Commentary on the Gospel according to St. Matthew

Preface

This Work has been written with the intention of supplying the members of the New Church with a Commentary on the largest and most comprehensive of the Gospels, suitable for private and family reading. It is therefore almost purely explanatory and practical in its character, all questions that have no direct tendency to edification being as far as possible avoided.

The author is indebted for some of his materials to the unpublished sermons of the late Rev. S. Noble. For the use of these manuscripts of his revered friend and colleague, his thanks are due to the Society of which Mr. Noble was so long the distinguished minister. To these manuscripts he owes, besides one or two smaller items, the explanation of almost the whole of chapters v. and vi., the greater part of chapter xviii., verses 14-16 of chapter xxiv., and the parable of the talents, in chapter xxv.

That the Work, such as it is, may, by the Divine blessing, contribute to the spiritual improvement of those for whose use it is designed, is the Author’s earnest prayer.

London-, December , 1866,

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW

INTRODUCTION-.

The Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the most directly, if not also the most deeply, interesting and instructive portion of the Divine Word. It records the greatest of all earthly events — the manifestation of God in the flesh. It unfolds the mystery of redemption, and shows us the way in which we must be saved. It brings to light the immortality of the soul, and the nature of the future life. It shows us our nearness to and connection with the eternal world, and the influences which act upon us both from the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. It exhibits before us humanity in its widest possible contrasts, in its greatest moral beauty in the person of the Saviour, and in its greatest moral deformity in the persons of those he came to seek and to save. It supplies us with the purest lessons of spiritual wisdom and the highest example of practical goodness in the teaching and life of our blessed Lord; in whose sufferings and death we have the most perfect pattern of patient endurance and forgiving love,, and in whose resurrection and ascension we have the highest hope of spiritual life and eternal glory.

The word of the Old Testament is not silent on these all-important subjects. Predictions of the Lord’s coming are numerous, and some of them are unmistakably plain and singularly graphic. Still, like every future event, his advent was seen as through a glass darkly. So were all the subjects of the kingdom he came on earth to establish. It is only when the light of the New Testament is shed back upon the predictions and doctrines of the Old, that they stand out in their proper distinctness, and that their high import is clearly and fully understood.

The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, thus combined, contain the knowledge of that great salvation which the Lord, in his infinite mercy, has wrought out for, and now freely offers to all his people. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and a life according to his commandments, are the sum and substance of the Christian

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Introduction

religion, the essential means and conditions of salvation ; and these are set before ns in the very letter with so much plainness that he may run that readeth.

But within the literal there is a spiritual sense, which exalts all the truths of the Word, and intensifies all the means of salvation. God has stored up in his Wc/rd, as he has in his Works, inexhaustible treasures of wisdom and knowledge; and has only, when the time has come, to open the seals of his Sacred Volume, which is written within and on the back side, and to unrol it before the nations, that they may “ come and see ” the wonders which have lain hid in its recesses, from the time of its revelation, till men were prepared, by a higher development of their faculties, to perceive and acknowledge them.

During the past ages of the church the Word has been understood in its literal sense only. The existence of a spiritual sense has always indeed been acknowledged in the church, although little success has attended the numerous attempts that have been made to unfold it. It was important that a belief in the existence of an inner sense in the Scriptures should be preserved, though the time for its manifestation was not yet come. The literal sense was adapted to the genius and adequate to the wants of the church of the Lord’s first advent; the spiritual sense is revealed for the use of the church of his second advent. His first coming was in feebleness and obscurity ; his second coming is with power and great glory. As it is from the literal sense of the Word that we acquire a knowledge of. the Lord’s coming in the flesh, it is from the spiritual sense that we acquire a knowledge of his coming in the spirit. The time of the Lord’s second coming — a coming not in person but in power — having now arrived, the spiritual sense of the Word, which reveals it, is now made known, and may be understood, because the event and the revelation are the correlatives of each other.

