Matthew 9

Then Christ's spouse puts off her mourning. How can the children of the bride chamber mourn, when the bridegroom shall be with them (Matthew 9:15)? Thus death gives a believer his Quietus est; it frees him from sin and trouble.

How could these divine titles be given to Christ? Omnipotence (Hebrews 1:3), ubiquity (Matthew 28:20), a power of sealing pardons (Matthew 9:6), coequality with God the Father, both in power and dignity (John 5:21, 23) — how, I say, could these titles of honor be ascribed to Chr…

2. The same royal prerogatives which belong to God the Father belong also to Christ. (1.) Does God the Father seal pardons, this is a flower of Christ's crown (Matthew 9:2). Your sins be forgiven you.

1. It makes way for temporal good things. 1. It brings health, when Christ said to the palsy man, "Your sins are forgiven," this made way for a bodily cure, "Arise, take up your bed and walk" (Matthew 9:6). The pardon of his sin made way for the healing of his palsy.

Q. This punishment of the damned is in itself most dreadful and terrible, but how long shall it continue? A. The thing were something less grievous, if this misery would ever have an end; but this is the aggravation of it that it must be everlasting (2 Thessalonians 1:9; Matthew…

Q. And what a heart is it in whom this faith is wrought? A. Only the heart of such an one as is now a poor, lost and broken-hearted sinner (Matthew 9:12 and 11:28; Luke 19:10 and 3:4, 5, 6). Q. Why say you so?

The Spirit is upon him on purpose (Isaiah 61:1-3) to open the prison to them that are bound, shut up in this dungeon; to appoint to them that mourn, beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness. He is the physician and has underta…

We must labor to give assent to God's promises when we pray, and strive against doubting and unbelief. Lord, I believe, Lord help my unbelief (Matthew 9:11). Why are you cast down, my soul, and why are you disquieted in me? (Psalm 42:11).

But they are such sinners, &c. Ans. The more need to come to Christ; he came to call sinners (Matthew 9:13). It is no matter what you have been, but what you would be; Christ does not call us because we are holy, but that we may be holy.

But we hold and teach that to prescribe the time of a religious fast is in the liberty of the Church and the governors thereof, as special occasion shall be offered. When the disciples of John asked Christ why they and the Pharisees fast often but his disciples fasted not, he an…

Secondly God in making promise of salvation respects not men's worthiness. For he chose us to life everlasting when we were not: he redeemed us from death being enemies: and entitles us to the promise of salvation, if we acknowledge ourselves to be sinners (Matthew 9); if we lab…

Thus those that addicted themselves to prophetical studies, are called the sons of the Prophets (2 Kings 4:38). Thus the friends and associates of the Bridegroom are called children of the bride chamber (Matthew 9:15). And the same phrase we meet with in profane authors.

It was the bitten Israelite that looked to the brazen serpent. It is the stung and wounded sinner, that will look in earnest to Christ Jesus (Matthew 9:12-13; Isaiah 61:1-3). There must be a closing with a Savior from sin, as precious (1 Peter 2:7).

At the first creation all was made by the voice of God; he says, Let there be light, and there was light: let him say to any man follow me, and he does it. Matthew 9:9: he says to the publican sitting at the receipt of custom, follow me; and he left all, and rose up and followed…

Your kingdom come: the second sort has two petitions: the first is disposed in a simple axiom of the subject and adjoint, that the kingdom of God, which he exercises by his Son, may daily come; that is, be set up in glory, fit for it: this having two parts, his administration he…

2. It's a good token of saving faith, when it has a discovery and holy suspicion of unbelief attending on it, so that the person dare not so trust and rely on his own faith, as not to dread unbelief, and to tell Christ of it. There is a poor man that comes to Christ (Matthew 9:2…

Christ is a convincing thing, and invincibly binds reason: so the forlorn Son, before he returns to his Father, argues (Luke 15:17), My Father has bread, he gives it to servants, and I am a starving son; therefore I'll return to my Father; and the wise Merchant must discourse (M…

(3.) They buy and sell you [in non-Latin alphabet] with decked up and well kammed fair words. O our Redeemer that bought us, our Saviour! O free grace! O free redemption! as Libertines now do, and yet they that deny sanctification, deny Christ who in their profession bought them…

Be fully satisfied of this in your judgment and mind, that unless you have Christ, you have no life, and therefore mourn and pray. "The whole need not the physician but those that are sick" (Matthew 9:12-13). See yourself a sinner and a perishing creature unless Christ seek you…

I answer again, that Abraham believed not only the power of God (Romans 4:21), but also his will, which he had revealed in the promise, In your seed all the nations of the earth, shall be blessed. Secondly, it is alleged, that Christ in the curing of certain blind men, required…

Touching the first; It may seem, that some among the Galatians were of the Pharisees' mind, who thought they were bound to love their friends, but not their enemies; or of this persuasion that they were not bound in conscience to do good to the heathen among whom they lived, as…

Ans. I answer, that they still keep their order and dignity: but by these of the second, which Christ strictly requires, and upon which he also insists, the hypocrisy of hypocrites is chiefly discovered, so as a man may more plainly discern thereby whether the true fear of God b…

But in the miracles showed in the healing of men's bodies, Christ manifested a plain proof of that power he had to heal the sicknesses of their souls. This healing then whereof Saint Matthew speaks, extended further than to their bodies: for he was ordained a physician of souls…

But in the mean while, the most part of men do but trifle and dally with God, and labor to satisfy him with pretty gauds and toys. Isaiah therefore condemns and detests such a hypocrisy; and teaches that the Lord rather requires mercy of us, than sacrifices (Hosea 6:7; Matthew 9…

Matthew 9:1-8 1. And entering into a ship, he passed over, and came into his own city.

