Matthew 23

Resp. The human nature being united to the divine, the human nature did suffer, the divine did satisfy: Christ's Godhead as it did support the human nature that it did not faint, so it did give virtue to his sufferings. The altar sanctifies the thing offered on it, (Matthew 23:1…

Herod would hear John the Baptist, but not leave his incest. Some will pray, but not give alms; others will give alms but not pray (Matthew 23:23). You pay tithe of mint and anise, and have neglected the weightier things of the law — judgment, mercy and faith.

Hell is Domus Servitutis, a house of bondage; a house built on purpose for sinners to lie in. 1. That there is such a house of bondage where the damned lie (Psalm 9:17): The wicked shall be turned into Hell (Matthew 23:33): How can you escape the damnation of Hell. If any one sh…

He who is strict in the second table, but neglects the first, or he who is zealous in the first table, but neglects the second, his heart is not right with God. The Pharisees were the highest pretenders to the first table, zeal and holiness; but Christ detects their hypocrisy (M…

5. They are wilfully set to murder their own souls, who will neither be good to themselves, nor suffer others to be so. Matthew 23:13: You neither go into the Kingdom of Heaven yourselves, neither allow them that are entering, to go in. Such are those that persecute others for t…

(2.) Because some sins are not capable of pardon as others are, therefore they must needs be more heinous, as the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost (Matthew 12:31). (3.) Because some sins have a greater degree of punishment than others (Matthew 23:14): You shall receive greater d…

And let me tell you, the more labour you have put forth for the kingdom of heaven, the more degrees of glory you shall have. As there are degrees of torment in hell (Matthew 23:14), so of glory in heaven. As one star differs from another in glory, so shall one saint (1 Corinthia…

He tempts them to frequency in duty that they may sin and be less suspected. He tempted the Pharisees to make long prayers, that they might devour widows' houses under this pretense (Matthew 23:14). Who would suspect him of false weights, that so often holds a Bible in his hand?

The name Father in scriptures is ascribed either to God taken indefinitely, and so by consequent to all the three persons in Trinity: or particularly to the first person alone. For the first, God is a Father properly and principally, according to the saying of Christ, "Call no m…

When we believe it, we desire to believe nothing beside — for this we first believe: that there is nothing more which we may believe. Jerome on Matthew 23, writing of an opinion that John the Baptist was killed because he foretold the coming of Christ, says: This, because it has…

4. He is undervalued when folk think not themselves happy enough in him, nor sure enough in bargaining with him, and when he does not satisfy and fully content them, as if he were yes and no, and as if all the promises were not yes and amen in him. When he is not credited entire…

4. It may be confirmed from the many sad complaints that the Lord has for not receiving Him, and not believing His Word, and from the dreadful designations by which He holds out the sin of unbelief; all which, will make out this, that God lays Christ at sinners' door in His Word…

This is His quarrel (John 5:40): You will not come to me that you may have life — and here, Who has believed our report? So (Matthew 23): I would have gathered you and you would not; and (John 12:37): Though he did many mighty works among them, yet they believed not on him. 5. L…

3. They are called Christ's seed, in respect of the care that He has of them. Never was a mother more tender of the sucking child, than He is of His believing children; therefore, says the Lord (Isaiah 49:15), a mother may forget her sucking child; but I will not forget you: hen…

As, 1. Those of whom the complaint is made, it is not heathens, but God's own people, as the Lord complains (Psalm 81:10-11): "My people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would have none of me." Our Lord Jesus complains of Jerusalem (Matthew 23, at the end): "O Jerusalem…

That unbelief though there were no other sin, is exceeding sinful, and is first. The great ground that makes God expostulate with the hearers of the Gospel, and that makes them come under the complaint, (John 5:40) "You will not come to me that you may have life," and (Matthew 2…

It cannot be more free than without money, it cannot be more seriously pressed than with a "Ho" and cries to come. Sometimes He complains, as (John 5:40), "You will not come to me that you might have life," and sometimes weeps and mourns because sinners will not be gathered, as…

Observation 4. The fourth observation is, That it is and ought to be a very sad and weighty thing to a minister, and also to a people, when he is put to complain to God of their unbelief among whom he is laboring; it is the last thing he has to do, and he can do no more, and it…

Which shows that not only weakness, but willfulness has influence in men's unbelief. 3. The Lord charges men with this (Matthew 23:37): "I would, you would not." 4. Conscience takes it on its will, and fathers disobedience on the will (1 Samuel 8:19).

But these be all the visible church of Thessalonica; therefore, there were no children of darkness among them, which is absurd; and will be denied by Arminians. When Christ speaks to the multitude, he says (Matthew 23:8) All you are brothers — they must be brothers, by the new b…

Look at us as we are by nature, all of us without Christ cannot put forth one act of spiritual life, not one good motion to be found in such a condition. And in the first place for begetting any to grace, we rather do the quite contrary, we addict ourselves to beget men to becom…

God answers them, that he would pardon them, and heal them; he will remove them all away from them, not a hoof be left behind, but all taken away. There is a generation of men that are marvelously unwilling to yield to this, so that you see it is an ordinary thing for men to say…

And though in show he may seem to befriend many that hearken to his temptations, yet in the end he cries, down with them, down with them even to the ground. God's manner is quite contrary, when he means to exalt a man, he will first humble him, and make him low (Matthew 23:12):…

