Ch. xiii. 38, 47.2 Cor. v.3; Eph. iv. 24; Col. iii. 10, 12; Rev. iii. 4; xvi. 15; xix. 8. 4 Ch. x. 11, 13; Acts xiii. 46.secular interests; they loved other things more than ordered each, on his applying to the ruler of the Christ and the blessings of his kingdom; which he feast, to be presented with a proper garment, that that doth, says Christ, is not worthy of me, because they might all be clothed in a manner becoming the he will not take up his cross and follow me, chap. magnificence of the solemnity. But this man either x.37,38. Go ye therefore, &c.-As if he had said, Yet neglected to apply, or refused to accept and put on, let not the provisions I have made be lost; but go the garment offered him, which was the circuminto the highways, Gr. diɛğodes twv odwv, the byways, stance that rendered his conduct inexcusable. "That or turnings of the road: or, as others interpret the persons making an entertainment sometimes furexpression, the ways most frequented, or the places nished the habits in which the guests should appear, where several streets and roads meet. As this is is evident from what Homer (Odyss., lib. viii. intended of the calling of the Gentiles, it intimates, verse 402) says of Ulysses, being thus furnished that the Gentiles had as little reason to expect the by the Phæacians." See also Odyss., lib. iv. verses call of the gospel, as common passengers and tra- || 47-51, where Homer tells us, that Telemachus and vellers to expect an invitation to a royal banquet. Pisistratus, happening to arrive at Menelaus's house The offer of Christ and salvation to them, was, 1st, in Lacedæmon, while he was solemnizing the nupunlooked for; for they had had no previous notice tials of his son and daughter, the maids of the house of any such thing being intended: whereas the Jews washed the strangers, anointed them, dressed them, had had notice of the gospel long before, and ex- and set them down by their master at table. "It is pected the Messiah and his kingdom. See Isaiah manifest also, from the account which Diodorus lxv. 1, 2. 2d, It was universal, and undistinguish-gives of the great hospitality of Gellias the Sicilian, ing; go and bid as many as you find, high and low, rich and poor, bond and free, young and old, Jew and Gentile; tell them all they shall be welcome to gospel privileges upon gospel terms; whoever will, let him come, without exception. So those servants went out-As their Lord had commanded them, and gathered as many as they found, good and badGiving a free invitation to all, whatever their character had formerly been. Thus, when the gospel was rejected by the Jews, the apostles, in obedience to Christ's command, went into all parts of the world, and preached it to every creature that was willing to hear it; preached repentance and remission of sins in Christ's name among all nations, Mark xvi. 16; Luke xxiv. 47. And the wedding was furnished with guests-Great multitudes were gathered into the gospel church. Verse 11. And when the king came in to see the guests-The members of the visible church; he saw there a man which had not on a wedding-garment -To explain this, it must be observed, it was usual in the eastern countries to present the guests at marriages, and other solemnities, with garments wherein they were to appear, and the number of them was esteemed an evidence of the wealth and magnificence of the giver. This king, therefore, having invited so many from the lanes, and hedges, and highways, who could never have provided themselves with proper raiment in which to make their appearance at this marriage-feast, according to the custom of the country, must be supposed to have who readily received all strangers, and at once supplied five hundred horsemen with clothes, who, by a violent storm, were driven to take shelter with him; (Diod. Sic., lib. xiii., p. 375, edit. Steph.)—Now it was usual, more especially at marriage-feasts, for persons to appear in a sumptuous dress, adorned, as some writers tell us, with florid embroidery, (see Dr. Hammond,) though many times white garments seem to have been used on such occasions: (compare Rev. xix. 8, 9.) We must therefore conclude, not only from the magnificence of the preparations, to which we must suppose the wardrobe of the prince corresponded, but likewise from the following circumstance of resentment against this guest, that a robe was offered but refused by him. And this is a circumstance, which, as Calvin observes, is admirably suited to the method of God's dealing with us; who indeed requires holiness in order to our receiving the benefits of the gospel; but is graciously pleased to work it in us by his Holy Spirit; and therefore may justly resent and punish our neglect of so great a favour."