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<center><h1>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary
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on the Whole Bible</h1>
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[<A HREF="MHC00000.HTM">Table of Contents</A>]<BR>
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Matthew Henry<BR><I>Commentary on the Whole Bible</I> (1721)
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<!-- (Begin Body) -->
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<CENTER>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=+3><B>M A T T H E W.</B></FONT>
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<BR>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=+2>CHAP. XXIII.</FONT>
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<HR SIZE=1 WIDTH=50>
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<FONT SIZE=-1>
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<P>
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In the foregoing chapter, we had our Saviour's discourses with the
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scribes and Pharisees; here we have his discourse concerning them, or
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rather against them.
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I. He allows their office,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:2,3">ver. 2, 3</A>.
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II. He warns his disciples not to imitate their hypocrisy and pride,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:4-12">ver. 4-12</A>.
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III. He exhibits a charge against them for divers high crimes and
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misdemeanors, corrupting the law, opposing the gospel, and treacherous
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dealing both with God and man; and to each article he prefixes a woe,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:13-33">ver. 13-33</A>.
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IV. He passes sentence upon Jerusalem, and foretels the ruin of the
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city and temple, especially for the sin of persecution,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:34-39">ver. 34-39</A>.</P>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
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<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>The Scribes and Pharisees Condemned; Cautions against Pride.</I></FONT></TD>
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<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
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</TABLE>
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<P>
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<FONT SIZE=+1>1 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,
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2 Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:
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3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, <I>that</I> observe
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and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do
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not.
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4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay
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<I>them</I> on men's shoulders; but they <I>themselves</I> will not move
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them with one of their fingers.
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5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make
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broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their
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garments,
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6 And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats
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in the synagogues,
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7 And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi,
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Rabbi.
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8 But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, <I>even</I>
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Christ; and all ye are brethren.
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9 And call no <I>man</I> your father upon the earth: for one is your
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Father, which is in heaven.
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10 Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, <I>even</I>
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Christ.
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11 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
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12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he
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that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
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</FONT></P>
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<P>
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We find not Christ, in all his preaching, so severe upon any sort of
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people as upon these <I>scribes and Pharisees;</I> for the truth is,
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nothing is more directly opposite to the spirit of the gospel than the
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temper and practice of that generation of men, who were made up of
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pride, worldliness, and tyranny, under a cloak and pretence of
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religion; yet these were the idols and darlings of the people, who
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thought, if but two men went to heaven, one would be a Pharisee. Now
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Christ directs his discourse here <I>to the multitude, and to his
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disciples</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:1"><I>v.</I> 1</A>)
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to rectify their mistakes concerning these scribes and Pharisees, by
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painting them out in their true colours, and so to take off the
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prejudice which some of the multitude had conceived against Christ and
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his doctrine, because it was opposed by those men of their church, that
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called themselves the people's guides. Note, It is good to know the
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true characters of men, that we may not be imposed upon by great and
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mighty names, titles, and pretensions to power. People must be told of
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<I>the wolves</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+20:29,30">Acts xx. 29, 30</A>),
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<I>the dogs</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Php+3:2">Phil. iii. 2</A>),
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<I>the deceitful workers</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Co+11:13">2 Cor. xi. 13</A>),
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that they may know here to stand upon their guard. And not only the
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mixed multitude, but even the disciples, need these cautions; for good
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men are apt to have their eyes dazzled with worldly pomp.</P>
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<P>
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Now, in this discourse,</P>
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<P>
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I. Christ allows their office as expositors of the law; <I>The scribes
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and Pharisees</I> (that is, the whole Sanhedrim, who sat at the helm of
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church government, who were all called <I>scribes,</I> and were some of
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them Pharisees), they <I>sit in Moses' seat</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:2"><I>v.</I> 2</A>),
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as public teachers and interpreters of the law; and, the law of Moses
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being the municipal law of their state, they were as judges, or a bench
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of justices; teaching and judging seem to be equivalent, comparing
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+17:7,9,19:5,6,8">2 Chron. xvii. 7, 9, with 2 Chron. xix. 5, 6, 8</A>.
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They were not the itinerant judges that rode the circuit, but the
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standing bench, that determined on appeals, special verdicts, or writs
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of error by the law; they sat in Moses's seat, not as he was Mediator
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between God and Israel, but only as he was chief justice,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+18:26">Exod. xviii. 26</A>.
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Or, we may apply it, not to the Sanhedrim, but to the other Pharisees
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and scribes, that expounded the law, and taught the people how to apply
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it to particular cases. <I>The pulpit of wood,</I> such as was made for
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Ezra, <I>that ready scribe in the law of God</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ne+8:4">Neh. viii. 4</A>),
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is here called <I>Moses's seat,</I> because Moses had those in every
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city (so the expression is,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+15:21">Acts xv. 21</A>),
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who in those pulpits preached him; this was their office, and it was
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just and honourable; it was requisite that there should be some at
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whose mouth the people might <I>enquire the law,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mal+2:7">Mal. ii. 7</A>.
