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Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,

Then came to Jesus — Then, when the men of Gennesaret favoured and observed him. Satan stomacheth the prosperity of God’s kingdom in any place, and stirreth up his to oppose it. Esau began with Jacob in the womb, that no time might be lost. As soon as ever the Church’s child was born the devil sought to drown him, Revelation 12:15

Scribes and Pharisees — Learned and lewd; these are Christ’s greatest enemies, hypocrites especially, those night birds that cannot bear the light of true religion, but, as bats, beat against it.

Which were of Jerusalem — That faithful city was now become a harlot, her silver was degenerated into dross, her wine mixed with water, Isaiah 1:22 . The sweetest wine turns into the sourest vinegar, the whitest ivory burned, into the blackest coal. So about the year 1414, Theodoricus Urias, in Germany, an Augustine friar, complained, not without cause, Ecclesiam Romanam ex aurea factam argenteam, ex argentea ferream, ex ferrea terream, superesse ut in stercus abiret. Machiavel observed that there was nowhere less piety than in those that dwelt nearest to Rome. a

a Machiavel. Disput. de rep. lib. 1, cap. 12.

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Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.

Transgress the tradition of the elders — They cried up aloud traditions and the authority of antiquity. Similem hodie dicam Papistae nobis scribunt. For as the philosophers fled and hid themselves in the heretics, as one saith, so did the Scribes and Pharisees in the Popish doctors. Non tam ovum ovo simile; one egg or apple is not so like another as Pharisees and Papists. The Pharisees deemed it as great a sin to eat with unwashen hands as to commit fornication. Similiarly, the Papists count it worse to deface an idol than to kill a man, to eat flesh or eggs on a fasting day than to commit incest, and for a priest to have one wife than ten harlots. Παραδοσις , say some, is the number of the Beast, 666. Pareus in loc.

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But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?

He answered and said unto them — He shapes them an answer by way of recrimination ( αντδγκλημα ); which is a singular means of conviction to the adversary, but hard to be done by us without some mixture of bitterness, such as was that in David to Michal,2 Samuel 6:21; 2 Samuel 6:21 .

Transgress the commandment of God by your tradition — God’s commands should be kept as the apple of the eye,Proverbs 7:2; Proverbs 7:2 . They are broken by omissions, commissions, and failings in the manner; like as a man may miss the mark by shooting short, or beyond, or wide. These Pharisees, as those Athenians of old (whereas they had most excellent laws, but most lawless natures), chose rather to live by their lusts than by their laws. Athenienses cum haberent aequissima iura, sed iniquisima ingenia, moribus suis quam legibus, uti malunt. Valer. Max. They had many traditions and unwritten verities, pretended to be invented and prescribed them by their elders, that by the observation thereof they might be the better enabled to keep God’s commandments. These traditions they styled Mashlamnathoth, completions or perfections; because thereby they conceited that the written law was made more complete and perfect. And say not the Papists as much of their traditions? Buxtorf. Tiber.

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For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.

For God commanded, saying — This is called the first commandment with promise, viz. the first affirmative commandment, or the first in the second table; or the first of all the ten with promise. Ephesians 6:2 . εντολη properly signifieth an affirmative commandment. See Dr Gouge on Dom. Duties. For that in the second commandment is rather a declaration of God’s justice and mercy, and that to the observers of the whole law; but here is a particular promise made to them that keep this particular commandment.

Honour thy father and mother — Among other good offices, nourish and cherish them, as Joseph did Jacob and his family, Chepi tappam, as a man nourisheth his little ones, lovingly and tenderly, Genesis 47:12 ; be unto them as Obed was to Naomi, "a restorer of her life, and a nourisher of her old age," Ruth 4:15 . This the apostle commends to us, as a thing not only good before men, but acceptable before God, 1 Timothy 5:4 . This the stork and the mouse teach us, by their singular love to their aged sires, Plin. x. 23. Cornelius was the staff of his father’s age, and thereby merited the honourable name of Scipio among the Romans. Epaminondas rejoiced in nothing more than that he had lived to cheer up the hearts of his aged parents by the reports of his victories. Our parents are our household gods, said Hierocles. Οι γονεις ημων Θεοι εφεστιοι . Aeneas is surnamed Pius, for his love to his father, whom he bore upon his back out of the fire of Troy. And Aristotle tells how that when from the hill Aetna there ran down a torrent of fire that consumed all the houses thereabouts, in the midst of those fearful flames God’s special care of the godly shined most brightly. For the river of fire parted itself, and made a kind of lane for those who ventured to rescue their aged parents, and pluck them out of the jaws of death. c

He that curseth father or mother — That giveth them an ill word ( κακολογων ), or but an ill look; for vultu saepe laeditur pietas. "The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it." Proverbs 30:17 . Effossos oculos voret atro gutture corvus. Catul. Now they are cursed with a witness, whom the Holy Ghost thus curseth in such emphatic manner, in such exquisite terms.

