Matthew 20 commentary

The direct object of this parable seems to be, to show that though the Jews were first called into the vineyard, at length the gospel should be preached to the Gentiles, and they should be admitted to equal privileges and advantages with the Jews. The parable may also be applied more generally, and shows, 1. That God is debtor to no man. 2. That many who begin last, and promise little in religion, sometimes, by the blessing of God, arrive at a great deal of knowledge, grace, and usefulness. 3. That the recompense of reward will be given to the saints, but not according to the time of their conversion. It describes the state of the visible church, and explains the declaration that the last shall be first, and the first last, in its various references. Till we are hired into the service of God, we are standing all the day idle: a sinful state, though a state of drudgery to Satan, may be called a state of idleness. The market-place is the world, and from that we are called by the gospel. Come, come from this market-place. Work for God will not admit of trifling. A man may go idle to hell, but he that will go to heaven, must be diligent. The Roman penny was sevenpence halfpenny in our money, wages then enough for the day's support. This does not prove that the reward of our obedience to God is of works, or of debt; when we have done all, we are unprofitable servants; but it signifies that there is a reward set before us, yet let none, upon this presumption, put off repentance till they are old. Some were sent into the vineyard at the eleventh hour; but nobody had hired them before. The Gentiles came in at the eleventh hour; the gospel had not been before preached to them. Those that have had gospel offers made them at the third or sixth hour, and have refused them, will not have to say at the eleventh hour, as these had, No man has hired us. Therefore, not to discourage any, but to awaken all, be it remembered, that now is the accepted time. The riches of Divine grace are loudly murmured at, among proud Pharisees and nominal Christians. There is great proneness in us to think that we have too little, and others too much of the tokens of God's favour; and that we do too much, and others too little in the work of God. But if God gives grace to others, it is kindness to them, and no injustice to us. Carnal worldlings agree with God for their penny in this world; and choose their portion in this life. Obedient believers agree with God for their penny in the other world, and must remember they have so agreed. Didst not thou agree to take up with heaven as thy portion, thy all; wilt thou seek for happiness in the creature? God punishes none more than they deserve, and recompenses every service done for him; he therefore does no wrong to any, by showing extraordinary grace to some. See here the nature of envy. It is an evil eye, which is displeased at the good of others, and desires their hurt. It is a grief to ourselves, displeasing to God, and hurtful to our neighbours: it is a sin that has neither pleasure, profit, nor honour. Let us forego every proud claim, and seek for salvation as a free gift. Let us never envy or grudge, but rejoice and praise God for his mercy to others as well as to ourselves.

Christ is more particular here in foretelling his sufferings than before. And here, as before, he adds the mention of his resurrection and his glory, to that of his death and sufferings, to encourage his disciples, and comfort them. A believing view of our once crucified and now glorified Redeemer, is good to humble a proud, self-justifying disposition. When we consider the need of the humiliation and sufferings of the Son of God, in order to the salvation of perishing sinners, surely we must be aware of the freeness and richness of Divine grace in our salvation.

The sons of Zebedee abused what Christ said to comfort the disciples. Some cannot have comforts but they turn them to a wrong purpose. Pride is a sin that most easily besets us; it is sinful ambition to outdo others in pomp and grandeur. To put down the vanity and ambition of their request, Christ leads them to the thoughts of their sufferings. It is a bitter cup that is to be drunk of; a cup of trembling, but not the cup of the wicked. It is but a cup, it is but a draught, bitter perhaps, but soon emptied; it is a cup in the hand of a Father, Joh 18:11. Baptism is an ordinance by which we are joined to the Lord in covenant and communion; and so is suffering for Christ, Eze 20:37; Isa 48:10. Baptism is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace; and so is suffering for Christ, for unto us it is given, Php 1:29. But they knew not what Christ's cup was, nor what his baptism. Those are commonly most confident, who are least acquainted with the cross. Nothing makes more mischief among brethren, than desire of greatness. And we never find Christ's disciples quarrelling, but something of this was at the bottom of it. That man who labours most diligently, and suffers most patiently, seeking to do good to his brethren, and to promote the salvation of souls, most resembles Christ, and will be most honoured by him to all eternity. Our Lord speaks of his death in the terms applied to the sacrifices of old. It is a sacrifice for the sins of men, and is that true and substantial sacrifice, which those of the law faintly and imperfectly represented. It was a ransom for many, enough for all, working upon many; and, if for many, then the poor trembling soul may say, Why not for me?

It is good for those under the same trial, or infirmity of body or mind, to join in prayer to God for relief, that they may quicken and encourage one another. There is mercy enough in Christ for all that ask. They were earnest in prayer. They cried out as men in earnest. Cold desires beg denials. They were humble in prayer, casting themselves upon, and referring themselves cheerfully to, the Mediator's mercy. They showed faith in prayer, by the title they gave to Christ. Surely it was by the Holy Ghost that they called Jesus, Lord. They persevered in prayer. When they were in pursuit of such mercy, it was no time for timidity or hesitation: they cried earnestly. Christ encouraged them. The wants and burdens of the body we are soon sensible of, and can readily relate. Oh that we did as feelingly complain of our spiritual maladies, especially our spiritual blindness! Many are spiritually blind, yet say they see. Jesus cured these blind men; and when they had received sight, they followed him. None follow Christ blindly. He first by his grace opens men's eyes, and so draws their hearts after him. These miracles are our call to Jesus; may we hear it, and make it our daily prayer to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

As this parable is nothing else than a confirmation of the preceding sentence, the last shall be first, it now remains to see in what manner it ought to be applied. Some commentators reduce it to this general proposition, that the glory of all; will be equal, because the heavenly inheritance is not obtained by the merits of works, but is bestowed freely. But Christ does not here argue either about the equality of the heavenly glory, or about the future condition of the godly. He only declares that those who were first in point of time have no right to boast or to insult others; because the Lord, whenever he pleases, may call those whom he appeared for a time to disregard, and may make them equal, or even superior, to the first. If any man should resolve to sift out with exactness every portion of this parable, his curiosity would be useless; and therefore we have nothing more to inquire than what was the design of Christ to teach. Now we have already said that he had no other object in view than to excite his people by continual spurs to make progress. We know that indolence almost always springs from excessive confidence; and this is the reason why many, as if they had reached the goal, stop short in the middle of the course. Thus Paul enjoins us to forget the things which are behind, (Philippians 3:13,) that, reflecting on what yet remains for us, we may arouse ourselves to persevere in running. But there will be no harm in examining the words, that the doctrine may be more clearly evinced.

Matthew 20:1. For the kingdom of heaven is like a householder. The meaning is, that such is the nature of the divine calling, as if a man were, early in the morning, to hire laborers for the cultivation of his vineyard at a fixed price, and were afterwards to employ others without an agreement, but to give them an equal hire. He uses the phrase, kingdom of heaven, because he compares the spiritual life to the earthly life, and the reward of eternal life to money which men pay in return for work that has been done for them. There are some who give an ingenious interpretation to this passage, as if Christ were distinguishing between Jews and Gentiles. The Jews, they tell us, were called at the first hour, with an agreement as to the hire; for the Lord promised to them eternal life, on the condition that they should fulfill the law; while, in calling the Gentiles, no bargain was made at least as to works, for salvation was freely offered to them in Christ. But all subtleties of that sort are unseasonable; for the Lord makes no distinction in the bargain, but only in the time; because those who entered last, and in the evening, into the vineyard, receive the same hire with the first Though, in the Law, God formerly promised to the Jews the hire of works, (Leviticus 18:5,) yet we know that this was without effect, because no man ever obtained salvation by his merits.

Why then, it will be said, does Christ expressly mention a bargain “Un pris conveml;” — “a price agreed upon.” in reference to the first, but make no mention of it in reference to the others? It was in order to show that, without doing injury to any one, as much honor is conferred on the last, as if they had been called at the beginning. For strictly speaking, he owes no man any thing, and from us, who are devoted to his service, he demands, as a matter of right, all the duties which are incumbent on us. But as he freely offers to us a reward, he is said to hire the labors which, on other grounds, were due to him. This is also the reason why he gives the name of a hire to the crown which he bestows freely. Again, in order to show that we have no right to complain of God, if he make us companions in honor with those who followed us after a long interval, he borrowed a comparison from the ordinary custom of men, who bargain about the hire, before they send laborers to their work.

If any man infer from this, that men are created for the purpose of doing something, and that every man has his province assigned him by God, that they may not sit down in idleness, he will offer no violence to the words of Christ. “Cela ne sera point tirer trop loin les parollcs de Christ;” — “this will not be straining too far the words of Christ.” We are also at liberty to infer, that our whole life is unprofitable, and that we are justly accused of indolence, until each of us regulate his life by the command and calling of God. Hence it follows, that they labor to no purpose, who rashly undertake this or that course of life, and do not wait for the intimation of the call of God. Lastly, we learn from the words of Christ, that those only are pleasing to God, who labor for the advantage of their brethren.

A penny (which was rather more than four times the value of a French carolus,) A penny (δηνάριον) was worth about sevenpence-halfpenny of our money. — Ed. was probably the ordinary hire for a day’s work. The third, sixth, and ninth hour, are expressly mentioned, because, while the ancients were wont to divide the day into twelve hours, from sunrise to sunset, there was another division of the day into every three hours; as, again, the night was divided into four watches; and so the eleventh hour means the close of the day.

8. And when the evening was come. It would be improper to look for a mystery in the injunction of the householder to begin with the last, as if God crowned those first who were last in the order of time; for such a notion would not at all agree with the doctrine of Paul. They that are alive, he says, at the coming of Christ will not come before those who previously fell asleep in Christ, but will follow, (1 Thessalonians 4:15.) But Christ observes a different order in this passage, because he could not otherwise have expressed — what he afterwards adds — that the first murmured, because they did not receive more “Pource qu’on ne leur donnoit non plus qu’aux derniers;” — “because no more was given to them than to the last.”

Besides, he did not intend to say that this murmuring will take place at the last day, but merely to affirm that there will be no occasion for murmuring The personification (προσωποποΐα) which he employs throws no small light on this doctrine, that men have no right to complain of the bounty of God, when he honors unworthy persons by large rewards beyond what they deserve. There is no foundation, therefore, for what some have imagined, that these words are directed against the Jews, who were full of malice and envy towards the Gentiles; for it would be absurd to say that such persons receive an equal hire with the children of God, and this malignity, which leads men to exclaim against God, does not apply to believers. But the plain meaning is, that, since God defrauds no man of a just hire, He is at liberty to bestow on those whom He has lately called an undeserved reward.

16. So the first shall be last. He does not now compare the Jews to the Gentiles, (as in another passages) nor the reprobate, who swerve from the faith, to the elect who persevere; and therefore the sentence which is introduced by some interpreters, many are called, but few are chosen, does not apply to that point. Christ only meant to say that every one who has been called before others ought to run with so much the greater alacrity, and, next, to exhort all men to be modest, not to give themselves the preference above others, but willingly to share with them a common prize. As the apostles were the first-fruits of the whole church, they appeared to possess some superiority; and Christ did not deny that they would sit as judges to govern the twelve tribes of Israel. But that they might not be carried away by ambition or vain confidence in themselves, it was necessary also to remind them that others, who would long afterwards be called, would be partakers of the same glory, because God is not limited to any person, but calls freely whomsoever He pleases, and bestows on those who are called whatever rewards He thinks fit.

Matthew 20:17-19; Mark 10:32-34; Luke 18:31-34

Matthew 20:17-19

Mark 10:32-34

Luke 18:31-34

17. And Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said to them, 18. Lo, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes; and they will condemn him to death. 19. And they will deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him; “Pour estre mocque, et flagelle, et crucifie;” — “to be mocked, and scourged, and crucified.” and on the third day he will rise again.

32. And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus went before them: and they were amazed; and, while they followed him, where afraid. And having again taken aside the twelve, he began to tell them what things would happen to him: 33. Lo, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes; and they will condemn him to death, and will deliver him to the Gentiles: 34. And will mock him, and scourge him, and spit upon him, and kill him; and on the third day he will rise again.

31. And Jesus took the twelve, and said to them, Lo, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things which have been written by the prophets concerning the Son of man will be accomplished. 32. For he will be delivered to the Gentiles, and mocked, and insulted, and spat on; 33. And after having scourged, they will kill him; and on the third day he will rise again. 34. And they understood none of these things; and this saying was hidden from them, and they understood not the things which were spoken. “Et ne pouvoyent entendre ce qu’il leur disoit;” — “and they could not understand what he said to them.”

Though the apostles had been previously informed what kind of death awaited our Lord, yet as they had not sufficiently profited by it, he now repeats anew what he had frequently said. He sees that the day of his death is at hand; nay more, he is already in a state of readiness to offer himself to be sacrificed; and, on the other hand, he sees the disciples not only afraid, but overwhelmed by blind alarm. He therefore exhorts them to steadiness, that they may not immediately yield to temptation. Now there are two methods by which he confirms them; for, by foretelling what would happen, he not only fortifies them, that they may not give way, when a calamity, which has arisen suddenly and contrary to expectation, takes them by surprise, but meets the offense of the cross by a proof of his Divinity, that they may not lose courage at beholding his short abasement, when they are convinced that he is the Son of God, and therefore will be victorious over death. The second method of confirmation is taken from his approaching resurrection.

But it will be proper to look more closely at the words. Mark states — what is omitted by the other two Evangelists — that, before our Lord explained to his disciples in private that he was going straight to the sacrifice of death, not only they, but also the rest of his followers, were sorrowful and trembling. Now why they were seized with this fear it is not easy to say, if it was not because they had already learned that they had dangerous adversaries at Jerusalem, and would therefore have wished that Christ should remain in some quiet retreat beyond the reach of the darts, rather than voluntarily expose himself to such inveterate enemies. Although this fear was in many respects improper, yet the circumstance of their following Christ is a proof of no ordinary respect and obedience. It would indeed have been far better to hasten cheerfully and without regret, wheresoever the Son of God chose to lead them; but commendation is due to their reverence for his person, which appears in choosing to do violence to their own feelings rather than to forsake him.

Matthew 20:17. Took the twelve disciples apart in the way It may appear surprising that he makes the twelve alone acquainted with his secret, since all have need of consolation, for all had been alike seized with fear. I consider the reason why he did not publish his death to have been, that the report might not spread too widely before the time. Besides, as he did not expect that the warning would be of immediate advantage, he reckoned it enough to entrust it to a few, who were afterwards to be his witnesses. For, as the seed thrown into the earth does not immediately spring up, so we know that Christ said many things to the apostles which did not immediately yield fruit. And if he had admitted all indiscriminately to this discourse, it was possible that many persons, seized with alarm, might flee, and fill the ears of the public with this report; and thus the death of Christ would have lost its glory, because he would have appeared to have rashly brought it on himself. Secretly, therefore, he addresses the apostles, and does not even select them as qualified to receive profit by it, but, as I lately hinted, that they may afterwards be witnesses.

On this subject Luke is more full than the others; for he relates not only that Christ predicted the events which were near at hand, but also that he added the doctrine, that those things which had been written by the prophets would be accomplished in the Son of man. It was an excellent remedy for overcoming temptation, to perceive in the very ignominy of the cross the marks by which the Prophets had pointed out the promised Author of salvation. There can be no doubt that our Lord pointed out also from the Prophets what kind of fruit they ought to expect from his death; for the Prophets do not only teach that Christ must suffer, but add the reason, that he may reconcile the world to God.

18. Lo, we go up to Jerusalem. Hence we perceive that Christ was endued with divine fortitude for overcoming the terrors of death, for he knowingly and willingly hastens to undergo it. “Veu qu’il se haste pour s’y presenter de son bon gre, et seachant bien ce qu’il avoit a endurer;” — “since he hastens to present himself to it of his own accord, and knowing well what he had to endure.” For why does he, without any constraint, march forward to suffer a shocking murder, but because the invincible power of the Spirit enabled him to subdue fear, and raised him above all human feelings? By a minute detail of the circumstances, he gives a still more evident proof of his Divinity. For he could not — as man — have foreseen that, after having been condemned by the chief priests and scribes, he would be delivered up to the Gentiles, and spat on, and mocked in various ways, and scourged, and at length dragged to the punishment of the cross Yet it must be observed that, though our Lord was fully acquainted with the weakness of his disciples, he does not conceal from them a very grievous offense. For — as we have said on a former occasion See p. 301 of this volume. — nothing could at that time have happened more powerfully calculated to shake the minds of the godly, than to see the whole of the sacred order of the Church opposed to Christ.

And yet he does not spare their weakness by deceiving them, but, candidly declaring the whole matter, points out the way to overcome temptation; namely, by looking forward with certainty to his resurrection. But as it was necessary that His death should go before, he makes their triumph, in the meantime, to consist in hope.

Matthew 20:20. Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children. This narrative contains a bright mirror of human vanity; for it shows that proper and holy zeal is often accompanied by ambition, or some other vice of the flesh, so that they who follow Christ have a different object in view from what they ought to have. They who are not satisfied with himself alone, but seek this or the other thing apart from him and his promises, wander egregiously from the right path. Nor is it enough that, at the commencement, we sincerely apply our minds to Christ, if we do not stead-lastly maintain the same purity; for frequently, in the midst of the course, there spring up sinful affections by which we are led astray. In this way it is probable that the two sons of Zebedee were, at first, sincere in their adherence to Christ; but when they see that they have no ordinary share of his favor, and hear his reign spoken of as near at hand, their minds are immediately led to wicked ambition, and they are greatly distressed at the thought of remaining in their present situation. If this happens to two excellent disciples, with what care ought we to walk, if we do not wish to turn aside from the right path! More especially, when any plausible occasion presents itself, we ought to be on our guard, lest the desire of honors corrupt the feeling of piety.

Though Matthew and Mark differ somewhat in the words, yet they agree as to the substance of the matter. Matthew says that the wife of Zebedee came, and asked for her sons that they might hold the highest places in the kingdom of Christ. Mark represents themselves as making the request. But it is probable that, being restrained by bashfulness, they had the dexterity to employ their mother, who would present the request with greater boldness. That the wish came originally from themselves may be inferred from this circumstance, that Christ replied to them, and not to their mother. Besides, when their mother, bowing down, states that she has something to ask, and when themselves, according to Mark, apply for a general engagement, that whatever they ask shall be granted to them, this timid insinuation proves that they were conscious of something wrong. “Monstre que leur conscience les redarguoit;” — “shows that their conscience was reproving them.”

21. In the kingdom. It was worthy of commendation in the sons of Zebedee, that they expected some kingdom of Christ, of which not even the slightest trace was then visible. They see Christ exposed to contempt under the mean aspect of a servant; nay more, they see him despised and loaded with many reproaches by the world; but they are convinced that he will soon become a magnificent king, for so he had taught them. It is unquestionably a noble specimen of faith; but hence we perceive how easily the pure seed is no sooner implanted in our hearts than it becomes degenerate and corrupted; for they imagined to themselves a kingdom which had no existence, and presently committed the folly of desiring the highest places. Since, therefore, this wicked ambition flowed from a general principle of faith, which in itself was highly commendable, we ought to pray, not only that the Lord would open the eyes of our mind, but that he would give us continual direction, and keep our minds fixed on the proper object. We ought also to pray, not only that he would bestow faith upon us, but that he would keep it pure from all mixture.

22. You know not what you ask. Their ignorance was worthy of blame on two accounts; first, because their ambition led them to desire more than was proper; and, secondly, because, instead of the heavenly kingdom of Christ, they had formed the idea of a phantom in the air. As to the first of those reasons, whoever is not satisfied with the free adoption of God, and desires to raise himself, such a person wanders beyond his limits, and, by unseasonably pressing himself forward beyond what was proper for him to do, is ungrateful to God. Now to estimate the spiritual kingdom of Christ according to the feeling of our flesh is highly perverse. And, indeed, the greater the delight which the mind of man takes in idle speculations, the more carefully ought we to guard against them; as we see that the books of the sophists are stuffed with useless notions of this sort.

Can you drink the cup which I shall drink? To correct their ambition, and to withdraw them from this wicked desire, he holds out to them the cross, and all the annoyances which the children of God must endure. As if he had said, “Does your present warfare allow you so much leisure, that you are now making arrangements for a triumphal procession?” For if they had been earnestly employed in the duties of their calling, they would never have given way to this wicked imagination. In these words, therefore, those who are desirous to obtain the prize before the proper time are enjoined by Christ to employ themselves in attending to the duties of piety. And certainly this is an excellent bridle for restraining ambition; for, so long as we are pilgrims in this world, our condition is such as ought to banish vain luxuries. We are surrounded by a thousand dangers. Sometimes the enemy assails us by ambush, and that in a variety of ways; and sometimes he attacks us by open violence. Is he not worse than stupid who, amidst so many deaths, entertains himself at his ease by drawing pictures of a triumph?

Our Lord enjoins his followers, indeed, to feel assured of victory, and to sing a triumphal song in the midst of death; for otherwise they would not have courage to fight valiantly. But it is one thing to advance manfully to the battle, in reliance on the reward which God has promised to them, and to labor with their whole might for this object; and it is another thing to forget the contest, to turn aside from the enemy, to lose sight of dangers, and to rush forward to triumph, for which they ought to wait till the proper time. Besides, this foolish speed, for the most part, draws men aside from their calling; for as in battle the greatest coward is the keenest to seize the booty, so in the kingdom of Christ none are more eager to obtain the superiority than those who shrink from all the annoyance which attends toil. Most properly, therefore, does Christ enjoin those who were puffed up with vain glory to keep by their post. “A bon droict done Christ royant ses deux disciples eslevez d’une vaine gloire, les arreste a penser aux choses qui concernent le devoir de leur vocation;” — “with good reason, then, does Christ, seeing his two disciples carried away by vain glory, make them stop to consider the things which belong to the duty of their calling.” The sum of the whole is, that for none but him who has fought lawfully is the crown prepared; and especially, that none will be a partaker of the life and the kingdom of Christ who has not previously shared in his sufferings and death.

In the word baptism the force of the metaphor is very evident; for we know that by baptism believers are instructed to deny themselves, (Matthew 45:24;) to crucify the old man, (Romans 6:6;) and, in short, to bear the cross It is uncertain if, by the word cup, (ποτήριον,) our Lord alluded to the mystery of the Holy Supper; but as it had not yet come into use, I choose to interpret it more simply as denoting the measure of afflictions which God appoints to every one. For as it is his right to lay on every one his own burden according to his pleasure, in the same manner as a householder distributes and allots the portions of the members of his family, so He is said to give them a cup to drink “Il est dit pour ceste cause, que Dieu donne la coupe a boire;” — “for this reason it is said that God gives the cup to drink.”

These words contain no ordinary consolation for alleviating the bitterness of the cross, when in the cross Christ associates himself with us. And what could be more desirable than to have every thing in common with the Son of God? for thus are those things which at first sight appear to be deadly made to yield to us salvation and life. On the other hand, how shall he be reckoned among the disciples of Christ, who desires to be wholly exempted from the cross? For such person refuses to submit to the baptism of Christ, which is nothing else than to withdraw from the earliest lessons. “Car cela n’est proprement autre chose que se retirer des commencemens, et ne vouloir entrer a la premiere lecon de son eschole;” — “for that is properly nothing else than to withdraw at the beginning, and to refuse to enter into the first lesson of his school.” Now whenever baptism is mentioned, let us recollect that we were baptized on this condition, and for this purpose, that the cross may be attached to our shoulders.

The boast made with so much confidence by John and James, that they are prepared to drink the cup, manifests the presumption of the flesh; for, when we are beyond the reach of darts, we think nothing impossible. And not long afterwards, the melancholy result exposed their rashness; but in so far it was good in them that, when they were free to make a choice, they presented themselves to bear the cross.

23. You shall indeed drink my cup. As they were disciples, it was proper that they should be assimilated to their Master. Christ warns them of what will take place, that they may be prepared to endure it with patience; and, in the persons of two men, he addresses all his followers. For though many believers die a natural death, and without violence or shedding of blood, yet it is common to all of them, as Paul informs us, (Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18,) to be conformed to the image of Christ; and, therefore,

during their whole life, they are sheep appointed to the slaughter, (Romans 8:36.)

Is not mine to give “Ce n’est pas a moy a le dormer;” — “it does not belong to me to give it.” By this reply Christ surrenders nothing, but only states that the Father had not assigned to him this office of appointing to each person his own peculiar place in the kingdom of heaven. He came, indeed, in order to bring all his people to eternal life; but we ought to reckon it enough that the inheritance obtained by his blood awaits us. As to the degree in which some men rise above others, it is not our business to inquire, and God did not intend that it should be revealed to us by Christ, but that it should be reserved till the latest revelation. We have now ascertained Christ’s meaning; for he does not here reason as to his power, but only desires us to consider for what purpose he was sent by the Father, and what corresponds to his calling, and therefore distinguishes between the secret purpose of God and the nature of that teaching which had been enjoined on him. It is a useful warning, that we may learn to be wise with sobriety, and may not attempt to force our way into the hidden mysteries of God, and more especially, that we may not indulge excessive curiosity in our inquiries about the future state; for

It hath not yet appeared what we shall be, till God shall make us like himself, (1 John 3:2.

It is also worthy of our notice, that these words do not imply that there will be equality among the children of God, after they have been admitted to the heavenly glory, but rather that to each is promised that degree of honor to which he has been set apart by the eternal purpose of God.

Matthew 20:24-28; Mark 10:41-45; Luke 22:24-27

Matthew 20:24-27

Mark 10:41-45

Luke 22:24-27

24. And when the ten heard it, “Les dix autres ayans ouy cela;” — “the other ten having heard that.” they were displeased with the two brethren. 25. And Jesus called them to him, and said, You know that the princes of the Gentiles rule over them, and they who are great exercise authority over them. 26. It shall not be so among you: but whoever wishes to be great among you, let him be your minister; 27. And he that wishes to be chief among you, let him be your servant: 28. Even as the Son of man came not that he might be served, but that he might serve, and that he might give his life a ransom for many.

41. And when the ten heard it, they began to be displeased with James and John. 42. And Jesus, when he had called them to him, saith to them, You know that they who appear to rule over the Gentiles exercise dominion over them; and they who are princes among them exercise power over them. 43. But it shall not be so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you, shall be your minister;. And whoever wishes to be chief among you, shall be your servant. 45. For even the Son of man came not that he might be served, but that he might serve, and that he might give his life a ransom for many.

24. And there arose also a dispute among them, which of them appeared to be greatest. 25. And he said to them, The kings of the Gentiles rule over them; and they that have power over them are called benefactors. 26. But you are not so: but he that is greatest among you, let him become as the younger; and he that is ruler, as he that serves. 27. For which is greater, he that sitteth at table, or her that serveth? Is it not he that sitteth at table? But I am in the midst of you as he that serveth.

Matthew 20:24. And when the ten heard it. “Les dix autres ayans ouy cela;” — “the other ten having heard that.” Luke appears to refer this dispute to a different time. But any one who shall carefully examine that twenty-second chapter will plainly see that discourses delivered at different times are there brought together, without any regard to order. The dispute about the primacy, therefore which Luke mentions, flowed from this source, that the sons of Zebedee aspired to the first places in the kingdom of Christ. And yet the displeasure of the rest was far from being well-founded; for, while the foolish ambition of the two disciples was so severely blamed, that they retired from Christ with disgrace, what injury was it to the other ten, that those disciples foolishly wished what they did not obtain? “Avoyent follement desire une chose qu’ils n’ont peu obtenir;” — “had foolishly desired a thing which they could not obtain.” For though they had a good right to be offended at the ambition of those disciples, yet when it was put down they ought to have been satisfied. But our Lord intended to seize on this occasion for laying open a disease which was lurking within them; for there was not one of them who would willingly yield to others, but every one secretly cherished within himself the expectation of the primacy; in consequence of which, they envy and dispute with one another, and yet in all there reigns wicked ambition. And if this fault was found to be natural to uneducated men of ordinary rank, and if it broke out on a slight occasion, and almost without any occasion at all, how much more ought we to be on our guard, when there is abundance of fuel to feed a concealed flame? We see then how ambition springs up in any man who has great power and honors, and sends out its flames far and wide, unless the spirit of modesty, coming from heaven, extinguish the pride which has a firm hold of the nature of man.

25. You know that the princes of the Gentiles rule over them. It is first said that Christ called them to him, that he might reprove them in private; and next we learn from it that, being ashamed of their ambition, they did not openly complain, but that a sort of hollow murmur arose, and every one secretly preferred himself to the rest. He does not explain generally how deadly a plague ambition is, but simply warns them, that nothing is more foolish than to fight about nothing. “Qu’il n’y a point de folie plus grande, que de debattre d’une chose qui n’est point;” — “that there is no greater folly than to debate about a thing which does not exist.” He shows that the primacy, which was the occasion of dispute among them, has no existence in his kingdom. Those persons, therefore, who extend this saying indiscriminately to all the godly are mistaken; for Christ only takes occasion from the present occurrence to show that it is absurd in the apostles to dispute about the degree of power and honor in their own rank, because the office of teaching, to which they were appointed, has no resemblance to the governments of the world. I do acknowledge that this doctrine applies both to private persons and to kings and magistrates; for no man deserves to be reckoned one of Christ’s flock, unless he has made such proficiency under the teacher of humility, as to claim nothing for himself, but condescend to cultivate brotherly love. This is, no doubt, true; but the design of Christ was, as I have said, to distinguish between the spiritual government of his Church and the empires of the world, that the apostles might not look for the favors of a court; for in proportion as any of the nobles is loved by kings, he rises to wealth and distinction. But Christ appoints pastors of his Church, not to rule, but to serve

This reflects the error of the Anabaptists, who exclude kings and magistrates from the Church of God, because Christ declares “Sous couleur de ce que Christ dit;” — “under the pretense of what Christ says.” that they are not like his disciples; though the comparison is here made not between Christians and ungodly men, but between the nature of their offices. Besides, Christ did not look so much at the persons of men as at the condition of his Church. For it was possible that one who was governor of a village or of a city might, in a case of urgent necessity, discharge also the office of teaching; but Christ satisfied himself with explaining what belongs to the apostolic office and what is at variance with it.

