciples, but are the disciples them- 
 selves, and such as they, glorified. Having all the angels, he has all 
 heaven with him, for “angels” is but another name for heaven. 
 But why has he the angels with him h They cannot judge, nor assist 
 him in judgment. Is it to add splendour and dignity to the grand 
 tribunal ? Angels rather shade the Lord’s glory than enhance it. It 
 is therefore to moderate the effects of his own transcendent glory upon 
 those who are to be judged that the Lord comes to judgment, having 
 all his holy angels with him. He comes through heaven: he bows 
 the heavens and comes down, shading his glory by the finite percep- 
 tion of angelic minds. And the very “ throne of his glory ” upon 
 which he sits is intended to moderate his judgment; for heaven is 
 God’s throne. And men are judged by the Divine truth as it is in 
 heaven ; for they are judged by the laws of the kingdom in which 
 they are to live, or from which they are to be excluded. 
 
 32. Seated on the throne of his glory, before him sjiall be gathered 
 
582 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXY. 
 
 all nations. Nations denote those who are in good or in evil, as 
 peoples denote those who are in truth or falsity. But nations in this 
 instance include all who were to be judged, both the good and the 
 evil. They are “ gathered before him.” This implies more than 
 bringing all in a body into his presence, which is but a natural idea. 
 The spiritual idea is that of being brought under the immediate 
 inspection of his searching truth, that their state may be made mani- 
 fest, as it were, in the light of his countenance. The first act of the 
 Divine Judge was to separate them one from another. The good and 
 the evil were mingled together until the time of the judgment; and 
 one part of the judgment was to separate them into two great 
 divisions. How this separation was effected has already been 
 spoken of. It was by making their interior characters manifest. 
 Persons can live in society with each other so long as they unite 
 in matters in which they have a common interest, or so long as 
 they meet on common ground. Persons can act very harmoniously 
 in business or pleasure, or even on morals, who would disagree on 
 religion : in short, people can go on very well together in worldly 
 matters who could not go on together in spiritual matters. When- 
 ever their minds are raised to this higher platform, many of the best 
 natural friends disagree and separate. Such was the case in the 
 judgment. When their internals, where spiritual things reside and 
 eternal concerns reign, are opened, and they are brought together, not 
 as moral but as spiritual beings, they separate from each other as a 
 necessary result. It is said that the Lord separated them, because 
 his divine truth was the cause of separation, by bringing their inter- 
 nal states to view. He separated them one from another, as a shep- 
 herd divideth his sheep from the goats. Here the Lord is the Pastor, 
 and the people are his sheep. And he is represented under this 
 character when his love is that attribute of his nature which is being 
 exhibited in relation to his people; and they are called his sheep 
 when their love to him and to each other is understood. Sheep are 
 the symbols of those who are principled more especially in the grace 
 of charity. And those who are of the opposite character are called 
 goats. Goats are the types of those who are in faith ; but here they 
 denote those who are in faith alone, without charity. The goats 
 are those who have lived within the pale of the church, and have 
 made profession of faith, but have been destitute of any of that living 
 charity without which faith is dead. 
 
 In the New Testament Jesus is invariably set forth as the Judge of 
 the world. Not that he is a distinct person from the Father, but 
 
Chap. XXV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 583 
 
 because Jesus in the Hew Testament is the same with Jehovah in the 
 Old. In the Old Testament Jehovah is declared to be the Judge of 
 all the earth ; and we have no reason to suppose that in this divine 
 work he will give his glory to another. Yet there is a distinction. 
 In the Hew Testament it is said the Father judges no man, but hath 
 committed all judgment unto the Son, because he is the Son of man. 
 When we understand that the Father is the principle of Divine Love 
 in the Deity, and the Son is the principle of Divine Wisdom or Truth 
 in the Deity, we see clearly the meaning of the declaration of the 
 gospel to be, what we know must be the case, that all judgment i3 
 effected by Divine Truth, not by Divine Good. Divine Good judges 
 no man but by Truth. And so it is said that God will judge the 
 world by Jesus Christ (Rom. ii. 16), and, indeed, by the man Jesus 
 Christ (Acts xvii. 31) : for it is by the Word made flesh that all judg- 
 ment is performed. But what is it that God does not do by Jesus 
 Christ? He created (John i. 10) and redeemed the world by Jesus 
 Christ ; nor is the sanctification and salvation of the world an excep- 
 tion, for the Son sends the Holy Spirit from the Father. And what 
 is this but the same law operating, that all which Divine Good does, 
 it does by Truth ; all that Divine Love does, it does by Wisdom? 
 
 33. A further and still more decisive sign of the characters of these 
 two classes is afforded by what is further related of them, that the 
 Lord shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left . For 
 right and left are expressive of good and truth. Those on the right 
 hand of the J udge are those who are in good, and thence in truth ; 
 and those on the left are those who are in truth without good. 
 
 34. But we now come to the deeply interesting subject of the judg- 
 ment itself. And here we may remark that the Lord now calls him- 
 self a King. This name has the same spiritual signification as the 
 Son of man ; but it denotes divine truth of a higher degree — that is, 
 in relation to man. This character corresponds with the throne on 
 which it is said he shall sit. Then shall the King say unto them on 
 his right hand, Come , ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom 
 prepared fur you from the foundation of the world. Those who are 
 blessed of his Father are they who are blessed with his love — who 
 have his love dwelling in their hearts, and who enjoy all the blessing 
 which results from it. This is that of inheriting the kingdom ; which 
 implies, that those who have the love of God dwelling in their hearts 
 shall receive as an inheritance the truth of God, which is his king- 
 dom, into their understandings, and shall have the government of 
 that truth established in them. This kingdom is said to be prepared 
 
584 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXY. 
 
 from the foundation of the world. In the proximate sense this means 
 from the foundation of the church, which the world signifies. The 
 Lord is said to have been slain from the foundation of the world, 
 which literally was from the foundation of the Christian church. But 
 the kingdom is prepared for the righteous individually from the 
 foundation of the church in themselves. It is no less truly prepared 
 fur us, because it is prepared in us. It is no less a divine provision 
 because it is a state of life within us, than it would be if it were 
 solely a place without us. We carry our inheritance in ourselves, 
 yet it is the Lord’s gift, being entirely his work. 
 
 35, 36. Having saluted those on his right hand as the blessed of 
 his Father, the Lord, as the Judge, proceeds to show forth the grounds 
 of their blessedness and their acceptance. For I was an hungered, 
 and ye gave me meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink : I was a 
 stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and 
 ye visited me: 1 v:as in prison, and ye came unto me. In reading the 
 Scriptures we are constantly met with the declaration that we are to 
 be judged by the deeds done in the body. And in this portion of the 
 Word, where the very process of judgment is described, there is no 
 mention of anything but works. The assembled multitude are not 
 judged on the ground of what they had believed, nor even of what 
 they had felt, but of what they had done. Not that faith and feeling 
 are excluded. Without faith and love there can be no good work. 
 Every work that is really good must include both. Hence it is, that 
 in judging men by their works, God judges them at the same time by 
 the faith and love that produced them. The whole of our affections 
 and thoughts are comprehended in our works. There they are in their 
 fulness. They are fixed when they are lived, and form our permanent 
 and individual character. In their simplest acceptation, the Lord’s 
 words addressed to the blessed contain a beautiful summary of the 
 works of charity, in relation to the temporal condition of men. And 
 although, when understood spiritually, they relate to the still higher 
 uses of ministering to the soul in its sufferings and sorrows, we are by 
 no means to suppose that the greater supersedes the less. The charity 
 that ministers to the body is not to be severed from the charity that 
 ministers to the soul. Those who are principled in spiritual charity 
 will never dream that they perform the whole duties of Christian love 
 by ministering only to the spiritual wants of their fellow-creatures ; 
 they will extend their active sympathies to their entire nature, the 
 physical and the spiritual. It is incumbent on us to take our sharo 
 in the labour of love necessary for diminishing the sum of human 
 
Ciiap. XXV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 -585 
 
 misery. But to be able to do even the natural works of charity with 
 advantage, it is necessary to understand what spiritual charity is, 
 which the spiritual meaning of our Lord’s language makes known. 
 In the spiritual sense the hungry are those who from affection desire 
 good, and the thirsty are those who desire truth ; the strangers or 
 sojourners are those who desire knowledge, for sojourners were those 
 from other lands who came to learn the law among the Israelites ; 
 the naked are those who see their need of, and desire to be clothed 
 with the garment of righteousness ; the sick are those who are sensible 
 of their diseased moral and spiritual condition, and desire to be 
 restored to health of mind and soul ; and the prisoners are those who 
 are in bondage to sin, or are suffering from trial and temptation, and 
 earnestly desire to realize in their lives and experience the truth that 
 makes them free. To minister to these is the work of spiritual charity. 
 To be able, under Providence, in any degree to satisfy the desire of 
 the human will with good, and of the understanding with truth ; to 
 give knowledge to the ignorant, and lead to righteousness him who is 
 out of the way; to heal the diseased affections, and give freedom to the 
 imprisoned thoughts ; these are works as much more important than 
 the deeds of natural charity, as the value of the soul is greater than 
 that of the body. But to be able and willing to perform this wor k of 
 spiritual charity to others, we must be careful to do it for ourselves. 
 This personal duty is equally involved in the Lord’s words with that 
 which we owe to our neighbour. This we shall perceive if we take 
 the terms in their abstract sense. For while the hungry denote those 
 who desire good, hunger is the desire itself of good ; thirst is the desire 
 of truth ; sojourning is the desire for instruction; nakedness and sick- 
 ness are the acknowledgment that we have nothing good or true of 
 ourselves; and being in prison, is the confession that in ourselves we 
 are wholly possessed by falsities. In our own case, as well as in that of 
 our neighbour, we may see the force and beauty of the Lord’s lan- 
 guage. “ I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat : I was thirsty, 
 and ye gave me drink.” Our sense of spiritual wants, and our desire 
 to have those wants supplied, are from the Lord, and are the Lord in 
 us ; for he is present with us in everything that we derive from him, 
 and in every desire we have for his love and truth. And every 
 act we do, to satisfy our own or our neighbour’s spiritual wants, is an 
 act of charity done to the Lord himself. The Lord is our neighbour 
 in the highest sense and in the super-eminent degree, and he is the 
 origin of all spiritual brotherhood. Men are our neighbours and our 
 brethren spiritually, so far as they have the Lord dwelling in them. 
 
586 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXY. 
 
 It is not the person of any man, but the Lord’s image in him that is 
 the neighbour, we are to love. It may seem from this as if noue but 
 the good are our neighbours, and are to be loved and ministered unto. 
 We are to love the evil, not as evil, but as having a capacity for good; 
 and our charity to them consists in acting towards them in such a 
 way as to turn them from evil to good. Good is our neighbour. So 
 far as our actions tend to strengthen this heavenly attribute in our- 
 selves and others, so far are we in the true love of the neighbour; and 
 so far as our actions tend to weaken this attribute in ourselves and 
 others, so far we are destitute of that love. Whenever this attribute, 
 this grace, in ourselves and in others, is hungry, and thirsty, and 
 naked, and sick, and in prison, it is the duty of Christian charity to 
 minister to its wants; to give it the food it requires for its support; 
 the clothing it needs for its protection; the medicine it needs for its 
 cure; the comfort it needs in its temptations. These are the deeds 
 of charity for which the Lord called the sheep the blessed of his 
 Father. 
 
 37-39. Then shall the righteous answer him , saying , Lord, ivhen saw 
 we thee ayi hungered , and, fed thee? or thirsty , and gave thee drink? 
 When saw we thee a stranger , and took thee in ? or naked, and clothed 
 thee ? or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee ? 
 This disavowal by the righteous of the virtue ascribed to them is 
 designed to show the absence of all idea of merit from true righteous- 
 ness. The good do not think of the value of their works : they do 
 good for the sake of good. They do it, indeed, in obedience to the 
 Lord, and thus for his sake ; but what they do for the Lord’s sake 
 they do for the sake of the goodness which the Lord essentially 
 and pre-eminently is. They know that the good they are enabled to 
 do is from him, but they do not think of good being done to him, as 
 if it enriched him or added to his glory. Therefore they say, “When 
 saw we thee in need, and ministered unto thy necessities?” 
 
 40. To this disavowal of merit in the good they had done the King 
 answers, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one 
 of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. What merciful 
 condescension is this ! What love, to call his creatures brethren ! It is 
 true that he had borne their frail nature, arid had hungered and 
 thirsted, and endured the extreme of all human suffering. But he was 
 now in glory. Yet he calls the needy and the suffering his brethren. 
 It is remarkable that the Lord never directly calls his disciples his 
 brethren till after his glorification, or in reference to it. After he was 
 risen he desired Mary Magdalene to go and tell his “ brethren ” that 
 
Chap. XXV.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 5 S7 
 
 he ascended to his Father and their Father. Why was this? Because 
 the Lord was more truly and fully man after his resurrection than 
 before it. Then also his disciples could become more truly men than 
 before, because they could be more fully regenerated. And Jesus 
 glorified and men regenerated are more nearly related than Jesus 
 unglorified and man unregenerated. But there is a profounder truth 
 in the Lord’s language than this. It is when the Lord is glorified in 
 us that we become truly those whom he acknowledges as his brethren. 
 This our Lord taught when he said, “ My brethren are they who hear 
 the word of Cod and do it.” But the brethren recognized in this 
 judgment are all poor and needy. These objects of charity are such 
 as are in the good which makes them brethren, but whose good 
 labours under those privations and sufferings which goodness itself in 
 the person of the Lord endured. It is in returning this good given 
 by the Lord to man, and restoring it to strength and freedom, that 
 the work of real charity consists. The Lord, therefore, speaks not 
 only of his brethren, but of the least of his brethren ; for those who 
 possess the least of real goodness have in them a ground of regenera- 
 tion — a capacity for goodness and for being saved. And what an 
 extended field for the exercise of love and charity does this open to us, — 
 a field, we are happy to say, that Christian philanthropy, acting under 
 a new spiritual influence, is now industriously cultivating. And what 
 dignity does the Lord stamp upon the lowliest offices and acts of 
 Christian charity, by declaring that he himself is the object of every 
 one of them. “ Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of 
 these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Is any object too 
 mean for our charity whom the King of kings condescends to call his 
 brother ? There is not one who sincerely calls himself by the name 
 of Christ, but who believes that if Jesus walked our streets he would 
 think it an honour, and feel it a blessing to minister to the wants of 
 the man of sorrows who had not where to lay his head. Let us behold 
 him in sorrowing and suffering humanity — in every virtuous sufferer; 
 and on his own divine assurance let us know that if we withhold a real 
 good while we can bestow it on one of the least of these, the Divine Man 
 still walks in the midst of us unacknowledged and unaided. Let good 
 be our object, as it was our Lord’s when on earth, and let us imitate 
 him by spiritually as well as naturally feeding the hungry, clothing 
 the naked, instructing the ignorant, visiting the sick and the prisoner, 
 and we shall receive the joyful salutation : “ Come, ye blessed of my 
 Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of 
 the world.” 
 
588 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXV. 
 
 41-45. How terrible the contrast to this is the Lord’s address to 
 those on his left hand ! Depart from me , ye cursed , into everlasting fire, 
 prepared for the devil and his angels : for I was an hungered , and ye 
 gave me no meat : I was thirsty , and ye gave me no drink : I was a 
 stranger, and ye took me not in : naked, and ye clothed me not : sick, and 
 in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, 
 Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, 
 or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee ? Then shall he 
 answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you , Inasmuch as ye did it not 
 to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. It is not necessary to 
 enter into the particulars of the charge brought against them. It is 
 simply the reverse of the commendation bestowed on the righteous. 
 This only may be remarked, that the goats are not accused of having 
 done evil, but of not having done good. For these form the class who 
 have led a moral life, but not a spiritual life, and morality without 
 spirituality is not heavenly. This want of spirituality and reference 
 to the Lord is indicated by the mode of address. “ I was an hungered, 
 and ye gave me no meat.” They may have ministered to men, but 
 they have not ministered to the Lord in men. 
 
 The manner of our Lord’s address to these may seem severe. We 
 are to remember that the Divine judgments are simply the revelations 
 of men’s states, and of their consequences. The curse which the Lord 
 pronounces upon the unregenerate is not an anathema proceeding 
 from him, but a blight arising out of their own corruptions. His 
 Word, which is his divine truth, lays open that which had been 
 concealed, and makes all things manifest. And so with the sentence, 
 “ Depart from me,” which is the announcement of a result, the cause 
 of which is in the wicked themselves. For the state of the soul is 
 that which causes nearness and distance from the centre of life, and 
 according to their state the righteous come to the Lord and the 
 unrighteous depart from him. And when they depart into everlasting 
 fire, they only become immersed in their own burning loves, or rather 
 lusts, of hatred, revenge, and all uncleanness. The fire into which 
 they go is said to have been prepared for the devil and his angels. 
 The devil is another name for those who have confirmed themselves 
 in evil, and his angels are those who are in the principles proceeding 
 from them. The devil is hell personified, as the fire — the everlasting 
 burnings — in which he dwells is a figure for the evil love which is at 
 once the element and the torment of depraved human souls. 
 
 46. The opposite results of righteousness and unrighteousness — of 
 spirituality and carnality — are set before us as a conclusion. And 
 
Chap. XXVI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 589 
 
 these shall go away into everlasting 'punishment : but the righteous into 
 life eterrial. Punishment and its endless duration are here placed in 
 opposition to life eternal. Both are undoubtedly the doctrine of the 
 Scriptures, and both are the result of a law which is unchangeable — 
 that states that have been confirmed in this life remain unchanged for 
 ever. It is not, therefore, because God will not have mercy that the 
 evil are punished, but because his mercy cannot save them from a 
 punishment which is inseparable from themselves as evil beings. 
 Torment can no more be separated in the other world from evil than 
 pain can in this be separated from burning. They are as inseparable 
 as cause and effect. So, on the other hand, holiness and happiness 
 are united. The one word, “life,” is most expressive of all that is 
 desirable. Life in its original state must have been a sense of pure 
 enjoyment, arising from the healthy condition of all the powers of 
 mind and body ; and eternal life is this sense in man when living in 
 the spiritual world. This is heaven, the opposite of which is helL 
 Let us choose between them while the choice is in our power. Happy 
 are they who have done the work of true charity in this world, where 
 men must sow in righteousness if they would reap in joy. The Lord 
 grant that we may stand at last on his right hand, and hear the joyful 
 salutation, “ Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom 
 prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 The discourse which the Lord had finished concluded his public 
 ministry. He had commenced it by preaching the acceptable year of 
 the Lord, and he ends it by declaring the certainty of a final judgment. 
 Having delivered his last address to those who were without, he now 
 addresses himself to those who were within. 
 
 1, 2. And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, 
 he said unto his disciples, Ye know that after two days is the feast of the 
 passover , and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified. The passover 
 was instituted to mark the Lord’s mercy in passing over the houses 
 of the children of Israel on the night that he went through Egypt 
 and slew all the first-born of the Egyptians. This last plague was the 
 means of Israel’s deliverance, of which the passover was also the sign. 
 The Holy Supper, which the Lord instituted instead of the Jewish 
 j)assover, was a sign of the great redemption which he was about to 
 complete, and by which the faithful were to be saved from a slavery 
 
590 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Ciiap. XXVI. 
 
 more cruel than that of Egypt. The Lord thus kept the passover, 
 because the deliverance of Israel from Egypt was typical of the 
 redemption which he accomplished. The Lord says to the disciples, 
 “Ye know that after two days is the passover.” Two signifies 
 conjunction — the conjunction of good and truth, or the conjunction 
 of evil and falsity, according to the nature of the subject. Here 
 the two days signify both — the union of good and truth in the 
 Lord’s humanity, and the conjunction of evil and falsity in the Jewish 
 church. Both were ready — the one for glorification, the other for 
 consummation. The betrayal and crucifixion of the Son of man were 
 the means of completing both. This is expressed in the two acts that 
 were to be committed by the Jews, as well as by the two days after 
 which they were to be done; for it is the false principle that betrays 
 the Lord, and the evil principle that crucifies him. 
 
 3, 4. While the Lord was instructing his disciples respecting his 
 death, the Jewish council were plotting how to effect it. Then assem- 
 bled together the chief 'priests, and the scribes , and the elders of the people, 
 unto the palace of the high priest , who was called Caiaphas , and consulted 
 that they might take Jesus by subtilty , and kill him. The prophetic 
 Psalm was being fulfilled, “ Why do the heathen rage, and the people 
 imagine a vain thing ? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the 
 rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed” 
 (ii. 1). The whole powers of evil and falsity in the church and in the 
 world, represented by the Jews and the Bomans, were combined against 
 the Lord as the supreme good and truth ; for everything they did to 
 the Lord proceeded from, and therefore involved, opposition to the 
 Word, as the expression of the Divine love and wisdom which Jesus 
 was. The palace of the high priest was the place where the mem- 
 bers of the Jewish hierarchy were assembled, and Caiaphas the high 
 priest presided over them. As, in the Word, he who forms the first 
 or the head of an assembly gives a character to the whole, we may 
 judge of the character of the church which this council naturally 
 represented, indicating a state of utter corruption and complete 
 devastation. 
 
 A palace, as distinguished from a house, signifies the intellect, as 
 distinguished from the will, thus the intellectual principle of the 
 church. It is in the understanding that the thoughts assemble 
 when they deliberate on anything either good or evil. And this 
 character of the people and the palace is more clearly indicated by the 
 object being, not simply to take Jesus, but to take him by subtilty, — 
 an attempt which expresses the idea that in the Jewish church they 
 
Chap. XXVI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 591 
 
 not only were opposed to the Word, but employed the subtil ty of 
 their intellects to pervert and destroy it. 
 
 The high priest, who headed and encouraged the council, deserves 
 our especial attention. Caiaphas is one of those persons, several of 
 whom are mentioned in the Scriptures, who unite high official gifts 
 with degraded personal qualities. Caiaphas it was who spoke “ not 
 of himself : but being high priest that year, he prophesied that 
 Jesus should die for that nation; and not for that nation only, but 
 that also he should gather together in one the children of God that 
 were scattered abroad” (John xi. 51). Yet he who uttered this great 
 truth, when speaking under the inspiration of the Almighty, could 
 conspire with the unprincipled Sanhedrim when they “consulted that 
 they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him.” He was like 
 Balaam, “ which heard the words of God, which saw the vision 
 of the Almighty,” uttering sublime truths while meditating a 
 diabolical action, — willing to curse him whom it was his duty to 
 bless. More effectually did the purpose of Caiaphas work against 
 Jesus, as “the Star that should come out of Jacob, and the Sceptre 
 that should rise out of Israel,” than did the will of Balaam, to use 
 enchantment against Jacob and divination against Israel. But 
 Providence had a beneficent end in preventing the one and permitting 
 the other. In the time of Caiaphas it was expedient “that one man 
 should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not;” and. 
 the high priest himself was a suitable instrument for promoting the 
 accomplishment of the prophecy he uttered. Can we, then, fail to see 
 in Caiaphas, the high priest of the Jews, a type of the Jewish church, 
 and of every corrupt member of the church, when intellectual en- 
 lightenment and moral corruption go hand in hand, when the under- 
 standing can see and speak from the light of heaven, while the will 
 feels and acts from the fire of hell 1 
 
 5. When the whole Sanhedrim had determined to take Jesus, 
 their subtilty was displayed in the resolution they adopted to take 
 him, not on the feast day , lest there he an uproar among the people. 
 The Lord was, however, taken on the feast day ; but it was at the 
 suggestion and through the agency of one still more wicked and subtile 
 than themselves — Judas, the traitor. The feast day of the passover was 
 a type of the Lord’s redemption, and the paschal lamb which was then 
 killed and eaten was a type of the Bedeemer himself. Appropri- 
 ately was the Lord’s death accomplished during the celebration of 
 the passover ; and appropriately was he led as a lamb to the 
 slaughter on the day that the paschal lamb was killed. Yet the 
 
592 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXYI. 
 
 Jewish priesthood wished to avoid this day lest there might be an 
 ■uproar among the people. The multitude, though often hostile to 
 Jesus, were not actuated by the same deadly hatred against him as 
 their rulers, nor did they deal with him with the subtilty of the 
 priesthood. The rulers were like Pharaoh and his servants, who 
 attempted to defeat the Divine purpose to redeem Israel, while the 
 people, who inclined to follow the Lord, were 1 like the mixed multi- 
 tude that went up with the children of Israel out of Egypt. 
 
 6. A striking contrast to this wicked conspiracy of the rulers of 
 the Jewish church to effect the Lord’s destruction, is presented in the 
 tender and beautiful scene exhibited when Jesus ivas in Bethany , in 
 the house of Simon the leper. As Bethany was the town of Lazarus, 
 whose resurrection from the dead typified the raising up of a church 
 among the Gentiles, the Lord’s presence in Simon’s house, and the 
 anointing of his head with oil, are expressive of the loving reception 
 of the Lord by the Gentiles when he was rejected by the Jews. 
 
 7. When Jesus was in the house of Simon, there came unto him a 
 woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment , and poured 
 it on his head , as he sat at meat. As Simon was a type of faith in the 
 Lord, the woman was a type of love to him. This woman, as we 
 learn from John xii. 3, was Mary, the sister of Lazarus. Mary is the 
 recognized type of those devoted souls who have chosen “the one 
 thing needful,” the love of Jesus, as their all; and who sit at his feet, 
 and hear his word. And such will imitate Mary, also, in the costly 
 offering which she made to her Saviour. Mary’s pious act was a 
 significant one. Anointing was practised in the representative church 
 on all solemn and important occasions; in particular, it was employed 
 in the inauguration of kings and priests. Types of the Lord, their 
 unction was representative of his. He was truly the Lord’s Anointed. 
 The oil with which Jesus was anointed was the Divine love itself, of 
 which the holy oil was the symbol. In the secondary sense, holy oil 
 was the symbol of brotherly love. “ Behold, how good and how 
 pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity ! It is like the 
 precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even 
 Aaron’s beard; that went down to the skirts of his garments,” 
 (Ps. cxxxiii.) Unity among brethren is cemented by brotherly love. 
 The precious ointment brought by Mary was a symbol of her love to 
 her Saviour ; as it is love that unites man to man, it is love that 
 unites man to the Lord. Love is precious in proportion as it has cost 
 us much — as we have purchased it with much self-denial and devoted 
 service, and have then enriched it with wisdom and experience. Mary 
 
Chap. XXVI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 593 
 
 brought her ointment in an alabaster box. True faith, filled with 
 pure love, is the alabaster box of precious ointment which Mary poured 
 upon the head of Jesus. Those whom Mary represents imitate Mary’s 
 act of devotion when they reciprocate the love which they have received 
 from Jesus ; and they pour the precious ointment on his head when they 
 seek conjunction with him in the celestial degree, of which the Lord’s 
 head is the symbol. John (xii. 3) says that Mary anointed the feet 
 of Jesus; and to reconcile the two statements, commentators offer the 
 conjecture that Mary anointed both his head and his feet. Whether 
 this be the case or not, there is a reason for the apparent discrepancy. 
 The head signifies first principles, from which all lower principles are 
 derived; and the feet signify lowest principles, in which all the higher 
 are contained. The anointing of the head and the anointing of the 
 feet have the same signification, so far as this, that the anointing of 
 each signifies the sanctifying of the whole man — the one, all as pro- 
 ceeding from the first; the other, all as included in the last. And the 
 anointing of the feet is recorded in John, because his gospel describes 
 regeneration in its greatest fulness — when the first is in tbe last, the 
 highest in the lowest. 
 
