Matthew 10:16

Behold, I send you forth as sheep, &c.— Considering the nature of the tidings which the apostles were now sent out to publish, namely, that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, the number and variety of miraculous cures which they were enabled to perform in confirmation of their doctrine, and the greatness of the benefits that they were empowered to confer upon the families who should entertain them kindly, it is reasonable to think that they were flattering themselves with the hopes of great honour and acceptance wherever they came. In the mean time, the event was by no means to answer their expectation; they were everywhere to be despised, persecuted, delivered up into the hands of public justice, and punished as evil-doers. Our Lord, therefore, in the most fair and generous manner forewarned them of these things; made them large promises of the divine aid, and gave them directions with respect to their conduct in every circumstance. Behold, I send you forth, &c. "I send you forth weak and defenceless amongst a cruel and wicked people." Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. "On the one hand, be so prudent as not to irritate them unnecessarily by your behaviour or mode of speaking, ch. Matthew 7:6.; and on the other, let not your prudence degenerate into craft, lest it lead you to betray the truth, or to encourage men in their evil practices. Join prudence and harmlessnesstogether;renderingyourselvesremarkableforintegrityamidthegreatest temptations, and for meekness under the greatest provocation." The word rendered harmless, ακεραιοι, properly signifies pure and unmixed, or unwilling to do any harm. See Stockius. The simplicity recommended here, includes meekness and sincerity; and it is with these virtuous qualities that the Lord Jesus Christ tempers what might be pernicious in the serpents, whose prudence is commonly accompanied with a mischievous disposition. See Genesis 3:1. Our blessed Saviour has given remarkable instances of the prudence that he requires here in his disciples. Compare ch. Matthew 22:21, &c. Bishop Warburton observes, that the character of the Christian mission is denoted in these words, Behold, I send you forth as sheep; and the condition of an unbelieving world in the following,—I send you in the midst of wolves. Though the faith waits be propagated only by the mild measures of persuasion, yet even this would provoke the wolfish disposition of the power of darkness to put in use all the iniquitous contrivances of fraud and violence for its oppression. Their provident Master, therefore, delivers them a rule for the integrity and prudence of their own conduct; Be ye wise,&c.—a direction equally respecting their private andtheir public characters, whereby the first might correspond with the dignity of their office, and the other with the objects of their care. So that, as men, the human virtues, as missionaries the social, are recommended to their practice, and both under the familiar images of the serpent's wisdom, and the dove's innocence. What these human virtues are, the illusion in the figurative expression will discover; what the social, must be determined by the occasion of the precept, Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves; a direction conveyed in two proverbial sayings, whose import the disciples perfectly understood. The first alludes to a vulgar supposition of the ancient world, which gave credit to certain artists, who pretended to the power of rendering serpents innoxious by the force of charms and incantations. The men who traded in this imposture, in order to hide their frequent miscarriages, made the people believe that some of these serpents had gotten a trick as good as their own, which was, to shut their ears to their enchantments. Hence the proverb of the deaf adder that stoppeth her ears, which refuseth to hear the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely; by which moralists would infer the wisdom and safetyof abstaining from unlawful pleasures. The second, of beingharmless as doves, alludes to as ancient and as fanciful an error of the naturalists, that the dove is without a gall. The whole of this monition, therefore, to the disciples in their private character implies, that they should learn to abstain from all unlawful and intemperate pleasures, and to suppress in themselves all the sentiments of rage, envy, and revenge; the serpent's wisdom being directed against the concupiscible passions, as the dove's innocence is against the irascible; and both together make one good precept for the subjection [through the power of Almighty Grace] of our brutal nature to the rational, in which consists the exercise of the human virtues. Could any thing be more harmless than this method of propagating religion? Could any thing be more holy than the manners of its propagators? What regard to the rights of men, to the laws of society, was enjoined to the offerers of the Gospel! What neglect of the interests of flesh and blood was required of the receivers of it! Truth was the lasting foundation on which Jesus erected his church, and holiness and virtue the livingprinciples which were to actuate its members. Indeed, the purity of his intentions, and the rectitude of his measures, are so evident from theevangelic history of his life and death, that the most stubborn infidel is ready to clear him of fraudulent imposture, and to centre all his suspicionsinawell-meaning enthusiasm. This is the last miserable refuge of obstinate impiety.