--Doddridge. Verses 12, 13. Friend, how camest thou in hither— How camest thou to presume to enter into my church, by taking upon thee a profession of my religion, and to sit down among the guests, or associ· ate thyself with my disciples; not having on a wedding-garment?--Not having put off the old man and put on the new, not being made a new creature, not having put on the Lord Jesus Christ in holy graces and moral virtues. "It is needless to dispute," says The Pharisees A. D. 33. CHAPTER XXII. A. D. 33. conspire against Christ. A. M. 4037. cast him into outer darkness: there || counsel how they might entangle him A. M. 4037. shall be weeping and gnashing of in his talk. 16 And they sent out unto him their disci14 For many are called, but few are cho- ples, with the Herodians, saying, Master, we teeth. sen. h know that thou an true, and teachest the way 15 Then went the Pharisees, and took of God in truth, neither carest thou for any * Ch. viii. 12.- h Ch. xx. 16.- -* Twenty-third Sunday after|| Trinity, gospel, verse 15 to 23. Mark xii. 13; Luke xx. 20. Calvin, "about the wedding-garment, whether it be Verse 14. For many are called-Nor imagine, faith, or a pious, holy life. For neither can faith (as if our Lord had said,) that this will be the case be separated from good works, nor can good works of one alone; for though it be a dreadful truth, yet proceed except from faith. Christ's meaning is I must say, that even the greatest part of those to only that we are called in order that we may be whom the gospel is offered, will either openly reject renewed in our minds after his image. And there- or secretly disobey it; and while indeed many are fore, that we may remain always in his house, the called to the gospel-feast, it will be manifest by their old man, with his filthiness, must be put off, and a disregarding it, there are but few chosen in such a new life designed, that our attire may be such as is sense as finally to partake of its blessings. In short, suitable to so honourable an invitation." And he many hear, few believe: many are members of the was speechless-Gr. ediμwon, he was struck speech || visible, but few of the invisible church. less. "This is the true import of the original word, Verses 15-17. Then went the Pharisees-Greatly which is rendered very improperly in our transla- | incensed by the two last parables delivered by our tion, he was speechless; as from hence the English Lord; and took counsel how they might entangle reader is led to conceive that the man was dumb, and|| him in his talk-Gr. пayıdevowoiv ev hoyw, might enso could not speak; whereas he was made dumb only || trap him in his discourse, so as to find something by self-condemnation and conviction, even as Christ on which they might ground an accusation against made dumb-epiμwoɛ,—or put to silence, the Saddu-|| him, and effect his destruction. And they sent out cees, verse 34; and as Peter would have us to make || speechless, or put to silence, (pev,) the ignorance of foolish men." See Gerhard's Continuation. Then sail the king to his servants, Bind him hand and foot, &c. Thus, 1st, Christ commands the ministers of his gospel, to whom the exercise of discipline || in his church is committed, to exclude from the society of the faithful all who, by walking disorderly, bring a reproach upon the gospel, and to leave them to outer darkness, or the darkness without the pale of the church; that is, heathenish darkness. In other words, as is expressed chap. xviii. 17, to let || such be unto them as heathen and as publicans. But, 2d, This clause of the sentence is to be chiefly referred to the last judgment, when Christ will command his angels to gather out of his kingdom not only all things that offend, but them which do iniquity, and to cast them into the darkness which is without the heavenly city, namely, into the darkness of hell, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. The mention of outer darkness in the parable, in the connection in which it stands, "would incline one to think, either that the word apisov, rendered dinner, verse 4, may signify supper as well as dinner; or that the king is represented as visiting the guests in the evening. But not to insist on this, which is of little moment, it is well known || In order to insnare Christ, they came to him, feignthat banquets of this kind were generally celebrated in rooms richly adorned: and considering how splendid and magnificent the entertainments of the eastern princes were, it cannot be thought an unnatural circumstance, that such an affront as this, offered to the king, his son, his bride, and the rest of the company, should be punished with such bonds and thrown into a dungeon." their disciples-Persons who had imbibed their ing themselves just men, (Luke xx. 20,) men who had a great veneration for the divine law, and a dread of doing any thing inconsistent with it; and, under that mask, accosted Christ with an air of great respect, and flattering expressions of the highest esteem, saying, Master, we know that thou art true —A person of the greatest uprightness and integrity; and teachest the way of God in truth-Declarest m 20 And he saith unto them, Whose is this ducees, which say that there is no resurrecimage, and superscription? tion, and asked him, 1 In value sevenpence halfpenny sterling: Chap. xx. 2. 