 8. This grateful tribute of tender love and exalted devotion on 
 the part of Mary did not receive from all who witnessed it the 
 approval it deserved. But when his disciples saw it, they had indigna- 
 tion, saying , To what purpose is this waste 1 This is not the only 
 instance in which the disciples showed less love and devotedness to 
 the Lord than the pious women who followed him. The different 
 character of the male and female mind accounts for this. Women 
 act more from affection, men more from intellect. Every one, in- 
 deed, has both these essentials of humanity in himself, although the 
 sexes have not both in the same degree. The difference between 
 Mary and the disciples may therefore be seen by every one in his own 
 experience. Warm and generous impulses sometimes prompt us to 
 noble or generous actions, but when the calculating faculty comes 
 into play, it condemns as wasteful what the heart had conceived as 
 necessary. Second thoughts are sometimes best ; but in the present 
 state of human nature they are often less disinterested than the first. 
 It is for this reason that the church, when personified, is represented 
 as a woman ; because it is the will, and not the understanding — love, 
 and not faith — that essentially constitutes the church, and which is 
 the virgin daughter of Zion and Jerusalem, the bride and wife of the 
 Lamb. Every true member of the church has both these elements of 
 religion, but love is the essence of all his true worship, and the grace 
 
594 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXVI. 
 
 which unites his soul to his Saviour. Intellect, truth, faith, when 
 alone, have nothing devotional or conjunctive in them, but tend 
 rather to self-worship, and therefore to disjunction and division. 
 The disciples on this, as on some other occasions, presented an image 
 of the mind when too much under the influence of faith as a separate 
 grace, and therefore of faith as opposed, rather than favourable, to 
 true love and its precious offering. In regard to the conduct of the 
 disciples on this occasion, Judas Iscariot was the author of this 
 censure of waste, and according to John (xii. 4), he alone uttered the 
 complaint; and this he did, “not that he cared for the poor, but 
 because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put 
 therein.” According to the rule that the first of a series marks the 
 general character of the whole, we have here a representation of the 
 intellectual state of the church, when self-love and self-interest are 
 allowed to influence our thoughts. Even the man of the church, 
 when he takes a merely intellectual view of divine worship, asks, “ To 
 what purpose is this waste ? God cannot be exalted by our praise, 
 nor persuaded by our petitions. The time and the means that are 
 devoted to anointing him who in himself is holy might have been sold 
 for much and given to the poor.” Yet acts proceeding from these 
 nobler sentiments would frequently be acts done to the Lord himself — 
 acts that had less of self and more of him — acts such as those which he 
 himself ascribed to the righteous, when he said, “ Inasmuch as ye have 
 done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” 
 
 9. The difference between the woman and the disciples, as types of 
 the celestial and spiritual, is further manifested in the remark, For 
 this ointment might have been sold for much , and given to the poor. 
 She thought of the Lord ; they thought of the neighbour. With the 
 celestial the Lord is first; with the spiritual the neighbour is first. 
 Do we not sometimes hear it objected, “To what purpose is this 
 waste of time and energy which you devote to pious meditation and 
 prayer ? Why not give them to the poor ? God does not require all 
 this service. You cannot exalt him with your praises, nor move him 
 with your prayers. Your brother can be benefited by your service, 
 and requires all you can render him. That which is most beneficial 
 to man is most serviceable to God.” True; but the highest form of 
 love to the neighbour comes through love to God. True love to the 
 neighbour is love to mau from love to God. When the prophet 
 would increase the famishing widow’s handful of meal, he required 
 her first to make him a cake. And that he might bless the harvests 
 of Israel, God required the first-fruits, the gleanings of which were 
 
Ciiap. XXVI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 595 
 
 left for the poor. Why was this ? To teach us that the acknow- 
 ledgment of the Giver sanctifies the gift, and makes its secondary use 
 more excellent and beneficial. But the disciples thought it might 
 have been sold for much, and given to the poor. We read, indeed, of 
 something similar to this in the Lord requiring a would-be disciple to 
 sell all that he had, and give to the poor. But his possessions were a 
 hindrance to his becoming a disciple of Jesus. The woman had pur- 
 chased the ointment to show her devotion to the Lord. To have sold 
 it again, to give the money to the poor, would have been to forsake 
 the Lord with the view of doing service to men. As this woman 
 represents the church, and specifically the Gentile church, she is to be 
 considered as standing between the Lord as the All-sufficient, and the 
 poor as the destitute. 
 
 10. But when Jesus understood it , he said unto them, Why trouble ye 
 the woman ? Our Lord alludes to this good work in what follows. 
 We may confine our attention at present to the inquiry how this act 
 could operate as a good work upon him. As this woman pouring 
 ointment on the Lord’s head represented the church seeking conjunc- 
 tion through love with the Lord’s divine humanity, the good work 
 she wrought upon Jesus, in regard to herself, is the union effected 
 with him, by the reciprocation of his love on the part of the church. 
 The spiritual trouble the celestial when they judge of their state by 
 their own, and insinuate their own spirit into them, or make them 
 the subjects of their influx. The lower acting upon the higher causes 
 them disturbance. For she hath wrought a good work upon me, said 
 our Lord. This work is afterwards mentioned, and will be considered 
 when we come to it. 
 
 11. The reason the Lord gives for not disturbing or hindering the 
 woman in her pious work is, For ye have the poor always with you; 
 but me ye have not always. There are two kinds of poor, and many 
 degrees of poverty. There are the poor in the natural sense, who 
 have a scant share of this world’s goods, and the poor in a spiritual 
 sense, who have but a small share of heaven’s wealth. Of the spirit- 
 ually poor there are some who, though yet poor, think they are rich, 
 and in need of nothing; and there are some who are sensible of their 
 poverty, and desire to receive the true riches. There are the poor 
 distinct from ourselves, in the persons of others, and the poor within 
 us, in our own impoverished faculties. These we too certainly have 
 with us always. But Jesus we have not always. His spirit of meek- 
 ness and lowliness of heart, of love and mercy, of forbearance, for- 
 giveness, of patience and endurance, — this is not always with U3. 
 
596 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXYI. 
 
 When the heavenly graces and virtues in which he dwells are active, 
 then is he with us. And then is the time to pour out the affections 
 of our love and devotion, as the woman poured upon his head the 
 precious ointment — the sign of her grateful homage and profound 
 adoration. 
 
 12. A further reason the Lord gave the disciples not to trouble the 
 woman was, For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she 
 did it for my burial. Burial is the symbol of resurrection ; for when 
 the body dies and is buried, the soul rises into its true and complete 
 life. But the Lord’s resurrection was also his glorification; and this 
 is included in the signification of his burial. The angels know 
 not about death and burial, but only about life and resurrection. 
 Therefore, when the language of men is translated into the language 
 of angels, mortality is changed into immortality. What, then, does 
 our Lord mean when he said of the woman, “In that she hath poured 
 this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial ?” It is well 
 known that Jesus was called Christ from his being the Anointed of 
 Jehovah. The holy oil with which he was to be anointed signifies the 
 Divine love. “ The Lord alone, as to his divine humanity, was the 
 anointed of Jehovah ; for in him, from conception, was the Divine 
 good itself of the Divine love, and from that he made his humanity 
 Divine truth itself when in the world ; and, moreover, by union with 
 his essential Divinity he made that also the Divine good of his 
 Divine love.” As Jesus was the anointed of Jehovah, so was he the 
 anointed of heaven and the church. But the anointing by the church 
 was only the reciprocation of his own gifts — the return of her love 
 to him as the fountain as well as the object of her love. But this love 
 was directed to the Lord in his humanity glorified ; and as its glorifi- 
 cation was about to be completed in his resurrection, therefore he said 
 the woman had poured it on his body for his burial. To see this sub- 
 ject in its practical bearing, we must consider it in reference to the 
 Lord’s resurrection and glorification in ourselves. It is by love from 
 his Divinity that his humanity can be glorified in us, and become the 
 true object of our love and worship. That love is the precious ointment 
 which the loving and grateful disciple pours upon his head, as a sign 
 of the heart’s acknowledgment of Jesus as the Author of the soul's 
 salvation. 
 
 13. The Lord further declares to his disciples respecting the woman, 
 Verily I say unto you , Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in 
 the whole world , there shall also this, that this ivoman hath done, be told 
 /or a memorial of her. Literally has this been fulfilled. And worthy 
 
Chap. XXVI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 597 
 
 must the deed have been to obtain the promise of an imperishable 
 fame. But there is a promise within this promise, whose memorial is 
 not on earth, but in heaven ; not without in the world, but within in 
 the heart. The Lord’s language seems to suggest another meaning. 
 It is not the genius of his religion to promise temporal rewards for 
 heavenly services. The record of the righteous is on high. According 
 to the spiritual sense, the world signifies the world within — the human 
 mind. Wheresoever here the gospel is preached, or the glad tidings of 
 salvation are revealed and received — in a word, wherever the Lord’s 
 saving truth is accepted — there the good to which it leads is made 
 known; but made known as a memoiial, a lesson impressed upon the 
 outer man, of an act that has been performed in the inner man, and 
 which is prospective to its being realized in the outer man also. 
 
 14. It is remarkable that this touching act of love to the Saviour 
 should be immediately followed by the traitorous act of him who 
 originated the complaint against the waste of the ointment. The 
 Lord had spoken of the woman having by anticipation embalmed his 
 body for burial ; and then, as if the mention of the subject had 
 awakened a slumbering idea, one of the twelve , called Judas Iscariot , 
 went unto the chief priests. Taking the character and the act 
 of Judas as they are represented to us in the plain and unqualified 
 language of Scripture, we cannot imagine any consummation of 
 iniquity more complete than we find it in him. It is needless to 
 enlarge upon this. Every one sees it. J udas has become a name to 
 express the lowest depth of humanity ; and his case affords, if not an 
 example, at least a type of the extremity of human degradation and 
 depravity which rendered the Lord’s death at once inevitable and 
 necessary; for the very evil which procured his death was that which 
 his resurrection provided against. As the woman who poured the 
 precious ointment on the Lord’s head represented the Gentile church, 
 which in her representative act gave a token that that church was 
 about to receive the Lord from the dead, so Judas represented the 
 Jewish church, which was about to betray and crucify him, killing the 
 Just One, whom they professed to be longing and looking for as their 
 deliverer. But Judas, besides representing the Jewish church, repre- 
 sented a possible character in the Christian church, and still more a 
 principle or element in human nature in every age of the church. He 
 represented the lowest, and now the most degraded, principle of human 
 nature. He was in the last age of the world what the serpent was in 
 the first — the betrayer of innocence, the bringer-in of death. But 
 there was this overruled difference; the last death was the conquest 
 
598 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXVI. 
 
 as well as the consummation of the first. By death Jesus overcame 
 him who had the power of death, and opened again the way to the 
 tree of life, which the fall of man had closed. Life and immortality, 
 brought to light by the gospel, were realized in the resurrection. 
 Thus did evil become the permitted means of working the overthrow 
 of its own dominion. The principle in human nature which Judas 
 represented is that which is called the sensual and corporeal, or what in 
 the apostolic writings is called the carnal, which is in man’s fallen 
 state hostile to the spiritual. This principle is therefore in deadly 
 opposition to the Lord in man ; it is the Judas of the human heart, 
 and is ever ready and seeks opportunity to betray him. But this 
 carnal principle seeks to effect its purpose by leaguing itself with, or 
 rather becoming the willing instrument of the powers and principles 
 of the corrupt and perverted church, as Judas did by acting into the 
 hands of the chief priests. 
 
 15. But while Judas offers his services to the enemies of Jesus, he 
 does it for the sake of reward. He says to the chief priests, What 
 will ye give me , and I will deliver him unto you ? It would appear 
 from this and the subsequent part of Judas’s history, that he was not 
 actuated so much by hatred of Jesus as by the love of himself. He 
 appears rather as one who has given himself so entirely up to that 
 all-devouring avarice which is the root of all evil, as to be willing to 
 sacrifice his best friend to gratify his ruling passion, which indicates a 
 state still worse than that of a personal enemy. “What will ye give 
 me?” is the question and the object. We might well ask how could 
 this be possible in a disciple of Jesus, if we did not see and do the 
 like. For what is the sacrifice of acknowledged religious principle to 
 avarice and selfishness but a betraying the Lord afresh, and putting 
 him to an open shame? But there is an avarice of another and still 
 deadlier kind than the sordid love of money — the sordid love of know- 
 ledge. Knowledge is to man spiritually what money is to him natur- 
 ally — the means of life. Truth and goodness are the principles of 
 life ; but if these are sold for knowledge, knowledge becomes the 
 means of death instead of life. The price for which Judas sold the 
 Lord, and for which the chief priests purchased him for his destruction, 
 implies the little value which the Jewish church attached to his merit, 
 and his redemption and salvation. And they covenanted with him for 
 thirty pieces of silver. This number signifies somewhat little in respect to 
 that of which it is predicated. In the parable of the sower, the seed 
 sown in good ground brought forth some thirty, some sixty, some an 
 hundredfold, thirty being the measure of the least productive. Judas 
 
Chap. XXVI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 599 
 
 and the Jewish priests individually made no account of the Lord and 
 his works ; but what they did represented what the people thought — 
 the general estimation in which the Lord and his redemption were held. 
 These thirty pieces of silver were the price at which the Saviour of the 
 world was valued. Do we value him more ? If so, how much is his 
 price ? 
 
 16. And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him. The 
 slate, to which time corresponds, was the potential consummation of 
 the Jewish church. In relation to individual life the state of mind 
 which seeks opportunity to betray the truth and good, or to deliver 
 them into the hands of their enemies, is one in which the proprium 
 or selfhood is in intense activity, and tending to the ultimate destruc- 
 tion of the human principle. 
 
 17-30. We come now to a deeply important part of the gospel history 
 — the account of the Lord’s eating the passover with his disciples, and 
 his instituting the sacrament of the Holy Supper. The institution of 
 the new ordinance on the occasion of celebrating the old was most 
 appropriate and significant. The Jewish passover had been instituted 
 to foreshadow what the Christian supper was instituted to com- 
 memorate : or rather, the passover was instituted to commemorate 
 the shadow, while the supper was instituted to commemorate the 
 substance. The redemption of Israel from the bondage of Egypt was 
 a type of the redemption of mankind from the bondage of hell. The 
 paschal lamb, the sprinkling of whose blood upon the door-posts made 
 the angel of death pass over the houses of Israel, was a type of the 
 Lamb of God, whose blood cleanseth from all sin ; and the flesh of 
 the paschal lamb, which the Israelites were to eat as the feast of their 
 deliverance, was a type of the flesh of the Son of man, which he 
 gives for the life of the world, as the food of the soul. We do not 
 mean that the flesh and blood of the Lord’s natural body possessed 
 these virtues. His words were spirit and life ; and what is spiritually 
 meant by the Lord’s flesh and blood we shall see when we come to 
 the institution of the Lord’s Supper. It was well known by the 
 apostles that the paschal lamb represented the Lord ; for Paul says, 
 “ Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. v. 7). 
 
 17. Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples 
 came to Jesus , saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for 
 thee to eat the passover ? The feast of passover was called sometimes 
 the feast of unleavened bread, because bread unleavened was com- 
 manded to be eaten during its continuance. The feast lasted seven 
 days. It commenced on the fourteenth day of the month Abib, 
 
600 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXYI. 
 
 which was thenceforward to be the first month of the Israelitish year, 
 and ended on the twenty -first (Exod. xii. 7). The year of which the 
 month Abib was to be the beginning represented the year of the 
 Lord’s redemption, which commenced a new epoch in the spiritual 
 history of the human race. “The passover represented the Lord J s 
 glorification, and thereby the conjunction of the Divine Being with 
 mankind. And since the conjunction of the Lord with mankind is 
 effected by love and charity, and by faith derived from them, these 
 celestial and spiritual principles were represented by the unleavened 
 bread which was to be eaten on the days of the Passover. Bread sig- 
 nifies in general all food, both celestial and spiritual ; thus all celestial 
 and spiritual things. That these should be free from all impurities 
 was represented by unleavened bread ; for leaven signifies evil and 
 falsity, by which celestial and spiritual principles are rendered impure 
 and profane. It was to prevent the defilement of these principles by 
 anything profane that leaven was forbidden, under the penalty of 
 being cut off from Israel ; for they who profane what is celestial and 
 spiritual must inevitably perish.” The first day of unleavened bread 
 was the first of the seven days during which the feast lasted. It 
 therefore signified the beginning of a new state. In regard to the 
 Lord himself, the new state, the beginning of which was represented 
 by the feast of unleavened bread, was that full and final state of 
 glorification which was completed by the passion of the cross. The 
 Lord’s glorification was a successive as well as a continuous work. It 
 advanced by distinct as well as by continuous degrees : and the last 
 was that upon which he was now about to enter. The Lord therefore 
 said to his disciples, “ With desire have I desired to eat this passover 
 with you before I suffer ” (Luke xxii. 15). The bitterness of his 
 trials, temptations, and sufferings, which were to form his dark 
 passage into transcendent glory, was significantly pointed to by the 
 bitter herbs which were to be eaten with the paschal lamb. As with 
 the Lord, so with the disciples who follow him in the regeneration. 
 The Lord’s disciples asked him, “ Where wilt thou that we prepare?” 
 The question here is one which every true disciple requires to ask. 
 Place signifies state. The question involves the desire to know the 
 state which enables the disciple to unite with the Lord in eating the 
 Christian passover, and to be directed and led by him to its attain- 
 ment. And this is essentially necessary when we consider that the 
 question is, “ Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the 
 passover?” It is possible for the disciple to eat the passover without 
 the Lord eating it with him, or the feast being his. Unless the 
 
Chap. XXVI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 601 
 
 Lord is present, and eats with us, the feast is not his, and does not 
 conjoin the soul with him. 
 
 18. To the disciples’ question, “Where?” the Lord answers. Go 
 into the city to such a man, and say unto him , The Master saith, My 
 time is at hand ; I will keep the passover at thy house with my disciples. 
 According to Luke xxii. 7, the disciples were not directed to the man 
 of the house, but when they entered the city they were to meet a man 
 bearing a pitcher of water, and to follow him into whatsoever house 
 he entered. As the city, Jerusalem, in its genuine sense represented 
 the doctrine of the church, a house in the city represented the good 
 which all true doctrine contains. The disciples were to be led to the 
 house in which the passover was to be celebrated, by following a man 
 bearing a pitcher of water, to teach us, representatively, that if we 
 follow where truth leads, we shall be introduced into a principle and 
 state of goodness. Water being the symbol of truth, he who bears 
 the pitcher of water is the type of one who is instructed in the truths 
 of the church, and possessed of spiritual intelligence. Thus under- 
 stood, we can see a reason for the Lord directing the disciples to the 
 city, besides the miraculous character of the transaction, for all the 
 Lord’s miracles are instructive. When the disciples entered the house, 
 they were directed to address the householder in these remarkable 
 words, “The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the 
 passover at thy house with my disciples.” This is not the man whom 
 Luke speaks of as guiding the disciples to the house, but him whom 
 he calls the goodman of the house; he signifies, therefore, truth con- 
 joined with good, or the understanding united to the will. What the 
 Lord says to any one, spiritually means an inward perception or 
 dictate from him of the truth expressed. The time of which our Lord 
 speaks was not the time of eating the passover, but the time when he, 
 as the true Paschal Lamb, was to be killed. The man probably 
 understood not this saying; it was hid from the most privileged of 
 the apostles. It was sufficient that his word had power, and that it 
 has the power of spiritued instruction. Time, like place, is expressive 
 of state, and the Lord’s death was also his glorification. Near at hand 
 signifies proximity of state. To see the force of this practically, we 
 must consider it experimentally. The Lord’s time is at hand with us 
 when his glorification is about to be realized in our regeneration — 
 when he is about to be born again from the dead in our hearts and 
 lives. The consent as well as the perception of the understanding is 
 meant by the disciples announcing this to the man of the house; its 
 consent that the will be the receptacle of the Divine love, and be 
 
602 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXVI. 
 
 conjoined, through love, with the Lord himself. Jesus does not, 
 however, ask the man’s permission, but simply expresses his will 
 to occupy his house. The Lord does not overbear our freedom ; but 
 when we are disposed to be the Lord’s, there is nothing more 
 needed than to know his will, that we may do it. His will is ex- 
 pressed in his words, “ I will keep the passover at thy house with my 
 disciples.” We have already remarked that the will is the place 
 where the Lord dwells with man, and enters into conjunction with 
 him ; and this is expressed in the Lord’s message to the householder 
 to whom his messengers were led. In the house the Lord was to eat 
 the passover with his disciples. The disciples represented all the 
 principles of goodness and truth which constitute the Lord’s kingdom 
 in the human mind. To eat the passover with the disciples in the 
 house, is to conjoin to himself, by his communication and their appro- 
 priation of good, all the principles of love and faith, when elevated 
 into the human will. 
 
 19. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them ; and they 
 made ready the passover. We are not informed here who these disciples 
 were ; but in Luke we learn they were Peter and John, who repre- 
 sent truth and goodness, or faith and love, and therefore stand for the 
 disciples generally, for these are the general principles of which the 
 others are the particulars. And these make ready the passover : they 
 prepare the mind for the full reception of the Lord and heaven, and 
 for the confirmation of the principles of his kingdom of love and peace 
 in the heart. 
 
 20. The celebration of the passover, as the last meal which the 
 Lord partook with his disciples before his death, comes now to be con- 
 sidered. Now when the even was come , he sat down with the twelve. 
 We have already spoken of the distinction between the passover and 
 the Lord’s Supper. In their spiritual import the passover treats of 
 the Lord’s work of redemption, and his supper of the work of salva- 
 tion ; or what is the same, the first treats of the work of reformation, 
 the second of the work of regeneration. The one passes into the other, 
 and in it finds its completion and fulness. We have therefore a deep 
 and eternal interest in these two great representative feasts. And as 
 the greater includes the less, we have in the Lord’s Supper all that was 
 contained in the passover. Indeed, that sacred ceremonial of the 
 Christian church includes all that was represented in the entire circle 
 of feasts and sacrifices which belonged to the Israelitish church, all 
 these being embodied in the sacrament of the holy supper, as all the 
 washings were embodied in the sacrament of baptism. Although, 
 
Chap. XXVI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 603 
 
 therefore, the ritual law was abolished, yet an epitome of the rituals 
 of the law was preserved, to form the ceremonial worship of the 
 Christian church. The even, in the Scripture sense, was the beginning 
 of the day, which consisted of “ the evening and the morning.” The 
 even on which the Lord assembled with his disciples to keep the pass- 
 over was the beginning of the new day, the day of salvation. To the 
 Jewish church this even was the beginning of the night, for to it no 
 morning ever dawned again. To the Lord it was the even of the 
 night of his darkest and direst temptation, previous to the morning of 
 his resurrection in transcendent glory. 
 
 21. In conformity with this, the first words that the Lord addressed 
 to his disciples had immediate reference to this dark stage of his expe- 
 rience, and to the still darker part which one of their number was to 
 act in regard to it. And as they did eat, he said. Verily I say unto 
 you, that one of you shall betray me. We shall not now speak of 
 the crime itself which the Lord declares one of his disciples would 
 commit, but of the Lord’s revealing this while they were eating the 
 passover. As the even represented two opposite states, the feast 
 represented two opposite things. It was eaten by the Israelites on 
 that night when a complete and final separation was effected between 
 them and the Egyptians, followed by a judgment which drowned their 
 enemies in the Ked Sea, and placed them in freedom on its opposite 
 shore. A similar separation and judgment were signified by the 
 passover which the Lord ate with his disciples. Judgment was about 
 to pass on the Jewish church; the faithful and the unfaithful were 
 about to be separated from each other — the former to be rejected and 
 the latter saved. The unfaithful were represented by Judas, who, 
 in the general sense, was a type of the Jewish church ; and the faithful 
 by the rest of the disciples. It was during the passover, therefore, 
 that the character of Judas was developed, that his treason was fore- 
 told, and that the awful judgment of Divine Truth was pronounced 
 upon him ; and it was immediately after it that he went out and 
 offered to the chief priests to deliver his Master into their hands. 
 The subsequent history of Judas and the rest of the disciples further 
 exemplifies their representative characters ; for while the traitor, like 
 the Egyptians, perished, the others, like the Israelites, passed through 
 trials before they were established in righteousness. There was a 
 peculiar propriety in the Lord being betrayed by one of his own disciples. 
 The distinction between the true disciples and the false is, that the true 
 are principled in faith grounded in charity, and the false are in faith 
 without charity ; and it is faith without charity that betrays the Lord. 
 
604 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXYI. 
 
 22. When Jesus had declared that one of his disciples should 
 betray him, they viere exceeding sorrowful. Sorrow signifies tempta- 
 tion. The Lord is said to bear our sorrows, because he suffered 
 temptations for our sake, when his soul was exceeding sorrowful even 
 unto death. This sorrow leads to self-examination. And, indeed, one 
 of the uses of temptation is, that evils may be excited, and so dis- 
 covered, that they may be put away. The form of the inquiry of the 
 disciples is most instructive. They individually ask, not “Who is it 1 ?” 
 but, “Is it I?” They began every one of them, to say unto him , Lord , is 
 it I ? True self-examination is not a general but a particular search, 
 and with the view of discovering the particular evil that tempts us to 
 sin, and where it lies concealed. This is a discovery that cannot be 
 made by the light of our own reason, but by the light that comes from 
 above; the Lord alone can reveal the hidden evil to our minds. To 
 him every one must look and say, “Lord, is it I?” 
 
 23. To their question the Lord did not give a direct reply. And he 
 answered and said , He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish , the 
 same shall betray me. The dish used at the passover is said to have 
 contained a bitter sauce, in which the guests dipped their morsel before 
 eating it. The bitter herbs used in this ritual signified, as we have 
 seen, the bitterness of temptation. The word dip is derived from that 
 which means to baptize, and baptism also includes the idea of tempta- 
 tion. The hand of Judas being with that of Jesus in the dish, tells 
 us of the suffering which one was to inflict, and the other to endure, in 
 the approaching day of trial. The hand is the symbol of power. The 
 hand of Judas was the symbol of the power of hell itself, — for Satan 
 had put it into his heart to betray him, and when he had taken 
 the sop, Satan entered into him (John xiii. 27). The hand of Jesus 
 was there to resist and to overcome that power; for his hand was the 
 symbol of that power which he possessed as the Word made flesh. 
 This mutual dipping in the dish, no doubt, implies also the familiarity 
 of friendship, as expressed by David in Tsalm xli. 9 : “Yea, mine 
 own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, 
 hath lifted up his heel against me.” Eating bread with one generally 
 denotes communion with him by good. Of course, in the case of 
 hypocrites, it can only denote simulated goodness and hollow pro- 
 fession. In regard to the Jews, whom Judas represented, their 
 eating the Lord’s bread denotes their possessing and reading the 
 Word ; other expressions of friendship, such as taking sweet counsel 
 together, and walking to the house of God in company, being ex- 
 pressive of the delight which that church took in external knowledge 
 
Chap. XXVI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 605 
 
 and worship, while at the same time they were in a state of inward 
 rebellion against him, which showed itself in their cruel hostility to 
 Jesus, whose destruction they breathed and finally effected. 
 
 24. The Lord continues. The Son of man goetli as it is written of 
 him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it 
 had been good for that man if he had not been born. It had been foretold 
 that the Messiah would be cut off out of the land of the living (Dan. 
 ix. 26 ; Isa. liii. 3). Although Divine wisdom and mercy brought an 
 infinite good out of the Lord’s death, it was no less criminal in those 
 who compassed it. That wickedness recoiled upon the head of Judas, 
 and upon the Jewish church, which Judas so fitly represented. But 
 he also represented those by whom the truth is betrayed — those who 
 know and profess themselves its disciples, and yet profane it by making 
 it subservient to their own selfish and worldly purposes. They pro- 
 fane it to their own destruction. The “woe” of everlasting ruin 
 hangs over them; and good would it have been for such if they 
 had never been born. This does not signify natural but spiritual 
 birth, for the real profan er is one who has been born from above, but 
 has destroyed the life of heaven in himself. Good had it been for 
 this man if he had never been born. 
 
 25. When the Lord had spoken these terrible words against him 
 who was to be his betrayer, Judas answered and said , Master , is it 12 
 It seems extraordinary that Judas should ask this question, knowing 
 that it was his settled purpose to betray his Lord. He might have 
 known that Jesus also knew what his intention was. Perhaps in this 
 J udas affords an instance of the double mindedness of those he repre- 
 sents. All who are in truth, and yet in evil, know and do not know 
 that the Lord sees them. They know, but do not believe; and there- 
 fore their knowledge has no influence on their lives, nor even on their 
 inward thoughts. Yet it was necessary, spiritually, that Judas should 
 ask the question, and that Jesus should answer it. Self-examination 
 would be fruitless if it did not result in discovering where the 
 evil lurks. And now that it was brought to light, the evil could be 
 separated from the good. Although there is no record of it here, yet 
 we learn from John xiii. 30, that, “ having received the sop, he went 
 immediately out” to execute his purpose. And as, in relation to 
 man, Judas represented the corporeal principle of human nature, it is 
 here we are to find the root of evil, especially of the cupidity which 
 would sell the Saviour and salvation for a base and momentary 
 gratification. 
 
 26. We now come to the institution of the holy supper. And as 
 
606 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXYI. 
 
 they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and 
 gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat ; this is my body. The 
 holy supper, the most sacred solemnity of worship, was instituted as 
 a perpetual remembrance of the Lord’s mercy in our redemption, and 
 as a representative and a means of his giving himself to his people for 
 their regeneration and salvation. It was instituted instead of the 
 passover. By the holy supper we are to understand the same thing 
 as by the paschal supper, bread arid wine being received in the one 
 instead of the lamb and herbs of the other. In instituting the supper, 
 the Lord called the bread his body and the wine his blood. But what 
 are the body and blood of the Saviour 1 They cannot be material ; 
 and if they were, they could not be received by the soul, nor could 
 they, if their reception were possible, support its spiritual life. Nor 
 are the Lord’s body and blood mere figures of speech. His humanity 
 is no longer material, having been glorified and made divine. But it 
 has in it divine principles corresponding to the flesh and blood of the 
 material body which he had upon earth. These divine principles are 
 goodness itself and truth itself. These constitute the very humanity 
 of the Lord, the body and blood which the Christian can eat and 
 drink, and without eating and drinking which he has no life in him. 
 Of these divine principles in the Lord’s humanity the bread and wine 
 used in the holy supper are the symbols. As bread and wine 
 nourish the body, divine goodness and truth nourish the soul. Bread 
 signifies the same as flesh, or the body, and wine the same as blood. 
 It was for this reason that the Lord used these, and appointed their 
 use, as the elements of the holy supper. But what connection is 
 there between the natural reception of bread and wine in the outward 
 ordinance, and the spiritual reception of goodness and truth from the 
 Lord in the inward operation of his Spirit ? There is a connection by 
 correspondence. By correspondence earth is connected with heaven, 
 and natural things with spiritual, and men with angels, and the body 
 with the soul, and all with the Lord. When we devoutly and 
 intelligently partake of the holy supper, assuming that our devotion 
 rests upon holiness, without which there can be no true worship, we 
 come into more immediate connection with the Lord and heaven, and 
 more perfectly into the capacity of receiving the divine and heavenly 
 principles to which the bread and wine correspond. The external 
 man comes also into more perfect correspondence with the internal ; 
 and in these circumstances, what affects the lower disposes it to 
 receive corresponding impressions from the higher. Thus is the 
 devout recipient of the holy supper brought into a state in which 
 
Ciiap. XXVI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 607 
 
 the true bread, which cometh down from heaven, can enter into and 
 strengthen his heart. From these general views let us turn to the 
 divine narrative before us. When the Lord took the bread and 
 blessed, he performed an act that signified, in respect to himself, the 
 elevation of his humanity into union with his divinity, by which it 
 was sanctified; and when he brake the bread, and gave it to the 
 disciples, he performed acts which meant that his sanctified humanity 
 is accommodated to the varying wants and capacities of his children, 
 and imparted to them for their salvation. The Lord therefore said of 
 the bread, “ This is my body.” The form of this divine sacrament 
 thus represented both the ascent and descent of the Son of man — the 
 glorification of the humanity, and its descent as the Holy Spirit into 
 the minds of men. The Lord’s body and the bread signify the 
 humanity as to divine good, which is the principle received by the 
 human will; and his asking the disciples to take and eat teaches 
 what we have to do to realize the offered good. The Lord gave the 
 bread to the disciples, but they had to take it. We have to co-operate 
 with the Lord by freely and actively receiving what he freely gives. 
 We have also to eat, to appropriate or make his good our own. As 
 earthly food must be eaten, that it may enter into the body for its 
 support, so must heavenly food be appropriated or made our own by 
 use, that it may enter into the soul, and nourish it unto eternal life. 
 
