PART I. OBSERVATIONS ON OUR LORD'S CONDUCT AS A DIVINE INSTRUCTOR. CHAPTER I. ON THE MATTER OF OUR LORD'S INSTRUCTIONS. SECT. I.-What our Lord teaches of God the Father. OUR UR Lord represents the Deity as adorable and Mar. xii.29. amiable in the highest degree. He is the most High, Luk. vi. 35. and Lord of heaven and earth; heaven is his throne, Mat. xi. 25. and earth his footstool; he is the one Jehovah, and Y. 34, 35. the only true God; he is a spirit, whom no man seen at any time; he hath life in himself; he seeth in secret; he knoweth the heart; and with him things are possible. hath Jo. xvii. 3. .44. iv. 24. v. 37. vi. 46. all V. 26. Mat. vi. 4. with- 26. He arrayeth the herb of the field in more than Mat. vi. 29, regal glory; he feedeth the fowls of the air; and out him not a sparrow falleth to the ground. more does his providence extend to man: yea, the Much Mat. vi. 26, very Luk. xii. 7. a Matt. x. 29. Teσeiraι, cadere solet: according to a known force of the Hebrew future. 30. X. 31. B Mat. x. 30. hairs of our head are all numbered, and when he Luk. xii. 7. vouchsafes protection, there shall not one perish”. Mar. x. 18. Jo. iii. 16. There is none good but God; who "so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlastJo. xvii. 25, ing life." He is also righteous, holy, kind to the unthankful and evil, perfect in mercy, forgiving to the Comp. Mat. merciful, and inexorable to those who withhold pardon V: 48. Luk. and compassion from others. II. Luk. vi. 35. v. vi. 36. Mat. v. 7. vi. 14, 15. xviii. 35. He loveth those who observe our Lord's precepts: he adopteth the peacemakers for his sons: he abhorreth the lofty and ostentatious appearance which men Luk xvi. 15. admire: he avengeth his faithful servants on their per Jo. xiv. 23. Mat. v. 9. xviii. 6. 14. v. 8. Mat. xviii. secutors: it is not his will that any should perish: the xxv. 34, 46. pure in heart shall hereafter see him: and of him shall the good be eternally blessed, and the wicked eternally punished. 26, 32, &c. v. 45. XV. 20. But the image which perpetually occurs throughout the Gospels, and under which our Lord delights to Mat. vi. 14, mention God, is that of our heavenly Father; who "maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust," and is Luk. vi. 35. "kind to the unthankful and to the evil :" who compassionates and embraces the returning sinner with the bowels of a most affectionate father; nay, who is actuated by a stronger principle than natural affection for "if we, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto our children, how much more shall our Father, who is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him?" Such is the God whom we should fear, because he Mat. x. 28. b Luke xxi. 18. That complete deliverance is thus proverbially expressed, see 1 Sam. xiv. 45; 2 Sam. xiv. 11; 1 Kings i. 52; Acts xxvii. 34. c Matt. vii. 11. Not absolutely evil; for God has implanted many is able to destroy both soul and body in hell; whom we should obey after the manner of the angels in Mat. vi. 10. heaven; from whom we should seek our reward; to Mat. vi. 1. whose will we should wholly resign ourselves; and who Mat. xxvi. is the sole object of our worship, service, and prayer, and the highest and best object of our imitation and love. 39. iv. 10. Jo. iv. 23. xvi. 23. Mat. v. 48. Luk. xi. 42. 37. 31. SECT. II.-What our Lord teaches of his own nature and office. OUR Lord sometimes calls himself the Son of man; Mat. xxv. and sometimes eminently the Son, in contradistinction Jo.v.27,&c. to the Father, or to the Father and the Holy Spirit; Mar. xiii. and with one or both of these he frequently joins himself in the passages where this appellation occurs: he likewise styles himself the Son of God, and his Jo. v. 25. only begotten Sond. Of himself he further asserts, xi. 4, &c. 32. ix. 35. x. 36. that God loved him before the foundation of the Jo. xvii. 24. world; that he had a glory with the Father before the Jo. xvii. 5. world was; that he spake what he had seen with his Jo. viii. 38. Father, whom no man had seen but himself alone; that Jo. vi. 46. he came down from heaven to do the will of him Jo. vi. 38. that sent him; that he came forth from the Father Jo. xvi. 28. and came into the world, and was to leave the world and go to the Father; that he should be seen ascend- Jo. vi. 62. ing up where he was before: and, because the Jews cavilled when he observed that Abraham saw his day He Luk.xxiv.4. with joy, he adds, “Before Abraham was, I am." It is Jo. viii. 58. true that he calls himself a man; but this no more Jo. viii. 40. excludes his divine nature, than the application of that term to angels excludes their angelic nature. affirms that he was the Christ; that his forerunner was more than a prophet, and yet that the least in the Mar.xiv.62. evangelical kingdom was greater than he; that he had Mat. xi. 9, d John iii. 16, 18. Hebr. 7 which, by a metonymy of the effect, o translate ἀγαπητός. Act. i. 10. Jo. iv. 26. II. |