Thou shalt love thy

Ye have heard that it was said: neighbour and hate thine enemy. But I say to you: Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use and persecute you, that ye may become sons* of your Father in the highest Heaven; for he causes his sun to rise on evil and good, and sends rain on just and unjust. If ye love only them who love you, what reward can ye expect? Do not even tax-gatherers and sinners in like manner? And if ye salute your brethren only, wherein do ye excel? Do not even the heathen in like manner? If ye do good to them who do good to you, what thanks are due to you? for sinners also do the same. And if ye lend to those from whom ye expect to receive, what thanks are due to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting as much in return. But by loving your enemies, doing good, and lending without mistrust, your reward shall be

Iμariov, Matt. xi. 8-10, we have reason to believe, that it was a name given to that part of the dress which might be dispensed with, Hence the Roman soldiers were called movoxraves, implying, that they wore only the tunic in time of war; and the common people, who had no right to wear the toga, or gown, were called tunicati. Matthew represents Christ saying, "If any sue thee for thy coat, let him have thy cloak also." Luke says," forbid not him that takes thy cloak to take thy coat also."-some say, Matthew represents the contest about what was most indispensable; Luke about what was most valuable. But the probability is, that the words have been transposed in Matthew.

* According to the prevailing idiom of the Jewish language, men are called sons of their ruling dispositions, or of the tendency of their conduct. Thus we read of sons of Belial, sons of perdition, sons of thunder, sons of consolation, sons of the wicked one, sons of God. The meaning here is: Men, by the exhibition of the merciful, benevolent, and impartial disposition of their heavenly Father, will attain the name of sons, and manifest the character of the God of the whole earth. Though men cannot be perfect in that absolute sense in which God is perfect, yet in their own degree and nature, they may be perfect; when their hearts are fully set to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. He who acts as well and as merci ful, as his abilities and opportunity will admit, is as perfect in kind, as angels or gods.

great, and ye shall be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to the unthankful and evil. Be ye, therefore, merciful and perfect, as your Father in the highest Heaven, is merciful and perfect.

Be careful not to perform your deeds of righteousness in the presence of men, in order to be seen by them; otherwise ye have no reward with your Father, who is in the highest Heaven. Therefore, when you give alms, sound not a trumpet before you as the hypocrites in the synagogues and streets, that they may have honour of men: verily I say to you: They have received their reward.† But when ye give alms, let not your left hand know what your right hand does, that your alms may be in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.

When ye pray, be not like the hypocrites who love to pray, standing in the synagogues, and at the corners of the streets, that they may be observed by men verily I say to you, they have their reward. But when ye pray, enter into your closet, and, having shut the door, pray to your Father, who, though unseen, sees in secret, and will reward you. But in prayer, use not tedious repetitions, as the heathen

* The reward is here said to be, raga, in the presence, or laid up with God, not now in the actual possession of the person for whom it is reserved. Hence there shall be a future retribution for all the suf ferings and virtuous attainments of the righteous, in the present mode of being. I have rendered dialoun, which is certainly the true reading, deeds of righteousness; for such a latitude must be allowed to this term; and such extension of signification, it undoubtedly has, in many places, in both sacred and profane writers.

+ Some would have us to believe, that all men receive their reward here, as well as the hypocrites. Such men would make the Master of Christians so bad a logician, as to make a distinction without a difference: but their opinion is extravagant, false, and pernicious. It is an excrescence of religious fanaticism, or an effervescense of sectarian zeal, which will soon evaporate.

Standing was the usual attitude of the Jews, in prayer, Mark ix. 25. Luke xviii. 11, 13, but in cases of great humiliation, or earnestness, they practised kneeling, or even entire prostration. Deut. ix, 18. The Battology here reproved, derives its name from Battus, a

who think they shall be accepted on account of their long prayers. Do not therefore imitate them, for your Father knows what you want before you ask. Pray ye, therefore, after this manner,

Our Father* who art in the highest Heaven,† sanc

sorry poet, who composed many long hymns, ill connected, and full of repetitions, and often grovelling and mean. This folly is well exposed by Eschylus, who, in one place, gives nearly a hundred verses, containing nothing but mere tautology. Thus invoking the gods, he proceeds; lw lw, Thus the priests of Baal continued crying from morning to noon: O Baal! hear us: and the Ephesians cried for two hours! Great is Diana of the Ephesians. I have often thought of this, when I have heard ministers pass nearly an hour in addressing complimentary names, attributes, and phrases to the Deity, without attending to the great design of prayer. How good the advice of the wise man : Let thy words be few and well ordered.

* Our Father, Abinu, was an appellation of the God of Israel, common among the Jews, and frequently used by Christ. Malachi says, Have we not all one Father? chap. ii, 10-Is he not thy Father? Deut. xxxii. 6-Doubtless thou art our Father, Isa. lxiii. 16-One Father of all, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, Ephes. iv. 6, and iii. 14, 15. The word oUR, says Chrysostom, is joined to Father, to teach us, that, having one common Father, we should love as brethren. The Jews, says Lightfoot, were accustomed to say: Let none pray the short prayer, meaning in the singu lar, for himself alone. O! what a fulness in the phrase, our Father; and how well adapted to inspire the true spirit of devotion. Are we fatherless here ? it reminds us of an all-sufficient Father in heaven. Are we weak? he is almighty. Are we poor, using this phrase in the spirit of adoption, we look to earth, as the lower department of God's vast possessions, and, raising our eyes to the shining abodes, and starry worlds, we claim these and all God's vast domains in unbounded expanse, as ours by right, birth, and adoption; for he is the Father of our spirits, Heb. xii. 9; and we are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus; and, if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, Gal. iii. 26, Rom. viii. 17.

