2. In the next place, he proceeds to the vindication and exposition of the seventh commandment, verse 27, " Thou shalt not commit adultery;" which the Pharisees had so expounded as that if a man kept himself from actual uncleanness, however loosely he lived, and put away his wife at his pleasure, he was free from the breach thereof To give them the true meaning and sense of this com- mandment, and farther to discover the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, he lets them know, —
(1.) That the concupiscence of the heart or inordinate desire of
* See a full and clear exposition of this place by Dr Lightfoot, in his preface to the " Harmony of the Gospels."
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any person is the adultery here no less forbidden than that of actual imdeanness, which the law made death. And certainly he must needs be as blind as a Pharisee who sees not that the uncleanness of the heart and lust after woman was forbidden by the law and under the old testament.
(2.) As to their living with their wives, he mentions, indeed, the words of Moses, " Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a bill of divorcement," but opposeth not himself thereunto at all, but only shows that that permission of divorce is to be interpreted accordinsf to the rule and instruction given in the first institution of marriage (as afterward, on another occasion, he explains himself, Matt, xix.), and not that men might therefore, for every cause that they would or could pretend, instantly put away their wives, as the Pharisees taught men to do, and as Josephus, one of them, testifies of himself that he did : " I put away my wife," saith he, " because she did not please me." "No," saith our Saviour; "that permission of Moses is not to be extended beyond the just cause of divorce, as it is by the Pharisees, but made use of only in the case of fornication," verses SI, 32; and he thereupon descends to caution his disciples to be careful and circumspect in their walking in this particular, and not be led by an offending eye or hand (the beginning of evil) to greater abominations, verses 28-30.
3. In like manner doth he proceed in the vindication of the third commandment. The scribes and Pharisees had invented or approved of swearing by creatures, the temple, altar, Jerusalem, the head, and the like; and thereupon they raised many wicked and cursed distinc- tions, on purpose to make a cloak for hypocrisy and lying, as you may see. Matt, xxiii. 1 6-19. " If a man swear by the temple, it is nothing, he is not bound by his oath ; but if he swear by the gold of the temple, he is obliged." In like manner did they distinguish of the altar and the gift. And having mixed these swearings and distinctions in their ordinary conversation, there was nothing sincere or open and plain left amongst them. This wicked gloss of theirs (being such as their successors abound withal to this day) our blessed Saviour decries, and commands his disciples to use plainness and simplicity in their conversation, in plain affirmations and negations, without the mix- ture of such profane and cursed distinctions, verses 34-37, which that it was no new duty, nor unknown to the saints of the old tes- tament, is known to all that have but read it.
4. In matter of judgment between man and man, he proceeds in the same manner. Because the law had appointed the magistrate to exercise talionem in some cases, and to take an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, the blind Pharisees wrested this to countenance private men in revenging themselves, and pursuing them who had injured them with a hostile mind, at least until the sentence of the
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law was executed on them. To root the rancour and malice out of the minds of men which by this means were nourished and fo- mented in them, our Saviour lets them know that notwithstanding tliat procedure of the magistrate by the law, yet indeed all private revenges were forbidden and all readiness to contend with others, which he amplifieth in the proposal of some particular cases; and all this by virtue of a rule which himself affirms to be contained in the law, " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," verses 38-42, press- ing also lending and giving, as works of charity, whereunto a blessing- is so often pronounced in the Old Testament.
5. His last instance is in the matter of love, concerning which the Pharisees had given out this note, " Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy;" for whereas there were certain nations whom God had appointed to utter destruction at his people's first coming into Canaan, he commanded them to show them no mercy, but utterly to destroy them, Deut. vii. 2. This the wretched hypo- crites laid hold of to make up a rule and law for private men to walk by in reference to them whom they accounted their enemies, in express contradiction to the command of God, Exod. xxiii. 4, 5, Lev. xix. 18. Wherefore our blessed Saviour vindicates the sense of the law from this cursed tradition also, and renews the precept of loving and doing good to our enemies, verses 43-47. So that in none of the instances mentioned is there the least evidence of what was proposed to be confirmed by them, — namely, that our Saviour gave a new law, in that he did partly perfect, partly correct the law of Moses, — seeing he did only vindicate the sense and meaning of the law, in sundry precepts thereof, from the false glosses and tradi- tions of the scribes and Pharisees, invented and imposed on their disciples to be a cloak to their hypocrisy and wickedness. And this also may fully suffice to remove what on this account is delivered by the Racovian Catechism. But on this foundation Mr B. proceeds: — •