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Note,
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1. Many a good place is filled with bad men; it is no new thing for
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the vilest men to be exalted even to <I>Moses's seat</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+12:8">Ps. xii. 8</A>);
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and, when it is so, the men are not so much honoured by the seat as the
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seat is dishonoured by the men. Now they that sat in Moses's seat were
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so wretchedly degenerated, that it was time for the great Prophet to
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arise, like unto Moses, to erect another seat.
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2. Good and useful offices and powers are not <I>therefore</I> to be
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condemned and abolished, because they fall sometimes into the hands of
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bad men, who abuse them. We must not <I>therefore</I> pull down Moses's
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seat, because scribes and Pharisees have got possession of it; rather
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than so, <I>let both grow together until the harvest,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+13:30"><I>ch.</I> xiii. 30</A>.</P>
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<P>
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Hence he infers
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:3"><I>v.</I> 3</A>),
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"<I>Whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do</I> As far as
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they <I>sit in Moses's seat,</I> that is, read and preach the law that
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was given by Moses" (which, as yet, continued in full force, power, and
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virtue), "and judge according to that law, so far you must hearken to
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them, as remembrances to you of the written word." The scribes and
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Pharisees made it their business to study the scripture, and were well
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acquainted with the language, history, and customs of it, and its style
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and phraseology. Now Christ would have the people to make use of the
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helps they gave them for the understanding of the scripture, and do
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accordingly. As long as their comments did illustrate the text and not
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pervert it; did make plain, and not <I>make void, the commandment of
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God;</I> so far they must be observed and obeyed, but with caution and
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a judgment of discretion. Note, We must not think the worse of good
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truths for their being preached by bad ministers; nor of good laws for
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their being executed by bad magistrates. Though it is most desirable to
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have our food brought by angels, yet, if God send it to us by ravens,
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if it be good and wholesome, we must take it, and thank God for it. Our
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Lord Jesus promiseth this, to prevent the cavil which some would be apt
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to make at this following discourse; as if, by condemning the scribes
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and Pharisees, he designed to bring the law of Moses into contempt, and
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to draw people off from it; whereas he <I>came not to destroy, but to
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fulfil.</I> Note, It is wisdom to obviate the exceptions which may be
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taken at just reproofs, especially when there is occasion to
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distinguish between officers and their offices, <I>that the ministry be
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not blamed</I> when the ministers are.</P>
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<P>
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II. He condemns the men. He had ordered the multitude to do as they
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taught; but here he annexeth a caution not to do as they did, to beware
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of their leaven; <I>Do not ye after their works.</I> Their traditions
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were their works, were their idols, the works of their fancy. Or, "Do
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not according to their example." Doctrines and practices are spirits
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that must be tried, and where there is occasion, must be carefully
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separated and distinguished; and as we must not swallow corrupt
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doctrines for the sake of any laudable practices of those that teach
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them, so we must not imitate any bad examples for the sake of the
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plausible doctrines of those that set them. The scribes and Pharisees
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boasted as much of the goodness of their works as of the orthodoxy of
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their teaching, and hoped to be justified by them; it was the plea they
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put in
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+18:11,12">Luke xviii. 11, 12</A>);
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and yet these things, which they valued themselves so much upon, were
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an abomination in the sight of God.</P>
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<P>
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Our Saviour
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:3-32">here, and in the following verses</A>,
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specifies divers particulars of their works, wherein we must not
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imitate them. In general, they are charged with hypocrisy,
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dissimulation, or double-dealing in religion; a crime which cannot be
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enquired of at men's bar, because we can only judge according to
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outward appearance; but God, who searcheth the heart, can convict of
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hypocrisy; and nothing is more displeasing to him, for he desireth
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truth.</P>
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<P>
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Four things are in
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:4-7">these verses</A>
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charged upon them.</P>
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<P>
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1. Their saying and doing were two things.</P>
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<P>
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Their practice was no way agreeable either to their preaching or to
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their profession; for <I>they say, and do not;</I> they teach out of
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the law that which is good, but their conversation gives them the lie;
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and they seem to have found another way to heaven for themselves than
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what they show to others. See this illustrated and charged home upon
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them,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+2:17-24">Rom. ii. 17-24</A>.