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But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;

But ye say, Whosoever, … — The intolerable covetousness of the priests bred this abominable corruption of this commandment, as it did many other like. η φιλοχρηματια μητηρ κακοτητος απασης . See Trapp on " John 2:14 " See Trapp on " John 2:15 " By the same arts at this day the Lady of Loretto, as they call her, hath her churches so stuffed with vowed presents and memories, as they are fain to hang their cloisters and churchyards with them. The rood of grace in this kingdom had a man within it, enclosed with a hundred wires to make the image goggle with the eyes, nod with the head, hang the lip, move and shake his jaws, according as the value was of the gift that was offered. If it were a small piece of silver, he would hang a frowning lip; if a piece of gold, then should his jaws go merrily. The like was done by the blood of Hales, brought afterwards by the Lord Cromwell to Paul’s Cross, and there proved to be the blood of a duck. In the year 1505, Pope Alexander sent a bull of pardons for money into England, dispensing thereby with such as kept away, or by any fraud had gotten, the goods of other men, which they should now retain still without scruple of conscience, so as they paid a ratable portion thereof to his Holiness’ receivers. This was pure Pharisaism.

It is a gift by whatsoever, … — Some read it thus, by "Corban, or by this gift, if thou receive any profit by me;" understand, then let God do thus and much more to me, q.d. by Corban thou shalt receive no profit by me. Others thus, Corban, anathema sit, be it a devoted thing whatsoever I may profit thee by: ο εαν , si quicquam, ut Matthew 10:14 ; Matthew 23:18 ; Scultet. q. d. Being consecrated to God, it shall be beneficial to us both, and not here only in this life, but hereafter in that to come, whereas cost bestowed upon parents soon vanisheth, and reacheth no further than the life present.

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And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free . Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.

And honour not his father and his mother — Supple, insons erit. Our Saviour contents himself to relate the first words only of the tradition, as lawyers use to do the first words of the statute or canon they quote or argue upon.

Thus have you made the commandment of none effect — ηκυρωσατε , of α and κυρος , rule, authority. Ye have sought to shoulder God out of his throne, to divest and spoil him of his rule and authority, to ungod him, as it were, by making his commandment void and invalid. And do not Papists as much as all this, while they teach that a monk may not leave his cloister to relieve his father, but must rather see and suffer him to die for hunger in the streets. Lyra hath these very words, Filius per professionem factam in religione, excusatur a subveniendo parentibus. This Lyra was a famous English Jew, but an arrant Papist, as for the most part all were then, for he flourished A.D. 1320.

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Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,

Well did Esaias prophesy of you — Of such as you, and so of you too. The prophets and apostles then spake not of them only with whom they lived, and to whom they wrote (as the Jesuits blaspheme), but their oracles and doctrines do extend still to men of the same stamp and making. "In the volume of thy book it is written of me," saith David, Psalms 40:7 ; he found his own name in God’s book. And where he spake with Jacob at Bethel, there he spake with us, saith Hosea; Hosea 12:4 and, "Whatsoever was written, was written for our learning," saith Paul, Romans 15:4 .

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This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

This people draweth nigh unto me, … — And they are no changelings, for at this day, although they know better, and can write upon the walls of their synagogues this sentence, Tephillah belo cauvannah cheguph belo neshamah, that is, Prayer without the intention of the mind, is but as a body without a soul, yet shall not a man anywhere see less intention than in their orisons. "The reverence they show" (saith Sir Edwin Sands, who saw it) "is in standing up at times, and the gesture of adoration in the bowing forward of their bodies. For kneeling they use none (no more do the Grecians), neither stir they their bonnets in their synagogues to any man, but remain still covered. They come to it with washen hands, and in it they burn lamps to the honour of God, Sic ut posset quivis animo advertere quod server illam pro consuetudine potius quam pro religione reverentiam. De Theodorico, Sidonius, Epist. i. l. but for any show of devotion or elevation of spirit, that yet in Jews could I never discern, but they are as reverent in their synagogues as grammar boys are at school, when their master is absent. In sum, their holiness is the very outward work itself, being a brainless head and soulless body." Thus he.

And honoureth me with their lips — But prayer is not the labour of the lips, but the travail of the heart; the power of a petition is not in the roof of the mouth, but root of the heart. To give way to wilful distractions, is to commit spiritual whoredom in God’s presence. Is it fit to present the king with an empty cask; or to tell him a tale with our backs towards him? Behold, "I am a great King," saith God; and they that stand before him, "must look to their feet," saith Solomon, that they stand upright, and that they offer not a heartless sacrifice, for that is the "sacrifice of fools," Ecclesiastes 5:1 , and ever held ominous.

But their heart is far from me — And so all they do is putrid hypocrisy. God loves "truth in the inward parts,"Psalms 41:6; Psalms 41:6 , and calls for the heart in all services, as Joseph did for Benjamin, as David did for Michal, "Thou shall not see my face, unless thou bring it." In all spiritual sacrifices we must bring him the fat and the inwards. The deeper and hollower the belly of the lute or viol is, the pleasanter is the sound; the fleeter, the more grating and harsh in our ears. The voice which is made in the mouth is nothing so sweet as that which cometh from the depth of the breast. Ephesians 6:6 ; "Do the will of God from the heart." But woe be to all careless professors, to all loose and ungirt Christians! the Lord will make all the churches to know "that he seareheth the hearts and reins," and that "he will kill with death" all such as had rather seem to be good than seek to be so, Revelation 2:23 .

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