†The phrase, who art in heaven, is sustained by the copies of Matthew's gospel, but unsupported by those of Luke. This phrase, however, was very common among the Jews, and if, as Beausobre affirms, Christ took the three first petitions of this prayer, from a prayer called Kadesh, or The Holy, in common use among the Jews, then we may admit, that he adopted the phrase, who art in heaven, from the same usage: and this seems confirmed by the frequent adoption of it, by our Lord himself, Matt. vii. 21; x. 32; xi. 25; xii. 50; xv. 13; xvi. 17; xviii. 10; xix. 35; and Luke x. 22.

tified be thy name* ; thy reign comet; thy. will be

There is a great difficulty in understanding the omnipresence of the Deity, to which both the scriptures and philosophy invite our attention. We cannot conceive of a being possessing the power to act where it is not; and the scriptures inform us that the heaven of hea vens cannot contain God, and that whether we ascend to heaven, descend to hades, or fly to the ends of the earth, we cannot escape his presence, 1 Kings, viii. 27, and Psalm, cxxxix. 7, 8. On the other hand, heaven is uniformly described as the throne and residence of the Deity, throughout the Hebrew scriptures; and this was also a very common opinion among the ancient philosophers, who believed God managed the affairs of the lower worlds by demons or angels. Nor is it possible for us to unite the notion of personality with essential omnipresence; and every idea of intelligence involves the notion of personality. Woltzogenius observes, that whenever God is said to be any where but in Heaven, we are to understand it not of his essential presence, but of his efficacy, operation, and omniscience. This may be; therefore let us adhere to the use of scripture language.

* The name of God signifies God himself, his attributes and worship. In scripture, the name of a person is often put for the person himself, Acts i. 15, Rev. iii. 4, and xi. 13; also, Gen. iv. 26, Ps. Ixix. 36, and cxvi. 17, Isa. Ivi. 6; Joel ii. 32, Zeph. iii. 9. To sanctify the name of God, is to separate him from all the idols of the nations, and worship him alone, as the only true and living God; to separate his attributes from all imperfection of character, or ability; to fear and love him as the only ruler of the universe, and eternal parent and benefactor of men; to rely on his word, as true and faithful, and confide in his providence and unchanging love; to préserve the utmost veneration for the sacred institutions of religion, and worship him with cheerfulness, reverence, and awe; to think, speak, and act as under his immediate vigilance, and accountable to the rectitude and purity of his nature for our wilful or perverse wanderings from the dictates of his word or the holiness of his character. The prayer, therefore, implies, May God be every where known in all the perfections of his glory, may sin and imperfection of moral character be for ever destroyed, may all false worship and religion be utterly abolished, and may all intelligent beings in heart and life, honour, love, fear, and exalt the God of salvation for ever and ever.

+ This is to be understood, not of the absolute kingdom of the Father, but of the Mediatorial kingdom of the Son. And as the object of this kingdom is to reconcile all men, by restoring them to purity, holiness, and happiness, we pray: May this reign of Christ come; may it triumph in every nation, isle, tribe, and tongue in the globe earth; may all men receive it in love, meekness, and joy, and every heart become a throne for the reconciling God; may the ministry of reconciliation prosper and run, and be glorified, ti!! truth be found without error, love without dissimulation, happiness

SERMON ON THE MOUNT.

(UNIVE. SITY

133

CALIFORNI

done on earth, as in heaven. Give us daily, thể bread sufficient† for us; and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive all those who have offended us; and

without interruption, Christianity without an objector, sin without an admirer, the heart of man without an evil or painful thought, and life immortalized in the beatitude of perfect heaven, and in the fulness and love of a redeeming God.

* This is the perfection of holiness, when the soul, contemplating the love, wisdom, mercy, power, goodness, truth, and unchangeableness of the Deity, displayed in the formation, preservation, government, instruction, and final salvation of all intelligences, it falls into perfect and eternal acquiescence, saying with every faculty attuned to the harmony of the sound: Thy will, which is my sanctification; thy will, which is my salvation; thy free, benevolent, irresistible, and unerring will be done.

+ The word cover cov, has occasioned great perplexity to interpreters. The word is nowhere else to be found in the New Testament, in the Septuagint version, nor in any Greek author. Some think it is formed from another word signifying the next day, or the morrow, and, according to the style of the Hebrews, the time to come. Jerome says, he found, in a gospel of Matthew, for the use of the Nazarenes, the Hebrew word Mahar, which signifies the morrow, or time to come, as in Exod. xii. 14; Josh. iv. 6; Matt. vi. 34. If this be correct, the petition runs thus: Give us daily the bread sufficient for our subsistence, during our lives, see Exod. xvi. 16; Prov. xxx. 8, and xxxi. 15; 2 Kings, xxv. 30; Job, xxxiii. 18; 1 Tim. vi. 6, 8; and James ii. 15. Wakefield conjectures the word to be formed from the junction of 7 and outav, the bread according to our portion of the inheritance, Luke xv. 12, 13. And the Syriac version reads: Give us daily the bread of our necessity, or necessary for our subsistence. Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Basil explain the passage, such bread as being turned into the substance of our bodies, will nourish and preserve them. By bread, is implied, all the necessaries of life, as appears from numerous passages of scripture; and the petition includes all that is needful for well-being, while being endures.

Scarcely can there occur a more awful thought to the mind, than the idea, which this petition inspires. Here we are taught by Jesus, to supplicate God to forgive, because we exercise forgiveness towards all who offend us; or, as Matthew reads, to forgive us as we forgive others. Now, if we utter this request, while we maintain a single grudge or feeling of animosity to a single individual, we either mock God, or pray for our own condemnation. Let us, therefore, reflect, and if we feel ourselves so unlike the God whom we profess to adore, let us earnestly pray for his holy and gracious spirit, to purge our hearts from all envy, hatred, and malice.