from this, is now awaiting the Day of Judgment for redress. The action here prescribed to the Apostles was a symbolical one, according to the custom of that country. It was the sign of an inhospitable soil, which should be rejected by the Lord even as it had rejected His Ambassadors.' CCXLII. THE SAME SUBJECT-continued. St. Matthew x. 16-20. But Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. beware of men for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; and ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. This second part of the Lord's charge to His Apostles refers more generally to their mission as not restricted to the Jews, but extended also to the Gentiles." "By foretelling the evils which were to befall them, their Divine Master both convinced them of His knowledge of the future, and prepared them to encounter it with fortitude, as well as to meet it without surprise."3 By the proverbial figures He employs, He who knew what was in man, makes them Acts xiii. 50, 51. "It was a to the next portion of the discourse, custom of the Pharisees, when they entered Judæa from a Gentile land, to do this act, as renouncing all communion with Gentiles; those then who would not receive the Apostolic message were to be treated as no longer Israelites, but Gentiles. Thus the verse forms a kind of introduction where the future mission to the 3 A Plain Commentary. 4 acquainted with the murderous disposition of men,' and puts them on their guard against wolves in sheep's clothing.2 They might suppose at starting that such good gifts as they conveyed would be everywhere welcome, and secure them a good reception. Let them not be deceived, neither disappointed; and while continuing innocent as doves, let them cultivate the proverbial prudence of the serpent.3 The "councils" here spoken of were the Courts of Seven appointed in every city of the Jews. And they had also Judges in their Synagogues, who caused those whom they condemned for what they called heresy to be scourged with forty stripes save one. St. Paul, for instance, suffered no fewer than five times in this way. And not before the authorities of their own nation only should they be brought, but before foreign Governors and Kings; for they must bear witness to Gentiles as well as Jews." "In ordinary cases men are left to the due use and improvement of their own natural powers," but for this more than ordinary mission they should receive the more than ordinary help of the Holy Ghost. Special supplies for special emergencies. The promise was to the Apostles. It was "for the present distress," and limited to primitive times. 9 7 1 St. John viii. 37, 40, 41, 44. 2 Ecclus. xiii. 17. There is an interesting reference to this, and a traditional answer of St. Peter, in Clemens Romanus ad Corinth. ii. 5. Bp. Taylor has five sermons founded on this text, the first three entitled "Of Christian prudence," the last two "Of Christian simplicity;" teaching us "that we be innocent as well as wary . . . Without this blessed union, prudence turns into craft, and simplicity degenerates into folly." Acts xxii. 19; xxiv. 14. Bengel suggests that the two may refer severally to persecution by those in authority and by the populace. Com pare Hor. Car. III. iii. 1, 2. 52 Cor. xi. 24. 6 Acts i. 8; xxiii. 11; Rom. i. 16. Bp. Mann in D'Oyly and Mant. "It is to be observed that our Lord never in speaking to His Disciples says our Father, but either my Father, or your Father, or both conjoined; never leaving it to be inferred that God is in the same sense His Father and our Father."-Alford. "An argument for the inspiration of the writers of the N. T. If He was in them when speaking to a Jew, surely He did not desert them when writing for the world."-Bp. Wordsworth. CCXLIII. THE SAME SUBJECT-continued. St. Matthew x, 21–23. