7 unto thine house.

7. To arise from his bed, take it up, and walk back to his house, from which he had been brought forth a perfectly helpless paralytic, was the plainest possible proof that his cure was complete and miraculous. For, as before observed, in the ordinary way, if palsy is cured at all, it is not cured instantly, but gradually.

8. Glorified God. Luke vii. 16. They praised and adored God, they uttered ejaculatory thanksgivings to heaven. Their pious feelings were stirred within them.-Given such power unto men. Or, unto a man, Jesus. Properly speaking, only Jesus had shown such power. The plural for the singular. This declaration testifies in what light the Jews looked upon Jesus. They regarded him as one of their own race. They had not the remotest suspicion that he was anything else. The very matter of their praise was, that God had delegated such great power, had miraculously gifted one of their kind.

9. Matthew. Mark and Luke call him Levi. Matthew and Levi were probably two names applied to the same person. Others of the Apostles, as Peter, and Thaddeus, had two names. This is the same individual who wrote the Gospel upon which we are now engaged. Matthew follows the general practice of historians, and speaks of himself in the third person, to avoid egotism.-Receipt of custom. Or, custom-house, the place where the

custom or toll was paid. The Jews, being under the government of the Romans, were obliged to pay them a tax. Officers were placed in the large towns and cities to collect and receive it. In this case, the custom, or tribute, was one probably that was levied upon persons and merchandise crossing the sea of Galilee. The receipt of custom, or office where it was paid, was situated on the sea-side, as appears from Mark ii. 13.-Follow me, i. e. Become my constant disciple and attendant.-He arose and followed him. Luke adds "He left all," which, as his office was no doubt a lucrative one, must have been a great sacrifice. But the Apostle himself makes no mention of it. He was, no doubt, previously acquainted with Jesus. a publican to be a follower of Christ, and a herald of his religion, was a sign of the sublime superiority of the new faith, in its impartiality, and mercy, over the bigotries of the old; and evinces the discernment and independence of Jesus, in selecting a worthy disciple from an order of men among whom common opinion had pronounced that there was no worth to be found."

"The call of

10. Sat. Reclined, as the custom was at meals.In the house. Whose house Matthew does not state, but from Luke we learn that the entertainment was given by Matthew himself in his own house; perhaps a farewell feast to his friends,

Not neces

and an occasion for them to hear Jesus converse.-Publicans. He naturally invites many of his own profession.-Sinners. sarily men of bad character, but Gentiles, whom the Jews were accustomed to load with the most opprobrious epithets, calling them dogs, sinners, and every vile name. Both classes were held in utter scorn and contempt by the Jews. A proverb was current:-" Take not a wife from the family of a publican."

11. Pharisees saw it. Standing without the house, they probably witnessed what was done; eager to detect something to find fault with. Why eateth your Master, &c. This objection was also brought up against Jesus at other times. Mat. xi. 19. Luke vii. 34. xv. 2. To decline eating with a man was a mark of strong antipathy. 1 Cor. v. 11. But to eat with one was a proof of regard, or sympathy. The doctors of the law accordingly had prohibited the Jews from eating with publicans and Gentiles. The Pharisees, as sticklers for outward rites, of course were punctilious in the observance of this requisition.

12. They that be whole need not a physician. This was a proverb in use among the Jews and Gentiles. Jesus reasons with them on their own ground. "I am a healer of the soul. Of course it is to these very persons whom you regard as so sinful and lost, that I ought naturally to come, to restore them. The physician is for the sick, not the well. According to your own admission, I am now associating

with those very persons who will be most benefited by a spiritual Teacher and Reformer. Instead therefore of reproach, my conduct, on your own principles, is worthy of approbation." The answers of Jesus to his enemies are wonderful indeed. They are like that twoedged sword going out of the mouth of him who was seen in the vision of the Apostle in Patmos. They pierce "even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joint and marrow, and are a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

13. Go ye and learn. A common phrase among the Jewish teachers, when they wished to refer their disciples to the Scriptures. The Pharisees had asked a question, importing that Jesus was blameworthy in mixing with publicans and sinners. He replies: "I will refer you to your own Scriptures for an answer." The answer of Jesus is thus paraphrased by Norton: "You reproach me for being with tax-gatherers and sinners; it is fitting I should be; the well need not a physician, but the sick. But do not think that you are less morally diseased than those whom you despise. You, no more than they, perform what God requires; whilst you insist on ceremonies and superstitious observances, you neglect what is essential in religion and morality. Go ye, and learn what this means, I desire goodness, and not sacrifices. I came to give an invitation to all to accept God's mercy; and, as regards you, as well as them, I did not come to give an in

The figure Jesus employs is therefore a very vivid one to express the incompatibility of his disciples' fasting while he was with them.-The bridegroom. John iii. 29. "At a future time, when the disciples would be exposed to the persecutions of their ministry, without his presence to cheer and comfort them, they might be sad in heart, and would then be disposed to fast."

