SECTION XLIII.

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ST. MATTHEW, XX. 17.

Took the twelve disciples apart in the way. May he take us all apart; and tell us effectually of his death, the necessity, the benefit, and the power of it!

Ver. 18. Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, &c.-Knowing the work he had to accomplish there, and going with a resolved will to meet his sufferings.

O Jesus! sad was our condition which required such a method of deliverance; and great is thy love to perishing sinners. Shed it abroad in our hearts. We are naturally dead in trespasses and sins, dead to the love of God, and all spiritual feeling; but in the sense of thy love we can regain our lost powers, and lost happiness, love and obey, and be sweetly constrained by it to answer thy design in dying for us, by living unto thee.

the one

Ver. 21. Grant that these my two sons may sit, on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom.— Supposing, according to the common mistake of the Jews, that it would be an earthly kingdom; and wanting to secure to them the highest places in it.

what ye

ask.

Ver. 22. But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not Condemning their ambitious design; and at the same time giving them to understand, that, if they had known the nature of his kingdom, they would not have been so desirous of distinction in it, as it would only entitle them to a distinction of suffering.

They say unto him, We are able.—It is probable they did not very well know what he meant by drinking of his cup, and being baptized with his baptism; but, nevertheless, undertook boldly for themselves. How

ignorantly and presumptuously, let their behaviour witness, when they forsook him.

Ver. 23. Is not mine to give. As matter of mere favour or in his state of humiliation.

But it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. They being prepared, and qualified for it according to his will. And for such, Christ has all power put into his hands, and says, I give, Rev. iii. 21. John x. 28.

Ver. 24. And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren. - All having the same views of advancement under Christ, and thinking themselves as well entitled to it. We judge very wrong, if we think of the apostles as eminent saints before the descent of the Holy Ghost. We see in them, and it is of great use to observe it, what all men are by nature, and what they may be by, and under, grace. It is also observable, that St. Matthew, the relater, was one of the ten; and yet he publishes the mistakes and defects of himself, and the other disciples, great as they were, in this instance especially, without reserve. This is not the nature of man; and furnishes us with a convincing proof of his regard to truth, and of the truth of the Gospel. Ver. 26. But it shall not be so among you. Christ was no leveller of offices and civil dignities; of the heart, he was.

1

-But whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. Ver. 27. And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.—These are hard sayings; but sufficiently prove to us, what true greatness is, in the esteem of Christ. I verily believe that no man can possibly be happy in himself, till he arrives at this degree of humiliation.

Ver. 28. Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for

many. For all who believe and trust in that ransom. O thou disciple of an incarnate God, what art thou doing, when thy heart beats for pre-eminence, and disdains to stoop? And what can lay the axe to the root of our pride, if this does not? Nay, still we can resist both the precept and example of our great Master; and shall for ever be unchanged, without a new nature, and by a new birth of the Spirit.

Ver. 29. A great multitude followed him.-How few of them knew what they followed him for! If you think you do, the remainder of the chapter will try you.

LECTURE.

ONE thing I mentioned, which I would here take up again, and open a little farther for your belief, instruction, and comfort, if you desire to be the true disciples and followers of Jesus, viz. concerning the state of the apostles at the time here spoken of. They were under great mistakes about the nature of Christ's kingdom; and, though not without a sincere dependence upon him for eternal life, it appears that, in coming to him, they had worldly advantage too much in view. It was the general opinion of the Jews, that when Christ came he would set up an earthly kingdom, and make them victorious over their enemies. And the apostles were so full of this notion, that whenever, in downright opposition to it, Christ told them of his sufferings and death, though in ever such plain words, they did not understand him. Peter, in particular, chap. xvi., contradicted him boldly, when he was endeavouring to undeceive him, and said, "Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee." But though he rebuked him sharply, "as not savouring the "things which be of God, but those which be of men,"

still they all continued in the same mistake; and we are here told of two of them who came to him with this request; and, to make sure work of it, as they thought, brought their mother with them to desire," that they

might sit, one on his right-hand and the other on the left, " in his kingdom;" thinking of a kingdom in this world, and expecting to have the highest places in it. Which, when the rest understood, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren; supposing that themselves had all as good a right to the highest places under Christ as they, and all alike dreaming of an earthly kingdom; as it seems they did, even after his resurrection, Acts, i. 6., and quite on to the day of Pentecost. For then, and not before, their eyes were thoroughly opened, and their hearts changed; and from that time forward, instead of looking any longer for worldly greatness from Christ, they gloried in nothing but his cross, and in suffering for his sake.

Now, the point arising from hence is this: whatever our state is in respect of saving knowledge, or faithfulness to Christ in a work of obedience, the Holy Ghost can and must, as he only is sent to do, work the same change in every one of us. When we see our sins in the number and greatness of them, we find it hard to trust in the pardoning mercy of God; when the commandments are set before us, as the rule we must, of all necessity, walk by under Christ, we frighten ourselves with the difficulty of them, and are apt to shrink back from our work. Now, look at the apostles, and think what they once were, and what the Spirit of God and of Christ made them. They were not only ignorant and unlearned men, in the lowest rank of life, but strongly prejudiced against the notion of Christ's suffering and dying; and yet, through the power of the Holy Ghost, they were convinced of their mistake, and enabled to preach salvation by Christ cru

cified, at the hazard of their lives. I say, what cannot we do, one and all, with the same help? Why cannot we believe to the saving of the soul? Why cannot we be true to Christ in a work of obedience, through the power of the same Spirit which changed them into other men, removed the darkness that was upon their minds, and carried them through greater trials than any we have to struggle with? Christ asked the two disciples, "Whe"ther they could drink of his cup, and be baptized with " his baptism?" And when they answered "they could," he told them that indeed they should, knowing how they would afterwards be enabled to do it. It may not be required of us to drink of his cup, and be baptized with his baptism; that is, to lay down our lives in defence of the truth as he and they did; but then he gives us to understand, that none shall be advanced to the highest place, or to any place, in his kingdom, but those "for "whom it is prepared of the Father;" that is, who are prepared for it according to his will, by his power, and by a belief and practice grounded on the rule of Scripture. And, if we are not prepared and qualified for it, and brought happily to it, the apostles, who were as little qualified for it by nature as we are, and had so much a greater burden laid upon them than we, will rise up against us at the day of judgment. Let us, therefore, see and acknowledge in them what we may be by grace; and beg of God to enlighten our minds and purify our hearts, to keep us low in our own eyes, and make it our only ambition to be prepared for a place at Christ's righthand, by the same Spirit which guided them into all truth, and supported them in the work they had to do.

PRAYER.

God, who dost teach the hearts of thy faithful people, by sending to them the light of thy Holy Spirit; grant