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come. The Lord, that His servants might not be staggered, predicts the extremity of Jewish and Pagan persecution. Religious hatred and intolerance should overpower even natural affection. The very name of Christian was held in horror; so cruel were the calumnies invented against it. There was nothing of which the Christians were not supposed to be capable. Whatever evil was in a place, it was laid to their charge. An abandoned Roman emperor sets fire to the city, and finds it convenient to ascribe the deed to the Christians. The Jews were everywhere ready to denounce them, and the Romans required them to blaspheme that worthy name by the which they were called. So unreasonable, so appalling was this general hate that it soon separated the false professor from the true; and indeed it needed all the considerations which the Lord here urges to keep even these latter stedfast in their allegiance. Their safety however lay in stedfastness. He that loseth his life shall find it. Still the Lord, who had already counselled prudence under persecution, allows and indeed prescribes some oppor Tertullian (Apol. xl.) relates that if the Tiber rose too high, or the Nile not high enough, forthwith the cry was "The Christians to the lions." Augustine (de Civ. Dei, ii. ii.) notes a common proverb to the same effect. 3 Bp. Jewel (Def. of Apol. 214, P. S. 2 St. James ii 6, 7; Rev. iii. 8. 3 tunities of escape. This may not indeed be purchased by apostasy, but it would not be dishonourable to procure it by a timely flight. Where this is possible, they might avail themselves of it; though they must be ready also, if required, to die at their post. It is no treason sometimes to yield to superior numbers, and yet sometimes we must defend the fortress to the last. The Lord Himself evaded His enemies until His hour was come. The same Apostles 2 and Martyrs who afterwards welcomed death, availed themselves of all lawful opportunities of escape. And in so doing they doubly defeated the design of their enemies. This only turned out to the furtherance of the Gospel. So they that were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, went everywhere preaching the Word. The storm scatters the seed, and the winds waft it to distant spots which otherwise it might not have reached. The Gospel no longer confined to one place, travelled to almost all the cities of Israel, before the fall of Jerusalem. "Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee." 6 7 CCXLIV. THE SAME SUBJECT-continued. St. Matthew x. 24-28. The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: 1 St. Luke iv. 30; St. John vii. 30; viii. 59; x. 39. 2 Acts ix. 24, 25, 29, 30; 2 Cor. xi. 32, 33. 3 So Polycarp (See Eccl. Smyrn. Ep. v. vii.). So Cyprian (see Vita per Pontium.) Phil. i. 12, 13. 5 Acts viii. 4; xi. 19. St. Luke xxiv. 49; Acts i. 4. 7 "There is a successive series of Comings of Christ,' all preparatory to, and consummated in, the great Coming."-Bp. Wordsworth. and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. "Hitherto our Lord has given precepts to His Apostles for the discharge of their duty." He now in this third and concluding portion of His charge "supplies motives." First, citing familiar proverbs, He sets before them His own case. Let the Scholar be content if he fare no worse than his Teacher, the Servant than his Lord, the Household than the Master of the house. The private soldier in a campaign must not expect better treatment than his commanding officer. This name of an idol,2 applied to the chief of evil spirits, was also applied by blaspheming Jews even to our Blessed Lord.3 Next He bids them not be dismayed at this traducing of their characters. One day the integrity of His servants, and the malice of their enemies, shall all be manifest. "He shall make thy righteousness as clear as the light, and thy just dealing as the noon-day." From this allusion, the Lord passes, by a natural transition, to His own conduct with His Disciples. His instructions to them were, necessarily, as it were in secret; but let them not shrink from proclaiming them openly. Here "there may be an allusion to the practice of the Jewish teachers, who are said to have dictated softly in the ear, what an Interpreter immediately after delivered aloud." The roofs of the houses too, in those parts, were flat, and used for the purpose of public proclamations. Another consideration: "God is more to be feared than man." The soul is more Bp. Wordsworth. 2 2 Ki. i. 2. 3 St. Matt. ix. 34; xii. 24; St. John viii. 48. "The next eight verses are found to recur in quite a different connexion in St. Luke's Gospel, xii. 2-9: affording one of the many striking proofs which the Gospels contain that the same sayings were for ever heard from the lips of our Saviour. Here they are addressed to the Twelve Apostles; there, they are clearly addressed to a multitude."-A Plain Commentary. This repetition in private to His Apostles of what they had already heard Him urge in public upon all, must have impressed them with the depth and breadth of His words. 5 1 Cor. iv. 5. • A Plain Commentary. |