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to call themselves rabbis . They are guides to him , not masters of our faith : and the highest respect we can shew to them is to exercise our own
judgment with gospel freedom , and t to attach ourselves the more to our < great Master . " I speak unto wise i men , judge ye what I say . " 1 W . FREND .
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March 3 , 1821 . Notes on a few Passages in the New Testament *
MATT . xii . 48 . who is my mother ? And who are my brethren ? This passage does not inculcate general in opposition to particular benevolence . Our Lord sustained a public and extraordinary character , from the performance of the duties of which he would not suffer himself
to be diverted by any inferior consideration . To us no such character belongs : none of us are the divinelyinspired servants of the Most High God ; and although we ought to be humble followers of our Master , yet , for that very reason , we must not appropriate to ourselves declarations and pretensions that were exclusively his own .
Christianity , while it enjoins sincere love to all mankind , does not overlook , or permit its votaries to overlook , the charities of father , son and brother , but represents general and particular benevolence as mutually consistent , and as lending to each other a necessary and a powerful aid . Our social
affections have their origin in self-love . How emphatic are the words of Jesus Christ , " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" ! Not more than thyself , but in an equal measure . In the order of nature and of reason , the first objects of our benevolence are the individuals who surround us : as the circle
of our connexions enlarges , this kindness gains vigour and diffusion . Besides , our means of doing good , and , so far , of cherishing the habit , must be regulated by our situation . And since the happiness of the whole plainly consists in the happiness of its parts , the general welfare will be best promoted by our respective efforts in behalf of those with whom we are
especially and severally connected . While it is a proof of the wisdom and goodness of our Maker that he has
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not entrusted our relief of human wants to those cool , deliberating calculations which often denote and nourish selfishness , still , in the exercise of the same perfections , he has rendered it impossible for us to love all
mankind without previously and at the same time loving individual men . It was a strictly philosophical admonition which Paul delivered , * " As ice have opportunity , let us do good , unto all men ; especially unto them who are of the household of faith" The
rule is enlightened , and it is practical . Accordingly , the Samaritan , in our Saviour ' s parable , did good as he had opportunity : he was thrown in the way of the wounded Jew , whose neighbour he then became literally and locally . Nor was Christ himself
regardless of the ties of natural affinity : quite the reverse . His inquiries , " Who is my mother ? And who are my brethren ? " imply that he placed a high value on those relations : he could use no language so expressive of intimate connexion , of complacency and
regard . With the utmost wisdom he availed himself of all occasions of deducing momentous truths from passing incidents : he would not be lightly interrupted while he was teaching the people ; and in those who obey and promote his Father ' s will he recognises
his moral kindred . These interesting lessons , and nothing more , we learn from his questions , " Who is my mother ? And who are my brethren ?" Luke x . 42 : " But one thing is $ e i
needful" [^ Evoq sg- xpeioc ] . I prefer the rendering in the Imp . Vers ., " And there is need of one tiling only . " It was our Lord's custom to deduce prudential as well as moral and religious maxims from the scenes and incidents
which presented themselves to him in the course of his ministry : such was his direction , ( John vi . 12 , ) " Gather up the fragments that remain , that nothing be lost ; "t and such his wise and seasonable remark to Martha .
Instruction still more important is , no doubt , conveyed by the whole of the passage . However , the detached sentence , " and there is need of one thing only / ' has the same restricted meaning * Gal . vi . 10 . + See also 7 th aacl 8 th verses of this chapter .
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Notes on a few Passages in the New Testament . 149
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1821, page 149, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2498/page/21/
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