The use of this inner sense of the Holy Word consists chiefly in its unfolding two great subjects — the glorification of the Lord’s humanity, and the regeneration of man. These two works are related to each other as cause and effect. The Lord’s glorification is the origin and pattern of man’s regeneration. It is because the Lord was glorified that man can be regenerated. By glorification the Lord became a Saviour; by regeneration we become saved. Glorification and regeneration are the same in their nature; they differ only in degree. By glorification the Lord made his humanity Divine; by regeneration he makes man spiritual. These two works,

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which are the beginning and the end of the Incarnation, are the leading subjects of the inner sense of the Holy Word. The inmost or celestial sense treats of the Lord’s glorification, the internal or spiritual sense treats of man’s regeneration. As the subject of regeneration has the nearest, because an immediate personal interest for us, and comes more within the scope of our apprehension, it will chiefly engage our attention, and will most conduce to our edification.

There is one other subject treated of in the inner sense of the Word — the church or religious dispensation, whose states both o i advancement and retrogression form the subject of “the internal historical ” or “ proximate ” sense, which is nearest to the sense ot the letter.

In explaining the Word it may be useful at times to consider it as it refers to the Lord, or to man, or to the church, leaving the reader to trace out its other applications, which he may readily do, since there is a correspondence between them.

One word of caution for those who are not acquainted with the spiritual interpretation of the Word. It may be supposed that the spiritual sense supersedes the literal sense. This is by no means the case. There are some parts of the Word that are not to be literally understood. With the exception of these, the literal sense is at least as much believed in and reverenced by us as .if no spiritual sense existed. All doctrine is to be drawn from the literal sense of the Word; and all spiritual truth rests upon it as its necessary foundation.

It is only necessary to add, that as the Holy Word, in which the fulness of wisdom dwells, is sufficient for the supply of all our spiritual wants, we have only to go to it earnestly and in a teachable spirit, looking to Him who is the Light itself for illumination, to derive from its sacred pages whatever is most suitable to our spiritual states, and most conducive to our eternal welfare.

Chapter I

The Old Testament begins with “ the generations of the heavens and the earth,” and the New Testament begins with “ the generation” of him by whom the heavens and the earth were created. In the Incarnation the Creator took upon himself by birth that nature which had originally derived its birth from him. He by whom man was made was himself made man. God assumed man’s nature to effect what

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[Chap. I.

man was designed but had failed to accomplish. As the world came from God, it was designed to return to him again, and to return through man, for whose sake it was created, and in whose spiritual and eternal happiness alone the purpose of its creation would be Realized. God could have no other end in view in creating the world — the universe itself — than to form from the human race a heaven of immortal beings, to whom he might impart a measure of his own infinite blessedness, and in whose ever-increasing numbers and perfection he might behold a not unworthy image of his own immensity and glory. The fall of man threatened the frustration of this beneficent end. The catastrophe could only be averted and the breach repaired by God becoming man, and in the humanity he assumed restoring what man had lost in himself. In the Lord’s humanity at the ascension creation returned to him from whom it originally came. The link in the chain of connection between the Creator and his creature was more than supplied by man’s Restorer. By his Divine Humanity God has connected his creation in this and all other worlds with himself; and by a new and living way, which he has consecrated through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, man has for ever access to him, and he to man.

The Incarnation was thus the beginning of a new creation. Jesus is therefore called the Beginning of the creation of God; the First-born of every creature. He is the beginning of that new and spiritual creation which is to consist of those who become “new creatures;” he is the first-begotten and the head of that new generation which is to consist of those who are “born again” of him. The Lord has become the second Adam, the Father of a new and endless race of regenerate beings. In him what was God’s imperfect image has become man’s perfect Exemplar.

It is, in fact, this spiritual creation which the Genesis of the Word describes — a creation which made primeval man a spiritual image and likeness of his Maker. This image of the Divine properly constitutes humanity, for we are truly human only so far as we are images of God as to his moral perfections. It was this image that was lost by the fall, and which the Creator came to restore by the Incarnation, — that transcendently glorious event which forms the theme of the Gospel of peace, the beginning of which announces the birth of the Saviour, — the glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

1-17. The booh of the generation of Jesus Christ comprehends in it much more than an enumeration of his natural progenitors; and its

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purpose is much higher than to establish the historical tact that he was the son of David, the son of Abraham. It is not our purpose to enter into a consideration of its literal sense, nor to attempt to clear up its historical difficulties. These will be found treated, in many instances with care and ability, in commentaries devoted to tlfb elucidation of the literal sense, of which we may particularize The Critical English Testament. We have no doubt of the truth and consistency of the sacred writers, and are convinced that a defective knowledge of the times and circumstances in which the genealogies of Matthew and Luke were produced, is the sole cause of their apparent discrepancies and inconsistencies. Some of these we shall have occasion to allude to in treating of their spiritual signification.