But a question arises, Why does Christ, who appointed separate orders in his Church, disown in this passage all degrees? For he appears to throw them all down, or, at least, to place them on a level, so that not one rises above the rest. But natural reason prescribes a very different method; and Paul, when describing the government of the Church, (Ephesians 4:11,) enumerates the various departments of the ministry, in such a manner as to make the rank of apostleship higher than the office of pastors. Timothy and Titus also, are unquestionably enjoined by him to exercise authoritative superintendence over others, according to the command of God. I reply, if we carefully examine the whole, it will be found that even kings do not rule justly or lawfully, unless they serve; but that the apostolic office differs from earthly government in this respect, that the manner in which kings and magistrates serve does not prevent them from governing, or indeed from rising above their subjects in magnificent pomp and splendor. Thus David, Hezekiah, and others of the same class, while they were the willing servants of all, used a scepter, a crown, a throne, and other emblems of royalty. But the government of the Church admits nothing of this sort; for Christ allowed the pastors nothing more than to be ministers, and to abstain entirely from the exercise of authority. Here, to it ought to be observed, that the discourse relates to the thing itself rather than to the disposition. Christ distinguishes between the apostles and the rank of kings, not because kings have a right to act haughtily, but because the station of royalty is different from the apostolic office. While, therefore, both ought to be humble, it is the duty of the apostles always to consider what form of government the Lord has appointed for his Church.

As to the words which Matthew employs, the princes of the Gentiles rule over them, Luke conveys the same import by saying, they are called benefactors; which means, that kings possess great wealth and abundance, in order that they may be generous and bountiful. For though kings have greater delight in their power, and a stronger desire that it should be formidable, than that it should be founded in the consent of the people, still they desire the praise of munificence. “Toutesfois ils appetent d’avoir la louange d’estre magnifiques et liberaux;” — “yet they desire to have the praise of being sumptuous and liberal.” Hence, too, they take the name in the Hebrew language, נדיבים, (nedibim ) They are so called from bestowing gifts; נדיב (nadib,)alvrince, which is derived from נדב (nadab,) to be bountiful, is the very word to which allusion is supposed to be made in the passage, (Luke 22:25,) where it is said that the name princes (נדיבים, nedibim) signifies benefactors. — Ed for taxes and tributes are paid to them for no other purpose than to furnish the expense necessary to the magnificence of their rank.

26. It shall not be so among you. There can be no doubt that Christ refers to the foolish imagination by which he saw that the apostles were deceived. “It is foolish and improper in you,” he says, “to imagine a kingdom, which is unsuitable to me; and therefore, if you desire to serve me faithfully, you must resort to a different method, which is, that each of you may strive to serve others.” “De se rendre serviteur a ses compagnons;” — “to become a servant to his companions.” But whoever wishes to be great among you, let him be your servant. These words are employed in an unusual sense; for ambition does not allow a man to be devoted, or, rather, to be subject to his brethren. Abject flattery, I do acknowledge, is practiced by those who aspire to honors, but nothing is farther from their intention than to serve But Christ’s meaning is not difficult to be perceived. As every man is carried away by a love of himself, he declares that this passion ought to be directed to a different object. Let the only greatness, eminence, and rank, which you desire, be, to submit to your brethren; and let this be your primacy, to be the servants of all.

28. As the Son of man Christ confirms the preceding doctrine by his own example; for he voluntarily took upon himself the form of a servant, and emptied himself, as Paul also informs us, (Philippians 2:7.) To prove more clearly how far he was from indulging in lofty views, he reminds them of his death. “Because I have chosen you to the honor of being near me, you are seized by a wicked ambition to reign. But I — by whose example you ought to regulate your life — came not to exalt myself, or to claim any royal dignity. On the contrary, I took upon me, along with the mean and despised form of the flesh, the ignominy of the cross. If it be objected, that Christ was:

exalted by the Father, in order that every knee might bow to him, (Philippians 2:9,10,)

it is easy to reply, that what he now says refers to the period of his humiliation. Accordingly, Luke adds, that he lived among them, as if he were a servant: not that in appearance, or in name, or in reality, he was inferior to them, (for he always wished to be acknowledged as their Master and Lord,) but because from the heavenly glory he descended to such meekness, that he submitted to bear their infirmities. Besides, it ought to be remembered that a comparison is here made between the greater and the less, as in that passage,

If I, who am your Master and Lord, have washed your feet, much more ought you to perform this service to one another, (John 13:14.)

And to give his life a ransom for many. Christ mentioned his death, as we have said, in order to withdraw his disciples from the foolish imagination of an earthly kingdom. But it is a just and appropriate statement of its power and results, when he declares that his life is the price of our redemption; whence it follows, that we obtain an undeserved reconciliation with God, the price of which is to be found nowhere else than in the death of Christ. Wherefore, this single word overturns all the idle talk of the Papists about their abominable satisfactions Again, while Christ has purchased us by his death to be his property, this submission, of which he speaks, is so far from diminishing his boundless glory, that it greatly increases its splendor. The word many (πολλῶν) is not put definitely for a fixed number, but for a large number; for he contrasts himself with all others. “Il prend PLUSIEURS, non pas pour quelque certain nombre, mais pour les autres: car il fait une comparaison de sa personne a tout le reste des hommes;” — “He takes MANY, not for any fixed number, but for the others; for he makes a comparison of his person with all the rest of men.” And in this sense it is used in Romans 5:15, where Paul does not speak of any part of men, but embraces the whole human race.

Matthew 20:29-34; Mark 10:46-52; Luke 18:35-43

Matthew 20:29-34

Mark 10:46-52

Luke 18:35-43

29. And while they were departing from Jericho, a great multitude followed him. 30. And, lo, two blind men sitting near the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried aloud, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. 31. And the multitude rebuked them, that they might be silent; but they cried out the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. 32. And Jesus stood, and called them, and said, What do you wish that I should do to you? 33. They say to him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. 34. And Jesus, moved with compassion, touched their eyes; and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him.

46. And they come to Jericho: and while they was departing from the city Jericho, and his disciples, and a great multitude, Bartimeus, son of Timeus, a blind man, was sitting hear the road begging. 47. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry aloud, and to say, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. 48. And many rebuked him, that he might be silent: but he cried out so much the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. 49. And Jesus stood, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying to him, Be of good courage, rise; he calleth thee. 50. And he, throwing away his mantle, arose, and came to Jesus. 51. And Jesus answering, saith to him, What dost thou wish that I should do to thee? And the blind man said to him, Master, “Rabboni;” — “Maistre.” that I may receive sight. 52 And Jesus said to him, Go away; thy faith hath cured thee. And immediately he received sight, and followed Jesus in the way.

35. And it happened that, while he was approaching Jericho, a certain blind man was sitting near the road begging: 36. And when he heard a multitude passing by, he asked what it was. 37. And they said to him, that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. 38. And he cried out, saying, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. 39. And they that were going before rebuked him, that he might be silent: but he cried out so much the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. 40. And Jesus, standing still, commanded him to be brought to him: and while he was approaching, he asked him, 41. Saying, What dost thou wish that I should do to thee? And he said, Lord, that I may receive sight. 42. Then Jesus said to him, Receive sight: thy faith hath cured thee. 43. And immediately he received sight, and followed him, glorifying God: and all the people when they saw it, gave praise to God.

Matthew 20:29. And while they were departing from Jericho. Osiander has resolved to display his ingenuity by making four blind men out of one. But nothing can be more frivolous than this supposition. Having observed that the Evangelists differ in a few expressions, he imagined that one blind man received sight when they were entering into the city, and that the second, and other two, received sight when Christ was departing from it. But all the circumstances agree so completely, that no person of sound judgment will believe them to be different narratives. Not to mention other matters, when Christ’s followers had endeavored to put the first to silence, and saw him cured contrary to their expectation, would they immediately have made the same attempt with the other three? But it is unnecessary to go into particulars, from which any man may easily infer that it is one and the same event which is related.

But there is a puzzling contradiction in this respect, that Matthew and Mark say that the miracle was performed on one or on two blind men, when Christ had already departed from the city; while Luke relates that it was done before he came to the city. Besides, Mark and Luke speak of not more than one blind man, while Matthew mentions two. But as we know that it frequently occurs in the Evangelists, that in the same narrative one passes by what is mentioned by the others, and, on the other hand, states more clearly what they have omitted, it ought not to be looked upon as strange or unusual in the present passage. My conjecture is, that, while Christ was approaching to the city, the blind man cried out, but that, as he was not heard on account of the noise, he placed himself in the way, as they were departing from the city, “Mais pource qu’il ne peut estre ouy a cause du bruit du peuple, qu’il s’en alla, l’autre porte de la ville par laquelle Christ devoit sortir, pour l’attendre la au chemin;” — “but, because he could not be heard on account of the noise of the people, that he went away to the other gate by which Christ was to go out, to wait for him there on the road.” and then was at length called by Christ. And so Luke, commencing with what was true, does not follow out the whole narrative, but passes over Christ’s stay in the city; while the other Evangelists attend only to the time which was nearer to the miracle. There is probability in the conjecture that, as Christ frequently, when he wished to try the faith of men, delayed for a short time to relieve them, so he subjected this blind man to the same scrutiny.

The second difficulty may be speedily removed; for we have seen, on a former occasion, that Mark and Luke speak of one demoniac as having been cured, while Matthew, as in the present instance, mentions two, (Matthew 8:28; Mark 5:2; Luke 8:27 See Harmony, vol. 1 p. 428. ) And yet this involves no contradiction between them; but it may rather be conjectured with probability, that at first one blind man implored the favor of Christ, and that another was excited by his example, and that in this way two persons received sight Mark and Luke speak of one only, either because he was better known, or because in him the demonstration of Christ’s power was not less remarkable than it was in both. It certainly appears to have been on account of his having been extensively known that he was selected by Mark, who gives both his own name and that of his father: Bartimeus, son of Timeus By doing so, he does not claim for him either illustrious descent or wealth; for he was a beggar of the lowest class. Hence it appears that the miracle was more remarkable in his person, because his calamity had been generally known. This appears to me to be the reason why Mark and Luke mention him only, and say nothing about the other, who was a sort of inferior appendage. But Matthew, who was an eye-witness, “Qui avoit este present au miracle;” — “who had been present at the miracle.” did not choose to pass by even this person, though less known.

30. Have mercy on me, O Lord. I stated, a little ago, that there was at first but one who cried out, but the other was induced by a similar necessity to join him. They confer on Christ no ordinary honor, when they request him to have mercy, and relieve them; for they must have been convinced that he had in his power the assistance or remedy which they needed. But their faith is still more clearly exhibited by their acknowledgment of him as Messiah, to whom we know that the Jews gave this designation, Son of David They therefore apply to Christ, not only as some Prophet, but as that person whom God had promised to be the only Author of salvation. The cry proved the ardor of the desire; for, though they knew that what they said exposed them to the hatred of many, who were highly displeased with the honor done to Christ, their fear was overcome by the ardor of desire, so that they did not refrain, on this account, from raising their voice aloud.

31. And the multitude reproved them. It is surprising that the disciples of Christ, who follow him through a sense of duty and of respect, should wish to drive wretched men from the favor of Christ, and, so far as lies in them, to prevent the exercise of his power. But it frequently happens that the greater part of those who profess the name of Christ, instead of inviting us to him, rather hinder or delay our approach. If Satan endeavored to throw obstacles in the way of two blind men, by means of pious and simple persons, who were induced by some sentiments of religion to follow Christ, how much more will he succeed in accomplishing it by means of hypocrites and traitors, if we be not strictly on our guard. Perseverance is therefore necessary to overcome every difficulty, and the more numerous the obstacles are which Satan throws in the way, the more powerfully ought we to be excited to earnestness in prayer, as we see that the blind men redoubled their cry

32. What do you wish that I should do to you? He gently and kindly asks what they desire; for he had determined to grant their requests. There is no reason to doubt that they prayed by a special movement of the Holy Spirit; for, as the Lord does not intend to grant to all persons deliverance from bodily diseases, so neither does he permit them simply to pray for it. A rule has been prescribed for us what we ought to ask, and in what manner, and to what extent; and we are not at liberty to depart from that rule, unless the Lord, by a secret movement of the Spirit, suggest to us some special prayer, which rarely happens. Christ puts the question to them, not for their sake as individuals, but for the sake of all the people; for we know how the world swallows God’s benefits without perceiving them, unless they are stimulated and aroused. Christ, therefore, by his voice, awakens the assembled crowd to observe the miracle, as he awakens them shortly afterwards by a visible sign, when he opens their eyes by touching them.

34. And Jesus, moved with compassion, etc. Σπλαγχνισθείς, moved with compassion, is not the participle of the same verb which Matthew had just now employed in reference to the blind man, ἐλέησον, have mercy “Quand ils disoyent, Fils de David, aye misericorde de nous;” — “when they said, Son of David, have mercy on us.” They implored the mercy of Christ, that he might relieve their wretchedness; but now the Evangelist expresses that Christ was induced to cure them, not only by undeserved goodness, but because he pitied their distress. For the metaphor is taken from the bowels, (σπλάγχνα,) in which dwells that kindness and mutual compassion which prompts us to assist our neighbors.

Matthew 20:34. And followed him. This was an expression of gratitude, “Ceci a este un signe de recognoissance du bien receu de Christ;” — “this was an expression of gratitude for the favor received from Christ.” when the blind men became followers of Christ; for, though it is uncertain how long they discharged this duty, yet it showed a grateful mind, that they presented themselves to many, in that journey, as mirrors of the grace of Christ. Luke adds, that the people gave praise to God, which tends to prove the certainty of the miracle.

Luke 19:1-10

Luke 19:1-10

1. And having entered, he passeth through Jericho. “Estant entre en Iericho, il alloit par la ville;” — “having entered into Jericho, he went through the town.” 2. And, lo, a man named Zaccheus, and he was chief of the publicans, and was rich. 3. And he sought to see Jesus who he was, “Et taschoit a veoir lequel estoit Iesus;” — “and endeavored to see who Jesus was.” and could not on account of the multitude; for he was of small stature. 4. And running before, he climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him; for he was to pass that way. 5. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said to him, Zaccheus, make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house. 6. And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. 7. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he had gone to lodge with a man who is a sinner. 8. And Zaccheus stood, and said to the Lord, Lo, O Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded any man in any thing, I restore fourfold. “I’en rend quatre fois autant;” — “I restore four times as much for it.” 9. Jesus said to him, Today is salvation come to this house, inasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham. “Poutrtant que ceste-ci aussi est fille d’Abraham, ou, cestuy-ci aussi est fils d’Abraham;” — “because this also is a daughter of Abraham, or, this also is a son of Abraham.” 10. For the Son of man came to seek and save what was lost.

CHAPTER 20

Mt 20:1-16. Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard.

This parable, recorded only by Matthew, is closely connected with the end of the nineteenth chapter, being spoken with reference to Peter's question as to how it should fare with those who, like himself, had left all for Christ. It is designed to show that while they would be richly rewarded, a certain equity would still be observed towards later converts and workmen in His service.

1. For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, &c.--The figure of a vineyard, to represent the rearing of souls for heaven, the culture required and provided for that purpose, and the care and pains which God takes in that whole matter, is familiar to every reader of the Bible. (Psa 80:8-16; Is 5:1-7; Jr 2:21; Lu 20:9-16; Joh 15:1-8). At vintage time, as Webster and Wilkinson remark, labor was scarce, and masters were obliged to be early in the market to secure it. Perhaps the pressing nature of the work of the Gospel, and the comparative paucity of laborers, may be incidentally suggested, Mt 9:37, 38. The "laborers," as in Mt 9:38, are first, the official servants of the Church, but after them and along with them all the servants of Christ, whom He has laid under the weightiest obligation to work in His service.

2. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny--a usual day's hire.

he sent them into his vineyard.

3. And he went out about the third hour--about nine o'clock, or after a fourth of the working day had expired: the day of twelve hours was reckoned from six to six.

and saw others standing idle in the market place--unemployed.

4. And said unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right--just, equitable, in proportion to their time.

I will give you. And they went their way.

5. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour--about noon, and about three o'clock in the afternoon.

and did likewise--hiring and sending into his vineyard fresh laborers each time.

6. And about the eleventh hour--but one hour before the close of the working day; a most unusual hour both for offering and engaging

and found others standing idle, and saith, Why stand ye here all the day idle?--Of course they had not been there, or not been disposed to offer themselves at the proper time; but as they were now willing, and the day was not over, and "yet there was room," they also are engaged, and on similar terms with all the rest.

8. So when even was come--that is, the reckoning time between masters and laborers (see De 24:15); pointing to the day of final account.

the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward--answering to Christ Himself, represented "as a Son over His own house" (He 3:6; see Mt 11:27; Joh 3:35; 5:27).

Call the labourers and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first--Remarkable direction this--last hired, first paid.

9. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny--a full day's wages.

10. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more--This is that calculating, mercenary spirit which had peeped out--though perhaps very slightly--in Peter's question (Mt 19:27), and which this parable was designed once for all to put down among the servants of Christ.

11. And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house--rather, "the householder," the word being the same as in Mt 20:1.

12. Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat--the burning heat.

of the day--who have wrought not only longer but during a more trying period of the day.

13. But he answered one of them--doubtless the spokesman of the complaining party.

and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? &c.

15. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?--that is, "You appeal to justice, and by that your mouth is shut; for the sum you agreed for is paid you. Your case being disposed of, with the terms I make with other laborers you have nothing to do; and to grudge the benevolence shown to others, when by your own admission you have been honorably dealt with, is both unworthy envy of your neighbor, and discontent with the goodness that engaged and rewarded you in his service at all."

16. So the last shall be first, and the first last--that is, "Take heed lest by indulging the spirit of these murmurers at the penny given to the last hired, ye miss your own penny, though first in the vineyard; while the consciousness of having come in so late may inspire these last with such a humble frame, and such admiration of the grace that has hired and rewarded them at all, as will put them into the foremost place in the end."

for many be called, but few chosen--This is another of our Lord's terse and pregnant sayings, more than once uttered in different connections. (See Mt 19:30; 22:14). The "calling" of which the New Testament almost invariably speaks is what divines call effectual calling, carrying with it a supernatural operation on the will to secure its consent. But that cannot be the meaning of it here; the "called" being emphatically distinguished from the "chosen." It can only mean here the "invited." And so the sense is, Many receive the invitations of the Gospel whom God has never "chosen to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth" (2Th 2:13). But what, it may be asked, has this to do with the subject of our parable? Probably this--to teach us that men who have wrought in Christ's service all their days may, by the spirit which they manifest at the last, make it too evident that, as between God and their own souls, they never were chosen workmen at all.

Mt 20:17-28. Third Explicit Announcement of His Approaching Sufferings, Death, and Resurrection--The Ambitious Request of James and John, and the Reply. ( = Mr 10:32-45; Lu 18:31-34).

For the exposition, see on Mr 10:32-45.

Mt 20:29-34. Two Blind Men Healed. ( = Mr 10:46-52; Lu 18:35-43).

For the exposition, see on Lu 18:35-43.

For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man - a householder - The very commencement of this chapter shows it to be connected with the preceding. The manner of God's proceeding under the Gospel dispensation resembles a householder, who went out at day break, αμα πρωι, together with the morning; as the light began to go out of its chambers in the east, so he went out of his bed-room to employ laborers, that they might cultivate his vineyard. This was what was called, among the Jews and Romans, the first hour; answering to six o'clock in the morning.

To hire laborers - Some workmen, των εργατων - for he had not got all that was necessary, because we find him going out at other hours to hire more.

A penny - A Roman coin, as noted before, Mat 18:28, worth about seven-pence halfpenny or seven-pence three farthings of our money, and equal to the Greek drachma. This appears to have been the ordinary price of a day's labor at that time. See Tobit 5:14. In 1351 the price of labor was regulated in this country by parliament; and it is remarkable that "corn-weeders and hay-makers, without meat, drink, or other courtesy demanded," were to have one penny per day! In 1314 the pay of a chaplain to the Scotch bishops, who were then prisoners in England, was three halfpence per day. See Fleetwood's Chronicon Precios, p. 123, 129. This was miserable wages, though things at that time were so cheap that twenty-four eggs were sold for a penny, p. 72; a pair of shoes for four-pence, p. 71; a fat goose for two-pence halfpenny, p. 72; a hen for a penny, p. 72; eight bushels of wheat for two shillings, and a fat ox for six shillings and eight-pence! Ibid. In 1336, wheat per quarter, 2s.; a fat sheep 6d.; fat goose, 2d. and a pig, 1d., p. 75.

The third hour - Nine o'clock in the morning.

Market-place - Where laborers usually stood till they were hired. I have often seen laborers standing in the market places of large towns in these countries, waiting to be employed.

The sixth hour - Twelve o'clock. Ninth hour - three o'clock in the afternoon.

Eleventh - Five o'clock in the evening, when there was only one hour before the end of the Jewish day, which, in matters of labor, closed at six.

No man hath hired us - This was the reason why they were all the day idle.

And whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive - Ye may expect payment in proportion to your labor, and the time ye spend in it; but this clause is wanting in some of the best MSS., versions, and fathers.

When the even was come - Six o'clock, the time they ceased from labor, and the workmen came to receive their wages.

Steward - Επιτρωπος. A manager of the household concerns under the master. The rabbinical writers use the very same word, in Hebrew letters, for the same office, אפיטרופוס epitropos. See Kypke.

They murmured - The Jews made the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles, a pretense why they should reject that Gospel; as they fondly imagined they were, and should be, the sole objects of the Divine approbation. How they murmured because the Gentiles were made partakers of the kingdom of God; see Act 11:1, etc., and Act 15:1, etc. There are many similitudes of this kind among the Jews, where the principal part even of the phraseology of our Lord's parable may be found. Several of them may be seen in Schoettgen. Our Lord, however, as in all other cases, has greatly improved the language, scope, design, and point of the similitude. He was, in all cases, an eminent master of the sentences.

Friend, I do thee no wrong - The salvation of the Gentiles can in itself become no impediment to the Jews; there is the same Jesus both for the Jew and for the Greek. Eternal life is offered to both through the blood of the cross; and there is room enough in heaven for all.

Is it not lawful for me - As eternal life is the free gift of God, he has a right to give it in whatever proportions, at whatever times, and on whatever conditions he pleases.

Is thine eye evil - An evil eye among the Jews meant a malicious, covetous, or envious person.

Most commentators have different methods of interpreting this parable. Something was undoubtedly designed by its principal parts, besides the scope and design mentioned at the conclusion of the last chapter. The following, which is taken principally from the very pious Quesnel, may render it as useful to the reader as any thing else that has been written on it.

The Church is a vineyard, because it is a place of labor, where no man should be idle. Each of us is engaged to labor in this vineyard - to work out our salvation through him who worketh in us to will and to perform. Life is but a day, whereof childhood, or the first use of reason, is the day-break or first hour, Mat 20:1, in which we receive the first Call.

The promise of the kingdom of glory is given to all those who are workers together with him, Mat 20:2.

The second call is in the time of youth, which is most commonly idle, or only employed in dissipation and worldly cares, Mat 20:3.

The third call is at the age of manhood.

The fourth, in the decline of life, Mat 20:5.

The fifth, when sickness and the infirmities of life press upon us. How many are there in the world who are just ready to leave it, before they properly consider for what end they were brought into it! Still idle, still unemployed in the things which concern their souls; though eternal life is offered to them, and hell moving from beneath to meet them! Mat 20:6.

Others consider the morning the first dawn of the Gospel; and the first call to be the preaching of John Baptist.

The second call, the public preaching of our Lord; and that of the apostles when they got an especial commission to the Jews, Mat 10:5, Mat 10:6, together with that of the seventy disciples mentioned Luk 10:1.

The third call, which was at mid-day, represents the preaching of the fullness of the Gospel after the ascension of Christ, which was the meridian of evangelic glory and excellence.

The fourth call represents the mission of the apostles to the various synagogues of the Jews, in every part of the world where they were scattered; the history of which is particularly given in the Acts of the Apostles.

The fifth call, or eleventh hour, represents the general call of the Gentiles into the Church of Christ, when the unbelieving Jews were finally rejected.

What makes this interpretation the more likely is, that the persons who are addressed at Mat 20:7, say, No man hath hired us, i.e. We never heard the voice of a prophet announcing the true God, nor of an apostle preaching the Lord Jesus, until now. The Jews could not use this as an argument for their carelessness about their eternal interests.

So the last shall be first, and the first last - The Gentiles, who have been long without the true God, shall now enjoy all the privileges of the new covenant; and the Jews, who have enjoyed these from the beginning, shall now be dispossessed of them; for, because they here rejected the Lord, he also hath rejected them.

Many are called, etc. - This clause is wanting in BL, one other, and in the Coptic and Sahidic versions. Bishop Pearce thinks it is an interpolation from Mat 22:14. The simple meaning seems to be: As those who did not come at the invitation of the householder to work in the vineyard did not receive the denarius, or wages, so those who do not obey the call of the Gospel, and believe in Christ Jesus, shall not inherit eternal life.

This place seems to refer to the ancient Roman custom of recruiting their armies. Among this celebrated people, no one was forced to serve his country in a military capacity; and it was the highest honor to be deemed worthy of thus serving it. The youth were instructed, almost from their cradle, in military exercises. The Campus Martius was the grand field in which they were disciplined: there, they accustomed themselves to leaping, running, wrestling, bearing burdens, fencing, throwing the javelin, etc., and when, through these violent exercises, they were all besmeared with dust and sweat, in order to refresh themselves, they swam twice or thrice across the Tyber! Rome might at any time have recruited her armies by volunteers from such a mass of well-educated, hardy soldiers; but she thought proper, to use the words of the Abbe Mably, that the honor of being chosen to serve in the wars should be the reward of the accomplishments shown by the citizens in the Campus Martius, that the soldier should have a reputation to save; and that the regard paid him, in choosing him to serve, should be the pledge of his fidelity and zeal to discharge his duty. The age of serving in the army was from seventeen to forty-five, and the manner in which they were chosen was the following: -

After the creation of consuls, they every year named twenty-four military tribunes, part of whom must have served five years at least, and the rest eleven. When they had divided among them the command of the four legions to be formed, the consuls summoned to the capitol, or Campus Martius, all the citizens who, by their age, were obliged to bear arms. They drew up by tribes, and lots were drawn to determine in what order every tribe should present its soldiers. That which was the first in order chose the four citizens who were judged the most proper to serve in the war; and the six tribunes who commanded the first legion chose one of these four, whom they liked best. The tribunes of the second and third likewise made their choice one after another; and he that remained entered into the fourth legion. A new tribe presented other four soldiers, and the second legion chose first. The third and fourth legions had the same advantage in their turns. In this manner, each tribe successively chose four soldiers, till the legions were complete. They next proceeded to the creation of subaltern officers, whom the tribunes chose from among the soldiers of the greatest reputation. When the legions were thus completed, the citizens who had been called, but not chosen, returned to their respective employments, and served their country in other capacities. None can suppose that these were deemed useless, or that, because not now chosen to serve their country in the field, they were proscribed from the rights and privileges of citizens, much less destroyed, because others were found better qualified to serve their country at the post of honor and danger. Thus many are called by the preaching of the Gospel, but few are found who use their advantages in such a way as to become extensively useful in the Church - and many in the Church militant behave so ill as never to be admitted into the Church triumphant. But what a mercy that those who appear now to be rejected may be called in another muster, enrolled, serve in the field, or work in the vineyard? How many millions does the long-suffering of God lead to repentance!

And Jesus going up - From Jericho to Jerusalem, See Mat 19:15.

The Son of man shall be betrayed - Or, will be delivered up. This is the third time that our Lord informed his disciples of his approaching sufferings and death. This was a subject of the utmost importance, and it was necessary they should be well prepared for such an awful event.

Deliver him to the Gentiles to mock - This was done by Herod and his Roman soldiers. See Luk 23:11.

To scourge, and to crucify - This was done by Pilate, the Roman governor. The punishment of the cross was Roman not Jewish; but the chief priests condemned him to it, and the Romans executed the sentence. How little did they know that they were, by this process, jointly offering up that sacrifice which was to make an atonement for the Gentiles and for the Jews; an atonement for the sin of the whole world? How often may it be literally said, The wrath of man shall praise thee!

The mother of Zebedee's children - This was Salome.

Grant that these my two sons - James and John. See Mar 15:40. In the preceding chapter, Mat 19:28, our Lord had promised his disciples, that they should sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes. Salome, probably hearing of this, and understanding it literally, came to request the chief dignities in this new government for her sons; and it appears it was at their instigation that she made this request, for Mark, Mar 10:35, informs us that these brethren themselves made the request, i.e. they made it through the medium of their mother.

One on thy right hand, and the other on (Thy) left - I have added the pronoun in the latter clause on the authority of almost every MS. and version of repute.

That the sons of Zebedee wished for ecclesiastical, rather than secular honors, may be thought probable, from the allusion that is made here to the supreme dignities in the great Sanhedrin. The prince of the Sanhedrin (Ha-Nasi) sat in the midst of two rows of senators or elders; on his right hand sat the person termed AB (the father of the Sanhedrin); and on his left hand the Chacham, or sage. These persons transacted all business in the absence of the president. The authority of this council was at some periods very great, and extended to a multitude of matters both ecclesiastical and civil. These appear to have been the honors which James and John sought. They seem to have strangely forgot the lesson they had learned from the transfiguration.

