CHRIST taking up a little Child, exhorts them to Humility. fat down, and called the Twelve, and faith unto them, If any Man defire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and Servant of all. [LUKE IX. 47.-] MAT. XVIII. 1. At the fame Time came the Difciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven? 2 And Jesus called a little Child unto him, and [took and] set him [LUK. by him] in the Midst of them, [and when he had taken him in his Arms, he faid unto them, [MARK IX. 36. LUKE IX. -47.] 3 Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little Children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. 19 and observing the same Carnality and Emulation Sect. 93. And at the fame Time (c), when the Disciples Mat.XVIII. : And when he had answered the Enquiry in the 2 (b) Called all the Twelve about him.] It is natural to suppose, that twelve Persons travelling together on Foot would form themselves into two or three little Companies, while some of them, no doubt, would be attending Christ, and discoursing with him: But our Lord judged it proper, as he was now in the House, that all the Twelve should hear this Admonition, thơ' they might not all have been engaged in the Dispute which occafioned it. (c) At the same Time.] By these Words Matthew expressly fixes the Connection between this Story, and that which concluded his xviith Chapter. But Clarius seems to refine too much, when he supposes, that Christ's having thus miraculously provided for paying Peter's Tribute with his own, gave Umbrage to the rest: Yet this precarious Turn serves the Church of Rome, as an Argument for the Supremacy of the Pope; nor is it wonderful, that in so weak a Cause they should catch at such a Shadow. C2 (d) Enter 20. Mat. XVIII. 4. He shews the Danger of offending any of his Little Ones. Sect. 93. Kingdom of Heaven, or be entitled to any of its final Blessings. Whoever therefore shall humble himself even as this little Child, and act with such Candor, Simplicity, and Modesty, as you fee in him, He is the Person, that hereafter will be regarded as the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, 5 and will stand high in its final Glories. And whosoever cordially shall entertain this Child, [or] 6 of the Divine Favour. But whoever shall deli- 4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little Child, the fame is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. 5 And [LUK. whosoever shall receive this Child,] [or one of fuch] little [Children] in my Name, receiveth me; [and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me :) [Luk. for he that is least among you all, the same shall be great.] [MARK IX. 37 LUKE IX. 48.] 6 But [whosoever] shall offend one of these Little Ones which believe in me, it were better for him, that a Mill-stone were hanged about his Neck, and that he were [cast into the Sea, and] drowned in the Depth of the Sea. [MARK IX. 42.] (d) Entertains not me alone, but bim that fent me.] Here Christ was interrupted by a Speech of John, related Mark ix. 38,-41. which is paraphrafed and explained below, in Selt. 96. See Note (a) there, pag. 34. (e) Shall offend one of these Little Ones, &c.] To offend a Person generally signifies, (as was. observed before, Vol. i. pag. 234. Note (c),) laying a Stumbling-block in his Way; so that any, who should by a scandalous Life lead others to think ill of the Christian Profession in general, or should by Persecution discourage the Weak, or by Sophistry, bad Example, or otherwise, pervert them from the Way of Truth and Goodness, would fall under the Weight of this terrible Sentence. (f) A huge Mill-stone.) So I render μυλος ονικος, which (as Erafmus, Grotius, Raphelius, and many others observe,) properly signifies a Mill-ftone too large to be turned, as fome were, by Woe unto the World, because of Offences. 7 Wo unto the World because of Offences: for it must needs be, that Offences come: but Wo to that Man by whom the Offence com eth. 8-Wherefore if thy Hand-offend thee, [cut it off,] and cast it from thee : it is better for thee to enter 21 Neck, and he should be thrown headlong into the Sect. 93. Woe to the World, because of such Offences, or Mat. XVIII. Wherefore let me renew the Exhortation, which 8 I formerly gave you, rather to submit to the severest Mortifications, than to indulge your sinful Inclinations, to the Scandal of others, and to your own Ruin: And as I then told you in my Sermon on the Mount (b), (fee on Mat. v. 30. Vol. i. pag. 234.) If thy Right Hand offend thee, that is, if any Thing dear unto thee as a Right Hand, should be the Means of leading thee into Sin, rather than indulge it, cut it off, and caft [it] from thee, whatever Pain or Deformity, or other Detriment, might follow from such a Loss; for it is much better for thee to enter maimed into Eternal Life, than having two Hands, to go down into the Prison of Hell, even into that Fire which shall never be exMARK IX. 44. Where tinguished: Where their corroding and up- Mark IX. braiding 44. into Life-maimed, rather than having two Hands, [to go into Hell, into the Fire that never shall be quenched:] [MARK IX. 43.] their by the Hand, and which would require the Force of Affes to move it; as it feems those Animals were generally used by the Jews on