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and people of courage) they never answered those that addressed them with the compliment of Salâm aleikum, One would not, perhaps, suspect that similar customs obtain in our times, among Europeans: but I find that the Roman Catholics, of some provinces of Germany, never address the Protestants that live among them with the compliment, JESUS CHRIST be praised; and when such a thing happens by mistake, the Protestants do not return it after the manner in use among Catholics, For ever and ever, Amen!

"After this the words of our Lord in the close of the fifth of Matthew, want no farther commentary. The Jews would not address the usual compliment of Peace be to you, to either heathens or publicans, the publicans of the Jewish nation would use it to their countrymen, that were publicans, but not to heathens; though the more rigid Jews would not do it to them, any more than to heathens; our Lord required his disciples to lay aside the moroseness of Jews, and express more extensive benevolence in their salutations. There seems to be nothing of embracing, thought of in this case, though that, doubtless, was practised anciently among relations, and intimate friends, as it is among modern Asiatics."

If not to salute, be a heathenish indifference; to hide hatred under outward civilities, is a diabolic treachery. To pretend much love and affection for those for whom we have neither—|| to use towards them, complimentary phrases, to which we afix no meaning, but that they mean. nothing, is highly offensive in the sight of that God by whom actions are weighed and words judged.

Judicature among the Jews.·

If men, slighting their own mercies, cry out, This is impossible.
Whom does this arguing reprove?-God, who on this ground,
has given a command, the fulfilment of which is impossible.
"But who can bring a clean out of an unclean thing?"
God Almighty--and however inveterate the disease of sin
may be, the grace of the Lord Jesus can fully cure it; and
who will say, that he who laid down his life for our souls, will
not use his power completely to effect that salvation, which he
has died to procure.
"But where is the person thus saved?"
Wherever he is found who loves God with all his heart,
soul, mind and strength; and his neighbour as himself: and
for the honour of Christianity and its AUTHOR, may we not
hope there are many such in the church of God, not known
indeed by any profession of this kind which they make, but
by a surer testimony, that of uniformly holy tempers, piety to
God, and beneficence to man?.

Dr. Lightfoot is not perfectly satisfied with the usual mode of interpreting the 22d verse of this chapter. I subjoin the substance of what he says. Having given a general exposition of the word brother, which the Jews understood as signifying none but an Israelite-oxos, which we translate is in danger of, and what he shews the Jews used to signify, is exposed to, merits, or is guilty of; and the word gehenna, hell-fire, which he explains as I have done above, he comes to the three offences, and their sentences.

The FIRST is causeless anger, which he thinks too plain to require explanation; but into the two following he enters in considerable detail:

Do not-the publicans] Tavas,-but no heathens, is adopted by Griesbach, instead of Tλva, on the authority of Codd. "The SECOND. Whosoever shall say to his brother, Racha, Vatican. & Beza, and several others; together with the Coptic, a nickname, or scornful title usual, which they disdainfully Syriac later, and Syriac Jerusalem; two Arabic, Persic, Sla-put one upon another, and very commonly; and therefore ronic; all the Itala but one; Vulgate, Saxon, and several of our Saviour has mentioned this word, the rather because the primitive Fathers. it was of so common use among them. Take these few ex

Verse 48. Be ye therefore perfect-as your Father] God himself is the grand law, sole giver, and only pattern of the perfection which he recommends to his children. The words are very emphatic, ecobe our uμes teh5101, Ye shall be therefore perfect-ye shall be filled with the spirit of that God whose name is Mercy, and whose nature is love. God has many imitators of his power, independance, justice, &c. but few of his love, condescension, and kindness. He calls himself LOVE, to teach us that in this consists that perfection, the attainment of which he has made both our duty and privilege: for these words of our Lord include both a command and a promise.

"Can we be fully saved from sin in this world?" is an important question, to which this text gives a satisfactory answer: "Ye shall be perfect as your Father, who is in heaven, is perfect.”—As in his infinite nature there is no sin, nothing but goodness and love; so in your finite nature there shall dwell no sin, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, shall make you free from the law of sin and death, Rom. viii. 2. God shall live in, fill, and rule your hearts; and in what He fils and influences, neither Satan nor sin can have any part.

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"To what is the thing like? To a king of flesh and blood, who took to wife a king's daughter: he saith to her, Wait and fill me a cup;' but she would not: whereupon he was angry, and put her away: she went, and was married to a sordid fellow; and he saith to her, Wait, and fill me a cup ;' she said unto him, 'Rekah, I am a king's daughter, &c.** Idem in Psalm cxxxvii.