The Lord’s genealogy has far higher claims on our attention than as a record of his natural descent. It is an inspired revelation for conveying to us divine and holy truths relating to the great mystery of the Lord’s incarnation and glorification, and, in a secondary sense, to our own regeneration. In heaven, where the natural sense of the Word does not exist, but where the Word is written in purely spiritual language, and is understood in a purely spiritual sense, every name in this table must be substituted by a purely spiritual truth, conveying to the minds of angels a distinct and luminous idea. In the natural world, where our views of divine and spiritual things are necessarily much more general, and therefore much more obscure, we must rest satisfied with a few leading ideas on such subjects as the present, where a long array of names is presented before us.

In the spiritual sense of Scripture natural signify spiritual births, and natural mean spiritual generations. Between the natural and the spiritual there is an exact analogy. There is a common perception of this. We all ascribe conception and birth to the mind as well as to the body. Affections and thoughts are as truly the offspring of the will and understanding as sons and daughters are of human pairs; and there are successive generations of the one as well as of the other. These are the births and generations to which the internal sense of the Word relates. The Lord’s genealogy treats of the successive conception and birth in him of divine affections and thoughts, or, what is the same, of divine goods and truths. It was by the successive birth of the Divine in the human that the human became at length divine. This glorification of the Lord may be illustrated by the regeneration of man, in which it may be seen as in its image. The regeneration of man begins at his birth, and continues to the end of life, and, indeed, goes on to eternity. The Lord’s

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[Chap. T.

glorification commenced at Lis birth, and was only completed at his resurrection and ascension. Let us endeavour to trace the greater in the less.

The earlier period of human life is employed by the Lord in effecting in the mind a spiritual work preparatory to regeneration, and without which actual regeneration in adult age would be impossible — as impossible as a virtuous and intelligent manhood would be without the educational stages of infancy, childhood, and youth. This work consists in implanting the germs of principles and forming the rudiments of states that are to constitute the new life in the regenerate soul. These are spiritually meant iii the Word by the remnant which is saved, and through which there is salvation (Isa. x. 20 ; i. 9). As a remnant of holy persons must be left in every expiring church, to form the neucleus of a new one (Rom. ix. 27 ; xi. 5) ; so must a remnant of holy principles be preserved in the mind of every child of fallen man, to form the initiament of the new or regenerate state, which is the church or kingdom of the Lord in him. “ Remains are truths and goods stored up by the Lord in man’s interiors; by which he is prepared and initiated to receive the influx of good and truth from the Lord, and thus to become regenerated.” That man may acquire these remains, he is “ from first infancy to first boyhood introduced by the Lord into heaven, and indeed amongst the celestial angels, by whom he is kept in a state of innocence; whenthe age of boyhood commences, he by degrees puts off the state of innocence, but still is kept in a state of mutual charity towards his like, a state which continues in some instances to youth : he is then amongst spiritual angels. But as he has not yet acquired truths, the good things of innocence and charity which he had received in those two states have not yet been qualified, for truth gives quality to good, and good gives essence to truth, on which account he is from this age imbued with truths by instruction, and especially by his own thoughts and consequent confirmations.” He is then amongst angels of the ultimate heaven. Thus “ good things of a threefold kind are signified by remains, — the good things of infancy, the good things of ignorance, and the good things of intelligence. The good things of infancy are insinuated into man from his first nativity to the age in which he begins to be instructed and to know something; the good things of ignorance are what are insinuated when he begins to be instructed and to know something; the good things of intelligence are what are insinuated when he is capable of reflecting on what is good and true. The good of infancy is insinuated from

CilAP. I.]

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infancy to the tenth year; the good of ignorance from the tenth to the twentieth year ; from this year man begins to become rational, and to have the faculty of reflecting on good and truth, and to procure for himself the good of intelligence.”

As the human being descends through all the heavens, he thereby acquires the faculty of “ ascending up where he was before,” to become an inhabitant of that particular heaven for which he prepares himself by actual regeneration. He thereby also acquires the germs of those principles and the rudiments of those states which constitute the kingdom of the Lord in the human soul. While amongst the celestial angels he acquires the germ of the celestial principle, which is love to the Lord; while amongst the spiritual angels he acquires the germ of the spiritual principle, which is love to the neighbour; and while amongst the angels of the ultimate heaven he acquires the germ of the natural principle, which is use, as an intelligent manifestation of love and charity.

