The fame malice was fhewn with regard to the man with the withered hand; but in this paffage there is no difficulty.

We are next told, that Jefus retired to a private place to avoid the Pharifees. But he was followed by multitudes, and wrought many miracles among them; ordering them, at the fame time, not to make a public boaft of what he had done for them.-This fecrecy feems to be intended chiefly as a leffon to his disciples, not to make their good deeds matter of oftentation; but to do them in fecret, defiring no witness but God. By this quiet behaviour alfo, St. Matthew fays, Jefus fulfilled a prophecy of Ifaiah, which speaks not only of the mighty works which he fhould perform, but of the quietnefs with which he fhould perform them: He fhall not strive, nor cry; neither fhall any man hear his voice in the Streets. A bruifed reed fhall be not break; and Smoaking flax fhall be not quench. Flax was ufed by the Jews in their lamps; fo that the expreffion, Smoaking flax fhall be not quench, means the fame as a bruifed reed fhall he not break. That is, instead of afflicting those who are already afflicted, he will with gentlenefs and kindnefs relieve them.

We

1

We are next informed of his healing a blind and dumb man, who was poffeffed with a devil. This great miracle the Pharifees afcribed to his being in league with Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. Jefus fhewed them how impoffible fuch a fuppofition was, from his conftant oppofition to the works of the devil. If Satan, faid he, should cast out Satan, he would oppofe himfelf, and his kingdom could not stand.-Besides, as their own children pretended to caft out devils; and as they pretended to do it by the power of God, not by the power of the devil, Jefus only defired them to allow as much to him as they were willing to allow to their friends. If then, faid Jefus, I caft out devils by the Spirit of God, the kingdom of God is come unto you: that is,' you must believe that the doctrines of the gospel which I teach are true. I have fhewn you that I am stronger than the devil, by difpoffeffing him. As our views, therefore, are different, it is apparent what mine are, by being oppofite to his. This feems to be the meaning of the 29th and 30th verfes.The next verfe contains what our Saviour fays in relation to the fin against the Holy Ghoft. He had juft, you fee, been cafting out a devil; which the Pharifees

afcribed

afcribed to his being in league with the devil. This was fo directly against the truth, and against their own confciences, (as they could not but fee the utter impoffibility of it,) that Jefus calls it the fin against the Holy Ghoft; and fays, it can neither be forgiven in this world, nor in the world to come which I conceive implies, not the impoffibility of its being forgiven upon repentance, but the great difficulty of repenting; for if the Pharifees were not convinced by fuch miracles as these, done on the spot before their eyes, they would of course refift every other kind of evi dence, and muft therefore die in their fins. Jefus then tells them, that as the fruit would always be good or bad, according to the nature of the tree; fo men's lives and actions would be according to the difpofition of their hearts: fo that their mere actions, however good they might appear, if they proceeded not from a well-dif posed, religious heart, fignified nothing. He moreover tells them, they fhould be accountable even for their idle words. Idle here, according to the Jewish manner of speaking, means wicked, They had been speaking blasphemy just before; and Jesus tells them, they might be affured that

for their wicked words, as well as their wicked actions, they should be condemned.

We read next, that notwithstanding the many miracles which Jesus had performed, the Scribes and Pharisees still demanded another fign. But Jefus told them he would give them no farther fign, but the fign of the prophet Jonas:-As Jonas had been three nights and three days in the whale's belly, he was a type of Christ, who should lie three days and three nights in the grave. This story of Jonas's being three days and three nights in the whale's belly, is one of those wonderful ftories that gives great offence to those, who will not believe that an age of miracles ever existed, but will reduce every thing to the standard of their own times. But why fo? As Jonas was meant to be a type, or fign, of our Saviour's refurrection; and as our Saviour's refurrection was a very wonderful event, the type also must be something of a very wonderful kind, or it could not reprefent what was intended by it. Our Saviour then tells the Scribes and Pharifees, the men of Nineveh fhould rife in judgment against them; for they repented at the preaching of Jonas, who was far inferior to

Christ.

Christ. The queen of Sheba, too, should rife in judgment against them; for fhe came from a diftant country to hear the wisdom of Solomon, while they heard, with indifference, the doctrine of a still greater preacher.—Jesus then tells them, that when the unclean Spirit is gone out of a man, be [or, as it fhould be tranflated, it] walketh through dry places, feeking rest and finding none. Then faith it, I will return to my house from whence I came out; and finding it empty, Swept, and garnifhed, it goeth and taketh with itself feven other fpirits more wicked than itself, and they enter in, and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the firft. Even fo fhall it be alfo unto this wicked generation. This is rather a difficult paffage. The fenfe in which it is, I think, beft understood, is this: The mån, from whom the unclean spirit was driven out, reprefents the Jews, who had the law of Mofes given them, which might be supposed to drive the spirit out. For a time it did; but this evil spirit, or spirit of wickedness, returns to the Jews again, and in our Saviour's time had increased sevenfold. Even fo fhall it be, our Saviour adds, to this wicked generation or, this is the cafe of this wicked generation.