this Occasion. See Raphel. Annot. ex Xen. p. 46. (g) Thrown headlong into the Sea.] Cafaubon, and Elfner, (Observ. Vol. i. pag. 85.) not to mention others, have shewn at large, that Drowning in the Sea was a Punishment frequently used among the Antients, and that the Persons condemned had sometimes heavy Stones tied about their Necks, or were rolled up in Sheets of Lead. It seems to have grown into a Proverb, for dreadful and inevitable Ruin. (b) As I told you in my Sermon on the Mount.] It will, I hope, be observed, that Matthew, who had. before so largely recorded that Sermon, gives us again this Passage of it on the present Occafion; which is one Proof, among many others, that our Lord did not think it improper or unnecessary, sometimes to repeat what he had then faid: (See Vol. i. pag. 296. Note (e).) And confidering the Importance of these Maxims, and how little many of bis Hearers were disposed to receive and retain them, it was a valuable Instance of his Compaffion and Wisdom.. (i) Where : 22 Better to lose a Foot or an Eye, than fuffer them to offend us. Sect. 93. braiding Conscience is as a Worm, which never their Worm dieth not, and the Fire is not quenched. Mark IX. 44. 45 dies (i), but with unutterable Anguish still gnaws And again, if thy Foot offend thee, cut it off 46 Fire of Hell : dieth not, and where the Fire is not quenched, nor And, to repeat so wholesome and necessary an (i) Where their Conscience is as a Worm, which never dies.) There may indeed be an Allufion here to Ifa. lxvi. 24. (compare Ecclus' vii. 17. and Judith xvi. 17.) but the Expreffion had been just and proper without it: And it is observable, that some of the Antients expressed the fame Thought by saying, that the Marrow of the Back-Bone did in a wicked Man turn into a huge and fierce Serpent; thereby intimating, (by a much finer Figure, than Ælian, who reports it, understood,) that their own Thought should be their Torment, and they should be unable to disarm it by those Artifices, which had prevailed in the present Life. See Ælian. Hist. Anim. lib. i. cap. 51. and Gataker. Antonin. lib. viii. §. 58. (k) Thơ thou wait ever to continue so.] It is certain, no Man will enter into Life halt, maimed, or blind, as the Bodies of the Saints will be restored in the greatest Perfection. I know indeed, that, with some Latitude in the Expression, he may be said to enter halt, or maimed, into Life, whose Spirit passes from a dismembered Body into the Regions of the Blessed; but it seems to me, that the Propriety of the Phrafe is most exactly preserved, by taking it as in the Paraphrafe, and the Spirit of the Thought is greatly increased by that Interpretation. (1) Shall Offenders shall be falted with Fire, and not be confumed. 23 Members of thy Body in the greatest Perfection, Sect. 93. to be caft into Hell, where they will all be full of In Allusion to this, I have formerly called you, 50 (1) Shall be falted with Fire.] Grotius, Spanheim, Gataker, Le Clerc, and Dr. Mill, have abundantly answered the favourite Criticism of Scaliger, by which he would here read συρια instead of wuss, that it might be rendered, Every Offering made by Fire shall be falted. The learned and laborious Wolfius has proposed a multitude of Interpretations on this Text. He, and Mons. L'Enfant, think it refers to the fiery Trial, thro' which Christians must expect to pass: But this neither feems a natural Sense of the Phrase itself, nor does it so well fuit the Context, by which it should feem to be a Reason why the Infernal Fire is never quenched.. I know it may be answered, that it is however a Reason why the Disciples should practise the Mortification required above: But it seems desirable, where it can be done, to interpret the Particles in their most usual Sense, tho sometimes it is necessary (as we have elsewhere observed, Vol. i. pag. 307. Note (i),) to recede from it. To suppose, as Dr. Clarke, and fome others do, that here is a Reference to the Ambiguity of the Hebrew Word נמלח which fignifies either to be falted, or confumed, seems very unwarrantable ; fince αλιθησεται: has no fuch Ambiguity; not to say, how much it would impair the Force of the Sentence, leading to an Idea, the very contrary to what Christ had suggested above, no less than three Times. (m) Every Sacrifice shall be seafoned with Salt.] It is well known, that the Mofaic Law required this. See Lev. ii. 13. Heinfius thinks, that as Salt contracts and binds, it was therefore used as an Emblem of Friendship, which he supposes our Lord afterwards to refer to; and that it was the Foundation of the Figure, by which a perpetual Engagement is called a Covenant of Salt. Numb. xviii. 19. I should rather think it intended, as a Circumftance of Decency, that the Meat of GOD's Table should be falted; and conclude, that if it had any Emblematical Meaning, it was to recommend to the Worshipper an incorrupt Heart seasoned with favoury Sentiments of Wisdom and Piety. Sinners are elsewhere represented, as the Victims of Divine Justice: (Ifa. xxxiv. 6. Jer. xii. 3. xlvi. 10. Ezek. xxi. 9, 10. and xxxix. 17.) And good Men, (as in the End of this Verse,) are represented in another View, with regard to their Confecration to God, as acceptable Sacrifices. Rom. xii. 1. xv. 16. Compare I Pet. ii. 5. 4 |