The germination of the seeds thus sown in the mind forms the commencement of regeneration, their growth its progress, and their fructification its completion. As seeds may lie for a long period in the bosom of the earth without their vitality being destroyed ; so may the seeds of heavenly principles remain long undeveloped in the mind, yet preserved by divine goodness for future use. And as seeds sown in the earth begin to germinate whenever they come under the influence of the vernal sun, so do the seeds of the kingdom, whenever they come under the influence of the Sun of Righteousness, which is the case when man, like the earth in spring, turns himself to the source of his life and the author of his salvation, to receive into his heart the rays of divine love and light. Divine mercy and grace have left nothing undone which may provide for this blessed consummation. They have from the first moment of the soul’s existence been engaged in making all things ready, that man may, when he arrives at adult age, enter into the heavenly marriage.

As in all things it behoved Jesus to be made like unto his brethren — as the end for which the Lord was manifested in the flesh, required that he should be glorified by the same process as that by which man is regenerated — he had, from infancy, to pass through all the states of preparation common to his rational creatures. He had to be initiated into all human states and to make all human acquisitions; and only differed from others in having acquired and made them in greater fulness and perfection. “He increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” Even in

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[Chap. I.

this we see the “ goods of a threefold kind ” acquired, as remains, by him as by others. The remains which he acquired were, however, pure goods and truths from the Word, and were in themselves divine,

■ — divine-celestial, divine-spiritual, and divine-natural.

To describe this representatively, the Lord’s progenitors are divided into three groups of fourteen generations each. All the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations ; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations. The generations from Abraham are celestial remains, those from David are spiritual remains, and those from the carrying away into Babylon are natural remains. These are divided into three groups of fourteen generations each, to signify that the remains which they represented are most holy; for seven is a number which signifies what is holy, and fourteen, which is twice seven, signifies what is most holy. The Evangelist says all the generations of each of the three groups are fourteen generations; yet it is well known that several persons are omitted from this list, and in it David is numbered twice. Some commentators are of opinion that the compression of the Lord’s progenitors into three times fourteen generations is only a contrivance of Matthew’s for the sake of assisting the memory ! What then becomes of his inspiration, and of the divinity of the book 1 Is it not rather an evidence — and a very striking one — that the mere literal form of the Scriptures is determined by a higher law than literal accuracy, and that the literal sense is sometimes made to yield to it, for the purpose of embodying and expressing a spiritual truth ? Although it is not literally true that all the generations in each series were fourteen, it is spiritually true that all the remains, of every class, stored up in the mind of Jesus, were most holy and most perfect; and three times fourteen were required to express this important truth.

It is to be observed that in the first series of this genealogy the actual and the formal numbers are the same, from Abraham to David being actually fourteen generations; in the other two series they are different. This no doubt points to a corresponding fact in regard to the regenerate. Only in celestial things, and in the celestial man, is there an exact correspondence between the essential and the formal, or between the internal and the external. This was true even of the Lord himself before he was fully glorified, and especially during that period and in that state to which the genealogy of Matthew relates. He acquired not only real, but also apparent truths; but these, as

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sucli, could not be appropriated as remains, and were therefore passed by, as some persons were omitted in the genealogy. What was holy was extracted from the entire series, as the three times fourteen were taken out of the whole of the Lord’s progenitors. The genuine truths contained in the apparent truths were, however preserved, and were brought forth in the process of glorification, as persons omitted by Matthew re-appear in the genealogy of Luke.

It was on account of the divine work of acquiring remains that J esus did not enter on his public ministry till he was thirty years of J]/i age. For “by thirty is signified a full state of remains; and sinccT man cannot be regenerated, that is, admitted into spiritual^combats, by which regeneration is effected, until he has received remains to the full, it was ordained that the Levitt-should not perform work in the sanctuary until he had completed thirty years. From these considerations it is also evident why the Lord did not manifest himself until he was thirty years of age, for he was then in the fulness of remains; but the remains which the Lord had he procured to himself, and they were divine, by which he united the human essence to the divine, and made it divine.”