 27, 28. When the Lord had given the bread, he took the cup , and 
 gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Brink ye all of it ; for this is 
 my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission 
 of sins. The same acts here have the same signification. We need 
 only notice what in this is peculiar. Mention is here made of the 
 Lord taking the cup, not the wine. It is true that the wine is 
 understood. But the cup, as a vessel containing the wine, signifies 
 the external, in which is the internal. In reference to the Lord, it 
 implies that in the humanity the very recipient vessels of the truth 
 were made divine; but in relation to the Word, it implies that the- 
 Lord never- instructs his ' church and people by the internal sense 
 immediately or alone, but gives them the spirit in and by the letter. 
 As the Lord called the bread his flesh, so he calls the wine his blood. 
 And although the wine is considered the symbol of his blood, yet both 
 terms are symbolical, and each has a distinct though similar meaning. 
 The wine is the symbol of spiritual truth, and the blood of celestial 
 truth; and the same may be said of bread and body. And this 
 duality is introduced, that the holy supper might represent the 
 Lord’s love to the whole human race, both celestial and spiritual, and 
 
608 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXYI. 
 
 the reciprocal love of men towards him. The Lord therefore calls his 
 blood “the blood of the new testament” — more correctly, of the new 
 covenant. A testament is an instrument by which one bequeaths 
 property to another; but a covenant is an agreement between two, 
 implying conditions on both sides. This is the nature of the new 
 covenant in the Lord’s blood, or in his divine truth. That covenant 
 differs from the old covenant in this : the old covenant was made by 
 the law written on tables of stone, but the new covenant was written 
 on the heart (Jer. xxxii. 33). The sacrament of the holy supper is 
 therefore a covenant; for to those who receive it worthily it is 
 a signing, sealing, and testifying that they are the children of God, 
 and heirs of his kingdom. But the Lord speaks of his blood of the 
 new covenant as being “ shed for many for the remission of sins.” 
 The shedding of his blood upon the cross, as being the last of his 
 sufferings, is put for the whole, and is an expressive and compendious 
 phrase for all that he endured for his creatures’ sakes. The Lord’s 
 sufferings were, in the first place, the means of overcoming the 
 powers of darkness and perfecting his humanity ; and, in the second 
 place, are the means of perfecting his creatures, for he was tempted 
 that he might succour them that are tempted. It is said that his 
 blood cleanseth from all sin, and that the saints wash their robes and 
 make them white in the blood of the Lamb (Bev. vii. 14). This is 
 figurative language. So far as it may be understood of the Lord’s 
 material blood, it cleanses by enabling us, through the Lord’s suffer- 
 ings and death, which are meant by the shedding of his blood, and 
 the blood which he shed, to pass triumphantly through the sufferings 
 of temptation and the death of sin, by which sin is removed or 
 remitted. This is in agreement with what is said of those who had 
 washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, that “ these are 
 they that have come out of great tribulation .” Tribulation was 
 the means of their purification, and this effect of Christian 
 tribulation is the result of the tribulation which the Saviour 
 himself passed through. But the Lord’s blood has a spiritual mean- 
 ing. The blood of his material body was the symbol of the divine 
 truth of his glorified body. This is the blood of the Son of man 
 which the disciples must drink that they may live (John vi. 35), and 
 which cleanses from all sin. This meaning of the Lord’s blood does 
 not invalidate the other. It is within it, and concordant with it. 
 The shedding of his blood on the cross was the necessary precursor 
 and means of shedding forth his Spirit on the day of Pentecost — as 
 necessary as it was for him to suffer those things, and to enter into 
 
Chap. XXVI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 609 
 
 his glory (Luke xxiv. 26). The regenerating spirit that the Lord then 
 shed and now sheds forth is that of his humanity, and, as a regener- 
 ating spirit, did not actually exist till the Lord was glorified. This 
 blood of the new covenant is said to be shed for many. Does this 
 mean that he died for and redeemed a certain number of the human 
 race 1 The universality of redemption is too distinctly declared in 
 Scripture to admit of such an interpretation. “ He tasted death for 
 every man.” The many for whom the Lord’s blood is shed are those 
 on whose hearts it is shed abroad; and this number is determined, 
 not by a divine decree, but by human choice. The Lord foresees the 
 number of those who will receive his truth, but he does not determine 
 what that number shall be. God wills that all men should be saved; 
 and if it depended only on his will, none would be lost. The Lord’s 
 will towards the whole human race may be expressed in his words to 
 the disciples, “ Drink ye all of it.” 
 
 29. When the Lord had sent round the cup, he said, I will not drink 
 henceforth of this fruit of the vine , until that day when I drink it new with 
 you in my Father's kingdom. This was, literally, the last supper the 
 Lord was to eat with his disciples upon earth ; but the feast was to 
 be renewed with them again in heaven. How beautiful the truth ! 
 how comforting the promise ! The last supper on earth is the 
 beginning of a perpetual feast in heaven. Yet this experience is not 
 entirely limited to the other life. The Father’s kingdom is not heaven 
 only, but the church, and the man of the church in whom are the 
 Lord’s love and truth. In agreement with this the Lord speaks not 
 of the cup, nor even of wine, but of the fruit of the vine ; for wine 
 signifies spiritual truth, and the fruit of the vine celestial truth ; and 
 the fruit of the vine is new when this new and higher state is 
 attained; and this state and government of love is meant by his 
 Father’s kingdom. 
 
 30. And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount 
 of Olives. What a hymn was that which the Lord of life and glory 
 sung with his humble followers in the upper room in Jerusalem ! 
 Angels had sung at his birth, when they announced that event as 
 tidings of great joy which should be to all people ; and they no 
 doubt now took up this song of completed redemption — for the Lord’s 
 supper celebrated by anticipation his finished work — a song that will 
 never cease, but will for ever go on increasing in fervour and harmony 
 on earth and in heaven. But what is expressed in the singing of this 
 hymn? There are two elements in human language — sound and 
 articulation. Sound is the expression of affection, articulation of 
 
 2 R 
 
610 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXVI. 
 
 thought. In sacred songs both these elements are present; and the 
 true hymn is “ perfect music set to noble words.” What a theme 
 does redemption afford for this form of glorification ! 
 
 What is the thought that we should utter with the fervour of holy 
 affection in contemplating the Lord’s divine work as celebrated by us 
 in the sacrament 1 Is it not the Lord’s marvellous love, in doing and 
 suffering, to save us from sin and its miseries 'l Our song should be 
 praise to him who has brought us up out of an horrible pit, and set 
 our feet upon a rock, and established our goings, and put a new song in 
 our mouth, even praise to our God. But to praise the Lord we must 
 sing with melody in our hearts. There is the seat of true harmony, 
 the music of the affections, which brings them into unison with those 
 of angels. When the Lord and his disciples had sung a hymn, they 
 went into the mount of Olives. This mount, above all others, was 
 the symbol of divine and heavenly love. Thither the Lord went, 
 and led his disciples, to teach us that he ascends with his redeemed 
 into a state of holy love, when they have received into their hearts 
 and understandings the living principles of his redeeming goodness 
 and truth. 
 
 31. This love introduces the disciples into the mystery of the Lord’s 
 sufferings and death, and of their own as the result of his. Then saith 
 Jesus unto them , All ye shall he offended because of me this night. 
 Startling announcement to those who had risen from a feast in which 
 all their best affections towards the Lord had been brought out, and 
 the happiness of communion with him had been highly exalted ! But 
 how tenderly does our Lord proceed to speak of this defection ! It is 
 the fulfilment of prophecy, and comes rather from the loss of their 
 divine Pastor than from any disposition of their own to wander. 
 For it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the fock 
 shall he scattered abroad. Truly, those who rightly trusted so much 
 to the care of their Shepherd might be excused for being unable to 
 endure the shock of his apprehension. Their conduct is a lesson to 
 us. These are the types of trials which fall to the lot of all true 
 disciples. We have repeatedly had occasion to remark that the 
 history of the Lord’s life in the world is spiritually the history 
 of his life in us ; for we are regenerated as he was glorified. In a 
 general sense, indeed, the Lord’s treatment by the Jews represented 
 the manner in which the Jewish church had treated the Word, per- 
 verting and torturing it even to its entire destruction. But even this 
 has its spiritual counterpart in each of us, our evil nature being still 
 the origin of such rebellious passions as those which led the corrupt 
 
Chap. XXVI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 611 
 
 descendants of Israel to the great evils they committed against the 
 Incarnate Word. When the Lord said to his disciples, “ All ye shall 
 be offended because of me this night,” he alluded to the night of deep 
 temptation, when the powers of evil stir up the dark and corrupt 
 passions of the human heart, and cause them to assault the very life 
 of love and truth in the soul. The disciples are the affections of 
 goodness and truth, in which the Lord dwells within ns j and these 
 are offended because of the Lord when the power of evil has a 
 temporary ascendancy over the power of goodness. This is expressed 
 in the language of correspondence when the Lord adds, “ for it is 
 written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be 
 scattered abroad.” The Lord is our Shepherd as to his divine love, 
 and the sheep of his flock are the affections of charity. When love 
 is smitten, the affections of charity, in which that love dwells, are 
 scattered. When in the hour of temptation love to God seems to 
 fail, the affections and perceptions of charity to man have for the 
 time no central power to sustain and unite them, they are scattered 
 abroad, severed at once from the Lord and from each other. Such is 
 the effect of that temptation which the Lord foretold would befall his 
 devoted disciples. 
 
 32. The trial of which the Lord warned his disciples extended over 
 the whole of his subsequent sufferings, including his crucifixion. But 
 he did not leave them without promise and without hope. He directed 
 their minds to his resurrection. But after I am risen again, I will go 
 before you into Galilee. This still is the promise and hope of the 
 Christian disciple. “ If we be dead with Christ, we shall also rise 
 with him.” To die with the Lord is to realize his death in ourselves. 
 The disciples of the Lord died with him when they laid down their 
 carnal views of him and of his kingdom, and they arose with him when 
 they received spiritual views of him and his kingdom. So is it 
 in every renewed heart and mind. But the Lord promised to his 
 disciples that after he was risen he would go before them into Galilee. 
 Smitten by the Jews, he was, as a shepherd, to go before his flock into 
 Galilee, as a sign that his church was transferred to the Gentiles; and, 
 in reference to the Christian disciple, that when the Lord has risen 
 in the heart, he goes before, and leads the principles of goodness and 
 truth out into the affections and perceptions of the natural mind, there 
 to manifest himself ; for when the natural mind is regenerated, the 
 whole man is new. 
 
 33. When the Lord had told his disciples of their coming defection, 
 Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended 
 
612 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXYI. 
 
 because of thee, yet will I never be offended. Self-confidence is the cause, 
 and shows the need of trial. The Lord permits us to be tried, that we 
 may see ourselves as we are, and be humbled by our experience. 
 Before we are tried we cannot believe that our hearts contain evils so 
 great as those of which experience makes us conscious. Peter there- 
 fore only expressed the common conviction of those in this condition 
 of devoted and zealous but untried disciples, when he protested that 
 though all men should be offended, he, at least, would not. 
 
 34. Our Lord repeated his prediction, but now addresses it, not to 
 the disciples generally, but to Peter individually. Verily I say unto 
 thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. 
 The others forsook the Lord. Peter denied him, not once only, but 
 three times. The dawn, when the cock crows, is the commencement 
 of a new state of light and love which follows the night of temptation. 
 Thrice to deny the Lord implies complete denial. In regard to those 
 who are being regenerated, Peter’s sin represents the Christian’s tempta- 
 tion, when, in the dark hour of trial, his faith in the Lord as his 
 Saviour almost fails. But this prediction of our Lord, and Peter’s 
 denial, have reference to the state of the church, and extend beyond 
 the Jewish to the Christian dispensation. Peter represented the 
 principle of faith ; and the night and the morning signified the end of 
 the old church and the beginning of the new. Peter’s denying the 
 Lord in the night represented that at the end of the church faith 
 would utterly fail, even to an entire denial of the Lord as the God of 
 heaven and earth. 
 
 35. If the Lord was more emphatic in his second declaration of 
 Peter’s defection, that apostle was also more positive in his second promise 
 of fidelity. Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I 
 not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples. We know how this 
 promise was fulfilled. Yet Peter and the others were no doubt sincere 
 in making it. Their defection was without premeditation and malice. 
 In this respect their conduct was entirely unlike that of Judas. Their 
 failure was caused not by the strength of bad principles, but by the 
 weakness of good ones. Their love for Jesus was sincere, but it was 
 feeble, because it was as yet more natural than spiritual. They con- 
 fided in their own strength, and the result convinced them of their 
 own weakness. A most necessary and useful lesson does this teach 
 us. To die with Jesus is to die to self and the world — voluntarily 
 to crucify our entire evil nature. Before the sacrifice has been 
 demanded of us we may sincerely think that nothing could induce us 
 to shrink from it when the trial comes. This is not the weakness of 
 
Chap. XXYI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 613 
 
 the Peters of the church only. All the disciples promised to die with 
 the Lord rather than deny him. Yet it was just because they were 
 unprepared to die with him that they forsook him and fled, and that 
 he who had the greatest confidence in himself made the most signal 
 failure. Naturally, it seems almost incredible that all the eleven, after 
 being so distinctly and solemnly warned, should have so completely 
 fulfilled the Lord’s prediction and falsified their own promise. They 
 seem even to have forgotten both promise and warning. It is when 
 truth is in the memory only that it is most readily forgotten. Advers- 
 ity and trial remove it from the mind’s view. Only when it is rooted 
 in the heart can it avail us in the hour of temptation. But in that 
 dark hour, although the truth may vanish from the memory, if the 
 good ground of faith is preserved, the truth will re-appear, and pro- 
 duce its fruits in repentance, when faith of the heart will succeed to 
 faith of the understanding. 
 
 36. We now come to an event in the Lord’s life of the most 
 solemn importance. Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called 
 Gethsemane. Gethsemane is only exceeded by Calvary in awful 
 solemnity and moral grandeur. The Lord’s sufferings in the garden 
 were mental — those on the cross were of the body also. Gethsemane 
 signifies an “oilpress.” No name could be more expressive of the 
 conflict of which it was the scene, and is now the memorial. The 
 olivepress, like the winepress, was the symbol of temptation. No 
 more expressive symbolism is employed in the Word to describe the 
 Lord’s conflict with the powers of darkness, and his victories over 
 them > than that in Isaiah. “ Vfho is this that cometh from Edom, 
 with dyed garments from Bozrah ? this that is glorious in his apparel, 
 travelling in the greatness of his strength 'l I that speak in righ- 
 teousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, 
 and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat ? I have 
 trodden the winepress alone ; and of the people there was none with 
 me : for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my 
 fury ; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I 
 will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine 
 heart, and the year of my redeemed is come” (Isa. lxiii. 1-4). The 
 olivepress only differs in its signification from the winepress in its being 
 expressive of still deeper temptation. For while the vine, in relation 
 to the Lord, signifies his divine truth, the olive signifies his divine 
 love. Those, therefore, who are trodden in the olivepress are the 
 powers of darkness who are more directly opposed to the Divine love, 
 and who cause temptations of the most direful kind. Such was the 
 
614 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXVI. 
 
 character of the temptation which the Lord endured in Gethsemane. 
 Jesus coming to Gethsemane implies his entering into that state in 
 which his love for the human race was to be opposed by the powers 
 of darkness from their deepest hatred to mankind, hell bringing its 
 greatest power to bear upon the Redeemer, to prevent, if possible, th.e 
 completion of his divine work. When the Lord came unto the place, 
 he saith unto the disciples , Sit ye here , while I go and pray yonder. 
 Those who were desired to “ sit here ” were such of the disciples as 
 represented the members of the Church who are not able to enter 
 with the Lord into the interiors of that state to which such a tempta- 
 tion as he was now about to endure is incident. He desired them lo 
 sit where he left them — to remain steadfast in the state to which he 
 had thus far mercifully conducted them. Some are able to go so far 
 with him in his temptations ; while others are able to follow him 
 whithersoever he goeth. But while they patiently wait where they 
 are desired to remain, the Lord is preparing a higher and more 
 interior place for them ; therefore Jesus, when he said to his disciples, 
 “ Sit ye here,” added, “ while I go and pray yonder.” His prayer, 
 like his temptation, had for its end their redemption and salvation. 
 
 37. But while the Lord desired certain of the disciples to remain 
 where he appointed them, he took with him Peter and the two sons 
 of Zebedee. On important occasions the Lord selected these three 
 disciples to be with him. One of these occasions was his transfigu- 
 ration. As they were the chosen witnesses of his transcendent 
 glory, so were they the selected spectators of his deep humiliation. 
 The reason of this selection, we have seen (ch. xvii. 1), had a spiritual 
 ground. Peter, James, and John represented the three great essen- 
 tials of religion — faith, charity, and good works ; and they were 
 chosen to accompany the Lord on great occasions, to teach us repre- 
 sentatively that those who have these essentials of religion enter with 
 the Lord into the heights and depths of his experience ; and that 
 these principles in the individual mind are in more immediate con- 
 nection with the Lord, and are the immediate recipients of his love 
 and truth. In the presence of these three disciples Jesus began to be 
 sorrowful and very heavy. The last and darkest cloud of temptation, 
 which finally descended so low as to darken the earth at the cruci- 
 fixion, began to gather around the Son of man. Hell, that had been 
 moved to meet the Lord at his coming, was now moved to its lowest 
 depths, to prevent, if possible, the completion of the Lord’s redemp- 
 tion and glorification which drew nigh. As the lowest hell is 
 opposed to the highest heaven, as the worst evil is opposed to the 
 
Chap. XXVI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 615 
 
 greatest good, as thg lowest affections of the natural mind are 
 opposed to the highest affections of the spiritual mind, temptation, 
 which consists in a conflict between those opposites, becomes more 
 severe as the perfection of life increases. Lower states are opened, 
 and lower evils are brought into activity, in the natural mind, as 
 higher states are opened and become active in the spiritual ; and as 
 the opposition is greater, the conflict is more severe. As the Lord 
 was truly man, his temptations were of the same nature, and were 
 subject to the same law as those of any other human being. But as 
 humanity in him was infinitely and for ever perfected, whereas in us 
 perfection is finite and progressive to eternity, his trials were infinitely 
 more severe than ours. The severity as well as the nature of this 
 temptation is indicated by the terms in which its effects upon the Lord 
 are described. The expression, “to be sorrowful,” conveys, in the Creek, 
 the idea of horror ; and the word translated, “ to be very heavy,” 
 implies the loss of pleasure derived from other objects. The 
 horror which the Lord felt, like the horror of great darkness that fell 
 upon Abraham (Gen, xv. 12), is expressive of the effect of temptation 
 produced by the interception of divine light, as it descends from 
 the internal into the external of the mind ; while heaviness is ex- 
 pressive of the deprivation of delight, such as men feel in deep 
 sorrow, when the world appears to them a blank, because they have 
 no pleasure therein. What must have been the sorrow and heaviness 
 felt by the Lord, whose “ delight was with the sons of men,” as the 
 objects of his redeeming love ! 
 
 38. The temptation increases. Then saith he unto them , My soul 
 is exceeding sorrowful , even unto death. The nature of the Lord’s 
 temptations may be understood, because in this respect they were like 
 those of men; but their severity is above all human comprehension, 
 for the love from which the Lord contended in his temptations was 
 the love of the whole human race, which love in itself is divine. 
 What must have been the anguish of the Lord when even the sense 
 of death came over him! His was not the fear of bodily death; it 
 was his soul that was exceeding sorrowful. But it may be inquired, 
 How could the Lord’s soul be sorrowful unto death, when his soul 
 was the Divinity itself ? . The soul which was sorrowful was not, 
 however, the soul or life which the Lord derived from the Father, 
 but that which he inherited from the mother ; it was the life of his 
 external, not of his internal man. It was that of which the Lord 
 spake when he said, “ I lay down my life (or soul) for the sheep ” 
 (John x. 15: see ch. x. 39). We know that divinity can neither bo 
 
616 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXVI. 
 
 tempted, nor be sorrowful, nor die. That in the Lord which actually 
 died, the life which he laid down, was the human principle and 
 life which he inherited from the mother, and which was fallen and 
 finite. But the sorrow which he experienced in temptation, like 
 that which the regenerate man endures, did not originate in the 
 maternal, but in the paternal soul — thus, not in the old man, but in 
 the new; not in the body, but in the soul ; not in the external mam 
 but in the internal. The natural man knows no temptation, and 
 therefore no sorrow of soul in resisting evil. The anguish of tempta- 
 tion is caused by the love from which we resist evil being assaulted, 
 and by the fear of losing the object for which we contend. That from 
 which a mere man resists temptation is the love of eternal life, the 
 danger of losing which makes his soul sorrowful, and, in extreme 
 temptation, sorrowful even unto death. But this sorrow does not 
 really invade the soul, but is the sorrow w T hich is of the soul in the 
 body. Whatever is of God, and therefore whatever is truly good, 
 shrinks from evil, as the apple of the eye. The soul does not suffer 
 with the body, but when the body suffers the soul mourns. So with 
 the internal and external man. Evil and temptation do neither of 
 them penetrate into the internal, but the internal is in the external, 
 as the soul is in the body; and the anguish and sorrow which tempta- 
 tion produces are the external feelings that proceed from internal 
 principles. When the Lord’s soul was thus sorrowful in an intensified 
 degree, he said to the three, as he had said to the others, tarry ye here, 
 and, he added, watch with me. Even these, the chosen three, were 
 only able to see a certain amount of his sorrows. The disciples are to 
 be with the Lord in his temptations, but there is a limit in their 
 companionship with him in his tribulations beyond which the best 
 and most perfected of them cannot go. “ Sit here,” and “ tarry ye 
 here,” must ever be the law of progression in following the Lord in 
 the regeneration. But the Lord said to his disciples, “Watch with 
 me.” To watch is to keep the understanding awake to the concerns 
 of eternity, guarding against the dangers that threaten the soul. But 
 there must be something special in watching with the Lord. “Watch 
 with me.” W^atch while I watch ; watch as I watch. The tempta- 
 tions that were then directed against him were directed also against 
 his church; and as she participated in the danger, so ought she 
 in the vigilance required to meet and avert it. But how are the 
 disciples in our time to watch with him? The Lord still watches 
 over us and in us. That his watchful Providence may turn aside the 
 machinations of Satan, we must watch with him in his protecting and 
 
Chap. XXYI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 617 
 
 saving work. We must watch with him, that he may guard us; as well 
 as work with him, that he may bless us. 
 
 39. While the Lord desired his three disciples to tarry where they 
 were, and watch with him, he himself went from them to pray. And 
 he went a little farther , and fell on his face , and prayed , saying , 0 
 my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless 
 not as I will, but as thou wilt. We have already spoken of the Lord’s 
 deep temptation in Gethsemane ; we will here direct our attention to 
 some of the particulars respecting it. He “fell on his face.” Pros- 
 tration is the posture expressive of the deepest humiliation; and 
 humiliation is a sense of our own nothingness and vileness in the 
 presence of the All-perfect One. It is deep humiliation that empties 
 man of himself, that he may be filled with all the fulness of God. In 
 mere man this humiliation and its results are but imperfect in degree 
 at best, and limited in extent. Jesus became perfect man; we can 
 never be more than images of his perfection. His humiliation was as 
 much deeper than ours as his exaltation was greater. The depth of 
 his humiliation is expressed by his falling on his face, for the face 
 signifies the interior of the mind. To fall down in worship expresses 
 humiliation ; to fall on the face, interior humiliation. “And prayed, 
 saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” This 
 cup was, no doubt, naturally the passion of the cross ; but this, the 
 cup of the Lord’s sufferings, was not filled up by the apprehension of 
 natural death, cruel as was its mode of infliction. Natural death was 
 but the cup ; spiritual death was the bitter draught which it contained, 
 and which the Lord had to drain to the last drop. This spiritual 
 death included in it all the evil of human suffering, especially the 
 suffering of temptation ; all the misery which the fall had introduced, 
 and which then existed in the whole spiritual and in the natural 
 world. The ground of all suffering the Lord took upon him, hered- 
 itarily, as the son of Mary; all hell pressed in upon him through 
 that hereditary nature ; all the power of hell he had to contend 
 against ; all in the humanity that formed the ground of infernal 
 assault he had to die to ; all this, in dying, he had to overcome. Such 
 was the cup the Lord had before him when he prayed in the Garden 
 of Gethsemane. Can we be surprised at the tenor of his prayer : “ O 
 my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” He well 
 knew, and had repeatedly told his disciples, that this last trial awaited 
 him. He had looked forward to it and spoken of it with the calm- 
 ness of perfect composure. Can we imagine that its near prospect 
 now appalled him? We may freely admit that there was some 
 
618 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXV I. 
 
 analogy between the Lord’s experience and that of man, in the near 
 prospect of a violent death. The virtuous and innocent look death in 
 the face with serenity. What must have been our Lord’s experience 1 ? 
 The ground of his sorrow and of his serenity was far different from 
 that of man. Human trial and sorrow, under the fear of spiritual 
 death, can alone furnish a true image of our Lord’s. But our Lord’s 
 fear was not for the loss of life to himself, but for the loss of the 
 spiritual and eternal life of the whole human race, — fear lest the final 
 cause of creation might be frustrated. This was the Lord’s fear. It 
 was the fear lest the humanity which he bore might prove too weak 
 for this great trial. As he said to his disciples, so he felt : “ The 
 spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” But the Lord was at 
 this time suffering from temptation. And the climax of every severe 
 temptation is despair — that is, despair of the end or object contended 
 for. In temptation we have to resist self, and yet there is something of 
 self in our resistance. We have to use God’s communicated power as 
 if it were our own, and there is something of our own in using it. 
 Despair is the prostration of this power — the feeling that we have no 
 power to resist, but that the opposing power is about to overwhelm 
 us. This is the horror of great darkness that falls upon the soul, 
 which quenches hope, and leaves us a prey to blank despair. Such 
 was the state through which our Lord passed in Gethsemane, and in 
 the extreme of which he was when he prayed, “ If it be possible, let 
 this cup pass from me.” There was, indeed, a reservation ; his prayer 
 was not absolute, but conditional. He only asked for exemption, if 
 within the range of moral possibility. Had he asked for it absolutely 
 he would have failed absolutely. We see here the weakness of the 
 flesh, but the strength of the spirit. This is still further evinced in 
 the Lord’s words to the Father, “ nevertheless not as I will, but as 
 thou wilt.” We have the human will and the divine. There is a 
 most important consideration here. The will of the humanity shrunk 
 from the last trial, and at the same time submitted itself entirely to 
 the supreme will of the Divinity. But it was not the same element 
 in the will. In the Lord were the human and the divine; but in the 
 human itself there were the flesh and the spirit — the external and the 
 internal. The spirit in itself was willing, but the weakness of the 
 flesh re-acted against the spirit, and for the time overshadowed it ; but 
 stilk the spirit was there, moderating and controlling, distinguishing 
 between the desirable and the possible, between the will of the human 
 and the will of the Divine. Many of our Lord’s sayings have come 
 to be the universal language of Christian wisdom and experience. 
 
Chap. XXVI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 619 
 
 This is one of them, and one of the most expressive, because all who 
 know what spiritual trial is, feel it to be the very language of their 
 state and their duty. “ Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt,” 
 is expressive at once of the weakness of the flesh and the strength of 
 the spirit — of the strong disposition to rebel, but the still stronger 
 desire to submit to the will of him whose will ought to be supreme in 
 all things. 
 
