Two things are here observable, 1. The necessity of scandalous offences: IT MUST NEEDS BE THAT OFFENCES COME, if we consider men's corruptions, Satan's malice, God's permission and just judgment. Observe, 2. The misery and mischief which comes by these scandals: WOE UNTO THE WORLD BECAUSE OF OFFENC... [ Continue Reading ]
The doctrine of forgiving an offending brother, is pressed upon us with many forcible arguments in the New Testament, which speaks it to be. duty of indispensable necessity. This place is to understood of private offences, and personal wrongs and injuries done by one man to another; which we must fi... [ Continue Reading ]
Observe here, 1. The supplicants, THE APOSTLES. 2. The person supplicated, THE LORD. 3. The supplication itself, INCREASE OUR FAITH. 4. The occasion of this supplication, our Saviour urging the duty of forgiving injuries. Learn, 1. That as all graces in general, so the grace of faith in partic... [ Continue Reading ]
Here our Saviour tells his disciples, that if they have the smallest degree of true faith, lively, operative faith, it will enable them to perform this difficult duty of forgiving injuries, and all other duties, with as much facility and ease as. miraculous faith would enable them to remove mountain... [ Continue Reading ]
The design and scope of this parable is to show, that Almighty God neither is nor can be. debtor to any of his creatures for the best service which they were able to perform unto him; and that they are so far from meriting. reward of justice, that they do not deserve. return of thanks. Three argume... [ Continue Reading ]
Observe here, 1. Though the Samaritans were bitter enemies to the Jews, and had been guilty of great incivility towards our Saviour, yet our Saviour in his journey to Jerusalem balks them not, but bestows the favor of. miracle upon them. Civil courtesy and respect may and ought to be paid to those t... [ Continue Reading ]
Observe here, 1. The preventing grace and mercy of Christ; their disease is cured where it can be complained of: GO, SHOW YOURSELVES UNTO THE PRIESTS, says Christ, and in their going they were cleansed, they were healed before they could come at the priests, that as the power that healed them was wh... [ Continue Reading ]
Observe here, 1. All were healed, but only one was thankful; the cure is wrought upon the bodies of all, thankfulness if sound but in the heart of one: the will makes the difference in men, but he makes the difference in wills, who at first made the will. All these lepers were cured, all saw themsel... [ Continue Reading ]
In the face of these ten lepers we may, as in. glass, behold the face and complexion of all mankind. How few are there, oh Lord! Scarce more than one in ten, who after single mercies return suitable thanks. Men howl to God upon their beds, but run away from God as soon as they are raised up by him.... [ Continue Reading ]
The generality of the Jews, and particularly the Pharisees, expected that the promised Messiah should be. temporal prince, and deliver them from the Roman yoke, under which they groaned. Accordingly the Pharisees here demanded of our Saviour, WHEN THE KINGDOM OF GOD, of which he had so often spoken,... [ Continue Reading ]
In the remaining part of this chapter, our Saviour acquaints his disciples with what days of tribulation and distress were coming on the Jewish nation in general, and on Jerusalem in particular. "Days of sufferings (as if our Saviour had said) are not far off, when you will wish for my bodily presen... [ Continue Reading ]
In these verses our Saviour declares, that Jerusalem's destruction, and the world's final desolation at the great day, would be like the destruction of the old world in the days of Noah, and like the destruction of Sodom in the days of Lot, and that both in regard of unexpectedness, and in regard of... [ Continue Reading ]
Here our Saviour advises them, that when they shall see the judgments of God breaking out upon Jerusalem, that they make all possible speed to get out of it, as Lot and his family did out of Sodom; and to take heed of imitating Lot's wife, who looking back became. pillar of salt, Genesis 19:26 Wher... [ Continue Reading ]
In this hour, when judgment is come upon Jerusalem, Christ declares, that whosoever shall take any unchristian course to preserve his life, by denying him and his holy religion, he shall lose eternal life; but he that for Christ's sake shall lose his natural life, instead of. mortal, shall enjoy an... [ Continue Reading ]
The disciples hearing our Saviour speak of such tremendous calamities, enquire, where these judments should fall. He answers them figuratively, and by. proverbial speech, that WHERE THE CARCASS IS, THERE WILL THE EAGLES BE GATHERED TOGETHER: signifying, that Jerusalem, and the obdurate nation of the... [ Continue Reading ]