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Those are of all sinners most inexcusable that allow themselves in the
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sins they condemn in others, or in worse. This doth especially touch
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wicked ministers, who will be sure to have their portion appointed them
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with hypocrites
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+24:51"><I>ch.</I> xxiv. 51</A>);
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for what greater hypocrisy can there be, than to press that upon
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others, to be believed and done, which they themselves disbelieve and
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disobey; pulling down in their practice what they build up in their
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preaching; when in the pulpit, preaching so well that it is a pity they
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should ever come out; but, when out of the pulpit, living so ill that
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it is a pity they should ever come in; like bells, that call others to
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church, but hang out of it themselves; or Mercurial posts, that point
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the way to others, but stand still themselves? Such will <I>be judged
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out of their own mouths.</I> It is applicable to all others that say,
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and do not; that make a plausible profession of religion, but do not
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live up to that profession; that make fair promises, but do not perform
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their promises; are full of good discourse, and can lay down the law to
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all about them, but are empty of good works; great talkers, but little
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doers; <I>the voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of
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Esau. Vox et præterea nihil--mere sound.</I> They speak fair,
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<I>I go, sir;</I> but there is no trusting them, for <I>there are seven
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abominations in their heart.</I></P>
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<P>
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2. They were very severe in imposing upon others those things which
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they were not themselves willing to submit to the burthen of
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:4"><I>v.</I> 4</A>);
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<I>They bind heavy burthens, and grievous to be borne;</I> not only
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insisting upon the minute circumstances of the law, which is called
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<I>a yoke</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+15:10">Acts xv. 10</A>),
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and pressing the observation of them with more strictness and severity
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than God himself did (whereas the maxim of the lawyers, is <I>Apices
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juris son sunt jura--Mere points of law are not law</I>), but by adding
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to his words, and imposing their own inventions and traditions, under
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the highest penalties. They loved to show their authority and to
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exercise their domineering faculty, lording it over God's heritage, and
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saying to men's souls, <I>Bow down, that we may go over;</I> witness
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their many additions to the law of the fourth commandment, by which
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they made the sabbath a burthen on men's shoulders, which was designed
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to be the joy of their hearts. Thus with force and cruelty did those
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shepherds <I>rule the flock,</I> as of old,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+34:4">Ezek. xxxiv. 4</A>.</P>
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<P>
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But see their hypocrisy; <I>They themselves will not move them with one
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of their fingers.</I>
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(1.) They would not exercise themselves in those things which they
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imposed upon others; they pressed upon the people a strictness in
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religion which they themselves would not be bound by; but secretly
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transgressed their own traditions, which they publicly enforced. They
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indulged their pride in giving law to others; but consulted their ease
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in their own practice. Thus it has been said, to the reproach of the
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popish priests, that they fast with wine and sweetmeats, while they
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force the people to fast with bread and water; and decline the penances
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they enjoin the laity.
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(2.) They would not ease the people in these things, nor put a finger
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to lighten their burthen, when they saw it pinched them. They could
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find out loose constructions to put upon God's law, and could dispense
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with that, but would not bate an ace of their own impositions, nor
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dispense with a failure in the least punctilio of them. They allowed no
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chancery to relieve the extremity of their common law. How contrary to
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this was the practice of Christ's apostles, who would allow to others
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that use of Christian liberty which, for the peace and edification of
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the church, they would deny themselves in! They would lay no other
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burthen than necessary things, and those easy,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+15:28">Acts xv. 28</A>.
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How carefully doth Paul spare those to whom he writes!
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+7:28,9:12">1 Cor. vii. 28; ix. 12</A>.</P>
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<P>
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3. They were all for show, and nothing for substance, in religion
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:5"><I>v.</I> 5</A>);
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<I>All their works they do, to be seen of men.</I> We must do such good
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works, that they who see them may glorify God; but we must not proclaim
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our good works, with design that others may see them, and glorify us;
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which our Saviour here chargeth upon the Pharisees in general, as he
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had done before in the particular instances of prayer and giving of
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alms. All their end was to be praised of men, and therefore all their
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endeavour was to be seen of men, to <I>make a fair show in the
|
|
flesh.</I> In those duties of religion which fall under the eye of men,
|
|
none ere so constant and abundant as they; but in what lies between God
|
|
and their souls, in the retirement of their closets, and the recesses
|
|
of their hearts, they desire to be excused. The <I>form</I> of
|
|
godliness will get them a name to live, which is all they aim at, and
|
|
therefore they trouble not themselves with the <I>power</I> of it,
|
|
which is essential to a life indeed. He that does all to be seen does
|
|
nothing to the purpose.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
He specifies two things which they did to be seen of men.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) <I>They made broad their phylacteries.</I> Those were little
|
|
scrolls of paper or parchment, wherein were written, with great
|
|
niceness, these four paragraphs of the law,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+13:2-11,13:11-16,De+6:4-9,11:13-21">Exod. xiii. 2-11; xiii. 11-16;
|
|
Deut. vi. 4-9; xi. 13-21</A>.
