صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

SERMON XXI.

St. Matth. Ch. v, Ver. 20.

For I Say umto you, That except your Righ teonfness fhall exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharifees, ye shall in no cafe enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

A

Preface, or Introduction, will be needlefs. It's enough, that thefe Words are part of Chrift's Famous Sermon on the Mount: The Method I fhall obferve in handling them, fhall be this following; to Enquire, and Confider,

I. Who Thefe Scribes and Pharifees were. II. What their Righteousness was, and wherein it confifted.

III. How, and in what our Righteousness is to exceed their Righteoufnefs.

IV. The Danger, if we do not, ye shall in no cafe enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

1. Who thefe Scribes and Pharifees were. 1. The Pharifees. You have often heard of Three famous Sects among the Jews when

Christ

Christ appeared in the World, the Pharifees, the Effenes, and the Sadducees.

The Pharifees were an Order of Men, who diftinguished themselves from the Vulgar, by certain Austerities and Mortifications, and a feemingly precifer way of Living; yet they convers'd, and lived in Cities and Towns, and were fo far from avoiding, that they feemed to affect Places where there was a great Concourse of People.

When they began, or, who was the first Founder of them, is uncertain; but it's probable, the Inftitution of the Nazarites of old, Numb. vi. 2. and the Order of the Rechabites afterward, Jerem. XXXV. 2. or the strictness of the Hafideans, might give occafion to this peculiar way of living, though the Votaries, in progrefs of time, deviated and degenerated from those fober Patterns; and, as it was with Monkery in the Chriftian Church, improved, or, rather abused, the preceding, pious, and well-meant Self-denials, into Superftition.

The Effenes were a kind of Hermits, who chose to dwell in the Country, as far from Crouds as they could; and, though they had Procurators in Cities, and populous Places, to receive and entertain thofe of their Sect, whose Occafions led them to pafs that way, yet their chief abode was in a Wilderness, not far from Jericho, from whence, as they grew in number, they difpers'd themselves, and planted Colonies in other Places. These were a modefter and foberer fort of People, and ftudied felf-denial too, but to better and greater Purpo

Purposes than the Pharifees; and therefore poffibly it is, that Chrift paffes no cenfure upon them, because their Service for the most part was reasonable, and in their Morals, they came very near the Chriftian Inftitution; and it's likely, that most of them turned Chriftians afterward, being fo well qualified, and Telayuivo, prepared for that excellent Difcipline; and this might give occafion to Eufebius, and others, to think, that the Effenes, Philo fpeaks of, were Chriftian Afceticks.

Eufeb.
Hift.l.2.
C.16.17.

The Sadducees were Senfualifts, and Epicureans, and denied the Being of anether World; pretended indeed to keep clofe to the Letter of the Law of Mofes, rejected Traditions, and derided the Pharifees, who were great Admirers of it; but were Men loofe, and profane, debaucht and cruel, a Temper agreeable enough to their Principle; which was, That Men die like Beafts, and that there is no Refurrection of the Dead; though it must be confefs'd, that these Impious Tenets took not much with the Common People, the Perfons who efpoufed thefe Dotrines, being chiefly Men of great Estates, and Dignities, who are apt, without very great Circumfpection, from an over-admiration of Things Prefent and Visible, to be drawn into contempt of Things Invifible and Eternal.

To return to the Pharifees, the Men the Text Ipeaks of; This Order was fubdivided into Seven Sects, who all obliged themselves

to

[ocr errors]

to feveral forts of Aufterities, too tedious to be told here; and fo taking it seems, were these External Rigors, that there were Women Pharifees, as well as Men Pharifees.

The Name Pharifee, is as much as a Separa tift, for fo the Pharifees were, feparating themfelves from the reft of Mankind, by an affected Piety, which passed for great strictness in that Age, and gave occafion to the Apostle, to fay, That before his Converfion, he lived after the ftricteft way of the Jewish Religion, a Pharis fee, Alt. xxvi. 5.

2. The Scribes; These were Vide Lightf.in in the Nature of Secretaries, Matth. ii. 4. or Clerks, or Publick Notaries to the Sanhedrin, or Great Council of the Jews; which Council in thofe Days,confifting of Sadducees and Pharifees,thefe Two Factions had their diftinct Secretaries, or Notaries, as appears from Act, xxiii. 9. The Scribes, or Advocates, who were of the Pharifees fide, having entirely addicted themselves to their Caufe and Service, were of the fame Opinion with the Pharifees in all things; ftiffly maintaining their Doctrines, Principles, and Traditions, and being commonly Men of Learning, were in equal efteem with the Pharifees; the rather, becaufe what the Pharifees boldly and proudly aflerted, the Scribes endeavoured to prove from Records,and Monuments of Antiquity, and fuch Writings, as they judged proper for their purpose: I know fome think, they were the Elders of the Sanhedrin, and the Chief Expofitors of the Law; but if

we

Maldon. in

C. 2. Matth.

we compare the Account the Scripture gives of them, with what the Talmudists lay of them, they seem to have been fuch Men, as I have. defcribed them; nor did their Office, and Learning debar them from being Interpreters of the Law,but qualifie them rather for that Employment. In a word, What the Canonifts are, and have been of late Years to the Pope, the fame were the Scribes to the Pha rifees, defending their pretended Rights and Priviledges, and Authority and Traditions, with all the Zeal, and Paffion, as is common to Men, who defignedly efpoufe an Interest or Faction; and indeed, one Egg is not liker another, than Pharifaifm, and Popery are, as were an eafie Matter to prove in feveral Inftances, but that I have more material Things to tell you. Let us go on therefore, and

II. Confider, What their Righteousness was, and wherein it confifted.

And to understand the Myftery of it, I fhall in the first place, reprefent to you the Particulars of their Righteoufnefs, as they are Recorded by the Evangelifts; and then fhew, wherein it was defective, that we may be the better able to diftinguish, and fee, how our Righteousness is to exceed theirs.

I. The Particulars of their Righteoufnefs; and they were thefe following. They gave Alms, Matth. vi. 2. They pray'd, Matth. vi. 5. and pray'd very long, Matth. xxiii. 14. They fafted, and when thy fafted, disfigured their Faces,

and

« السابقةمتابعة »