Ye know not what ye ask - How strange is the infatuation, in some parents, which leads them to desire worldly or ecclesiastical honors for their children! He must be much in love with the cross who wishes to have his child a minister of the Gospel; for, if he be such as God approves of in the work, his life will be a life of toil and suffering; he will be obliged to sip, at least, if not to drink largely, of the cup of Christ. We know not what we ask, when, in getting our children into the Church, we take upon ourselves to answer for their Call to the sacred office, and for the salvation of the souls that are put under their care. Blind parents! rather let your children beg their bread than thrust them into an office to which God has not called them; and in which they will not only ruin their souls, but be the means of damnation to hundreds; for if God has not sent them, they shall not profit the people at all.

And to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized, etc. - This clause in this, and the next verse, is wanting in BDL, two others, (7 more in Mat 20:23), Coptic, Sahidic, Ethiopic, Mr. Wheelock's Persic, Vulgate, Saxon, and all the Itala, except two. Grotius, Mill, and Bengel, think it should be omitted, and Griesbach has left it out of the text in both his editions. It is omitted also by Origen, Epiphanius, Hilary, Jerome, Ambrose, and Juvencus. According to the rules laid down by critics to appreciate a false or true reading, this clause cannot be considered as forming a part of the sacred text. It may be asked, Does not drink of my cup, convey the same idea? Does the clause add any thing to the perspicuity of the passage? And, though found in many good MSS., is not the balance of evidence in point of antiquity against it? Baptism among the Jews, as it was performed in the coldest weather, and the persons were kept under water for some time, was used not only to express death, but the most cruel kind of death. See Lightfoot. As to the term cup, it was a common figure, by which they expressed calamities, judgments, desolation, etc.

They say unto him, We are able - Strange blindness! You can? No: one drop of this cup would sink you into utter ruin, unless upheld by the power of God. However, the man whom God has appointed to the work he will preserve in it.

Is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for wham it is prepared of my Father - The common translation, in which the words, it shall be given to them; are interpolated by our translators, utterly changes and destroys the meaning of the passage. It represents Christ (in opposition to the whole Scriptures) as having nothing to do in the dispensing of rewards and punishments; whereas, our Lord only intimates that, however partial he may be to these two brethren, yet seats in glory can only be given to those who are fitted for them. No favor can prevail here; the elevated seat is for him who is filled with the fullness of God. The true construction of the words is this: - ουκ εϚιν εμον δουναι, αλλ' ὁις ητοιμυϚαι ὑπο του πατρος μου, To sit on my right hand and on my left, is not mine to give, except to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. According to the prediction of Christ, these brethren did partake of his afflictions: James was martyred by Herod, Act 12:2; and John was banished to Patmos, for the testimony of Christ, Rev 1:9.

When the ten heard it, they were moved - The ambition which leads to spiritual lordship is one great cause of murmurings and animosities in religious societies, and has proved the ruin of the most flourishing Churches in the universe.

Exercise dominion - and - exercise authority upon them - They tyrannized and exercised arbitrary power over the people. This was certainly true of the governments in our Lord's time, both in the east and in the west. I have endeavored to express, as nearly as possible, the meaning of the two Greek verbs, κατακυριευουσιν, and κατεξουσιαζουσιν; and those who understand the genius of the language will perceive that I have not exhausted their sense, however some may think that no emphasis was intended, and that these compound verbs are used for the simple κυριευειν, and εξουσιαζειν. See Wakefield and Rosenmuller.

The government of the Church of Christ is widely different from secular governments. It is founded in humility and brotherly love: it is derived from Christ, the great Head of the Church, and is ever conducted by his maxims and spirit. When political matters are brought into the Church of Christ, both are ruined. The Church has more than once ruined the State; the State has often corrupted the Church: it is certainly for the interests of both to be kept separate. This has already been abundantly exemplified in both cases, and will continue so to be, over the whole world, wherever the Church and State are united in secular matters.

It shall not be so among you - Every kind of lordship and spiritual domination over the Church of Christ, like that exercised by the Church of Rome, is destructive and anti-christian.

Your minister - Or, deacon, διακονος. I know no other word which could at once convey the meaning of the original, and make a proper distinction between it and δουλος, or servant, in Mat 20:27. The office of a deacon, in the primitive Church, was to serve in the agapae, or love feasts, to distribute the bread and wine to the communicants; to proclaim different parts and times of worship in the churches; and to take care of the widows, orphans, prisoners, and sick, who were provided for out of the revenues of the Church. Thus we find it was the very lowest ecclesiastical office. Deacons were first appointed by the apostles, Act 6:1-6; they had the care of the poor, and preached occasionally.

Your servant - Δουλος the lowest secular office, as deacon was the lowest ecclesiastical office: δουλος is often put for slave.

From these directions of our Lord, we may easily discern what sort of a spirit his ministers should be of.

1. A minister of Christ is not to consider himself a lord over Christ's flock.

2. He is not to conduct the concerns of the Church with an imperious spirit.

3. He is to reform the weak, after Christ's example, more by loving instruction than by reproof or censure.

4. He should consider that true apostolic greatness consists in serving the followers of Christ with all the powers and talents he possesses.

5. That he should be ready, if required, to give up his life unto death, to promote the salvation of men.

A ransom for many - Λυτρον αντι πολλων, or a ransom instead of many, - one ransom, or atonement, instead of the many prescribed in the Jewish law. Mr. Wakefield contends for the above translation, and with considerable show of reason and probability.

The word λυτρον is used by the Septuagint for the Hebrew פדיו, pidion, the ransom paid for a man's life: see Exo 21:30; Num 3:49-51; and λυτρα is used Num 35:31, where a satisfaction (Hebrew כפר copher, an atonement) for the life of a murderer is refused. The original word is used by Lucian in exactly the same sense, who represents Ganymede promising to sacrifice a ram to Jupiter, λυτρον υπερ εμου, as a ransom for himself, provided he would dismiss him.

The whole Gentile world, as well as the Jews, believed in vicarious sacrifices. Virgil, Aen. v. 85, has nearly the same words as those in the text. "Unum Pro Multis dabitur Caput," - One man must be given for many. Jesus Christ laid down his life as a ransom for the lives and souls of the children of men. In the Codex Bezae, and in most of the Itala, the Saxon, and one of the Syriac, Hilary, Leo Magnus, and Juvencus, the following remarkable addition is found; "But seek ye to increase from a little, and to be lessened from that which is great. Moreover, when ye enter into a house, and are invited to sup, do not recline in the most eminent places, lest a more honorable than thou come after, and he who invited thee to supper come up to thee and say, Get down yet lower; and thou be put to confusion. But if thou sit down in the lowest place, and one inferior to thee come after, he who invited thee to supper will say unto thee, Go and sit higher: now this will be advantageous to thee." This is the largest addition found in any of the MSS., and contains not less than sixty words In the original, and eighty-three in the Anglo-Saxon. It may be necessary to remark, that Mr. Marshall, in his edition of the Gothic and Saxon Gospels, does not insert these words in the text, but gives them, p. 496 of his observations. This addition is at least as ancient as the fourth century, for it is quoted by Hilary, who did not die till about a.d. 367.

Two blind men - Mar 10:46, and Luk 18:35, mention only one blind man, Bartimeus. Probably he was mentioned by the other evangelists, as being a person well known before and after his cure. Blindness of heart is a disorder of which, men seldom complain, or from which they desire to be delivered; and it is one property of this blindness, to keep the person from perceiving it, and to persuade him that his sight is good.

Sitting by the way side - In the likeliest place to receive alms, because of the multitudes going and coming between Jerusalem and Jericho.

Cried out - In the midst of judgments God remembers mercy. Though God had deprived them, for wise reasons, of their eyes, he left them the use of their speech. It is never so ill with us, but it might be much worse: let us, therefore, be submissive and thankful.

Have mercy on us - Hearing that Jesus passed by, and not knowing whether they should ever again have so good an opportunity of addressing him, they are determined to call, and call earnestly. They ask for mercy, conscious that they deserve nothing, and they ask with faith - Son of David, acknowledging him as the promised Messiah.

The multitude rebuked them - Whenever a soul begins to cry after Jesus for light and salvation, the world and the devil join together to drown its cries, or force it to be silent. But let all such remember, Jesus is now passing by; that their souls must perish everlastingly, if not saved by him, and they may never have so good an opportunity again. While there is a broken and a contrite heart, let it sigh its complaints to God, till he hear and answer.

They cried the more - When the world and the devil begin to rebuke, in this case, it is a proof that the salvation of God is nigh; therefore, let such cry out a great deal the more.

Jesus stood - "The cry of a believing penitent," says one, "is sufficient to stop the most merciful Jesus, were he going to make a new heaven and a new earth; for what is all the irrational part of God's creation in worth, when compared with the value of one immortal soul!" See on Mar 10:50 (note).

What will ye that I shall do - Christ is at all times infinitely willing to save sinners: when the desire of the heart is turned towards him, there can be little delay in the salvation. What is thy wish? If it be a good one, God will surely fulfill it.

That our eyes may be opened - He who feels his own sore, and the plague of his heart, has no great need of a prompter in prayer. A hungry man can easily ask bread; he has no need to go to a book to get expressions to state his wants in; his hunger tells him he wants food, and he tells this to the person from whom he expects relief. Helps to devotion, in all ordinary cases, may be of great use; in extraordinary cases they can be of little importance; the afflicted heart alone can tell its own sorrows, with appropriate pleadings.

So Jesus had compassion on them - Σπλαγχνιαθεις, He was moved with tender pity. The tender pity of Christ met the earnest cry of the blind men, and their immediate cure was the result.

They followed him - As a proof of the miracle that was wrought, and of the gratitude which they felt to their benefactor. For other particulars of this miraculous cure, see the notes on Mar 10:46, etc.

Reader, whosoever thou art, act in behalf of thy soul as these blind men did in behalf of their sight, and thy salvation is sure. Apply to the Son of David; lose not a moment; he is passing by, and thou art passing into eternity, and probably wilt never have a more favorable opportunity than the present. The Lord increase thy earnestness and faith!

That some of those who were first called may yet be last, our Lord confirms by the following parable: of which the primary scope is, to show, That many of the Jews would be rejected, and many of the Gentiles accepted; the secondary, That of the Gentiles, many who were first converted would be last and lowest in the kingdom of glory; and many of those who were last converted would be first, and highest therein. The kingdom of heaven is like - That is, the manner of God's proceeding in his kingdom resembles that of a householder. In the morning - At six, called by the Romans and Jews, the first hour. From thence reckoning on to the evening, they called nine, the third hour; twelve, the sixth; three in the afternoon, the ninth; and five, the eleventh. To hire labourers into his vineyard - All who profess to be Christians are in this sense labourers, and are supposed during their life to be working in God's vineyard.

The Roman penny was about seven pence halfpenny. [About thirteen and three quarter cents, American.] This was then the usual price of a day's labour.

About the eleventh hour - That is, very late; long after the rest were called.

In the evening - Of life; or of the world.

Who were hired about the eleventh hour - Either the Gentiles, who were called long after the Jews into the vineyard of the Church of Christ; or those in every age who did not hear, or at least understand the Gospel call, till their day of life was drawing to a period. Some circumstances of the parable seem best to suit the former, some the latter of these senses.

The first supposed they should have received more - Probably the first here may mean the Jews, who supposed they should always be preferred before the Gentiles.

Thou hast made them equal to us - So St. Peter expressly, Acts 15:9. God - hath put no difference between us (Jews) and them, (Gentiles,) purifying their hearts by faith. And those who were equally holy here, whenever they were called, will be equally happy hereafter.

It is my will to give to this last called among the heathens even as to the first called among the Jews: yea, and to the late converted publicans and sinners, even as to those who, were called long before.

Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own? - Yea, doubtless, to give either to Jew or Gentile a reward infinitely greater than he deserves. But can it be inferred from hence, that it is lawful, or possible, for the merciful Father of spirits to "Consign an unborn soul to hell? Or damn him from his mother's womb?" Is thine eye evil because I am good - Art thou envious, because I am gracious? Here is an evident reference to that malignant aspect, which is generally the attendant of a selfish and envious temper.

So the last shall be first, and the first last - Not only with regard to the Jews and Gentiles, but in a thousand other instances. For many are called - All who hear the Gospel; but few chosen - Only those who obey it. Mt 19:30; 22:14.

Mark 10:32; Luke 18:31.

Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children - Considering what he had been just speaking, was ever any thing more unreasonable? Perhaps Zebedee himself was dead, or was not a follower of Christ. Mark 10:35.

In thy kingdom - Still they expected a temporal kingdom.

Ye know not what is implied in being advanced in my kingdom, and necessarily prerequired thereto. All who share in my kingdom must first share in my sufferings. Are you able and willing to do this? Both these expressions, The cup, the baptism, are to be understood of his sufferings and death. The like expressions are common among the Jews.

But to sit on my right hand - Christ applies to the glories of heaven, what his disciples were so stupid as to understand of the glories of earth. But he does not deny that this is his to give. It is his to give in the strictest propriety, both as God, and as the Son of man. He only asserts, that he gives it to none but those for whom it is originally prepared; namely, those who endure to the end in the faith that worketh by love.

Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles lord it over them - And hence you imagine, the chief in my kingdom will do as they: but it will be quite otherwise.

Your minister - That is, your servant. Mt 23:11.

Mark 10:46; Luke 18:35.

Behold two blind men cried out - St. Mark and St. Luke mention only one of them, blind Bartimeus. He was far the more eminent of the two, and, as it seems, spoke for both.

The multitude charged them to hold their peace - And so they will all who begin to cry after the Son of David. But let those who feel their need of him cry the more; otherwise they will come short of a cure.

16 So the last shall be first, and the first last, for many be called, but few chosen.

We f[illegible: 1 letter]nd this Parable only recorded by St. Matthew; nor have [illegible: 1 letter]ny thing to guide us in understanding the Scope of our Sav[illegible: 1 letter]our in it, but the 16. v. So the last shall be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few are chosen. Some here by First, understand such as are of greatest Repute and Estimation in the World: or who have the highest Opinion of themselves. By Last, they understand Persons who are of meaner Note and Reckoning in the World, and have lowest opinion of themselves. The former shall be last as to the Love and Favor of God, and any Reward from him: and the other shall be first. Others by the First, understand the Iewes, who were the first People God had in the World, and more dignified than any other by Priviledges: By the Last, the Gentiles, who came last into the Church of God. This seems to be directly intended by our Saviour, who perfectly knew the Pride and invidious Temper of the Jews, who valued themselves upon their Prerogative, that they were the Church of God, when the World lay in Wickedness; and were apt to resent as an Indignity, that the Gentiles should be called into the Church, and be made equally Partakers of Spiritual Priviledges with them. Having now fixed the Scope of the Parable, the Interpretation is easy. The Kingdom of Heaven, that is the soveraign Dispensation of God in calling Nations or Persons to partake of spiritual Benefits in his Church, and consequently of eternal Blessedness; is like unto a Man that is a Housholder, which went out early in the Morning to hire Labourers into his Vineyard. The Housholder is God the Father, compared by Christ to an Husbandman, with respect to the Culture of Vines. Ioh. 15.1. to one that hath a Vineyard, Isa. 5.1, 2. &c. The Vineyard is the Church: the Work is that which concerns eternal Salvation, both of our own Salvation, and of others that are committed to our Charge, or that are within the Compass of our Activity to do them spiritual good. The Labourers, are eminently, Persons in Office, and generally, all that are called by the Gospel. The hiring of them imports, the gracious Promise of the Reward publish'd in the Gospel to those who will work. The Peny, is the Reward comprehensive of the spiritual Priviledges, that Persons in the Church are made Partakers of. Men standing idle in the Market-place: signifies their neglect of the great and proper Work for which they came into the World, to glorify God, and save their Souls▪ His going [illegible: 1 letter]ut at several times, and calling in some to the Vineyard, at the third, sixth, and ninth hours, implys the Calling of the Jews in the early Age of the World, and his sending the Prophets in sundry times, when they were degenerated, to return to his Service. The calling some at the tenth hour, particularly respects the bringing in the Gentiles by Preaching the Gospel, who before were without the Knowledg of God and the way to Life. The Even, is the time of Accounts and Recompence. The Murmuring of some, that they received no more than those that came later into the Vineyard, primarily and immediately signifys the Envy and Vexation of the Jews, that the Gentiles should be equal Partakers, of the Grace of God, with themselves, who for so many Ages had been his peculiar People. The Housholder's vindicating himself, is from two Considerations: wherein it appears, that his Liberality to some is perfectly consi[illegible: 2 letters]ent with his Justice to all. 1. That he agreed with them for a Peny, which they received: The Jews enjoyed those external Priviledges of Gods Covenant which they so much valued themselves for, till they cut themselves off by their obstinate rejecting [illegible: 1 letter]is Grace. 2. That he might do what he pleased with his own. He was Master of his own Favors, and it was malignity to tax his Bounty to others, which was nothing prejudicia[illegible: 1 letter] to what was due by Agreement to them. Our S[illegible: 1 letter]viour concludes the Parable, that the Last shall be First: The Gentiles shall be made Partakers of the Gospel with the blessed Priviledges attending to it: And the First shall be Last: That is, the Jews should be deprived of those Priviledges. And analogically in every age, some who are first, in Presumption of their own Merit, in Profession, and Reputation, but not in real Holine[illegible: 1 letter]s, shall be last in Gods Account; and those who were sincere and diligent in the Christian Calling, tho disvalued by the World, shall be preferred before them: For many are called, but few are chosen. This is the Reason of what is said before: Many are called by the external Preaching of the Word, into the visible Communion of the Church; this is the evident meaning by the reading of the Parable, wherein 'tis said, Persons were called at several Hours, Comprehending the Ministry of the Prophets and the Apostles, and all the succession of Preachers in every Age: and few are chosen; That is by the free and unchangeable Decree of God ordained to eternal Life, and to partake of saving Grace in order to the obtaining it. This is the main Scope of the Parable.

Marginal references: Chap. 19.30.; Chap. 22.14.

19 And shall deliver him to the Gentiles, to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.

Both Mark and Luke give us account of this Passage. Mark saith Chap. 10.32. And they were in the way going up [illegible: 1 letter]o Hierusalem, Iesus went before them, and they were amazed, and as they followed, they were afraid, and he took again the twelve, and began again to tell them, what things should happen unto him: Saying, behold we go up to Hierusalem, and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief Priests, and to the Scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles, and they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and spit upon him, and shall kill him, and the third day he shall rise again. Luke hath it Chap. 18.31. Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold we go up to Hierusalem, and all things that are written by the Prophets concerning the Son of man, shall be accomplished; for he shall be delivered to the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully intreated, [illegible: 2 letters]d spit upon, and they shall scourge him, and put him to de[illegible: 2 letters]h, and the third day he shall rise again. And they understood none of these things, and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the th[illegible: 2 letters]gs that were spoken. Our blessed Lord was yet upon his road from Galilee to Hierusalem; we have here an account of some of his travelling Discourse, to teach us to make use of all time for edifying, and profitable Discourse. Mark saith, that as they went, Iesus went before them, and they were amazed, and as they followed they were afraid. Mark gives us no account of any formidable Object in their Eye: Those that think they were amazed to see him make such hast to his death, forget that Luke saith, that after our Savior had further instructed them in this, they understood it not; But probably they knew he was going into the Nest of his Enemies, and this made them afraid. He calls to him the twelve, (it was not a Discourse fit for a Multitude) and gives them an Account very particularly of what he had twice or thrice before taught them; he had before told them of his Death and Resurrection, and that he should be betrayed to death; here he describes the manner, they should deliver him to the Gentiles, (to Pilate and Herod) he describes his previous Sufferings, he should be scourged, mocked, spit upon, and the kind of his Death, he should be crucified; that when these things came to pass, they might be assured that he was God, who had so punctually foretold things to come, not existent in their causes, but meer Contingencies, he comforteth them with two things. 1. That it was according to what had been foretold by the Prophets. 2. That tho he died, he should rise again the third Day. They had need of this fore-warning, for a fore-arming; for considering that they now looked upon him as the Messiah, it might well pose them to think how he should dy; and when they had seen all these things come to pass, it might have shaken their Faith, but being so particularly foretold, the coming of them to pass, rather confirmed their Faith in him as the Son of God, than weakened it. But Luke saith, They understood none of these things, That is, surely they believed none of them, the Saying was hid from them. The words were plain enough, but they could not reconcile them to their Reason, they could not conceive how he who was the Messiah could die: nor get over the Prejudice of his being a temporal Prince, and exercising a Kingdom in this World: For his rising again the third Day, they could not believe it.

Marginal references: Chap. [illegible: 1 span] Luke 2[illegible: 1 letter].1. John 18.[illegible: 2 letters] &c. Act. 3.13.

21 And he saith unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two Sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other the left, in thy Kingdom.

Mark saith Chap. 10.35. And Iames, and Iohn, the Son, of Zebedee, came unto him saying, Master, we would that thou should do for us what we desire. And he said, what would you, that I should do for you? They said unto him, Grant unto us, that we may sit, one on thy right Hand, the other on thy left Hand in thy Glory. Matthew's saying, In thy Kingdom, Mark, In thy Glory, leaves us in some doubt whether these two Disciples and their Mother, had here some carnal Notion of the Kingdom of Heaven, because Christ had before spoken of some that should be first in it, and others last. Or were in some expectation of some glorious secular Kingdom, which Christ after his Resurrection should exercise in the World; for that they had some such Thoughts, appears from Luke 22.24. Acts 1.6. This Mother of Iames and Iohn was Salome Mark. 15.40. A constant follower of Christ, Mat 27.55, 56. Matthew saith she spake, Mark saith her two Sons spake. They would first have had a general Grant from Christ of whatsoever they should ask, or a certain thing. But wise Men use not to grant such Requests; Our Lord askes them what they would desire? Then do they betray their Ambition. Was there ever a more unseasonable Request, than for them to be Suitors for great Places to him, when he had but now told them, he was going to be Spit upon, Scourged, Condemned, Crucified? Yet there was this good in it, they by it discovered a Faith in him, that notwithstanding all this, he should be exalted, and have a Kingdom. But how carnal are our Conceptions of Spiritual and Heavenly Things, till we be taught of God a right Notion of them?

22 But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye aske. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the Baptisme, that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able.

Mark hath the same Chap. 10.38, 39. Our Savior gently reproves them for their inadvised Petition, and again mindeth them, that he was first to Suffer, and then to enter into his glory, and that by much Tribulation they also must enter into the Kingdom of God, which was a thing fitter for their present Thoughts, than sitting at his right hand, and left hand, for we must suffer with him, if we will be glorified together, Rom. 8.17. How ready are we to ask we know not what? Are you able to drink of the Cup, &c. The Sence is, are you able to Suffer, what I am to Suffer? Hereby our Savior intimates, That those who are the freest, and greatest Sufferers for Christ: shall have the greatest Rewards from him. Christ here expresseth his Sufferings under the Notion of Drinking of a Cup, and being Baptised with a Baptism. A Cup is an ordinary Metaphor in Holy Writ, by which a M[illegible: 1 letter]ns Portion in this Life is expressed, whither it be a Portion of good Things or evil. Psal. 11.[illegible: 1 letter]6 Isai. 51.17. Ier. 25.15. Lam. 4.21. Chap. 26.39, 40, 42. Iohn 18.11. Drinking of a Cup is usually put for Suffering Ier. 49.12. Ezech. 23.32. Obad. 16. The Metaphor being as some think, taken from a Custom in some Nations, to put Malefactors to Death by giving them a Cup of Poyson to drink, or as others think, from the leud Custome, at compotations to force men to drink off their Cups. To be Baptized with the Baptisme I am Baptized with, hath the same Import, see Luke 12.50. Afflictions are ordinarily compared in Scripture to Waters: To be Baptized, is to be dipped in Water; Metaphorically to be plunged in Afflictions: I am saith Christ to be baptized with B[illegible: 1 letter]ood, overwhelmed with Sufferings and Afflictions, Are you able to be so? They say unto him, we are able. This was as rashly spoke as the other. How little do we know our own Strength? Ch. 26.56. When Christ was apprehended, they all forsook him and fled.

23 And he saith unto them, Ye shall indeed drink of my cup, and be baptized with the baptisme that I am baptized with, but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, ‖ is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.

Mark hath the same Ch. 10.39, 40. Our Savior here tells them, that as he was first to Suffer and then enter into his Glory; so they that should be glorified with him, should also first suffer with him, for none shall be Crowned, but those who strive Lawfully, 2 Tim. 2.5. And all that will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer Persecution, 2 Tim. 3.12. But who should be highest in the Kingdom of Glory, his Father must determine upon whose Will, the disposal of his Kingdom, and the preferences in it depended. This Text hath been abused, by those who have denied Christ's Deity, and Equality to the Father, as if it served their Purpose: Because Christ here denieth it in his Power, to dispose of the Kingdom of Heaven; but besides that, he elsewhere asserts the contrary. Ioh. 10.28. & 17.2▪ Christ doth not here speak of what was in his Power but what was his Office as Mediator, so his work was to incourage them to fight the good Fight, not to dispense out Crowns to them. Or else, he speaketh of himself as Man, as he speaketh, Ioh. 14.28. Nor indeed doth Christ here deny, that it was in his Power, but only that it was in his Power, to give this preference to any, except those for whom his Father had prepared it: Note the Greek is, [non-Latin text not transcribed], That is, Is not mine to give, but to them for whom it is prepared: So that those words [it shall be given to them] which our Translators put in, were better left out. All this was before ordered and determined by God, and he could only dispose of the Kingdom of God, according to the Eternal Council, [non-Latin text not transcribed] (which we translate but) hath here the Force of [non-Latin text not transcribed] (unless) as in Mar. 9.8. 2 Cor. 2.5. Besides that to shew the Order of the Trinity in working; Acts of Power and Providence, are usually ascribed to the Father, tho by other Scriptures it appears, that the Son in them co-operateth with the Father.

Marginal references: Chap. 25.34.

24 And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren.

Mar. 10.41. Here is not yet a Word of Peters Primacy, or any Claim he put in for it, nor it seemeth, had the others any Apprehension of such an E[illegible: 2 letters]ablishment, for then, neither would Iames and Iohn have put in [illegible: 1 letter]or it, nor would all the Disciples (among whom Peter was one) have been so displeased at the Ambition of Iames and Iohn ▪ yet they seem to be sick of the same Disease, and to have been displeased only, that they had the start of the Motion, and had put in their Petition first.

Marginal references: Luk. 22.24▪25.

27 And whosoever will be chief amongst you, let him be your servant.

So Mark hath much the same, Ch. 10.42, 43, 44. Luke hath also much the same, (but it seemeth spoken at another time) Luk. 22.25, 26, 27. I shall not here inter-meddle with the Disputes, some have founded on this Text: Whether there may be a Civil Magistracy amongst Christians: A thing undoubtedly Foreign to the Sense of this Text. Or, Whether Christ here Establisheth a Party amongst Ministers; Which I do not think our Lords design here: Nor yet, with that other Question, Whether Ministers of the Gospel may take upon them, the exercise of any Civil Power. That which our Saviour here intendeth, 1. To distinguish his Kingdom from the Kingdoms of the World: Those Kingdoms are over mens Bodies and Estates, his was a spiritual Kingdom, over the Hearts and Consciences of Men. Or rather, his was a Kingdom of Glory, where there would be no need of Rulers and Magistrates, as in the Governments of the World, nor any such Exercise of Authority, as is here Exercised in the Government of Earthly Kingdoms, and Policies. 2. To condemn Ambition, and Pride in his Disciples, as making them most unfit for this Kingdom, which is a thing he had before taught them. The way to be greatest in Heaven, is to be humblest, to be Low, and mean in our own Eyes: This I think to be the Properest Interpretation of this Text, Our Lord by it Correcting the Erroneous Opinion his Disciples had of the Nature of his Kingdom, as also their Pride and Ambition, and pressing upon them other Studies, than how to be the greate[illegible: 1 letter]t in any Earthly Kingdom. If any do think, that in this Text our Lord hath some respect to the Kingdom he hath upon Earth. He rather Checks Ambition, and an Affectation of Superiority, than any thing else, and lets us know, that such as Love the Preheminence are most unfit for it: That the work of Heads of the Church, is but a Ministry, not a Domination, and that those who are fittest for it, and deserve most Honour in the Church; are those that least seek and affect it: And those most unworthy of that Honour, who most hunt after it. But I prefer the first Sense, given of this Text. For certainly, what our Saviour here saith, was not only occasioned by, but had a great Relation to the Petition of Iames and Iohn with their Mother; and the bearing Rule, and exercising Authority mentioned here, relates to the Kingdom, mentioned in that Petition. Which I think cannot be understood of the Church, which was a Kingdom of Christ; which they as yet little understood, but they either meant the Kingdom of Glory, intertaining carnal Conceptions of that, that there would be some Superiority, and Inferiority there amongst the Saints, which our Saviour here Correcteth their mistake in. Or, else they Fancied a secular Kingdom, to be Exercised by Christ on Earth, after his Resurrection from the Dead. Our Saviour Correcteth this mistake also, intimating that his Kingdom should be of another Nature, and the way to be highest in it, was to be Humble and Low, and mean in Opinions of our selves.

28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministred unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many.

