CONTENTS.

OUR LORD'S SERMON ON THE MOUNT.

BOOK I.

EXPLANATION OF THE FIRST PART OF THE SERMON DELIVERED BY OUR LORD ON THE MOUNT, AS CONTAINED IN THE FIFTH CHAPTER OF MATTHEW.

BOOK II.

ON THE LATTER PART OF OUR LORD'S SERMON ON THE MOUNT, AS CONTAINED IN THE SIXTH AND SEVENTH CHAPTERS OF MATTHEW.

EXPLANATION OF THE FIRST PART OF THE SERMON DELIVERED BY OUR LORD ON THE MOUNT, AS CONTAINED IN THE FIFTH CHAPTER OF MATTHEW.

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CHAP. I.1. If any one will piously and a more careful treatment will be given in its own soberly consider the sermon which our Lord Jesus Christ spoke on the mount, as we read it in the Gospel according to Matthew, I think that he ously stated. Augustin regards it as a perfect code of morals. Tho4 The main purpose of the Sermon on the Mount has been variwill find in it, so far as regards the highest mor- luck (Die Bergpredigt) calls it "the Magna Charta of the kingdom als, a perfect standard of the Christian life: and the righteousness of the kingdom of heaven in its relation to that of of heaven." Lange says, "The grand fundamental idea is to present this we do not rashly venture to promise, but the Old Testament theocracy." Geikie declares it to be the "formal gather it from the very words of the Lord Him-inauguration of the kingdom of God and the Magna Charta of our faith." Edersheim regards it as presenting "the full delineation self. For the sermon itself is brought to a of the ideal man of God, of prayer, and of righteousness; in short, of the inward and outward manifestation of discipleship." Meyer (Com. in such a way, that it is clear there are in it all 6th ed. p. 210) says that the aim of Jesus is, as the One who fulfils the precepts which go to mould the life. For pation in the Messianic kingdom. Weiss (Leben Jesu) speaks of it the Law and the Prophets, to present the moral conditions of particithus He speaks: "Therefore, whosoever hear- as being "as little an ethical discourse as a new proclamation of law. It is nothing else than an announcement of the kingdom of God, eth these words of mine, and doeth them, I will in which is visible everywhere the purpose of Jesus to distinguish liken him unto a wise man, which built his between its righteousness and the righteousness revealed in the Old Testament as well as that taught by the teachers of his day." house upon a rock: and the rain descended, The Sermon on the Mount is a practical discourse, containing and the floods came, and the winds blew, and Christianity. It is the fullest statement of the nature and obligations little of what, in the strict sense, may be termed the credenda of beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it of citizenship in God's kingdom. It is noteworthy for its omissions as well as for its contents. No reference is made to a priesthood, a was founded upon a rock. And every one that ritual, sacred places, or offerings. There is almost a total absence heareth these words of mine, and doeth them of all that is sensuous and external. It deals with the motives and affections of the inner man, and so comes into comparison and connot, I will liken 3 unto a foolish man, which trast with the Mosaic law as well as with the Pharisaic ceremonialism built his house upon the sand: and the rain of the Lord's Day. The moral grandeur of the precepts of the Sermon on the Mount has been acknowledged by believers and sceptics descended, and the floods came, and the winds alike. Renan (Life of Jesus) says, The Sermon on the Mount will never be surpassed." On the 15th of October, 1852, two weeks blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: before he died, Daniel Webster wrote and signed his name to the foland great was the fall of it." Since, therefore, which he also ordered placed upon his tombstone: "Lord, I believe lowing words, containing a testimony to this portion of Scripture, He has not simply said, "Whosoever heareth help thou mine unbelief. My heart has assured me and reassured me that the gospel of Jesus Christ must be a divine reality. The my words," but has made an addition, saying, Sermon on the Mount cannot be a merely human production. This "Whosoever heareth these words of mine," He belief enters into the very depth of my conscience. The whole history of man proves it" (Curtis, Life of Webster, ii. p. 684). has sufficiently indicated, as I think, that these sayings which He uttered on the mount so perfectly guide the life of those who may be willing to live according to them, that they may justly be compared to one building upon a rock. I have said this merely that it may be clear that the sermon before us is perfect in all the precepts by which the Christian life is moulded; for as regards this particular section

