126 SECT. Reflections on the regard we should shew to the gospel. eternity, that the salvation of one immortal soul will be more CXV. than an equivalent for the greatest and most lasting temporal evils which the greatest number of persons can suffer for conscience sake. ver.50 54, 56 58 SECT. cxvi. Luke Let this awaken our zeal to save souls, however great and terrible the sufferings are to which it may expose us, in proportion to the rage with which the enemy is endeavouring their destruction. May we be animated in it by the example of the blessed Jesus, who, with a view to this, even longed for those sufferings which innocent nature could not but regard as the object of strong aversion! May we at all times be so wise as to discern the evidences, and to comply with the purposes, of the gospel, else our knowl edge in natural things, should it extend not only to the most common, but the most curious appearances on the face of the earth or the heavens, will turn to no other account but to shame and condemn us! If we have any reason to fear that, through obstinate impenitence, the blessed God is still an adversary to us, let us make it our first and greatest care that, by an humble submission of soul to him in the methods of his gospel grace, that strict scrutiny of his justice may be prevented, and that sentence of his wrath averted, which would otherwise plunge us into endless ruin and misery; for when could we pretend to have paid the last farthing of the debt of ten thousand talents, which we have been daily contracting, and which is charged to our account in the book of his remembrance ! Christ, on the mention of some calamities which had befallen others, warns his hearers of the danger they were in if they did not repent, and illustrates it by the parable of the barren figtree. Luke XIII. 1-9. LUKE XIII. 1. LUKE XIII. 1. were told him of the Gal NOW, while our Lord was thus discoursing THERE of the necessity of being at peace with present at that God, some who were present at that time, told season, some that xiii. 1 him of those unhappy Galileans, the followers of Judas Gaulonites, who had rendered themselves obnoxious to the Roman power by some a Told him of those Galileans, the fol- 1. (See also Bell, Jud. lib. ii. cap. 8 (at. lowers of Judas Gaulonites.] Josephus 7), §1; cap. 17. §8; & lib. vii. cap. 8. (al. has given us the story of this Judas 28), Havercamp.) It appears he was at Gaulonites at large, Antiq. lib. xviii. cap. 1, the head of a sect who asserted God to be Except we repent, we shall all perish. 127 ileans, whose blood acts or principles of resistance to it: and SECT. that these Galileans 2 And Jesus, an- And Jesus, without making any remarks on 2 swering, said unto the cause on which they were engaged, endeathem, Suppose ye voured, with his usual wisdom and piety, to, were sinners above lead the minds of his hearers into some profitall the Galileans, able reflections upon the event; and, in reply, because they suffer- said to them, Do you think that these Galileans ed such things? were notorious sinners above all the rest of the Galileans, that they suffered such sad things as these, and were cut off in so miserable a man3 I tell you, Nay; ner? If you do, you are very unfit to judge 3 but, except ye re- of the conduct of Providence; for, howsoever pent, ye shall all you may censure them, as shewn hereby to be likewise perish. the most enormous sinners, I tell you, No; you are not to conclude from hence this was the case; but, except you repent, you shall all perish thus, vengeance will overtake you in your evil ways, and, in the desolating judgments that will shortly come on your whole nation, the blood of many of you shall be mingled with your sacrifices. Luke 4 Or those eigh. Or, to instance in another unhappy case that 4 teen upon whom the has lately occurred, I mean that of those eightower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think teen men on whom the tower in Siloam fell, and ye that they were slew them, do you think they were greater rendering it, You shall all perish as well as their only Sovereign, and were so utterly azox.] Some content themselves with averse to a submission to the Roman power, that they accounted it unlawful to pay tribute unto Cesar, and rather would endure the greatest torments than give any man the title of lord. This Judas is probably the person whom Gamaliel refers to by the name of Judas of Galilee, Acts v. 37. Josephus does not mention the slaughter of these Galileans (which, by the way, makes Zegerus's interpretation very improbable that they were actually slain at the altar, in contempt of the temple); but he records an action of Pilate that much resembles it, of the manner of his treating the Samaritans; Antiq. lib. xviii. cap. 4 (al. 5), § 1. Perhaps this story of the Galileans might now be mentioned to Christ with a design of leading him into a snare, whether he should justify or condemn the persons that were slain. You shall all perish thus, woals VOL. 2. 