So saith Mark, Ch. 10.45. the Apostle saith, Phil. 2.7. he made himself of no Reputation, and took upon him the form of a Servant. Our Saviour had before taught them, that the Disciple is not above his Master. Such saith our Saviour, as is the King in my Kingdom, such must the Rulers and great Persons in it be: See what a Kingdom I have, I came not to be Ministred unto, but to Minister, to serve the Necessities of Men and Womens Souls and Bodies: And to give my Life a ransom for many, [non-Latin text not transcribed] a Redemption price; the Apostle useth [non-Latin text not transcribed], which signifieth a Price paid in stead of another, 1 Tim. 2.6. So as there is no further Satisfaction, or Price to be paid for any.

Marginal references: Luk. 22.27. Joh. 13.14.; Tit. 2.14. 1 Pet 1.19.

34 So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him.

Mark repeateth the same Story, Ch. 10. from v. 46. to the end with several more Circumstances, 1. He mentioneth only one Blind man, and nameth him Bartimeus the Son of Timeus. He saith, the Blind man was Begging, Mark saith, when Christ called the Blind man, they said unto him. Be of good Comfort, rise, he calleth thee. And he casting away his Garment, rose and came to Iesus. He further adds, that Christ said to him. Go thy way, thy Faith hath made thee whole, Luke relateth the same, Ch. 18. v. 35. to the end. He saith, As he was come nigh to Iericho, he mentioneth but one Blind man: In repeating Christ's words, he saith, Iesus saith unto him, receive thy sight, thy Faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed him, Glorifying God; and all the People when they saw it, gave Praise unto God. Our Lord presently gives his Disciples a Demonstration of what he had said. That he came to Minister, to serve even the poorest, and most Despicable Creatures. Iericho was a City not far from Iordan, Ios. 3.16. it was taken, Ios. 6. and upon the Division of the Land, fell within the Lot of Benjamen, Ios. 18.21. Our Saviour took it in his way from Galilee to Ierusalem. Probably these Blind men, or Bartimeus at least, who alone is mentioned by Mark and Luke, hearing Christ was coming, sate first on the side of Iericho next Galilee, and then got him on the other side, as our Saviour was leaving the Town. Which makes Luke say, as he came nigh, and the two other Evangelists say▪ as he went out of Iericho, he sate begging. Bartimeus (being as it should seem) the most known, and the most Famous, is alone mentioned by Mark and Luke, Matthew (naming none) saith there were two. Which Mark and Luke deny not, but knowing only the Name of the one of them: They mention only one: They speak to our Saviour, under the Notion of the Son of David, by which they owned him as the true Messias; for that was a Title by which the Messias was known amongst the Iews, according to the Prophecies of him. They ask him for Mercy, they continue in their Cry, tho the multitudes rebuked them, as possibly thinking, they only came to ask some Alms, and were too importunate, seeing our Lord seemed not to regard them. God sometimes tryeth our Faith (by delays) how it will hold out, but he never frustrateth it. This mindeth us of our Duty, to Pray without ceasing. Christs stops, calleth them, askes them what they would have? They seem most sensible of their Bodily wants, and Answer. Lord that our Eyes may be opened. Jesus hath Compassion on them, toucheth their Eyes, Christ sometimes, but not always in healing, touched the affected part, and (as Luke saith) he said, Receive thy sight. The Miracle is wrought, they presently are able to see. Luke addeth, that Christ said, Thy Faith hath made thee whole; we have met with the same Phrase before. I have made thee whole, but thy Faith in me, hath prevailed with me to do it. Their Faith in his Power was seen in their owning him, as the true Messiah. So able to do it. 2. In their imploring his Mercy, and going on in their Cryes, of that Nature, tho they met with a Rebuke. Faith, and fervent Prayer do great things with God, because of his Compassion. The Prayer of Faith shall save the sick, Iam. 5.15. & v. 16. The Effectual fervent Prayer of a righteous Man availeth much. Nor is any Man so mean, and Contemptible in the World (these two Blind men were Beggers) but if they can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, if they will lye in Christ's way, if they will Cry unto him, and not give over their Crys; they shall obtain at our Saviours hands greater things than these. This Miracle gaineth God Glory from the multitude, and from the Blind man, not only Praise, but a Resolution to follow Christ. This should be the Effect of all Salvations wrought for us, Mercy is then duely improved, when it bringeth forth in our Hearts, Glory and Praise to God; and ingageth us, to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Saviour had wrought his former Miracles in Galilee, where the Witnesses of them were remote, he hath now two Witnesses in the Province of Iudea, who go along with him towards Ierusalem: Where shall we find him in the next Chapter.

The Labourers in the Vineyard.

1 For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. 2 And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. 5 Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? 7 They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. 8 So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. 9 And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. 10 But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. 11 And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house, 12 Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. 13 But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? 14 Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? 16 So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.

This parable of the labourers in the vineyard is intended,

I. To represent to us the kingdom of heaven (v. 1), that is, the way and method of the gospel dispensation. The laws of that kingdom are not wrapt up in parables, but plainly set down, as in the sermon upon the mount; but the mysteries of that kingdom are delivered in parables, in sacraments, as here and ch. xiii. The duties of Christianity are more necessary to be known than the notions of it; and yet the notions of it are more necessary to be illustrated than the duties of it; which is that which parables are designed for.

II. In particular, to represent to us that concerning the kingdom of heaven, which he had said in the close of the foregoing chapter, that many that are first shall be last, and the last, first; with which this parable is connected; that truth, having in it a seeming contradiction, needed further explication.

Nothing was more a mystery in the gospel dispensation than the rejection of the Jews and the calling in of the Gentiles; so the apostle speaks of it (Eph. iii. 3-6); that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs: nor was any thing more provoking to the Jews than the intimation of it. Now this seems to be the principal scope of this parable, to show that the Jews should be first called into the vineyard, and many of them should come at the call; but, at length, the gospel should be preached to the Gentiles, and they should receive it, and be admitted to equal privileges and advantages with the Jews; should be fellow-citizens with the saints, which the Jews, even those of them that believed, would be very much disgusted at, but without reason.

But the parable may be applied more generally, and shows us, 1. That God is debtor to no man; a great truth, which the contents in our Bible give as the scope of this parable. 2. That many who begin last, and promise little in religion, sometimes, by the blessing of God, arrive at greater attainments in knowledge, grace, and usefulness, than others whose entrance was more early, and who promised fairer. Though Cushi gets the start of Ahimaaz, yet Ahimaaz, choosing the way of the plain, outruns Cushi. John is swifter of foot, and comes first to the sepulchre: but Peter has more courage, and goes first into it. Thus many that are last shall be first. Some make it a caution to the disciples, who had boasted of their timely and zealous embracing of Christ; they had left all, to follow him; but let them look to it, that they keep up their zeal; let them press forward and persevere; else their good beginnings will avail them little; they that seemed to be first, would be last. Sometimes those that are converted later in their lives, outstrip those that are converted earlier. Paul was as one born out of due time, yet came not behind the chiefest of the apostles, and outdid those that were in Christ before him. Something of affinity there is between this parable and that of the prodigal son, where he that returned from his wandering, was as dear to his father as he was, that never went astray; first and last alike. 3. That the recompence of reward will be given to the saints, not according to the time of their conversion, but according to the preparations for it by grace in this world; not according to the seniority (Gen. xliii. 33), but according to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. Christ had promised the apostles, who followed him in the regeneration, at the beginning of the gospel dispensation, great glory (ch. xix. 28); but he now tells them that those who are in like manner faithful to him, even in the latter end of the world, shall have the same reward, shall sit with Christ on his throne, as well as the apostles, Rev. ii. 26-iii. 21. Sufferers for Christ in the latter days, shall have the same reward with the martyrs and confessors of the primitive times, though they are more celebrated; and faithful ministers now, the same with the first fathers.

We have two things in the parable; the agreement with the labourers, and the account with them.

(1.) Here is the agreement made with the labourers (v. 1-7); and here it will be asked, as usual,

[1.] Who hires them? A man that is a householder. God is the great Householder, whose we are, and whom we serve; as a householder, he has work that he will have to be done, and servants that he will have to be doing; he has a great family in heaven and earth, which is named from Jesus Christ (Eph. iii. 15), which he is Owner and Ruler of. God hires labourers, not because he needs them or their services (for, if we be righteous, what do we unto him?), but as some charitable generous householders keep poor men to work, in kindness to them, to save them from idleness and poverty, and pay them for working for themselves.

[2.] Whence they are hired? Out of the market-place, where, till they are hired into God's service, they stand idle (v. 3), all the day idle (v. 6). Note, First, The soul of man stands ready to be hired into some service or other; it was (as all the creatures were) created to work, and is either a servant to iniquity, or a servant to righteousness, Rom. vi. 19. The devil, by his temptations, is hiring labourers into his field, to feed swine. God, by his gospel, is hiring labourers into his vineyard, to dress it, and keep it, paradise-work. We are put to our choice; for hired we must be (Josh. xxiv. 15); Choose ye this day whom ye will serve. Secondly, Till we are hired into the service of God, we are standing all the day idle; a sinful state, though a state of drudgery to Satan, may really be called a state of idleness; sinners are doing nothing, nothing to the purpose, nothing of the great work they were sent into the world about, nothing that will pass well in the account. Thirdly, The gospel call is given to those that stand idle in the market-place. The market-place is a place of concourse, and there Wisdom cries (Prov. i. 20, 21); it is a place of sport, there the children are playing (ch. xi. 16); and the gospel calls us from vanity to seriousness; it is a place of business, of noise and hurry; and from that we are called to retire. "Come, come from this market-place."

[3.] What are they hired to do? To labour in his vineyard. Note, First, The church is God's vineyard; it is of his planting, watering, and fencing; and the fruits of it must be to his honour and praise. Secondly, We are all called upon to be labourers in this vineyard. The work of religion is vineyard-work, pruning, dressing, digging, watering, fencing, weeding. We have each of us our own vineyard to keep, our own soul; and it is God's and to be kept and dressed for him. In this work we must not be slothful, not loiterers, but labourers, working, and working out our own salvation. Work for God will not admit of trifling. A man may go idle to hell; but he that will go to heaven, must be busy.

[4.] What shall be their wages? He promises, First, A penny, v. 2. The Roman penny was, in our money, of the value of a sevenpence half-penny, a day's wages for a day's work, and the wages sufficient for a day's maintenance. This doth not prove that the reward of our obedience to God is of works, or of debt (no, it is of grace, free grace, Rom. iv. 4), or that there is any proportion between our services and heaven's glories; no, when we have done all, we are unprofitable servants; but it is to signify that there is a reward set before us, and a sufficient one. Secondly, Whatsoever is right, v. 4-7. Note, God will be sure not to be behind-hand with any for the service they do him: never any lost by working for God. The crown set before us is a crown of righteousness, which the righteous Judge shall give.

[5.] For what term are they hired? For a day. It is but a day's work that is here done. The time of life is the day, in which we must work the works of him that sent us into the world. It is a short time; the reward is for eternity, the work is but for a day; man is said to accomplish, as a hireling, his day, Job xiv. 6. This should quicken us to expedition and diligence in our work, that we have but a little time to work in, and the night is hastening on, when no man can work; and if our great work be undone when our day is done, we are undone for ever. It should also encourage us in reference to the hardships and difficulties of our work, that it is but for a day; the approaching shadow, which the servant earnestly desireth, will bring with it both rest, and the reward of our work, Job vii. 2. Hold out, faith, and patience, yet a little while.

[6.] Notice is taken of the several hours of the day, at which the labourers were hired. The apostles were sent forth at the first and third hour of the gospel day; they had a first and a second mission, while Christ was on earth, and their business was to call in the Jews; after Christ's ascension, about the sixth and ninth hour, they went out again on the same errand, preaching the gospel to the Jews only, to them in Judea first, and afterward to them of the dispersion; but, at length, as it were about the eleventh hour, they called the Gentiles to the same work and privilege with the Jews, and told them that in Christ Jesus there should be no difference made between Jew and Greek.

But this may be, and commonly is, applied to the several ages of life, in which souls are converted to Christ. The common call is promiscuous, to come and work in the vineyard; but the effectual call is particular, and it is then effectual when we come at the call.

First, Some are effectually called, and begin to work in the vineyard when they are very young; are sent in early in the morning, whose tender years are seasoned with grace, and the remembrance of their Creator. John the Baptist was sanctified from the womb, and therefore great (Luke i. 15); Timothy from a child (2 Tim. iii. 15); Obadiah feared the Lord from his youth. Those that have such a journey to go, had need set out betimes, the sooner the better.

Secondly, Others are savingly wrought upon in middle age; Go work in the vineyard, at the third, sixth, or ninth hour. The power of divine grace is magnified in the conversion of some, when they are in the midst of their pleasures and worldly pursuits, as Paul. God has work for all ages; no time amiss to turn to God; none can say, "It is all in good time;" for, whatever hour of the day it is with us, the time past of our life may suffice that we have served sin; Go ye also into the vineyard. God turns away none that are willing to be hired, for yet there is room.

Thirdly, Others are hired into the vineyard in old age, at the eleventh hour, when the day of life is far spent, and there is but one hour of the twelve remaining. None are hired at the twelfth hour; when life is done, opportunity is done; but "while there is life, there is hope." 1. There is hope for old sinners; for if, in sincerity, they turn to God, they shall doubtless be accepted; true repentance is never too late. And, 2. There is hope of old sinners, that they may be brought to true repentance; nothing is too hard for Almighty grace to do, it can change the Ethiopian's skin, and the leopard's spots; can set those to work, who have contracted a habit of idleness. Nicodemus may be born again when he is old, and the old man may be put off, which is corrupt.

Yet let none, upon this presumption, put off their repentance till they are old. These were sent into the vineyard, it is true, at the eleventh hour; but nobody had hired them, or offered to hire them, before. The Gentiles came in at the eleventh hour, but it was because the gospel had not been before preached to them. Those that have had gospel offers made them at the third, or sixth hour, and have resisted and refused them, will not have that to say for themselves at the eleventh hour, that these had; No man has hired us; nor can they be sure that any man will hire them at the ninth or eleventh hour; and therefore not to discourage any, but to awaken all, be it remembered, that now is the accepted time; if we will hear his voice, it must be to-day.

(2.) Here is the account with the labourers. Observe,

[1.] When the account was taken; when the evening was come, then, as usual, the day-labourers were called and paid. Note, Evening time is the reckoning time; the particular account must be given up in the evening of our life; for after death cometh the judgment. Faithful labourers shall receive their reward when they die; it is deferred till then, that they may wait with patience for it, but no longer; for God will observe his own rule, The hire of the labourers shall not abide with thee all night, until the morning. See Deut. xxiv. 15. When Paul, that faithful labourer, departs, he is with Christ presently. The payment shall not be wholly deferred till the morning of the resurrection; but then, in the evening of the world, will be the general account, when every one shall receive according to the things done in the body. When time ends, and with it the world of work and opportunity, then the state of retribution commences; then call the labourers, and give them their hire. Ministers call them into the vineyard, to do their work; death calls them out of the vineyard, to receive their penny: and those to whom the call into the vineyard is effectual, the call out of it will be joyful. Observe, They did not come for their pay till they were called; we must with patience wait God's time for our rest and recompence; go by our master's clock. The last trumpet, at the great day, shall call the labourers, 1 Thess. iv. 16. Then shalt thou call, saith the good and faithful servant, and I will answer. In calling the labourers, they must begin from the last, and so to the first. Let not those that come in at the eleventh hour, be put behind the rest, but, lest they should be discouraged, call them first. At the great day, though the dead in Christ shall rise first, yet they which are alive and remain, on whom the ends of the world (the eleventh hour of its day) comes, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds; no preference shall be given to seniority, but every man shall stand in his own lot at the end of the days.

[2.] What the account was; and in that observe,

First, The general pay (v. 9, 10); They received every man a penny. Note, All that by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, honour, and immortality, shall undoubtedly obtain eternal life (Rom. ii. 7), not as wages for the value of their work, but as the gift of God. Though there be degrees of glory in heaven, yet it will be to all a complete happiness. They that come from the east and west, and so come in late, that are picked up out of the highways and the hedges, shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, at the same feast, ch. vii. 11. In heaven, every vessel will be full, brimful, though every vessel is not alike large and capacious. In the distribution of future joys, as it was in the gathering of the manna, he that shall gather much, will have nothing over, and he that shall gather little, will have no lack, Exod. xvi. 18. Those whom Christ fed miraculously, though of different sizes, men, women, and children, did all eat, and were filled.

The giving of a whole day's wages to those that had not done the tenth part of a day's work, is designed to show that God distributes his rewards by grace and sovereignty, and not of debt. The best of the labourers, and those that begin soonest, having so many empty spaces in their time, and their works not being filled up before God, may truly be said to labour in the vineyard scarcely one hour of their twelve; but because we are under grace, and not under the law, even such defective services, done in sincerity, shall not only be accepted, but by free grace richly rewarded. Compare Luke xvii. 7, 8, with Luke xii. 37.

Secondly, The particular pleading with those that were offended with this distribution in gavel-kind. The circumstances of this serve to adorn the parable; but the general scope is plain, that the last shall be first. We have here,

1. The offence taken (v. 11, 12); They murmured at the good man of the house; not that there is, or can be, any discontent or murmuring in heaven, for that is both guilt and grief, and in heaven there is neither; but there may be, and often are, discontent and murmuring concerning heaven and heavenly things, while they are in prospect and promise in this world. This signifies the jealousy which the Jews were provoked to by the admission of the Gentiles into the kingdom of heaven. As the elder brother, in the parable of the prodigal, repined at the reception of his younger brother, and complained of his father's generosity to him; so these labourers quarrelled with their master, and found fault, not because they had not enough, so much as because others were made equal with them. They boast, as the prodigal's elder brother did, of their good services; We have borne the burthen and heat of the day; that was the most they could make of it. Sinners are said to labour in the very fire (Hab. ii. 13), whereas God's servants, at the worst, do but labour in the sun; not in the heat of the iron furnace, but only in the heat of the day. Now these last have worked but one hour, and that too in the cool of the day; and yet thou hast made them equal with us. The Gentiles, who are newly called in, have as much of the privileges of the kingdom of the Messiah as the Jews have, who have so long been labouring in the vineyard of the Old-Testament church, under the yoke of the ceremonial law, in expectation of that kingdom. Note, There is a great proneness in us to think that we have too little, and other too much, of the tokens of God's favour; and that we do too much, and others too little, in the work of God. Very apt we all are to undervalue the deserts of others, and to overvalue our own. Perhaps, Christ here gives an intimation to Peter, not to boast too much, as he seemed to do, of his having left all to follow Christ; as if, because he and the rest of them had borne the burthen and heat of the day thus, they must have a heaven by themselves. It is hard for those that do or suffer more than ordinary for God, not to be elevated too much with the thought of it, and to expect to merit by it. Blessed Paul guarded against this, when, though the chief of the apostles, he owned himself to be nothing, to be less than the least of all saints.

2. The offence removed. Three things the master of the house urges, in answer to this ill-natured surmise.

(1.) That the complainant had no reason at all to say he had any wrong done to him, v. 13, 14. Here he asserts his own justice; Friend, I do thee no wrong. He calls him friend, for in reasoning with others we should use soft words and hard arguments; if our inferiors are peevish and provoking, yet we should not thereby be put into a passion, but speak calmly to them. [1.] It is incontestably true, that God can do no wrong. This is the prerogative of the King of kings. Is there unrighteousness with God? The apostle startles at the thought of it; God forbid! Rom. iii. 5, 6. His word should silence all our murmurings, that, whatever God does to us, or withholds from us, he does us no wrong. [2.] If God gives that grace to others, which he denies to us, it is kindness to them, but no injustice to us; and bounty to another, while it is no injustice to us, we ought not to find fault with. Because it is free grace, that is given to those that have it, boasting is for ever excluded; and because it is free grace, that is withheld from those that have it not, murmuring is for ever excluded. Thus shall every mouth be stopped, and all flesh be silent before God.

To convince the murmurer that he did no wrong, he refers him to the bargain: "Didst not thou agree with me for a penny? And if thou hast what thou didst agree for, thou hast no reason to cry out of wrong; thou shalt have what we agreed for." Though God is a debtor to none, yet he is graciously pleased to make himself a debtor by his own promise, for the benefit of which, through Christ, believers agree with him, and he will stand to his part of the agreement. Note, It is good for us often to consider what it was that we agreed with God for. First, Carnal worldlings agree with God for their penny in this world; they choose their portion in this life (Ps. xvii. 14); in these things they are willing to have their reward (ch. vi. 2, 5), their consolation (Luke vi. 24), their good things (Luke xvi. 25); and with these they shall be put off, shall be cut off from spiritual and eternal blessings; and herein God does them no wrong; they have what they chose, the penny they agreed for; so shall their doom be, themselves have decided it; it is conclusive against them. Secondly, Obedient believers agree with God for their penny in the other world, and they must remember that they have so agreed. Didst not thou agree to take God's word for it? Thou didst; and wilt thou go and agree with the world? Didst not thou agree to take up with heaven as thy portion, thy all, and to take up with nothing short of it? And wilt thou seek for a happiness in the creature, or think from thence to make up the deficiencies of thy happiness in God?

He therefore, 1. Ties him to his bargain (v. 14); Take that thine is, and go thy way. If we understand it of that which is ours by debt or absolute propriety, it would be a dreadful word; we are all undone, if we be put off with that only which we can call our own. The highest creature must go away into nothing, if he must go away with that only which is his own: but if we understand it of that which is ours by gift, the free gift of God, it teaches us to be content with such things as we have. Instead of repining that we have no more, let us take what we have, and be thankful. If God be better in any respect to others than to us, yet we have no reason to complain while he is so much better to us than we deserve, in giving us our penny, though we are unprofitable servants. 2. He tells him that those he envied should fare as well as he did; "I will give unto this last, even as unto thee; I am resolved I will." Note, The unchangeableness of God's purposes in dispensing his gifts should silence our murmurings. If he will do it, it is not for us to gainsay; for he is in one mind, and who can turn him? Neither giveth he an account of any of his matters; nor is it fit he should.

(2.) He had no reason to quarrel with the master; for what he gave was absolutely his own, v. 15. As before he asserted his justice, so here his sovereignty; Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own? Note, [1.] God is the Owner of all good; his propriety in it is absolute, sovereign, and unlimited. [2.] He may therefore give or withhold his blessings, as he pleases. What we have, is not our own, and therefore it is not lawful for us to do what we will with it; but what God has, is his own; and this will justify him, First, In all the disposals of his providence; when God takes from us that which was dear to us, and which we could ill spare, we must silence our discontents with this; May he not do what he will with his own? Abstulit, sed et dedit—He hath taken away; but he originally gave. It is not for such depending creatures as we are to quarrel with our Sovereign. Secondly, In all the dispensations of his grace, God gives or withholds the means of grace, and the Spirit of grace, as he pleases. Not but that there is a counsel in every will of God, and what seems to us to be done arbitrarily, will appear at length to have been done wisely, and for holy ends. But this is enough to silence all murmurs and objectors, that God is sovereign Lord of all, and may do what he will with his own. We are in his hand, as clay in the hands of a potter; and it is not for us to prescribe to him, or strive with him.

(3.) He had no reason to envy his fellow servant, or to grudge at him; or to be angry that he came into the vineyard no sooner; for he was not sooner called; he had no reason to be angry that the master had given him wages for the whole day, when he had idled away the greatest part of it; for Is thine eye evil, because I am good? See here,

[1.] The nature of envy; It is an evil eye. The eye is often both the inlet and the outlet of this sin. Saul saw that David prospered, and he eyed him, 1 Sam. xviii. 9, 15. It is an evil eye, which is displeased at the good of others, and desires their hurt. What can have more evil in it? It is grief to ourselves, anger to God, and ill-will to our neighbour; and it is a sin that has neither pleasure, profit, nor honour, in it; it is an evil, an only evil.

[2.] The aggravation of it; "It is because I am good." Envy is unlikeness to God, who is good, and doeth good, and delighteth in doing good; nay, it is an opposition and contradiction to God; it is a dislike of his proceedings, and a displeasure at what he does, and is pleased with. It is a direct violation of both the two great commandments at once; both that of love to God, in whose will we should acquiesce, and love to our neighbour, in whose welfare we should rejoice. Thus man's badness takes occasion from God's goodness to be more exceedingly sinful.

Lastly, Here is the application of the parable (v. 16), in that observation which occasioned it (ch. xix. 30); So the first shall be last, and the last first. There were many that followed Christ now in the regeneration, when the gospel kingdom was first set up, and these Jewish converts seemed to have got the start of others; but Christ, to obviate and silence their boasting, here tells them,

1. That they might possibly be outstripped by their successors in profession, and, though they were before others in profession, might be found inferior to them in knowledge, grace, and holiness. The Gentile church, which was as yet unborn, the Gentile world, which as yet stood idle in the market-place, would produce greater numbers of eminent, useful Christians, than were found among the Jews. More and more excellent shall be the children of the desolate than those of the married wife, Isa. liv. 1. Who knows but that the church, in its old age, may be more fat and flourishing than ever, to show that the Lord is upright? Though primitive Christianity had more of the purity and power of that holy religion than is to be found in the degenerate age wherein we live, yet what labourers may be sent into the vineyard in the eleventh hour of the church's day, in the Philadelphian period, and what plentiful effusions of the Spirit may then be, above what has been yet, who can tell?

2. That they had reason to fear, lest they themselves should be found hypocrites at last; for many are called but few chosen. This is applied to the Jews (ch. xxii. 14); it was so then, it is too true still; many are called with a common call, that are not chosen with a saving choice. All that are chosen from eternity, are effectually called, in the fulness of time (Rom. viii. 30), so that in making our effectual calling sure we make sure our election (2 Pet. i. 10); but it is not so as to the outward call; many are called, and yet refuse (Prov. i. 24), nay, as they are called to God, so they go from him (Hos. xi. 2, 7), by which it appears that they were not chosen, for the election will obtain, Rom. xi. 7. Note, There are but few chosen Christians, in comparison with the many that are only called Christians; it therefore highly concerns us to build our hope for heaven upon the rock of an eternal choice, and not upon the sand of an external call; and we should fear lest we be found but seeming Christians, and so should really come short; nay, lest we be found blemished Christians, and so should seem to come short, Heb. iv. 1.

The Sufferings of Christ Predicted.

17 And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them, 18 Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, 19 And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.

This is the third time that Christ gave his disciples notice of his approaching sufferings; he was not going up to Jerusalem to celebrate the passover, and to offer up himself the great Passover; both must be done at Jerusalem: there the passover must be kept (Deut. xii. 5), and there a prophet must perish, because there the great Sanhedrim sat, who were judges in that case, Luke xiii. 33. Observe,

I. The privacy of this prediction; He took the twelve disciples apart in the way. This was one of those things which were told to them in darkness, but which they were afterward to speak in the light, ch. x. 27. His secret was with them, as his friends, and this particularly. It was a hard saying, and, if any could bear it, they could. They would be more immediately exposed to peril with him, and therefore it was requisite that they should know of it, that, being fore-warned, they might be fore-armed. It was not fit to be spoken publicly as yet, 1. Because many that were cool toward him, would hereby have been driven to turn their backs upon him; the scandal of the cross would have frightened them from following him any longer. 2. Because many that were hot for him, would hereby be driven to take up arms in his defense, and it might have occasioned an uproar among the people (ch. xxvi. 5), which would have been laid to his charge, if he had told them of it publicly before: and, besides that such methods are utterly disagreeable to the genius of his kingdom, which is not of this world, he never countenanced any thing which had a tendency to prevent his sufferings. This discourse was not in the synagogue, or in the house, but in the way, as they travelled along; which teaches us, in our walks or travels with our friends, to keep up such discourse as is good, and to the use of edifying. See Deut. xvi. 7.

II. The prediction itself, v. 18, 19. Observe,

1. It is but a repetition of what he had once and again said before, ch. xvi. 21; xvii. 22, 23. This intimates that he not only saw clearly what troubles lay before him, but that his heart was upon his suffering-work; it filled him, not with fear, then he would have studied to avoid it, and could have done it, but with desire and expectation; he spoke thus frequently of his sufferings, because through them he was to enter into his glory. Note, It is good for us to be often thinking and speaking of our death, and of the sufferings which, it is likely, we may meet with betwixt this and the grave; and thus, by making them more familiar, they would become less formidable. This is one way of dying daily, and of taking up our cross daily, to be daily speaking of the cross, and of dying; which would come neither the sooner nor the surer, but much the better, for our thoughts and discourses of them.

2. He is more particular here in foretelling his sufferings than any time before. He had said (ch. xvi. 21), that he should suffer many things, and be killed; and (ch. xvii. 22), that he should be betrayed into the hands of men, and they should kill him; but here he adds; that he shall be condemned, and delivered to the Gentiles, that they shall mock him, and scourge him, and crucify him. These are frightful things, and the certain foresight of them was enough to damp an ordinary resolution, yet (as was foretold concerning him, Isa. xlii. 4) he did not fail, nor was discouraged; but the more clearly he foresaw his sufferings, the more cheerfully he went forth to meet them. He foretels by whom he should suffer, by the chief priests and the scribes; so he had said before, but here he adds, They shall deliver him to the Gentiles, that he might be the better understood; for the chief priests and scribes had no power to put him to death, nor was crucifying a manner of death in use among the Jews. Christ suffered from the malice both of Jews and Gentiles, because he was to suffer for the salvation both of Jews and Gentiles; both had a hand in his death, because he was to reconcile both by his cross, Eph. ii. 16.

3. Here, as before, he annexes the mention of his resurrection and his glory to that of his death and sufferings; The third day he shall rise again. He still brings this in, (1.) To encourage himself in his sufferings, and to carry him cheerfully through them. He endured the cross for the joy set before him; he foresaw he should rise again, and rise quickly, the third day. He shall be straightway glorified, John xiii. 32. The reward is not only sure, but very near. (2.) To encourage his disciples, and comfort them, who would be overwhelmed and greatly terrified by his sufferings. (3.) To direct us, under all the sufferings of this present time, to keep up a believing prospect of the glory to be revealed, to look at the things that are not seen, that are eternal, which will enable us to call the present afflictions light, and but for a moment.

