Matt. 11 Matt. 11:2–6 John sendeth his disciples to Christ. Matt. 11:7–15 Christ’s testimony concerning John. Matt. 11:16–19 The perverse judgments of the people concerning both John and Christ. Matt.

We never find our Saviour idle, but continually going up and down doing good, and we find him most intent upon preaching and teaching, which doubtless is the great work of the ministers of the gospel; of what quality soever they be, they call pretend to no higher than Christ’s.

The instance of this text alone is enough to convince the observing reader of holy writ, that the evangelists do not set down all things in that order as they were done.

We must imagine these disciples of John to have stayed with Christ some time, and to have seen him work some of these miracles, and to have heard him preach, and seen the great success of his ministry, and then to have left him with this answer.

Luke repeating the same story, Luke 7:24–26, instead of they that wear soft clothing, saith, they that are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in kings’ courts.

St. Luke hath the same, Luke 7:27–28, only he saith, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. It was written, Mal. 3:1, Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the…

As John Baptist was a great man, so the Lord hath owned him as such, giving such a success to his ministry, that ever since he began the course of it, men have been carried on with a great ardour and heat, in hearing and receiving the gospel, which is the gospel of the kingdom, and bringeth men…

It is no wonder that there was such a heat kindled in the souls of people upon John the Baptist’s coming, for they understood that Christ, typified in the law, and only foretold by the prophets, was now come.

God had told the Jews, Mal. 4:5–6, that he would send them Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers, lest (saith he) I come and smite the earth with a…

It is an epiphonema or conclusion often used by our Saviour, (and by St. John in the Revelation), quickening up the hearers to a just attention to and belief of what in the doctrine preceding he had revealed to them; intimating that he knew, that what he had said would not be entertained or…

Luke, telling to us the same history, Luke 7:31–35, prefaces it thus, Luke 7:29–30, And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John.

Luke hath the same words, Luke 7:33–35. The sense of the words is this: God hath by his providence used all means to win this people to the gospel. The doctrine of John the Baptist and Christ was the same, but their temper and converse was very different: John was an austere and morose man, Christ…

Our Lord had hitherto spent most of his time in Galilee, and the cities belonging to that province: there both John the Baptist and himself had preached the gospel, there he had wrought many miracles, by both aiming at their repentance; but there were multitudes that did not receive him, nor would…

Luke hath the same, Luke 10:13–14. Chorazin (and) Bethsaida were two cities of Galilee not far from one another, only the lake of Gennesaret was between them.

This speech of our Saviour is much of the same import with the other. The scope and sense of it is the same, to let the Capernaites know that the hardness of their heart was greater in contempt of the gospel, confirmed by so many miraculous operations, and their guilt greater, than the guilt of…

Luke 10:21, hath the same thing, only he thus prefaces, In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, & c. He rejoiced in spirit, his heart was inwardly affected with this grace of God his Father. Then he answered and said.

Our Lord having before showed; 1. That all power was given to him; 2. That none could know the Father but by and in him; closes his discourse with an invitation of persons to him.