The relation which the reports of Matthew and Luke (vi. 20-49) sustain to each other is ignored by Augustin here (who, except in rare

cases, omits all critical discussion), but is discussed in his Harmony of the Gospels, ii. 19. The agreements are numerous. The differlanguage, and the setting of the sermon.

ences are striking, and concern the matter, the arrangement, the Matthew has a hundred and seven verses, Luke thirty. Matthew has seven (or eight) beati

des, Luke but four, and adds four woes which Matthew omits. According to the first evangelist Jesus spoke sitting on a mountain: according to the third evangelist He spoke standing, and in the plain. The views are, (1) Matthew and Luke give accounts of the same discourse (Origen, Chrysostom, Calvin, Tholuck, Meyer, Keil, times (Augustin not positively, Storr, Plumptre). This is not probSchaff, Weiss). (2) They report different sermons spoken at different able, as so much of the matter in both is identical: both begin with the same beatitude, and close with the same parable; and both acservant. (3) The two sermons were delivered in close succession on the summit of the mountain to the disciples, and on the plain to the

Similabo. The Vulgate, conforming more closely to the Greek, counts are followed with the report of the healing of the centurion's has assimilabitur," shall be likened."

2 Offenderunt; the Vulgate has irruerunt.

The Vulgate, more closely conforming to the Greek, has similis multitude (Lange). Alford confesses inability to reconcile the dis

erit.

crepancy.

I

heaven." We read in Scripture concerning the striving after temporal things, "All is vanity and presumption of spirit; "5 but presumption of spirit means audacity and pride: usually also rightly, inasmuch as the wind also is called spirit. And hence it is written, "Fire, hail, snow, ice, spirit of tempest." But, indeed, who does not know that the proud are spoken of as puffed up, as if swelled out with wind? And hence also that expression of the apostle, "Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth." And "the poor in spirit" are rightly understood here, as meaning the humble and God-fearing, i.e. those who have not the spirit which puffeth up. Nor ought blessedness to begin at any other point whatever, if indeed it is to attain unto the highest wisdom; "but the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;"8 for, on the other hand also, "pride" is entitled "the beginning of all sin." 9 Let the proud, therefore, seek after and love the kingdoms of the earth; but "blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." 10

2. The beginning, then, of this sermon is in troduced as follows: "And when He saw the great multitudes, He went up into a mountain: 2 and when He was set, His disciples came unto Him and He opened His mouth, the proud are said to have great spirits; and and taught them, saying." If it is asked what the "mountain" means, it may well be understood as meaning the greater precepts of righteousness; for there were lesser ones which were given to the Jews. Yet it is one God who, through His holy prophets and servants, according to a thoroughly arranged distribution of times, gave the lesser precepts to a people who as yet required to be bound by fear; and who, through His Son, gave the greater ones to a people whom it had now become suitable to set free by love. Moreover, when the lesser are given to the lesser, and the greater to the greater, they are given by Him who alone knows how to present to the human race the medicine suited to the occasion. Nor is it surprising that the greater precepts are given for the kingdom of heaven, and the lesser for an earthly kingdom, by that one and the same God who made heaven and earth. With respect, therefore, to that righteousness which is the greater, it is said through the prophet, "Thy righteousness is like the mountains of God: "3 and this may well mean that the one Master alone fit to teach matters of so great importance teaches on a mountain. Then He teaches sitting, as behooves the dignity of the instructor's office; and His disciples come to Him, in order that they might be nearer in body for hearing His words, as they also approached in spirit to fulfil His precepts. "And He opened His mouth, and taught them, saying." The circumlocution before us, which runs, "And He opened His mouth," perhaps gracefully intimates by the mere pause that the sermon will be somewhat longer than usual, unless, perchance, it should not be without meaning, that now He is said to have opened His own mouth, whereas under the old law He was accustomed to open the mouths of the prophets.*

3. What, then, does He say?

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of

Multas turbas. The Vulgate omits multas.

