Reflections on the faithful and unfaithful servant. 121 CXIV. ver.40 The time of our Lord's appearance is uncertain; let us there- SECT. 43 How glorious are the rewards promised to such! How justly 42,44 may they awaken our emulation! He will prefer them to stations of more honourable and important service. He will set them 37 down at his table, and minister (as it were) himself to their delight, bringing forth the choicest dainties of heaven, and spreading before them an eternal banquet. Lord, may we, through thy grace, be found worthy to taste of that supper ! May the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne feed us, and guide us to fountains of living water! (Rev. vii. 17.) On the other hand, let us seriously consider the punishments 45 to be inflicted on the unfaithful servant. Let ministers, if such there are, who abandon themselves to a life of idleness and luxury; who stain their sacred character by intemperance; who proudly censure their brethren, and either call, or wish, for the secular arm to smite their fellowservants, perhaps more faithful than themselves; let such hear and tremble. Their Lord may 46 come in a very unexpected hour; (as indeed, when do such expect him?) and what are the stripes they have given others, when compared with those which they shall themselves receive? stripes which shall cut them asunder, and pierce deep into their very souls! How much more tolerable will it be, even for the worst of Gentile sinners, than for such! Let all who are in any measure distinguished by the gifts of the Divine bounty to them, or by their stations, whether in civil or sacred offices, attentively dwell on this great truth, so solemnly repeated again and again; let them consider it with a view to their own account: To whomsoever much is given, of him will much be required. May Divine Grace so impress it on their 48 hearts, that they may be distinguished by present fidelity, and future rewards, in proportion to the difference which Providence has already made in their favour! And may they never have reason to reflect with confusion and anguish on what is now their honour and their joy! 122 SECT. Luke Christ observes the evils which would be occasioned by his coming, yet declares his desire to complete his work, and warns the Jews of the great danger of neglecting the short remainder of their time of trial. Luke XII. 49, to the end. LUKE XII. 49. UR Lord farther added in his discourse LUKE XII. 49. AM come to send and what will I, if it be already kindled ! fire on the earth; O to his disciples and the multitude: After all that I have said to promote humanity and xii. 49 charity, yet it will in fact appear that I am come to send fire on the earth; so opposite is my doctrine to the prejudices and the lusts of men, and such are the violent contentions that my gospel will occasion, through the wickedness of those among whom it is preached and yet what do I wish? that the gospel might be suppressed? nay, but I rather say, Oh that this fire, fierce as it shall be, were already kindled by the universal propagation of a religion whose blessings so abundantly counterbalance all the accidental evils which can attend it? 50 But I have indeed, in the mean time, a most dreadful baptism to be baptized with, and know baptism to be bapthat I shall shortly be bathed, as it tised with, and how blood, and plunged in the most overwhelming it be accomplished! am I straitened till distress: yet, far from drawing back on that account, how inexpressibly am I straitened and uneasy through the earnestness of my desire, till, terrible as it is, it be fully completed, and the glorious birth produced, whatever agonies may lie in the way to it! 51 were, in 50 But I have a But these benefits are to be secured in a very 51 Suppose ye that different manner from what some of you, my disciples, imagine: for do you now suppose that ↑ And what do I wish? Oh that it were already kindled !] I think Sir Norton Knatchbull has abundantly established this version. Dr. Whitby (who here, as in many other places, transcribes from Grotius) seems fully to have proved that sometimes has this force. Compare Luke xix. 42, and Numb. xxii. 29; Josh. vii. 7; Psal. lxxxi. 13, Septuag. (Perhaps we may add Luke xxii. 42.) See Grotius, in loc. How am I straitened and uneasy till it be completed!] The word ounoua seems to import an ardour of mind, with which a person is so borne on towards the object of his affection and pursuit, that the necessary impediments which lie in his way are uneasy to him; compare 2 Cor. v. 14. Mr. Locke understands it of a kind of embarrassment which Christ was under to know how faithfully to fulfil his ministry without giving such umbrage to the Roman power as would have drawn persecution and death upon him before the appointed time (see Mr. Locke's Reasonableness of Christianity, p. 134): but this seems to me a very foreign and unnatural sense. That which I take it in is also favoured by Luke xxii. 15, sect. 168: but if Grotius, whose sense I have hinted in the paraphrase, judge rightly of the particular force and beauty of the word ouvexual, it may be illus. trated by John xvi. 21, sect. clxxviii. and be followed, not with peace, but with division. 