ments of his passion, as he hung upon the cross in the agonies of crucifixion.—“ Woman, behold thy Son."*-Thus commending his beloved mother (perhaps after the death of Joseph,) with his last breath, to the care of his affectionate friend and disciple, St John. The sense of the passage seems to be only this:"Madam what concern is it of yours and mine, that these people have no more wine? Besides, the season for my exerting such a power of miracles as you allude to, is not yet come." Even thus softened, and that (as I have shewn in the note) contrary to the sense of our own translators, and other good judges, it still conveyed a reproof, and seemed also to

*John xix. 26.

The same phrase occurs in Luke viii. 28, and Matt. viii. 29.—rí quïv naì còì; quid nobis (rei est) tecum?-Where it evidently must bear the same sense as our translators have given-"what have we to do with thee?" And Beza justly censures the translation of the vulgat, quid nobis et tibi, as incorrect and barbarous; which in that place it is; but the same phrase may be differently rendered in different places.

Many of the fathers seem to have understood it with Beza and our translators, as a sharp censure of the ill timed impru dence of his mother, in attempting to force him before the public prematurely, and upon an occasion less worthy of a miracle

intimate a determined refusal. His mother, either not understanding it so, or trusting to the goodness of his temper, ventured to give orders to the servants according to her own expectation and hopes, and the miracle was granted to her request.

There occurs another instance (of slight I will not venture to say, but rather) of that invariable preference given by Jesus to faith and virtue, before even the strongest ties of consanguinity, so falsely estimated by the world, and of which, in future ages, so corrupt an abuse would be set up. As he was once engaged in teaching, his mother and his brethren unable to come near him for the croud, sent to desire to speak with him. Jesus immediately took that occasion to give a most significant innuendo, if the thick veil of strong delusion and superstition on the heart

than those he himself always chose, Athanasius, in his fourth sermon against the Arians, understands this expression as indicating great resentment against his mother; and Augustin, lib. 2, de Symb. cap. vi. the same. Chrysostom, hom. xx. and Ire æus, lib. 3, cap. xviii. take it for a sharp reproof.

of papists had not rendered it ineffectual."Who, said he, is my mother, and who are my brethren? Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother:"*—as much as to say, "every faithful and sincere christian will rank as high in distribution of future blessedness and reward, as if they had been possessed of that claim to which you falsely attach so great importance, but which, in reality, will avail nothing to any person in whom the essential requisites shall be found wanting.

my

There is one of our Saviour's precepts which seems to have in it, a striking allusion to abuses and superstitions that were afterwards to arise in the church, and, indeed, without understanding it in such a sense, it will be somewhat difficult to give a good account of it. In Matt. xxiii. 9, he no man your father on earth, for one is

says,

"call

your

Father which is in heaven." It could not

7

have been his design to bring parental au

*Mark iii, 31,

thority into discredit, of which not only he himself was observant in the most exemplary manner, but also strongly enjoined obedience to it as a duty of primary importance, next to our duty to God.* After the glory he had: acquired at so early an age, amongst the doctors of the law in the temple, he went down to Nazareth with his parents, and as became a dutiful child, sunk his own sublime qualifications and unrivalled wisdom, in a constant subjection to their commands. Where he says-" if any man loveth father or mother more than me,”—or, as it is still more strongly worded in another place," hate not his father and mother, &c.† he cannot be my disciple." The meaning is obvious. He who values even his own life preferably to his duty to Christ, when once they come into absolute competition, so that he must renounce either the one or the other, is unworthy of him.

It may be said, the word father, as used in that place, has no reference to parental author

* Matt, xv, 4; xxii, 38.

+ Luke xiv. 26,

ity, but rather to the abuse of honorary titles, as father was a title of respect towards superiors, anciently in use. (2 Kings ii. 12, and xiii, 14.) Yet if this be admitted, there still seems a singularity in our Saviour's notice of it here, as titles of honorary distinction had immediThere was ately before incurred his censure,

nothing of superstition at that time in the use of the word FATHER, OF RABBI, as honorary titles; for Jesus himself often accepted them, without any remark of their impropriety, But there has been a great deal of superstition and idolatry both in the application of the word father since that time, and to this abuse (by way of anticipation) his censure in this place may very probably allude; as his other frequent and severe censures of pharisaical abuses, beFor the yond all doubt, must have done. very same corruptions both in doctrine and practice have prevailed in the church of Rome, which our Saviour so sharply exposed in the ancient pharisees.

The word papa, or pope, signifies father, and is applied to the pretended head of the