Reflections on the faithful and unfaithful servant. IMPROVEMENT. 585 MAY our souls be awakened by these awful truths! and may SECT. we be engaged to gird up the loins of our mind, to be sober, and cxiv. watch to the end! (1 Peter i. 13.) Ver. ; 35, 36 Great are our encouragements to diligence, on the one hand and, on the other, dreadful will be the punishment of our neglect. The time of our Lord's appearance is uncertain; let us therefore 40 always be ready; solicitous that, when he cones, he may find us so doing, as he has required; living not to ourselves, but to him, and employing ourselves about that particular thing, whatsoever 43 it may be, which, all circumstances considered, we are verily persuaded, may most promote the great ends of life, and the important purposes of his glory. 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 down 37 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 to 45 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 fellow-servants, perhaps more faithful than themselves; let such hear and tremble. Their Lord may come in a very un- 46 expected 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! SECT. 586 SECT. Luke The gospel would occasion violent contentions ; SECT. CXV. 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. O LUKE XII. 49. : LUKE XII. 49. fire on the earth; UR Lord farther added in his discourse to I AM come to send his disciples and the multitude: After all and what will I, if it that I have said to promote humanity and cha- be already kindled! XII. 49. rity, 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 propaga tion of a religion, whose blessings so abundantly counterbalance all the accidental evils which 50 can attend it! But I have indeed, in the mean time, a most dreadful baptism to be baptized baptism to be baptised with, and know that I shall shortly be bathed, straitened till it be at as it were, in blood, and plunged in the most complished! overwhelming 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 But these benefits are to be secured in a very different manner from what some of you, my disciples, imagine: for do you now suppose that a 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. b How am I straitened and uneasy till it be completed!] The word avvEXμL 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 un I 50 But I have s with, and how am I 51 Suppose ye that easy to him; compare 2 Cor. v. 14.—Mr. Locke understands it of a kind of embarrass ment 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 ouvexuar, it may be illustrated by John xvi. 21, sect. clxxviii. division. And be followed, not with peace, but with division. 52 For from hence five in one house divided, Three against two, and two against forth there shall be three. 587 CXV. I am come to give I am come to give peace on the earth, or imme- SECT. peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather diately to establish that temporal tranquility and prosperity which you expect should attend the Luke Messiah's kingdom? Nay, but considering how XII. 51. 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 division. For such 52 are the contentious heats and animosities that will attend the publication of the gospel, that, ere long, five in one family shall be so divided, that there shall be three against two on the one side, 53 The father shall and two against three on the other: And this shall 53 be divided against the be the case when those families consist of persons son, and the son against in the nearest relations to each other: the father, against the daughter, for instance, shall differ with the son, and the son and the daughter a- with the father; the fondest mother with the gainst the mother: the daughter, and the daughter with the mother; the daughter-in-law, mother-in-law with her son's wife, and the daugh and the daughter-in- ter-in-law with her husband's mother; and so law against her mo- inveterate shall be their hatred against all that embrace my gospel, that they shall break the bands of nature, as well as of friendship, to express it. (Compare Mat. x. 34, 35, p. the father; the mother mother-in-law against her ther-in-law. 400.) And he said also to the people, This perverse- 54 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 things: for when you see a cloud arising out of the west, or coming from the Mediterranean sea, you present Or immediately to establish that temporal tranquility, &c.] There are so many prophecies of the peaceful state of the Messiah's kingdom (compare Psal. Ixxii. 