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satisfactory * These terhptations being figurative predictions of trio sis } ' which Jesus was afterwards to encounter , it was natural , he observes ^ to close the history of the / ormer by taking notice of the relation which they bore to the fettter . If for a season be the true Kacl
Tendering of the words ( a-X ^ - mv ) the evangelist meant to inti * mate that after that season , Christ was to be actually assailed by the temptations which were now foretold . If the passage should be translated , + until the season ^ it refers to the season itself , appointed for the accomplishment of these
predictions . After all , the most rational scheme for elucidating this part of Scripture has its difficulties . Difficulties , indeed , we might reasonably presume would attend the jrelation of so remarkable and
grand an event , especially if we advert to the sublimity and bold-Bess of eastern imagery . On Matt . viii . YJ . " That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet , saying , Himself took our infirmities , and
bare our sicknesses , " rather , he took away our ijrftrniities ^ and removed our sicknesses ^ Mr . Kenrick makes this sensible and pertinent remark :
<* The passage of Isaiah , ( liii 4 . ) whjcfr is here referred to , is thus translated in our English Version , « . Surely he tiath borne our griefs , aad carried our cor rows ; ' which has been usually
applied to the sufferings which Christ endure £ Sox our sins ; but we see that Matthew , who no doubt understood the orijgin * il better tnan any person of the present day , applies this passage to the case of Christ ' s removing , by his miraculous
p * vyer , * he infirmities * and sicknesses of mankind . We . transcribe , with pleasure ^ our authors observations on Matt *
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xiii . 10 . " And the disciples came and said unto him , Why speakest thou to them in parables ?" " That is , TJiou teachest us msuiy things plainly , when we are by ourselves ; but before the multitude thou
speakest in parables , which , because the moral is not added , have something in them perplexed , an 4 difficult to be understood . This part of pur Saviour ' s conduct has been made a serious objection to his religion : for it has been said , that the Christian law is delivered in fables ; whereas , a rule of conduct ought to be expressed in the plainest language . This charge , however , is not well founded . The rules of . a good life , and
of our faith and hope , Christ had delivered before in the plainest words ; 39 appears from chapters v , vi . and vii . of this evangelist , as well as from the other books of the New Testament . These are the parts of Scripture which have properly the force of laws : the thing * which Christ explains by fables are of
another kind , which he ca $ s the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven , in which he partly unfolds the nature of the divine dispensations , but principally foretell the reception which ( tf * e gospel would meet with from different persons , and the progress that it would make among Jews and Gentiles . For the purposes of prophecy , it is acknowledged on all h ^ nds , that some obscurity of language
is requisite . ' Matt . xiii . 49 , , " So shall it be at the end of the wodd . The angels shall come forth , and sever the wicked frojn among the
just , And shall cast them into the furnace < s > f fire : there shall ^' be wailing and gnashing of teeth . ' " These two yefses , " says Mr , Kenrick , " contain the moral of the parable , ( the net tohicb gathered of every kind , ) by which it appears , that the design ot it is the same with tbar of the weeds or
tares and good grain , and that they arc both intended to represent that profess- * ing Christians would have bad men a # well as good among them , and that they would continue with them until the cna of the world , or the day of judgment , when God would separate them from the just , and send them into a place ot punishment . " We are of opinion , tfiat crvvre *
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g 24 Meview . —Kenricks Exposition
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1809, page 624, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1742/page/38/
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