Wesley Corpus

/ say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees, ye shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew, v. 20. These words are a part of the divine ser mon which our blessed Lord delivered from the mount to the people, who, having seen the mighty and wonderful works he had done in the towns where he had preached, followed him in multitudes, and pressed upon him to see the signs he had wrought, and to hear the doctrines he promulgated. These, therefore, he instructs in the perfection of that religion which he came into the world to establish, and shows how infinitely it exceeded all other re ligious dispensations wherewith mankind till then had been blessed. And as the people to whom he spoke were all of them Jews, and had a high veneration for the religion of their fathers, he chiefly compares his com mands with those of Moses, to convince them how far even the law and the prophets fell short of that which the Son of God himself descended to make known on earth ; and as all the people of Israel were prepossessed with high notions of the scribes and pharisees, whom they supposed to be exalted patterns of sanctity, he informs them that, holy and emi nent as they thought these men to be, yet the lowest servant of Christ must infinitely surpass them in righteousness and true holiness, or he could never hope to be made partaker of the, kingdom of heaven. In discoursing on these words, I shall, First, show wherein consisted the righteous ness of the scribes and pharisees. Secondly, consider in what instances all Christians are obliged to exceed them. Thirdly, conclude with some practical in ferences from the whole. The scribes, as we learn from several pas sages of Holy Scripture, were for the most part learned doctors and teachers of the law, who