He was to be like a Moses, but greater than Moses; a lawgiver as he, a man as he, one that saw God face to face as he, a mediator as he, but far other in all respects; a better law, a more glorious person, a more blessed mediator, working greater miracles than ever did Moses. So…

2. Another fault that our Redeemer rebukes in the duty of prayer is, vain repetitions. And though he only mention it here as the heathens' fault, verse 7, yet certainly the Scribes and Pharisees might also be guilty of it, for they are censured for their long prayers (Matthew 23…

Some are faults in manners, some in doctrine. If the faults of the Church be in manners, and these faults appear both in the lives of ministers and people, so long as true religion is taught, it is a church, and so to be esteemed; and the ministers must be heard (Matthew 23:1).…

If the said party be admitted to stand in the room of a true pastor or minister, and keep the right form in baptizing, according to the institution, it is true baptism. The Scribes and Pharisees, the chief doctors of the Jews, were not of the tribe of Levi, but of other tribes:…

(1 John 3:16) We must lay down our lives for our brethren. (Matthew 23:8) One is your Doctor, to wit, Christ, and all you are brethren. (1 Corinthians 5:11) If any that is called a brother be a fornicator, with such a one eat not.

We may well be deceived indeed if we will judge of the godliness of a man by the second Table only: but if any man shall exercise himself in the duties of the commandments of the first Table, which are testimonies of godliness and of the service of God, then must he be brought t…

These were light matters with them, and they thought they might easily purge themselves of them, by fastings and such bodily exercises: for these were their goodly merits in which they imagined the whole worship of God consisted, and by which they hoped to be absolved from all t…

After a long period, when there was such a profusion of names, that it became inconvenient to form new ones every day, people satisfied themselves with the old and received names, and called their children by the names of their ancestors. Thus before the father of John, there we…

if they are just in their dealings with men, if they relieve the poor, if they are generous to the wretched, if they give liberally what the Lord has bestowed upon them. This is the reason why our Lord pronounces "judgment, mercy, and faith," to be "the weightier matters of the…

Both have been pressed into the service. The former is chiefly quoted in support of an allusion to our Lord's description of them, that they make broad their phylacteries, (Matthew 23:5.) But the latter root has been more fertile in suggestions.

The Anabaptists, too, have blustered a great deal, on the ground, that Christ appears to give no liberty to swear on any occasion, because he commands, Swear not at all But we need not go beyond the immediate context to obtain the exposition: for he immediately adds, neither by…

It was hypocrisy, therefore, that made them so exact in trifling matters, while they spared themselves in gross superstitions; as Christ elsewhere upbraids them with paying tithe of mint and anise, and neglecting the important matters of the Law, (Matthew 23:23.) It is the invar…

Whence comes such fury, but because all their senses are affected by a wicked hatred of Christ, so that they are blind amidst the full brightness of the sun? We learn also, that we ought to beware lest, by attaching undue importance to ceremonial observances, we allow other thin…

God, who at sundry times and in various ways spoke formerly by the Prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his beloved Son. In short, Christ is as truly heard at the present day in the Law and in the Prophets as in his Gospel; so that in him dwells the authority of a Ma…

Matthew 23:1-12 1. Then Jesus spoke to the multitude, and to his disciples,

Matthew 23:13-15 13. But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

22. And whosoever shall swear by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him that sits upon it. Matthew 23:16. Woe to you, blind guides, As ambition is almost always connected with hypocrisy, so the superstitions of the people are usually encouraged by the covetousness and r…

Matthew 23:23-28 23. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

Matthew 23:29-39 29. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you build the sepulchers of the prophets and embellish the monuments of the righteous, 30. And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been their associates in the blood of the proph…

And this Christ speaks of, as one of the weightier Matters of the Law. Matthew 23. 23 Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of Mint, and Anise, and Cummin, and have omitted the weightier Matters of the Law, Judgment, Mercy, and Faith.

This they do, by taking upon them the place and office of the guides to direct and manage; They are confident that they are a light of them which are in darkness, instructors of babes, Romans 2:19-20. It is natural for them to take it for granted, that it belongs to them to do t…

(3.) There is none by whom the Gospel is refused, but they put forth an Act of the Will in its Rejection, which all Men are free to and able for. I would have gathered you but you would not, Mat. 23. 37. You will not come to me that you may have life.

Though it is true that it is determined by God who he will save, and who not, from all eternity, yet one man may really be a means of others' damnation, as well as salvation. Christ charges the scribes and Pharisees with this (Matthew 23:13): You shut up the kingdom of heaven ag…

He does evil (says another Scripture (Micah 7:3)) with both hands greedily. To do a thing with both hands, notes the greatest endeavor: As when the Pharisees are said not to touch the burdens which they laid on others with their little finger, it notes their refusal of the least…

Christ's gathering of his lilies, points, 1. At his calling of them effectually who belong to him; the elect may be called lilies to be gathered, as they are called sons of God to be gathered (John 11:51-52). Thus also (Matthew 23:37) is Christ's expression, I would have gathere…

Yet none of you keeps the law; that is, none of you observes to do according to the commands of the moral law. For our Savior frequently bears them witness that they were very punctual observers of the ceremonial and judicial laws; but condemns them for neglecting the weightier…

Some say it was the doctrine of the Scribes and Pharisees, that although a man did not honor nor support his parents, yet he should be guiltless, if he should tell them that he had offered in the Temple a gift for his and their good, and that therefore they could require no more…