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 hook 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 be came, by a general conversion, the kingdoms of the Lord, and of his Christ (Rev. xi, 15), ly See Dr. Leland's Answer to the Moral Phi- d The mother-in-law with her son's wife, $83 They are inexcusable in not discerning him to be the Messiah. cvii. say, There cometh a show er; and so it is. heat; and it cometh to of the sky, and of the SECT. ly say, A heavy shower is coming; and it is so. straightway ye And when you find] the south-wind blowing from Luke the desert of Arabia, and other hot climates, you XII. 55. say, There will be sultry heat; and so according the south wind blow, 56 ly it comes to pass. Ye hypocrites, that pretend ye say, There will be to ask for farther signs, as if you were really de- pass. sirous to know, whether I be or be not a Divine 56 Ye hypocrites, Teacher; you know how by such remarks as ye can discern the face these to distinguish the face of the earth and of earth: but how is the heavens, so as to foretell the changes in the that you do not discern weather before they come; but how is it that this time? 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, Yea, why is it you do not even 57 p. 456.) of yourselves judge what is fit and right, and judge ye not what is gather from such obvious premises, how you 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 57 Yea, and why even of yourselves 58 When thou goest that thou mayest be deli This, however you may thoughtlessly neglect it, is a matter of the utmost importance: I must with thine adversary therefore enforce the exhortation I formerly gave thou art in the way, to the magistrate, as you (Mat. v. 25, 26. p. 209), and press give diligence you to endeavour, with the greatest diligence, vered from him; lest that the controversy may 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 e A heavy shower is coming.] Ouffes properly signifies a heavy shower; and aswv, in the next verse, sultry or scorching heat. оп g Use your utmost endeavour to make up the affair with him.] Theophylact intimates, and Salmasius, and after him, La Cene, largely insist upon it, that d spyadav signifies "Pay the interest, as well as the principal of thy debt, in order to procure deliverance." But Luke make use of another word [Tox] for usury (Luke xix. 23), which I think a considerable ar gument for the common rendering, which is also more extensive.—Ankhafai signifies, not merely any kind of deliverance, but such an agreement as secures the defendant from any farther danger of prosecution; as Elsner accurately shews, Observ. Vol. I. p. 237.-It is well known Why is it you do not even of yourselves, &c.] The phrase a'awy does not seem here to signify, "From the like principles of good sense which you use in common affairs, or in matters relating to yourselves;" but it seems an advance on that thought, as if our Lord had said, "Even though I had not so expressly drawn the consequence, yet, from the tenor of my doctrine and character, as well as from my miracles, you might have discerned, your selves, that it must be a very wrong and very dangerous thing to reject and slight me."-Castalio and Grotius connect this__~_that avlidix✪ properly signifies a prosecutor, verse with the two following, I think, with- or one who has a suit at law against another, whether in a civil or criminal case The Reflections on the regard we should shew to the gospel. deliver thee to the offi thee into prison. shalt not depart thence very last mite. 589 CXV. Luke he hale thee to the on the way; lest he force thee before the judge, SECT. judze, and the judge and the judge, having found thee to be indeed cer, and the officer cast accountable, deliver thee to the custody of the serjeant, and the serjeant throw thee into prison. XII. 58. 59 I tell thee, thou It will not then be in thy power to compound 59 till thou hast paid the the matter upon gentler terms, or to get free from thy confinement; but I tell thee that, when he has thee at such an advantage, thou shalt not be able to come out from thence till thou hast paid the very last mite of the debt thou owest ". And thus if you are regardless of the proposals of God's mercy while the day of life and grace is continued, nothing is to be expected from the tribunal of his justice, but a severe sentence, which will end in everlasting confinement and punishment. IMPROVEMENT. To what a lamentable degree is human nature corrupted, that Ver. so noble a remedy as the gospel, so well adapted to the cure of a 49 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, 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 eternity, that the salvation of one immortal soul will be more than an equivalent for the greatest and most lasting temporal evils, which the greatest number of persons can suffer for conscience sake. 51, 53 Let this awaken our zeal to save souls, however great and ter- 50 rible the sufferings are, to which it may expose us, in proportion · to h The very last mite of the debt thou part of the as, or acceptov, or of the larger owest.] The mite [enlov,] was the least farthing, mentioned Mat. x. 29. and Luke valuable of their coins (see Mark xii. 42), xii. 6, so that the mite was but little more containing no more than half of their least than the third part of an English farthing, kind of farthing, or of their xodparing, or and a sparrow was reckoned worth four of quadrans; which was itself but the fourth VOL. VI. them, 4 C |