2 The Greek has the definite article (To opos). Some, on this ground, explain the expression to mean "mountain region." According to the Latin tradition of the time of the Crusaders, the exact spot is the Horns of Hattin, which Dean Stanley (Sinai and Palestine, Am. ed. p. 436) and most others adopt. The hill, which is horned like a saddle, is south-west of Capernaum, and commands a good view of the Lake of Galilee. It seems to meet the requirements of the text. Robinson says there are a dozen other hills as eligible as this one. Tholuck enlarges upon the "beautiful temple of nature in which the Lord delivered the sermon." Matthew Henry says, "When the law was given, the Lord came down upon the mountain, now the Lord went up; then He spake in thunder and lightning, now in a still, small voice; then the people were ordered to keep their distance, now they are invited to draw near,- a blessed change!" 3 Ps. xxxvi. 6.

4 Chrysostom, Euthymius, etc., see in the expression the implication that Christ also taught by works. Tholuck, with many modern commentators, finds in it a reference to "loud and solemn utterance."

CHAP. II. -4. "Blessed are the meek, for they shall by inheritance possess the earth: " that earth, I suppose, of which it is said in the Psalm, "Thou art my refuge, my portion in the land of the living." 12 For it signifies a certain firmness and stability of the perpetual inheritance, where the soul, by means of a good disposition, rests, as it were, in its own place, just as the body rests on the earth, and is nourished from it with its own food, as the body from the earth. This is the very rest and life of the saints. Then, the meek are those who yield to acts of wickedness, and do not resist evil, but overcome evil with good."3 Let those, then, who are not meek quarrel and fight for earthly and temporal things; but "blessed are the meek, for they

6 Ps. cxlviii. 8.
9 Ecclus. x. 13.

71 Cor. viii. 1.

5 Eccles. i. 14. 8 Ps. cxi. 10. 10 Not the intellectually poor (Fritzsche), nor the poor in worldly goods, as we might gather from Luke (vi. 20). Roman-Catholic commentators have found here support for the doctrine of voluntary poverty (Cornelius à Lapide, Maldonatus, etc.). The Emperor Julian, in allusion to this passage and others like it, said he would only confiscate the goods of Christians, that they might enter as the poor into the kingdom of heaven (Lett, xliii.). Some (Olearius, Michaelis, Paulus) have joined "in spirit" with "blessed." Augustin explains the passage of those who are not elated or proud, taking" spirit "in an evil sense. In another place he says, "Blessed are the poor in their own spirit, rich in God's Spirit, for every man who follows his own spirit is proud." He then compares him who subdues his own spirit to one living in a valley which is filled with water from the hills (En. in Ps. cxli. 4). The most explain of those who are conscious of spiritual need (Matt. xi. 28), and are ready to be filled with the gospel riches, as opposed to the spiritually proud, the just who need no repentance (Tholuck, Meyer, Lange, etc.). Many are poor in the world, but high in spirit; poor and proud, murmuring and complaining, and blaming their lot. Laodicea was poor in spirituals, and yet rich in spirit; so well increased with goods as to have need of nothing. Paul was rich in spirituals, excelling most in gifts and graces, and yet poor in spirit; the least of the apostles, and less than the least of all saints (M. Henry).

"

11 Hereditate possidebunt. Vulgate omits hereditate. The passage is quoted almost literally in the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, iii. 7. 13 Rom. xii. 21.

12 Ps. cxlii. 5.

theirs is the kingdom of heaven:

because it shows and commends what is complete and perfect:' therefore in the first and in

nor, Blessed are ye meek, for ye shall inherit the earth; but, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the eighth the kingdom of heaven is named, the earth." And so the others up to the eighth sentence, where He says: "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." After that He now begins to speak in the way of direct address to those present, although what has been said before referred also to His present audience; and that which follows, and which seems to be spoken specially to those present, refers also to those who were absent, or who would afterwards come into existence.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven;" and, "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven:" as it is now said, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" 2 Seven in number, therefore, are the things which bring perfection: for the eighth brings into light and shows what is perfect, so that starting, as it were, from the beginning again, the others also are perfected by means of these stages.