Ambition Corrected.

20 Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. 21 And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom. 22 But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. 23 And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. 24 And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren. 25 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. 26 But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; 27 And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: 28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Here, is first, the request of the two disciples to Christ, and the rectifying of the mistake upon which that was grounded, v. 20-23. The sons of Zebedee were James and John, two of the first three of Christ's disciples; Peter and they were his favourites; John was the disciple whom Jesus loved; yet none were so often reproved as they; whom Christ loves best he reproves most, Rev. iii. 19.

I. Here is the ambitious address they made to Christ—that they might sit, the one on his right hand, and the other on his left, in his kingdom, v. 20, 21. It was a great degree of faith, that they were confident of his kingdom, though now he appeared in meanness; but a great degree of ignorance, that they still expected a temporal kingdom, with worldly pomp and power, when Christ had so often told them of sufferings and self-denial. In this they expected to be grandees. They ask not for employment in this kingdom, but for honour only; and no place would serve them in this imaginary kingdom, but the highest, next to Christ, and above every body else. It is probable that the last word in Christ's foregoing discourse gave occasion to this request, that the third day he should rise again. They concluded that his resurrection would be his entrance upon his kingdom, and therefore were resolved to put in betimes for the best place; nor would they lose it for want of speaking early. What Christ said to comfort them, they thus abused, and were puffed up with. Some cannot bear comforts, but they turn them to a wrong purpose; as sweetmeats in a foul stomach produce bile. Now observe,

1. There was policy in the management of this address, that they put their mother on to present it, that it might be looked upon as her request, and not theirs. Though proud people think well of themselves, they would not be thought to do so, and therefore affect nothing more than a show of humility (Col. ii. 18), and others must be put on to court that honour for them, which they are ashamed to court for themselves. The mother of James and John was Salome, as appears by comparing ch. xxvii. 61, with Mark xv. 40. Some think she was daughter of Cleophas or Alpheus, and sister or cousin german to Mary the mother of our Lord. She was one of those women that attended Christ, and ministered to him; and they thought she had such an interest in him, that he could deny her nothing, and therefore they made her their advocate. Thus when Adonijah had reasonable request to make to Solomon, he put Bathsheba on to speak for him. It was their mother's weakness thus to become that tool of their ambition, which she should have given a check to. Those that are wise and good, would not be seen in an ill-favoured thing. In gracious requests, we should learn this wisdom, to desire the prayers of those that have an interest at the throne of grace; we should beg of our praying friends to pray for us, and reckon it a real kindness.

It was likewise policy to ask first for a general grant, that he would do a certain thing for them, not in faith, but in presumption, upon that general promise; Ask, and it shall be given you; in which is implied this qualification of our request, that it be according to the revealed will of God, otherwise we ask and have not, if we ask to consume it upon our lusts, Jam. iv. 3.

2. There was pride at the bottom of it, a proud conceit of their own merit, a proud contempt of their brethren, and a proud desire of honour and preferment; pride is a sin that most easily besets us, and which it is hard to get clear of. It is a holy ambition to strive to excel others in grace and holiness; but it is a sinful ambition to covet to exceed others in pomp and grandeur. Seekest thou great things for thyself, when thou hast just now heard of thy Master's being mocked, and scourged, and crucified? For shame! Seek them not, Jer. xlv. 5.

II. Christ's answer to this address (v. 22, 23), directed not to the mother, but to the sons that set her on. Though others be our mouth in prayer, the answer will be given to us according as we stand effected. Christ's answer is very mild; they were overtaken in the fault of ambition, but Christ restored them with the spirit of meekness. Observe,

1. How he reproved the ignorance and error of their petition; Ye know not what ye ask. (1.) They were much in the dark concerning the kingdom they had their eye upon; they dreamed of a temporal kingdom, whereas Christ's kingdom is not of this world. They knew not what it was to sit on his right hand, and on his left; they talked of it as blind men do of colours. Our apprehensions of that glory which is yet to be revealed, are like the apprehensions which a child has of the preferments of grown men. If at length, through grace, we arrive at perfection, we shall then put away such childish fancies: when we come to see face to face, we shall know what we enjoy; but now, alas, we know not what we ask; we can but ask for the good as it lies in the promise, Tit. i. 2. What it will be in the performance, eye has not seen, nor ear heard. (2.) They were much in the dark concerning the way to that kingdom. They know not what they ask, who ask for the end, but overlook the means, and so put asunder what God has joined together. The disciples thought, when they had left what little all they had for Christ, and had gone about the country awhile preaching the gospel of the kingdom, all their service and sufferings were over, and it was now time to ask, What shall we have? As if nothing were now to be looked for but crowns and garlands; whereas there were far greater hardships and difficulties before them than they had yet met with. They imagined their warfare was accomplished when it was scarcely begun, and they had yet but run with the footmen. They dream of being in Canaan presently, and consider not what they shall do in the swellings of Jordan. Note, [1.] We are all apt, when we are but girding on the harness, to boast as though we had put it off. [2.] We know not what we ask, when we ask for the glory of wearing the crown, and ask not for grace to bear the cross in our way to it.

2. How he repressed the vanity and ambition of their request. They were pleasing themselves with the fancy of sitting on his right hand, and on his left, in great state; now, to check this, he leads them to the thoughts of their sufferings, and leaves them in the dark about their glory.

(1.) He leads them to the thoughts of their sufferings, which they were not so mindful of as they ought to have been. They looked so earnestly upon the crown, the prize, that they were ready to plunge headlong and unprepared into the foul way that led to it; and therefore he thinks it necessary to put them in mind of the hardships that were before them, that they might be no surprise or terror to them.

Observe, [1.] How fairly he puts the matter to them, concerning these difficulties (v. 22); "You would stand candidates for the first post of honour in the kingdom; but are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of? You talk of what great things you must have when you have done your work; but are you able to hold out to the end of it?" Put the matter seriously to yourselves. These same two disciples once knew not what manner of spirit they were of, when they were disturbed with anger, Luke ix. 55; and now they were not aware what was amiss in their spirits when they were lifted up with ambition. Christ sees that pride in us which we discern not in ourselves.

Note, First, That to suffer for Christ is to drink of a cup, and to be baptized with a baptism. In this description of sufferings, 1. It is true, that affliction doth abound. It is supposed to be a bitter cup, that is drunk of, wormwood and gall, those waters of a full cup, that are wrung out to God's people (Ps. xliii. 10); a cup of trembling indeed, but not of fire and brimstone, the portion of the cup of wicked men, Ps. xi. 6. It is supposed to be a baptism, a washing with the waters of affliction; some are dipped in them; the waters compass them about even to the soul (Jonah ii. 5); others have but a sprinkling of them; both are baptism, some are overwhelmed in them, as in a deluge, others ill wet, as in a sharp shower. But, 2. Even in this, consolation doth more abound. It is but a cup, not an ocean; it is but a draught, bitter perhaps, but we shall see the bottom of it; it is a cup in the hand of a Father (John xviii. 11); and it is full of mixture, Ps. lxxv. 8. It is but a baptism; if dipped, that is the worst of it, not drowned; perplexed, but not in despair. Baptism is an ordinance by which we join ourselves to the Lord in covenant and communion; and so is suffering for Christ, Ezek. xx. 37; Isa. xlviii. 10. Baptism is "an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace;" and so is suffering for Christ, for unto us it is given, Phil. i. 29.

Secondly, It is to drink of the same cup that Christ drank of, and to be baptized with the same baptism that he was baptized with. Christ is beforehand with us in suffering, and in that as in other things left us an example. 1. It bespeaks the condescension of a suffering Christ, that he would drink of such a cup (John xviii. 11), nay, and such a brook (Ps. cx. 7), and drink so deep, and yet so cheerfully; that he would be baptized with such a baptism, and was so forward to it, Luke xii. 50. It was much that he would be baptized with water as a common sinner, much more with blood as an uncommon malefactor. But in all this he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, and was made sin for us. 2. It bespeaks the consolation of suffering Christians, that they do but pledge Christ in the bitter cup, are partakers of his sufferings, and fill up that which is behind of them; we must therefore arm ourselves with the same mind, and go to him without the camp.

Thirdly, It is good for us to be often putting it to ourselves, whether we are able to drink of this cup, and to be baptized with this baptism. We must expect suffering, and not look upon it as a hard thing to suffer well and as becomes us. Are we able to suffer cheerfully, and in the worst of times still to hold fast our integrity? What can we afford to part with for Christ? How far will we give him credit? Could I find in my heart to drink of a bitter cup, and to be baptized with a bloody baptism, rather than let go my hold of Christ? The truth is, Religion, if it be worth any thing, is worth every thing; but it is worth little, if it be not worth suffering for. Now let us sit down, and count the cost of dying for Christ rather than denying him, and ask, Can we take him upon these terms?

[2.] See how boldly they engage for themselves; they said, We are able, in hopes of sitting on his right hand, and on his left; but at the same time they fondly hoped that they should never be tried. As before they knew not what they asked, so now they knew not what they answered. We are able; they would have done well to put in, "Lord, by thy strength, and in thy grace, we are able, otherwise we are not." But the same that was Peter's temptation, to be confident of his own sufficiency, and presume upon his own strength, was here the temptation of James and John; and it is a sin we are all prone to. They knew not what Christ's cup was, nor what his baptism, and therefore they were thus bold in promising for themselves. But those are commonly most confident, that are least acquainted with the cross.

[3.] See how plainly and positively their sufferings are here foretold (v. 23); Ye shall drink of my cup. Sufferings foreseen will be the more easily borne, especially if looked upon under a right notion, as drinking of his cup, and being baptized with his baptism. Christ began in suffering for us, and expects we should pledge him in suffering for him. Christ will have us know the worst, that we may make the best of our way to heaven; Ye shall drink; that is, ye shall suffer. James drank the bloody cup first of all the apostles, Acts xii. 2. John, though at last he died in his bed, if we may credit the ecclesiastical historians, yet often drank of this bitter cup, as when he was banished into the isle of Patmos (Rev. i. 9), and when (as they say) at Ephesus he was put into a caldron of boiling oil, but was miraculously preserved. He was, as the rest of the apostles, in deaths often. He took the cup, offered himself to the baptism, and it was accepted.

(2.) He leaves them in the dark about the degrees of their glory. To carry them cheerfully through their sufferings, it was enough to be assured that they should have a place in his kingdom. The lowest seat in heaven is an abundant recompence for the greatest sufferings on earth. But as to the preferments there, it was not fit there should be any intimation given for whom they were intended; for the infirmity of their present state could not bear such a discovery with any evenness; "To sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, and therefore it is not for you to ask it or to know it; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father." Note, [1.] It is very probable that there are degrees of glory in heaven; for our Saviour seems to allow that there are some that shall sit on his right hand and on his left, in the highest places. [2.] As the future glory itself, so the degrees of it, are purposed and prepared in the eternal counsel of God; as the common salvation, so the more peculiar honours, are appointed, the whole affair is long since settled, and there is a certain measure of the stature, both in grace and glory, Eph. iv. 13. [3.] Christ, in dispensing the fruits of his own purchase, goes exactly by the measures of his Father's purpose; It is not mine to give, save to them (so it may be read) for whom it is prepared. Christ has the sole power of giving eternal life, but then it is to as many as were given him, John xvii. 2. It is not mine to give, that is, to promise now; that matter is already settled and concerted, and the Father and Son understand one another perfectly well in this matter. "It is not mine to give to those that seek and are ambitious of it, but to those that by great humility and self-denial are prepared for it."

III. Here are the reproof and instruction which Christ gave to the other ten disciples for their displeasure at the request of James and John. He had much to bear with in them all, they were so weak in knowledge and grace, yet he bore their manners.

1. The fret that the ten disciples were in (v. 24). They were moved with indignation against the two brethren; not because they were desirous to be preferred, which was their sin, and for which Christ was displeased with them, but because they were desirous to be preferred before them, which was a reflection upon them. Many seem to have indignation at sin; but it is not because it is sin, but because it touches them. They will inform against a man that swears; but it is only if he swear at them, and affront them, not because he dishonours God. These disciples were angry at their brethren's ambition, though they themselves, bay because they themselves, were as ambitious. Note, It is common for people to be angry at those sins in others which they allow of and indulge in themselves. Those that are proud and covetous themselves do not care to see others so. Nothing makes more mischief among brethren, or is the cause of more indignation and contention, than ambition, and desire of greatness. We never find Christ's disciples quarreling, but something of this was at the bottom of it.

2. The check that Christ gave them, which was very gentle, rather by way of instruction what they should be, than by way of reprehension for what they were. He had reproved this very sin before (ch. xviii. 3), and told them they must be humble as little children; yet they relapsed into it, and yet he reproved them for it thus mildly.

He called them unto him, which intimates great tenderness and familiarity. He did not, in anger, bid them get out of his presence, but called them, in love, to come into his presence: for therefore he is fit to teach, and we are invited to learn of him, because he is meek and lowly in heart. What he had to say concerned both the two disciples and the ten, and therefore he will have them all together. And he tells them, that, whereas they were asking which of them should have dominion a temporal kingdom, there was really no such dominion reserved for any of them. For,

(1.) They must not be like the princes of the Gentiles. Christ's disciples must not be like Gentiles, no not like princes of the Gentiles. Principality doth no more become ministers than Gentilism doth Christians.

Observe, [1.] What is the way of the princes of the Gentiles (v. 25); to exercise dominion and authority over their subjects, and (if they can but win the upper hand with a strong hand) over one another too. That which bears them up in it is, that they are great, and great men think they may do any thing. Dominion and authority are the great things which the princes of the Gentiles pursue, and pride themselves in; they would bear sway, would carry all before them, have every body truckle to them, and every sheaf bow to theirs. They would have it cried before them, Bow the knee; like Nebuchadnezzar, who slew, and kept alive, at pleasure.

[2.] What is the will of Christ concerning his apostles and ministers, in this matter.

First, "It shall not be so among you. The constitution of the spiritual kingdom is quite different from this. You are to teach the subjects of this kingdom, to instruct and beseech them, to counsel and comfort them, to take pains with them, and suffer with them, not to exercise dominion or authority over them; you are not to lord it over God's heritage (1 Pet. v. 3), but to labour in it." This forbids not only tyranny, and abuse of power, but the claim or use of any such secular authority as the princes of the Gentiles lawfully exercise. So hard is it for vain men, even good men, to have such authority, and not to be puffed up with it, and do more hurt than good with it, that our Lord Jesus saw fit wholly to banish it out of his church. Paul himself disowns dominion over the faith of any, 2 Cor. i. 24. The pomp and grandeur of the princes of the Gentiles ill become Christ's disciples. Now, if there were no such power and honour intended to be in the church, it was nonsense for them to be striving who should have it. They knew not what they asked.

Secondly, How then shall it be among the disciples of Christ? Something of greatness among them Christ himself had intimated, and here he explains it; "He that will be great among you, that will be chief, that would really be so, and would be found to be so at last, let him be your minister, your servant," v. 26, 27. Here observe, 1. That it is the duty of Christ's disciples to serve one another, for mutual edification. This includes both humility and usefulness. The followers of Christ must be ready to stoop to the meanest offices of love for the good one of another, must submit one to another (1 Pet. v. 5; Eph. v. 21), and edify one another (Rom. xiv. 19), please one another for good, Rom. xv. 2. The great apostle made himself every one's servant; see 1 Cor. ix. 19. 2. It is the dignity of Christ's disciples faithfully to discharge this duty. The way to be great and chief is to be humble and serviceable. Those are to be best accounted of, and most respected, in the church, and will be so by all that understand things aright; not those that are dignified with high and mighty names, like the names of the great ones of the earth, that appear in pomp, and assume to themselves a power proportionable, but those that are most humble and self-denying, and lay out themselves most to do good, though to the diminishing of themselves. These honour God most, and those he will honour. As he must become a fool that would be wise, so he must become a servant that would be chief. St. Paul was a great example of this; he laboured more abundantly than they all, made himself (as some would call it) a drudge to his work; and is not he chief? Do we not by consent call him the great apostle, though he called himself less than the least? And perhaps our Lord Jesus had an eye to him, when he said, There were last that should be first; for Paul was one born out of due time (1 Cor. xv. 8); not only the youngest child of the family of the apostles, but a posthumous one, yet he became greatest. And perhaps he it was for whom the first post of honour in Christ's kingdom was reserved and prepared of his Father, not for James who sought it; and therefore just before Paul began to be famous as an apostle, Providence ordered it so that James was cut off (Acts xii. 2), that in the college of the twelve Paul might be substituted in his room.

(2.) They must be like the Master himself; and it is very fit that they should, that, while they were in the world, they should be as he was when he was in the world; for to both the present state is a state of humiliation, the crown and glory were reserved for both in the future state. Let them consider that the Son of Man came not to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many, v. 28. Our Lord Jesus here sets himself before his disciples as a pattern of those two things before recommended, humility, and usefulness.

[1.] Never was there such an example of humility and condescension as there was in the life of Christ, who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. When the Son of God came into the world, his Ambassador to the children of men, one would think he should have been ministered to, should have appeared in an equipage agreeable to his person and character; but he did not so; he made no figure, had no pompous train of state-servants to attend him, nor was he clad in robes of honour, for he took upon him the form of a servant. He was indeed ministered to as a poor man, which was a part of his humiliation; there were those that ministered to him of their substance (Luke viii. 2, 3); but he was never ministered to as a great man; he never took state upon him, was not waited on at table; he once washed his disciples' feet, but we never read that they washed his feet. He came to minister help to all that were in distress; he made himself a servant to the sick and diseased; was as ready to their requests as ever any servant was at the beck of his master, and took as much pains to serve them; he attended continually to this very thing, and denied himself both food and rest to attend to it.

[2.] Never was there such an example of beneficence and usefulness as there was in the death of Christ, who gave his life a ransom for many. He lived as a servant, and went about doing good; but he died as a sacrifice, and in that he did the greatest good of all. He came into the world on purpose to give his life a ransom; it was first in his intention. The aspiring princes of the Gentiles make the lives of many a ransom for their own honour, and perhaps a sacrifice to their own humour. Christ doth not do so; his subjects' blood is precious to him, and he is not prodigal of it (Ps. lxxii. 14); but on the contrary, he gives his honour and life too ransom for his subjects. Note, First, Jesus Christ laid down his life for a ransom. Our lives were forfeited into the hands of divine justice by sin. Christ, by parting with his life, made atonement for sin, and so rescued ours; he was made sin, and a curse for us, and died, not only for our good, but in our stead, Acts xx. 28; 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. Secondly, It was a ransom for many, sufficient for all, effectual for many; and, if for many, then, saith the poor doubting soul, "Why not for me?" It was for many, that by him many may be made righteous. These many were his seed, for which his soul travailed (Isa. liii. 10, 11); for many, so they will be when they come all together, though now they appear but a little flock.

Now this is a good reason why we should not strive for precedency, because the cross is our banner, and our Master's death is our life. It is a good reason why we should study to do good, and, in consideration of the love of Christ in dying for us, not hesitate to lay down our lives for the brethren, 1 John iii. 16. Ministers should be more forward than others to serve and suffer for the good of souls, as blessed Paul was, Acts xx. 24; Phil. ii. 17. The nearer we are all concerned in, and the more we are advantaged by, the humility and humiliation of Christ, the more ready and careful we should be to imitate it.

Sight Given to the Blind.

29 And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed him. 30 And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. 31 And the multitude rebuked them, because they should hold their peace: but they cried the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. 32 And Jesus stood still, and called them, and said, What will ye that I shall do unto you? 33 They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. 34 So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him.

We have here an account of the cure of two poor blind beggars; in which we may observe,

I. Their address to Christ, v. 29, 30. And in this,

1. The circumstances of it are observable. It was as Christ and his disciples departed from Jericho; of that devoted place, which was rebuilt under a curse, Christ took his leave with this blessing, for he received gifts even for the rebellious. It was in the presence of a great multitude that followed him; Christ had a numerous, though not a pompous, attendance, and did good to them, though he did not take state to himself. This multitude that followed him for loaves, and some for love, some for curiosity, and some in expectation of his temporal reign, which the disciples themselves dreamed of, very few with desire to be taught their duty; yet, for the sake of those few, he confirmed his doctrine by miracles wrought in the presence of great multitudes; who, if they were not convinced by them, would be the more inexcusable. Two blind men concurred in their request; for joint-prayer is pleasing to Christ, ch. xviii. 19. These joint-sufferers were joint-suitors; being companions in the same tribulation, they were partners in the same supplication. Note, It is good for those that are labouring under the same calamity, or infirmity of body or mind, to join together in the same prayer to God for relief, that they may quicken one another's fervency, and encourage one another's faith. There is mercy enough in Christ for all the petitioners. These blind men were sitting by the way-side, as blind beggars used to do. Note, Those that would receive mercy from Christ, must place themselves there where his out-goings are; where he manifests himself to those that seek him. It is good thus to way-lay Christ, to be in his road.

They heard that Jesus passed by. Though they were blind, they were not deaf. Seeing and hearing are the learning senses. It is a great calamity to want either; but the defect of one may be, and often is, made up in the acuteness of the other; and therefore it has been observed by some as an instance of the goodness of Providence, that none were ever known to be born both blind and deaf; but that, one way or other, all are in a capacity of receiving knowledge. These blind men had heard of Christ by the hearing of the ear, but they desired that their eyes might see him. When they heard that Jesus passed by, they asked no further questions, who were with him, or whether he was in haste, but immediately cried out. Note, It is good to improve the present opportunity, to make the best of the price now in the hand, because, if once let slip, it may never return; these blind men did so, and did wisely; for we do not find that Christ ever came to Jericho again. Now is the accepted time.

2. The address itself is more observable; Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David, repeated again, v. 31. Four things are recommended to us for an example in this address; for, though the eye of the body was dark, the eye of the mind was enlightened concerning truth, duty, and interest.

(1.) Here is an example of importunity in prayer. They cried out as men in earnest; men in want are earnest, of course. Cold desires do but beg denials. Those that would prevail in prayer, must stir up themselves to take hold on God in duty. When they were discountenanced in it, they cried the more. The stream of fervency, if it be stopped, will rise and swell the higher. This wrestling with God in prayer, and makes us the fitter to receive mercy; for the more it is striven for, the more it will be prized and thankfully acknowledged.

(2.) Of humility in prayer; in that word, Have mercy on us, not specifying the favour, or prescribing what, much less pleading merit, but casting themselves upon, and referring themselves cheerfully to, the Mediator's mercy, in what way he pleases; "Only have mercy." They ask not for silver and gold, though they were poor, but mercy, mercy. This is that which our hearts must be upon, when we come to the throne of grace, that we may find mercy, Heb. iv. 16; Ps. cxxx. 7.

(3.) Of faith in prayer; in the title they gave to Christ, which was in the nature of a plea; O Lord, thou Son o David; they confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, and therefore had authority to command deliverance for them. Surely it was by the Holy Ghost that they called Christ Lord, 1 Cor. xii. 3. Thus they take their encouragement in prayer from his power, as in calling him the Son of David they take encouragement from his goodness, as Messiah, of whom so many kind and tender things had been foretold, particularly his compassion to the poor and needy, Ps. lxxii. 12, 13. It is of excellent use, in prayer, to eye Christ in the grace and glory of his Messiahship; to remember that he is the Son of David, whose office it is to help, and save, and to plead it with him.

(4.) Of perseverance in prayer, notwithstanding discouragement. The multitude rebuked them, as noisy, clamorous, and impertinent, and bid them hold their peace, and not disturb the Master, who perhaps at first himself seemed not to regard them. In following Christ with our prayers, we must expect to meet with hindrances and manifold discouragements from within and from without, something or other that bids us hold our peace. Such rebuke are permitted, that faith and fervency, patience and perseverance, may be tried. These poor blind men were rebuked by the multitude that followed Christ. Note, the sincere and serious beggars at Christ's door commonly meet with the worst rebukes from those that follow him but in pretence and hypocrisy. But they would not be beaten off so; when they were in pursuit of such a mercy, it was no time to compliment, or to practise a timid delicacy; no, they cried the more. Note, Men ought always to pray, and not to faint; to pray with all perseverance (Luke xviii. 1); to continue in prayer with resolution, and not to yield to opposition.

II. The answer of Christ to this address of theirs. The multitude rebuked them; but Christ encouraged them. It were sad for us, if the Master were not more kind and tender than the multitude; but he loves to countenance those with special favour, that are under frowns, and rebukes, and contempts from men. He will not suffer his humble supplicants to be run down, and put out of countenance.

1. He stood still, and called them, v. 32. He was now going up to Jerusalem, and was straitened till his work there was accomplished; and yet he stood still to cure these blind men. Note, When we are ever so much in haste about any business, yet we should be willing to stand still to do good. He called them, not because he could not cure them at a distance, but because he would do it in the most obliging and instructive way, and would countenance weak but willing patients and petitioners. Christ not only enjoins us to pray, but invites us; holds out the golden sceptre to us, and bids us come touch the top of it.

2. He enquired further into their case; What will ye that I shall do unto you? This implies, (1.) A very fair offer; "Here I am; let me know what you would have, and you shall have it." What would we more? He is able to do for us, and as willing as he is able; Ask, and it shall be given you. (2.) A condition annexed to this offer, which is a very easy and reasonable one—that they should tell him what they would have him do for them. One would think this a strange question, any one might tell what they would have. Christ knew well enough; but he would know it from them, whether they begged only for alms, as from a common person, or for a cure, as from the Messiah. Note, It is the will of God that we should in every thing make our requests known to him by prayer and supplication; not to inform or move him, but to qualify ourselves for the mercy. The waterman in the boat, who with his hook takes hold of the shore, does not thereby pull the shore to the boat, but the boat to the shore. So in prayer we do not draw the mercy to ourselves, but ourselves to the mercy.

They soon made known their request to him, such a one as they never made to any one else; Lord, that our eyes may be opened. The wants and burthens of the body we are soon sensible of, and can readily relate; Ubi dolor, ubi digitus—The finger promptly points to the seat of pain. O that we were but as apprehensive of our spiritual maladies, and could as feelingly complain of them, especially our spiritual blindness! Lord, that the eyes of our mind may be opened! Many are spiritually blind, and yet say they see, John ix. 41. Were we but sensible of our darkness, we should soon apply ourselves to him, who alone has the eye-salve, with this request, Lord, that our eyes may be opened.

3. He cured them; when he encouraged them to seek him, he did not say, Seek in vain. What he did was an instance,

(1.) Of his pity; He had compassion on them. Misery is the object of mercy. They that are poor and blind are wretched and miserable (Rev. iii. 17), and the objects of compassion. It was the tender mercy of our God, that gave light and sight to them that sat in darkness, Luke i. 78, 79. We cannot help those that are under such calamities, as Christ did; but we may and must pity them, as Christ did, and draw out our soul to them.

(2.) Of his power; He that formed the eye, can he not heal it? Yes, he can, he did, he did it easily, he touched their eyes; he did it effectually, Immediately their eyes received sight. Thus he not only proved that he was sent of God, but showed on what errand he was sent—to give sight to those that are spiritually blind, to turn them from darkness to light.

Lastly, These blind men, when they had received sight, followed him. Note, None follow Christ blindfold. He first by his grace opens men's eyes, and so draws their hearts after him. They followed Christ, as his disciples, to learn of him, and as his witnesses, eye-witnesses, to bear their testimony to him and to his power and goodness. The best evidence of spiritual illumination is a constant inseparable adherence to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Leader.

CHAP. XX.

Verse 1. For the Kingdom of heaven &c.] THat last sentence Christ further illustrateth and enforceth by this following parable. Peter and the rest were in danger to be puffed up with the preconceit of their abundant reward [illegible: 1 word], chap. 19 28, 29. This to prevent, and that they might not stand upon their tearms and tiptoes, they are again and again given to know, that [illegible: 1 word] that are first shall be last, and last first. Which [illegible: 1 word] out early in the morning] God is found of them that seek him not, Isa 65. 1. Yea the Father seeketh such to worship him, Ioh. 4. 23. he solliciteth suitours and servants. A wonderfull condescension it is, that he looketh out of himself upon the Saints and Angels in heaven, Psal. 113. 6. How much more upon us poor earth-worms? Labourers into his Vineyard.] Not loiterers. Iacob saw the Angels, some ascending, others descending, none standing still. God hath made [illegible: 1 word] to play in the waters, not so men: they must be doing, that will keep in with God.

Verse 2. For a penny a day.] Not for eternall life, (for this those murmuring merit-mongers never had, who yet had their peny) but something (what ever it were) that gave the labourers good content: that it was for which each of them followed Christ, whether for meat perishing, or induring.Job. 6. 27.

Verse 3. Others standing idle.] For any good they did, or could doe, till sent into the vineyard, and set a work by God. Till then we are mere excrements of humane society. Nos numerus sumus, &c.

Verse 4. Goe [illegible: 1 word] also into the Vineyard.] God hath his times to call men in: Only let them stand in Gods way, wait at the posts of wisdoms gates, at the pool of [illegible: 1 word], &c. [illegible: 1 word] & [illegible: 1 word] est adgratiam vocatio, Ephes. 1. 11. The separation of the Saints is wonderfull, Exod. 33. 16.

Verse 5. About the sixth and ninth houre.] God hath his servants of all sexes and sizes, calling when and whom he pleaseth. And they have the comfort and credit of it that are first called, so they walk worthy of their time and that vocation wherewith they are called, Ephes. 3. 1. Thus it was an honour to Mnason, that heAct. 21. 16. was an old Disciple; and to [illegible: 1 word] and Junia, that Paul Rom. 16 7. should say of them, Who also were in Christ before [illegible: 1 word].