 40. When he had finished this prayer, he cometh unto the disciples , 
 and jindeth them asleep , and saith unto Peter , What , could ye not watch 
 with me one hour ? It is remarkable that both on the occasion of his 
 transfiguration (Luke ix. 32), and on that of his great temptation, his 
 disciples should have fallen asleep. They could not have been 
 indifferent to the grandeur of the one and the solemnity of the other. 
 The sleep was evidently supernatural. It was caused by the Lord’s 
 divine sphere then acting immediately and powerfully upon them, 
 and which, after the Lord’s glorification, caused John to fall down at 
 his feet as dead. While this sleep of the disciples had a supernatural 
 cause, it had a spiritual signification. Sleep, as opposed to wakeful- 
 ness, signifies a natural state of life as opposed to a spiritual state. 
 The disciples being drowsy and asleep while the Lord was in states of 
 wakefulness, implies that they were yet too external to be able to 
 enter into those interior states in which the Lord then was. The 
 Lord desires, indeed, that his disciples should be as their Master, even 
 in his highest and deepest states of experience, and therefore he says 
 unto them, “ Watch with me.” And when he comes unto them 
 and finds them asleep, and administers a gentle reproof, it is to 
 express the desire of his love that they should be in a state of con- 
 scious and active co-operation with him, all whose works are for their 
 salvation. This gentle and affectionate reproof is addressed im- 
 mediately to Peter, implying that when faith is as yet natural, the 
 mind is incapable of that sustained wakefulness and watchfulness 
 which keeps the disciple in the Lord. And furthermore, Jesus asks 
 Peter if he could not watch with him one hour. Time is the symbol 
 of state, and the hour of the Lord’s sufferings was the state itself of 
 his watchfulness, lest he should yield in his awful temptation. 
 
 41. The Lord exhorts the disciples, Watch and pray , that ye enter 
 not into temptation. If the disciple cannot watch with the Lord, 
 he is exhorted to follow him — to watch with the understanding, and 
 pray with the heart — and to do this, that he enter not into temptation. 
 It is the duty of the disciple to watch and pray against being tempted. 
 Temptation is indeed necessary, and therefore unavoidable } but it is 
 
620 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXYI. 
 
 equally necessary for us to have a salutary fear of a state of trial, 
 which is attended with danger, and which is never so dangerous as 
 when we brave or despise it. Let him who thinks he standeth take 
 heed lest he fall. The reason of this danger, and of the necessity of 
 watchfulness and prayer against it, our Lord explains. The spirit 
 indeed is willing , hut the Jlesh is weak. The weakness of the flesh is 
 the ground of danger and of apprehension. The flesh is another and 
 expressive name for the whole natural mind, with all its natural 
 affections and appetites ; and this mind is weak because the natural 
 affections and appetites are of the earth, earthly. The spirit is the 
 spiritual mind, consisting of all the new affections born of the spirit, 
 This in its own nature is willing to do and submit to the Lord’s will, 
 but frail and deceitful nature is ever inclined to yield to the solicita- 
 tions of the world and self. 
 
 42-44. He went away again the second time , and prayed, saying , 0 
 my Father , if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, 
 thy will he done. And he came and found them asleep again : for their 
 eyes were heavy. And he left them, and went away again, and prayed 
 the third time, saying the same words. The Lord, we find, goes away 
 and prays “ the same words ” the second and the third time, returning 
 after each to the disciples again. This iteration of the prayer implies, 
 no doubt, as many distinct trials or temptations ; yet there is more 
 than the fact involved in the number of his conflicts. The number 
 three signifies what is full, and what is progressive to the end of a 
 complete state. These three acts of temptation, like the three tempta- 
 tions in the wilderness, represented the fulness of temptation, and 
 the fulness of perfection resulting from his overcoming the tempter, 
 and also the Lord’s endurance unto the end, by which redemption 
 was accomplished, and his humanity fully glorified. There is another 
 truth represented in this. The kingdom of darkness, which the Lord 
 overcame in temptation, is a triple kingdom. Hell descends, as heaven 
 ascends, by three distinct degrees. The Lord overcame the whole 
 kingdom of darkness, but he did so progressively by three distinct 
 series of temptations. These were his three temptations. And as 
 he thus successively overcame hell, he successively opened heaven. 
 While, therefore, the Lord went away three times into the depth of 
 the garden to pray, he returned three times to the disciples, who 
 represented the church and heaven ; for as far as the Lord shuts hell, 
 he opens heaven. And so does he in each of us. As he by regenera- 
 tion overcomes the evil in the outer man, who is an image of hell, 
 so he opens the inner man, who is an image of heaven. 
 
Chap. XXVI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 621 
 
 45. When the Lord had prayed for the third time, Then cometh he 
 to his disciples , and saith unto them , Sleep on now, and take your rest. 
 In Luke (xxii. 46) this is expressed interrogatively, “Why sleep ye 1 ?” 
 and some are of opinion that this is its meaning here. As the evan- 
 gelists wrote by Divine inspiration for different states of the church 
 and of men, and for different steps of the regenerate life, such 
 differences, if they exist, do not involve any internal discordance. 
 Our Lord says, behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is 
 betrayed into the hands of sinners. The betrayal of the Son of man 
 into the hands of sinners was a sign of the profanation of the Lord’s 
 divine truth by the Jewish church. The Lord calls himself the Son 
 of man when he is treated of as the Truth or the Word. The Jews 
 treated him as they had treated his Word. The hour which was at 
 hand was the hour, the state, of the church’s consummation, when it 
 was about to fill up the measure of its iniquity — when hypocrisy was 
 the instrument of violence. 
 
 46. The Lord now says to his disciples, Rise, let us be going. Their 
 sleep represented an external and obscure state ; so now he bids them 
 rise, which always expresses spiritual elevation — rising out of sin and 
 darkness. The present is like the exhortation of the apostle : “ Awake, 
 thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, aud Christ shall give thee 
 life.” Rising signifies especially elevation of the affections of the 
 heart; not elevation of feeling, but elevation from a lower into a 
 higher state of goodness. Hence the Lord further says, “ Let us be 
 going;” for to go is spiritually to live, and, in this instance, to live a 
 life of goodness — to act from that state of the love of goodness into 
 which the disciples had risen. How necessary is this exhortation 
 when danger is near, as it was when our Lord added, behold, he is at 
 hand that doth betray me. The betrayer is in the corrupt heart of 
 each of us : how necessary is it, then, that the good and the faith that 
 the Lord has implanted in our minds should rise out of sleep, and go 
 forth into action, to form a countervailing force against the debased 
 selfhood in the hour of trial. 
 
 47. And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and 
 with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief 
 priests and elders of the people. Judas is here introduced as one of the 
 twelve. The twelve apostles represented the church, and, abstractly, 
 all the principles that constitute the church in man. Collectively, 
 they thus represented the Lord’s mystical body, which in some 
 measure and degree they formed. But the Lord’s mystical body is 
 an image of his own body. The Lord’s temptations and sufferings 
 
622 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXVI. 
 
 had also their analogies, or images, in those of his disciples. In the 
 Lord’s humanity there was that which in prophecy is called the 
 “ heel ” — the lowest and most vulnerable part, which the serpent was 
 to bruise. Judas, as one of the twelve, was the heel which Satan was 
 to bruise among the disciples and in the infant church. Judas 
 represented the corporeal principle in man and in the Lord’s mystical 
 body ; and the heel , which the serpent bruised, represented the same 
 principle in the Lord’s own body. This was the reason that Judas 
 was chosen an apostle, and why he betrayed the Lord. The bruising 
 of the Lord’s heel, or the corporeal principle of his humanity, was the 
 extreme of his temptations, and had its cause in the perverted state of 
 the corporeal principle of fallen human nature. Therefore Judas, who 
 represented that principle, committed the crime of betraying the 
 Lord. It is through the corporeal principle in us that the Lord is 
 still betrayed, or that we are tempted to betray him. It is therefore 
 written in Psalm xli., “Yea, mine own familiar^ friend, in whom I 
 trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.” 
 But w r e have also said that Judas represented the Jewish church, 
 because the church had become corporeal or carnal ; and indeed the 
 corporeal in the Jewish church, in the infant Christian church, and in 
 individual man, and in the Lord himself, was simultaneously acted 
 upon when redemption was being effected. The great multitude with 
 swords and staves who came with Judas from the chief priests and 
 elders of the people, represented the numerous affections and thoughts 
 that originated in the ruling principles — the loves of self and the 
 world — which the chief priests and elders represented ; the swords and 
 staves signifying the falsities and evils w T hich were used as instruments 
 of offence against him who was truth and goodness itself. 
 
 48, 49. Judas, in acting the part of a treacherous enemy, assumed the 
 character of a loving friend. Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign , 
 saying , Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast. And 
 forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master ; and kissed him. 
 Kissing signifies conjunction by love. Hence it is said in Psalm 
 ii., “ Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the w’ay.” 
 That of Judas was a treacherous kiss, a feigned affection. The kiss of 
 J udas has come to be an expression for the greatest of all hypocrisies — 
 the betrayal of innocence by simulated love. It is Satan as an angel 
 of light seeking to compass hellish ends by heavenly means. His kiss 
 was to be a sign to those who accompanied him. This was indeed a 
 sign that all virtue was consummated — that falsehood imprinted its 
 deceitful and polluted kiss upon the lips of truth, that death might 
 
Chap. XX Y L] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 •623 
 
 seal them for ever in silence. Such was the object of those who were 
 concerned intentionally in this diabolical plot to destroy him who was 
 truly, as he had declared himself, the light of the world, to quench 
 that light lest their deeds should be reproved. The kiss of Judas was 
 indeed a sign of the seeming veneration for the Divine name, and rev- 
 erence for his Word, that prevailed in the Jewish church, but under 
 which there was the most malignant hatred of the Divine will and the 
 principles of eternal truth. It was a sign of the ceremonial homage 
 the priesthood paid to the letter of the law while they violated its 
 spirit, leading the people by that very simulation to violate the law, 
 as the multitude laid hands upon Jesus. 
 
 50. When Judas had kissed him, Jesus said unto him, Friend, 
 wherefore art thou come ? There are two different words which our 
 translators have rendered friend — one implying affection and regard, 
 the other not. One is properly rendered friend, the other expresses 
 more nearly what we mean by companion. It is this less endearing 
 word which is given to J udas in this place. A friend, spiritually, is one 
 who is in the good of charity and in the truth of faith; a companion 
 is one who is in the truth of faith, but not in the good of charity. “Ye 
 are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.” Judas and those 
 whom he represents are so far in the truths of faith as to know the 
 Lord, but they use their knowledge to betray him. It is only those 
 who know him that can act so directly and cruelly against him. But 
 Jesus demanded of Judas, “Wherefore art thou come 1 ?” This 
 searching question, which should lead us to reflect on the motives of 
 our acts, does not seem to have received any answer but this, Then 
 came they , and laid hands on Jesus , and took him. The Jews had often 
 attempted to lay hands on Jesus and take him. It was only now that 
 they succeeded, and in this instance, it would seem, only through the 
 treachery of one of his own disciples. It is not by hatred, but by 
 simulated love — not by opposition, but by treachery — that the Son of 
 man is delivered into the hands of sinners, to be mocked, and 
 scourged, and crucified. This was the first act of that crime which 
 the Jews had long meditated, and were now about to complete, in the 
 death of Jesus. 
 
 51. When the disciples saw what was done, one of them which 
 were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and 
 struck a servant of the high priest's, and smote off his ear. This 
 one was Peter (John xviii. 10). It might seem that the apostle 
 who represented the grace of faith was here acting the part of one of 
 the faithful, and used the sword of truth in defence of the Truth itself. 
 
624 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXVI. 
 
 But here Peter practically showed his offence at the cross of Christ. 
 His sword was employee to defeat the permitted means of his Master’s 
 glorification. And the sword of truth used falsely is turned into what 
 is false. Peter did not indeed intend evil, but he acted from intemperate 
 zeal undirected by knowledge; and such zeal, however well-intentioned, 
 is often evil in its results. Such was Peter’s. Jesus submitted to the 
 high priest’s authority, and his disciples should not with carnal 
 weapons have opposed that of his servant. To show that he did not 
 wish to be defended by such weapons, the Lord healed the servant 
 whose ear Peter had cut off (Luke xxii. 51). But the cutting off of 
 Malchus’ ear has a spiritual meaning. The ear is a symbol of per- 
 ception, and of hearkening and obedience, the right ear signifying the 
 perception of truth from goodness. When the high priest was con- 
 secrated, the blood of the sacrifice was put upon his right ear (Exod. 
 xxix. 20), as a sign that the perceptive faculty should be consecrated 
 to the hearing and obeying of the Word of God. The cutting off the 
 ear of the high priest’s servant was a sign that in these last days of 
 the church the perceptive faculty was destroyed, and with it all 
 spiritual hearing and obedience. The prophet Ezekiel, treating of the 
 corrupt church under the figure of a lewd woman, says to her of her 
 lovers, “they shall take away thy nose and thine ears” (ch. xxiii. 25), 
 meaning that her impure loves would deprive her of the perception of 
 goodness and truth. 
 
 52. Then said Jesus unto him , Put up again thy sword into his place. 
 The place of the sword is its scabbard ; and a scabbard, like a quiver, 
 signifies doctrine, where truth should be put up when it has been 
 used in opposing the purpose of divine mercy, for there it is in safety, 
 and thence only should it be drawn forth to fight against the enemies 
 of our own hearts. This, it would seem, was the first and the last 
 time that the sword was employed by the immediate disciples of the 
 Lord in the cause of the gospel ; and, as in every other subsequent 
 instance, it was used against the will of its divine Author. In all 
 cases where faith draws the sword to defend the cause of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, his command is, “Put up thy sword into his place.” 
 And this duty is enforced by a reason which ought to be a warning. 
 For all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Christianity 
 perishes by the carnal sword that is used in its cause. But, spiritually, 
 all who, by a false application of truth, obstruct the progress of regen- 
 eration by refusing to submit to the trials which lead to it, which is to 
 refuse life by refusing the conditions on w’hich its allotment depends, 
 shall perish. 
 
Ciiap. XXVI. 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 625 
 
 53. Had the Lord seen good to defeat the object of his enemies, he 
 could have overwhelmed them by a display of his own divine power. 
 Thinkest thou, he said in rebuking Peter, that I cannot now 'pray to my 
 Father , and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of 
 angels 1 Twelve legions means the whole angelic host ; more than 
 this is omnipotence. The Lord speaks of obtaining this power by 
 praying to his Father. The divinity within him was the Father ; 
 and had his divine power been exerted against his enemies, they 
 would have been consumed like stubble. 
 
 54. But how then , as our Lord continues, shall the scriptures he ful- 
 filled, that thus it must he ? Peter knew not yet of this great mystery. 
 But our Lord, in addressing these words to that zealous disciple, 
 speaks to his disciples in all future ages who, in similar circumstances, 
 act from zeal without knowledge. The disciples remained, even after 
 the Lord’s crucifixion, in ignorance of what the Word taught on the 
 subject ; and one of his first acts after his resurrection was to teach 
 them that “ it behoved Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into 
 his glory and to expound to them “ in all the scriptures the 
 things concerning himself” (Luke xxiv. 26). Such, no doubt, will 
 ever be the disciples’ experience. The Scripture abundantly teaches 
 us that the way to glory is through suffering ; but our human nature 
 desires to have the end without this painful means. “ But how then 
 shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be ? ” 
 
 55. From calmly commanding and reasoning with his disciple on 
 the subject of his death, the Lord turns with equal calmness to the 
 multitude, and says to them, Are ye come out as against a thief with 
 swords and staves for to take me ? I sat daily vnth you teaching in 
 the temple, and ye laid no hold on me. They treated as a thief or a 
 robber him who had come to restore that which he took not away 
 (Ps. lxix. 4). They laid no hold on him in the temple, but sent to 
 seize him in the garden. The temple was the seat of his power, and 
 Gethsemane was the place of theirs. By the mere show of his power 
 he had expelled the whole throng of sacrilegious traders from his 
 Father’s house. He who spake as never man spake, when he taught 
 in the temple, must have unnerved and disarmed his enemies. The 
 temple was the consecrated symbol of his humanity ; and, considered 
 in relation to the world without, was the type of his humanity, where 
 his divinity more immediately dwelt. On the other hand, the wilder- 
 nerness and Gethsemane represented his humanity as to its exterior 
 part, where infirmity resided and where temptation had place. In 
 Luke’s account of this event the Lord adds, “ This is your hour, and 
 
 2 s 
 
626 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXYI. 
 
 the power of darkness.” And Gethsemane was the place, as the night 
 was the hour ; for both the time and the place were the suitable 
 representatives of the state in which the powers of the world and of 
 hell had the temporary ascendency which the end required, and which 
 the Lord therefore permitted. 
 
 56. But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be 
 fulfilled. Of course, the prophecies were made for the event, not the 
 event for the prophecies. In the Lord’s case every prophecy was 
 accomplished, every promise was performed. In a more comprehen- 
 sive view, all that took place in the Lord’s history, as the means of 
 his glorification, was written in the Word in its inmost sense ; and 
 all that takes place in the regeneration of man is written in the 
 Word in its spiritual sense. Even the temptations of the Lord are 
 described most minutely there ; so that all which the Jews did to 
 secure his death, partially revealed in the letter, is fully unfolded in 
 the spirit. The fact of the disciples forsaking him in his hour of 
 trial had been predicted in the prophets ; for Zechariah (xiii. 7) had 
 written, as our Lord had already declared, “ I will smite the shep- 
 herd, and the sheep shall be scattered abroad.” The Jews were 
 against him. Then all the disciples forsook him , and fed. Spiritually, 
 good and truth in the Lord and his Word received no support from 
 the goods and truths of the church. Not that the church can add 
 anything to the Lord’s power, for the church derives all her power 
 from him. When temptation is extreme, the internal and the 
 external appear to be separated, as the Lord and his disciples were in 
 his last and severest trial. This separation has place both as to 
 will and understanding, or as to goodness and truth, as it is said of 
 the disciples that they forsook him, and fled. 
 
 57. And they that had laid hold on Jesus led him away to Caiaphas 
 the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled. He 
 who was the supreme good and truth was brought to be judged by 
 the deepest evil and falsity. The Sanhedrim, or supreme council of 
 the Jewish church, represented the ruling evils and falsities by which 
 the Lord as the Divine truth was opposed, and they represented these 
 principles as they existed in the church. The Lord’s being led away 
 to Caiaphas and the scribes and elders, is spiritually descriptive of the 
 Lord’s divine truth being brought under the power and dominion of 
 the evil and false principles that ruled in the church, by which the 
 whole Word was perverted and profaned. 
 
 58. Although, when the Lord was rudely seized by the multitude, 
 the disciples had forsaken him and fled, yet, when he was led away, Peter 
 
Chap. XXVI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 627 
 
 followed him afar off, indicating that the young church, though too 
 unstable to adhere to the Lord in his trial, was yet remotely con- 
 nected with him by faith ; and so, in the interior sense, is the external 
 with the internal in states of temptation. Peter even went unto 
 the high priest's palace, and went in, and sat with the servants, to see the 
 end. The servant of Jesus and the servants of the high priest are 
 seated together, the concealed friend with the open enemies. So 
 strikingly is exemplified the character of the disciples, and the 
 nature of the principles they represented. Truth and falsity are 
 together in the external church and in the external man, but they 
 are there not openly as opposites, but seemingly as associates. Peter 
 only desires to see the end. His is the faith that looks forward to 
 the end, but shrinks from the trial that leads to it. The trial now 
 commences. 
 
 59. Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false 
 witness against J esus, to put him to death. To bear false witness, in 
 the spiritual sense, is to declare, and try to persuade others, that what is 
 false is true, and what is true is false ; and also, that what is good is evil, 
 and what is evil is good; and, in the highest sense, to blaspheme the 
 Lord and his Word. The object of the council in seeking false witness 
 against Jesus was to put him to death. And as all that the Jewish 
 rulers and people did to the Lord represented how the church had 
 come to treat the Word, their long-cherished purpose, now sought to 
 be effected, of putting him to death, represented that last act of a 
 corrupt church — the falsification of truth, and the consequent blas- 
 pheming of the Lord and his Word. 
 
 60, 61. But although they sought false witness against Jesus, they 
 found none : yea , though many false witnesses came, yet found they 
 none. At the last came two false witnesses, and said, This fellow said, 
 I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days. 
 It was a law of Moses that, “ At the mouth of two witnesses, or three 
 witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death ; but at 
 the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death” (Dent. xvii. 6). 
 This law was enacted to teach us that no one is condemned to 
 spiritual death for evil in one faculty only — in the will, or the under- 
 standing, or in the life — but that two or three of these must unite 
 their testimony against any one to make him worthy of death. The 
 two witnesses required are the will and the understanding, or evil and 
 falsity. As the union of good and truth makes heaven, the union of 
 their opposites makes hell. It was not possible to procure more than 
 two false witnesses against the Lord. They accused him of saying, 
 
628 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXYI. 
 
 “ I am able to destroy the temple.” In this they accused him falsely, 
 his words being, “ Destroy (you) this temple, and in three days I will 
 raise it up.” Their testimony was a perversion of his words, and 
 represented falsification of his divine truth. Falsification of truth 
 consists in putting a false construction on the declarations of the 
 Word, so, as to make them teach error instead of truth. 
 
 62. The high priest considered this accusation a sufficient charge 
 against Jesus.- And the high 'priest arose , and said unto him , Answer est 
 thou nothing ? what is it which these witness against thee ? It may be 
 assumed that the high priest had waited a sufficient time to allow 
 Jesus to speak, and at last demanded of him why he did not answer 
 the accusation. The council had. procured the false witnesses, and 
 yeVtbe high priest appeals to Jesus, as if he wished to give him an 
 opportunity of vindicating himself. So those who in their own hearts 
 have negatived the truth, even after they have made a foregone conclusion 
 against it, profess to be willing to allow the Word to speak for itself. 
 
 63, 64. But Jesus heldjiis peace. W T hy was this ? It may seem as if 
 the Lord encouraged the lie by saying nothing against it. Thirf could 
 not be. his intention. We may presume that he held his peace 
 because he knew that his assertion would go for nothing. But there 
 is a deeper reason for his silence than this. The Lord, as the incar- 
 nate Word, did as his written Word does. The Word does not 
 answer idle and insincere questions. It does not vindicate its own 
 'truth to those who have determined that its testimony shall not 
 produce conviction. Even in respect to these, the letter of the Word 
 is a sword that turns every way, to guard the way of the tree of life. 
 Truths that could not be perverted would be blasphemed, and would 
 increase men’s condemnation. Therefore the Word, in certain appeals 
 to it, is^ilent. To sinister interrogations it gives no answer. There- 
 fcrre it was that the Word made flesh was dumb before his unjust 
 judges and false accusers. “ He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet 
 he opened not his mouth : he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, 
 and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth ” 
 (Isa. liii. 7). But even to the appeal of the high priest Jesus made no 
 answer. “ Jesus held his peace.” And the high priest answered and said 
 unto him , I adjure thee by the living God , that thou tell us whether 
 thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him , Thou hast said. 
 Why did the Lord now answer this question % It was because he was 
 not now asked to admit or deny a false accusation, but to admit or deny 
 a great truth — to confess whether he was the Christ or no. The Word, 
 too, declares its own eternal and immutable truth, and the divinity of 
 
Chap. XXV I.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 629 
 
 its origin, as Jesus acknowledged himself to be the Christ, the Son of 
 God. But the Lord added, Nevertheless I say unto you , Hereafter 
 shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power , and coming 
 in the clouds of heaven. “Nevertheless ” should rather be “ moreover, 
 besides.” “ Not only do I confess myself the Christ, but I tell you that 
 the day is coming when you yourself will be compelled to confess it 
 also, when he who now appears before you in human weakness will be 
 revealed to you in divine power.” The event to which our Lord here 
 refers in the general sense is his second coming ; and at hre second 
 advent, it is said, “every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced 
 him.” This advent of the Lord was a coming to judgment, not, indeed, 
 in the natural, but in the spiritual world, at the end of the church ; and 
 when he would be manifested to the evil and the good. Regarded as a 
 universal truth Addressed to the high priest, and through him to all 
 who belong to the church, these words of our Lord have an important 
 meaning. We have already explained this* imagery as it occurs 
 in* chap, xxiv., where it is shown that the Lord’s coming in the 
 clouds signifies a revealing of himself in his Word, even in the very 
 letter. There are two additional particulars which our Lord here 
 introduces. His sitting at the right hand of power means that his 
 humanity was about to be made divine, and thus become omnipotent 
 for the salvation of men * and his coming in the c|b«ds of heaven 
 means that he was about to open his Divine Word, $frd give men a 
 clearer revelation of himself as their Saviour. The point here emphatic 
 is, that even the evil would see him thus exalted and revealed. By 
 this is meant that after his coming they should manifestly see the pre- 
 dictions concerning him in the prophetical parts of the Word which 
 they had not seen before ; and that they should see them still more 
 manifestly at the time of his second coming, when the spiritual sense of 
 the Word should be revealed. 
 
 65. "When the Lord had made this acknowledgment and declaration, 
 the high priest rent his clothes , saying , He hath spoken blasphemy ; what 
 further need have we of witnesses ? behold, now ye have heard his 
 blasphemy. Bending the clothes signifies mourning on account of the 
 destruction of truth ; the high priest therefore rending his clothes, and 
 saying that the Lord blasphemed because he confessed he was the 
 Christ, the Son of God, signified that he believed no otherwise than 
 that the Lord spake against the Word, and thus against truth divine. 
 The conduct of the high priest shows that those who in heart deny the 
 divinity of the Lord and of his Word find a confirmation of their 
 denial in the testimony of the Word itself. 
 
630 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXYI. 
 
 66. The high priest then appealed to the council for their judgment. 
 What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death. This 
 is like the will appealing to the understanding, not for counsel but for 
 confirmation. This act of the Jewish Sanhedrim was the intellectual 
 consummation of the deed which they had long meditated, and used every 
 means to effect. In that judgment was involved the denial of all that 
 is divine in the Word, and the consequent consummation of the church 
 amongst them. It was they who were guilty of blasphemy ; and this 
 crime is* still further manifest in their dreadful treatment of the Lord 
 after they had pronounced this iniquitous sentence. 
 
 67. Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others 
 smote him with the palms of their hands. By this was represented and 
 signified that the Jewish nation was merely external, for all things 
 mentioned in the Word relating to the Lord’s passion represent and 
 signify arcana of heaven and of the church, and specifically of what 
 quality the Jews were in relation to the Word, to the church, and to 
 worship. The Jews showed great moral depravity in opposing them- 
 selves to one who uttered such wisdom and performed such beneficent 
 works as Jesus did ; but when the highest amongst them offered such 
 indignities as these to a pure and holy being, what must have been 
 their blindness and hardness of heart ! Such deeds are true symbols 
 of the spiritual evils which their acts represented. For by spitting in 
 his face is signified the deepest contempt for, and opposition to, his 
 divine truth ; and by buffeting him is signified the deepest hatred of, 
 and opposition to, his divine goodness ; while their striking him with 
 their hands and with rods signifies still further and fuller violation 
 and rejection of his love and truth. The three acts of violence offered 
 to the Lord express the entire rejection of him and of his Word from 
 the will, the understanding, and the life. 
 
 68. Those who struck him demanded of him, saying, Prophesy 
 unto us, thou Christ, Who is he that smote thee? Luke (xxii. 64) records 
 that they had blindfolded him, which is, indeed, necessary to be un- 
 derstood to see the force of the demand to prophesy or tell who smote 
 him. Alas ! how many besides the Jews have committed this cruel 
 mockery ! Mockers and unbelievers, like the J ews, first put out the 
 eyes of the truth, and then demand of it to prophesy who smote it. 
 The demand, in these instances, is made in the belief that it cannot 
 be complied with. And in this case, too, the Lord permits the 
 wicked to remain in the conviction that they have demanded an im- 
 possible act. Jesus knew, but did not prophesy, who smote him. He 
 held his peace. They remained in their infidelity. Had he spoken, 
 
Chap. XXVI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 631 
 
 lie would only have added to their condemnation. So does the Lord 
 through his Word. He refuses to prophesy when men have closed their 
 ears against the truth. 
 
 69-74. From the trial of Jesus before the Jewish council, the evan- 
 gelist turns to the trial of Peter’s faith. Now Peter sat without in the 
 'palace : and a damsel came unto him , saying, Thou also wast with Jesus of 
 Galilee. But he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest. 
 A nd when he was gone out into the porch, another maid saw him, and said 
 unto them that were there, This fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth. 
 And again he denied with an oath, I do not know the man. And after 
 a while came unto him they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou 
 also art one of them; for thy speech bewray eth thee. Then began he to 
 curse and to svjear, saying, I know not the man. The apostle had 
 witnessed the trial, listened to the false witnesses, heard the judg- 
 ment, and beheld the indignities heaped upon his innocent and 
 beneficent Master. He could not have remained unmoved. It is 
 only surprising that his impetuous temper and generous nature 
 did not break forth in some passionate demonstration in favour 
 of his beloved Lord. But ready as he had been to defend his 
 Master with his sword, he was now as ready to deny him with his 
 tongue. How striking and instructive is the contrast between the 
 disciple and his Lord ! Jesus, forsaken by those whom he called his 
 friends, and unjustly condemned and cruelly treated by his enemies, 
 betrays no sign either of fear or resentment ; while Peter, with his 
 Master’s exalted example before him, shrinks from the slightest glance 
 of recognition, terrified at the thought of being known as one of his 
 disciples. But while we make these reflections for the purpose of 
 learning of the Lord as our example, we must not, in judging of 
 Peter’s conduct, overlook the fact that this was their hour, and the 
 power of darkness (Luke xxii. 53). That the power of the world and 
 of hell, acting upon Jesus in every possible way, did not move him 
 from his sublime integrity, is only to be accounted for on the principle 
 that in him humanity was exhibited in its highest moral perfection. 
 These events have, however, a spiritual signification. Peter’s confident 
 perjury is a symbol of the character of faith when it is alone, even 
 with the example of the Lord before the eyes of the believer. Peter’s 
 conduct represents the character of faith at the end of the church. In 
 this application, his thrice denying the Lord represented the prac- 
 tical and plenary denial which lies concealed in faith alone, which is 
 the last form that religion assumes in a declining or expiring church. 
 The cock-crowing is the end of the old church and the beginning of 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 632 
 
 [Chap. XXYI. 
 
 the new, when men are restored to faith by repentance, and turn to 
 the Lord with a pure heart. 
 