123 I am come to give I am come to give peace on the earth, or imme- SECT. peace on earth? I diately to establish that temporal tranquillity cxv. tell you, Nay; but and prosperity which you expect should attend rather division. three. xii. 51 the Messiah's kingdom? Nay, but, consider- Luke ing how my gospel, notwithstanding all its tendency to peace, will be opposed, and how it will be perverted, I may say to you, that I am rather come to occasion the most unnatural 52 For from hence- division. For such are the contentious heats and 52 forth there shall be animosities that will attend the publication of five in one house di- the gospel, that, ere long, five in one family shall vided, Three against two, and two against be so divided, that there shall be three against two on the one side, and two against three on 53 The father the other: And this shall be the case when 53 shall be divided those families consist of persons in the nearest against the son, and the son against the relations to each other: the father, for instance, father: the mother shall differ with the son, and the son with the against the daugh- father; the fondest mother with the daughter, ter, and the daughter and the daughter with the mother; the mother against the mother: the mother in law in law with her son's wife, and the daughter in against her daugh- law with her husband's mother, and so inter in law, and the veterate shall be their hatred against all that daughter in law against her mother embrace my gospel, that they shall break the bands of nature, as well as of friendship, to express it. (Compare Mat. x. 34, 35, Vol. I. p. 419.) in law. 54 And he said And he said also to the people, This perverse- 54 also to the people, ness already shews itself in your overlooking so many proofs of the Messiah's appearance among you, while you discover such a sagacity in your observations with respect to other - Or immediately to establish that temporal tranquillity, &c.] There are so many prophecies of the peaceful state of the Messiah's kingdom (compare Psal. lxxii. 7; Isa. ii. 4; xi. 6-9; lxv. 25), that it is hard to say how Christ could completely answer the character of the Messiah if he should never give peace on earth: but the error of the Jews lay in supposing he was immediately to accomplish it; whereas the prophecies of the New Testament, especially in the book of Revelation, shew, and those of the Old Testament most plainly intimate, that this prosperous state of his kingdom was not only to be preceded by his own sufferings, but by a variety of persecutions, trials, and sufferings, which should in different degrees attend his followers, before the kingdoms of the earth became, by a general conversion, the kingdoms of the Lord, and of his Christ (Rev. xi. 15). See Dr. Leland's Answer to the Moral Philosopher, p. 353–366. a The mother in law with her son's wife, and the daughter in law with her husband's mother.] The original words, wwvsga, and won, are exactly expressed in this translation. The English words mother in law, and daughter in law, are more extensive, and rather, though not necessarily, lead us to think of [noverca, μalguia,] a step dame, or father's second wife, and her husband's daughter. Our Lord might mention this relation, because, in consequence of the obligation which the Jewish children were under to maintain their aged parents, a young man might, when he settled in the world, often take his mother, if a widow, into his family, and her abode in it might occasion less uneasiness than that of a mother in law in any other sense. 124 The Jews are inexcusable in not discerning him to be the Messiah. xii. 55 : see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass. discern this time? SECT. things for when you see a cloud arising out of When ye see a cloud cxv. the west, or coming from the Mediterranean rise out of the west, straightway ye say, sea, you presently say, A heavy shower is com- There cometh Luke ing ; e and it is so. And when [you find] the shower; and so it is. south wind blowing from the desert of Arabia, 55 And when ye and other hot climates, you say, There will be sultry heat; and so accordingly it comes to pass. 56 Ye hypocrites, that pretend to ask for farther 56 Ye hypocrites, signs, as if you were really desirous to know ye can discern the whether I be or be not a Divine Teacher; you face of the sky, and know how by such remarks as these to distin- ofthe earth: but how guish the face of the earth, and of the heavens, is it that ye do not so as to foretell the changes in the weather before they come; but how is it that you do not discern and