Verse 6. And about the eleventh houre.] About five a clock in the afternoon. When it was well-nigh time to leave work. [illegible: 1 word] serò, si seriò. Howbeit delaies are dangerous, [illegible: 1 word] are abrupt, and headlong, and if once past, irrecoverable. If [illegible: 1 word] ye will enquire, enquire, [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1 word], Isa. 21. 12. [illegible: 1 word] that say, men may repent hereafter, say truly, but not safely. They that alledge these here that came in at the eleventh houre, [illegible: 1 word] consider that these were never called till then. But now God [illegible: 1 word], yea commandeth all men every where to repent, Act. 17. 30. And now he is more peremptory, [illegible: 1 word], then ever heretofore, See Heb. 2. 3. How many are daily taken away in their offers and eslayes, before they have prepared their hearts to cleave to God?

Verse 7. Goe ye also [illegible: 1 word] the Vineyard.] At this houre the [illegible: 2 words] was sent in, and he [illegible: 1 word] him: for he justifies Christ, condemns himself, chides his fellow for railing, praies for a part in Paradise, &c. he lived much in a little time. Howbeit [illegible: 1 word] is a singular example, one of the miracles wherewith Christ would honour the ignominy of his crosse. Neither is it often seen [illegible: 2 words] of, that old men are converted. They are usually so set in [illegible: 2 words] they are hardly removed: such an hoof they have over their hearts, that scarce any thing will affect them. Abraham in the old Testament, and Nicodemus in the New, were called in their [illegible: 1 word] age. Name a third he that can.

Verse 8. Saith unto his steward.] That is, to his Son Christ whom he hath made judge of all, to give unto every man according to his works. This he will doe with demonstration of his [illegible: 1 word] both justice (so that none shall receive lesse then was promised him) and mercy, (so that all shall receive more then they [illegible: 1 word].) For although their peny be here called their hire, [illegible: 1 word] elsewhere [illegible: 1 word] reward, yea their wages, yet all is of [illegible: 1 word].

Verse 9. And when they came.] These last [illegible: 1 word] were first [illegible: 1 word], because they trusted not to the worth of their own works, [illegible: 1 word] to Gods free grace and goodnes: when the other are turned off in displeasure, with Tolle quod tuum est & vade: Take thy peny and be packing.

Verse 10. They supposed that they, &c.] Good works are [illegible: 1 word] Regni caelestis, saith Bellarmine. But God is no such merchant. Caelum gratis non accipiam, I will not have heaven for nothing, saith Vega. Thou shalt never have it therefore; [illegible: 1 word] give thee that gift.

Verse 11. They murmured, &c.] They had that they agreed for, some temporall blessings, which is all that carnall men commonly care for. Or if they seek after spirituall things, it is not for any beauty he seeth, or taste he findeth in them, but only as a bridge to bring them to heaven; as Spira confessed of himself. It is not good therefore to indent and bargain with God how much he shall give us, either of temporals or spirituals: for so you may have your peny, and yet be discontented, that it is [illegible: 1 word] a peny and no more. Profits, pleasures, honours, appear to be but empty things, when men are to goe into another world.

Verse 12. Thou hast made them equall.] Loe this is the guise of [illegible: 1 word] hypocrites to be quarrelling, and contending with God and man, as unworthily [illegible: 1 word] withall. Thus those Jewish [illegible: 1 word], Isa. 58. 3. hit God in the teeth with their good services, and small thanks. So the proud [illegible: 1 word] sets forth not his wants, but his worth. [illegible: 1 word], Jacob cries out in a low language, Domine non sum dignus, Gen. 30. 10. So doth Paul, 1 Cor. 15. 9. the Centurion, Matth. 8. 6. the Baptist, Mat. 3. 11. St August [illegible: 1 word], Non sum dignus, quem tu [illegible: 1 word], Domine, Lord, I am [illegible: 1 word] worthy of thy love.

Verse 13. Friend, I doe thee no wrong.] Friend he is called, not [illegible: 1 word], though he were a [illegible: 1 word], a merit-monger. In arguing the case with others, use hard arguments, but in a soft language; This will soonest work: for man is a crosle crabbed creature, and if roughly dealt with, will sooner slight you for your passion, then regard your reason, though never so convincing, because not well managed. There are a generation whose wordsRom. 3. 12. — 19. are swords, whose tongues are rapiers to run men thorow with,Psal. 17. upon every small occasion, and their throats as a gaping grave to [illegible: 1 word]. 17. 14. bury them in.

Verse 14. Take that thine is, and [illegible: 1 word].] A [illegible: 1 word] sentence. [illegible: 1 word]. Imp. [illegible: 1 word] quantum est, [illegible: 1 word] est nisi [illegible: 2 words], quam di [illegible: 5 words]. [illegible: 1 word]. David blesseth himself from those men of Gods hand: which have their portion here, and that's all they are to look for. Valdè protest at us sum, said Luther when great [illegible: 1 word] were offered him, me nolle sic a Deo satiari. A gracious spirit [illegible: 1 word] rest satisfied with low things. The Turkish Empire, as big as it is, saith the same Luther, is nothing else but a crust of bread, which the good man of the house casteth to his dogs.

Verse 15. It is not lawfull for me, &c.] This is Gods speech (who is the great proprietary of all) it may not be ours who have nothing of our own, but all in trust: So that when we present any thing to God, we must say as David did, 1 Chron. 29. 14. and afterwards Justinian the Emperour, [non-Latin text not transcribed] Georg Cedren. Compend hist. Of thine own we give thee: for all that is in the heaven and the earth is thine: St Bernard reports of Pope Eugenius, that meeting with a poor but honest Bishop, he secretly gave him [illegible: 1 word] jewels where with he might present him. If God did not first furnish us, we should have nothing wherewith to honour him, or doe good to others. Is thine eye evil, because I am good?] It's commonly observed, that witches and those that are in league with the devil to doe mischief, are never given over so to doe, till they come to have an evileye. Hence that, nescio quis teneros, &c. and those that are [non-Latin text not transcribed], [illegible: 1 word] [non-Latin text not transcribed]. bewitched, are said to be overseen, that is to be looked upon with an envious eye. Envy is a quick-sighted and sharp-fanged malignity, Prov. 27. 4. and doth, de aliena mente tam promptè quam pravè conjicere, as one saith, nimbly and naughtily guesse at another Deg. Whear. Relect. Antelog p. 11. mans meaning.

Verse 16. So the last shall be first, &c.] This is the purport of the preceding parable. Application is the life of preaching. Few are chosen.] It's a strange speech of Chrysostom, in his fourth sermon to the people of Antioch, where he was much beloved,Non arbitror inter Sacerdotes multes esse qui salvi [illegible: 1 word]. and did much good. How many, think you; shall be saved in this City? It will be an hard speech to you, but I will speak it: Though there be so many thousands of you, yet there cannotChrysost Hom. 3. in Act. be found an hundred that shall be saved, and I doubt of them too: For what villany is there in youth? What sloth in old men? and so he goes on. See the notes on Mat. 7. 14.

Verse 17. Took the twelve Disciples.] To rouse them and raise them out of their carnall fears and dejections. Jerusalem was theRevel. [illegible: 1 word]. 8. [illegible: 1 word] slaughter house, Luk. 13. 33. (as Rome is now, which therefore is spiritually called Jerusalem, Egypt, Sodom, &c) Hither our Saviour bent his course: hereupon they were amazed and afraid, Mark. 10. 32. and gave him counsell to goe back rather into Galilee for his own and their safety, Joh. 11 8. He takes them therefore apart, and tells them as followeth, what they must trust to: and that though he be brought to the dust of death, he will rise again gloriously, to their great comfort.

Verse 18. Behold we goe up to Jerusalem.] Behold, as it requires attention (and this was no more then need, for St Luke Luk. 18. 34. tells us that they understood none of these things, &c.) so it sets forth our Saviours forwardnesse, to goe this dangerous voyage.

Verse 19. To mock, and to scourge, and to crucifie him.] What are all our sufferings to his? and yet we think our selves undone, if but toucht: and in setting forth our calamities, we adde, we multiply, we rise in our discourse, like him in the Poet. I am thrice [non-Latin text not transcribed]. [illegible: 1 word]. miserable, nay ten, twenty, an hundred, a thousand times unhappie. And yet all our sufferings are but as the [illegible: 1 word] and chips of that crosse, upon which Christ, nay many Christians have suffered. In the time of Adrian the Emperour, ten thousand Martyrs are said to have been crucified in the mount of Ararath, crowned with thorns, and thrust into the sides with sharp darts, after the example of the Lords passion. The chief of whom were Achaicus, Act. and Mon. Heliades, Theodorus, Carcerius, &c.

Verse 20. Then came to him, &c.] Then, most unseasonably when Christ had by the parable been teaching them humility, and now was discoursing of his death and passion, then came these sonnes of Zebedee to beg a principality in Christs imaginary earthly Monarchy. And this is not the first time of their so foul mistake, so unseasonable a suit to him, or strife among themselves. The leprosy was cured at once in Naaman: so is not [illegible: 1 word] in the Saints, but by degrees, and at times. The mother of Zebedees children.] Set on by her two sonnes, who were ashamed to make the motion themselves, (but as good they might, for Christ knew all, and therefore directs his answer to them, Mark. 10. 35.) and she also was not well assured of the [illegible: 1 word] of her request, and therefore came curtesying and craving a certain thing: not telling him what at first, as going somewhat against her conscience. And surely her request had been impudent, but that she presumed upon her neer alliance to Christ: For she is thought to have been sister to Ioseph, who was Pater Christi politicus: and thence her boldnesse, by reason of her right of kindred by the Fathers side. And this is some kinde of carnall excuse; Yet not for her and her sons foliy and vanity, in dreaming of an earthly kingdom, and therein a distribution of honours and offices, as in Davids and Solomons daies.

Verse 21. What wilt thou?] We may not over-hastily ingage our selves by promise of this or that to our best friends, but hold off and deliberate. Alioqui saliens antequam videat, cafurus Bern. est [illegible: 1 word] debeat. The one on thy right hand] Quid voveat dulci nutricula [illegible: 1 word] Horat. alumno? Our Saviour had promised in the former chapter that the twelve should sit upon twelve thrones, &c. These mens suit was for the first and second seat. Self-love makes men ambitious, and [illegible: 1 word] them to turn the glasse to see themselves bigger, others lesser then they are, Paul on the contrary, was least of Saints, [illegible: 1 word] of Apostles.

Verse 22. Ye know not what ye ask] Ye ask and misse, becauseJam 4. 1. ye ask [illegible: 1 word]. A prayer for things not lawfull, begs nothing but a deniall, as Moses did, in praying to enter into the land, Deut. 3. 25. as Job did in that peevish request of his that God wouldJob 6. 8, 9. let loose his hand and cut him off; as the Disciples did in that over-curious enquiry, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdome Act. 1. 6, 7, 8. to Israel? Our Saviour answers, that that's not fit for them to know. But a better thing he could tell them, that they should shortly after be clothed which the holy Ghost. God sometimes in much mercy crosseth the prayers of his poople, as he did Davids for the childes life, who if he had lived, would have been but a standing monument of Davids shame. Was it not better for him to have a Solomon? The Saints have their praiers out, either in money or moneys-worth: provided they bring lawfull petitions and honest hearts. Are ye able to drink of the cup, &c.] Afflictions are frequently set forth by this metaphor of a cup, taken say some, from an ancient custom that the father of the family should give to each under his charge a cup fit for his use, according to his bignesse: Or, as others think, from the manner of feasts, whereat the Symposiarch, or ruler of the feast, as he is called, Ioh. 2. prescribed what and how much every man should drink. And to be baptized with the baptisme] Or plunged over head and ears in the deep waters of affliction. Of these we may [illegible: 1 word] as one doth of the Spa waters, that they are more wholesome then pleasant. Ever since Christ cast his crosse into them, as Moses did that tree, Exod. 15. 25. the property of them is altered, the waters healed. They say unto him, we are able] In your own conceit at least, not else. For these two Disciples as they knew not what they asked, so they knew not what they answered. And yet Maldonat hath the face to defend them in it, as if they here [illegible: 1 word] their alacrity rather then betrayed their precipitancy: Sed exitus [illegible: 1 word] probavit: they shewed their valour at Christs apprehension.

Verse 23. Ye shall drink indeed of my cup] Illud solum quod [illegible: 1 word] est, & limpidius. The Saints sip of the top of Gods cup: as for the dregs, the wicked shall wring them out, and drink them up. And be baptized, &c.] Or ducked, washed (not drowned) as St Paul was in the shipwrack; or as the baptized child, which shakes off the water, or is dryed after baptisme. Afflictions saith one, are called baptisme because they set Gods mark upon us (as baptisme doth) that we belong to God: This for outward afflictions. And for desertion, it is called Christs cup, because we are sure to pledge him in that too, and be conformed unto him, as was Iob, David, Heman, Psal. 88 &c. Grace is no target against affliction: but the best shall have terrours within, and troubles without, as sure as the coat is on their back, or the heart in their belly. Is not mine to give] i.e. It is no part of my present office: Or, I have no such commission from my father to give precedencies to all that affect them. Christ hereby seeks to raise up the low groveling spirits of his Apostles to things supernaturall, supernall.

Verse 24. They were moved] They were angry at that ambition in their fellows, that themselves were deeply guilty of. So Diogines trampled Platoes pride, but with greater pride. So Crassus earnestly inveighed against covetousnesse in others, when there was not a more covetous caitiffe then he upon the earth. So Gregory the great stomaked the title of universall Bishop to the Patriarch of Constantinople, which yet himself affected, and his successour Boniface arrogated and usurped.

Verse 25. Iesus called them to him and said] We must (by Christs example) advance, cherish concord all we can, amongst [illegible: 1 line] [non-Latin text not transcribed] [illegible: 2 words] [illegible: 1 word]. ministers especially, by casting out those make-bates, emulation and ambition. Pareus was wont to say, that the onely cause of all Church-dissensions was, Ministers reaching after rule and preheminence, as did Diotrephes. And that if this evil humour could possibly be purged [illegible: 1 word], there would be a sweet symmetrie, an happy [illegible: 1 word] of all hearts. And they that are great] The Grandees of the earth. There is, saith one, a greatnesse Belluine and Genuine. In that, a beast may and doth exceed us: In this we exceed ourselves and others. Great men are not alwaies wise, saith Elihu, Iob 32. 9. And [illegible: 1 word] me major nisi qui justior, said Agesilaus, when the King of Persia [illegible: 1 word] himself the great King. Calamitas nostra magnus est, said Mimus concerning Pompey, the people applauding so [illegible: 1 word] a [illegible: 1 word]. Privilegium unius conceditur in [illegible: 1 word] alterius, saith a learned Doctour: & si vis esse verè [illegible: 1 word], ne sis instar utris [illegible: 1 word] tumidi, sed instar uteri prole gravidi; [illegible: 1 word] attollas inane supercilium, sed exhibeas utile ministerium. Goodnesse is the only greatnesse.

Verse 26. But it shall not be so amongst you] How expresse is that against Papal primacy and Lordly prelacy? When the Duke shall be damned, what will become of the Bishop, said the clown to the bishop of Cullen? Mr Whithead refused a Bishoprick because he liked not to be Lorded. And Mr Coverdale being deprived of his Bishoprick in Q. Maries daies, would not (for the same cause) be reinvested in Q. Elizabeths, but taught a school.

Verse 27. Let him be your servant] This is the ready way to rise. Neither may any think himself too good to serve the Saints, to wash their feet, to minister to their necessities. Christ came out of the bosome of his Father to fetch them to heaven. The holy Ghost disdains not to dwell in their hearts. Angels are desirous to do them any good office. Prophets think not much to minister to them, 1 Pet. 1. 12. Paul and Apollo and Cephas are theirs, publike servants to the Church; accounting it a far greater matter prodesse quàm praeesse, to seek mens salvation, then to exercise dominion.

Verse 28. And to give his life a ransome] A redemptory, a valuable rate, for it was the blood of God wherewith the Church [non-Latin text not transcribed]. was purchased, Acts 20. 28. silver and gold could not do it, 1 Pet. 1. 18, 19. nor any thing else but that counter-price given by [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Christ, 1 Tim. 2. 6.

Verse 29. And as they departed from Iericho] Christ cured [illegible: 1 word] in his locis [illegible: 1 word] curatos esse crediderim. [illegible: 1 word]. one blinde man as he went into Iericho, Luk. 18. and two as he went out; for all the haste he had to go to Ierusalem. Hence such multitudes followed him, to make up his ensuing triumph.

Verse 30. When they heard that Iesus passed by] Happy it was for them that, though blind, yet they were not d eaf. For as death came in by the ear, so doth life. Hear and your souls shall live Isa 55. 3. a heavy ear is a singular judgement, Isa. 6. 10. a [illegible: 1 word] ear a speciall favour, Prov. 20. 12. when God strook Zaechary, [illegible: 1 word]. 1. he made him dumb, but not deaf. When God strook Saul, he made him blind, but not deaf. When God strook Mephibosheth he made him lame, but not deaf. There is a deafMark 9 25. devil, and a deaf adder, and deaf man, that yet want for no ears,I sal. [illegible: 1 word]. 4. Isa. 43, 8. But he that heareth instruction is in the way of life, saith Solomon. These two blind beggers had heard of Christ by the hearing of the ear, but that satisfied them not, unlesse their eyes also might see him, Iob 42. 5. They way-lay therefore the Lord of light, who gives them upon their suit, both sight and light, irradiates both organ and object, cures them of their both outward and inward [illegible: 1 word] at once. Thou son of David] They knew and acknowledged Christ to be the true Messias. Few such knowing blind beggers now [illegible: 1 word]. They are commonly more blinde in minde then body, loose and [illegible: 2 words]; such as are neither of any Church, nor common-wealth: but as the baser sort of people in Swethland, who do alwaies break the Sabbath, saying that 'tis only for gentlemen to sanctifie it: Or rather as the poor Brasilians, who are said to be sine rege, lege, fide, without any government, law, or Religion.

Verse 31. And the multitude rebuked them] In prayer, we must look to meet with many rubs, and [illegible: 1 word]; but Gods spirit is heroike, and gets over them all. The [illegible: 1 word] will interrupt us, as the [illegible: 1 word] did Paul, Act. 16. 16. as the birds did [illegible: 1 word], Gen. 15. 11. as those Samaritans did the Jews in building the Temple, Nehem. 6. Hence we are bid Strive in prayer, Colos. 4. 2. and watch in prayer: for Satan will be at our right hand as at Iehoshuahs, Zach. 3. 1. watching his time to cast in, if not a [illegible: 1 word], yet an impertinent thought, thereby to bereave us of the benefit of our prayers: besides our own naturall indevotion through hardnesse of heart, heavinesse of body, multiplicity of worldly distractions and [illegible: 1 word]. All which we must break through and cry the more earnestly as Bartimaeus here did, though checkt by the multitude. Have mercy on us, o Lord, &c. Daniel would not be kept from his God for any danger of death, [illegible: 3 words]. [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] 6: nor the French Protestants restrain prayer, though King Henry 3. made a law to forbid them to pray with their families. The sun shall sooner stand still then the trade of godlinesse, and that continuall intercourse that is betwixt God, and the Christian soul.

Verse 32. And Iesus stood still] See the admirable power of fervent prayer. Christ stands and [illegible: 1 word] (for all the haste of his journey to Ierusalem, which till he had finished, oh how was he Preces [illegible: 3 words] inantem remorantur. [illegible: 1 word] Luk. 12. 50?) to hear the blinde beggers petition. So the sun once stood still in Gibeon, and the moon in the vally of [illegible: 1 word] upon the prayer of worthy Ioshua, who set the trophies of [illegible: 1 word] victorie in the very orbs of heaven.

Verse 33. Lord, that our eyes might be opened] Truely the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun, [illegible: 1 word]. 11. 7, And yet how little is this mercy [illegible: 1 word], because common. Our corrupt natures heed nothing that we enjoy, as the eye seeth nothing that lies on it: but things at a distance it discerns clearly. Bona a tergo formosissima. Copy of good things breeds satiety, and makes them no dainties, till God for our folly many times makes us see the worth of them by the want of them, and so commends and indears his favours to us. But what a blindnesse is this, worse then that of Bartimeus, never to see the face, but the back only of benefits?

Verse 34. And Iesus had compassion on them] He made their case his own. Misericordia sounds as much as misery laid toIsa. 63. 15. heart. Christs bowels sounded upon the sight and suit of these blinde beggers: and this was beyond all almes, should he have done no more for them. For when one gives an alms, he gives somewhat without himself, but by compassion we relieve another by somewhat within and from our selves, whiles we draw out [illegible: 2 words] (not our sheaf only) to the hungry, Isa. 58. 10. And immediatly their eyes received sight] This is not every blinde mans happinesse, that yet prayes for sight. But there is a better eye-sight then that of the body, which if God vouchsafe to any in bodily blindenesse (as he did to that blinde boy of Glocester that had suffered imprisonment there for confessing the truth) it may be said to such surely as Bishop Hooper the Martyr did to [illegible: 1 word]. and [illegible: 1 word]. sol. 1371. him; Ah poor boy, God hath taken from thee thy outward sight, but hath given thee another much more precious, &c. The like favour God shewed to Didymus Alexandrinus, who, though blinde from his childhood, yet was not only an excellent Artist, but an able Divine; and wrot certain Commentaries on the Psalmes, [illegible: 1 word] in [illegible: 1 word] vir. [illegible: 1 word]. and likewise on the Gospels; being now (saith Jerome, who relates it) above 83 years of age. Trithemius and Bozius report [illegible: 1 word]. de [illegible: 2 words]. the like things, concerning one Nicasius de [illegible: 1 word] a dutch-man, who being struck blinde at three years old, became neverthelesse an excellent scholar, and skilfull in the laws, which he publikely [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word] lib. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. professed at Collen. Afterwards he proceeded Master of Arts at Lovain, Licentiate in Divinity at the same Vniversity, and lastly Doctour of the laws at Cullen: where, after he had printed his publike Lectures, he died and was buried in the Cathedrall-Church Anno Dom. 1491. 17. Calend. Septem.

For the kingdom of heaven, etc. The word "for" shows that this chapter should have been connected with the preceding. The parable was spoken expressly to illustrate the sentiment in the last verse of that chapter. The kingdom of heaven means here the church, including perhaps its state here and hereafter. Mt 3:2. It has reference to rewards; and the meaning may be thus expressed: "Rewards shalt be bestowed in my kingdom, or on my followers, in the same manner as they were by a certain householder, in such a way as that the last shall be equal to the first, and the first last."

An householder. A master of a family. One at the head of family affairs.

His vineyard. No inconsiderable part of Judea was employed in the culture of the grape. Vineyards are often used, therefore, to represent a fertile or well cultivated place; and hence the church, denoting the care and culture that God has bestowed on it, Isa 5:7, Jer 12:10. For the manner of their construction, see Mt 21:33.

(w) "householder" Song 8:11,12

A penny a day. The coin here referred to was a Roman coin, equal in value to about 14 cents, [about 7d.] The original denotes the Roman denarius, δηναριου a silver coin, which was originally equivalent to ten asses, (a brass Roman coin,) whence its name The consular denarius bore on one side a head of Rome, and an X or a star to denote the value in asses, and a chariot with either two or four horses. At a later period the casts of different deities were on the obverse; and these were finally superseded by the heads of the Caesars. Many specimens of this coin have been preserved. The preceding cuts will show the usual appearance of the coins.

It was probably at that time the price of a day's labour. See Tobit v. 14. This was the common wages of a Roman soldier. In England, before the discovery of the mines of gold and silver of South America, and consequently before money was plenty, the price of labour was about in proportion. In 1351, the price of labour was regulated by law, and was a penny a day. But provisions were of course proportionally cheap; and the avails of a man's labour in articles of food were nearly as much as they are now.

(x) "penny" Mt 18:28

About the third hour. The Jews divided their days into twelve equal parts, or hours, beginning at sunrise, and ending at sunset. This was, therefore, about nine o'clock in the morning.

Standing idle in the marketplace. A place where provisions are sold in towns. Of course many resort to such places; and it would be the readiest place to meet persons, and find employers. They were not, therefore, disposed to be idle, but were waiting in the proper place to find employers.

Whatever is right. Whatsoever it shall appear you can earn. The contract with the first was definite; with this one it depended on tho judgment of the employer.

The sixth and ninth hour. That is, about twelve and three o'clock.

The eleventh hour. About five o'clock in the afternoon; or when there was but one working hour of the day left.

(y) "all the day idle" Prov 19:15, Eze 16:49, Acts 17:21, Heb 6:12

When even was come. That is, when the twelfth hour was come; the day was ended, and the time of payment was come.

The steward. A steward is one who transacts business in the place of another. He was one who had the administration of affairs in the absence of the householder; who provided for the family; and who was entrusted with the payment of labourers and servants. He was commonly the most trusty and faithful of the servants, raised to that station as a reward for his fidelity.

Beginning from the last unto the first. It was immaterial where he began to pay, provided he dealt justly by them. In the parable, this order is mentioned to give opportunity for the remarks which follow. Had those first hired been first paid, they would have departed satisfied, and the point of the parable would have been lost.

(a) "and give" Lk 10:7

They received every man a penny. There was no agreement how much they should receive, but merely that justice should be done, Mt 20:4,5,7. The householder supposed they had earned it, or chose to make a present to them to compensate for the loss of the first part of the day, when they were willing to work but could not find employment.

(b) "eleventh hour" Lk 23:40-43

They supposed that they should have received more. They had worked longer; they had been in the heat; they supposed that it was his intention to pay them, not according to contract, but according to the time of the labour.

Murmured. Complained. Found fault with.

The good man of the house. The original here is the same word which, Mt 20:1, is translated householder, and should have been so translated here. It is the old English way of denoting the father of a family. It expresses no moral quality.

(c) "against the good man" Lk 15:29,30

The burden and the heat of the day. The burden means the heavy labour, the severe toil. We have continued at that toil, in the heat of the day. The others had worked only a little while, and that in the cool of the evening, and when it was far more pleasant and much less fatiguing.

(1) "have wrought", or, "have continued one hour only"

Friend, I do thee no wrong. I have fully complied with the contract. We had an agreement; I have paid it all. If I choose to give a penny to another man if he labours little or not at all; if I should choose to give all my property away to others, it would not affect this contract with you. It is fully met. And with my own-- with that on which you have no further claim--may do as I please. So, if Christians are just, and pay their lawful debts, and injure no one, the world has no right to complain if they give the rest of their property to the poor, or devote it to send the gospel to the heathen, or to release the prisoner or the captive. It is their own. They have a right to do with it as they please. They are answerable not to men, but to God. And infidels, and worldly men, and cold professors in the church, have no right to interfere.

(d) "Friend" Mt 22:12

Take that thine is. Take what is justly due to you--what is properly your own.

(e) "go thy way" Jn 17:2

Is thine eye evil because I am good? The Hebrews used the word evil, when applied to the eye, to denote one envious and malicious, De 15:9, Prov 23:6. The eye is called evil in such cases, because envy and malice show themselves directly in the eye. No passions are so fully expressed by the eye as these. "Does envy show itself in the eye; is thine eye so soon turned to express envy and malice, because I have chosen to do good?"

(f) "Is it not" Rom 9:15-24, Jas 1:18 (g) "Is thine eye" Mt 19:30

So the last shall be first, etc. This is the moral or scope of the parable. To teach this, it was spoken. Many that, in the order of time, shall be brought last into the kingdom, shall be first in the rewards. Higher proportionate rewards shall be given to them than to others. To all justice shall be done. To all to whom the rewards of heaven were promised, they shall be given. Nothing shall be withheld that was promised. If among this number who are called into the kingdom I choose to raise some to stations of distinguished usefulness, and to confer on them peculiar talents and higher rewards, I injure no other one. They shall enter heaven as was promised. If amidst the multitude of Christians, I choose to signalize such men as Paul, and Martyn, and Brainerd, and Spencer, and Summerfield--to appoint some of them to short labour, but to wide usefulness, and raise them to signal rewards--I injure not the great multitude of others who live long lives less useful, and less rewarded. All shall reach heaven, and all shall receive what I promise to the faithful.

Many be called, but few chosen. The meaning of this, in this connexion, I take to be simply this: "Many are called into my kingdom; they come and labour as I command them; they are comparatively unknown and obscure; yet they are real Christians, and shall receive the proper reward. A few I have chosen for higher stations in the church. I have endowed them with apostolic gifts, or superior talents, or wider usefulness. They may not be so long in the vineyard; their race may be sooner run; but I have chosen to honour them in this manner; and I have a right to do it. I injure no one; and have a right to do what I will with mine own." Thus explained, this parable has no reference to the call of the Gentiles; nor to the call of aged sinners; nor to the call of sinners out of the church at all. It is simply designed to teach that in the church, among the multitudes that shall be saved, Christ makes a difference. He makes some more useful than others, without regard to the time which they serve; and he will reward them accordingly. The parable teaches one truth, and but one. And where Jesus has explained it, we have no right to add to it, and say that it teaches anything else. It adds to the reason for this interpretation, that Christ was conversing about the rewards that should be given to his followers, and not about the numbers that should be called, or about the doctrine of election. Mt 19:27-29.