2 Or, inscription. * Chap. xvii. 25; Rom. xiii. 7.— Mark xii. 18; Luke xx. 27. Acts xxii. 8. his will with perfect impartiality and fidelity; neither see that ye render to God the things that are God's. carest thou for the censure or applause of any man ; When they had heard, &c., they marvelled and left for thou regardest not the person of men-Thou || him-" So unexpected an answer, in which Jesus favourest no man for his riches or greatness, nor clearly confuted them on their own principles, and art influenced by complaisance or feár, or any pri- || showed that the rights of God and the magistrate vate view whatever, to deviate from the strictest || do not interfere in the least, (because magistrates integrity and veracity. Tell us, therefore, Is it Tell us, therefore, Is it are God's deputies, and rule by his authority,) quite lawful to give tribute unto Cesar?—In asking this disconcerted and silenced those crafty enemies. question they imagined that it was not in Christ's They were astonished at his having perceived their power to decide the point, without making himself design, as well as at the wisdom by which he avoidobnoxious to one or other of the parties which had ed the snare, and went off inwardly vexed and not divided upon it. If he should say, it was lawful; || a little ashamed."-Macknight. they believed the people, in whose hearing the question was proposed, would be incensed against him, not only as a base pretender, who, on being attacked,|| publicly renounced the character of the Messiah, which he had assumed among his friends; (it being, as they supposed, a principal office of the Messiah to deliver them from a foreign yoke ;) but as a flat-being, that when the body dies the soul dies with it, terer of princes also, and a betrayer of the liberties of his country. But if he should affirm that it was unlawful to pay, the Herodians resolved to inform the governor of it, who they hoped would punish him as a fomenter of sedition. Highly elated therefore with their project, they came and proposed their question. Verses 18-22. But Jesus perceived their wickedness, (and craftiness, Luke,) in this their address, however pious and respectful it appeared; and said, Why tempt ye me?—That is, Why do ye try me by such an insnaring question, and seek to draw me into danger by it? Ye hypocrites-Making conscience and a pure regard to the divine will your pretence for asking the question, while your design is to bring about my destruction. Show me the tribute- || money-Which is demanded of you. It seems the Romans chose to receive this tribute in their own coin. And they brought unto him a penny-A denarius, stamped with the head of Cesar. He saith,|| Whose is this image-Which is struck upon the coin? They say unto him, Cesar's-Plainly acknowledging, by their having received his coin, that they were under his government. And indeed this is a standing rule. The current coin of every na- || tion shows who is the supreme governor of it. Render therefore, ye Pharisees, to Cesar, the things which ye yourselves acknowledge to be Cesar's: and, ye Herodians, while ye are zealous for Cesar, Verse 23. The same day came to him the Sadducees-Concerning whose doctrines and conduct see note on chapter iii. 7; which say, there is no resurrection-Nor indeed any future life at all, as the word avaçaois, here rendered resurrection, is considered by many learned men as signifying; their doctrine and that there is no state of rewards or punishments after death, and no judgment to come. "The word avaçaoıç," says Dr. Campbell, "is indeed the common term by which the resurrection, properly so called, is denominated in the New Testament; yet this is neither the only nor the primitive import of it. When applied to the dead, the word denotes properly no more than a renewal of life to them, in whatever manner this happens. The Pharisees themselves did not universally mean by this term the reunion of soul and body, as is evident from the account which the Jewish historian gives of their doctrine, as well as from some passages in the gospels. To say, therefore, in English, that they deny the resurrection, is to give a very defective account of their sentiments on