 But this subject has relation to ourselves while the church is being 
 formed in us. The facts relating to Peter describe the crisis in our 
 spiritual life, when the old man and his natural faith die, and the new 
 man and his spiritual faith begin truly to live. In the three different 
 yet similar circumstances we see the trial of faith in the will, the 
 understanding, and the life. In the first instance, Peter is found sitting 
 in the palace of the high priest; but in the second he is found standing 
 in the porch. These describe states of the will and of the understanding. 
 Considered in relation to a house, a palace is emblematical of the un- 
 derstanding; but considered in relation to a porch, it is emblematical 
 of the will. The will is as a palace, where the ruling love, like 
 the high priest, has its residence ; but the understanding is a porch 
 which leads into it. The will is within ; the understanding is without. 
 Again, sitting is expressive of a state of the will ; while standing is 
 expressive of a state of the understanding. Peter being accused, first 
 in the palace and then in the porch, implies temptation, first in the 
 will and then in the understanding. He was accused by damsels, who 
 represent affections, the first damsel denoting an affection of the 
 will, and the second an affection of the understanding ; and Peter’s 
 being accused by them, signifies that the temptations which those of 
 Peter represented originated in such affections in the mind itself. 
 But a third accusation was preferred against Peter by the persons 
 generally around him, “ they that stood by,” and these represented 
 all the affections and thoughts of the natural mind ; and their accusa- 
 tion is expressive of temptation that has reference to the outward life. 
 In the first of these instances, too, the Lord is called Jesus of Galilee; 
 and in the second, Jesus of Nazareth. Galilee is a province, Nazareth 
 is a city — pointing again to the Lord’s love in the will, and his truth 
 in the understanding. J esus is not named in the third instance, but 
 Peter is simply accused of being one of them — one of those who 
 formed the brotherhood of which Jesus was the head ; or what these 
 men would regard as a band of religious agitators and disturbers of 
 the peace. This, too, is expressive of that general and more indis- 
 criminate assemblage of thoughts and feelings that pertain to the 
 natural mind and to the outward life. Peter’s denial becomes more 
 vehement as the accusation proceeds. First he simply denies; then he 
 denies with an oath; and at length he curses and swears. Simple 
 denial belongs to the will, with which everything is yea and nay; the 
 understanding confirms with an oath, for an oath signifies confirma- 
 
Chap. XXVI.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 G33 
 
 tion ; but denial with cursing and swearing is not of reason, but of 
 passion. It does not follow that the Christian disciple, like Peter, 
 gives way in temptation so far as to be guilty of actually denying the 
 Lord, or his good and truth. Peter’s sin, like the sins of other Scrip- 
 ture characters, represented the sins to which the Christian disciple is 
 tempted. In his fall we are admitted to a view of our own tendency 
 to fall, and are taught how impossible it would be for us to stand, 
 were it not that the Lord was tempted in order to aid us in tempta- 
 tion. Peter’s temptations were comparatively external, because he 
 was as yet a comparatively external man. His was as yet chiefly a 
 personal attachment and devotion to the Lord ; he loved him as the 
 restorer of the temporal kingdom to Israel, and the Lord’s apprehen- 
 sion threatened the entire overthrow of this object of hope and 
 ambition. The Christian disciple shares, indeed, in Peter’s natural 
 views and desires, but they are directed to a spiritual and eternal 
 kingdom ; and therefore eternal life and glory are the objects of his 
 aspirations and of his temptation-conflicts. When Peter had uttered 
 for the third time his denial of the Lord, immediately the cock crew. 
 
 75. The words of the Saviour rushed into his mind and pierced his 
 heart. A nd Peter remembered the word of Jesus , which said unto him , 
 Before the cock crow , thou shalt deny me thrice. And he ivent out , and 
 wept bitterly. This touching incident reveals something truly child- 
 like in the character of this strong-minded apostle. The sudden 
 recollection, the poignant remorse, the passionate contrition, and, 
 indeed, his previous forgetfulness and denial, are much more like those 
 of a child than of a man. During the long and sad hours he waited in 
 the palace, both his memory and his conscience seem to have been 
 asleep; and not until startled by the cock’s shrill clarion does he 
 seem to have had any distinct impression of his sinfulness. This is 
 accountable only on the principle that both he and the new church, 
 of which he was the first-fruits, were then in the infancy of their spirit- 
 ual life. As representative of the states of the church, it is equally 
 striking and instructive. The crowing of the cock was the announce- 
 ment that the night was past, and that the day had dawned. The 
 oblivion of the truth in Peter’s mind was the moral darkness which 
 had closed upon the church, and his returning consciousness was the 
 effect of a new light that broke in upon his soul. And in the life of 
 the Christian disciple analogous states are experienced. When the 
 night of temptation spreads its pall over the soul, so that no ray of 
 light can enter to guide and cheer the mind, prophecy, and promise, 
 and hope fail, and extremity induces despair. But the ending of 
 
G34 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXVII. 
 
 the night is the dawning of the day. The influence of the morning is 
 felt even before light is visible, and produces convictions and change 
 in correspondence with itself. When Peter remembered the words of 
 the Lord, “ he went out, and wept bitterly.” He went out from the 
 palace of the high priest — from the scene and state of his temptation, 
 which is a state of constraint, into a state of liberty. He wept 
 bitterly. Bitter are the tears of repentance for presumptuous sins. 
 Weeping, as distinguished from shedding tears, we have had occasion 
 to remark, signifies the deepest degree of sorrow for sin — that which 
 flows at once from the heart and the understanding, which expresses 
 at once a sense of the natural contrariety of our hearts to the Lord’s 
 love, and of our understandings to his truth. When the soul not only 
 weeps, but weeps bitterly, it is a sign that a deep ground of evil has 
 taken away all the delights of life. But the more bitter the tears of 
 repentance, the sweeter the delight of the regenerated life, and the 
 more settled the peace that succeeds conflict. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 1. The day whose dawn brought repentance to Peter found the 
 J ewish rulers impenitent and unbelieving, and still plotting how they 
 might become murderers of the Just One. When the morning was 
 come , , all the chief 'priests and elders of the people took counsel against 
 Jesus to put him to death. The chief priests are evils of the will, and 
 the elders of the people are evils of the understanding; and their 
 taking counsel together is their combining to procure the destruction 
 of heavenly goodness in the person of J esus. 
 
 2. A nd when they had hound him , they led him away , and delivered 
 him to Pontius Pilate the governor. We bind Jesus when our evil affec- 
 tions restrain and control the Word; and this is the case when we 
 subject it to the dominion of our own will and wisdom. When the 
 Jews had bound Jesus, they led him away, and delivered him to 
 Pilate the governor. A Roman and Gentile, Pilate represented 
 natural reason, or the natural understanding. Hence we find that 
 Pilate, though he manifests some better traits of character than the 
 Jews, yet lends himself as an instrument to carry out their wicked 
 designs against Jesus. 
 
 The Sanhedrim had already declared Jesus to be worthy of death, 
 but as the Jews had not at this time the power of life and death, the 
 priesthood had to contrive how they might induce the Roman gov- 
 
Chap. XXVII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 635 
 
 ernor to condemn him. Hence their leading him away to Pilate. Their 
 binding Jesus was an expressive act, the meaning and form of which 
 may be learned from the Lord’s words to Peter after his resurrection : 
 “ When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither 
 thou wouldest : but when thou slialt be old, thou slialt stretch forth 
 thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou 
 wouldest not” (John xxi. 18). Although this was spoken naturally 
 of Peter’s death, yet it spiritually describes the condition of faith at 
 the end of the church. In its youth faith was free ; in its old age it 
 is bound, — the understanding is reduced to obedience, and led whither 
 the church will. The binding of Jesus represented the binding of 
 the Word itself, so as to bring it into subjection to the will of 
 man. 
 
 3. The evangelist here introduces the sequel of the history of 
 Judas. Then Judas , which had betrayed him , when he saw that he 
 w>as condemned , repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of 
 silver to the chief priests and elders. The history of Judas forms a con- 
 trast to that of Peter. Both sinned, and both repented. But how 
 different the nature and results of their repentance ! The one was 
 humbled, and became a new man ; the other died by his own hand. 
 But Judas and Peter stand in contrast to each other in their repre- 
 sentative characters as well as in their personal history. Judas 
 represented the Jewish church ; Peter represented the Christian 
 church. The repentance of Judas represented the repentance which 
 needs to be repented of (2 Cor. vii. 10). His was the conversion 
 against which the Lord hardens the heart and blinds the understand- 
 ing — the conversion which is followed by profanation, which brings 
 upon the soul the greater condemnation. The restitution and con- 
 fession which Judas makes is a revelation, rather than a change, of 
 state. The returning of the thirty pieces of silver is the rendering 
 back to the Jewish church the truth which had been profaned by being 
 employed for so evil a purpose. Knowledge of truth, like money, 
 which is one of its symbols, is in itself the same whether possessed 
 by the good or the evil, or employed for good or evil purposes. 
 When a church comes to an end, or an individual is judged, the 
 knowledge of truth is taken away from them, according to the law, 
 “ he that hath not, from him shall be taken away even that which he 
 seemeth to have.” 
 
 4. But Judas confessed, saying, I have sinned in that I have be- 
 trayed the innocent blood. This represents the laying open of the 
 state of the church, and her own mouth condemning her of having 
 
636 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXVII. 
 
 violated and profaned the Word, and so betrayed the Lord. To the 
 confession of Judas the chief priests and elders answered, What is 
 that to us ? see ihou to that. These men did not concern themselves 
 about the innocence of Jesus ; they had paid the price of his blood, 
 and were determined to shed it ; their unworthy agent had only to 
 settle the question with himself. And thus it is when a false under- 
 standing, penetrated with gleams of light, revolts against an evil will, 
 it finds it is unheeded, and receiving no reciprocation, has to fall back 
 upon itself. 
 
 5. When the priests and elders would not accept, for the release of 
 Jesus, what they had paid for securing him, Judas cast down the pieces 
 of silver in the temple , and departed , and went and hanged himself Truth 
 profaned in the understanding cannot deliver divine truth from 
 bondage and condemnation in the will: it can only be cast down in the 
 temple, and left as an unclaimed treasure. It has been much dis- 
 cussed whether Judas died by his own hands or fell a victim to re- 
 morse. The last opinion is considered to be favoured by the statement 
 of his end in Acts i. 18. The account of the evangelist necessitates 
 the idea of strangulation in some way, and most probably by his own 
 agency. This is all that the spiritual sense requires. For hanging, 
 or strangulation, or suffocation, which have all been suggested, signi- 
 fies destroying the connection between the internal and the external, 
 and the consequent destruction of both. The neck, as the means of 
 connection between the head and the body, signifies the connecting 
 medium between the internal and external of our minds. Judas 
 hanging himself, represented that in the Jewish church the con- 
 junction of the internal and external was broken, by which the church 
 was utterly destroyed. 
 
 6. And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for 
 to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. This was con- 
 sidered to be in agreement with a law of Moses (Deut. xxiii. 18), though 
 not expressly mentioned in it. The money, as they had given it, was 
 the price of blood ; it was given to compass the wicked end of put- 
 ting Jesus to death. But the blood of the Lord has two meanings. 
 The Jews shed the Lord’s blood for evil — the Lord permitted it for 
 good ; that which was death to them was life to the world. It was 
 so ordered, therefore, that the price of J esus’ blood should not return 
 into the treasury of the Jewish church. As the high priests, by 
 procuring the Lord’s death, had been unwilling agents in procuring 
 the redemption of the world, so, in the final disposal of the price of 
 the Lord’s blood, they unconsciously did an act which represented 
 
Chap. XXVII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 637 
 
 the reception of the Lord’s salvation by others, as mentioned in the 
 next verse. 
 
 7, And they took counsel , and bought with them the potter s field , to bury 
 strangers in. The work of the potter signifies the work of regeneration. 
 This is clear from Jeremiah xviii. 4. The prophet, by divine command, 
 goes down to the potter’s house to see a work on the wheel. “ The 
 vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter : so 
 he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make 
 it.” Every one, as he now comes from the hand of his Creator, is a 
 marred vessel, but every one who comes from the hand of his Re- 
 creator is another vessel, made as seems good to the potter to make 
 it. He is renewed according to the will and into the image of God. 
 The silver given by the Jews as the price of the Lord’s blood was 
 given to buy the potter’s field, to represent that the truth originally 
 revealed to the Jewish church, which that church had perverted, to 
 destroy the very end for which it had been given, was now to be 
 transferred to the Gentiles, to become with them the means of that 
 regeneration which the Jews had wilfully refused. The potter’s field is 
 the Gentile church, including the idea of a capacity and desire for 
 being regenerated. This idea is included also in the use for which the 
 potter’s field was purchased — to bury strangers in. Burial, in the first 
 place, signifies resurrection ; for burial to the body is resurrection to 
 the spirit. When the body returns to the dust as it was, the spirit 
 returns to God who gave it. But in the second place, burial, like 
 resurrection, signifies regeneration, which is the resurrection from 
 the death of sin into the life of righteousness. When the Jews 
 purchased the potter’s field to bury strangers in, they no doubt 
 intended that the cursed means should be devoted to a cursed use — 
 to provide sepulture for the outcast and the destitute, perhaps that 
 their own dust might not mingle with that of the unknown wan- 
 derer. But how expressive is this despised use to which the price of 
 the Lord’s blood was devoted ! In Jesus the stranger finds a friend; 
 in his blood, salvation; in his resurrection, life. The price of the Lord’s 
 blood is his merit and righteousness ; and, despised and valueless as 
 these were in the estimation of the Jews, they are precious to the 
 stranger, — to him who is a spiritual sojourner in the earth, seeking 
 for a home in heaven. 
 
 8. Wherefore that field was called , The field of blood , unto this day. 
 Aceldama, the name which the potter’s field acquired, sounds of violence 
 in its historical associations, but in its spiritual sense of salvation and 
 life eternal. All that is comprehended in the meaning of the Saviour’s 
 
638 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXVII. 
 
 blood, as realized in Christian experience, is expressed in the “ field of 
 blood.” On the one hand, the Lord’s temptations, sufferings, and 
 death ; on the other, his resistance, his triumphs, and his life — all are 
 included in the meaning of his blood. His blood is his divine truth. 
 And when the Christian has, through his truth, suffered and died 
 with Christ, then does he share in his triumphs and his life. “ For if 
 we be planted in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the 
 likeness of his resurrection ” (Rom. vi. 5). The field of blood is 
 therefore the field of regeneration, and it will ever continue so to be. 
 When the evangelist tells us it is so called “ unto this day,” he reveals 
 an eternal truth. With the Word, as with the Lord, to-day is for 
 ever. In the concerns of the soul and eternity, to-day is not a por- 
 tion of time, but a state. And the state of regeneration which has 
 been purchased by the price of the Lord’s blood will be available to 
 the spiritual stranger, world without end. 
 
 9-11. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, 
 saying , And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was 
 valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value; and gave them 
 for the potter’s field, as the Lord appointed me. The purchase of the 
 potter’s field was the fulfilment of a prophecy. This prediction the 
 evangelist ascribes to Jeremiah, when yet it is found in Zechariah. 
 Various explanations of the difficulty have been offered. Noble 
 thinks that the subject of the prophecy properly belongs to Jeremiah, 
 the mourning prophet, but had been put into the mouth of Zechariah, 
 to show the inspiration of the evangelist in assigning it to its true 
 place. The text is found as it is in many ancient manuscripts, though 
 not in all. We incline to think the most reasonable conjecture to be 
 that the passage in Matthew did not originally contain the prophet’s 
 name, but read, “ then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the pro- 
 phet,” and that “ Jeremiah” was inserted by some early transcriber. 
 It is surprising the chief priests were not aware, when they “ took 
 counsel,” that their deliberations should result in the literal fulfil- 
 ment, in every particular, of a prediction uttered centuries before by 
 an inspired prophet. But the thirty pieces, the price of him that was 
 valued, are expressive of the little estimation in which the Lord was 
 held by the Jewish people. By the priesthood the Lord was hated. 
 But in this transaction they unconsciously did what was symbolical of 
 the estimation in which the Lord and his redemption were held by 
 the Jewish people as a whole. Thirty is a number which, wherever 
 it occurs in the Word, signifies comparatively little. And lightly 
 indeed were the Lord’s merit and redemption esteemed by the degene- 
 
Chap. XXVII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 639 
 
 rate descendants of Israel. After recording these circumstances con- 
 cerning Judas, the evangelist returns to Jesus, who had been delivered 
 bound to Pontius Pilate. And Jesus stood before the governor: and the 
 governor aslced him , saying , Art thou the King of the Jews 'i And Jesus 
 said urdo him , Thou sayest. This was a form of acknowledgment. The 
 Lord did not offer any explanation or qualification of his affirmation, so 
 as to enlighten or conciliate the judge. He was a king, but his kingdom 
 was not of this world. He was not the king of the temporal, but of the 
 spiritual Jews of the church which the kingdom of Judah represented. 
 The Lord is called a king and a priest. He is a king as divine truth, 
 and a priest as divine good. Truth rules, and good ministers. But 
 when he is called the King of the Jews, truth grounded in good is 
 meant. There were two kingdoms after the time of Solomon. The 
 kingdom of Israel then represented the government of divine truth in 
 the church, and the kingdom of Judah represented the government of 
 divine good in the church. 
 
 12-14. It is remarkable that, when questioned by Pilate, the Lord 
 answered him, but when he was accused of the chief priests and elders , 
 he answered nothing. The chief priests were J ews ; Pilate was a 
 Gentile. In the Jewish church the voice of Divine Truth was now 
 for ever silenced; among the Gentiles, who were to form the new 
 church, there was a disposition to hear it, though, as we shall see, not 
 the capacity to receive it directly. As indicative of the negative state 
 of the Jews, which quenched the voice of the Truth amongst them, 
 and of the affirmative state of the Gentiles, which gave utterance to 
 the truth so far as they knew it, the priests and elders only dealt in 
 accusations against Jesus, while Pilate asked a question, which on his 
 part contained no accusation, and admitted, as it received, an affirma- 
 tive answer. And even when appealed to by Pilate, who said unto 
 him, Ilearest thou not how many things they witness against thee ? 
 He answered him to never a word ; insomuch that the governor 
 marvelled greatly. Pilate, like the simple-minded, when they hear 
 learned unbelievers accuse the Word, or professed believers main- 
 tain views that involve an accusation of its divine truth, are liabTe to 
 be disturbed with doubts, and to demand for them an instantaneous 
 and direct answer ; and when that auswer is not vouchsafed, they are 
 further liable to experience great perplexity, which is expressed by 
 Pilate’s marvelling greatly. The Word, like the Lord, does not accept 
 the challenge of the unbeliever, but leaves every man to work out his 
 own conviction, as it leaves him to work out his salvation, of which 
 conviction is a part, with fear and trembling. This lesson Pilate 
 
640 ST. MATTHEW. [Chap. XXYII. 
 
 had not yet wrought out for himself, as we shall see in the 
 sequel. 
 
 15-17. At the feast of the passover, the governor was wont to release 
 unto the people a prisoner , whom they would. W e come now to see 
 how the people were affected towards Jesus, as shown in the exercise 
 of that singular privilege which the Roman government had conferred 
 on their Jewish subjects. In this case the body of the people could 
 have defeated the purpose of the priesthood. They had then a notable 
 prisoner , called Barabbas. The choice was given them to claim the 
 release either of Barabbas , or Jesus which is called Christ. This 
 privilege conferred upon the people the free choice between guilt 
 and innocence, evil and good ; and they chose the evil, and rejected 
 the good. 
 
 18. Pilate made this offer to the people, in the hope, it would seem, 
 that they would ask for the release of Jesus, For he knew that for envy 
 they had delivered him. Envy is one of the worst of passions; hatred 
 presumes the imputation of a fault, but envy is the acknowledgment 
 of an excellence. It is truly hatred without a cause. How truly 
 must this have been the ground of the priestly aversion to Jesus ! 
 Their eye was evil, because he was good. This was the last form 
 which the hatred of the Jewish rulers took against Jesus; and it 
 implied the deepest and most causeless opposition, not only to the 
 truth, but to the good of which Jesus was the impersonation. Envy, 
 therefore, implies aversion of the worst kind, and the most deeply 
 rooted. 
 
 19. When he was set down on the judgment seat , before the people had 
 made their decision, his wife sent unto him , saying , Have thou nothing to 
 do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream 
 because of him. Dreams had been made by Divine Providence the 
 vehicles of several messages from on high to those who had duties to 
 perform in relation to the Messiah. And now the wife of his judge 
 is made the medium of an admonition to him to refrain from any act 
 that might do him injustice. It is worthy of remark how entirely 
 Jesus is left alone in his last great trial, as if the powers of darkness 
 had succeeded in turning the whole tide of human action, if not of 
 human sympathy, against him. The Jews persecute him ; Judas 
 betrays him; Peter denies him; the rest forsake him; and now the 
 Roman, otherwise indifferent, plays into the hands of his enemies 
 against him. Had human ingenuity strained its powers to contrive 
 a plot to show the moral grandeur of a hero, not braving, but endur- 
 ing with dignity and meekness the accumulated wrongs of an evil 
 
Chap. XXVII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 641 
 
 world, nothing could have exceeded or even equalled the reality 
 here so naturally developed and so simply related. All this was but 
 the outbirth of spiritual agents and elements against which the Lord 
 had to contend, and from which, indeed, he came to redeem and save 
 mankind. It was an exemplification of the truth of the Scriptures 
 themselves, that all, both Jews and Gentiles, were included under sin, 
 and that while we were yet enemies, we were reconciled to God by 
 the death of his Son. While Jews and Gentiles were both included 
 under sin, there was this important difference between them, that the 
 Jews had sinned against the clear light of revelation, the Gentiles had 
 sinned against the dim light of tradition and indirect transmission. 
 With the Gentiles there was an affection in favour of the truth, and 
 some obscure perception of its excellence. This affection for truth 
 was the wife of Pilate ; this obscure perception of its excellence was 
 her dream. But the intellect of the Gentile world, like Pilate, was 
 not yet prepared to act under the influence of this better affection of 
 the will. It was no doubt necessary that human nature as it was 
 among the Gentiles should have a share in the catastrophe out of 
 which the redemption of the world was to be educed ; and this Gen- 
 tile humanity was appropriately represented by Pilate. The much 
 suffering which the wife of Pilate endured on account of Jesus, 
 shows that there was a conscience in the Gentile world that revolted 
 against the crime which the Jews, without compunction, were thirst- 
 ing to commit. 
 
 20-23. Left by Pilate to choose whether he would release unto 
 them Jesus or Barabbas, the chief priests and elders persuaded the multi- 
 tude that they should' ask Barabbas , and destroy J esus. The governor 
 answered and said unto them , Whether of the twain vnll ye that I release 
 unto you? They said, Barabbas. Pilate saith unto them , What shall I do 
 then with Jesus which is called Christ ? They all say unto him, Let him be 
 crucified. The people listened. They demanded that Barabbas should 
 be released, and that Jesus should be crucified. To the question of 
 Pilate, Why, what evil hath he done ? they cried out the more, saying, 
 Let him be crucified. Considered as a matter of solemn choice, it 
 seems as if Pilate might have adopted the words of Moses, “ Behold, I 
 have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil ; there- 
 fore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.” Life and good 
 were personally manifested in the Lord, who now stood before them ; 
 and in Barabbas, who, we have reason to fear, was something like 
 the incarnation of their opposites, death and evil. And this wicked 
 preference of the murderer to the sinless Saviour was truly the choice 
 
 2 T 
 
642 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXYII. 
 
 of evil rather than good, and of death rather than life. They who 
 could make such a choice showed that they were disposed to exalt in 
 their own hearts the evil which they let loose in Barabbas, and to 
 crucify the good which they were anxious to destroy in Jesus. De- 
 moniacal as it seems in the Jews to have thus inverted all the prin- 
 ciples of justice and benevolence, we must remember that we ourselves 
 inherit with them a common nature, and are capable, and may be 
 guilty, of doing spiritually what they did naturally ; and many of 
 them, it is to be feared, spiritually also. When the internal intends 
 evil, how easy is it to persuade the external to carry out the evil 
 intention ! When the internal and the external are united under one 
 common end, animated by one common object, and that object an evil 
 one, the choice, when it is to be exercised between opposites, is sure 
 to select the evil and leave the good. “Not this man, but Barabbas,” 
 is still the cry of those who hate good and love evil — who have inverted 
 spiritual order in themselves ; who have put evil for good, and good 
 for evil; who have put darkness for light, and light for darkness. 
 
 24. When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing , but that rather a 
 tumult was made , he took water , and washed his hands before the multi- 
 tude , saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person : see ye to it. 
 Pilate’s act is easily recognized as a symbolical mode of testifying his 
 innocence of the crime of condemning a just person. But the act has 
 a spiritual as well as a figurative sense. To wash the hands, figura- 
 tively, is to declare one’s self blameless ; to wash the hands, spiritually, 
 is to make one’s self blameless — to purify the life from evil and the soul 
 from guilt by the truth of God’s Holy Word. Water is the symbol 
 of that truth, and the hands are the symbols of power, as manifested 
 by the will in act. The psalmist says, “ I will wash mine hands in 
 innocency: so will I compass thine altar, O Lord” (Ps. xxvi. 6), 
 where washing is expressive of the act of purifying, not simply of 
 asserting purity. Pilate is a faithful representation of those who are 
 in good without truth, who are easily overborne by those who are in 
 truth without good. The heathens who are in simple good learn the 
 vices sooner than the virtues of their more civilized neighbours, not 
 only because their nature inclines them to evil, but because they are 
 deficient in that intelligence which shows the inherent and distinctive 
 characters of virtue and vice. Pilate saw that Jesus was a just man, 
 but allowed the envious Jews to carry out their determined purpose 
 to destroy him, washing his hands to clear himself from the guilt of a 
 crime which he had allowed, but to which neither the law nor his 
 conscience consented. 
 
Chap. XXVII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 643 
 
 25. But if Pilate shrunk from the guilt of innocent blood, the 
 J ews did not. When the governor said, “ See ye to it,” Then answered 
 all the people , and said , His blood be on us , and on our children. Awful 
 imprecation ! too faithfully fulfilled ! The children of Judah, as a 
 people, continue to this day to treat the Just and Holy One as an 
 impostor, and still look for a Messiah whose kingdom is of this 
 world, and who will exalt them above other nations. Why should 
 the Jews invoke the curse of this flagrant crime on the children as 
 well as on themselves? Guilt, descending from parents to children, 
 expresses the spiritual law that evil, once confirmed in the heart, 
 descends into all the affections and thoughts ’which, derive their 
 existence from it. 
 
 26. When Pilate had released Barabbas unto them , then commenced 
 that series of indignities to which Jesus was subjected, and which only 
 terminated with his death. And when he had scourged Jesus, he 
 delivered him to be crucified. The whole of this treatment of J esus, as 
 the incarnate Word, represents, as we have had occasion to remark, 
 the treatment which the written Word received at the hands of the 
 Jews. It may seem as if it were lessening the force and sanctity of 
 the relation to understand the cruel indignities and mockeries offered 
 to the person of the Lord, as representing treatment to which the 
 written Word had been subjected. This subject can only be under- 
 stood, and its importance appreciated, when we see the essential 
 identity of the written and the incarnate Word — the written Word 
 being the Divine Wisdom revealed, and the incarnate Word the Divine 
 Wisdom manifested. The incarnate Word came to do for man what 
 the written Word had failed to accomplish. He came to do for man 
 what man had failed to do for himself. He came to fulfil the law — 
 that is, the Word, which man had made of no effect. As the Lord 
 fulfilled the whole Word perfectly, his life was the written Word 
 acted out. His life was a practical revelation. His life (including his 
 teaching) was a living refutation of the errors, a living reproof and 
 condemnation of the evils, of the Jewish church. It is on this ground 
 that the treatment which the Lord received at the hands of the Jews 
 represented their treatment of the W ord. His enduring these effects 
 of their evils was meant by his bearing their iniquities. It is to be 
 observed that the last sufferings of the Lord were legally inflicted 
 by the Homans, because the Jews had not then the power of adminis- 
 tering the criminal law; but they were inflicted by the Jews morally, 
 because they were the authors of all that Jesus endured. The Lord 
 mentioned this on a previous occasion, when he said of the chief 
 
044 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXYII. 
 
 priests, they “ shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to 
 scourge, and to crucify” (Matt. xx. 19). Nevertheless, the Jews 
 were personally guilty of many of the indignities which the Lord 
 now suffered. We therefore read of Pilate, that “when he had 
 scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.” This scourg- 
 ing and crucifying are here mentioned to express, generally, all 
 kinds of opposition to the Lord and his Word. This is of two kinds, 
 — the opposition of falsity to truth and the opposition of evil to good ; 
 crucifying signifies the destruction of good by evil. These acts have 
 this meaning, because the cords with which scourging was performed 
 signify falses, and the wood on which crucifixion was inflicted signifies 
 evil. This is the signification of crucifying as distinguished from 
 stoning — the two modes of capital punishment among the Jews ; 
 stoning signifying to destroy by falses, and crucifying to destroy by evil. 
 
