[11] Matt. i. 3. “And Judas begat Pharez and Zara of Thamar.” So it is remarked, in the 5th verse, that Salmon begat Booz of Rachab, and that Booz begat Obed of Ruth, and in the 6th verse, that David begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah. All the mothers are not noted, but only those which were either harlots or Gentiles, except the wife of Uriah the Hittite, who was a wife of a Gentile. These are taken notice of, because Christ’s descending from several harlots and Gentiles intimates unto us that all that are saved by Christ were sinners. That the church of Christ is made up wholly of such as were once sinners, that is, spiritual harlots, or adulterers and idolaters, thereby also typifying the calling of the Gentiles.
[124] Matt. i. 16. “And Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.” This genealogy proves that the kingdom of Israel was Christ’s by right of inheritance. Christ, though he was not the real son of Joseph, yet was the legal son; with greater reason than, when a man took a wife, and died, and left no seed, his brother’s seed by her were to be looked upon as his, and had the right of inheritance.
[332] Matt. iii. 2. “Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The following are the places of the Old Testament from whence probably the Jews principally took their notion of the kingdom of heaven.
Dan. ii. 44,45. vii. 9-15. xxvi. 27.: Ps. xcvi. especially the four last verses; Ps. i. 1-7. compared with Dan. vii. 9 to 15.; Ps. xcvii. and xcviii. especially the last verse; Isa. ii. 1 to 6. and 15 to the end., ix. 6, 7. xi. xii. xxiv. 23. and especially verses 9, 10, 11. xxv. xxvi. xxvii. xxxii. 1 to 9. xxxv. xl. 3, 4, 5, 10, 11. xli. xlii. 1 to 22. xlix. lx. lxi. lxii. lxiii. 1 to 7. lxiv. 1, 2. lxv. 17 to the end,. lxvi.; Jer. xxiii. 5 to 9. xxx. 9. xxxi. xxxiii. especially ver. 15, 16.; Ezek. xxi. 27. xxxiv. 20 to the end,. xxxvii. 20 to the end.; Hosea ii 16 to the end.; Joel ii. 28 to the end,. iii. 9 to the end.; Amos ix. 11 to the end.; Micah iv. 1 to 9. v. vii. 8 to the end.; Obadiah. ver. 17 to the end., especially ver. 15, 16; Nahum i. 15.; Zeph. iii. 8 to the end.; Haggai ii. 1 to 10., and 21 to the end.; Zech. ii. 11, 12, 13. iii. 8, 9, 10. vi. 9 to the end., viii. 20 to the end., ix. 9 to the end., x. xii. xiii. xiv.; Mal. iii. 1 to 7., and 16 to the end., and chap. iv.
[9] Matt. iii. 7. “Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” Having respect principally to that wrath that should come upon those of the Jews who should reject the Messiah and continue in impenitence, both in their rejection from being the people of God, and judicial hardening, and those many great calamities that nation suffered after Christ’s ascension, especially their dreadful overthrow by the Romans.
[36] Matt. vi. 13. “And lead us not into temptation.” This includes trials brought upon us by God’s providential hand, as well as the temptation of lust. God often leads his children into these, and always for their good; but yet we are to pray against it, with submission to God’s will, because, simply considered, it is an evil.
[12] Matt. viii. 25. “And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us, we perish.” This ship shadows to us the Christian church, which indeed it contained in it, with its head. God commonly suffers his people to be just upon the very brink of destruction before he delivers them; as here the tempest arose so much, that the ship was covered with waves. God seems to be asleep, and so lets them alone, as Christ was, and must be awaked by the earnest prayers and cries of his people, before he will deliver them; and says, as in Ps. xliv. 23. “Awake! why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise; cast us not off for ever!” Ps. vii. 6. xxiii. lxxviii. 65. “Then will the Lord awake as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.”
[10] Matt. ix. 10. “And it came to pass as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.” Jesus ordering or preferring it to be thus, intimating the nature of the gospel and the design of his kingdom; the gospel grace, the feast of fat things, being offered freely to all nations and kinds of men, having respect to the calling of the Gentiles.
[61] Matt. ix. 24. When Christ said, She is not dead, but sleepeth, thereby is meant that her soul was not finally separated from her body, so as to enter into the spiritual and eternal world; nor had there that transformation passed upon her soul from a middle state to perfect holiness, or misery, and her soul was kept in a state of insensibility, as in a sound sleep, that her resurrection might not be inconvenient; therefore Christ also said, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth.” His state was not changed, his soul not purified from sin, nor any way altered so as to prepare it for glory, but his state was only intermitted.