|
|
|
|
These were sewn up in leather, and worn upon their foreheads and left
|
|
arms. It was a tradition of the elders, which had reference to
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+13:9">Exod. xiii. 9</A>,
|
|
|
|
and
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Pr+7:3">Prov. vii. 3</A>,
|
|
|
|
where the expressions seem to be figurative, intimating no more than
|
|
that we should bear the things of God in our minds as carefully as if
|
|
we had them bound between our eyes. Now the Pharisees made broad these
|
|
phylacteries, that they might be thought more holy, and strict, and
|
|
zealous for the law, than others. It is a gracious ambition to covet to
|
|
be really more holy than others, but it is a proud ambition to covet to
|
|
appear so. It is good to excel in real piety, but not to exceed in
|
|
outward shows; for overdoing is justly suspected of design,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Pr+27:14">Prov. xxvii. 14</A>.
|
|
|
|
It is the guise of hypocrisy to make more ado than needs in external
|
|
service, more than is needful either to prove, or to <I>im</I>prove,
|
|
the good affections and dispositions of the soul.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) <I>They enlarged the borders of their garments.</I> God appointed
|
|
the Jews to make borders or fringes upon their garments
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Nu+15:38">Num. xv. 38</A>),
|
|
|
|
to distinguish them from other nations, and to be a memorandum to them
|
|
of their being a peculiar people; but the Pharisees were not content to
|
|
have these borders like other people's, which might serve God's design
|
|
in appointing them; but they must be larger than ordinary, to answer
|
|
their design of making themselves to be taken notice of; as if they
|
|
were more religious than others. But those who thus enlarge their
|
|
phylacteries, and the borders of their garments, while their hearts are
|
|
straitened, and destitute of the love of God and their neighbour,
|
|
though they may now deceive others, will in the end deceive
|
|
themselves.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
4. They much affected pre-eminence and superiority, and prided
|
|
themselves extremely in it. Pride was the darling reigning sin of the
|
|
Pharisees, <I>the sin that did most easily beset them</I> and which our
|
|
Lord Jesus takes all occasions to witness against.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) He describes their pride,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:6,7"><I>v.</I> 6, 7</A>.
|
|
|
|
They courted, and coveted,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[1.] Places of honour and respect. In all public appearances, as <I>at
|
|
feasts, and in the synagogues,</I> they expected, and had, to their
|
|
hearts' delight, <I>the uppermost rooms, and the chief seats.</I> They
|
|
took place of all others, and precedency was adjudged to them, as
|
|
persons of the greatest note and merit; and it is easy to imagine what
|
|
a complacency they took in it; <I>they loved to have the
|
|
preeminence,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=3John+1:9">3 John 9</A>.
|
|
|
|
It is not possessing the uppermost rooms, nor sitting in the chief
|
|
seats, that is condemned (somebody must sit uppermost), but
|
|
<I>loving</I> them; for men to value such a little piece of ceremony as
|
|
sitting highest, going first, taking the wall, or the better hand, and
|
|
to value themselves upon it, to seek it, and to feel resentment if they
|
|
have it not; what is that but making an idol of ourselves, and then
|
|
falling down and worshipping it--the worst kind of idolatry! It is bad
|
|
any where, but especially in the synagogues. <I>There</I> to seek
|
|
honour to ourselves, where we appear in order to give glory to God, and
|
|
to humble ourselves before him, is indeed to mock God instead of
|
|
serving him. David would willingly lie at the threshold in God's house;
|
|
so far was he from coveting <I>the chief seat</I> there,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+84:10">Ps. lxxxiv. 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
It savours much of pride and hypocrisy, when people do not care for
|
|
going to church, unless they can look fine and make a figure there.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[2.] Titles of honour and respect. They <I>loved greetings in the
|
|
markets,</I> loved to have people put off their hats to them, and show
|
|
them respect when they met them in the streets. O how it pleased them,
|
|
and fed their vain humour, <I>digito monstrari et dicier, Hic est--to be
|
|
pointed out, and to have it said, This be he,</I> to have way made for
|
|
them in the crowd of market people; "Stand off, here is a Pharisee
|
|
coming!" and to be complimented with the high and pompous title of
|
|
<I>Rabbi, Rabbi!</I> This was meat and drink and dainties to them; and
|
|
they took as great a satisfaction in it as Nebuchadnezzar did in his
|
|
palace, when he said, <I>Is not this great Babylon that I have
|
|
built?</I> The <I>greetings</I> would not have done them half so much
|
|
good, if they had not been in the markets, where every body might see
|
|