(h) "the last shall be first" Mt 19:30 (i) "for many" Mt 22:14, 1Thes 2:13, Jas 1:23-25

See also Mk 10:32-34, Lk 18:31-34. And Jesus going up to Jerusalem. That is, doubtless, to the passover. This journey was from Galilee, on the east side of Jordan, probably to avoid the Samaritans, Mt 19:1. At this time he was on this journey to Jerusalem, probably not far from Jericho. This was his last journey to Jerusalem. He was going up to die for the sins of the world.

Took the twelve disciples apart. All the males of the Jews were required to be at this feast, Ex 23:17. The roads, therefore, on such occasions, would probably be thronged. It is probable also, that they would travel in companies, or that whole neighbourhoods would go together. See Lk 2:44. By his taking them apart is meant his taking them aside from the company. He had something to communicate which he did not wish the others to hear. Mark adds, "And Jesus went before them: and they_were amazed; and as they followed, they were afraid," Mt 10:32. He led the way, He had told them before, (Mt 17:22) that he should be betrayed into the hands of men, and be put to death. They began how to be afraid that this would happen, and to be solicitous for his life and for their own safety.

(k) "And Jesus" Mt 16:21, Mk 10:32, Lk 18:31, Jn 12:12

Behold, we go up to Jerusalem. Jesus assured them that what they feared would come to pass. But he had in some measure prepared their minds for this state of suffering, by the promises which he had made to them, Mt 19:27-30, 20:1-16. In all their sufferings they might be assured that eternal rewards were before them.

Shall be betrayed. See Mt 17:22.

Chief Priests and Scribes. The high priest, and the learned men who composed the Sanhedrim, or great council of the nation. He was thus betrayed by Judas, Mt 26:15. He was delivered to the chief priests and scribes, Mt 26:57.

And they shall condemn him to death. They had not power to inflict death, as that was taken away by the Romans; but they had the power of expressing an opinion, and of delivering him to the Romans to be put to death. This they did, Mt 26:66, 27:2.

Shall deliver him to the Gentiles. That is, because they have not the right of inflicting capital punishment, they will deliver him to those who have--the Roman authority. The Gentiles here mean Pontius Pilate and the Roman soldiers. See Mt 27:2,27-30. To mock, Mt 2:16.

To scourge. That is, to whip. This was done with thongs, or a whip made on purpose; and this punishment was commonly inflicted upon criminals before crucifixion. Mt 10:17.

To crucify him. That is, to put him to death on a cross, the com- mon punishment of slaves. See Mt 27:35.

The third day, etc. For the evidence that this was fulfilled, see Mt 28:1 and following. Mark and Luke say that he shall be spit upon. Spitting on another has always been considered an expression of the deepest contempt. Luke says, Lk 18:31, "All things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished." Among other things, he says he shall be "spitefully entreated;" that is, treated with spite or malice: malice implying contempt. These sufferings of our Saviour, and this treatment, and his death, had been predicted in many places. See Is 53:1-12 Da 9:26,27.

Mt 20:17; Mt 20:18

(l) "And shall" Mt 27:2, Mk 15:1, Lk 23:1, Jn 18:28, Acts 3:13 1Cor 15:3-7

(m) "to scourge" Isa 53:5

Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children, etc. This was probably Salome, Mk 15:40, 16:1.

With her sons. The names of these were James and John, Mk 10:35. Mark says they came and made the request. That is, they made it through the medium of their mother; they requested her to ask it for them. It is not improbable that she was an ambitious woman, and was desirous to see her sons honoured.

Worshipping him. Showing him respect; respectfully saluting him. In the original, kneeling. Mt 8:2.

(n) "Then came" Mk 10:35

Grant that these my two sons may sit, etc. They were still looking for a temporal kingdom. They expected that he would reign on the earth with great pomp and glory. They expected that he would conquer as a prince and a warrior. They wished to be distinguished in the day of his triumph. To sit on the right and left hand of a prince was a token of confidence, and the highest honour granted to his friends, 1Kgs 2:19, Ps 110:1, 1Sam 20:25. The disciples here had no reference to the kingdom of heaven, but only to the kingdom which they supposed he was about to set up on the earth.

Ye know not what ye ask. You do not know the nature of your request, nor what would be involved in it. You suppose that it would be attended only with honour and happiness if the request was granted; whereas, it would require much suffering and trial.

Are ye able to drink of the cup, etc. To drink of a cup often, in the Scriptures, signifies to be afflicted, or sometimes to be punished, Isa 51:17,22, Ps 75:8. The figure is taken from a feast, where the master of a feast extends a cup to those present. Thus God is represented as extending to his Son a cup filled with a bitter mixture --one causing deep sufferings, Jn 18:11. This was the cup to which he referred.

The baptism that I am baptized with. This is evidently a phrase denoting the same thing. Are ye able to suffer with me---to endure the trials and pains which shall come upon you and me in endeavouring to build up my kingdom? Are you able to be plunged deep in afflictions, to have sorrows cover you like water, and to be sunk beneath calamities as floods, in the work of religion? Afflictions are often expressed by being sunk in the floods, and plunged in the deep waters, Ps 59:2, Is 43:2, Ps 124:4,5, Lam 3:54.

(o) "baptism" Lk 12:50

Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, etc. You are truly attached to me, you will follow me, and you will partake of my afflictions, and will suffer as I shall. This was fulfilled. James was slain with the sword by Herod, Acts 12:2. John lived many years. But he attended the Saviour through his sufferings, and was himself banished to Patmos, a solitary island, for the testimony of Jesus Christ --a companion of others in tribulation, Rev 1:9.

Is not mine to give, etc. The translation of this place evidently does not express the sense of the original. The translation expresses the idea that Jesus has nothing to do in bestowing rewards on his followers. This is at variance with the uniform testimony of the Scriptures, Mt 25:31-40; Jn 5:22-30. The correct translation of the passage would be, "To sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, except to those for whom it is prepared of my Father." The passage thus declares that Christ would give rewards to his followers; but only to such as should be entitled to them according to the purpose of his Father. Much as he might be attached to these two disciples, yet he could not bestow any such signal favours on them out of the regular course of rewards. Rewards were prepared for his followers, and in due time they should be bestowed. He would bestow them according as they had been provided from eternity by God the Father, Mt 25:34. The correct sense is seen by leaving out that part of the verse in Italics; and this is one of the places in the Bible where the sense has been obscured or perverted by the introduction of words which have nothing to correspond with them in the original. See a similar instance in 1Jn 2:23.

(p) "Ye shall drink" Acts 12:2, Rom 8:17, 2Cor 1:7, Rev 1:9

The ten heard it. That is, the ten other apostles.

They were moved with indignation. They were offended at their ambition, at their desire to be exalted above their brethren. The word "it" refers not to what Jesus said, but to their request. When the ten heard the request which they had made, they were indignant.

But Jesus called them unto him. That is, he called all the apostles to him, and stated the principles on which they were to act. The princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them; that is, over their subjects. "You know that such honours are customary among nations. The kings of the earth raise their favourites to posts of trust and power. They give authority to some over others. But my kingdom is established in a different manner. There are to be no ranks; no places of dominion. All are to be on a level. The rich, the poor, the learned, the unlearned, the bond, the free, are to be equal. He will be the most distinguished that shows most humility, the deepest sense of his unworthiness, and the most earnest desire to promote the welfare of his brethren."

Gentiles. All who were not Jews--used here to denote the manner in which human governments are constituted.

Minister. A servant. The original word is deacon--a word meaning a servant of any kind; one especially who served at the table; and, in the New Testament, one who serves the church, Acts 6:1-4, 1Timm 3:8. Preachers of the gospel are called ministers because they are the servants of God and the church, 1Cor 3:6, 4:1, 2Cor 3:6, 6:4, Eph 4:12; an office, therefore, which forbids them to lord it over God's heritage; which is the very opposite of a station of superiority, and which demands the very lowest degree of humility.

(q) "Ye know" Lk 22:25,26

Mt 20:25

(r) "be so" 1Pet 5:3 (s) "But whosoever" Mt 23:11, Mk 9:35, 10:43

Even as the Son of man, Mt 8:20. Jesus points them to his own example. He was in the form of God in heaven, Php 2:6. He came to men in the form of a servant, Php 2:7. He came not with pomp and glory, but as a man in humble life. And since he came, he had not required them to minister to him. He laboured for them. He strove to do them good. He provided for their wants, fared as poorly as they did, went before them in dangers and sufferings, practised self-denial on their account, and for them was about to lay down his life. See Jn 13:4,5.

To give his life a ransom for many. The word ransom means, literally, a price paid for the redemption of captives. In war, when prisoners are taken by an enemy, the money demanded for their release is called a ransom. That is, it is the means by which they are set at liberty. So anything that releases any one from a state of punishment, or suffering, or sin, is called a ransom. Men are by nature captives to sin. They are sold under it. They are under condemnation, Eph 2:3, Rom 3:9-20,23, 1Jn 5:19. They are under a curse, Gal 3:10. They are in love with sin. They are under its withering dominion, and are exposed to death eternal, Eze 18:4, Ps 9:17; Ps 11:6, 68:2, 139:19, Mt 25:46, Rom 2:6-9. They must have perished unless there had been some way by which they could be rescued. This was done by the death of Jesus; by giving his life a ransom. The meaning is, that he died in the place of sinners, and that God was willing to accept the pains of his death in the place of the eternal suffering of the redeemed. The reasons why such a ransom was necessary are,

1st. that God had declared that the sinner should die--that is, that he would punish, or show his hatred to all sin.

2nd. That all men had sinned; and if justice was to take its regular course, all must perish.

3rd. That man could make no atonement for his own sins. All that he could do, were he holy would be only to do his duty, and would make no amends for the past. Repentance and future obedience would not blot away one sin.

4th. No man was pure, and no angel could make atonement. God was pleased, therefore, to appoint his only-begotten Son to make such a ransom. See Jn 16:10, 1Jn 4:10, 1Pet 1:18,19, Rev 13:8; Jn 1:29, Eph 5:2, Heb 7:27, Isa 53:1-12. This is commonly called the atonement. Rom 5:11.

For many. See also Mt 26:28, Jn 10:16, 1Timm 2:6, 1Jn 2:2 2Cor 5:14,15, Heb 2:9.

(t) "but to minister" Lk 22:27, Jn 13:1-38, 4:14, Php 2:7 (u) "and to give" Isa 53:5,8,11, Dan 9:24,26, 1Timm 2:6, Tit 2:14, Heb 9:28 1Pet 1:18,19, Rev 1:5

See Mk 10:40-52, Lk 18:36-43, 19:1: where this account of his restoring to sight two blind men is also recorded. And as they departed from Jericho. This was a large town about eight miles west of the Jordan, and about nineteen miles north-east from Jerusalem. Near to this city the Israelites crossed the Jordan, when they entered into the land of Canaan, Josh 13:16. It was the first city taken by Joshua, who destroyed it to the foundation, and pronounced a curse on him who should rebuild it, Josh 6:20,21,26. This curse was literally fulfilled in the days of Ahab--nearly five hundred years after, 1Kgs 16:34. It afterwards became the place of the school of the prophets, 2Kgs 2:6. In this place Elisha worked a signal miracle, greatly to the advantage of the inhabitants, by rendering the waters near it, that were before bitter, sweet, and wholesome, 2Kgs 2:21. In point of size it was second only to Jerusalem. It was sometimes called the city of palm-trees, from the fact that there were many palms in the vicinity. A few of them are still remaining. 2Chr 28:15, Jud 1:16, 3:13. At this place died Herod the Great, of a most wretched and foul disease. Mt 2:10. It is now a small village, wretched in its appearance, and inhabited by a very few persons, and called Riha, or Rah, situated on the ruins of the ancient city, (or, as some think, three or four miles east of it,) which a modern traveller describes as a poor, dirty village of the Arabs. There are perhaps fifty houses, of rough stone, with roofs of bushes and mud; and the population, two hundred or three hundred in number, is entirely Mohammedan. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho lies through what is called the wilderness of Jericho, and is described by modern travellers as the most dangerous and forbidding about Palestine. As lately as 1820, an English traveller, Sir Frederick Henniker, was attacked on this road by the Arabs, with fire-arms, who left him naked and severely wounded. Lk 10:30. Jesus was going to Jerusalem. He had left Samaria, and crossed the Jordan, Mt 19:1. His regular journey was therefore through Jericho.

As they departed from Jericho. Luke says, "As he was come nigh unto Jericho." The original word used in Luke, translated was come nigh, commonly expresses approach to a place. But it does not of necessity mean that always. It may denote nearness to a place, whether going to it or from it. It would be here rendered correctly, "when they were near to Jericho," or when they were in the vicinity of it, without saying whether they were going to or from it. Matthew and Mark say they were going from it. The passage in Lk 19:1, "And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho," which seems to be mentioned as having taken place after the cure of the blind man, does not necessarily suppose that. That passage might be intended to be connected with the account of Zaccheus, and not to denote the order of time in which these events took place; but simply that, as he was passing through Jericho, Zaccheus sought to see him, and invited him to his house. Historians vary in the circumstances and order of events. The main facts of the narrative are observed. And such variations of circumstances and order, where there is no palpable contradiction, show the honesty of the writers; show that they did not conspire together to deceive, and are in all courts, of justice considered as confirmations of the truth of the testimony.

Two blind men. Mark and Luke mention but one. They do not say, however, that there was no more than one. They mention one because he was probably well known; perhaps the son of a distinguished citizen reduced to poverty. His name was Bartimeus. Bar is a Syriac word, meaning son; and the name means, therefore, "the son of Timeus." Probably Timeus was a man of note; and as the case of his son attracted most attention, Mark and Luke recorded it particularly. Had they said there was only one healed, there would have been a contradiction. As it is, there is no more contradiction or difficulty than there is in the fact that the evangelists, like all other historians, often omit many facts which they do not choose to record.

Heard that Jesus passed by. They learned who he was by inquiring. They heard a name, and asked who it was, (Luke.) They had doubtless heard much of his fame, but had never before been where he was, and probably would not be again. They were therefore more earnest in calling upon him.

Son of David. That is, Messiah, or Christ. This was the name by which the Messiah was commonly known. He was the illustrious descendant of David, in whom the promises especially centered, Ps 132:11,12, 89:3,4. It was the universal opinion of the Jews that the Messiah was to be the descendant of David. See Mt 22:42. On the use of the word Son, Mt 1:1.

(v) "And, behold" Mt 9:27, Mk 10:46, Lk 18:35

And the multitude rebuked them, because, etc. They chid or reproved them, and in a threatening manner told them to be silent.

They cried the more. Jesus standing still, ordered them to be brought to him, (Mark.) They then addressed the blind men, and told them that Jesus called. Mark adds, that Bartimeus cast away his garment, and rose and came to Jesus. The garment was not his only raiment, but was the outer garment, thrown loosely over him, and commonly laid aside when persons laboured or ran. Mt 5:40. His doing it denoted haste, and earnestness, in order to come to Jesus.

And touched their eyes. Mark and Luke say he added, "Thy faith hath saved thee," Thy confidence, or belief that I could cure, has been the means of obtaining this blessing. Faith had no power to open the eyes, but it led them to Jesus; it showed that they had just views of his power; it was connected with the cure. So faith has no power to save from sin, but it leads the poor, lost, blind sinner to him who has power; and in this sense it is said we are saved by faith. His touching their eyes was merely a sign that the power of healing proceeded from him.

Here was an undoubted miracle.

(1.) These blind men were well known. One, at least, had been long blind.

(2.) They were strangers to Jesus. They could not have, therefore, feigned themselves blind.

(3.) The miracle was in the presence of multitudes, who took a deep interest in it, and who could easily have detected the imposition, if there had been one.

(4.) The men followed him. They praised or glorified God, (Mark and Luke.) The people gave praise to God also, (Luke.) They were all satisfied that a real miracle was performed.

REMARKS ON MATTHEW CHAPTER 20

(1.) From the parable at the beginning of this chapter, Mt 20:1-16 we learn that it is not so much the time that we serve Christ, as the manner, that is to entitle us to high rewards in heaven. Some may be in the church many years, yet accomplish little; others in a few years may be more distinguished in the success of their labours and in their rewards.

(2.) God will do justice to all, Mt 20:13. He will give to all his followers all that he promised to give. He will give to him entitled to the least, everything which he has promised, and infinitely more than he has deserved.

(3.) On some he will bestow higher rewards than on others, Mt 20:16. There is no reason to think that the condition of men in heaven will be equal, any more than it is on earth. Difference of rank may run through all God's government, and still no one be degraded, or be deprived of his rights.

(4.) God does as he please's with his own, Mt 20:15. It is his right to do so--a right which men claim, and which God may claim. If he does injustice to no one, he has a right to bestow what favours on others he pleases.

(5.) In doing good to another man, he does no injury to me. He violated none of my rights by bestowing great talents on Newton, or great wealth on Solomon. He did not injure me by making Paul a man of distinguished talents and piety, or John a man of much meekness and love. What he gives me I should be thankful for, and improve; nor should I be envious or malignant, that he has given to others more than he has to me. Nay, I should rejoice that he has bestowed such favours on undeserving men at all; that the race is in possession of such talents and rewards, to whomsoever given; and should believe that in the hands of God such favours will be well bestowed. God is a sovereign; and the Judge of all the earth will do that which is right.

(6.) It is our duty to go into the vineyard and labour faithfully, whenever the Lord Jesus calls us, and till he calls us to receive our reward, Mt 20:1-16. He has a right to call us, and there are none who are not invited to labour for him.

(7.) Rewards are offered to all who will serve him, Mt 20:4. It is not that we deserve any favour, or that we shall not say at the end of life that we have been unprofitable servants; but he graciously promises that our rewards shall be measured by our faithfulness in his cause. He will have the glory of bringing us into his kingdom and saving us, while he will bestow rewards on us according as we have been faithful in his service.

(8.) Men may be saved in old age, Mt 20:6. Old men are sometimes brought into the kingdom of Christ, and made holy. But it is rare. Few aged men are converted. They drop into the grave as they lived. And to a man who wastes his youth and his middle life in sin, and goes down into the vale of years a rebel against God, there is a dreadful probability that he will die as he lived. It will be found to be true, probably, that by far more than half who are saved are converted before they reach the age of twenty-five. Besides, it is foolish as well as wicked to spend the best of our days in the service of Satan, and to give to God only the poor remnant of our lives, that we can no longer use in the cause of wickedness. God should have our first and best days.

(9.) Neither this parable, nor any part of the Bible, should be abused, so as to lead us to put off the time of repentance to old age. It is possible, though not probable, that an old man may repent; but it is not probable that we shall live to be old. Few, few of all the world, live to old age. We may die in youth. Thousands die in childhood. The time, the accepted time to serve God, is in childhood. There are more reasons why a child should love the Saviour, than why he should love a parent. He has done much more for us than any parent. And there is no reason why he may not be trained up to love him, as well as his parents. And God will require it at the hands of parents and teachers, if they do not train up the children committed to them to love and obey him.

(10.) One reason why we do not understand the plain doctrines of the Bible is our prejudice, Mt 20:17-19. Our Saviour plainly told his disciples that he must die. He stated the manner of his death, and the principal circumstances. To us all this is plain; but they did not understand it, (Luke.) They had filled their heads with notions about his earthly glory and honour, and they were not willing to see the truth as he stated it. Never was there a juster proverb than that, "None are so blind as those who will not see." So to us the Bible might be plain enough. The doctrines of truth are revealed clear as a sunbeam, but we are filled with previous notions; we are determined to think differently; and the easiest way to gratify this is to say we do not see it so. The only correct principle of interpretation is, that the Bible is to be taken just as it is. The meaning that the sacred writers intended to teach is to be sought honestly; and where found, that and that only is religious truth.

(11.) Mothers should be cautious about seeking places of honour for their sons, Mt 20:20-22. Doing this, they seldom know what they ask. They may be seeking the ruin of their children. It is not posts of honour that secure happiness or salvation. Contentment and peace are found oftenest in the humble vale of honest and sober industry-- in attempting to fill up our days with usefulness, in the situation where God has placed us. As the purest and loveliest streams often flow in the retired grove, far from the thundering cataract or the stormy ocean, so is the sweet peace of the soul; it dwells oftenest far from the bustle of public life, and the storms and tempests of ambition.

(12.) Ambition in the church is exceedingly improper, Mt 20:22. It is not the nature of religion to produce it. It is opposed to all the modest, retiring, and pure virtues that Christianity produces. An ambitious man will be destitute of religion just in proportion to his ambition; and piety may always be graduated by humility.

(13.) Our humility is the measure of our religion, Mt 20:26-28. Without humility we can have no religion, He that has the most lowly views of himself, and the highest of God--that is willing to stoop the lowest to aid his fellow-creatures, and to honour God-- has the most genuine piety. Such was the example of our Saviour, and it can never be any dishonour to imitate the Son of God.

(14.) The case of the blind men is an expressive representation of the condition of the sinner, Mt 20:30-34.

1st. Men are blinded by reason of sin. They do not by nature see the truth of religion.

2nd. It is proper in this state of blindness to call upon Jesus to open our eyes. If we ever see, it will be by the grace of God. God is the fountain of light, and those in darkness should seek him.

3rd. Present opportunities should be improved. This was the first time that Jesus had been in Jericho. It was the last time he would be there. He was passing through it on his way to Jerusalem. So he passes among us by his ordinances. So it may be the last time that we shall have an opportunity to call upon him. While he is near, we should seek him.

4th. When people rebuke us and laugh at us, it should not deter us from calling on the Saviour. There is danger that they will laugh us out of our purpose to seek him, and we should cry the more earnestly to him. We should feel that our eternal all depends or our being heard.

5th. The persevering cry of those who seek the Saviour aright will not be in vain. They who cry to him sensible of their blindness, and sensible that he only can open their eyes, will be heard, He turns none away who thus cry to him.

6th. Sinners must "rise" and come to Jesus. They must cast away everything that hinders their coming. As the blind Bartimeus threw off his "garments," so sinners should throw away everything that hinders their going to him--everything that obstructs their progress--and cast themselves at his feet. No man will be saved while sitting still. The command is, "Strive to enter in;" and the promise is made to those. Only who "ask," and "seek)" and "knock."

7th. Faith is the only channel through which we shall receive mercy. According to our faith--that is, our confidence in Jesus--our trust and reliance on him--so will it be to us. Without that we shall perish.

8th. They who apply to Jesus thus will receive sight. Their eyes will be opened, and they will see clearly.

9th. They who are thus restored to sight should follow Jesus. They should follow him wherever he leads; they should follow him always; they should follow none else but him. He that can give sight to the blind cannot lead us astray. He that can shed light in the beginning of our faith, can enlighten our goings through all our pilgrimage, and down through the dark valley of the shadow of death.

[Who went out early in the morning to hire labourers.] You have such a parable as this, but madly applied, in the Talmud: we will produce it here for the sake of some phrases: "To what was R. Bon Bar Chaija like? To a king who hired many labourers; among which there was one hired, who performed his work extraordinary well. What did the king? He took him aside, and walked with him to and fro. When even was come, those labourers came, that they might receive their hire, and he gave him a complete hire with the rest. And the labourers murmured, saying, 'We have laboured hard all the day, and this man only two hours, yet he hath received as much wages as we': the king saith to them, 'He hath laboured more in those two hours than you in the whole day.' So R. Bon plied the law more in eight-and-twenty years than another in a hundred years."

[Early in the morning.] "The time of working is from sunrising to the appearing of the stars, and not from break of day: and this is proved from the chapter the president of the priests saith to them; where they say, 'It is light all in the east, and men go out to hire labourers': whence it is argued that they do not begin their work before the sun riseth. It is also proved from the tract Pesachin, where it is said that it is prohibited on the day of the Passover to do any servile work after the sun is up; intimating this, that that was the time when labourers should begin their work," &c.

[To hire labourers.] Read here, if you please, the tract Bava Mazia, cap. 7; which begins thus, He that hireth labourers: and Maimonides, a tract entitled Hiring.

[Agreed for a penny a day.] A penny of silver, which one of gold exceeded twenty-four times; for A penny of gold is worth five-and-twenty of silver. The canons of the Hebrews concerning hiring of labourers distinguish, as reason requires, between being hired by the day, and being hired (only) for some hours: which may be observed also in this parable: for in the morning they are hired for all the day, and for a penny, but afterward for certain hours; and have a part of a penny allotted them, in proportion to the time they wrought.

[Call the labourers.] For "it is one of the affirmative precepts of the law, that a hired labourer should have his wages paid him when they are due, as it is said, 'You shall pay him his wages in his day': and if they be detained longer, it is a breach of a negative precept; as it is said, 'The sun shall not go down upon him,'" &c.

[Didst not thou agree with me for a penny?] In hiring of labourers, the custom of the place most prevailed; hence came that axiom, Observe the custom of the city; speaking of this very thing. There is also an example, "Those of Tiberias that went up to Bethmeon to be hired for labourers, were hired according to the custom of Bethmeon," &c. By the by also we may observe that which is said by the Babylonians in the place cited...as the Gloss renders it, "Notice must be taken whether they come from several places; for at some places they go to work sooner, and at some later."

Hence two things may be cleared in the parable before us: 1. Why they are said to be hired at such different hours; namely, therefore, because they are supposed to have come together from several places. 2. Why there was no certain agreement made with those that were hired at the third, sixth, and ninth hours, as with those that were hired early in the morning; but that he should only say, "Whatsoever is right I will give you": that is, supposing that they would submit to the custom of the place. But, indeed, when their wages were to be paid them, there is, by the favour of the lord of the vineyard, an equality made between those that were hired for some hours, and those that were hired for the whole day; and when these last murmured, they are answered from their own agreement, You agreed with me. Note here the canon; "The master of the family saith to his servant, 'Go, hire me labourers for fourpence': he goes and hires them for threepence; although their labour deserves fourpence, they shall not receive but three, because they bound themselves by agreement, and their complaint is against the servant."

[The baptism that I am baptized with.] The phrase that goes before this, concerning the cup, is taken from divers places of Scripture, where sad and grievous things are compared to draughts of a bitter cup. You may think that the cup of vengeance, of which there is mention in Bab. Beracoth, means the same thing, but it is far otherwise: give me leave to quote it, though it be somewhat out of our bounds: "Let them not talk (say they) over their cup of blessing; and let them not bless over their cup of vengeance. What is the cup of vengeance? The second cup, saith R. Nachman Bar Isaac." Rabbena Asher and Piske are more clear: "If he shall drink off two cups, let him not bless over the third." The Gloss, "He that drinks off double cups is punished by devils." But to the matter before us.

So cruel a thing was the baptism of the Jews, being a plunging of the whole body into water, when it was never so much chilled with ice and snow, that, not without cause, partly, by reason of the burying as I may call it under water, and partly by reason of the cold, it used to signify the most cruel kind of death. The Jerusalem Talmudists relate, that "in the days of Joshua Ben Levi, some endeavoured quite to take away the washings [baptisms] of women, because the women of Galilee grew barren by reason of the coldness of the waters"; which we noted before at the sixth verse of the third chapter.

A two-fold sense and interpretation is given of this parable; but both analogical.

One of which relates to the calling of the Gentiles. The Jews were the first people that God had in the world: they were hired into the vineyard betimes in the morning, the Gentiles not till the day was far spent; yet shall the Gentiles, by the favour and bounty of God, receive the same reward of eternal life, which was promised to the Jews who bore the heat of the day, while the Gentiles stood idle.

In the other analogical sense we may understand all persons indefinitely called by the gospel into the visible church, those that are called last, shall be rewarded together with the first; and accordingly the design and scope of this parable, is to shew the freeness of divine grace, in the distribution of those rewards which the hand of mercy confers upon God's faithful servants.

The vineyard is the church of God, the husbandman is God himself; the labourers are particular persons.

God's going at diverse times into his vineyard, imports the several ages of man's life; some are called early in the morning, some at noon, others at night. Now when God comes to dispense his rewards, those that entered first into the vineyard and did most service for God, shall be plentifully rewarded by him; and such as came in later, but did faithful service, shall not miss of a merciful reward.

Learn, 1. That so long as a person keeps out of Christ's vineyard and service, he is idle. Every unregenerate man is an idle man.

2. That persons are called by the preaching of the gospel at several ages and periods of life into God's vineyard; that is, into the communion of the visible church.

3.That such as do come, though late, into God's vineyard, and work diligently and faithfully, shall not miss of a reward of grace at the hand of free mercy.

Here observe, 1. That the time of God's full rewarding of his labourers, is the evening of their days; that is, when their work is done. When the evening was come, the lord of the vineyard called his labourers, and gave them their hire; not but that they have part of their reward in hand, but it is chiefly laid up in hope.

Observe, 2. That though God makes no difference in his servants wages for the time of their work, yet he will make a difference for the degrees of their service. Undoubtedly, they that have done most work, shall receive most wages. He that soweth bountifully, shall reap bountifully: God will reward every man according to his works; that is, not only according to the nature and quality, but the measure and degree, of his work. All shall have equity, but all shall not have equal bounty.

Observe, 3. That all inequality in the distribution of rewards, doth not make God an unjust accepter of persons; he may dispense both grace and glory, in what measure and degree he pleases, without the least shadow of unrighteousness. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?

Observe, 4. That when we have done much service for God, by labouring longer than others in his vineyard, it is our duty to have a low esteem both of our services and of ourselves, for the first shall be last, and the last first: that is, they that are first and highest in their own esteem, shall be the last and least in God's account.

This is now the third time that Christ had acquainted his disciples very lately with his approaching sufferings, and bloody passion. He did it twice before, chapters 16 and 17, yet now he mentions it again, that they might not be dismayed, and their faith might not be shaken to see him die, who called himself the true Messias and the Son of God.

The first time he told his disciples of his death in general; the second time he declares the means, by treason; now he tells them the manner, by crucifying: that he should be scourged, mocked, spit upon, and crucified: all this he did, to prevent his disciples' dejection at his sufferings.