judge of the much more evident signs of this time, which are attended with such manifest and unparalleled tokens of the Messiah's coming? (Compare Mat. xvi. 2, 3, 57 Vol. I. p. 478.) Yea, why is it you do not even 57 Yea, and why of yourselves judge what is fit and right, and even of yourselves gather from such obvious premises, how you judge ye not what is right? ought in reason and conscience to treat so extraordinary a Person as I appear to be from the whole series of my doctrine and conduct, instead of disregarding all the proofs that shew me to be sent from God? 58 This, however you may thoughtlessly ne- 58 When thou glect it, is a matter of the utmost importance: goest with thine adI must therefore enforce the exhortation I for- versary to the magistrate, as thou art merly gave you (Mat. v. 25, 26, Vol. I. p. in the way, give 218), and press you to endeavour, with the diligence that thou greatest diligence, that the controversy may from him; est he mayest be delivered immediately be made up between God and your souls. For you count it a rule of human prudence, when you go to the magistrate with your adversary, who has a suit against you, to use your utmost endeavour to make up the affair with him while you are yet on the way; lest he * A heavy shower is coming.] Oupos pro- consequence, yet, from the tenor of my perly signifies a heavy shower; and avov, in the next verse, sultry or scorching heat. Why is it you do not even of yourselves, &c.] The phrase ap' say does not seem here to signify, "From the like principles of good sense which you use in common affairs, or in matters relating to your selves;" but it seems an advance on that thought, as if our Lord had said, "Even though I had not so expressly drawn the doctrine and character, as well as from my miracles, you might have discerned yourselves, that it must be a very wrong and very dangerous thing to reject and slight me." Castalio and Grotius connect this verse with the two following, I think without any reason 8 Use your utmost endeavour to make up the affair with him.] Theophylact intimates, and Salmasius, and after him La The danger of neglecting to be reconciled with God. 125 Luke hale thee to the force thee before the judge, and the judge, having SECT. judge, and the judge found thee to be indeed accountable, deliver cxv. deliver thee to the officer, and the off. thee to the custody of the serjeant, and the sercer cast thee into jeant throw thee into prison. It will not then xii. 58 be in thy power to compound the matter upon 59 59 I tell thee, gentler terms, or to get free from thy confinethou shalt not depart thence till thou hast ment; but I tell thee that, when he has thee at paid the very last such an advantage, thou shalt not be able to mite. prison. come out from thence till thou hast paid the very IMPROVEMENT. To what a lamentable degree is human nature corrupted, that ver.49 so noble a remedy as the gospel, so well adapted to the cure of a malevolent and contentious disposition, should in so many instances only irritate the disease! and that a scheme so full of love and goodness, and so well suited to promote peace and harmony in those who cordially embrace it, should be opposed with all the violence of persecution, and be the means of introducing strife and division! How monstrous is it, that any should hate their neighbours, 51, 58 yea, and their nearest relatives, for that disinterested piety, and regard to conscience, which might recommend strangers to their esteem and affection! Yet let not those who meet with such injurious treatment be discouraged; knowing they have a Father and a Saviour in heaven, whose love is ten thousand times more than all nor let others be offended, as if Christianity had been the occasion of more evil than good; for such is the nature of Cene, largely insist upon it, that dos tor, or one who has a suit at law against εργασια, signifies, "Pay the interest, as another, whether in a civil or criminal case. well as the principal of thy debt, in order h The very last mite of the debt thou to procure deliverance." But Luke makes owest.] The mite [lov,] was the least use of another word [rx] for usury valuable of their coins (see Mark xii. 42), (Luke xix. 23), which I think a consider- containing no more than half of their least ⚫able argument for the common rendering, kind of farthing, or of their xodgans, or which is also more extensive. Annaxbus quadrans; which was itself but the fourth signifies, not merely any kind of deliver part of the as, or accapiov, or of the larger ance, but such an agreement as secures the farthing, mentioned Mat. x. 29, and Luke defendant from any farther danger of pros- xii. 6; so that the mite was but little as Elsner accurately shews, more than the third part of an English farObserv. Vol. 1. p. 237. It is well known thing, and a sparrow was reckoned worth that a properly signifies a prosecu- four of them. ecution; 12 |