how much they were respected, and how high they stood in the opinion of
|
|
the people. It was but a little before Christ's time, that the Jewish
|
|
teachers, the masters of Israel, had assumed the title of <I>Rabbi,
|
|
Rab,</I> or <I>Rabban,</I> which signifies <I>great or much;</I> and
|
|
was construed as <I>Doctor,</I> or <I>My lord.</I> And they laid such a
|
|
stress upon it, that they gave it for a maxim that "he who salutes his
|
|
teacher, and does not call him Rabbi, provokes the divine Majesty to
|
|
depart from Israel;" so much religion did they place in that which was
|
|
but a piece of good manners! For him that is taught in the word to give
|
|
respect to him that teaches is commendable enough in him that gives it;
|
|
but for him that teaches to love it, and demand it, and affect it, to
|
|
be puffed up with it, and to be displeased if it be omitted, is sinful
|
|
and abominable; and, instead of teaching, he has need to learn the
|
|
first lesson in the school of Christ, which is humility.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) He cautions his disciples against being herein like them; herein
|
|
they must not do after their works; "But be not ye called so, for ye
|
|
shall not be of such a spirit,"
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:8"><I>v.</I> 8</A>,
|
|
|
|
&c.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Here is,
|
|
|
|
[1.] A prohibition of pride. They are here forbidden,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>First,</I> To challenge titles of honour and dominion to themselves,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:8-10"><I>v.</I> 8-10</A>.
|
|
|
|
It is repeated twice; <I>Be not called Rabbi, neither be ye called
|
|
Master or Guide:</I> not that it is unlawful to give civil respect to
|
|
<I>those that are over us in the Lord,</I> nay, it is an instance of
|
|
the honour and esteem which it is our duty to show them; but,
|
|
|
|
1. Christ's ministers must not affect the name of <I>Rabbi</I> or
|
|
<I>Master,</I> by way of distinction from other people; it is not
|
|
agreeable to the simplicity of the gospel, for them to covet or accept
|
|
the honour which they have that are in kings' palaces.
|
|
|
|
2. They must not assume the authority and dominion implied in those
|
|
names; they must not be magisterial, nor domineer over their brethren,
|
|
or over God's heritage, as if they had dominion over the faith of
|
|
Christians: what they received of the Lord, all must receive from them;
|
|
but in other things they must not make their opinions and wills a rule
|
|
and standard to all other people, to be admitted with an implicit
|
|
obedience. The reasons for this prohibition are,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) <I>One is your Master, even Christ,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:8,10"><I>v.</I> 8, and again, <I>v.</I> 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
Note,
|
|
|
|
[1.] Christ is our Master, our Teacher, our Guide. Mr. George Herbert,
|
|
when he named the name of <I>Christ,</I> usually added, <I>My
|
|
Master.</I>
|
|
|
|
[2.] Christ only is our Master, ministers are but ushers in the school.
|
|
Christ only is the Master, the great Prophet, whom we must hear, and be
|
|
ruled and overruled by; whose word must be an oracle and a law to us;
|
|
<I>Verily I say unto you,</I> must be enough to us. And if he only be
|
|
our Master, then for his ministers to set up for dictators, and to
|
|
pretend to a supremacy and an infallibility, is a daring usurpation of
|
|
that honour of Christ which he will not give to another.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) <I>All ye are brethren.</I> Ministers are brethren not only to one
|
|
another, but to the people; and therefore it ill becomes them to be
|
|
masters, when there are none for them to master it over but their
|
|
brethren; yea, and we are all younger brethren, otherwise the eldest
|
|
might claim an <I>excellency of dignity and power,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+49:3">Gen. xlix. 3</A>.
|
|
|
|
But, to preclude that, Christ himself is <I>the first-born among many
|
|
brethren,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+8:29">Rom. viii. 29</A>.
|
|
|
|
Ye are brethren, as ye are all disciples of the same Master.
|
|
School-fellows are brethren, and, as such, should help one another in
|
|
getting their lesson; but it will by no means be allowed that one of
|
|
the scholars step into the master's seat, and give law to the school.
|
|
If we are all brethren, we must not be <I>many masters.</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jam+3:1">Jam. iii. 1</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> They are forbidden to ascribe such titles to others
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:9"><I>v.</I> 9</A>);
|
|
|
|
"<I>Call no man your father upon the earth;</I> constitute no man the
|
|
father of your religion, that is, the founder, author, director, and
|
|
governor, of it." The fathers of our flesh must be called
|
|
<I>fathers,</I> and as such we must <I>give them reverence;</I> but God
|
|
only must be allowed as <I>the Father of our spirits,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+12:9">Heb. xii. 9</A>.