Matthew 9:14-17 14. Then come to him the disciples of John, saying, For what reason do we and the Pharisees fast often, while your disciples do not fast?

Matthew 9:18-22 18. While he was speaking these things to them, a certain ruler came, and worshipped him,

Matthew 9:23-26 23. And when Jesus came into the house of the ruler, and saw the musicians and the multitude making a noise, 24. He says to them, Withdraw: for the young woman is not dead, but sleeps: and they ridiculed him.

34. But the Pharisees said, He casts out devils by the prince of the devils. Matthew 9:27. And while Jesus was departing. The other Evangelists say nothing about these two miracles; for, as we have already said, and as John expressly affirms, (John 21:25,) they did not intend to…

Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest, to send forth laborers into his harvest. Matthew 9:35. And Jesus went about This statement is made by way of anticipating an objection, and is intended to inform us that the whole ministry of Christ is not minutely described: for he was…

Matthew 9:9-13 9. And Jesus, passing on, saw a man sitting at the custom-house, named Matthew, and says to him, Follow me.

It is not improbable that this may have been his leading motive for adopting the plan of a Harmony, instead of writing a separate Commentary on each Gospel. He had made some observations on Matthew 9:34, But the Pharisees said, He casts out devils by the prince of the devils; an…

Such also is the import of that statement, that the fields are white, and are in want of reapers, (John 4:35;) and again, that the harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few, (Matthew 9:37.) But here the comparison is applied in a different manner; for those who occupy a plac…

For I desired Mercy, and not Sacrifice. Which seems to have been a Text much delighted in by our Saviour, by his Manner of citing it once and again; Matthew 9. 13. and 12. 7. Zeal is also spoken of, as a very essential Part of the Religion of true Saints.

If we look over the Scriptures that speak of evangelical repentance, we shall presently see that repentance is to be understood in this sense, as meaning conversion. Matthew 9:13: 'I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.' Luke 13:3: 'Except you repent, yo…

There is no man so unlikely to be truly called by Christ as that man who thinks he is called when he is not. Matthew 9: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Righteous men — that is, those who thought they were righteous, and in their own eyes thought they…

Those Pharisees that did depend upon their own righteousness, and their own goodness, Christ did not call them, Christ did not own them, God made them not the objects of his election. Hence it is said (Matthew 9:13), Christ came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentan…

4. That they that are conceited in the opinion of their own goodness, without seeing their want and necessity of Jesus Christ, are of all sorts of people in the world most unlikely to be effectually called by Jesus Christ. This I urge from Matthew 9:13. I came not, says Christ,…

1. Christ's institution of the office (Ephesians 4:11). 2. God's designation of the person (Matthew 9:38). 3. The Church's acceptation, election, submission (Galatians 4:14; Acts 14:23; 1 Thessalonians 5:12, 13) which does not give them dominion over the faith of believers (2 Co…

So Abel's sacrifice which was in especial a burnt-offering, is called his Mincha (Genesis 3). Hence it is sometimes rendered in the New Testament by [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], a sacrifice, a bloody sacrifice (Matthew 9:49; Acts 7:42). And our Apostle from Psalm 40:6 renders [〈…

So those mourners used to awake early in the morning, or rather to awaken the morning; and they had one woman whom they called (Praefica) the leader, the first or the chief of the choir and company of mourners (plangendi Magistra) whose office it was to call up and bring on the…

But this condition imports, that we must exercise mercy towards our brethren, and so breake off the course of our sinnes, if we looke for mercie at Gods hands. Now the words here used are comparatiue, betokening a likelihood and similitude betweene Gods forgiuing and ours: which…

Fourth, to show the necessity of that ordinance. And fifth, the respect people ought to have to them, who are over them in the Lord: no flock needs a shepherd more than a congregation needs a minister, people without laborers, being like sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:36),…

1. The subject thereof is to hold forth the mutual and interchangeable exercise, and out-lettings of love, as well between Christ and particular believers, as between him and the Church: As also, his various dispensations to the Bride, her diverse conditions and tempers, and bot…

For until a sinner be thoroughly convinced of his guilt and misery, and his conscience awakened by the threats and terrors of the law, that he stands forfeited to the justice of God, liable to eternal wrath, and may every moment be swallowed up in the abyss of woe and torments,…

It frequently happens, that works of necessity, and mercy, will not permit us to be employed in works of piety, nor to sanctify the Sabbath after such a manner, as else we ought: for the Lord requires mercy rather than sacrifice (Hosea 6:6). And this our Saviour alleges (Matthew…

Nor did Christ work miracles as the apostles did, who wrought them all in the name of Christ; but he wrought them in his own name, and by his own authority and will: Thus, saith he, "I will be thou clean," Matthew 8:3. And in the same strain he put the question, "Believe ye that…

Or by whom shall they be gathered? It made the bowels of Christ yearn within him, when he looked upon the scattered multitude that had no shepherd (Matthew 9:36). What an easy conquest does the devil now make of them?

32. (Exodus 4:24) God which did not afflict that innocent, whose circumcision Moses had ere long deferred, took revenge upon Moses himself for the injury which was done through so great neglect, giving us thereby to understand, that they whom God's own mercy saves without us, ar…

The power of translating a sinner from Satan's kingdom to the kingdom of the Son of his love works as acted (as it were) and set on work to act righteously to translate no man, but the person for whom a ransom of blood is given to justice, as the Prince's right power is only for…