Dr. Lightfoot on Courts of

"A Gentile saith to an Israelite,

thee to eat of.' He saith,

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I have a choice dish for he that delivers up his neighbour before a beast to be rent in What is it?' He answers, Swine's pieces. At the hand of man, even at the hand of every man's flesh.' He saith to him, Rekah, even what you kill of clean || brother, will I require the life of man. This is he that hires beasts, is forbidden us, much more this.' Tanchum, fol. 18. others to kill his neighbour: In this interpretation, requiring, is col. 4. spoken of all the three, behold their judgment is delivered over to Heaven (or God). And all these manslayers and the like, who are not liable to death by the Sanhedrin; if the king of Israel will slay them by the judgment of the kingdom, and the law of nations, he may, &c." Maym. ubi supr. per. 2.

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"The THIRD offence is to say to a brother, Thou fool,' which, how to distinguish from Racha, which signifies, an empty fellow, were some difficulty, but that Solomon is a good dictionary here for us, who takes the term continually here for a wicked wretch and reprobate, and in opposition to spiritual wisdom: so that in the first clause, is condemned causeless anger; in the second, scornful taunting and reproaching of a brother; and in the last, calling him a reprobate and wicked, or uncharitably censuring his spiritual and eternal || estate. And this last does more especially hit the Scribes and Pharisees, who arrogated to themselves only to be called pan chocamim, wise-men, but of all others they had this scornful and uncharitable opinion, " This people, that knoweth not the law, is cursed," John vii. 49.

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"And now for the penalties denounced upon these offences, let us look upon them, taking notiee of these two traditions of the Jews, which our Saviour seems to face, and to contradict. || "1st. That they accounted the command, Thou shalt not kill, to aim only at actual murder. So that in their collecting the six hundred and thirteen precepts out of the law, they understand that command to mean but this: That one should not kill an Israelite,' and accordingly they allotted this only violation of it to judgments against this wild gloss and practice, he speaks in the first clause: Ye have heard it said, Thou shalt not kill, and he that killeth or committeth actual murder, is liable to judgment, and ye extend the violation of that command no further; but I say to you, that causeless anger against thy brother is a violation of that command, and even that maketh a man liable to judgment.

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You may observe in these wretched traditions a twofold killing, and a twofold judgment; a man's killing another in || his own person, and with his own hand, and such an one liable to the judgment of the Sanhedrin, to be put to death by them, as a murderer; and a .an that killed another by proxy; not with his own hand, but hiring another to kill him, or turning a beast, or serpent upon him to kill him. This man is not to be judged and executed by the Sanhedrin, but referred and reserved only, to the judgment of God. So that we see plainly from hence, in what sense the word judgment is used in the latter end of the preceding verse, and the first clause of this, namely, not for the judgment of any one of the Sanhedrins, as it is commonly understood, but for the judgment of God. In the former verse, Christ speaks their sense, and in the first clause of this, his own, in application to it. Ye have heard it said, that any man that kills is liable to the judgment of God; but I say unto you, that he that is but angry with his brother without a cause, is liable to the judgment of God. You have heard it said, that he only that commits murder with his own hand, is liable to the council, or Sanhedrin, as a murderer; but I say unto you, that he that but calls his brother Racha, as common a word as ye make it, and a thing of nothing, he is liable to be judged by the Sanhedrin.

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Lastly, He that saith to his brother, Thou fool, wicked one, or cast-away, shall be in danger of hell-fire, evoxos ELS year mugos. There are two observable things in the words.

"2nd. They allotted that murder only to be judged by the council or Sanhedrin, that was committed by a man in propria persona, let them speak their own sense, &c. Talm. in San-The first is the change of case from what was before; there it hedrin, per. 9.

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Any one that kills his neighbour with his hand, as if he strike him with a sword, or with a stone that kills him, or strangle him till he die, or burn him in the fire, seeing that he kills him any how in his own person, lo! such an one must be put to death by the Sanhedrin: but he that hires another to kill his neighbour, or that sends his servants, and they kill him, or that violently thrusts him before a lion, or the like, and the beast kills him: any one of these is a shedder of blood, and the guilt of shedding of blood is upon him, and he is liable to death by the hand of Heaven, but he is not to be put to death by the Sanhedrin. And whence is the proof that it must be thus? Because it is said, He that sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. This is he that slays a man himself, and not by the hand of another. Your blood of your lives will I require. This is be that slays himself. At the hand of every beast will I require it. This is

was said τη κρίσει τα συνεδρίω, but here, εις γέενναν. It is but an emphatical raising of the sense, to make it the more feeling and to speak home. He that saith to his brother, Raka, shall be in danger of the council; but he that says, Thou fool, shall be in danger of a penalty even to hell-fire. And thus our Saviour equals the sin and penalty in a very just parable. In just anger, with God's just anger and judgment; public reproach, with public correction by the council; and censuring for a child of hell, to the fire of hell.