18 On whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them.] From the fountain of Siloam, 128 Luke xiii. 5 Christ delivers the parable of the barren figtree. SECT. offenders than all the other inhabitants of Jeru- sinners above all CXVI. salem, that they were thus providentially sin- men that dwelt in Jerusalem ? gled out for destruction? I tell you, No; you 5 I tell you, Nay; would judge very rashly if you were in general but, except ye reto draw such conclusions; for the best of men pent, ye shall all likewise may be involved with others in temporal calam- like wise perish. ities: but remember what I told you before, that, except you repent, you shall all perish thus; you shall be pressed under the insupportable load of the Divine vengeance, and be destroyed under the ruins of that holy city in which you trust. 6 And, in order to awaken them more effec- 6 He spake also tually to such deep and serious repentance, he this parable: A certain man had a figspake this parable to them; There was a cer- tree planted in his tain man who had a figtree planted in his vine- vineyard; and he came and sought yard; and he came, for several successive sea- fruit thereon, and sons, searching for fruit upon it, but he found found none. 7 none. And at length, despairing of any better 7 Then said he success, he said to the keeper of the vineyard, unto the dresser of Behold, these three years together I have come hold, these three his vineyard, Beto look for fruit upon this figtree, and still I find years I come seeknone; cut it down therefore immediately, as a ing fruit on this figbarren tree : for why does it thus cumber tree, and find none: the ground, filling up the place of more profit- cumbereth it the able plants with its useless bulk, and drawing ground? away nourishment from those that grow round cut it down, why 8 it? But such was the concern of the vine- 8 And he, answerdresser for its preservation, that he said to him ing, said unto him, in reply, Sir, I desire thou wouldest let it alone Lord, let it alone this this year also, till I shall dig up the ground which was without the walls of Jerusalem, a little stream flowed into the city (Isa. viii. 6), which was received in a kind of bason, which some have thought to be the same with the pool of Bethesda (see 2 Kings IX. 20; Neh. iii. 16; Isa. viii. 6; and John v. 2; ix. 7). Being near the temple it is no wonder that many frequented it for purification; but the calamity occasioned by the fall of the neighbouring tower is not, that I can find, mentioned any where but here: probably it had happened at some late feast; and some of Christ's hearers might then have been at Jerusalem. Erasmus indeed takes this Siloam to have been Shiloh, the place where the tabernacle was first settled (Josh. xviii. 1; Psal. xxviii. 60), but without sufficient reason; see Drusius, in loc. This last instance might seem in some respects more to the purpose than the year also, till I shall former, as there was no human interposition attending the death of these men; so that it seemed more immediately providential than that of the Galileans whom Pilate had massacred. These three years.] Many have supposed that these words allude to the time of Christ's personal ministry, which, as most have computed the chronology of the New Testament, had now lasted three years: but it is certain the patience of God bore with them much longer than another year. Grotius therefore thinks it more probable it may refer to the nature of a figtree, which, if it bear at all, generally begins to do it within three years after it is planted; but might to be sure be looked upon as barren, if it had disappointed the expectation of the planter three years together after the time in which it should have yielded fruit, which was yet worse.. Reflections on the guilt and danger of unfruitfulness. 