|
|
|
|
Our religion must not be derived from, or made to depend upon, any man.
|
|
We are born again to the spiritual and divine life, <I>not of
|
|
corruptible seed, but by the word of God; not of the will of the flesh,
|
|
or the will of man, but of God.</I> Now the will of man, not being the
|
|
rise of our religion, must not be the rule of it. We must not <I>jurare
|
|
in verba magistri--swear to the dictates of any creature,</I> not the
|
|
wisest or best, nor pin our faith on any man's sleeve, because we know
|
|
not whither he will carry it. St. Paul calls himself <I>a Father</I> to
|
|
those whose conversion he had been an instrument of
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+4:15,Philem+1:10">1 Cor. iv. 15; Phil. 10</A>);
|
|
|
|
but he pretends to no dominion over them, and uses that title to
|
|
denote, not authority, but affection: therefore he calls them not his
|
|
<I>obliged,</I> but his <I>beloved,</I> sons,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+4:14">1 Cor. iv. 14</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
The reason given is, <I>One is your Father, who is in heaven.</I> God
|
|
is our Father, and is All in all in our religion. He is the Fountain of
|
|
it, and its Founder; the Life of it, and its Lord; from whom alone, as
|
|
the Original, our spiritual life is derived, and on whom it depends. He
|
|
is <I>the Father of</I> all <I>lights</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jam+1:17">Jam. i. 17</A>),
|
|
|
|
that <I>one Father, from whom are all things, and we in him,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eph+4:6">Eph. iv. 6</A>.
|
|
|
|
Christ having taught us to say, <I>Our Father, who art in heaven;</I>
|
|
let us <I>call no man Father upon earth;</I> no man, because <I>man is
|
|
a worm, and the son of man is a worm,</I> hewn out of the same rock
|
|
with us; especially not upon earth, for man upon earth is a sinful
|
|
worm; <I>there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and
|
|
sinneth not,</I> and therefore no one is fit to be called
|
|
<I>Father.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[2.] Here is a precept of humility and mutual subjection
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:11"><I>v.</I> 11</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>He that is greatest among you shall be your servant;</I> not only
|
|
call himself so (we know of one who styles himself <I>Servus servorum
|
|
Dei--Servant of the servants of God,</I> but acts as Rabbi, and father,
|
|
and master, and <I>Dominus Deus noster--The Lord our God,</I> and what
|
|
not), but he shall be so. Take it as a promise; "<I>He</I> shall be
|
|
accounted greatest, and stand highest in the favour of God, that is
|
|
most submissive and serviceable;" or as a precept; "He that is advanced
|
|
to any place of dignity, trust, and honour, in the church, <I>let him
|
|
be your servant</I>" (some copies read <B><I>esto</I></B> for
|
|
<B><I>estai</I></B>), "let him not think that his patent of honour is a
|
|
writ of ease; no; <I>he that is greatest</I> is not a lord, but a
|
|
minister." St. Paul, who knew his privilege as well as duty, though
|
|
<I>free from all, yet made himself servant unto all</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+9:19">1 Cor. ix. 19</A>);
|
|
|
|
and our Master frequently pressed it upon his disciples to be humble
|
|
and self-denying, mild and condescending, and to abound in all offices
|
|
of Christian love, though mean, and to the meanest; and of this he hath
|
|
set us an example.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[3.] Here is a good reason for all this,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:12"><I>v.</I> 12</A>.
|
|
|
|
Consider,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>First,</I> The punishment intended for the proud; <I>Whosoever shall
|
|
exalt himself shall be abased.</I> If God give them repentance, they
|
|
will be abased in their own eyes, and will abhor themselves for it; if
|
|
they repent not, sooner or later they will be abased before the world.
|
|
Nebuchadnezzar, in the height of his pride, was turned to be a
|
|
fellow-commoner with the beasts; Herod, to be a feast for the worms;
|
|
and Babylon, that sat as a queen, to be the scorn of nations. God made
|
|
the proud and aspiring priests contemptible and base
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mal+2:9">Mal. ii. 9</A>),
|
|
|
|
and the lying prophet to be <I>the tail,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+9:15">Isa. ix. 15</A>.
