religious privileges, and especially under the reign of the Messiah, they should attain to great temporal prosperity, in accordance with the promise of such prosperity made to obedience under the theocracy. It was under the influence of this expectation that the five thousand whom our Lord fed miraculously with five loaves and two small fishes, regarding him as the Messiah, and this miracle, it would appear, as the auspicious dawn of his bountiful bestowal of temporal blessings upon his subjects, would. proceed at once, if they had not been prevented, to "make him a king."-(John vi. 15.) It was the consciousness of this expectation, as cherished by themselves, and of the design associated with it to cast off the Roman yoke, and recover their national independence, that suggested to those who procured his crucifixion the accusation that he "made himself a king," and thus "spoke against Cæsar."-(John xix. 12; Luke xxiii. 2.) And it was this expectation that, after his resurrection, dictated the question of the apostles, "Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?"-(Acts i. 6.)

6. Carnal views of the Messiah's kingdom, and of the prospects of his subjects, might easily be regarded, by those who had adopted or were disposed to entertain them, as sanctioned or even conveyed by prophecy. By a literal interpretation of some predictions, and by antedating the fulfilment of others, they might obtain for them this support. And in the miracles of Christ, and the outward character of the benefits which they immediately served to impart, contemplated in the light which their own spirit shed upon them, they could see at once an incipient realization of such views, and a distinct intimation and assurance of the full realization of them, and of that realization as near at hand.-(John vi. 15.) And here it should be observed, that numerous miracles preceded the delivery of the sermon on the mount, and had attracted "great multitudes."-(Matt. iv. 23-25.)

7. On the grounds now indicated, it may be warrantably

concluded that, speaking generally, the spiritual condition and tendencies of those to whom the sermon was addressed were distinguished by these two peculiarities, that in their religious services they were disposed to rest in what is outward, and that their desires and expectations pointed mainly, if not exclusively, to outward and temporal benefits; and it was in adaptation, we conceive, to those peculiarities that our Lord selected the materials and determined the entire character of his discourse. This view is fully borne out, and can scarcely fail to be reached, by a careful examination of the discourse itself. Such an examination will discover that each successive passage has a direct, and, as it appears, a designed bearing on the one peculiarity or the other, if not on both. The opening passage, which enunciates the theme, and therefore indicates the general character of the sermon (Matt. v. 3-10), has such a bearing on the first peculiarity, or the tendency to externalism, when it pronounces those blessed, and those only, who are distinguished by inward qualities and exercises, the poor in spirit, those that mourn, the meek, the merciful, those that hunger and thirst after righteousness, the pure in heart; and on the second, or the carnality of the expectations with which they looked forward to the reign of the Messiah, both when it gives such a description of the character of those who are blessed, and when it represents the blessedness allotted to them as a blessedness adapted to their inward excellencies, their spiritual tastes, and their heavenly aspirations: They are "poor in spirit," do not and cannot rest in any thing earthly, and "the kingdom of heaven is theirs;" they shall, indeed, "inherit the earth," not, however, in an earthly spirit, but as "the meek;" "they hunger and thirst after righteousness," and "they shall be filled" with the realization of righteousness and with its peaceable fruits; and to characterise and consummate all, they are "pure in heart," and, being thus qualified for such a portion, "they shall see God."

8. And throughout the treatment, or the body of the discourse, we still find the same twofold reference. The special vice of the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees was its outwardness; and our Lord warns his hearers that, if they would be subjects of his kingdom, their righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees (Matt. v. 20); that they must not only abstain from the outward acts of sin, but must also crucify the affections and lusts, from which they emanate and which they embody (ver. 21, 22, 27, 28); that they must cultivate the love which, existing as an inward principle, and passing into due outward manifestation, is "the fulfilling of the law" (ver. 43-48); and that in all things they must deal with their "Father which seeth in secret," having respect supremely to his will and his claims.-(vi. 1-18.) And he further requires that, while their obedience shall be the obedience of the heart, flowing forth from within, their desire and aim shall be to lay up for themselves treasures in heaven and not on earth; that they shall not serve mammon, but shall "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness."-(Ver. 19, 20, 24-34.)