this topic, for they denied the existence of angels and all separate spirits; in which they went much further than [many of] the pagans, who, though they denied what Christians call the resurrection of the body, yet acknowledged a state after death wherein the souls of the deceased exist, and receive the reward or punishment of their actions." The doctor therefore renders the clause, Who say there is no future life, which version, he observes, not only gives a juster representation of the Sadducean hypothesis, but is the only version which makes our Lord's argument appear pertinent, and levelled against the doctrine which he wanted to refute. In the common version they are said to Christ proves the resurrection, A. M. 4037. n A. D. 33. 24 Saying, Master, Moses said, If || shall she be of the seven? for they A. M. 4037. a man die, having no children, his all had her. brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. 29 Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, P not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. 26 Likewise the second also, and the third, 31 But as touching the resurrection of the unto the seventh. 3 dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, 32 I am the God of Abraham, and the God Exod. iii. 6, 16; Mark xii. 26; Luke xx. 37; Acts vii. 32; resurrection, or future state, that every man's wife should be restored to him."-Macknight. Verses 29, 30. Jesus answered, Ye do err, not body from the dust and render it immortal; and who can make the whole man completely happy in the knowledge, love, and enjoyment of himself, without any of the pleasures or objects of this visible and temporal world. For in the resurrection they neither marry, &c.-Our Lord proceeds to observe further, that they entirely mistook the nature of the life to be enjoyed in a future state: that those who attained it being as the angels of God, incorruptible and immortal, marriage and the procreation of an offspring were no longer necessary to continue the species, or maintain the population of the spiritual world. deny the resurrection, that is, that the soul and the body of man shall hereafter be reunited; and our Lord brings an argument from the Pentateuch to prove-What? Not that they shall be reunited,|| knowing the Scriptures-Which plainly assert a fu(to this it has not even the most distant relation,) || ture state; nor the power of God-Who created spibut that the soul subsists after the body is dissolved. || rit as well as matter, and can preserve it in existence This many would have admitted, who denied the re-when the body is dissolved, and can also raise the surrection; yet so evidently did his argument strike || at the root of the scheme of the Sadducees, that they were silenced by it, and, to the conviction of the hearers, confuted. Now this could not have hap- || pened, if the fundamental error of the Sadducees had been barely the denial of the resurrection of the body, and not the denial of the immortality of the soul, or of its actual subsistence after death. If possible, the words, Luke xx. 38, Tavтes aνry (wow, all live to him, (namely, the patriarchs and all the faithful dead,) make it still more evident that our Lord considered this, namely, the proving that the soul still continued to live after a person's natural || death, was all that was incumbent on one who would confute the Sadducees. Now if this was the subversion of Sadducism, Sadducism must have consisted in denying that the soul continues to live after the body dies. Certainly our Lord's answer here, and much of St. Paul's reasoning, 1 Cor. xv., proceeds on the supposition of such a denial. Thus, 2 Mac. xii. 42-44, the author proves that Judas believed a resurrection, from his offering sacrifices for the souls of the slain, which shows that by a resur-ings Christ demonstrates the certainty of a future rection he meant a future state. Verses 24-28. Master, Moses said, If a man die, &c.-"The argument by which the Sadducees endeavoured to confute the notion of a future state was taken from the Jewish law of marriage, which, to give their objection the better colour, they observed was God's law, delivered by Moses. As they believed the soul to be nothing but a more refined kind of matter, they thought if there was any future state, it must resemble the present; and, that men being in that state material and mortal, the human race could not be continued, nor the indivi- || duals made happy, without the pleasures and conveniences of marriage. Hence they affirmed it to be a necessary consequence of the doctrine of the Verses 31, 32. But as touching the resurrection of the dead-Or the future state, (see on verse 23,) have ye not read that which was spoken by GodNamely, in the books of Moses, for which the Sadducees had a peculiar value; but which Christ here shows they did not understand; but were as ignorant of them as they were of the power of God. They had drawn their objection to a future state from the writings of Moses; and from those writ state! I am the God of Abraham, &c.