16. This and the following verse have been thus paraphrased by Follen: "In the second place, do you ask why my disciples do not make fasting a regular practice, notwithstanding its sacred character as an old established form of religion? The adherence to any observance, on account of its being an old standing form of religion, is contrary to the youthful spirit of religious freedom that constitutes the essence of my doctrine. I could not, therefore, teach this new doctrine of religious liberty, and at the same time enforce such old and narrow forms of religion as your habitual fasts and prayers, without combining two discordant principles." It would be incongruous to unite a new religion with old rites. -New cloth. A cloth not dressed, or fulled, but raw, or unwrought, which when wet would shrink. A patch of such cloth, being put upon an old garment, would occasion a worse rent than before, by pulling away the parts to which it was sewed. So the new doctrines of the Gospel would not harmonize

them, behold, there came a cer- 18

with the old rites of the Pharisees. They were not to expect that Judaism could be repaired and renovated by Christianity.

17. Another illustration is used to express the same thought. As, in the last verse, we understand by the new cloth the religion of Christ, and by the old garment the rites of the Pharisees, so in this, the new wine, and old bottles, stand respectively for the new religion and the old one. The spiritual faith of Jesus, and the ceremonial rigor of the Pharisees, were totally at variance.-New wine. Wine unfermented.-Old bottles. The bottles referred to by Christ were made of the skins of animals, as sheep and goats. When new, they were capable of being distended, and would hold new wine in a state of fermentation without bursting. But when old and dry, they were not sufficiently strong for the purpose, though they would still without injury hold wine that had been fermented. The Gibeonites speak of their bottles as worn and rent. Josh. ix. 13. Job xxxii. 19. Ps. cxix. 83. Flasks made of skins are still used in several countries, as in the south of Europe.

18-26. Parallel to Mark v. 22— 43. Luke viii. 41-56. They give a more detailed account than Matthew.

18. A certain ruler. According to Mark and Luke, his name was Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue, a person of some distinction.

This office related to the superintendence of the affairs and worship of the synagogue. Acts xiii. 15. xviii. 17.-Worshipped. Bowed himself before him.—My daughter is even now dead. Or, was just now dying, when I came from my house. She was so sick that she must now be dead. This declaration was confirmed, for a message came that she was dead. She was an only daughter, and about twelve years old. After every other hope had failed, the distressed father had hastened to Jesus, and most movingly entreated him to come to his succor.-Come and lay thy hand upon her. This was a customary gesture in invoking a blessing upon one, and is supposed to have been derived from the manner in which the Creator was imaged, as exerting his beneficence by stretching forth his hand. Numb. xxvii. 18. 2 Kings v. 11. Mat. xix. 13. Acts iv. 30.

19. Jesus might have exerted his power at a distance, but he chose to be present in person. His spiritual sympathies drew him to the house of mourning. He spent himself for others. Going, coming, he was the servant of all. He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister; and in that office his peculiar and heavenly greatness consisted.

20. An issue of blood. The disease was deemed unclean, Lev. xv. 25, and therefore she does not apply personally to Jesus, or touch his person. The duration of her

sickness for twelve years, her failing to be relieved or restored by any medical skill, sufficiently show the obstinacy of her disorder. Mark v. 26. But she now applied to a Physician who could subdue any malady of mind or body, and whose services were "without money and without price." Blessed Benefactor! thy exceeding great reward was the fervent love and thankfulness of the wretched, recovered by thy power, whose gratitude "followed thee like an angel."-Hem of his garment. This was the mantle or upper garment; the soldiers at the crucifixion divided it into four parts, to each soldier who had assisted in nailing the sufferer to the cross, a part. John xix. 23. The Jews were accustomed in obedience to Moses to put tufts or tassels of threads or strings upon the four corners, or, as it is improperly translated, Num. xv. 38, Deut. xxii. 12, fringes. It was one of these tassels the woman touched.

I may but touch his garment, Or, shall be healed. She wished to make known her wants privily to Jesus. The nature of her complaint deterred her from openly presenting herself before the people. She did not expect, probably, to be healed without the knowledge of Jesus, and by stealth to obtain a cure, without his willing it. Though the general interpretation is, that she believed his garments, without a distinct exercise of his miraculous gifts, would operate as an effica