9. Such being the scope and immediate reference of the sermon, it could be addressed only to those who looked upon Jesus as about to establish the Messiah's kingdom, and who, therefore, had attached themselves to him more or less decidedly as his disciples, that, when he should establish it, they might participate in its benefits. It was only in dealing with such that it became specially appropriate and necessary to correct erroneous views respecting its benefits and the character of its subjects. Accordingly, Matthew (v. 1, 2) and Luke (vi. 20) distinctly inform us that it was to the disciples that the sermon on the mount was directly addressed.* Others, indeed, were present as hearers (Luke vi. 17, vii. 1; Matt. vii. 28, 29), and, as might have been expected, were greatly

* We here proceed upon the view of the discourse reported by Luke (vi. 20-49), which is maintained in Sect. iii.

impressed. (Matt. vii. 28, 29.) Those facts, however, do not at all imply that they were directly addressed, and create, therefore, no necessity to modify or evade the plain and explicit statement of the two evangelists. Too many expositors display an unhappy ingenuity in surrounding themselves with difficulties, and then effecting their escape by more or less violently opening for themselves a path through the obstructing phraseology of Scripture. There is too little confiding simplicity in their treatment of the Word of God; instead of receiving its announcements with unsophisticated docility, they come to it with the requirement, that, in rendering to them its meaning, it fulfil certain conditions which they choose to impose upon it.

10. We have said that it was to such as had assumed, more or less decidedly, the relation of disciples to Jesus, that the sermon on the mount was directly addressed; but it may be thought that those to whom it was thus addressed were disciples in a stricter sense-disciples in spirit and in truthseeing he says to them, "Ye are the salt of the earth, . . . ye are the light of the world." This language, however, does not mean that they were such actually, but that they were such in the event supposed in the immediately preceding context, "When men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you, falsely, for my sake" (ver. 11), or that they were such viewed as "his disciples." Neither does the injunction, "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs," imply that those who were addressed were officially entrusted with “that which is holy," any more than the injunction, “Thou shalt not kill,” implies that those addressed are entrusted with the power of life and death; and, on the other hand, the reproof and admonition, "Thou hypocrite, first cast the beam out of thine own eye" (vii. 5), do not imply that those addressed were actually "hypocrites.” Our Lord pictures to himself a person who proceeded in the manner condemned (ver. 3, 4); and it is such a person that

he reproves for his hypocrisy, and admonishes in the terms just quoted.

SECTION II.-STRUCTURE OF THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT.

1. The interpreter, ordinarily, has not to deal with detached passages and propositions, but with passages and propositions in a certain connection, in the light of which they must be viewed that they may be correctly understood. Words and phrases detached from all connection, and swayed wholly by their own significancy, will point to a certain sense; and from this sense the connection often produces a greater or less variation, which must be estimated that the true interpretation may be ascertained. Attention to the connection is thus essential. But that the connection may be correctly and satisfactorily determined, it is often necessary to determine the structure of the entire composition or portion of a composition under treatment. This necessity arises with peculiar frequency, in the case of the Scriptures, from the prevalence of a structure which, to a great extent, substitutes for continuous connection, or blends with it, a connection between separated, it may be widely separated, but related members of what, in the particular case, forms a whole. This species of connection, and its dependence upon structure, may be illustrated from the following passage of the portion of Scripture under consideration-" Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.' ""* Here, as regards the last clause, the connection is not continuous; for that clause does not refer to what immediately precedes, but presents the consideration by which the injunction in the first clause is enforced. It is not the swine, but the dogs, that might be expected to "turn again and rend you." The swine would * This is one of Bishop Jebb's illustrations of introverted parallelism.