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Christ's mystical body, which is small as in infancy, to be strengthened and increased. The mother of Christ, was very careful of Christ when he was an infant, tended him with great care, watched over him lest he should be hurt, and was careful to feed and nourish him, when he was wounded to heal him, to please and gratify him, and by all means to promote his health and growth, as tender mothers are wont to do their little children. So should the believer do with respect to Christ in the heart. The care that a tender mother has of her infant, is a very lively image of the love that a Christian ought to have of grace in the heart. It is a very constant care; the child must be continually looked after; it must be taken care of both day and night. When the mo ther wakes up in the night she has her child to look after and nourish at her breast, and it sleeps in her bosom, and it must be continually in the mother's bosom, or arms, there to be upheld and cherished; it needs its food and nourishment much of ener than adult persons; it must be fed both day and night; it must in every thing be gratified and pleased; the mother must bear the burden of it as she goes to and fro. This is also a lively image of the care that the church, especially the ministers of the gospel, should have of the interests of Christ, committed to their care; 1 Thes. ii. 6, 7, 8, 9. "We might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ; but we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children. So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us. For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail; for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God." That when the church is spoken of under the character of a mother, the ministers are especially meant, see Note on Cantic. ii. 11, at the latter end.

[137] Luke viii. 28. 30. The legion of devils besought Christ that he would not torment them, and that he would command them to go out into the deep. This shows that the devils bad a very trembling expectation of having their punishment completed, and of being dreadfully destroyed some time or other by the Messiah.

[28] Luke xi. 44. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites," &c. The Jewish church was now in its apostatized state, being become an hypocritical, superstitious, corrupt, haughty, persecuting church, very much as the apostatized Christian church under Antichrist, only in a far less degree, but their crimes were exactly of the same nature. It is called a generation

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of vipers; like as the church of Rome is called the dragon, the beast. Here it was that our Lord was crucified; and the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world, was required of this generation, verse 50. So the church of Rome is said to be the city where our Lord was crucified, Rev. xi. 8. "And that in her was found the blood of prophets, of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth;" and in innumerable things did this apostatized church agree with the church of Rome. Now the Scribes and Pharisees were the teachers of the nation, and as their clergy, and were the haughtiest, most hypocritical, most covetous, deceitful, and malicious, persecuting sort of men in the whole nation; their enormities that are mentioned here and elsewhere, exactly to a wonder corresponding with those of the Romish clergy, and the high church; their temper and behaviour was just as this is.

[295] Luke x. 38, to the end. Concerning Mary's and Martha's different ways of showing their respect to Christ. Martha and Mary seem to be types of different churches, or rather dif ferent parts of the Christian church: the one showing their respect to Christ by much external service and ceremony, as Martha was cumbered about much serving; the other that part of the church that is more pure and spiritual in their worship, as Mary sat at his feet, and heard his word. Particularly Martha represents the Jewish Christian church in the apostles' days, made up of Jews and Judaizing Christians, who were fond of the ceremonies of the Jewish worship. Mary represents the Gentile church; they were more spiritual in their worship. What is signified in this type is also exemplified in the church of England, that is cumbered about much serving. Their worship consisting much in external form and ceremony, and the church of Scotland, and the dissenters in England are like Mary, who worship Christ according to his own institutions, without the pomp and cumbrance of outward forms. Martha was the elder sister, so the Jewish church was the elder sister with respect to the Gentiles; so the church of England is the elder sister, and has the ascendant over the other, and has the chief government of the house, as the house that Christ was in is called Martha's house, ver. 38. Martha complains of Mary that she did not join with her in her external service, and would have Christ oblige her to help her; so those churches that are ceremonious in their worship, are commonly impatient of others, who dissent from them, and are of an imposing spirit, and are desirous of having others being obliged to conformity. So was it with the Jewish-Christian church in the primitive times with respect to the Gentile

church, and so it is with the church of England. Christ declares that Mary's way of showing respect to him was far the most necessary, and most acceptable; so is that worship that is pure and spiritual.

[3] Luke xiv. 22, 23. In this parable is represented, 1st, The rejection of the Jews and the calling of the Gentiles, 22d verse. But in the 23d there is manifestly another general calling of the Gentiles spoken of; the first is that which is called the calling of the Gentiles; the next, that which is called in scripture, the bringing in of the fullness of the Gentiles. It is manifest, therefore, by this text, that there remains yet another calling of the Gentiles than hath yet been.

[40] Luke xv. 21, 22. "And the father said to the servant, Bring forth the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his band, and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fatted calf," &c. As Christ's eating with the publicans and sinners, was figurative of the calling of the Gentiles, so are the parables of the lost sheep, the lost piece of money, and the prodigal son, especially the last, agreeing in all circumstances.

[41] Luke xvii. 20. "And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered and said, The kingdom of God cometh with observation." This clears up any difficulties that might be raised from any speeches of Christ, or the apostles, that seem to speak of a bodily descent of Christ from heaven to receive his kingdom in a very short time.

