Interpret → Preach
For the service
John Wesley’s own Explanatory Notes Upon the Old and New Testament on the day’s readings — his verse-by-verse commentary, not a summary of it. Read the full edition ↗
first Job 14:1-14
- v.1Man — A weak creature, and withal corrupt and sinful, and of that sex by which sin and all other calamity was brought into the world.
- v.2Flower — The flower is fading, and all its beauty soon withers and is gone. The shadow is fleeting, and its very being will soon be lost in the shadows of night. Of neither do we make any account, in neither do we put any confidence.
- v.4Not one — No man. This is the prerogative of thy grace, which therefore I humbly implore.
- v.5Determined — Limited to a certain period. With thee - In thy power and disposal. Thou hast appointed a certain end of his days, beyond which he cannot prolong his life.
- v.6Turn — Withdraw thine afflicting hand from him, that he may have some present ease. 'Till - He come to the period of his life, which thou hast allotted to him, as a man appoints a set time to an hired servant.
- v.8Die — To outward appearance.
- v.9Scent — By means of water. Scent or smell, is figuratively ascribed to a tree.
- v.10Man — Two words are here used for man. Geber, a mighty man, tho' mighty, dies. Adam, a man of earth, returns to it. Before death, he is dying daily, continually wasting away. In death, he giveth up the ghost, the spirit returns to God that gave it. After death, where is he? Not where he was: his place knows him no more. But is he nowhere? Yes, he is gone to the world of spirits, gone into eternity, gone, never to return to this world!
- v.11As — So it is with man. Or thus, as when the waters fail from the sea, when the sea forsakes the place into which it used to flow, the river which was fed by it, decayeth and drieth up without all hopes of recovery.
- v.12Lieth — In his bed, the grave. 'Till - Until the time of the general resurrection, when these visible heavens shall pass away.
- v.13The grave — The grave is not only a resting-place, but an hiding-place to the children of God. He hides them in the grave, as we hide our treasure in a place of secrecy and safety. Hide me there, not only from the storms of this life, but for the glory of a better. Until thy wrath be past - As long as our bodies lie in the grave, there are some fruits of God's wrath against sin: until the set time comes, for their being remembered, as Noah was remembered in the ark, Gen. viii, 1. Our bodies shall not be forgotten in the grave, there is a time set for their being inquired after.
- v.14Shall he live? — He shall not in this world. Therefore I will patiently wait 'till that change comes, which will put a period to my calamities.
psalm Psalm 31:1-4, 15-16
- v.1Ashamed — Of my confidence in thy promise. Deliver me - According to thy faithfulness and goodness.
second 1 Peter 4:1-8
- v.1Arm yourselves with the same mind — Which will be armour of proof against all your enemies. For he that hath suffered in the flesh - That hath so suffered as to be thereby made inwardly and truly conformable to the sufferings of Christ. Hath ceased from sin - Is delivered from it.
- v.2That ye may no longer live in the flesh — Even in this mortal body. To the desires of men - Either your own or those of others. These are various; but the will of God is one.
- v.3Revellings, banquetings — Have these words any meaning now? They had, seventeen hundred years ago. Then the former meant, meetings to eat; meetings, the direct end of which was, to please the taste: the latter, meetings to drink: both of which Christians then ranked with abominable idolatries.
- v.4The same — As ye did once. Speaking evil of you - As proud, singular, silly, wicked and the like.
- v.5Who shall give account — Of this, as well as all their other ways. To him who is ready - So faith represents him now.
- v.6For to this end was the gospel preached — Ever since it was given to Adam. To them that are now dead - In their several generations. That they might be judged - That though they were judged. In the flesh according to the manner of men - With rash, unrighteous judgment. They might live according to the will and word of God, in the Spirit; the soul renewed after his image.
- v.7But the end of all things — And so of their wrongs, and your sufferings. Is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer - Temperance helps watchfulness, and both of them help prayer. Watch, that ye may pray; and pray, that ye may watch.
- v.8Love covereth a multitude of sins — Yea, "love covereth all things." He that loves another, covers his faults, how many soever they be. He turns away his own eyes from them; and, as far as is possible, hides them from others. And he continually prays that all the sinner's iniquities may be forgiven and his sins covered. Meantime the God of love measures to him with the same measure into his bosom.
gospel Matthew 27:57-66
- v.57When the evening was come — That is, after three o'clock; the time from three to six they termed the evening. Mark xv, 42; Luke xxiii, 50; John xix, 38.
- v.62On the morrow, the day that followed the day of the preparation — The day of preparation was the day before the Sabbath, whereon they were to prepare for the celebration of it. The next day then was the Sabbath according to the Jews. But the evangelist seems to express it by this circumlocution, to show the Jewish Sabbath was then abolished.
- v.63That impostor said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again — We do not find that he had ever said this to them, unless when he spoke of the temple of his body, John ii, 19, 21. And if they here refer to what he then said, how perverse and iniquitous was their construction on these words, when he was on his trial before the council? Chap. xxvi, 61. Then they seemed not to understand them!
- v.65Ye have a guard — Of your own, in the tower of Antonia, which was stationed there for the service of the temple.
- v.66They went and secured the sepulchre, sealing the stone, and setting a guard — They set Pilate's signet, or the public seal of the sanhedrim upon a fastening which they had put on the stone. And all this uncommon caution was overruled by the providence of God, to give the strongest proofs of Christ's ensuing resurrection; since there could be no room for the least suspicion of deceit, when it should be found, that his body was raised out of a new tomb, where there was no other corpse, and this tomb hewn out of a rock, the mouth of which was secured by a great stone, under a seal, and a guard of soldiers.