9 And if it bear 129 dig about it, and about it, and lay dung to the root of it: And SECT. dung it : then perhaps it may bear fruit, and if so, it is CXVI. fruit, well: and if well, and thou preservest thy tree; but if not, not, then after that after this thou shalt, if thou pleasest, cut it down, xiii. 9 thou shalt cut it and I will say nothing farther to prevent it. down. By which parable our Lord did plainly repre- IMPROVEMENT. Luko WHICH of us may not learn a lesson for himself from this ver. 6 instructive parable of the figtree? Have we not long been planted in God's vineyard, and favoured with the cultivation of his ordinances, yea, with the dews of his grace too; and yet how little fruit have we borne in proportion to those advantages? How long has he come seeking it in vain, while we have frustrated the 7 most reasonable expectations, perhaps not only for three, but several of us for more than thirty years? Wonderful is it that the dreadful sentence has not long since gone forth against us, Cut them down, why cumber they the ground? We owe it to the 8 intercession of our blessed Redeemer, the Great Keeper of the garden of God, that this has not long since been our case. us not be high minded, but fear! (Rom. xi. 20.) Let barren sinners reflect that this may be the last year, perhaps indeed the last month, or last day of their trial; for even now also is the ax 9 laid to the root of the tree! (Mat. iii. 10.) And let them remember, that though there be hope of a tree, when it is cut down, that it may sprout again (Job xiv. 7), yet, when the doom is executed on them, their root will be as rottenness, and their blos • Perhaps it may bear fruit: x'av Mev amon naprov.] It is in the original something of an abrupt way of speaking, of which Raphelius has produced many examples (Annot. ex. Xen. p. 102, 103); but I think the way of rendering the idiom I have here used would suit it in most of those instances: Let f Under the additional cultivation, &c.] The extraordinary means used to bring them to repentance after the resurrection of Christ, by the effusion of his Spirit, and the preaching of the apostles, might, with great propriety, be expressed by digging round the barren tree, and applying warm compost, or dung, to its roots. 130 Christ cures a crooked woman in the synagogue. SECT. Som will go up like dust (Isa. v. 24); and every tree which brings CXVI. not forth good fruit will be hewn down, and cast into the fire. ver. 2 Let such therefore meditate terror when the judgments of God are abroad in the earth; and, when others are overwhelmed in ruin, let them not harshly censure the sufferers, as if they 3,5 were greater sinners than any others; but let them apply that salutary, though awful, admonition to their own souls, repeating it again and again, till they are pricked to the heart by it, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. 1 Terrible indeed was the case of those whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices, and of those who were dashed to pieces 4 in a moment by the fall of Siloam's tower; but infinitely more dreadful will be the condition of them that fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. x. 31), especially of those deceivers who, having surrounded his altars with the hypocritical forms of devotion, shall themselves be made the victims of his justice, and be crushed by the resistless weight of his almighty vengeance. SECT. CXVII. Luke SECT. CXVII. Christ cures a crooked woman in the synagogue, and vindicates his doing it on the sabbathday; and afterwards repeats the parables of the grain of mustardseed, and of the leaven. Luke XIII. 10-22. LUKE XIII. 10. LUKE XIII. 10. HUS our Lord went on in his journey Ateaching in one TH of the synagogues on the sabbath. through Galilee for a considerable time; and as he was teaching in one of the synagogues xiii.10 on the sabbathday, Behold there was present 11 And, Behold, 11 a poor disabled woman, who (as the Jews used there was a woman commonly to express it, and was now actually which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen the case) had been afflicted by a spirit of weak- years, and was bowness" no less than eighteen years, and was bowed ed together, and together in so sad a manner that, from the time Had been afflicted by a spirit of weak ness.] It is very evident the Jews apprehended that all remarkable disorders of body proceeded from the operation of some malignant demon. Perhaps they might draw an argument from what is said of Satan's agency in the affliction of Job (chap. i. and ii.), and from Psal. xci. 6 (compare Septaug.) and 1 Sam. xvi. 14. They also considered Satan as having the power of Death. Heb. ii. 14. And that, in some maladies, this was indeed the case is intimated by our Lord's reply here, ver. 16, and by St. Paul's words, 1 Cor. v. 5, where he speaks of delivering an offender to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. The topic is very judiciously handled by that illustrious writer Mr. Howe (see his works, Vol. II. p. 360, 361); and there are some curious and entertaining remarks in Wolfius on this text. |