-The argument runs thus: God is not the God of the dead, but of the living: (for that expression, Thy God, implies both benefit from God to man, and duty from man to God :) but he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: therefore Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, are not dead, but living. Therefore the soul does not die with the body. So indeed the Sadducees supposed, and it was on this ground that they denied the resurrection and a future state. It cannot be objected to this interpretation, that it lays too much stress on the words, I am, which are not in the Hebrew. For our Lord's application of the citation in the present tense, (εκ εςιν ο θεος θεος νεκρών, God is not the God of the dead,) plainly implies that no of the living. first and great commandment. 35 Then one of them which was A. M. 4037 "a lawyer, asked him a question, A. D. 33. 33 And when the multitude heard this, they 36 Master, which is the great commandment were astonished at his doctrine. in the law? with so complete an answer to a cavil in which the Sadducees were wont to triumph as invincible; they were astonished at his doctrine-At the clearness and solidity of his reasoning, and the manifest confutation of a sect whose principles they considered as fundamentally erroneous, and subversive of other tense of the verb can be supplied. Accord- With what satisfaction should we read this vindication of so important an article of our faith and hope! How easily did our Lord unravel and expose the boasted argument of the Sadducees, and cover with just confusion all the pride of those bold wits, who valued themselves so much on that imaginary penetration, which laid men almost on a level with brutes. Indeed, objections against the resurrection and a future state, much more plausible than this of theirs, may be answered in that one saying of our Lord's: Ye know not the Scriptures nor the power of God. Were the Scripture doctrine on this subject considered on the one hand, and the omnipotence of the Creator on the other, it could not seem incredible to any that God should preserve the soul in immortality, or raise the dead. Acts xxvi. 8. Verse 33. And when the multitude-Which was present in the temple at the time; heard this―This unthought-of, and yet convincing argument, together Verses 34-36. When the Pharisees heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence-Gr. oti eḍipote, that he had stopped their mouths, or so confuted that he had confounded them, and rendered them unable to make any reply; they were gathered together-It is not said with what design: but it is probable from verses 15, 16, with a malicious one, namely, to try, though the Sadducees had been baffled in their attempt upon him, as they themselves had also been, when they united with the Herodians, if they could yet any way expose him to the people. Then one of them, a lawyer-Or teacher of the law, (namely, of Moses,) as the word voμikos always means in the New Testament, that is, a scribe, asked him a question, tempting, or trying him—Not, it seems, with any ill design, but barely to make further trial of that wisdom which he had shown in silencing the Sadducees. For, according to Mark, it was in consequence of his perceiving that our Lord had answered the Sadducees well, that this person asked the question here mentioned. Master, which is the great commandment in the law?—This was a famous question among the Jews. "Some of their doctors declared that the law of sacrifices was the great commandment, because sacrifices were both the expiations of sin and thanksgivings for mercies; others bestowed this honour on the law of circumcision, because it was the sign of the covenant established between God and the nation; a third sort yielded to the law of the sabbath, because, by that appointment, both the knowledge and practice of the institutions of Moses were preserved; and to name no more, there were some who affirmed the law of meats and washings to be of the greatest importance, because thereby the people of God were effectually separated from the company and conversations of the heathen." But Jesus, with much better reason, decided in favour of a command inclusive of the whole of piety, and leading to every holy temper, word, and work. Verses 37-40. Jesus said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart-Concerning this first and great commandment, and the words where with Moses prefaced it, see note on Deut. vi. 5; and |