Of this our author says: "No echo of the words of Matthew has lingered in the ear of the writer, for he employs utterly different phraseology throughout; and _nothing can be more certain than the fact_ that there is not a linguistic trace in it of acquaintance with our Synoptics" (p. 194).
The value of our author's conclusions may be measured by what he here asserts. It seems to me that the reverse may be asserted. (1) That words in Matthew _did_ "linger in the ear of the writer;" (2) that he _does not_ "employ utterly different phraseology throughout;" and (3) that many things "_can_ be more certain than the fact that there is not a linguistic trace in it of acquaintance with our Synoptics."
The next passage which is referred to is as follows:--"What, then, are those precepts in which we are instructed? I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that persecute you; that ye may be sons of your Father which is in the heavens, who maketh his sun," &c.[52]
[52] "Leg. pro Christ." § 11. See Matt. v. 44, 45.
There is also the following:--"For if ye love, them which love you, and lend to them which lend to you, what reward shall ye have?"[53]
[53] "Leg. pro. Christ." § 12. Comp. with Matt. v. 46.
Of this passage, our author says it is evident that it does not agree with either of the Synoptics. "We have seen," says he, "the persistent variation in the quotations from the Sermon on the Mount which occur in Justin, and there is no part of the discourses of Jesus more certain to have been preserved by living Christian tradition, or to have been recorded in every form of Gospel. The differences in these passages from our Synoptics present the same features as mark the several versions of the same discourse in our First and Third Gospel, and indicate a distinct source" (p. 195). I remark, every step our author takes in this sort of criticism tends to the confirmation of our Christian faith, which is not the Christianity of a creed or a Church, but the belief in a Person. The more independent accounts of His life and discourses which can be traced, the greater the proof of His advent and mission. The Sermon on the Mount cannot be accounted for apart from the superhuman. "Never man spake like this man." The more it is quoted the more it is established as a sublime fact in literature, which neither the Jewish race, nor the Augustan era, nor indeed any other race or any other age, could have originated apart from Divine intervention.