Learn thence, that it is highly necessary that the doctrine of the cross be often preached to us; that so being armed with the expectation of sufferings before they come, we may be the less dismayed and disheartened when they come.

Our Lord's frequent forewarning his disciples of his death and sufferings was to fore-arm them with expectation of his sufferings, and with preparation for their own.

To sit on the right hand, and on the left, is to have the most eminent places of dignity and honour after Christ. This the mother might be encouraged to ask for James and John, because of their alliance to Christ, and because Christ had admitted them with Peter to be with him at his transfiguration. However, the rest of the disciples hearing of this ambitious request of the two brethren; and being as desirous and in their own opinions as deserving of the same honour, they had indignation against them.

Whence note, That none of the disciples did imagine that Christ had promised the supremacy to Peter, by these words, Tu es Petrus, Thou art Peter; for then neither James nor John had desired it, nor would the rest have contended for it.

Observe here, 1. The persons making this request to Christ, Zebedee's children, that is, James and John, by the mouth of their mother. They spake by her lips, and made use of her tongue to usher in a request which they were ashamed to make themselves.

Observe, 2. The request itself, Grant that these two may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand.

Where note, How these disciples did still dream of Christ's temporal kingdom, (although he had so often told them, That his kingdom was not of this world) and ambitiously seek to have preference and pre-eminence in the kingdom. See here how these poor fishermen had already learnt craftily to fish for preferment. Who can wonder in seeing some sparks of ambition and worldly desires in the highest ministers of Christ, when the apostles themselves were not free from aspiring thoughts, even when they lay in the bosom of their Saviour? Ambition has all along infested churchmen, and troubled the church, even from the very first original and foundation of it.

Observe, 3. Both the unseasonableness and unreasonableness of this request made by his disciples. Christ speaks of his sufferings to them and they sue for dignity and great places from him, in optimis nonnihil est pessimi; the holiest, the wisest, and the best of men, in their imperfect state, are not wholly free from passionate infirmities. Who would have expected that when our Saviour had been preaching the doctrine of the cross to his disciples, telling them that he must be mocked, scourged, spit upon, and crucified for them, that they should be seeking and suing to him for secular dignity and honour, pre-eminence and power? But we plainly see, the best of men are but men, and the none are in a state of perfection on this side of heaven.

As if Christ had said, "You do but abuse yourselves with fond and idle dreams; there is other work cut out for you in the purpose of God, than sitting upon thrones and tribunals; to think of suffering, would do you more service."

And accordingly our Saviour, in his answer, tells these disciples,

1. That they were greatly ignorant of the nature and quality of his kingdom, which was not secular but heavenly: but the carnal notion of a glorious earthly kingdom upon earth, in which they should be delivered from the Roman power, was so deeply imprinted in their minds, that they frequently declared their expectation of it, notwithstanding all the assurances which Christ had given them of the contrary.

Observe, 2. The course which our Saviour takes to cool the ambition of his disciples; he tells them, they must expect here, not crowns on their heads, but a cross on their backs; they must first taste of his sufferings, before they talk of his glory; and patiently suffer for him, before they expect to reign with him; plainly intimating, that the cross is the way to the crown, suffering the way to reigning, and that those that suffer most for Christ, shall partake of highest dignity and glory from him.

Observe, 3. The presumptuous confidence which the disciples had of their own strength and ability for sufferings. Are ye able, says Christ, to drink of my cup? They replied, We are able. Alas! poor disciples! when it came to the trial, they all cowardly forsook him and fled. A bold presumption makes us vaunt of our own ability; holy jealousy makes us distrustful of our own strength. Those that are least acquainted with the cross, are usually the most confident undertakers.

Observe here, Our blessed Saviour's wonderful mildness and goodness towards his disciples; he doth not with passion, much less with indignation, reprehend them, either for their ambition or presumption, but makes the best of their answer, and encourages their good intentions; he tells them, they should have the honour to share with him in his sufferings, to pledge him in his own cup, and after a conformity to him in his sufferings, they might expect to be sharers with him in his glory.

Yet observe, That when Christ says, That to sit at his right hand, was not his to give; he means, as he was man, or as he was mediator; for elslewhere, as God, we find him asserting his power to dispose at the kingdom of heaven; I give unto them eternal life Joh 10:28

However, the Arians of old, and Socinians of late, do from this text infer, that God the Father has a power reserved to himself, which he hath not committed to Christ his Son; from whence they would conclude, that he is not the same God which the Father is, because he hath not the same power which the Father has.

Answer, But if Christ be here supposed to deny his power to himself, he must then manifestly contradict himself, when he says, I appoint to you a kingdom, and All power in heaven and earth is given to me. When Christ therefore saith, he could only give this to them for whom it was appointed of his Father; this doth not signify any defect in his power, but a perfect conformity to his Father's will, and that he could not do this, unless the divine essence and nature abided in him. This the words rather shew, than that there is any want of power in Christ.

Note here, 1. That Christ by these words doth not forbid the exercise of civil dominion and lawful magistracy; for then all order, all defence of good men, and punishment of evil doers, would be taken away. Magistracy is God's ordinance, and the magistrate is God's minister for the good of human society, and consequently not here censured or condemned by Christ. True, when Christ was here on earth, he refused to execute the magistrate's office, because his kingdom was not of this world, and because he would give no umbrage to Caesar or the Jews; and because he would leave us an example of humility and contempt of worldly grandeur, and not because the office of civil magistracy was unlawful.

Note, 2. That Christ by this text doth not condemn the exercise of ecclesiastical government, that being as necessary in the church, as the former in the stae. The welfare of the church necessarily depends on the exercise of ecclesiastical discipline.

Note, 3. Christ here forbids only the exercise of that dominion which is attended with tyranny and oppression, and is managed according to men's wills and lusts. Now, says Christ, you shall have no such government, you shall command nothing for mere will and pleasure, but your whole office shall consist in being ministers to the good of others; and herein ye shall resemble me the Son of man, who came not to be ministered unto, but to minster.

And accordingly, that Christ might effectually quench those unhappy sparks of ambition which were kindled in his apostles' minds, he tells them, that supremacy and dominion belongs to secular princes, not to evangelical pastors, who ought to carry themselves with humility towards one anothher; not that Christ directs to a parity and equality amongst all his ministers, and forbids the pre-eminency, is that which our Saviour disallows.

Learn, 1. That so far ought the ministers of Christ to be from affecting a domination and superiority of power over their fellow brethren, that in imitation of Christ their Lord and Master, they ought to account themselves fellow-servants, I am amongst you, saith Christ, as one that serveth.

2. That such ministers as do love and affect pre-eminency and superiority are most unfit for it; and they deserve it best, who seek it least.

3. That the dignity and honour which the ministers of Christ should chiefly and only affect, is in another world; and the way to be greatest and highest there, is to be low and humble here, mean in our own eyes, and little in our own esteem. Whosoever will be chief, says Christ, let him be your servant.

To encourage his disciples to the forementioned condescending humility one towards another, our Saviour propounds to them his own instructive example, I am not to be ministered unto, says Christ, but to minister to the wants and necessities of others, both for soul and body. "O what a sight will it be, as if our Lord had said, to behold an humble God, and a proud creature; an humble Saviour, and an haughty sinner!"

Yea, our Lord urges his example farther, that as he laid down his life for us, so should we be ready to lay down our lives for one another. Did Christ lay down his life for us, and shall we not lay down a lust for him? our pride, our ambition, our affectation of dignity and superiority over others?

Note here two things; 1. Whereas it is said that Christ gave his life for a ransom for many; it is elsewhere affirmed, that he tasted death for every man, even for them that denied the Lord who brought them. The word many in other places of scripture, is not exclusive of some, but inclusive of all.

Thus Many that sleep in the dust shall arise Dan 12:2: answer, All that sleep in the grave shall hear his voice Joh 5:28-29. Thus, Through the offence of one many died Rom 1:15; answer, In Adam all died 1Cor 15:22.

There is a virtual sufficiency in the death of Christ for the salvation of mankind, and an actual efficacy for the salvation of them that repent, and believe, and obey the gospel.

Note, 2. From these words, He gave his life a ransom. That Christ suffered in our stead, and died in our place, and gave his life instead of ours. It was the constant opinion both of the Jews and Gentiles, that their piacular victims were ransoms for the life of the offender, and that he who gave his life for another, suffered in his stead, to preserve him from death.

And who can reasonably suppose, but that our Lord intended by saying he gave himself a ransom, that he gave his life instead of the lives of those for whom he suffered? Vain are the Socinians, when they say, this price was to be paid to Satan, because he detained us captive.

True; the price is to be paid to him that detains the captive, when he doth this for gain to make money of him, as the Turks detain the Christians captive at Algiers; but when a man is detained in custody for violation of a law, then it is not the gaoler, but the legislator, to whom the price of redemption must be paid, or satisfaction be made.

Accordingly this price was paid to God; for Christ became our ransom, as he offered up his life and blood for us: now he offered himself without spot to God, Heb 9:14. he therefore paid the price of our redemption to God.

This chapter concludes with a famous miracle, wrought by Christ upon two blind men, in the sight of a great multitude which followed him.

Where observe, 1. The blind men's faith in acknowledging Jesus to be the true Messias, for so much the title of the Son of David signifies.

Observe, 2. Their fervency, in crying so earnestly to Christ for mercy and healing; Have mercy upon us, thou Son of David. A true sense of want will make us cry unto Christ for help earnestly, and with undeniable importunity.

Observe, 3. The great condescension of Christ towards these poor blind men: He stood still, he called them, he had compassion on them, he touched their eyes, and healed them. A mighty instance of Christ's divine power. He that can open blind eyes with the touch of his finger, and that by his own power, is really God, his touch is an omnipotent touch.

Observe, 4. Although Christ well knew the condition of these blind men, yet before he will restore them to sight, they must sensibly complain of the want of sight, and cry unto him for mercy and healing.

Learn hence, That although Christ perfectly knows all our wants, yet he takes no notice of them till we make them known to him by prayer.

Observe, 5. The best way and course which the blind men take to express their thankfulness to Christ for recovered sight, they followed him.

Learn thence, That mercy from Christ is then rightly improved, when it engages us to follow Christ. This should be the effect of all salvation wrought for us. He praiseth God best, that serveth and obeyeth him most; the life of thankfulness consists in the thankfulness of the life.

There are undeniable difficulties in the parable contained in these verses. The key to the right explanation of them must be sought in the passage which concludes the last chapter. There we find the apostle Peter asking our Lord a remarkable question: “We have forsaken all and followed thee! What shall we have therefore?” There we find Jesus giving a remarkable answer. He makes a special promise to Peter and his fellow disciples: they should one day sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.He makes a general promise to all who suffer loss for his sake: they “should receive a hundred fold and inherit everlasting life.”

Now we must bear in mind that Peter was a Jew, and like most Jews he had probably been brought up in much ignorance as to God’s purposes respecting the salvation of the Gentiles. In fact we know from the Acts that it required a vision from heaven to take that ignorance away ( Acts 10:28 ). Furthermore, we must bear in mind that Peter and his fellow-disciples were weak in faith and knowledge. They were probably apt to attach a great importance to their own sacrifices for Christ’s sake, and inclined to self-righteousness and self conceit. Both these points our Lord knew well. He therefore speaks this parable for the special benefit of Peter and his companions. He read their hearts. He saw what spiritual medicine those hearts required, and supplied it without delay. In a word, he checked their rising pride, and taught them humility.

In expounding this parable, we need not inquire closely into the meaning of the “penny,” the “marketplace,” the “steward” or the “hours.” Such inquiries often darken counsel by words without knowledge. Well says a great divine, “the theology of parables is not argumentative.” The hint of Chrysostom deserves notice. He says, “It is not right to search curiously, and word by word, into all things in a parable; but when we have learned the object for which it was composed, we are to reap this, and not to busy ourselves about anything further.” Two main lessons appear to stand out on the face of the parable, and to embrace the general scope of its meaning. Let us content ourselves with these two.

We learn in the first place that in the calling of nations to the professed knowledge of himself, God exercises free, sovereign and unconditional grace. He calls the families of the earth into the visible church at his own time, and in his own way.

We see this truth wonderfully brought out in the history of God’s dealings with the world. We see the children of Israel called and chosen to be God’s people in the very beginning of “the day.” We see some of the Gentiles called at a later period, by the preaching of the apostles; we see others being called in the present age, by the labors of missionaries; we see others, like the millions of Chinese and Hindus, still “standing idle,” because “no man hath hired” them. And why is all this? We cannot tell. We only know that God loves to hide pride from churches, and to take away all occasions of boasting. He will never allow the older branches of his church to look contemptuously on the younger. His Gospel holds out pardon and peace with God through Christ to the heathen of our own times, as fully as it did to St. Paul. The converted inhabitants of Tinnevelly and New Zealand shall be as fully admitted to heaven as the holiest patriarch who died 3500 years ago. The old wall between Jews and Gentiles is removed. There is nothing to prevent the believing heathen being “a fellow-heir and partaker of the same hope” with the believing Israelite. The Gentiles converted at “the eleventh hour” of the world shall be as really and truly heirs of glory as the Jews; they shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while many of the children of the kingdom are forever cast out. “The last shall” indeed “be first.”

We learn in the second place that in the saving of individuals, as well as in the calling of nations, God acts as a sovereign, and gives no account of his matters. He has mercy on whom he will have mercy, and that too at his own time ( Romans 9:15 ).

This is a truth which we see illustrated on every side in the church of Christ, as a matter of experience. We see one man called to repentance and faith in the beginning of his days like Timothy, and labouring in the Lord’s vineyard for forty or fifty years; we see another man called “at the eleventh hour,” like the thief on the cross, and plucked like a brand out of the fire—one day a hardened impenitent sinner, and the next day in paradise. And yet the whole tenor of the Gospel leads us to believe that both are equally forgiven before God. Both are equally washed in Christ’s blood, and clothed in Christ’s righteousness; both are equally justified, both accepted, and both will be found at Christ’s right hand at the last day.

There can be no doubt that this doctrine sounds strange to the ignorant and inexperienced Christian. It confounds the pride of human nature; it leaves the self-righteous no room to boast; it is a leveling, humbling doctrine, and gives occasion to many a murmer: but it is impossible to reject it, unless we reject the whole Bible. True faith in Christ, though it be but a day old, justifies a man before God as completely as the faith of him who has followed Christ for fifty years. The righteousness in which Timothy will stand at the day of judgment is the same as that of the penitent thief. Both will be saved by grace alone; both will owe all to Christ. We may not like this, but it is the doctrine of this parable, and not of this parable only, but of the whole New Testament. Happy is he who can receive the doctrine with humility! Well says Bishop Hall, “If some have cause to magnify God’s bounty, none have cause to complain.”

Before we leave this parable let us arm our minds with some necessary cautions. It is a portion of Scripture that is frequently perverted and misapplied. Men have often drawn from it not milk, but poison.

Let us beware of supposing from anything in this parable that salvation is in the slightest degree to be obtained by works. This is to overthrow the whole teaching of the Bible. Whatever a believer receives in the next world is a matter of grace, and not of debt. God is never a debtor to us in any sense whatever; when we have done all, we are unprofitable servants ( Luke 17:10 ).

Let us beware of supposing from this parable that the distinction between Jews and Gentiles is entirely done away by the Gospel. To suppose this is to contradict many plain prophecies, both of the Old Testament and New. In the matter of justification, there is no distinction between the believing Jew and the Greek; but in the matter of national privileges, Israel is still a special people and not numbered among the nations. God has many purposes concerning the Jews which are yet to be fulfilled.

Let us beware of supposing from this parable that all saved souls will have the same degree of glory. To suppose this is to contradict many plain texts of Scripture. The title of all believers no doubt is the same, the righteousness of Christ— but all will not have the same place in heaven. “Everyman shall receive his own reward according to his own labor” ( 1 Corinthians 3:8 ).

Finally, let us beware of supposing from this parable that it is safe for anyone to put off repentance until the end of his days. To suppose this is a most dangerous delusion. The longer men refuse to obey Christ’s voice, the less likely they are to be saved. “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation” ( 2 Corinthians 6:2 ). Few are ever saved on their death-beds. One thief on the cross was saved, that none should despair; but only one, that no one should presume. A false confidence in those words, “the eleventh hour,” has ruined thousands of souls.

The first thing that we should notice in these verses is the clear announcement which the Lord Jesus Christ makes of his own approaching death. For the third time we find him telling his disciples the astounding truth that he, their wonder-working Master, must soon suffer and die.

The Lord Jesus knew from the beginning all that was before him. The treachery of Judas Iscariot, the fierce persecution of chief priests and scribes, the unjust judgment, the delivery to Pontius Pilate, the mocking, the scourging, the crown of thorns, the cross, the hanging between two malefactors, the nails, the spear— all all were spread before his mind like a picture.

How great an aggravation of suffering foreknowledge is those know well who have lived in the prospect of some fearful surgical operation! Yet none of these things moved our Lord. He says, “I was not rebellious; neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting” ( Isaiah 50:5–6 ). He saw Calvary in the distance all his life through, and yet walked calmly up to it without turning to the right hand or to the left. Surely there never was sorrow like unto his sorrow, or love like his love.

The Lord Jesus was a voluntary sufferer. When he died on the cross, it was not because he had not power to prevent it. He suffered intentionally, deliberately, and of his own free will ( John 10:18 ). He knew that without shedding of his blood there could be no remission of man’s sin; he knew that he was the Lamb of God, who must die to take away the sin of the world; he knew that his death was the appointed sacrifice which must be offered up to make reconciliation for iniquity. Knowing all this, he went willingly to the cross: his heart was set on finishing the mighty work he came into the world to do. He was well aware that all hinged on his own death, and that without that death his miracles and preaching would have done comparatively nothing for the world. No wonder that thrice pressed on the attention of his disciples that he must die. Blessed and happy are they who know the real meaning and importance of the sufferings of Christ!

The next thing that we should notice in these verses is the mixture of ignorance and faith that may be found even in true-hearted Christians. We see the mother of James and John coming to our Lord with her two sons, and preferring on their behalf a strange petition. She asks that they “may sit one on his right hand and the other on his left, in his kingdom.”. She seems to have forgotten all he had just been saying about his suffering. Her eager mind can think of nothing but his glory. His plain warnings about the crucifixion appear to have been thrown away on her sons. Their thoughts were full of nothing but his throne, and the day of his power. There was much of faith in their request, but there was much more of infirmity. There was something to be commended, in that they could see in Jesus of Nazareth a coming king; but there was also much to blame, in that they did not remember that he was to be crucified before he could reign. Truly “the flesh lusted against the Spirit” in all God’s children, and Luther well remarks, “the flesh ever seeks to be glorified before it is crucified.”

There are many Christians who are very like this woman and her sons. They see in part, and know in part, the things of God; they have faith enough to follow Christ; they have knowledge enough to hate sin, and come out from the world, and yet there are many truths of Christianity about which they are deplorably ignorant. They talk ignorantly, they act ignorantly and commit many sad mistakes. Their acquaintance with the Bible is very scanty: their insight into their own hearts is very small. But we must learn from these verses to deal gently with such people, because the Lord has received them. We must not set them down as graceless and godless because of their ignorance. We must remember that true faith may lay at the bottom of their hearts, though there is much rubbish at the top. We must reflect that the sons of Zebedee, whose knowledge was at one time so imperfect, became at a later period pillars of the church of Christ. Just so a believer may begin his course in much darkness, and yet prove finally a man mighty in the Scriptures, and a worthy follower of James and John.

The last thing that we should notice in these verses is the solemn reproof which our Lord gives to the ignorant request of the mother of Zebedee’s children and her two sons. He says to them, “Ye know not what ye ask.” They had asked to share in their Master’s reward, but they had not considered that they must first be partakers in their Master’s sufferings ( 1 Peter 4:13 ). They had forgotten that those who would stand with Christ in glory must drink of his cup, and be baptized with his baptism; they did not see that those who carry the cross, and those alone, shall receive the crown. Well might our Lord say, “Ye know not what ye ask.”

But do we never commit the same mistake that the sons of Zebedee committed? Do we never fall into their error, and make thoughtless, inconsiderate requests? Do we not often say things in prayer without “counting the cost,” and ask for things to be granted to us without reflecting how much our supplications involve? These are heart-searching questions: it may well be feared that many of us cannot give them a satisfactory answer.

We ask that our souls may be saved and go to heaven when we die. It is a good request indeed. But are we prepared to take up the cross, and follow Christ? Are we willing to give up the world for his sake? Are we ready to put off the old man and put on the new, to fight, to labor, and to run so as to obtain? Are we ready to withstand a taunting world, and endure hardships for Christ’s sake? What shall we say? If we are not so ready, our Lord might say to us also, “Ye know not what ye ask.”

We ask God to make us holy and good. It is a good request indeed. But are we prepared to be sanctified by any process that God in his wisdom may call on us to pass through? Are we ready to be purified by affliction, weaned from the world by bereavements, drawn nearer to God by losses, sicknesses and sorrow? Alas, these are hard questions! But if we are not, our Lord might well say to us, “Yeknow not what ye ask.”

Let us leave these verses with a solemn resolution to consider well what we are about when we draw nigh to God in prayer. Let us beware of thoughtless, inconsiderate and rash petitions. Well might Solomon say, “be not rasn with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God” ( Ecclesiastes 5:2 ).

These verses are few in number, but they contain lessons of great importance to all professing Christians. Let us see what they are.

In the first place we learn that there may be pride, jealousy and love of preeminence even among true disciples of Christ. What sayeth the Scripture? When the ten heard what James and John had asked, “they were moved with indignation against the two brothren.”

Pride is one of the oldest and most mischievous of sins: by it the angels fell, for they “kept not their first estate.” ( Jude 6 ). Through pride Adam and Eve were seduced into eating the forbidden fruit: they were not content with their lot, and thought they would be “as gods.” From pride the saints of God receive their greatest injuries after their conversion. Well says Hooker, “Pride is a vice which cleaveth so fast unto the hearts of men that if we were to strip ourselves of all faults one by one, we should undoubtedly find it the very last and hardest to put off.” It is a quaint but true saying of Bishop Hall, that “pride is the inmost coat, which we put off last, and which we put on first.”

In the second place we learn that a life of self-denying kindness to others is the true secret of greatness in the kingdom of Christ. What sayeth the Scripture? “Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister whoever will be chief among you let him be your servant.”

The standard of the world and the standard of the Lord Jesus are widely different. They are more than different: they are flatly contradictory one to the other. Among the children of this world he is thought the greatest man who has most land, most money, most servants, most rank and most earthly power; among the children of God he is reckoned the greatest who does most to promote the spiritual and temporal happiness of his fellow-creatures. True greatness consists not in receiving but in giving; not in selfish absorption of good things but in imparting good to others; not in being served but in serving; not in sitting still and being ministered to but in going about and ministering to others. The angels of God see far more beauty in the work of the missionary than in the work of the Australian digger for gold. They take far more interest in the labors of men like Howard and Judson than in the victories of generals, the political speeches of statesmen, or the council-chambers of kings. Let us remember these things. Let us beware of seeking false greatness; let us aim at that greatness which alone is true. There is a mine of profound wisdom in that saying of our Lord’s, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” ( Acts

In the third place we learn that the Lord Jesus Christ is intended to be the example for all true Christians. What sayeth the Scripture? We ought to serve one another “even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.”

The Lord God has mercifully provided his people with everything necessary to their sanctification. He has given those who follow after holiness the clearest of precepts, the best of motives, and the most encouraging of promises. But this is not all. He has furthermore supplied them with the most perfect pattern and example, even the life of his own Son. By that life he bids us frame our own; in the steps of that life he bids us walk ( 1 Peter 2:21 ). It is the model after which we must strive to mold our tempers, our words and our works in this evil world. “Would my Master have spoken in this manner? Would my Master have behaved in this way?” These are the questions by which we ought daily to try ourselves.

How humbling this truth is! What searchings of heart it ought to raise within us! What a loud call it is to lay aside every weight and the sin which most easily besets us” ( Hebrews 12:1 ). What manner of persons ought they to be who profess to copy Christ! What poor unprofitable religion is that which makes a man content with talk and empty profession, while his life is unholy and unclean! Alas, those who know nothing of Christ as an example will find at last that he knows nothing of them as his saved people. “He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” ( 1 J,ohn 2:6 ).

Finally let us learn from these verses that Christ’s death was an atonement for sin. What saith the Scripture? “The Son of Man” came “to give his life a ransom for many.”

This is the mightiest truth in the Bible. Let us take care that we grasp it firmly, and never let it go. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not die merely as a martyr, or as a splendid example of self-sacrifice and self-denial. Those who can see no more than that in his death fall infinitely short of the truth; they lose sight of the very foundation-stone of Christianity, and miss the whole comfort of the Gospel. Christ died as a sacrifice for man’s sin; he died to make reconciliation for man’s iniquity; he died to purge our sins by the offering of himself, He died to redeem us from the curse which we all deserved, and to make satisfaction to the justice of God, which must otherwise have condemned us. Never let us forget this!

We are all by nature debtors. We owe to our holy Maker ten thousand talents, and are not able to pay. We cannot atone for our own transgressions, for we are weak and frail, and only adding to our debts every day. But, blessed be God, what we could not do, Christ came into the world to do for us; what we could not pay, he undertook to pay for us. To pay it, he died for us upon the cross. He “offered himself to God” ( Hebrews 9:14 ). He “suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God” ( 1 Peter

Let us not leave these verses without asking ourselves, where is our humility? What is our idea of true greatness? What is our example? What is our hope? Life, eternal life, depends on the answer we give to these questions. Happy is that man who is truly humble, strives to do good in his day, walks in the steps of Jesus, and rests all his hopes on the ransom paid for him by Christ’s blood. Such a man is a true Christian!

In these verses we have a touching picture of an event in our Lord’s history. He heals two blind men sitting by the wayside, near Jericho. The circumstances of the event contain several deeply interesting lessons, which all professing Christians would do well to remember.

For one thing, let us mark what strong faith may sometimes be found where it might least have been expected. Blind as these two men were, they believed that Jesus was able to help them. They never saw any of our Lord’s miracles; they knew him only by hearsay, and not face to face. Yet, as soon as they heard that he was passing by, they “cried out saying, ‘Have mercy on us O Lord thou Son of David!’

Such faith may well put us to shame. With all our books of evidence, lives of saints and libraries of divinity, how few know anything of simple, child-like confidence in Christ’s mercy and Christ’s power. Even among those who are believers, the degree of faith is often strangely disproportionate to the privileges enjoyed. Many an unlearned man who can only read his New Testament with difficulty possesses the spirit of unhesitating trust in Christ’s advocacy, while deeply-read divines are harassed by questionings and doubts. They who, humanly speaking, ought to be first, are often last, and the last first.

For another thing let us mark what wisdom there is in using every opportunity for getting good for our souls. These blind men “sat by the wayside,” had they not done so, they might never have been healed. Jesus never returned to Jericho, and they might never have met with him again.

Let us see, in this simple fact, the importance of diligence in the use of means of grace. Let us never neglect the house of God, never forsake the assembling of ourselves with God’s people, never omit the reading of our Bibles, never let drop the practice of private prayer. These things, no doubt, will not save us without the grace of the Holy Ghost: thousands make use of them, and remain dead in transgressions and sins. But it is just in the use of these things that souls are converted and saved: they are the ways in which Jesus walks. It is they who “sit by the wayside” who are likely to be healed. Do we know the diseases of our souls? Do we feel any desire to see the Great Physician? If we do we must not wait in idleness, saying, “If I am to be saved, I shall be saved.” We must arise and go to the road where Jesus walks. Who can tell, but he will soon pass by for the last time! Let us sit daily “by the wayside.”

For another thing let us mark the value of pains and perseverance in seeking Christ. These blind men were “rebuked” by the multitude that accompanied our Lord: men told them to “hold their peace.” But they were not to be silenced in this way: they felt their need of help, they cared nothing for the check which they received. “They cried the more saying, ‘Have mercy on us O Lord thou Son of David.’

We have in this part of their conduct a most important example. We are not to be deterred by opposition or discouraged by difficulties when we begin to seek the salvation of our souls. We must “pray always and not faint” ( Luke 18:1 ); we must remember the parable of the importunate widow, and of the friend who came to borrow bread at midnight. Like them we must press our petitions at the throne of grace, and say, “I will not let thee go except thou bless me” ( Genesis 32:26 ). Friends, relatives and neighbors may say unkind things and reprove our earnestness; we may meet with coldness and want of sympathy where we might have looked for help; but let none of these things move us. If we feel our diseases, and want to find Jesus, the Great Physician—if we know our sins, and desire to have them pardoned—let us press on. “The violent take the kingdom by force. ( Matthew 11:12 ).

Finally let us mark gracious the Lord Jesus is to those who seek him. “He stood still and called” the blind men; he kindly asked them what it was that they desired; he heard their petition and did what they requested. He “had compassion on them and touched their eyes, and immediately their eyes received sight.”

We see here an illustration of that old truth which we can never know too well—the mercifulness of Christ’s heart towards the sons of men. The Lord Jesus is not only a mighty Saviour, but merciful, kind and gracious to a degree that our minds cannot conceive. Well might the apostle Paul say “that the love of Christ passes knowledge” ( Ephesians 3:19 ). Like him, let us pray that we may “know” more of that love. We need it when we first begin our Christian course, poor trembling penitents, and babes in grace; we need it afterwards, as we travel along the narrow way, often erring, often stumbling and often cast down; we shall need it in the evening of our days, when we “walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” Let us then grasp the love of Christ firmly, and keep it daily before our minds. We shall never know, till we wake up in the next world, how much we are indebted to it.