who feel secure to the law : He consoles the contrite with the Gospel.
18. IIoia$; which?) There was no need to ask which, as our Lord had said the [commandments] rag.1
18, 19. Ou <povt\jGtig- — ayacrjjtfE/f, x.r.X., thou shalt not murder — thou shalt love, etc.) Precepts negative and affirmative. The duties of the Second Table are more palpable than those of the First.
19. T/^a, honour) Honour implies somewhat in addition to love. — rbv war'ipa, thy father) It may be supposed that the young man in question had transgressed this more than the negative commandments ; on which ground it is placed last. — rbv crXr/ff/of, thy neighbour) The Jews were peculiarly deficient in the love of their neighbour. — co$ eeaurbv, as thyself) The love wherewith God loveth us, is the standard of the love wherewith we ought to love one another. God loves Titius as He does Caius : there fore Caius ought to love Titius as he does Caius, i.e., as himself.2 Yet the love of the godly, like that of God, is not without discri mination of the good and the bad.3
21. "Epr, avrijj 6 'ijjtfoDj, x.r.X., Jesus said unto him, etc.) As the young man asks more, and binds himself to more, more is proposed to him. — rsXs/oj, perfect) He is perfect to whom nothing is wanting that he may enter into life eternal. As he urgently asks it, our Lord proposes to him the most glorious condition, the nearest to that of an apostle. — u-rayi — xa< btvpo, axo^ovdtt Mo/, go — and come, follow Me) sc. immediately. It is a com mand, not a counsel ;4 necessary, not optional (cf. ver. 24, 25) ; but particular, not universal, accommodated to the idiosyncrasy
1 Thus indicating those pre-eminently so called, and implying the neces sity of keeping all of them. — (I. B.)
2 He who is endued with this love will evince it even to the child of beggars : he who is not endued with it will prefer himself to all men what soever, even to the elect of God. — V. g.
5 Ver. 20. tx, »eoT>!"roV ^ot>, from my youth) The reading which omits these words, however less probable it be declared by the margin of both Editions, has nevertheless been subsequently received into the Vers. Germ., the reasons on both sides being regarded by Bengel in a different light from what they had been. — E B.
BL Vulg. Cypr. Iren. omit the words. But Dabc Orig. 3/J69d, Hilary 704, retain them (D omitting pw). The words are plainly, I think, inter polated through Harmonies from Mark x. 20, Luke xviii. 21. — ED.
* As opposed to the Romish doctrine of " counsels of perfection," on which