2nd. It is not said us Tug yeens, To the fire of hell, but us yevrav augos, To a hell of fire; in which expression he sets the emphasis still higher. And besides the reference to the valley of Ifinnom, he seems to refer to that penalty used by the Sanhedrin of burning: the most bitter death that they used to put men to: the manner of which was thus: They set the malefactor in a dunghill up to the knees: and they put a towel about his neck, and one pulled one way,

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and another the opposite, till, by thus strangling him, they forced him to open his mouth. Then they poured boiling lead into his mouth, which went down into his belly, and so burnt his bowels. Talm. in Sanhedrin per. 7.

in alms-giving.

judged by the Sanhedrin, whose most terrible penalty was this burning, he doth in this clause raise the penalty higher ; namely, of burning in hell; not with a little scalding lead, but even with a hell of fire." It is possible that our Lord might "Now having spoken in the clause before, of being have reference to such customs as these.

CHAPTER VI.

Of alms-giving, 1-5. Of prayer, 6-8. The Lord's prayer or model, according to which Christians should pray, 9-13. Of forgiveness, 14, 15. Of fasting, 16, 17. Of laying up treasures, 18-21. Of the single eye, 22, 23. The impossibility of serving two masters, 24. Of contentment and confidence in the divine providence, 25-32. Directions about seeking the kingdom of God, 33, 34.

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you, should he call it dixatoviny, righteousness, in the first verse, and tλμoovvny, alms, in the following; when Christ every where used one and the same word? Matthew might not change in Greek, where our Saviour had not changed in Syriac: therefore we must say, that the Lord Jesus used the word np tsidekah, or p¬1 zidkatha, in these four first verses; but that, speaking in the dialect of common people, he was understood by the common people to speak of alms. Now they called alms by the name of righteousness, for the Fathers of the traditions taught, and the common people believed, that alms contributed very much to justification. Hear the Jewish chair in this matter-For one furthing given to a poor man in alms, a man is made partaker of the beatific vision: where it renders these words, Psal. xvii. 15. I shall behold thy face in righteousness, after this manner, I shall behold thy face, BECAUSE of ALMS. Bava Bathra.

Verse 1. That ye do not your alms] Δικαιοσύνην υμών μη ποιειν, perform not your acts of righteousness—such as alms-giving, fasting, and prayer, mentioned immediately after. Instead of dizio, righteousness, or acts of righteousness, the reading in the text, that which has been commonly received, is Denungen, alms. But the first reading has been inserted in several editions, and is supported by the Codd. Vatican, and Beza, some others, and several versions, all the Itala except one, and the Vulgate. The Latin Fathers have justitiam, a word of the same meaning. Mr. Gregory has amply proved, np tsidekah, righteousness, was a common word for alms among the Jews. Works, 4to. p. 58. 1671. R. D. Kimchi says, that tsidekah, Isai. lix. 14. means alms-giving; and the phrase opy natan tsidekak, is used by the Jews to signify the giving || of alms. The following passages from Dr. Lightfoot shew that it was thus commonly used among the Jewish writers: "It is questioned," says he, "whether Matthew writ || I may obtain the world to come. Excqucovrne, alms, or Aixaioovvny, righteousness. I answer,

VI. That our Saviour certainly said ¡p¶ tsidekah, righte- || cusness, (or, in Syriac, šлp¬ zidkatha) I make no doubt at all; but, that that word could not be otherwise understood by the common people than of alms, there is as little doubt to be made. For although the word npy tsidekah, according to the idiom of the Old Testament, signifies nothing else than righteeisness; yet now, when our Saviour spoke these words, it sgnified nothing so much as alms.

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"This money goeth for alms,

that my sons may live, and that Bab. Rosh. Hashshanah.

"A man's table now expiates by alms, as heretofore the altar did by sucrifice. Beracoth.

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If you afford alms out of your purse, God will keep you from all damage and harm. Hieros. Peah.

