{29b} Our Lord refers to some of the moral precepts, and to some of the civil enactments of the law of Moses; because the meaning and application of both had been perverted or obscured by the glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees; and his intention evidently was, to remove those false glosses, and to teach the legitimate application, meaning, and extent of the divine commandments. Thus, the civil enactment, “An eye for an eye,” &c. was perverted by the Pharisees, so as to encourage the notion, that personal revenge was justifiable by the divine law. This perversion was met by our Lord’s command, “Resist not evil,” &c. Again, God had commanded the Jews to love their neighbours as themselves. The Scribes, it would seem, chose to infer that this command necessarily implied the inculcation of an opposite feeling towards enemies. They therefore interpreted the precept to mean “Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.” Our Lord gave the most decided negative to this gloss, by his injunction, “love your enemies,” &c. Moreover, the Scribes taught that the mere outward observance of the precept was all that the law required. Our Lord shewed that God regards the inward feelings and motives of men—that the unchaste desire was adultery, and that causeless anger was murder. In this, his object was not to condemn or contradict the teaching of the law and the prophets, but to free it from human perversion, to shew its real character, and to point out its moral beauty and excellency. Hence his solemn assertion, that not one jot or tittle should pass from the law.