CHAP. IV.

For this reason the number of sentences before us is to be carefully considered. For the beatitudes begin with humility: "Blessed are the poor in spirit," i.e. those not puffed up, II. Hence also the sevenfold while the soul submits itself to divine authority, operation of the Holy Ghost, of which Isaiah fearing lest after this life it go away to punish-speaks,3 seems to me to correspond to these ment, although perhaps in this life it might seem stages and sentences. But there is a difference to itself to be happy. Then it (the soul) comes of order: for there the enumeration begins with to the knowledge of the divine Scriptures, where the more excellent, but here with the inferior. it must show itself meek in its piety, lest it should For there it begins with wisdom, and closes with venture to condemn that which seems absurd to the fear of God: but "the fear of the Lord is the unlearned, and should itself be rendered un- the beginning of wisdom." And therefore, if teachable by obstinate disputations. After that, we reckon as it were in a gradually ascending it now begins to know in what entanglements series, there the fear of God is first, piety secof this world it is held by reason of carnal cus- ond, knowledge third, fortitude fourth, counsel tom and sins and so in this third stage, in fifth, understanding sixth, wisdom seventh. The which there is knowledge, the loss of the highest fear of God corresponds to the humble, of whom good is mourned over, because it sticks fast in it is here said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit,' what is lowest. Then, in the fourth stage there i.e. those not puffed up, not proud: to whom is labour, where vehement exertion is put forth, the apostle says, "Be not high-minded, but in order that the mind may wrench itself away fear; "4 i.e. be not lifted up. Piety 5 correfrom those things in which, by reason of their sponds to the meek: for he who inquires piously pestilential sweetness, it is entangled: here there- honours Holy Scripture, and does not censure fore righteousness is hungered and thirsted after, what he does not yet understand, and on this and fortitude is very necessary; because what account does not offer resistance; and this is to is retained with delight is not abandoned without be meek: whence it is here said, "Blessed are pain. Then, at the fifth stage, to those perse- the meek." Knowledge corresponds to those vering in labour, counsel for getting rid of it is that mourn who already have found out in the given; for unless each one is assisted by a su- Scriptures by what evils they are held chained perior, in no way is he fit in his own case to which they ignorantly have coveted as though extricate himself from so great entanglements of they were good and useful. Fortitude corremiseries. But it is a just counsel, that he who sponds to those hungering and thirsting: for wishes to be assisted by a stronger should assist they labour in earnestly desiring joy from things him who is weaker in that in which he himself that are truly good, and in eagerly seeking to is stronger therefore "blessed are the merci- turn away their love from earthly and corporeal ful, for they shall obtain mercy." At the sixth things: and of them it is here said, “Blessed stage there is purity of heart, able from a good are they which do hunger and thirst after rightconscience of good works to contemplate that highest good, which can be discerned by the pure and tranquil intellect alone. Lastly is the seventh, wisdom itself—i.e. the contemplation of the truth, tranquillizing the whole man, and assuming the likeness of God, which is thus summed up: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God." The eighth, as it were, returns to the starting-point,

eousness." Counsel corresponds to the merciful: for this is the one remedy for escaping from so great evils, that we forgive, as we wish to be

"In the eighth beatitude the other seven are only summed up under the idea of the righteousness of the kingdom in its relation to those who persecute it; while the ninth is a description of the eighth, with reference to the relation in which these righteous persons stand

to Christ" (Lange).

3 Isa. xi. 2, 3.

4 Rom. xi. 20.

2 Rom. viii. 35. 5 Augustin follows the Septuagint, which has "piety" instead of the fear of the Lord" in the last clause of Isa, xi. 2.