"MONOBAZES the king bestowed his goods liberally upon the poor, and had these words spoken to him by his kinsmen and ||friends Your ancestors increased both their own riches, and those that were left them by their fathers; but you waste both your own and those of your uncestors.' To whom he answered-My fathers laid up their wealth on earth: I lay up mine in heaven. As it is written, Truth shall flourish out of the earth, but Righteousness shall look down from heaven. My fathers

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Alms must be given

ST. MATTHEW.

without ostentation.

glory of men. Verily I say unto you, thy left hand know what thy right A. M. 401. An. Olymp. They have their reward.

A. D. 27.

CCI. 3.

3 But when thou doest alms, let not

hand doeth:

4 That thine alms may be in secret:

A. D. 27. An. Olymp CCI. 3.

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his

laid up treasures that bear no fruit, but I lay up such as bear fruit. As it is said, It shall be well with the just, for they shall eat the fruit of their own works. My fathers treasured up, when power was in their hands; but I where it is not. As it is said, Justice and judgment is the habitation of throne. My fathers heaped up for others; I for myself. As it is said, And this shall be to thee for righteousness. They scraped together for this world. I for the world to come. As it is said, Righteousness shall deliver from death: Ibid. these things are also recited in the Babylonian Talmud.

"You see plainly in what sense he understands righteousness, namely, in the sense of alms: and that sense not so much framed in his own imagination, as in that of the whole nation, and which the Royal Catechumen had imbibed from the Pharisees his teachers.

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"Behold the justifying and saving virtue of alms from the very work done according to the doctrine of the Pharisaical chair! And hence, the opinion of this efficacy of alms so far prevailed with the deceived people, that they pointed out alms by no other name (confined within one single word) than np tsidekah, righteousness. Perhaps those words of our Saviour are spoken in derision of this doctrine. Yea, give those things which ye have in alms, and behold all things shall be clean to you, Luke xi. 41. With good reason indeed exhorting them to give alms; but yet withal striking at the covetousness of the Pharisees, and confuting their vain opinion of being clean by the washing of their hands from their own opinion of the efficacy of alms. As if he had said, assert that alms justifies and saves, and therefore ye call it by the name of righteousness; why therefore do ye affect cleanness by the washing of hands; and not rather by the performance of charity." LIGHTFOOT's Works, Vol. II. p. 153.

"Ye

Before men] Our Lord does not forbid public alms-giving, fasting and prayer, but simply censures those vain and hypocritical persons who do these things publicly, that they may be seen of men, and receive from them, the reputation of saints, &c.

Verse 2. Therefore when thou doest thine alms] In the first verse the exhortation is general; Take VE heed. In this verse the address is pointed—and THOU -man-woman-who readhearest,

Do not sound a trumpet] It is very likely that this was literally practised among the Pharisees, who seemed to live on the public esteem, and were excessively self-righteous and vain. Having something to distribute by way of alms, it is Tery probable they caused this to be published by blowing a

t

b Psal. 44. 21. 2 Cor. 9. 7.

trumpet or horn, under pretence of collecting the poor; though with no other design than to gratify their own ambition. There is a custom in the East not much unlike this. "The derveeshes carry horns with them which they frequently blow, when any thing is given to them, in honour of the donor. It is not impossible that some of the poor Jews who begged alms might be furnished like the Persian derveeshes, who are a sort of religious beggars, and that these hypocrites might be disposed to confine their alms-giving to those that they knew would pay them this honour." HARMER'S Observat. || vol. i. p. 474.

It must be granted, that in the Jewish writings there is no such practice referred to as that which I have supposed above, viz. blowing a trumpet to gather the poor, or the poor blowing a horn when relieved. Hence some learned men have thought that the word a shopher a trumpet, refers to the hole in the public alms chest, into which the money was dropped which was allotted for the service of the poor. Such holes, because they were wide at one end and grew gradually narrow towards the other, were actually termed shopheroth, trumpets, by the Rabbins; of this Schoetgen furnishes several examples. An ostentatious man, who wished to attract the notice of those around him, would throw in his money with some force into these trumpet-resembling holes, and thus he might be said, cam, to sound the trumpet. The Jerusalem Gemara, Tract Shekalim, describes these now shopheroth thus-These trumpet holes were crooked, narrow above and wide below, in order to prevent fraud. As our Lord only uses the words, un camions, it may be tantamount to our term jingle. Do not make a public ostentatious jingle of that money which you give to public charities. Pride and hypocrisy are the things here reprehended. The Pharisees no doubt, felt the weight of the reproof.