|
|
|
|
But if proud men have not marks of humiliation set upon them in this
|
|
world, there is a day coming, when they shall <I>rise to everlasting
|
|
shame and contempt</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Da+12:2">Dan. xii. 2</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>so plentifully will he reward the proud doer!</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+31:23">Ps. xxxi. 23</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> The preferment intended for the humble; <I>He that
|
|
shall humble himself shall be exalted.</I> Humility is that <I>ornament
|
|
which is in the sight of God of great price.</I> In this world the
|
|
humble have the honour of being accepted with the holy God, and
|
|
respected by all wise and good men; of being qualified for, and often
|
|
called out to, the most honourable services; for honour is like the
|
|
shadow, which flees from those that pursue it, and grasp at it, but
|
|
follows those that flee from it. However, in the other world, they that
|
|
have humbled themselves in contrition for their sin, in compliance with
|
|
their God, and in condescension to their brethren, shall be exalted to
|
|
inherit the throne of glory; shall be not only owned, but crowned,
|
|
before angels and men.</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_13"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_14"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_15"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_16"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_17"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_18"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_19"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_20"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_21"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_22"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_23"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_24"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_25"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_26"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_27"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_28"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_29"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_30"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_31"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_32"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_33"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec2"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>The Crimes of the Pharisees.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye
|
|
shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in
|
|
<I>yourselves,</I> neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
|
|
14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye
|
|
devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer:
|
|
therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
|
|
15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye
|
|
compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made,
|
|
ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
|
|
16 Woe unto you, <I>ye</I> blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall
|
|
swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by
|
|
the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!
|
|
17 <I>Ye</I> fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or
|
|
the temple that sanctifieth the gold?
|
|
18 And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but
|
|
whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.
|
|
19 <I>Ye</I> fools and blind: for whether <I>is</I> greater, the gift, or
|
|
the altar that sanctifieth the gift?
|
|
20 Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it,
|
|
and by all things thereon.
|
|
21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by
|
|
him that dwelleth therein.
|
|
22 And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of
|
|
God, and by him that sitteth thereon.
|
|
23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay
|
|
tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the
|
|
weightier <I>matters</I> of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these
|
|
ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
|
|
24 <I>Ye</I> blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a
|
|
camel.
|
|
25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make
|
|
clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they
|
|
are full of extortion and excess.
|
|
26 <I>Thou</I> blind Pharisee, cleanse first that <I>which is</I> within
|
|
the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
|
|
27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are
|
|
like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful
|
|
outward, but are within full of dead <I>men's</I> bones, and of all
|
|
uncleanness.
|
|
28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but
|
|
within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
|
|
29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye
|
|
build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of
|
|
the righteous,
|
|
30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would
|
|
not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
|
|
31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the
|
|
children of them which killed the prophets.
|
|
32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
|
|
33 <I>Ye</I> serpents, <I>ye</I> generation of vipers, how can ye escape
|
|
the damnation of hell?
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
In these verses we have eight woes levelled directly against the
|
|
scribes and Pharisees by our Lord Jesus Christ, like so many claps of
|
|
thunder, or flashes of lightning, from mount Sinai. <I>Three</I> woes
|
|
are made to look very dreadful
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+8:13,9:12">Rev. viii. 13; ix. 12</A>);
|
|
|
|
but here are <I>eight</I> woes, in opposition to the eight beatitudes,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+5:3">Matt. v. 3</A>.
|
|
|
|
The gospel has its woes as well as the law, and gospel curses are of
|
|
all curses the heaviest. These woes are the more remarkable, not only
|
|
because of the authority, but because of the meekness and gentleness,
|
|
of him that denounced them. He came to bless, and loved to bless; but,
|
|
if his wrath be kindled, there is surely cause for it: and who shall
|
|
entreat for him that the great Intercessor pleads against? A woe from
|
|
Christ is a remediless woe.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
This is here the burthen of the song, and it is a heavy burthen; <I>Woe
|
|
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.</I> Note,
|
|
|
|
1. The scribes and Pharisees were hypocrites; that is it in which all
|
|
the rest of their bad characters are summed up; it was the leaven which
|
|
gave the relish to all they said and did. A hypocrite is a stage-player
|
|
in religion (that is the primary signification of the word); he
|
|
personates or acts the part of one that he neither is nor may be, or
|
|
perhaps the he neither is nor would be.
