Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
For verily I say unto you, except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
1.AMONG the multitude of reproaches which fell upon him who was despised and rejected of men, it could not fail to be one, that he was a teacher of novelties, an introducerof a new religion. This might be affirmed with the more colour, because many of the expressions he had used, were not common among the Jews: either they did not use them at all, or not in the same sense, not in so full and strong a meaning. Add to this, that the worshipping God in spirit and in truth, must always appear a new religion, to those who have hitherto known nothing but outside worship, nothing but the form of godliness.
2. And ’tis not improbable, some might hope it was so: that he was abolishing the old religion, and bringing in another; one which they might flatter themselves, would be an easier way to heaven. But our Lord refutes in these words both the vain hopes of the one, and the groundless calumnies of the other.
I shall consider them in the same order as they lie, taking each verse for a distinct head of discourse.
I. 1. And, first, Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfil.
The ritual or ceremonial law, delivered by Moses to the children of Israel, containing all the injunctions and ordinances which related to the old sacrifices and service of the temple, our Lord indeed did come to destroy, to dissolve and utterly abolish. To this bear all the apostles witness: not only Barnabas and Paul, who vehemently withstood those who taught, thatChristians [90]ought to keep the law of Moses; not only St. Peter, who termed the insisting on this, on the observance of the ritual law, a [91]tempting God, and putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers, saith he, nor we were able to bear: but all the apostles, elders and brethren, being assembled with one accord, declared, that to command them to keep this law, was to [92]subvert their souls; and that it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to them, to lay no such burthen upon them. This hand-writing of ordinances our Lord did blot out, take away and nail to his cross.
2. But the moral law, contained in the ten commandments, and inforced by the prophets, he did not take away. It was not the design of his coming, to revoke any part of this. This is a law which never can be broken, which stands fast as the faithful witness in heaven. The moral stands on an entirely different foundation, from the ceremonial or ritual law; which was only designed for a temporary restraint upon a disobedient and stiff-necked people: whereas this was from the beginning of the world; being written not on tables of stone, but on the hearts of all the children of men, when they came out of the hands of the Creator. And however the letters once wrote by the finger of God, are now in a great measure defaced by sin, yet can they not wholly be blotted out,while we have any consciousness of good and evil. Every part of this law must remain in force, upon all mankind, and in all ages: as not depending either on time or place, or any other circumstances liable to change; but on the nature of God, and the nature of man, and their unchangeable relation to each other.
3. I am not come to destroy but to fulfil. Some have conceived our Lord to mean, I am come to fulfil this, by my entire and perfect obedience to it. And it cannot be doubted but he did, in this sense, fulfil every part of it. But this does not appear to be what he intends here, being foreign to the scope of his present discourse. Without question his meaning in this place is, (consistently with all that goes before and follows after) I am come to establish it in its fulness, in spite of all the glosses of men. I am come to place in a full and clear view, whatsoever was dark or obscure therein. I am come to declare the true and full import of every part of it: to shew the length and breadth, the entire extent of every commandment contained therein: and the height and depth, the inconceivable purity and spirituality of it in all its branches.
4. And this our Lord has abundantly performed in the preceding and subsequent parts of the discourse before us: in which he has not introduced a new religion into the world, but the same which was from the beginning: a religion, the substance of which is without question, “asold as the creation:” being coeval with man, and having proceeded from God, at the very time when man became a living soul: (the substance, I say, for some circumstances of it, now relate to man as a fallen creature.) A religion witnessed to both by the law, and by the prophets in all succeeding generations. Yet was it never so fully explained, nor so thoroughly understood, ’till the great Author of it himself, condescended to give mankind this authentic comment on all the essential branches of it: at the same time declaring it should never be changed, but remain in force to the end of the world.