[42] Luke xvii. 30, to the end. "Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed," and the following verses, especially the last, may convince us that the coming or revealing of Christ, so often spoken of by Christ and his apostles that was to be so suddenly, was at the destruction of Jerusalem.

[233] Luke xviii. 35. "And it came to pass that as he was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the way side begging." Here this is said to be as he came nigh unto the city, n the original it is said, ev Tw eyyiew, in his approaching to the city. And we have an account afterwards in the first verse of the next chapter, of Jesus' entering and passing through Jericho. And yet it is said in Matthew xx. 29, that it was as they departed from Jericho, or as it is in the original, ExтogεUμεvv auTWV, they going out of Jericho; and in Mark, the same is said, and there we have an account before of his coming to Jericho, Mark x. 46, "and they came to Jericho,"-" And as he went out of

Jericho, with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimeus," &c. It seems to me the difficulty and seeming inconsistency is thus to be solved, viz. That Jesus passed near the Jordan the day before from the other side, where he had been, John x. 40, 41, 42; Matth. xix. 1, 2; Mark x. 1; and came to the suburbs of Jericho that night, and that this is what is meant by Mark, when it is said they came to Jericho, in the first words of chap. x. 46, now mentioned; and that Christ did not go into the main city that night, but lodged in the suburbs for the comfort of lodging, and to avoid the crowd and throng of people, for it is evident that the people were now in a great disposition to flock after him and throng him, by the whole context of these places. If he had gone into the midst of so populous a city as Jericho that evening, the multitude would necessarily have greatly distressed him that night; and that Christ did lodge somewhere after he came over the Jordan into Judea, before he entered the main city of Jericho, seems evident by this, that otherwise we shall not find room for the four days that Lazarus had been dead before he came to Bethany, if we suppose the day that he was raised to be the fourth day; for we are told that, when Christ heard he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was, even beyond the Jordan, John xi. 6, compared with the next verse, and the 40th verse of the foregoing chapter. Lazarus died before Christ heard this news, as is evident by what Christ said, verse 11. It was when Christ was going out of that place into Judea, that he said to his disciples, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go that I may awake him out of sleep;" by this we cannot rationally suppose that he died sooner than the day before he went over the Jordan, which may be reckoned one day of his being dead, and when he came over the Jordan and lodged in the suburbs of it, there was two days, and the next day he passed through Jericho and lodged at the house of Zaccheus, Luke xix. 5, &c. and the next day he came to Bethany, which is four days. There is a necessity of supposing that Christ lodged somewhere on this side of the Jordan before he came to the house of Zaccheus; but it seems evident that he did not lodge at all in the old city of Jericho, but passed directly through it, and came to Zaccheus' house the same day that he entered and passed through the city, by Luke xix. 1, 2. "And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho, and behold, there was a man named Zaccheus," &c.

Another thing further strengthens the probability that Christ had lodged a night on this side of the Jordan before that day that he passed through the city and came to the house of Zaccheus, viz. that if he went through the city to his house, the same day that he came near the Jordan, it is not at all likely there would have been gathered such a multitude to him, there

would not have been time for it. The multitude was exceedingly great, as appears from the blind man's taking so much notice of the noise they made as they passed, Luke xviii. 36, and by Zaccheus' being forced to climb a sycamore-tree to see him; and therefore thus the seeming inconsistency between the evangelists is solved.

Jesus' coming from beyond the Jordan to the suburbs of Jericho and lodging there, Mark calls his coming to Jericho, chap. x. 46; and when Christ set out on his journey the next morning to go from Jericho further towards Jerusalem, Mark calls his setting out from Jericho as his going forth from that city, though the main city was in his way, and he passed through it in his journey, which is not disagreeable to our customary way of speaking. If a man that belongs to a certain town, suppose the town of Northampton, then living in the outskirts of it on the north side, sets out to go a journey to another town south of Northampton, supposing Hartford, and any one at his journey's end should ask him at what time it was that he set out from Northampton, such a question would be understood to mean at what time he began his journey from his own home at Northampton, though he after that passed through the main body of the town; or if he was on a journey before, and lodged at Northampton for a night, at a house in the utmost northern skirts of it, and so went forward on his journey to Hartford the next morning, this does not alter the case. The case seems to have been thus, that Jesus lodging in the eastern suburbs of Jericho, the people flocked to him in the morning before he set out on his journey, and when he set forth on his journey forwards to leave that town, on the borders of which he then was, Mark and Matthew speaking of him as then going out of Jericho, but between the place where he lodged and the walls of the main city, which he must pass through in his way; the blind man cried for mercy, and therefore Luke says it was as he was entering into the city. Note, that the supposition of his coming over the Jordan is not agreeable to Doddridge's Harmony.

[338] Luke xxii. 31. "And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat." The true meaning of these words seems to be this. It is ordered in providence that Satan should at this time extraordinarily seek and hope to have you, and it is so ordered to that end, that by his temptations he might sift you as wheat; that is, that there might be a separation made between you and your corruptions, your pride and self-confidence, as wheat is separated from chaff by sifting, which proved to be the effect of those trials that Peter and the rest of the disciples had at

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