whilst this writer's language, wherever it does not verbally correspond with Luke, is bad, abounding with barbarous idioms, no impartial person can doubt but that it was written after Luke's; and that the bad writer borrowed from the good one, the only flowers which adorn his work, and not the good from the bad. That such a discourse as this was delivered by our Saviour, at such a time and in such a place, is in the highest degree improbable; for being addressed particularly to his disciples, if it was delivered at all, it must have been intended as a lesson of instruction in Christian ethics, to them in general, and especially to his Apostles, who were to teach the same doctrines to the world: it is but reasonable, therefore, to suppose that so full and ample a moral lecture would have been postponed, at least, till all those who were to be his Apostles, were called to be his disciples, and actually appointed to their office. Accordingly, Luke informs us this really was the case; and that the first moral lesson given to his disciples particularly, but in the audience of a great multitude of people, was delivered after he had chosen the twelve Apostles. That instructive discourse is recorded by Luke, c. vi. v. 20, &c. and, what is worthy of notice, begins, like this we are considering, with beatitudes of encou ragement to his followers; and though this writer has greatly altered their sense and import, and added several to the number, and has omitted the woes entirely, yet from the first and last beatitude he has given us, as well as from many entire passages of Luke interwoven in different parts of this sermon, it is evident he had Luke's Gospel before him. So inconsistent, however, is this writer, not with Luke only, but with himself, that from his ninth chapter, v. 9, we find that Matthew, the very Apostle who is supposed to be the author of this book, and to have so circumstantially recorded this long, incoherent, moral lecture, was not so much as called to follow our Saviour, till some time after it was delivered, and consequently the Apostles were chosen still later, as mentioned, c. x. So much for the time when this sermon is said to have been preached. Respecting the place of its delivery, I beg leave to observe, that, as Luke explicitly assures us was the case, though our Lord addressed himself, in the first place to his disciples, yet he intended his instructions also for the whole multitude of auditors, with which he wa ssurrounded; indeed, if he had not, he Now would have acted directly contrary to his own doctrine, and instead of displaying the moral light of his religion to the people, would have covered it with a bushel: and since this writer himself tells us, that "when Jesus had ended "these sayings, the people were astonished at "his doctrine," and that when he descended from his mountainous pulpit "great multitudes "followed him," we must conclude that this discourse was intended to be, and actually was, heard by the surrounding multitude. let any man, who knows what it is to speak to a crowd of people, conceive what situation a speaker, who wished to be heard by as many as possible, would choose for himself on such an occasion. If the people were in an open plain, he would endeavour to take the advantage of some small rise in the ground, or other mode of elevating himself, so as to be seen by his audience; or, if an hill were adjoining, he would ascend the slope of the hill a little way, so as to answer that purpose, whilst the people remained in the plain, or if they ascended the side of the hill, he would accomplish the same effect, by remaining himself at the foot of it, in the plain: but would any man in his senses, so circumstanced, and intending to be heard by the crowd, go up to the top of the hill, which from its convex form, must necessarily prevent, all but those who immediately surrounded him, from either seeing or hearing him, and even there set himself down before he began to teach them? Yet precisely such is the situation in which the author of this history makes our Saviour place himself to instruct the people, in the moral duties of the Gospel. Luke, on the contrary, informs us, that when he gave his disciples and the whole multitude that instructive lesson, after the choice of his Apostles, "he came down and stood in the 66 plain;" and that, on another previous occasion, on the banks of the lake of Gennesareth, he went into a fishing-boat, and, being at a little distance from the land, he sat down and taught the people who stood on the shore, In the seventeenth verse of the fifth chap ter, our Lord is represented as saying, “Think "not that I am come to destroy the Law; I "am not come to destroy, but to fulfil;" an assertion which flatly contradicts the prophets of the Old Testament, as also Luke and Paul, and the whole scope and intent of the Gospel Covenant. At the time when Moses administered to the Jews the Old Covenant of the Law, he informed them it was to continue only till the coming of that prophet of a New Covenant, whom the Lord their God would raise up up unto them, from amongst their brethren, like unto himself; for says he,* *"unto him "shall ye hearken, and whosoever will not "hearken unto my words, which he shall 66 speak in my name, (saith the Lord God) I "will require it of him." By the prophet Jeremiah, God says, "Behold the days 66 66 ་ ན་ come, when I will make a New Covenant "with Israel and Judah, not according to the "Covenant which I made with their fathers, “when I brought them out of Egypt; but (instead of a Law written upon tables of "stone) I will put my Law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts." Accordingly, Jesus Christ declares of the New Covenant, that the kingdom of God intended to be established by it, is not an object of external observation, but is within those who receive it. He affirms also,§ that the Law of Moses ended with John the Baptist; and that, since the time of his imprisonment, the New Covenant of the kingdom of God is preached to the whole world. In confirma * Deut. c. xviii. v. 15, &c. + Jer. c. xxxi. v. 31, &c. ̧ |