Works of charity and mercy should be done as much in. private as is consistent with the advancement of the glory of God, and the effectual relief of the poor.

In the synagogues and in the streets] That such chests or boxes for receiving the alms of well-disposed people, were placed in the Synagogues, we may readily believe; but what were the streets? Schoetgen supposes that courts or avenues in the temple and in the synagogues may be intended-places where the people were accustomed to walk, for air, amusement, &c. for it is not to be supposed that such chests were fixed in the public streets.

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Hypocrisy to be

CHAP. VI.

avoided in prayer.

A.M. 4031. and thy Father which seeth in se- Verily I say unto you, They have AM 1971. An. Olymp. cret, himself shall reward thee open-their reward.

A. D. 27.

CCL. 3.

ly.

2

An. Olymp. CCI. 3.

6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall re

5 ¶ And when thou prayest, thou shalt not
be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray
standing in the synagogues and in the corners
of the streets, that they may be seen of men.ward thee openly.

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them—they did nothing with an eye to his glory, and from HIM they can expect no recompence. They had their recompence in this life; and could expect none in the world

to come.

Verse 3. Let not thy left hand know] In many cases, works of charity must be hidden from even our nearest relatives, who if they knew, would hinder us from doing what God has given us power and inclination to perform. We must go even farther; and conceal them as far as is possible from ourselves, by not thinking of them, or eyeing them with complacency. They are given to GoD, and should be hidden in HIM.

Verse 4. Which seeth in secret] We should ever remember that the eye of the Lord is upon us, and that he sees not only the act, but also every motive that led to it.

Shall reward thee openly.] Will give thee the fullest proofs of his acceptance of thy work of faith, and labour of love, by encreasing that substance which, for his sake, thou sharest with the poor; and will manifest his approbation in thy own heart, by the witness of his spirit.

Verse 5. And when thou prayest] Orα goσx. Пgoown prayer, is compounded of wẹos with, and wyn a row, because to pray right, a man binds himself to God as by a row, to live to his glory, if he will grant him his grace, &c. Euxoμas signifies to pour out prayers or vows, from u well, and yw I pour out; probably alluding to the offerings or libations which were poured out before, or on the altar. A proper idea of prayer is, a pouring out of the soul unto God, as a free-will offering, solemnly and eternally dedicated to him, accompanied with the most earnest desire that it may know, love, and serve him alone. He that comes thus to God will ever be heard and blessed. Prayer is the language of dependance; he who prays not, is endeavouring to live independantly of God: this was the first curse, and continues to be the great curse of mankind. In the beginning Satan said, Eat this fruit; ye shall then be as God; i. e. ye shall be independart: the man hearkened to his voice, sin entered into the world, and notwithstanding the full manifestation of the deception, the ruinous system is still pursued; man will, if possible, live independantly of God; hence he either

prays not at all, or uses the language without the spirit of

prayer.

Thou shalt not be as the hypocrites] Yongira. From vzo under, and xgvas to be judged, thought: properly a stageplayer, who acts under a mask, personating a character dif ferent from his own; a counterfeit, a dissembler; one who would be thought to be different from what he really is. A person who wishes to be taken for a follower of God, but who has nothing of religion except the outside.

Love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets] The Jewish phylacterical prayers were long, and the canonical hours obliged them to repeat these prayers wherever they happened to be; and the Pharisees, who were full of vain glory, contrived to be overtaken in the streets by the canonical hour, that they might be seen by the people, and applauded for their great and conscientious piety. See Lightfoot. As they had no piety but that which was outward, they endeavoured to let it fully appear, that they might make the most of it among the people. It would not have answered their end to kneel before God, for then they might have been unnoticed by men; and consequently have lost that reward which they had in view: viz. the esteem and applause of the multitude.

Verse 6. But thou, when thou prayest] This is a very impressive and emphatic address. But THOU! whosoever thou art, Jew, Pharisee, Christian-enter into thy closet. Prayer is the most secret intercourse of the soul with God, and as it were the conversation of one heart with another. The world is too prophane and treacherous to be of the secret. We must shut the door against it: endeavour to forget it, with all the affairs which busy and amuse it. Prayer requires retirement, at least of the heart; for this may be fitly termed the closet in the house of God, which house the body of every real Christian is, 1 Cor. iii. 16. To this closet we ought to retire even in public prayer, and in the midst of company.

Reward thee openly.] What goodness is there equal to this of God! to give not only what we ask, and more than we ask, but to reward even prayer itself! How great advantage is it to serve a prince who places prayers in the number of ser

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