 27. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall , 
 and yathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. Soldiers, in the 
 genuine sense, signify those who defend the truth ; in the opposite 
 sense, as here, those who assault the truth, and who themselves are in 
 the falses of evil. Pilate, therefore, delivering Jesus into the hands 
 of the soldiers signifies the truth being delivered over and made 
 subject to falsities; and not to some only, but to all — “the whole 
 band ” being “ gathered unto him,” and united against him. The 
 “common hall” into which they took Jesus was the prsetorium — the 
 governor’s palace — and signifies here the understanding, where all 
 falsities are collected. 
 
 28. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. The 
 profane mockeries to which our blessed Lord -was subjected are almost 
 too painful to dwell upon, except to impress upon us the deep corrup- 
 tion of humanity in his tormentors, in which we participate ; and to see 
 the spiritual state of mankind in reference to the Word as it then 
 existed, and is more or less the state of every natural man. The outer 
 garment of the Lord represented the literal sense of the Word. The 
 soldiers’ stripping Jesus does not, indeed, signify that those whom the 
 soldiers represent deprive the Word of the letter; but that they 
 deprive the letter of its meaning, and substitute for it a meaning of 
 their own, which is meant by the soldiers putting upon Jesus a scarlet 
 robe. In putting this robe upon the Lord, they insulted him with 
 the mock honour of royalty. The Lord was indeed a king, for truth 
 is a king ; nay, he was the king, for he was the truth ; but the mock 
 royalty with which they invested him was the derision of the truth, 
 and the substitution of falsehood in its place. 
 
Chap. XXVII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 645 
 
 29. They invested the Lord with other mock emblems of royalty. 
 A nd when they had 'platted a crown of thorns , they put it upon his head , 
 and a reed in his right hand. The Lord crowned with thorns has 
 furnished a study for Christian artists to work out the ideal of meek 
 suffering. Xo less worthy is the spiritual idea of being realized to 
 the mind than the natural suffering to the sense. Thorns, in the 
 Word, signify the falsities of concupiscence. The thorn was the first 
 fruit of the ground after it was cursed for fallen man’s sake; and now 
 the thorn is placed as a fitting diadem on the brow of the Son of man. 
 Sucli was the triumph of the principle that had its birth with man’s 
 fall. The head of the Son of man represented divine truth in first 
 principles, as revealed in the Word and manifested in the Lord; and 
 a crown is the emblem of wisdom. We still crown the Son of man 
 with thorns when we exalt our own sensual intelligence above the 
 wisdom of God, and glory in such profane mockery. But they also 
 put a reed in his hand as a sceptre. The reed is a striking emblem of 
 the letter of the Word without its spirit. The Lord’s own compari- 
 son of the people’s ideas of John the Baptist, who also represented the 
 Word, shows this. “What went ye out for to see? a reed shaken with 
 the wind?” — the letter of the Word, the sport of every wind of 
 doctrine, — every breath of human opinion ? As the head of the Son 
 of man signifies divine truth in first principles, his hand signifies 
 divine truth in last principles, such as it is in the letter of the Word. 
 In its ultimate sense divine truth is in its fulness and power, of 
 which fulness and power the hand is also the emblem. Divine truth 
 in ultimates is the Lord’s sceptre; and “the sceptre of thy kingdom 
 is a right sceptre” (Ps. xlv. 6): his is a true, righteous, equitable 
 dominion. Ultimate truth is also the rod of the Lord’s strength, 
 with which he rules in the midst of his enemies (Ps. cx. 2). But the 
 Son of man with a reed in his hand for a sceptre is his Divine Word 
 with the form of power without the reality ; so that the reed is a 
 symbol of man’s power over and by the Word, in place of its power 
 over him. This is, indeed, sufficiently evinced in what follows. And 
 they bowed the knee before him , and mocked him , saying , Hail , king of the 
 Jews! The Jews, in their normal state, represented the church, the 
 ruling principle of which is love to the Lord; so that the Lord, as 
 King of the Jews, is the Divine truth ruling in the heart and life. 
 The profane mockery of saluting Jesus as King of the Jews repre- 
 sented the still more profane mockery of paying the homage of love 
 to the Lord, and reverence to his Word, when there is nothing but 
 contempt and hatred in the heart. 
 
646 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXYIT. 
 
 30. And they spit upon him, and tooJc the reed , and smote him on the head. 
 Spitting in the face was one of the most determined expressions of 
 contempt. It was a law of Moses, that when a man refused to take 
 his brother’s wife, she should loose his shoe and spit in his face ; by 
 which was spiritually meant, that one who refuses to comply with the 
 law of marriage, or that of the union of good and truth, is destitute of 
 all genuine goodness and truth, internal and external. The internal 
 is meant by the face, the external by the foot, the shoe of which was 
 loosed. The Lord’s face and his head signify the inmost of the Word 
 as to love and wisdom. To spit in his face and to strike him upon 
 the head represent contempt and violence offered to the highest and 
 purest principles of the divine goodness and truth as revealed in the 
 Word, and manifested in the person and exemplified in the life of the 
 Lord. The reed, we have seen, was a symbol of the letter without 
 the spirit of the Word. To strike the Lord on the head with the 
 reed was, therefore, to turn the letter against the spirit — the external 
 against the internal, of the Word — and thus to prevent and destroy 
 divine order. 
 
 31. And after that they had mocked him , they took the robe off from him , 
 and put his own raiment on him , and led him away to crucify him. It may 
 seem as if, by removing the robe and restoring his own raiment, the 
 soldiers were undoing what they had done, and restoring what they 
 had taken away. Hot so, however. They had ended one act of their 
 cruelty ; they were now about to commence another and greater. 
 Instead of being scourged, he was to be nailed to the cross ; he was to 
 be a second time stripped of his garments, that they might be rent in 
 pieces. Putting his own garments on the Lord was therefore only 
 doing naturally what those do spiritually who cease from the Word, 
 when they have subjected it to one series of profanations in order to 
 subject it to another. They now therefore “ led him away to crucify 
 him.” It is error that leads away; it is evil that crucifies. The 
 Lord’s being thus led away to be crucified represents a part of the 
 dark passage to the cross through which the Son of man was led in 
 his temptations, so far as they originated in the natural reason of man, 
 to which the natural will gives him up to be scourged and crucified. 
 Outwardly, indeed, as to the body, he was led away by the Roman 
 soldiers ; but that outward leading was the effect and the type of 
 another and interior leading, in which the whole powers of darkness 
 were urging forward the crisis on which rested their last hope of 
 success against the Redeemer and redemption. But in leading the 
 Lord away to be crucified, a new agent is introduced. 
 
Chap. XXVII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 647 
 
 32. And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: 
 him they compelled to bear his cross. Executions took place beyond the 
 city, as originally they did out of the camp. This fact regarding Jesus 
 is mentioned in the New Testament. “Wherefore Jesus also, that he 
 might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the 
 gate ” (Heb. xiii. 12). The reason of this practice was, that the camp 
 and the city signified heaven, and without signified hell ; and capital 
 punishments were inflicted there because they signified the death 
 which is spiritual and eternal. It was in accordance with the repre- 
 sentative character of the Lord’s death that he should suffer without 
 the gate ; for he was made a curse for us, that he might redeem us 
 from the curse (Cal. iff. 13). It is true that Jerusalem was at that 
 time full of wickedness, and that the Lord was condemned within the 
 city, though he was crucified beyond it. Understood in its profane 
 sense, the Lord’s being condemned in the city, and being led out of it 
 to be crucified without the gate, represented that he, as the Divine 
 Truth, was condemned internally and crucified externally in the 
 church ; for we condemn the Lord in our minds, and crucify him in our 
 lives. When malefactors were led to execution, it was customary to 
 make them carry the cross on which they were to be crucified; and 
 our Lord was not exempted from this cruel indignity. John speaks 
 of the Lord, and of him only, as the bearer of the cross. “ And he, 
 bearing his cross, went forth ” (ch. xix. 17). The other three evangelists 
 mention Simon only as the bearer of this burden. It is reasonably 
 supposed that Jesus had been made to bear it first, and that Simon 
 had been compelled to bear it afterwards. There is a spiritual reason 
 for the seeming difference in the recorded fact. In John, where the 
 Lord’s deepest and highest states are described, both as they were in 
 him and as they are in us, the record appropriately speaks of J esus 
 only as the bearer of his cross ; and the other gospels as appropriately 
 mention only Simon. The Lord’s bearing of the cross was only the 
 physical and degrading labour done in the sight of men which he had 
 all along been doing spiritually in the sight of angels ; and Simon, 
 bearing it “ after him,” as Luke (xxiii. 26) expresses it, was only doing 
 what the disciple who follows Jesus has spiritually to do. Simon 
 bearing the cross after the Lord was an outward sign of an inward 
 spiritual labour to be performed by those who would follow the Lord 
 in the regeneration. But if this is the truth represented in the present 
 circumstance, why was it not divinely ordered that one of his own 
 disciples should have been selected and compelled to bear his cross ? 
 His own avowed disciples had all forsaken him and fled. In the Lord’s 
 
648 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXVII. 
 
 last trial, not only was he condemned by those who represented the 
 world, as the Romans, and by those who represented the church, as the 
 Jews, but he was forsaken by those who represented the truths of his 
 own blessed Word, as the disciples ; and all this was done to describe 
 the extent and severity of his last temptation, when he not only had 
 to endure the assaults of all the powers of evil, but had to endure the 
 absence of all the opposite powers of good. The Lord had yet one 
 stay. He was now in the very state of which he himself had spoken : 
 ie Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, 
 every man to his own, and shall leave me alone : and yet I am not alone, 
 because the Father is with me ” (John xvi. 32). The hour was approach- 
 ing when he should be forsaken even by the Father. Then, indeed, 
 would the Son of man be alone. This crisis, awful and mysterious, 
 has not yet arrived. We shall not anticipate it, but reverentially 
 follow the Lord to the scene of his passion, with Simon, the Cyrenian, 
 bearing the cross on which the last temptation is to be endured and 
 human redemption completed. There is no doubt a providential 
 similarity of name between the bearer of the cross and Simon Peter, 
 to whom the cross was such an offence. Simon, among the disciples, 
 represented faith ; but Simon Peter represented faith within the 
 church; while Simon the Cyrenian represented faith without the 
 church — among the Gentiles; for Cyrene was out of the land of Canaan. 
 There is this also to be remembered respecting Simon, — that this was 
 the name of the Lord’s first disciple when he first received the gospel, 
 but afterwards surnamed Peter. Simon the Cyrenian represented 
 faith as it exists among the remoter Gentiles, and among the simple 
 in heart, before they are instructed in the truths of the gospel. There 
 is reason to believe that Simon became a disciple of the Lord. He is 
 spoken of by Mark (xv. 21) as the father of Alexander and Rufus. 
 And the apostle Paul speaks highly of two of Simon’s household. 
 “ Salute Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine ” (Rom. 
 xvi. 13). It is pleasing to think that he who bore the burden of the 
 natural cross of Christ should have come to take up his spiritual 
 cross, and follow the Lord to a mount still more sacred than the mount 
 Calvary, on which he was crucified. 
 
 33. The place which forms the termination of the cross-bearing 
 journey is Golgotha, called also Calvary, which have both the same 
 meaning — tlio place of a skull. The name speaks for itself regarding 
 the spot as a place of common execution, where he who was “numbered 
 with the transgressors ” was appointed to suffer. The opinion that the 
 mount was named from its shape is not so probable. Suitable emblem 
 
Chap. XXVII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 G49 
 
 was this place of the state of the church which was about to put to 
 death him who was himself the Life ! The ghastly remnant of the 
 noblest part of man’s material frame, so fearfully and wonderfully 
 made — the empty skull — speaks also of the Word emptied of its living 
 and spiritual contents, and reduced to a mere dead letter, having in 
 relation to the church neither life nor power. Golgotha or Calvary, 
 emblematical as it is of the utterly devastated state of the church 
 which crucified the Lord, and of every church and member of the 
 church who crucifies the Lord afresh, yet it is to the repentant sinner 
 the end of death and beginning of life. There the Lord died for him ; 
 and there he is himself to die, to lay down the life of his corrupt 
 nature, and crucify every lust and imagination of his evil heart. 
 
 34. When they came to Golgotha, they gave him vinegar to drink 
 mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof , ) he would not drink. 
 It was customary to administer to criminals, before or during execu- 
 tion, a drink that deadened their nervous sensibility, and thus dimin- 
 ished the intensity of their sufferings. The Lord refused this human 
 means of mitigating pain. There was a spiritual reason for this : for 
 everything which was done to the Lord, and which he did, teaches us 
 some great lesson. Vinegar, from its sourness, is the symbol of what 
 is false ; and gall, from its bitterness, is the symbol of what is evil. 
 The Lord’s refusing to drink of the vinegar mingled with gall was 
 intended to instruct us that what is false mingled with evil can find 
 no acceptance with him, or that those in whom error and evil are 
 united cannot enter into his kingdom. But although the Lord 
 refused the vinegar mingled with gall, he took the vinegar alone. 
 “ Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the 
 scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set 
 a vessel full of vinegar : and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and 
 put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore 
 had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished : and he bowed his 
 head, and gave up the ghost” (John xix. 28-30). The prophecy is no 
 doubt very specific, and was as specifically fulfilled. “ They gave me 
 also gall for my meat ; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” 
 (Ps. lxix. 21). It is almost impossible to suppose that the prophecy 
 and its fulfilment had only a historical connection and purpose. If 
 his meat was to do the will of his Father, and to finish his work, 
 must not this have been his drink also? The Lord’s natural thirst 
 was but the outward expression of his divine thirst — his desire for the 
 salvation of the human race ; for this was the will, the desire of his 
 own infinite love, which was the Father that dwelt within him, and 
 
650 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXVIt. 
 
 that originated all his desires, and words, and works (John v. 30; 
 xiv. 10). How appropriate, then, after receiving the vinegar which 
 was offered him to quench his thirst, the Lord’s exclamation, It is 
 finished ! His last drink indeed was vinegar ; for that which 
 vinegar symbolized was the best that the church and the world 
 could supply. Truth was extinct ; error and falsity everywhere pre- 
 vailed. There was nothing to quench the Lord’s thirst but vinegar; 
 but when it was offered unmingled with the gall of bitterness, the 
 Lord in mercy received it, and it allayed his burning thirst. So 
 ardent is his divine desire for the salvation of his lost creatures that 
 he refuses not those who are in error ; for if error be of the intellect 
 only, free from dissimulation, and from the deliberate evil of a corrupt 
 heart, it is not an absolute cause of separation between man and the 
 Lord. In the absence of an evil purpose, there underlies religious 
 error a desire for purification ; and it is this desire that not only 
 removes from religious error its negative character and separating 
 power, but makes it the means of conjoining the soul with God; for 
 there may be religious principle where there is no pure religious 
 truth. This desire of purification was meant by the hyssop on 
 which the sponge containing the vinegar was placed, to be held to 
 the lips of the dying Saviour; for hyssop was used in the representa- 
 tive church as a means of legal purification, as in the purification of 
 the greatest of all uncleanness, that of the leprosy (Lev. xiv. 4). 
 
 35. But we are drawn from the contemplation of this beautiful and 
 instructive incident in the history of the crucifixion to another of 
 those acts that have a far different character and meaning. And 
 they crucified him , and parted his garments , casting lots: that it might he 
 fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet , They parted my garments among 
 them , and upon my vesture did they cast lots. It is remarkable that 
 most of the particulars connected with the Lord’s crucifixion should 
 have been special subjects of prophecy. The fulfilment of these pre- 
 dictions having been the work of his enemies, this serves to confirm 
 the historical truth of Jesus being the Messiah. But a higher evi- 
 dence is afforded by the spiritual significance of the circumstances 
 themselves. This teaches some important facts respecting the treat- 
 ment of the Word by the church. The psalm from which Matthew 
 cites these prophetic passages is singularly minute in its description 
 of most of the incidents that occurred at the crucifixion. “ They 
 part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture (Ps. 
 xxii. 18). Matthew himself does not mention the inner and outer 
 garment, this information being supplied by the prophetic passage ho 
 
Chap. XXVII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 651 
 
 adduces. As all that the Jews did to Jesus represented the manner 
 in which the Jewish church had treated the Word, this act is most 
 significant. The Lord’s outer garment represented the outward or 
 literal sense of the Word, aud his inner garment represented its inner 
 or spiritual sense. Their dividing his garments represented that the 
 Jewish church had dissipated all the truths of the literal sense of 
 the Word. This, indeed, was done by the soldiers; but we have seen 
 that, being instruments in carrying out the purpose of the Jews, the 
 soldiers represent the militant principle in that church. Among them- 
 selves, the Jews were, like Christians of the present day, divided into 
 sects, each contending against the others for what each called the truth, 
 when yet the truth of each was but a variety of the common error, so that 
 amongst them the Word was rent in pieces and dissipated. The Lord, 
 howevet*, provides that this division and dissipation of the truths of 
 the Word shall have a limit; otherwise the Word would be destroyed, 
 and salvation rendered impossible. It is only the literal sense of the 
 Word that is capable of this kind of division ; for the truths of the 
 letter of the Word are for the most part apparent truths, admitting of 
 different interpretations, and therefore forming the means of various 
 and discordant opinions. But the internal sense of the Word does 
 not consist of apparent but of pure or genuine truths. These are 
 not, therefore, subject to the changeful and sinister interpretations of 
 men, nor are they capable of being severed from, much less of being 
 set up against, each other. Like all real truths, each is in harmony 
 with all the others, aud all combine to form one grand and indivisible 
 whole. This is the Lord’s vesture, woven without seam throughout. 
 However the letter may be divided, this is preserved for ever entire. 
 It is not parted, but is disposed of by lot; and this lot is the Provi- 
 dence of God, which passes it on uninjured from one dispensation of 
 the church to another. The difference between the internal and the 
 external of the Word is like the difference between the church and 
 the dispensation. Dispensations pass away, but the church never 
 dies. Dispensations grow corrupt, and die by corrupting and dissi- 
 pating the truths of the letter of the Word; but the church, con- 
 sisting of internal vital religion, never dies, but is preserved entire in 
 some minds, that the seed of a new tree may be sown when the old 
 one has fallen into decay. Were the internal sense of the Word to 
 be perverted and destroyed by the church on earth, the connection 
 between angels and men would be entirely cut off, and its renewal 
 would be impossible. 
 
 36. When his enemies had carried out their long-cherished desire 
 
652 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXYII. 
 
 of nailing him to the cross, sitting down they watched him there. Natu- 
 rally, this is sufficiently expressive of official indifference to the 
 suffering, combined with care to prevent the release of the sufferer. 
 Spiritually, it teaches another and deeper lesson. Sitting signifies a 
 state of the will ; watching signifies a state of the understanding. The 
 murderers of Jesus “sitting down” after his crucifixion, signifies a 
 confirmed state of the wdll in favour of that which the crucifixion 
 represented — the destruction and profanation of the whole Word, and 
 consequently a confirmed state of opposition to all true goodness. 
 Their watching Jesus signifies the vigilance of the understanding to 
 keep the Word in that state of profanation, and prevent any argument 
 or intellectual force from being exerted by those in favour of the 
 Word, so as to deliver it from their power. 
 
 37. They also set up over his head Ids accusation written , THIS 
 IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. There was a difference 
 between the Jews and Pilate respecting this inscription. They 
 wished him to alter it to “ He said I am the King of the Jews,” 
 but Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.” • The 
 Lord provided that his cross should be crowned with the truth ; so 
 that, while we look at his cross as the very emblem of suffering, we 
 may see over the head of the holy sufferer the promise of triumph and 
 the hope of glory, its inseparable and sanctified fruits. The difference 
 between the Jews and Pilate expresses the difference between the Jew 
 and the Gentile, — the Gentile writing the truth as the Jewish accusa- 
 tion, the Jew denying the accusation to be the truth. The inscription 
 itself expresses the Lord’s character as divine truth from divine 
 good; for a king signifies truth, and the Jews, like Judah, from whom 
 they were derived, signified good; in other words, the King of the Jews 
 denotes divine celestial truth reigning in the hearts of those who are 
 crucified to self and the world. 
 
 38. Then were there two thieves crucified with him , one on the right 
 hand , and another on the left. These represented — the same as the sheep 
 and the goats on the Lord’s right hand and on his left in the judg- 
 ment — those who are in charity and faith, and those who are in faith 
 without charity. Of these we say nothing further at present, as we 
 shall have to speak of them again. 
 
 39. 40. Our Lord now undergoes another series of insults, involving 
 another series of temptations. A nd they that passed by reviled , or blas- 
 phemed, him. The chief priests, with the elders and scribes, mocked 
 him; and the thieves iterated what the others uttered. They who 
 passed by represented those who are in falsity; the chief priests repre- 
 
Ciiap. XXVII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 653 
 
 sent those who are in evil; and the thieves represent those who are in 
 both. We will briefly consider them apart. In the passers by we 
 see the children of this world too eagerly engaged in its pursuits and 
 pleasures to bestow more than a passing glance on divine and spiritual 
 things, and then only to revile and contemn them, if not with their lips, 
 at least in their hearts. Wagging their heads. These revilers wag 
 their heads to betoken the supreme contempt which those who are 
 wiser in their generation than the children of light have for the Light 
 itself, when eclipsed by their own materialized apprehensions. These 
 signs of unbelief are such as indicate intellectual opposition to the 
 truth, as does also their argument: Thou that destroy est the temple , and 
 huildest it in three days , save thyself. If thou he the Son of God, come down 
 from the cross. Here the Lord seems to be assailed by the self- 
 righteous, the irreligious, and the lawless. All are united against him ; 
 as if every possible agency was, by every possible means, to try to 
 shake his confidence, to overwhelm his spirit, and to drive him to utter 
 despair. The arguments made use of by these Jewish unbelievers 
 are just such as have been employed by infidels of all ages, being, in 
 fact, the natural suggestions of the human mind in the negative state, 
 which knows nothing, and believes nothing, of the necessity of the 
 cross as the means to salvation. To such minds, the Lord’s claims 
 and his end must seem to be an entire contradiction. He claims 
 divine power, yet shows the most absolute human weakness; asserts 
 divine glory, and is exposed to public shame and degradation; asserts 
 the highest virtue, and dies as a malefactor; claims allegiance as a 
 king, yet submits to be treated as the meanest subject; declares him- 
 self able to raise the temple in three days, yet cannot deliver his own 
 body from the cross; assumes to be the king of Israel, yet cannot come 
 down from the cross ; has saved, or pretended to save, many, and even 
 to raise some from death, yet cannot save himself. These contradic- 
 tions arise out of, because they answer to, the contrariety that exists 
 in fallen human nature between the carnal and the spiritual mind. 
 It is the unwillingness of the carnal natural mind to submit to 
 spiritual indignity, and humiliation, and shame, and death, that makes 
 one unwilling to recognize and unable to feel the need of a Saviour 
 who passed through them all. Like the prophets, the Saviour was a 
 sign unto his people. He came to do that for proud man which 
 proud man despised to do for himself. He came to take upon him 
 that natural mind which in itself is so lofty, and proud, and greedy 
 of honour, and in love with life, that he might humble and abase 
 it, and dishonour and crucify it, as the only means of its reconciliation 
 
654 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXYII. 
 
 with the spiritual man, and of its becoming his obedient servant. It 
 was because the natural man had exalted himself above the spiritual, 
 and despised and trampled upon him, that the Lord came into 
 the world to subdue him. Such were his sufferings. But these 
 were but the means to a glorious end. They were the passage to 
 glory. True exaltation arose out of them. The true glory of the 
 natural man consists in his being the honoured servant of the 
 spiritual. That w T hich was created to serve cannot be honoured 
 by ruling. Is the body honoured by ruling over the soul? Is it 
 honoured by gluttony, and drunkenness, and lust? Are the appe- 
 tites honoured by ruling over the reason ? Is the world honoured 
 by contemning heaven ? Is matter honoured by denying spirit ? Is 
 nature honoured by denying God? The temple was the Lord’s 
 body — his humanity — which his enemies were to destroy ; but as 
 these accusers represent those who oppose falsity to the truth, they 
 repeat this false accusation against him. The temple also repre- 
 sented the Lord’s divine spiritual principle, which is, indeed, that 
 which is contemned and blasphemed by lovers of the world. They 
 deny and, indeed, ridicule the idea of a divine humanity, of which 
 they think the passion of the cross is a sufficient refutation. And 
 this is but the natural or spontaneous language of the heart that 
 refuses to yield submission to the cross. The passers by challenged 
 the Lord to show that he was the Son of God, by coming down from 
 the cross. The Lord did not suffer as the Son of God, but as the Son 
 of man; not as divine good, but as divine truth; not as to his divine* 
 but as to his natural humanity. A prevailing idea is, that if the 
 world was governed by a righteous Being, the just would never suffer; 
 and, of course, if the Lord had been divine, being just, he would have 
 prevented the J ews from putting him to death. 
 
 41-43. In the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, we see the 
 children of the church; and in the mockery of these we see the blas- 
 phemy of the church against the Lord, and of those who are in the 
 evil of self-love, against the divine good of his love. These say, He 
 saved others; himself he cannot save. If he has saved others, he must 
 be able to save himself ; if he cannot save himself, how can he save 
 others ? The sentiment itself is true in a certain sense, though the 
 application of it is false. The Lord glorified himself as he regenerated 
 others ; the two works were inseparably connected with each other. 
 These works are meant by salvation. Still further, salvation is 
 effected by the Lord from his divine love or goodness, as redemp- 
 tion is by his divine truth ; and the Lord became the Saviour by 
 
Chap. XXVII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 655 
 
 becoming or making bis humanity divine good. The fallacy of the chief 
 priests consisted in supposing that the Lord must show his power of 
 salvation by coming down from the cross, and this fallacy they shared 
 in common with the passers by. But this was the very opposite of the 
 way which the Lord himself had taught men to look for salvation from 
 him. The Lord had said, “ And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, 
 will draw all men unto me.” His elevation on the cross represented 
 this lifting up — this glorification. But these men did not desire to be 
 drawn up from the earth to the Lord ; they required that the Lord 
 should come down to the earth to them. And so it is with every 
 natural man. He does not desire a religion that will raise him above 
 the world, but one that will come down to and consent to his worldly 
 desires and appetites ; least of all does he wish to be raised by means 
 of the cross, by being crucified to the world and the world to him ; 
 to attain to glory through suffering, life through death. Many would 
 believe him if he would show himself to be the King of Israel by 
 coming down from the cross ; for what communion is there, in the 
 eyes of the natural man, between sovereignty and suffering ? Much 
 of what is said by the chief priests is found, almost word for word, in 
 Psalm xxii. ; and it is particularly deserving of attention, from its 
 connection with the context. At the 8th verse we read, “ He trusted 
 on the Lord that he would deliver him : let him deliver him, seeing 
 he delighted in him.” It immediately follows : “ But thou art he 
 that took me out of the womb.” This is the key to the mystery of 
 the Lord’s seemingly unheeded sufferings and humiliation, but one 
 that the natural man will not consider, and does not comprehend. 
 The new birth is the end which Divine Providence has in view in 
 permitting sufferings which, to the righteous, are indeed as the pains 
 of a woman in travail, who hath sorrow when her hour is come, but 
 who, as soon as her child is born, remembereth no more her anguish, 
 for joy that a man is born into the world. 
 
 44. But the thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same 
 in his teeth. We have already stated ( y . 38) that these two thieves repre- 
 sented the same as the sheep and the goats. This rests on the relation 
 of Luke, who says (xxiii. 39) that one of the malefactors railed on him, 
 while the other acknowledged and prayed to him. It is an opinion 
 that both thieves had at first joined in the reproaches of the spectators, 
 but that one of them had been converted on the cross. If such had 
 been the case, we can hardly imagine so interesting a fact would have 
 been passed over unnoticed. We do not well see how the penitent 
 thief could have rebuked his companion for conduct of which he 
 
056 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXVII. 
 
 himself had just been guilty. Nor are we to overlook the great 
 improbability of an entire change of state in so brief a space. It 
 seems more consistent to suppose that one evangelist mentions the 
 circumstance in a general, and another in a special manner. So much 
 for the mere historical sense. The spiritual sense no doubt required 
 both relations to supply a complete basis for itself. To see the spiritual 
 sense, we must, in the first place, consider these two thieves as repre- 
 senting two classes of sinners — one representing those who are in evil 
 and falsity, the other representing those who are in falsity but not in 
 evil. In the historical sense, therefore, they represent the Jews and 
 the Gentiles. Matthew and Mark, who speak of both thieves reviling 
 the Lord, describe them as they were in their first state, both included 
 under sin : but Luke, who gives the account of the penitent thief, 
 describes them in their second state, when the Gentiles acknowledged 
 the Lord, and were accepted as his future church, and the Jews, by 
 persisting in unbelief, forfeited their election, and became reprobate. 
 There is an analogous view of this incident in reference to the regen- 
 eration of man, the gospels describing the progress of this work ; but 
 under the present passage we are hardly justified in pursuing it, for 
 the subject here treated of is the first phase, when the light and the 
 darkness are yet undivided. 
 
