And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these
sayings,
&c.] Delivered in this, and the two foregoing chapters,
concerning true happiness; the duty and usefulness of Gospel
ministers; the true sense and meaning of several commandments in
the law; concerning alms, prayer, and fasting; concerning the
care of worldly things, rash judging, rigid censures, and
reproofs; the straitness and narrowness of the way to eternal
life, and the largeness and breadth of the way to destruction;
concerning false prophets, and the right hearing of the word.
The people were astonished at his doctrine;
it being something new, and unheard of, what they had not been
used to; and coming in the demonstration of the Spirit, and of
power, it carried its own evidence along with it, wrought
conviction in their minds, and obliged them to acknowledge the
truth of it.