Such is the momentous truth contained in the Lord’s genealogy.

That it was intended to teach some higher truth than that which is assigned to it in the letter, may appear from the fact that it does not really prove Jesus to be the descendant of those whose names are given as his progenitors, since the genealogy is not traced in the line of Mary, whose son, according to the flesh, he was, but in the line of Joseph, whose son he was not. But there is a spiritual reason for his genealogy being traced in the line of the' husband of Mary. Genealogies were traced in the male line because the male represents the intellect and the truth which belongs to it, while the female represents the will and the good which it contains. And all spiritual distinctions, and therefore all spiritual generations, owe their existence to the intellect and to truth. Good in itself is one and the same ; truths are many and various. Discriminations and distinctions, degrees and series, thus individualities and generations, in one word, all multiplications, are effected by truth. It is the intellectual principle of the church that produces them. Joseph, the husband of Maiy, represented that principle ; and therefore, though he was not actually the father of Jesus, the genealogy of the Lord is traced through his line, to express spiritually what was true of the principle he represented.

There is one particular expression which occurs in this genealogy

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[Chap. 1.

that is deserving of attention, as bearing on the present subject. It is not said of the persons of the genealogy that they were born, but that they were begotten. Their birth of course is understood ; but the language of inspiration is in itself significative, and the literal expression is often important, as forming the basis of the spiritual sense. How the implanting of remains in the mind is rather a begetting than a birth, rather an insemination than a growth and fructification. Strictly speaking and spiritually understood, birth is the bringing of the principles previously received in the mind into the outward life. It is only then that they truly exist ; for no spiritual principle has actual and permanent existence till it is “born into the world” in the actions of a holy life. The remains that are laid up in the mind are therefore goods and truths “ begotten ” and “ conceived,” to be afterwards “brought forth” by actual regeneration.

It may not be irrelevant or uninteresting to notice here, and briefly consider in its relation to that of Matthew, the genealogy of the Lord as given by Luke. These differ on three main points. Matthew traces the Lord’s genealogy downward, while Luke traces it upward ; Matthew traces it down only from Abraham to Jesus, while Luke traces it up from Jesus to Adam, and even to God : the genealogies differ from each other.

As to the first point. The glorification of the Lord, like the regeneration of man, had both a downward and an upward progression. From infancy to manhood the progression with every one is downward. As we have seen, there is first the celestial state, then the spiritual, and lastly the natural — that is, celestial remains are implanted and the rudiment of the celestial state is formed first, and the others follow in succession. But when, in manhood, actual regeneration commences, the progression is upward, from natural to spiritual, from spiritual to celestial. By actual regeneration the previously existing rudimentary states are developed in the inverse order to that in which they were formed. This twofold order is described in the two genealogies. The genealogy of Matthew describes the downward progression from the higher to the lower : that of Luke describes the upward progression from the lower to the higher, and even to the highest. This last is especially applicable to the Lord, to whose glorification the genealogies eminently refer.

As to the second point. Matthew begins his descending series of the Lord’s progenitors with Abraham; but Luke ends his ascending series with Adam, and finally with God. There is a profound truth in this. Bemains, so far at least as they come to human conscious-

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ness, are implanted in the natural mind, though in its inmost part — “in the interiors of the interior natural principle.” The implanting and laying up of remains in the natural or ultimate degree of the mind is treated of in the genealogy of Matthew.

There are reasons for this. One reason is, that the natural mind is the seat of hereditary evil, by which it is entirely possessed; and unless the remains of goodness and truth were stored up in fulness here, reformation would be impossible. Another reason is, that the natural mind is the ultimate and the common basis of the two higher degrees, the spiritual and the celestial; and it is only as the lowest degree of the mind is regenerated that the higher degrees can be opened and perfected. In order that it may be such an ultimate and basis, the natural mind itself consists of three degrees; and this is according to the law of order, that all successive degrees exist simultaneously in the lowest degree. As the natural mind consists of three degrees, so do the remains of goodness and truth, of which it is receptive. Every good and truth that comes from God to man descends through all the heavens, and consequently through all the corresponding degrees of the human mind; and in the natural mind all the successive degrees of good and truth exist simultaneously, as in the Word all the higher degrees of revealed truth are contained in and rest on its literal sense.