 45. And now, as if the moral darkness by which the dying Saviour 
 was surrounded and assailed were not enough to try his troubled soul, 
 the sun of nature hides his face, and the most alarming and oppressive 
 of all gloom — that which suddenly overspreads the world at noonday 
 — comes to complete the scene of horror and desolation. Now from 
 the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. 
 The sixth hour of the J ewish day was noon. The spiritual darkness 
 of which this natural darkness was but the image is repeatedly spoken of 
 in the prophets. “ And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the 
 Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will 
 darken the earth in the clear day ” (Amos viii. 9). The darkness that 
 fell upon the scene of the crucifixion was an emblem of the state of 
 falsity, and of evil derived from it, that overspread the whole church; 
 the three hours, also, during which it prevailed signified that the state 
 was full and final, as well as universal. This darkness taking place 
 at noon did not imply that the church was then in the zenith of its 
 glory. The sun that was darkened was the Sun of Righteousness that 
 even then shone from the cross, the closing of their eyes and hearts 
 against whom brought them into darkness. As the outward appear- 
 ances were the shadows also of the Lord’s inward states, this dark- 
 
Chap. XXVII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 657 
 
 ness was the symbol of that horror of great darkness which culminated 
 in despair of the end for which the Saviour was suffering, which 
 formed the extremity of his last temptation, the utmost limit of 
 inward suffering which even the incarnate Word could endure 
 without yielding. 
 
 46. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice , saying , 
 Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani ? that is to say, My God , my God, why 
 hast thou forsaken me l This exclamation is expressive of a deep and 
 awful state, which by us can be but imperfectly understood, and even 
 in our own experience but faintly realized. In all the previous history 
 of the Lord’s last sufferings, we have seen that he was forsaken by 
 men, even by those who were his most devoted followers and friends ; 
 and now we find him at last forsaken by God also. This may 
 present some difficulties to the mind. How could the Lord be 
 forsaken by God when he himself was God as well as man % Was he 
 a different and divine being, or a different person, from that God to 
 whom he uttered this despairing cry % One truth is a sufficient answer 
 to these and all such questions. The Lord united in his person two 
 distinct natures — the divine and the human. The human nature was 
 alone capable of suffering, and of having a sense of being forsaken. 
 We sometimes hear language that seems to imply that the Son, as 
 a divine person, might be forsaken by the Father as a divine 
 person. In states of humiliation the Lord’s human nature had 
 a sense of dependence upon, and even of separation from, his 
 divine nature, although the divine nature dwelt within the 
 human as the soul dwells within the body. These were natural 
 and necessary parts of the Lord’s human experience. It is 
 important to remember that the Lord passed through all human 
 experience, and in order to do so he must have had all human 
 consciousness and sensation. Does not man, in states of severe 
 trial and deep temptation, feel as if he were forsaken of God ? The 
 Lord must have had the same feeling, else his trials would have been 
 unlike ours, and would have provided no succour for us under them. 
 Still, some will think, and perhaps say, But the Divine dwelt within 
 him, as our soul dwells within our body. Yes. But do not we fre- 
 quently speak as we feel, according to the sensations of the body % Man, 
 while possessing an immortal soul, can reason against, and even deny, 
 the soul’s immortality. The consciousness may thus be contrary to 
 the reality. So is it in temptation. The Divine support seems to be 
 withdrawn — the Divine itself to have forsaken us. The words which 
 the Lord uttered on the cross had been uttered by the psalmist in his 
 
 2 u 
 
658 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXVII. 
 
 own states of trial (Ps. xxii. 1), to show that the Lord came to endure 
 and to sanctify human suffering. Temptation in extreme cases pro- 
 ceeds even to despair. Such extreme temptation is necessary to effect 
 the conjunction of the external with the internal man, and, as a 
 consequence, of man with God ; and the conjunction of the internal 
 with the external is regeneration, and the conjunction of man with 
 God is salvation. The union of the human with the Divine in the 
 Lord was the great pattern of this work in man ; for the Lord was 
 glorified as man is regenerated. On this great subject the writings of 
 the church speak with great clearness and power. “ Glorification is 
 the uniting of the humanity of the Lord with the divinity of his 
 Father. This was effected successively and permanently by the 
 passion of the cross. The reason why that real union was fully effected 
 by the passion of the cross is, because it was the last temptation which 
 the Lord underwent during his abode in the world, and conjunc- 
 tion is effected by temptations ; for in them man is, to all appearance, 
 left to himself alone. Yet it is but in appearance, for God is then 
 most present with him in the inmost principles of his mind, and supports 
 him. When, therefore, a person conquers in temptation, he is then 
 most intimately conjoined with God ; and this was the case with the 
 Lord in his union with his Father. That the Lord, during his suffering 
 on the cross, was left to himself, is evident from his exclamation, and 
 also from his own words : ‘ No man taketh my life from me, but I 
 lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power 
 to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father* 
 (John x. 18). It is evident, then, from this, that the Lord did not 
 suffer as to his divinity, but as to his humanity, and that at the time 
 of suffering, the most intimate, and therefore the most complete, union 
 was effected. This may be illustrated by the fact, that whilst man 
 suffers with respect to the body, his soul does not suffer, but only 
 mourns, which mourning God removes after victory, and, as it were, 
 wipes the tears from his eyes.” This union of the Divine and the 
 human in the person of the Lord was the great work of atonement 
 or reconciliation, through which man is atoned, or reconciled to God. 
 
 47. When the Lord uttered the exclamation we have now been 
 considering, Some of them that stood there , when they heard that , said, 
 This man calletli for Elias. This would have been a call from the 
 living to the dead. But they misunderstood him. So does the 
 natural man misunderstand the Word of the Lord, changing its divine 
 into human ideas, and substituting trust in man for trust in God. 
 But Elias was himself a representation of the written Word. What 
 
Chap. XXVII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 659 
 
 then, is spiritually involved in this misunderstanding ? It is, to 
 mistake the dead representatives in the Word for the living principles 
 which they represented, and to imagine that life and power can be 
 derived from that which only symbolized them. 
 
 48. The false principle which the misconception of these persons 
 symbolized, with some is an error, with others persuasion ; for with 
 some it is in the understanding only, with others it is also in the will. 
 Those with whom it is only an error, and not an evil, are represented 
 by the one which ran , and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar , 
 and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. We found that when 
 they offered the Lord vinegar mingled with gall, he would not drink, 
 because to have drunk that mixture would have represented his 
 acceptance of those who are principled in falsity united to evil. But 
 here the Lord is offered vinegar without the gall, and he drinks it, 
 because he accepts those who are in error, when not at the same time 
 in evil. The sponge which contained the vinegar was put upon a 
 reed, to represent that these errors are derived from the letter of the 
 Word by unintentional misinterpretations. From John we learn 
 that this vinegar was given to the Lord to drink, in response to his 
 uttering the words, “ I thirst,” which expressed his desire for the 
 salvation of the human race; and his accepting the vinegar repre- 
 sented his will and his power to save unto the uttermost, by accepting 
 all, whatever errors they may entertain even respecting himself, if 
 their errors are not rooted in evil. 
 
 49. But there is another class who show no active love for the 
 Lord ; no tender desire to satisfy his thirst, even for their own salva- 
 tion; and who would even hinder others from doing so for themselves. 
 These are the rest who said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to 
 save him. Elias appeared with the Lord on the mount, and spoke 
 with him concerning his decease which he should accomplish at J eru- 
 salem. It was a misapprehension, therefore, to suppose that Elias 
 would come to prevent that which he had previously confirmed. So 
 is it a mistake to expect that the written Word can teach salvation 
 by saving the life of the selfhood ; for he who saves his life shall lose 
 it, and he who loses his life shall find it. 
 
 50. J esus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the 
 ghost. Luke tells us what this last utterance of our Lord was: 
 “ Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” In the two 
 separate cries of our Lord we see, both in the character of the 
 feelings expressed and in the language in which the Lord expressed 
 them, the distinction which we have had occasion repeatedly to note, 
 
660 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXYII. 
 
 — the distinction between the Truth and the Good, or between the 
 Lord’s intellectual and voluntary life. The first has reference to the 
 intellectual principle of the humanity; the second to the voluntary 
 principle. The first expresses a sense of being forsaken ; the second, a 
 feeling of confidence : the one expresses fear; the other, love. In the 
 first instance the Lord addresses the Divine by the game of God, in 
 the second by the name of Father ; the first of these being expressive 
 of the Divine Truth, the second of the Divine Good, or the first of 
 the Divine Wisdom, the second of the Divine Love. Although 
 Matthew does not relate the words which the Lord uttered on the 
 second occasion, he uses a term which conveys the same idea that the 
 words express. He says, “Jesus cried with a loud voice,” more 
 literally, with a great voice; and the term great, whenever it occurs 
 in the Word, is expressive of goodness or love; so that a great voice 
 is the voice of love. So here the very sentiment is expressive of love, 
 with its unbounded trust. When the Lord had uttered the great 
 voice, “ he yielded up the ghost ” — he rendered up the spirit into his 
 hands to whom he had commended it. Thus died the Saviour. And 
 what a death was that! When the Lord expired, it was not life, but 
 death itself that died. We do not speak of natural death. The Lord 
 did not come to abolish this death, for natural death did not originate 
 with the fall. He came to abolish spiritual death, the death which 
 man had incurred by eating the forbidden fruit. By assuming our 
 fallen nature, the Lord became subject to this death, or rather, he 
 took this death upon himself ; and this was essentially the death that 
 died upon the cross, and which was within the natural death which 
 the body suffered. “ In that he died, he died unto sin once ” (Rom. 
 vi. 10). This was the great death out of which life was educed. This 
 was the agonizing death which our Lord endured. Natural death, by 
 itself, could have been no terrible endurance to him. In that spiritual 
 death hell originated and had its life; and in causing that death to 
 die, the Saviour had to resist and conquer the whole powers of dark- 
 ness, for death and hell are the same. But the apostle who says of 
 the Lord, “ In that he died, he died unto sin once,” continues, “ but 
 in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.” “ He yielded up the spirit,” 
 and so became united in spirit to the Father; and when his body had 
 risen from the dead, he lived unto God wholly, for the human was 
 then wholly born of and united to the Divine, and became life 
 itself, and the fountain of life to all who, like himself, die unto 
 sin. 
 
 51. When the Lord by his death had finished the work of redemp- 
 
Chap. XXVII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 661 
 
 tion and glorification, the effects of that divine work began to be 
 manifested. And, behold, the veil of the temple vjcls rent in twain from 
 the top to the bottom. This was evidently a miracle wrought for the 
 sake of its significance. The temple, we know, was a symbol of the 
 Lord’s body; and the Divinity that dwelt within the veil was the hidden 
 Divinity that dwelt in the temple of the Lord’s humanity. When 
 death rent asunder the veil of mortality within which the eternal 
 Divinity dwelt in the person of the Lord, one grand purpose of the 
 incarnation was accomplished — an immediate communication was 
 opened between God and man. We say immediate, because, although 
 the Lord’s humanity is a medium, or a mediator, between God and 
 man, yet, being divine-human, it brings the divine and the human — 
 God and man — into the most direct and intimate saving relation to 
 each other. This holy event was indeed represented in the temple 
 and tabernacle service, and is clearly pointed out in the apostolic 
 writings. In the epistle to the Hebrews we read — “ There was a 
 tabernacle made . . . and after the second veil, the tabernacle which 
 is called the Holiest of all. . . . Into the second went the high priest 
 alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, 
 and for the errors of the people : the Holy Ghost this signifying , that 
 the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest. . . . But 
 Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater 
 and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands ... by his 
 own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained 
 eternal redemption for us” (Heb. ix. 2, 3, 7, 8, 11, 12). “Having 
 therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of 
 Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, 
 through the veil, that is to say, his flesh ; and having an high priest over 
 the house of God ; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance 
 of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our 
 bodies washed with pure water ” (Heb. x. 19). Thus the rending of the 
 veil symbolized the glorification of the Lord’s humanity; and the veil is 
 said to have been rent from the top to the bottom, to represent the 
 completeness of that divine work by which the humanity was glorified 
 for ever, from first principles to ultimates. The rending of the veil 
 represented also the effects of the Lord’s glorification — in rending the 
 veil of the letter, which gave access to the internal of the Word; in 
 rending the veil of ceremonial worship, by which an internal church 
 could exist; and in rending the veil of appearances in the human 
 mind, by which a way was opened to the internal man, so that from 
 being natural he might become spiritual. The entire change in the 
 
6G2 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXVII. 
 
 state of the church is further described by the words ; and the earth did 
 quake, and the rocks rent. The earth means the church, and an earth- 
 quake signifies the entire subversion of the church. The change in 
 the state of the church which was effected by the Lord’s advent was. 
 very different from all previous changes from one dispensation to 
 another. All pre-existing churches were representative churches : 
 they saw truth in the shade. After the incarnation the church was 
 actual, and saw truth in the light. 
 
 52, 53. A further result of the Lord’s crucifixion was that the 
 graves were opened ; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose , 
 and came out of the graves after his resurrection , and went into the holy 
 city, and appeared unto many. This opening of the graves and 
 resurrection of the saints were not material but spiritual events. 
 Had it been a natural transaction, would not these open graves have 
 been seen % and would not risen saints — the first-fruits of the Lord’s 
 resurrection — have been afterwards found amongst the disciples ? 
 But not one word more is ever said about these liberated tenants 
 of the tomb. The relation describes two results of the Lord’s 
 finished work. The graves here spoken of were the places in the 
 intermediate region of the spiritual world where spirits were in 
 prison, waiting to be delivered by the Lord at his coming. These 
 were the prisoners, so often mentioned in the prophets, whom the 
 Lord the Redeemer was to bring forth out of the prison-house. 
 Death and the grave frequently in the Word mean the state of those 
 who are politically or spiritually dead and buried. Thus, in Ezek. 
 xxxvii. 12: “Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and 
 cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land 
 of Israel . . . and shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall 
 
 live.” This relates literally to the restoration of the Israelitish 
 people from captivity, though in the internal historical sense it 
 relates to the same event in the spiritual world, to which the 
 evangelist refers. To this event the Lord himself alludes when he 
 says in John — “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the 
 which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come 
 forth ; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life ; and they 
 that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (ch. v. 28, 29). 
 The risen saints, it is said, went “ into the holy city, and appeared 
 unto many.” Risen saints appeared, indeed, in Jerusalem to some in 
 vision. But as the event relates to the spiritual world, in which it 
 actually took place, the opening of the graves, and the rising of the 
 saints, and their appearing in the holy city, signify the deliverance of 
 
Chap. XXVII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW 
 
 663 
 
 the faithful from the lower earth in the world of spirits, and their 
 elevation into heaven. In the spiritual sense, this opening of the 
 graves and rising of many of the saints signified the spiritual resur- 
 rection of regeneration, which the Lord’s finished work had provided 
 for, and which was its final cause. To describe this saving effect of 
 the Lord’s glorification, a resurrection of the saints only is spoken of. 
 Yet it may be asked, How, in this case, can the saints be said to be 
 dead and buried 1 ? or, LIow can those who are dead in trespasses and 
 sins be called by that holy name ? In the spiritual sense persons 
 signify principles. And man’s spiritual resurrection consists in the 
 holy principles of truth and goodness being raised out of his natural 
 into his spiritual mind. These principles are man. In the natural 
 mind they are dead, even buried; it is only when raised up into the 
 spiritual mind that they acquire life and liberty. Spiritual resurrec- 
 tion always implies the pre-existence of this element of true humanity. 
 It may exist but as a germ, but exist it must. Therefore the dead 
 and buried are always supposed to be capable of hearing the divine 
 voice that calls them forth. Thus in John: “The hour is coming, 
 and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God : 
 and they that hear shall live” (v. 25). 
 
 54:. Now when the centurion , and they that were with him , watching 
 J esus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared 
 greatly, saying , Truly this was the Son of God . These Gentile soldiers 
 represented the Gentile world, who were about to receive the Lord as 
 their Saviour, whom the Jews had so entirely rejected. It may 
 naturally seem that the Romans could have had very imperfect ideas 
 of what their confession involved ; but the effect of the Lord’s 
 character — the power of the divine sphere with which he was sur- 
 rounded — was such as to produce extraordinary impressions upon 
 impressible minds. But their acknowledgment does not necessarily 
 imply a true knowledge of the divine character of Jesus. It only 
 implies that they were struck with the conviction that he was a Son 
 of God, according to their own ideas of divine sonship ; although it 
 may be understood that they now admitted Jesus to be, what in the 
 course of these events they had heard him accused of having claimed 
 to be, the Son of God. The definite article is not here used before 
 “ God ” and “ Son.” In this respect the confession of these Romans 
 differs from the famous confession of Peter (Matt. xvi. 16), where the 
 language has the definite form, which is, too, expressive of a definite 
 idea. But, perhaps, this more vague language of these Gentile soldiers 
 better expresses the more general and obscure light then diffused 
 
ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 GG4 
 
 [Chap. XXVII. 
 
 through the Gentile world ; as also the nature of the first perception 
 of this divine truth in every Gentile mind. 
 
 55, 56. Besides the centurion and those that were with him, there 
 were others who looked with deeper interest on the scene. And 
 many women were there beholdiny afar off, which followed J esus from 
 Galilee, ministering unto him : among which was Mary Magdalene, and 
 Mary the mother of Jam.es and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's 
 children. These were some of the devoted women who were disciples 
 of the Lord, and whose characters shine forth with such heavenly 
 lustre in the sacred page. Unlike the men, they were mute specta- 
 tors. Silence best befitted, as it best expressed, their feelings. And 
 they themselves represent the feelings, the affections, of the devoted 
 heart. As the centurion and his men represent the intellectual prin- 
 ciples of the Gentile church, these women represent the will principle 
 of the Gentile church. They are therefore said to have come from 
 Galilee (of the Gentiles), which, we have seen (ch. ii. 22), represented 
 the Gentile element. The three Marys represent the three affections — 
 the celestial, the spiritual, and the natural. They ministered unto the 
 Lord. Ministering is the work of the affections of the heart, as serv- 
 ing is the work of the thoughts of the understanding. We minister 
 unto the Lord when, for his sake, we do good from love. 
 
 57, 58. Another pious minister was Joseph of Arimathrea. When the 
 even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathcea, named Joseph, who 
 also himself was Jesus disciple : he went to Pilate, and begged the body of 
 Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. “ When the 
 even was come” he went to Pilate and sought the body of Jesus. 
 Joseph was a second Nicodemus. He also was a master in Israel and 
 a disciple of Jesus ; yet secretly, for fear of the Jews (John xix. 38), 
 Nicodemus, at the commencement of the Lord’s ministry, came 
 secretly to him during the night to learn some of the mighty truths 
 Jesus was teaching in public. And now, when the Lord had sealed 
 his testimony with his blood, these two secret but faithful disciples 
 came forward to perform his funeral rites. While Joseph furnished 
 the sepulchre, Nicodemus supplied the spices ; and these two pious 
 men embalmed the body, and laid it in the tomb (John xix. 38). 
 None of the other male disciples — none even of the twelve — were 
 present ; only the women beheld where he was laid. Providence 
 reserved these two secret converts for this pious duty. We have to 
 consider what is meant by this, what is here related of Joseph of 
 Arimathsea. We have first a description of Joseph himself. He was 
 a rich man — rich in the knowledge of the truths of the Word. He 
 
Chap. XXVII] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 665 
 
 was of Arimathaea. It is not known where or what this place was. 
 It has been supposed to be the same as Kama. We only know it was 
 “a city of the Jews” (Luke xxiii. 51), which intimates that he was in 
 the good of the doctrine of the church. Everything else recorded of 
 him agrees with this. He was a good man and a just, and had not 
 consented to the counsel and deed of his brethren ( v . 50). He waited for 
 the kingdom of God ; he was only an expectant ; yet the other disciples 
 were no more. Looking for a temporal kingdom, it is remarkable that 
 when the ignominious death of Jesus destroyed all hopes of him being 
 the restorer of Israel, his disciples should still have clung to him, and 
 regarded his crucified body with all the tenderness of the most devoted 
 love. This clearly shows that although their understandings were not 
 opened to understand the Lord’s truth, their hearts had been brought 
 under the power of the Lord’s love. But why should this pious duty 
 of burying the Lord’s body have been performed by one who had not 
 openly followed or even avowed him ? It is evident that none but 
 an opulent or dignified Jew could have had sufficient influence with 
 Pilate to obtain from him possession of the body of Jesus. There was 
 a spiritual, even if there had been no natural reason, why Jesus, while 
 put to death by his enemies, should be buried by his friends. It was 
 necessary that the Lord’s crucified body should be buried, not only by 
 a disciple, but by one who stood in the relation to him that Joseph or 
 Nicodemus did. Burial signifies resurrection. It signifies also, and 
 proximately, the rejection of the old man as the necessary precursor of 
 the resurrection of the new ; for the old man must die, that the new 
 man may live. "We find, therefore, in the apostolic writings, two 
 distinct thoughts expressed, and two distinct regenerative acts repre- 
 sented by the Lord’s burial and his resurrection. The apostle Paul 
 says, “We are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as 
 Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even 
 so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been 
 planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the 
 likeness of his resurrection ” (Bom. vi. 4, 5). “Wherefore, my brethren,” 
 he says again, “ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ ; 
 that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from 
 the dead ” (Rom. vii. 4). The reason, then, it would appear, why 
 Joseph of Arimathsea and Nicodemus buried the body of Jesus, 
 was that they themselves were connected with the Jewish church 
 actually, and only to the Christian church potentially. The burial 
 of the Lord’s body signified the putting off of the residue of the 
 humanity from the mother ; and this residue belonged to the old dis- 
 
6G6 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Ciiap. XXVII. 
 
 pensation, and not to the new. It was meet, therefore, that men that 
 belonged to the old, should embalm and lay his sacred body in the 
 tomb. Yet it is no less meet that while they were in the old 
 Jewish dispensation, they should not be of it. Externally belonging 
 to the old, and internally to the new, they were the links that con- 
 nected the past with the future, and were therefore the suitable 
 mediums through whom the Lord passed from the one to the other. 
 They did not merely stand between the future of the Christian church 
 and the past of the Jewish, but between the past and the future of all 
 time ; between the two great epochs which the incarnation at once 
 separated and united. We find, therefore, that while these two secret 
 disciples received the Lord at his death, it was his open disciples who 
 received him at his resurrection. Having performed their pious office 
 to their crucified Saviour, we hear of them no more. But those who 
 had forsaken him in his last great trial came again into the relation 
 of disciples, with all their doubts removed, and new light imparted to 
 them. But we have yet to consider the particulars respecting Joseph 
 of Arimathsea. 
 
 59. And when Joseph had taken the body , he wrapped it in a clean 
 linen cloth. The garments of the Lord which the soldiers divided 
 among them represented the letter of the Word. The linen clothes 
 in which Joseph wrapped his body must also have represented the 
 external of the Word ; and as the Lord, when he rose, left them in the 
 tomb (John xx. 6), we must understand them to represent something 
 which served but a temporary use. “Fine linen is the righteousness 
 of saints ” (Bev. xix. 8) ; for genuine truths, which linen garments 
 signify, are the means of acquiring the good of life. The clean linen cloth 
 in which Joseph wrapped the body of Jesus signified the genuine truths 
 of the letter of the Word, as they existed in the Jewish church, but 
 purified from the defilement which the Jews had brought upon it. The 
 clean linen provided by Joseph, and the spices supplied by Nicodemus, 
 unitedly represented the understanding of truth and the affection of 
 good in which the Lord is received by those of the external church. For 
 the Jews to have buried the Lord with their own impious hands in one 
 of their own whited sepulchres would have been an act of aggravated 
 profanation ; and would have represented, not resurrection, but damna- 
 tion; not life, but death. Joseph of Arimathsea, while a sincere 
 disciple of Jesus, was a Jew, whose circumcision was that of the heart 
 in the spirit, and not in the letter ; whose praise was not of men, but 
 of God (Rom. ii. 29). 
 
 CO. Joseph laid the Lord’s body in his own new tomb , which he had 
 
Chap. XXVII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 667 
 
 hewn out in the rock. This new tomb, out of which Jesus was to rise 
 new-born, represented the Word itself, in which the Lord was laid. 
 Yet it was Joseph’s own tomb. It did not, therefore, represent the 
 Word as it had been desecrated and profaned by the Jews, but the 
 Word as apprehended by the pure in heart and holy in life, such as 
 Joseph was. The rock out of which it was hewn was the symbol of 
 divine truth. As Joseph’s own new tomb, and as hewn out of the 
 rock, the tomb represented also the regenerate mind, as made new for 
 the reception of the divine truths of the Word, these divine truths 
 being the rock out of which it was hewn. But there is a sense in 
 which it relates to, and may be realized by, the pure in heart. Jesus 
 even now can be crucified afresh ; and he is so crucified in every truth 
 of his Holy Word that is profaned. Bat there are those who act 
 Joseph’s part, by taking the injured truth and wrapping it in the 
 clean linen of pure thought, and laying it in the new tomb of a con- 
 trite heart, embalmed in their grateful affections ; and those who 
 perform this pious duty will receive it again from the dead. Joseph 
 further rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre. This stone 
 represented the literal sense of the Word. A stone signifies truth, 
 and the term great is expressive of goodness; so that a great stone is 
 expressive of truth grounded in goodness. Thus the Lord in the 
 tomb, the door of which is closed by a great stone, represented the 
 Lord in his Word, covered, and at the same time protected, by the 
 literal sense — dead to one dispensation, but not yet alive to another. 
 Joseph, when he had performed his pious office, departed. He had 
 accomplished his use, and now retires, perhaps with the impression 
 that he had covered up with the stone the tomb where his own hopes 
 were buried with the crucified body of the Just One. He departs, 
 that God may work in the final, as in every previous stage of the 
 glorification of his humanity, alone. 
 
 61. Two of the Marys who beheld the crucifixion saw also the 
 burial of the Lord. And there was Mary Magdalene , and the other 
 Mary , sitting over against the sepulchre. These signify those who are 
 in celestial and spiritual affection of love and truth. They are said 
 to sit; for this posture signifies an interior state — one of settled 
 intention, and is here expressive of interior devotion to the Lord in 
 the hope of his resurrection in the heart. These loving ones had not, 
 perhaps, any such hope. It was their hour of darkness, and despair 
 rather than hope filled their hearts; but where there is love there is 
 everything, which will be brought forth in due time, as the ways of 
 God’s providence advance. 
 
668 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXVIII. 
 
 62-66. But another of the contrasts that so frequently stand out in 
 the New Testament history comes again into view. The Lord’s 
 pious disciples having, as they supposed, performed the last rites to 
 him whom they regarded with extinguished hope, but with un- 
 diminished love, had left the tomb to its own silent tenant. But if 
 the disciples had relinquished all hope, the Jews had not lost all fear. 
 They remembered, what the disciples most unaccountably seem to have 
 utterly forgotten, that J esus, while he was yet alive, had said, A fter three 
 days I will rise again. Verily the children of this world are in their 
 generation wiser than the children of light. The next day, therefore, 
 the chief priests and Pharisees came to Pilate, and having stated their 
 case, and obtained his sanction, went, and made the sepulchre sure , 
 sealing the stone, and setting a watch. It is not, perhaps, necessary to 
 dwell further upon this than to say, that the priests and Pharisees 
 sealing the stone represented what the Jews had done with the 
 Word, in making it a sealed book in all that related to the Lord and 
 his kingdom, by perverting the letter and denying the spirit, and so 
 doing everything in their power to falsify its promises and negative 
 its teaching. To seal is therefore a figure employed in the Word, 
 signifying to close up, conceal, hinder from being known. The Jews, 
 on this occasion, did what Jesus himself, after his ascension, forbade 
 his servant to do, — “ Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this 
 book: for the time is at hand” (Bev. xxii. 10). But the Jews not 
 only sealed the stone, but set a watch, implying not only their deter- 
 mination, but their vigilant care, to prevent the possibility of the 
 result which they feared so much. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 The evangelist now brings us to the splendid conclusion of that 
 divine history which opens with the birth of the Saviour into the 
 world, and ends with his ascension into heaven. The desires and the 
 hopes of the nations are now realized, though, like many other human 
 desires and hopes, even of the noblest kind, in a manner very different 
 from that in which it had been expected. Prone to trace their 
 miseries and their happiness no further than to the nearest cause, men 
 look for relief and support to external things. By many who looked 
 for redemption to Israel the Lord had been received as the promised 
 deliverer, and followed as their leader to a temporal kingdom, in 
 which all grievances were to be redressed, and all desirable blessings 
 
Chap. XXVIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 669 
 
 -were to be enjoyed. That vision had died away; but out of the 
 tomb in which their hopes had been buried one now arises, as the 
 conqueror, not of natural, but of spiritual liberty, and the sovereign, 
 not of a temporal, but an eternal kingdom. This great event — the 
 Lord’s resurrection — had already taken place, unseen by mortal eye. 
 How the knowledge of the risen Saviour came to be communicated to 
 his disciples — how their eyes were opened to see the grand truth, and 
 their hearts to receive it — and how their minds were prepared for 
 proclaiming the great salvation, — this concluding chapter unfolds. 
 
 1 . In the end of the sabbath , as it began to dawn toward the first day 
 of the week , came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the 
 sepulchre. The Sabbath of the Jewish church was the highest repre- 
 sentative of the' Lord’s glorification. The six days in which God 
 is said to have created the world are expressive of the states through 
 which the Lord passed while engaged in the work of Redemption; 
 and the Sabbath, in which God is said to have rested, is expressive of 
 the rest into which the Lord entered when that stupendous work was 
 completed. It would seem to be appropriate, therefore, that the Lord’s 
 life of labour and temptation should end with the sixth day of the 
 Jewish week, that he should rest in the grave during the Jewish 
 Sabbath, and that he should rise from the dead on the morning of the 
 first day of a new week, thence to be called the Lord’s day, and be 
 thereafter consecrated as the Christian Sabbath. As the last Sabbath 
 of the old dispensation departed and the first of the new drew near, 
 the two Marys came to see the sepulchre. “The last at the cross and 
 the first at the sepulchre,” the female disciples of the Lord will ever 
 be conspicuous in the Word, and honoured in the church, as the 
 patterns of affectionate and devoted attachment to the Lord Jesus, 
 when “ despised and rejected of men.” Suitable types are they of the 
 pure and ardent affections of the regenerate heart, which go out while 
 it is yet dark to see the sepulchre where the body of Jesus is laid, 
 which go in the hour of mental obscurity and temptation, to see the 
 Divine Word, where love has its centre and hope has its grave. 
 Theirs was a pilgrimage of devotion, to weep over the dead, and pour 
 some fresh ointment over one whom they desired to preserve, but 
 dreamt not of being able to restore. 
 
 2. But when they came, behold , there was a great earthquake : for 
 the angel of the Lord descended from heaven , and came and rolled back 
 the stone from the door , and sat upon it. Their minds must have 
 received as great a shock as the earth by the convulsion. A new and 
 unexpected scene was presented to their sight, in which wonder and 
 
670 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXVIII. 
 
 joy must Lave been contending emotions. But let us consider the 
 spiritual import of these extraordinary circumstances. The earthquake 
 betokened an entire change in the state of the church, and of the 
 world itself. It was the fulfilment of the prophecies, “the earth 
 shook and trembled — the foundations of the earth are out of course — 
 the earth is moved out of its place.” “ The angel of the Lord had 
 descended from heaven.” Who was this angel 1 As angels derive 
 from the Lord all that is angelic in their nature, an angel in the 
 Word means some attribute of the Lord himself. This angel had 
 descended from heaven to roll away the stone from the door of the 
 sepulchre. We know that no angel was needed for this purpose, 
 except for the representative use that required it. For the Lord 
 who rose from the dead could have burst open the sepulchre, or could 
 have come forth without disturbing the stone, as he entered into the 
 room where the disciples were assembled without opening the door. 
 But when we know that the stone on the mouth of the sepulchre re- 
 presented the letter of the Word, and that the Word must be unsealed, 
 and the letter, as it were, removed, in order that the Lord may come 
 forth in the power and glory of his resurrection, we can see a suf- 
 ficient spiritual reason, though there be no sufficient natural reason, 
 for the removal of the stone by an angel, who should represent the 
 Divine power itself; for who can break the seal and open the Word 
 but the Lord alone ? When the strong angel proclaimed, Who is 
 worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? no one in 
 heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the 
 book, neither to look thereon. The Lamb who was in the midst of the 
 throne was alone found worthy to take the book, and to open the 
 seals thereof (Rev. v. 2, 3, 9). But the angel, after he had rolled away 
 the stone, sat upon it. The power of the spirit of the Word resting 
 upon and teaching from the letter, is meant by the angel sitting upon 
 the stone, as the Lord sat on Jacob’s well and instructed the 
 woman of Samaria. 
 
 3. This angel is described as the Lord himself in his glory is de- 
 scribed. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as 
 snow. The countenance, as it is the index, so is it the symbol, of the 
 mind, thus of the interiors, more especially as to love and goodness. 
 But the original term is not limited in its signification to the face, 
 but includes the aspect of the whole person. As the countenance 
 signifies good, garments signify truths that invest good. As this 
 angel represents the Lord as to the power of the Word, his counte- 
 nance signifies the celestial sense, his raiment the spiritual sense, as 
 
Chap. XXVIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 671 
 
 the stone on which he sat denotes the literal sense. Therefore his 
 countenance is said to be like lightning, and his raiment white as 
 snow ; for the countenance is expressive of interior love, seen in the 
 light of celestial truth, and this truth, like lightning, is a burning as 
 well as a shining light, while spiritual truth is comparatively a snowy 
 white, because comparatively without the warmth of love. 
 
 4. The aspect of the angel produced very different effects on the 
 keepers of the sepulchre and on the women who came to see it. The 
 keepers, indeed, had felt the earthquake and seen the stone, which 
 they had been set to watch, rolled away ; whereas the women saw but 
 the effects, and the angel sitting peacefully on the stone after the 
 shock had passed away. The keepers were the representatives of the 
 old subverted church, the women were the representatives of the new. 
 And for fear of him the keepers did shake , and became as dead men. 
 Shaking signifies the effect of the change upon the understanding, and 
 becoming as dead signifies the effect upon the will. To the under- 
 standing belongs power, to the will life. Fear, which the keepers felt, 
 is an affection common to both. 
 
 5. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: 
 for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. The women had 
 fear, but it was the fear that accompanies love, which is holy fear, but 
 which even love eventually casts out. The angel knew that they 
 sought Jesus ; and those who seek him, under whatever circum- 
 stances, shall receive an answer of peace. And even if they seek him 
 crucified, they will find him risen. 
 
 6. The angel, therefore, continued, — He is not here: for he is risen , 
 as he said. O joyful sound ! not to these pious and adventurous dis- 
 ciples only, but to all his disciples in all ages. If the birth of Jesus 
 was announced as glad tidings of great joy, which should be to all 
 people, should not his resurrection 1 Yes. But his nativity looked 
 forward to all that followed, even to the salvation for which he came 
 into the world. Yet the disciples did not see the connection between 
 his birth and his resurrection. It required a kind of second revela- 
 tion to enable them even to understand it ; so slow of heart is man to 
 believe all the prophets have written respecting the necessity of Christ 
 suffering and entering into his glory. But here is the secret. It is 
 through suffering in us that he is glorified in us. This is one of the 
 truths, therefore, that can only be learned by experience. We must 
 suffer with him, that we may rise with him. The disciple must him- 
 self be risen before he can know him, and the power of his resurrection. 
 Nor is it till then that the disciple can understand that the Lord is 
 
672 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXVI II. 
 
 risen “as he said.” How this must have struck the women ! “As he 
 said.” Verily the operation of the Lord’s Spirit is required to bring 
 all things to their remembrance, whatsoever he has said unto them. 
 While the women were told that the Lord was not there, they were 
 invited to come and see the place where the Lord lay. The “place” 
 where he lay signifies the state of humiliation to which he submitted 
 for our sakes. We look at the place where the Redeemer lay when 
 we look into the Word, in order to contemplate the sufferings, and 
 temptations, and death which he voluntarily underwent for our sakes 
 — when we follow him into the wilderness, and the garden, and to the 
 cross; and when we look at what he endured for our sakes, imperfect 
 as our estimate of his sufferings must be, we cannot but wonder and 
 adore. But while we are invited and enabled to look into the Word, 
 and see described in it the state of humiliation to which for our sakes 
 the Lord submitted, we are at the same time instructed and enabled 
 to see that he is not there, — that, having put off* all infirmity and 
 finiteness, he is risen in a humanity completely glorified. 
 
 7. The angel then said to them : And go quickly , and tell his dis- 
 ciples that he is risen from the dead. The female disciples representing 
 the affections of the will, through which the Lord first flows in with 
 his love, the male disciples represent the thoughts of the understand- 
 ing, which thence receive a perception of truth. We see in this a pro- 
 vidential arrangement. The affections are held under the influence 
 of the Lord’s love in states of trial; and even when the understanding 
 may be clouded with doubts, and almost overcome wffth unbelief, light 
 may be conveyed to it by an internal way, and faith and confidence 
 restored. They were desired further to say : and, behold, he goeth 
 before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. 
 Galilee represented the church among the Gentiles. The Lord went 
 there after his resurrection, to represent that he would be received 
 by the Gentiles, and be acknowledged by them. Galilee represented 
 also the natural mind, which is analogous to the Gentile mind, for 
 the Gentile world forms the natural mind of man collectively, the 
 church forming the spiritual mind. This was that mind which our 
 Lord assumed and glorified in the world. Therefore, when he had 
 risen from the dead he went into Galilee. And there, also, he desires 
 his disciples to go. For as regeneration is an image and effect of the 
 Lord’s glorification, where the Lord goes, there must his disciples go 
 likewise. The Lord goes before them. He leads and directs them 
 thither. He still goes before his disciples into Galilee after his resur- 
 rection. His resurrection signifies that he rises, yea, is every moment 
 
Chap. XXVIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 673 
 
 rising, in the hearts of the regenerate : and those in whose hearts he 
 rises he leads into the good of life ; there they see him ; for they 
 who do his will shall know his truth to be truth. 
 
 8. We read that they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear 
 and great joy ; and did run to bring his disciples word. To depart or 
 go is to live, or carry out a purpose or direction actually ; and to do 
 this quickly is to do it fully and certainly ; for time signifies state, 
 and thence quickly and speedily signifies a present state of affection 
 and thought; thus, what is certain and full. Running also signifies a 
 state of eager affection ; and to run to tell signifies the affection of 
 making known. 
 
 9. And as they went to tell his disciples , behold , Jesus met them , 
 saying , All hail ! The Divine purpose in thus meeting his overjoyed 
 disciples was, no doubt, to give them the assurance of personal sight 
 that he was really risen, and to enable them to carry the glad tidings 
 to their brethren, confirmed by their own experience, and, with the 
 words of Jesus himself upon their lips, require them to go to meet 
 him in Galilee. We can imagine with what excess of astonish- 
 ment and joy these women must have beheld their beloved Lord and 
 Saviour alive. To see him with their own eyes, to hear him with 
 their own ears — what transport of feeling must it have produced; and 
 so soon after they had gone to the sepulchre, to look with blank 
 sorrow on the bloodless body ! And, oh, what blessedness to hear salva- 
 tion sounded in their willing ears ! Health, spiritual, saving health, 
 is the first salutation that issues from his sacred lips — health to them, 
 and to poor diseased and suffering humanity wherever it exists. No 
 wonder that these loving and overjoyed ones came and held him by the 
 feet , and worshipped him. This is supposed by some to mean, not that 
 they actually clung to the person of the Lord, but that they prostrated 
 themselves before him ; and this is supposed to be necessary, to be 
 understood to make the relation consistent with the Lord’s words to 
 Mary alone, “ Touch me not.” It is highly desirable to use all legiti- 
 mate means of harmonizing the literal sense of the Scriptures. But 
 when we are convinced that the letter is designed as a vehicle for the 
 spirit, absolute literal consistency is not to be regarded as an absolutely 
 necessary evidence of the inspiration of the Word, nor of its power of 
 instruction in righteousness. Certain it is, that the words carry the 
 impression which we naturally draw from them ; and it is the mean- 
 ing of the relation, rather than the absolute nature of the fact, that 
 forms the basis of the spiritual sense. Thus considered, their holding 
 Jesus by the feet signifies conjunction with him by the divine natural 
 
 2 x 
 
674 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXVIII. 
 
 principle of his humanity, now glorified; and their worshipping him 
 denotes that they rendered him the homage of their best and purest 
 affections. 
 
 10. Jesus then addresses to them almost the same words which had 
 been addressed to them by the angel : Be not afraid : go tell my 
 brethren that they go into Galilee , and there shall they see me. While 
 this may be regarded as, like all repetitions in the Word, the same 
 thing addressed to a higher or different faculty, flowing from a 
 higher principle, there is one momentous point in which it differs 
 from the other. The Lord calls his disciples his brethren. This 
 expresses a most profound, encouraging, and consolatory truth. It 
 implies that the Lord, by the humanity he assumed and glorified, had 
 come nearer to us — that he had become, so to speak, bone of our bone, 
 and flesh of our flesh. The Creator had taken on himself the form of 
 the creature. And although he Had put off all imperfection and 
 finiteness, he retained all that was really human, and is therefore most 
 truly man as well as God. Having, indeed, made the human divine 
 and the Divine human, the Lord is truly God with us, because he is 
 God-man. Thence the Lord condescends to call his disciples brethren. 
 In the spiritual sense a brother, as distinguished from a disciple, is one 
 who is connected with the Lord by love, as distinguished from one 
 who is connected with him by faith. In the abstract sense a 
 brother is the principle of love, and a disciple is the principle of 
 faith ; so that the same person may be at once a disciple and a 
 brother : and it was because the Lord’s followers were now capable 
 of entering into this more intimate connection and relationship with 
 their Lord that he tenderly invited them as brethren to meet him 
 in Galilee. A distinction similar to that now noticed is involved in 
 servant and friend, — as where the Lord said to his disciples, “ Hence- 
 forth I call you not servants ; for the servant knoweth not what his 
 lord doeth : but I have called you friends ; for all things that I have 
 heard of my Father I have made known unto you” (John xv. 15). 
 
 11-18. At the time these women left the sepulchre, some of the 
 vatch came into the city , and showed unto the chief priests all the things 
 that werp done. When the council were assembled, unable to resist 
 the evidence of the soldiers that the Lord’s resurrection had taken 
 place, they bribed the guard to say that his disciples had stolen him 
 away while his keepers slept — an account that acquired credence aud 
 currency among the Jews. It is needless to use any arguments to 
 refute this theory. They may be found in literal commentaries. The 
 fact presents a melancholy instance of the power of unbelief. Unle- 
 
Chap. XXVIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 67-5 
 
 lie vers often plead want of evidence. Here is an instance of 
 determined unbelief against adnfitted evidence. It is too seldom 
 considered that belief or unbelief is but a means to an end. Belief 
 or unbelief has its roots in the end we have in view — in the ruling 
 love by which we are actuated. Hence that grand doctrine of the 
 church, that faith has no ground but charity, and that where there is 
 no charity, or love, there can be no faith. How marvellously, but 
 painfully, was this exemplified in the whole course of the conduct of 
 the J ewish leaders in relation to Jesus, and most of all in this climax 
 of their cruel hatred and unprincipled opposition to the sinless, the 
 just, the beneficent One! How instructive a lesson does this circum- 
 stance convey ! It tells that the ground of unbelief is in our- 
 selves, that nothing can give us faith that enters no further than 
 the understanding, and that the clearest evidence will be repelled by 
 evil cherished in the heart. And how does this sad relation tend to 
 produce humiliation of heart, when we reflect that these false and 
 malevolent rulers of the Jews are types of evils and falsities that are 
 inherent in our own fallen nature, that rise up against the good and 
 the truth which through divine mercy we may have received. This is 
 an opposition from within that the faithful will ever have to encounter 
 in becoming experimentally convinced of the great truth of the Lord’s 
 resurrection — against his rising in the heart itself. We refrain from 
 a more minute consideration of this part of the history. We are told 
 that the reason that certain passages relating to the sin of profanation 
 are not minutely explained in the writings is, that the angels cannot 
 contemplate this crime, nor even the subject itself, without horror. 
 Let us therefore draw a veil over this last and most presumptuous 
 instance of profanation of the truth relating to Jesus the Saviour by 
 the Jews. 
 
 16. We proceed to the more agreeable and still more useful subject 
 of the Lord’s meeting with his disciples. Then the eleven disciples went 
 away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. 
 In the order of the history as derived from a comparison, and what is 
 called a harmony, of the gospels, this is not understood to be the first 
 meeting between the apostles and Jesus after his resurrection. 
 Matthew has recorded only this one meeting, his gospel ending with 
 it, without including the account of the ascension, when the greatest 
 number of his disciples were assembled at once in his presence after 
 his resurrection. It is certain, however, that Matthew has brought 
 into the account of this one meeting circumstances that belong to 
 several, which shows how subordinately the sacred writers, or rather 
 
676 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXYIII. 
 
 the Spirit which guided them, regarded mere historical accuracy, 
 on which the mere literalist lays so much stress. Jesus met his 
 disciples in a mountain in Galilee. Galilee, we have seen, represented 
 the glorified natural principle in the Lord, and consequently the* 
 regenerate natural principle in man. This is the ground on which 
 the Lord and his disciples meet after his resurrection ; and this meet- 
 ing in Galilee was the meeting, the one that had been alluded to by 
 Jesus, even before his death, “ I will go before you into Galilee ” 
 (ch. xxvi. 32). But this meeting took place in a mountain, to repre- 
 sent that love is the basis of the conjunction of the Lord and man — 
 the very principle in and by which they are united. And what is this 
 natural principle as to love in which there is union 1 The Lord him- 
 self expressed it when he said, “ If ye keep my commandments, ye 
 shall abide in my love ” (John xv. 10). The natural principle, though 
 the last in order, is not the least in importance. There are, indeed, 
 two things in the order of succession, which are the best and the 
 greatest — the first and the last ; the first, where every good begins as 
 an end, and the last, where it terminates as a use. When the Lord 
 met his disciples in the mountain in Galilee, he gave us a sign, “ that 
 all religion has relation to life, and that the life of religion is to do 
 good.” 
 
 17. The meeting between the Lord and his disciples in the moun- 
 tain in Galilee must have been an affecting one, if such an ordinary 
 term can be applied to a meeting between Jesus and his disciples, who 
 now had found all their temporal ideas and feelings cast into the 
 shade, and higher views and purer motives dawning, at least, upon 
 their hearts and minds. No wonder, then, that when they saw him , 
 they worshipped him. There are several other cases recorded, in this 
 and the other gospels, of Jesus being worshipped. We have not 
 hitherto said much on this point, and cannot enter largely into it here. 
 Nor is it necessary. The divinity of the Lord is so convincingly 
 provable, and proved by every direct and indirect evidence, that it is 
 not difficult to discover in such passages as this another evidence of 
 that great truth. It is true that the word here employed is used to 
 express a kind of worship that is also paid to men, as in Matt, xviii. 
 26 ; but this is the same word that expresses the worship which Peter 
 deprecated when offered by Cornelius (Acts x. 28), and which the 
 angel refused when offered him by John, and which that celestial 
 messenger desired him to render to God, as its only proper Object 
 (Rev. xix. 10). Jesus never refused worship, even when offered by 
 all the host of heaven (see Rev. v., vi., &c). In accepting, then, on 
 
 ♦ 
 
Oiiap. XXVIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 677 
 
 this and other occasions, the homage which men and angels refused, 
 he practically acknowledged himself to be God, the supreme Object 
 of human worship. But it is not necessary to pursue this 
 subject further. We assume that members of the true Christian 
 church have settled views on this all-important point.. It is 
 enough to know that Jesus is the True God and Eternal Life ; 
 supreme worship becomes his due as a consequence. Every one 
 worships the Lord according to his state ; and whatever may have 
 been the character of the worship of the disciples then, worship by the 
 Christian disciple is the worship of Christ as God. It is of much 
 importance here to know what the worship is which the disciples 
 render to J esus. The quality of the worship we offer is of still more 
 importance than the understood character of the Object of our worship. 
 Worship is the practical homage of all the thoughts and affections to 
 Him who is their Author. To worship is to serve ; and we only truly 
 worship the Lord when every affection of good and perception of truth 
 is employed, in word and act, in his service — in doing his will. While 
 the disciples generally worshipped the Lord, some doubted . It is 
 probable, as some suppose, that the eleven were not the only disciples 
 who met the Lord on this occasion ; for no one but Thomas had with- 
 held belief. However, some doubted. And these doubters represent 
 some doubts that may trouble even the sincere worshipper. And what 
 are doubts but contradictions in ourselves to the unity and harmony 
 of truth % — contradictions not in the perceptions only, but in the affec- 
 tions also ; doubts that haunt many a mind, and that only depart as 
 the Lord gains an ascendency in the heart and life, or is glorified in 
 our souls and in our bodies, which are his. 
 
 18. When the disciples worshipped the Lord, then Jesus came and 
 spake unto them. It appears from this that at the very sight of Jesus, 
 while they were yet at some distance from him, they fell down and 
 worshipped him ; and that, while they were thus engaged in adoration, 
 Jesus drew near to them. The scene is impressive; but the relation 
 itself is instructive. It reminds us of the promise, “ Draw nigh to 
 God, and he will draw nigh to you” (James iv. 8). Nearness is 
 proximity of state ; and true worship brings him near who was before 
 afar off’, and makes him, when near, still nearer. And what words 
 those were which the Lord addressed to his adoring disciples ! All 
 power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. These words are 
 indeed of the highest significance, and teach the greatest truth — one 
 of the highest, if not the very highest, ever delivered by God to man. 
 They teach the truth that Jesus Christ is the great and only God, the 
 
678 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXVIII. 
 
 Governor of heaven and earth — that is, of the whole spiritual and 
 material universe. This truth is precious for what it contains, which 
 is not merely the fact that Christ is God, but that God is in Christ — 
 the eternal Divinity exercising all its powers in and by the Divine 
 humanity. What must have been the impression of the disciples 
 when they heard this declaration from the lips of Jesus ! They had 
 seen him, they had followed him, they had been with him in his 
 temptations, and he had called them brethren ; and now he tells 
 them that he with whom they had become familiar had all power in 
 heaven and in earth. This is just the value of this great truth — that 
 Jesus, who has entered into all our states and sympathies, is Ruler 
 over the two worlds to which we belong, one of which we live in for 
 a time here, the other in which we are to live hereafter for ever. 
 Need we say one word on the seeming incompatibility of this language 
 with that of supreme divinity ? How could he possess independent 
 divine power when he only received it ? To all such questions it is 
 enough to answer, This language is equally inconsistent with the 
 notions either of Christ’s being a second divine person or a mere man. 
 A divine person could not receive such power; a mere human person 
 could not contain it. The Lord’s declaration can only be rationally 
 understood on the principle that the power of the Lord’s divinity was 
 given to his humanity. This humanity was not the same as that of a 
 mere man. “A body hast thou prepared for me,” was pronounced 
 from heaven in anticipation of the incarnation. The body which 
 became the temple of the Divinity was prepared even in the womb of 
 the virgin, by being begotten by that very power of the Highest, of 
 which it had now become the sole possessor, and was raised from the 
 dead by that same power. The humanity was thus a temple budded 
 by the Divinity as a residence for itself, and now the power of the 
 Divine is in the human, as all the power of the human soul is in the 
 human body. Thus the power, like the presence, of God is with us 
 in the humanity of Christ, that is kindred to our own. But there is 
 another truth with this general one. Heaven and earth mean 
 spiritually not only the church in heaven and the church on earth, 
 they mean also the two corresponding parts and principles in every 
 member of the church — the internal man, which is heaven in him, 
 and his external man, which is earth in him. Jesus has all power in 
 both; and his possession of power in these is to be contrasted with 
 the power of which they were the subjects before the incarnation. 
 Before God was manifest in the flesh, the Divine power in man was 
 operative mediately through heaven, and men were ruled through 
 
Chap. XXVIII.] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 679 
 
 angels, for these were nearest to him; hut since the Lord’s glorifica- 
 tion, the Divine power is operative immediately through the humanity 
 in which God dwells, and in which he is immediately and intimately 
 present with him, and he is therefore now ruled by the Lord himself. 
 The Lord as a man is nearer to us than angels are — and when I speak 
 of nearness, I do not mean nearness in space, but nearness in nature 
 — for the Lord has a humanity, not only spiritual, like that of angels, 
 but natural, like that of men — always understanding that, when we 
 speak of the Lord’s natural humanity, we mean divine-natural — a 
 humanity analogous to ours, but as much more perfect as the Creator 
 is more perfect than the creature. 
 
 19. When the Lord had thus instructed his disciples regarding the 
 power which he had acquired by glorification, and which he was now 
 to exercise in and amongst them, he gave them the commission on 
 which they were to act. Go ye , therefore , and teach all nations. 
 When first sent forth to preach the gospel of the kingdom, they were 
 required to go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel ; now they 
 are commanded to go into all the world. These two commissions 
 were consistent with the different conditions in which they then stood. 
 Their first labour was to be bestowed upon the internal ; now it was 
 to be extended to the external also. And their commission was to 
 teach all nations. Nations, meaning naturally the heathen, spiritually 
 signify those who are in states of good, especially of simple good, for 
 these only are in the desire, and thence in the capacity to receive 
 truth. In the abstract sense nations signify the principles themselves 
 of good in the external or natural mind, as the lost sheep of the house 
 of Israel signify the principles of good in the internal or spiritual 
 mind; so that we are here instructed that even in ourselves we are to 
 see that there is good to receive truth, and to see that where there is 
 good it ought to be supplied with truth, to enlighten and guide it — 
 in fact, to save it — for natural good is only made spiritual and saving 
 by means of truth. The disciples were further commanded to baptize 
 the nations whom they instructed. There can be no doubt that this 
 command has reference to the formal baptism of all who receive the 
 Christian faith, or are admitted into the Christian church. It is not our 
 object to consider baptism as a Christian sacrament, to be administered 
 in the Christian church. The doctrine of the church, as well as the 
 words of the Lord, declare this to be of perpetual obligation, and to 
 be of importance to us, both as a sign of introduction into the 
 Christian church, and, at the same time, of connection with the 
 church in heaven, and a memorial that the person baptized with water 
 
680 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXVIII. 
 
 is to be regenerated by the truth and the Spirit of truth. Spiritual 
 baptism, therefore, which is the antitype and the end of water baptism, 
 is the washing of regeneration. Baptism was to be performed in the 
 name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. These are 
 three names of the one Divine Being; but they are the names of three 
 distinct principles or essentials of his nature. The Father is the 
 Essential Divinity, the Son is the Divine Humanity, and the Holy 
 Spirit is the Divine Operation of the Father and the Son. In a more 
 interior but harmonious sense, the Father is the Divine Love, the 
 Son is the Divine Wisdom, and the Holy Spirit is the Divine Power. 
 Those who were taught were to be baptized in the name of these. 
 And when we reflect that in the Word a name of any person or thing 
 means the quality of that person or thing, we are enabled to understand 
 the instructive import of this command. For to baptize in the name 
 of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is to regenerate by the com- 
 munication and reception of love from God, of wisdom from God, and 
 power from God. But to see the full significance of this formula, we 
 must further consider that man was created an image of God, and 
 that he can not only be restored to the Divine image, but renewed in 
 all the parts or faculties of his nature, by the reception into them of 
 a finite measure of the qualities or principles that make up the perfect 
 nature of God. Man has a will, created after the likeness and 
 adapted for the reception of God’s love; he has an understanding, 
 created after the image and adapted for the reception of God’s wis- 
 dom; and he has the faculty of acting, created after the image and 
 adapted to the reception of God’s power. Now, man is regenerated 
 when he receives of God’s love into his will, of God’s wisdom into his 
 understanding, and of God’s power into his words and works. 
 Nothing can baptize the heart but love, nothing can baptize the 
 understanding but wisdom, and nothing can baptize the life but the 
 power of these principles manifested in a life of true holiness. This 
 is the baptism of the soul, and that which makes us members of the 
 Lord’s body. 
 
 20. The disciples were to teach the nations, or the baptized of them, 
 to observe all things whatsoever the Lord had commanded them. Salva- 
 tion can only be secured by doing all things which the Lord has com- 
 manded in his teaching — that is, throughout his whole Word, of which 
 he is the Author. But the force of this part of the Lord’s commission 
 depends on the circumstance that baptism is to be followed up by thi3 
 teaching. A teaching is to precede baptism, and another is to succeed 
 it. The first is a teaching of principles, the second of duties, or, what 
 
Chap. XXVIIL] 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 681 
 
 is the same, the first is a teaching of the internal, the second a teach- 
 ing of the external. Further, the teaching which is to follow baptism 
 is the teaching of duties that are to follow baptism, on the prin- 
 ciple that, unless the regenerate continue faithful in persevering 
 holiness to the end of life, there can be no salvation. “ He that 
 putteth his hand to the plough and looketh back, is not fit for the 
 kingdom of God.” And how encouraging is the final promise of 
 the Lord to his faithful followers ! A nd , lo , I am with you alway , 
 even unto the end of the world . The Lord promised to be with his 
 disciples at the very time he was about to leave them. Here we see 
 the difference between real and apparent, between spiritual and bodily 
 presence. Well was this difference stated by the Lord himself in the 
 course of his teaching. When promising his faithful ones that when 
 he went away from them he would send another Comforter, even the 
 Spirit of truth, saying at the same time, I will not leave you comfort- 
 less ; / will come unto you; he says respecting the Spirit, “For he 
 dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John xiv. 17). It is this 
 presence of the Lord in his disciples that is the real source of their com- 
 fort and power. It was this presence that the Lord promised. And this 
 presence they were to enjoy to the end of the world. In the general 
 meaning, the saving presence of the Lord with his people till the end 
 of the church is promised. The world does not mean even literally the 
 world as the habitation of man, the theatre of human action, — it means 
 the age, the religious dispensation, the consummation of which is meant 
 by the end. In reference to the members of the church individually, 
 the end of their age is the end of life with those who persevere unto 
 the end ; for those who are faithful unto death, to them the Lord will 
 give a crown of life. But with all the Lord is present unto the end. 
 He never withdraws his presence from any. The Lord’s words, 
 literally rendered, are still more expressive and comforting. “ I am 
 with you all the days, even unto the consummation of the age.” He 
 is with his church and people in all their states, to enlighten them 
 with his truth, to influence them with his love, and to support 
 them with his power. If the church declines, he never leaves her, 
 but continues to be with her, and watch over her, even till her end 
 comes, when she rejects him, and brings an end upon herself. If 
 the member of the church, who has been baptized in the sacred name 
 of the Lord, falls away, and turns to the beggarly elements of the 
 world, the Lord is even with him alway, even to the end of his state. 
 But let us endeavour so to sanctify our minds and lives by the in- 
 fluence of his Spirit, and by the teaching of his Word, that we may 
 
682 
 
 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 [Chap. XXYIII. 
 
 know no end but that which Providence appoints us, when we have 
 completed our course here below, and are called into the higher 
 mansions of his house, where we may be with him alway, for ever. 
 
 Amen. Although this does not appear to be a part of the inspired . 
 text, it may be considered as the response of the church, by which it 
 has been added. Even so, let us desire, and pray, and labour to secure 
 the fulfilment of this -divine promise — that Jesus may be our portion 
 in time and in eternity. 
 
 THE LIDRA3Y GF THE 
 
 SEP 2 
 
 IG' - ' 
 
 \Ziy. 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.