|
|
|
|
2. That hypocrites are in a woeful state and condition. <I>Woe to
|
|
hypocrites;</I> so <I>he</I> said whose saying that their case is
|
|
miserable makes it so: while they live, their religion is vain; when
|
|
they die, their ruin is great.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Now each of these woes against the scribes and Pharisees has a reason
|
|
annexed to it containing a separate crime charged upon them, proving
|
|
their hypocrisy, and justifying the judgment of Christ upon them; for
|
|
his woes, his curses, are never causeless.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. They were sworn enemies to the gospel of Christ, and consequently to
|
|
the salvation of the souls of men
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:13"><I>v.</I> 13</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>They shut up the kingdom of heaven against men,</I> that is, they
|
|
did all they could to keep people from believing in Christ, and so
|
|
entering into his kingdom. Christ came to <I>open the kingdom of
|
|
heaven,</I> that is, to lay open for us <I>a new and living way</I>
|
|
into it, to bring men to be subjects of that kingdom. Now the scribes
|
|
and Pharisees, who sat in Moses's seat, and pretended to the key of
|
|
knowledge, ought to have contributed their assistance herein, by
|
|
opening those scriptures of the Old Testament which pointed at the
|
|
Messiah and his kingdom, in their true and proper sense; they that
|
|
undertook to expound Moses and the prophets should have showed the
|
|
people how they testified of Christ; that Daniel's weeks were expiring,
|
|
<I>the sceptre was departed from Judah,</I> and therefore now was the
|
|
time for the Messiah's appearing. Thus they might have facilitated
|
|
that great work, and have helped thousands to heaven; but, instead of
|
|
this, they shut up the kingdom of heaven; they made it their business
|
|
to press the ceremonial law, which was now in the vanishing, to
|
|
suppress the prophecies, which were now in the accomplishing, and to
|
|
beget and nourish up in the minds of the people prejudices against
|
|
Christ and his doctrine.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. They would not go in themselves; <I>Have any of the rulers,</I> or
|
|
<I>of the Pharisees, believed on him?</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+7:48">John vii. 48</A>.
|
|
|
|
No; they were to proud to stoop to his meanness, too formal to be
|
|
reconciled to his plainness; they did not like a religion which
|
|
insisted so much on humility, self-denial, contempt of the world, and
|
|
spiritual worship. Repentance was the door of admission into this
|
|
kingdom, and nothing could be more disagreeable to the Pharisees, who
|
|
justified and admired themselves, than to repent, that is, to accuse
|
|
and abase and abhor themselves; therefore they <I>went not in
|
|
themselves;</I> but that was not all.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. They would not <I>suffer them that were entering to go in.</I> It is
|
|
bad to keep away from Christ ourselves, but it is worse to keep others
|
|
from him; yet that is commonly the way of hypocrites; they do not love
|
|
that any should go beyond them in religion, or be better than they.
|
|
Their not going in themselves was a hindrance to many; for, they having
|
|
so great an interest in the people, multitudes rejected the gospel only
|
|
because their leaders did; but, besides that, they opposed both
|
|
Christ's entertaining of sinners
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+7:39">Luke vii. 39</A>),
|
|
|
|
and sinners' entertaining of Christ; they perverted his doctrine,
|
|
confronted his miracles, quarrelled with his disciples, and represented
|
|
him, and his institutes and economy, to the people in the most
|
|
disingenuous, disadvantageous manner imaginable; they thundered out
|
|
their excommunications against those that confessed him, and used all
|
|
their wit and power to serve their malice against him; and thus they
|
|
<I>shut up the kingdom of heaven,</I> so that <I>they who would
|
|
enter</I> into it must <I>suffer violence</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+11:12"><I>ch.</I> xi. 12</A>),
|
|
|
|
and <I>press into it</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+16:16">Luke xvi. 16</A>),
|
|
|
|
through a crowd of scribes and Pharisees, and all the obstructions and
|
|
difficulties they could contrive to lay in their way. How well is it
|
|
for us that our salvation is not entrusted in the hands of any man or
|
|
company of men in the world! If it were, we should be undone. They that
|
|
shut out of the church would shut out of heaven if they could; but the
|
|
malice of men cannot <I>make the promise of God</I> to his chosen <I>of
|
|
no effect;</I> blessed be God, it cannot.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. They made religion and the form of godliness a cloak and
|
|
stalking-horse to their covetous practices and desires,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:14"><I>v.</I> 14</A>.
|
|
|
|
Observe here,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. What their wicked practices were; they <I>devoured widows'
|
|
houses,</I> either by quartering themselves and their attendants upon
|
|
them for entertainment, which must be of the best for men of their
|
|
figure; or by insinuating themselves into their affections, and so
|
|
getting to be the trustees of their estates, which they could make an
|
|
easy prey of; for who could presume to call such as they were to an
|
|
account? The thing they aimed at was to enrich themselves; and, this
|
|
being their chief and highest end, all considerations of justice and
|
|
equity were laid aside, and even widows' houses were sacrificed to
|
|
this. Widows are of the weaker sex in its weakest state, easily imposed
|
|
upon; and therefore they fastened on them, to make a prey of. They
|
|
devoured those whom, by the law of God, they were particularly obliged
|
|
to protect, patronise, and relieve. There is a woe in the Old Testament
|
|
to those that <I>made widows their prey</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+10:1,2">Isa. x. 1, 2</A>);
|
|
|
|
and Christ here seconded it with his woe. God is the judge of the
|
|
widows; they are his peculiar care, he <I>establisheth their border</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Pr+15:25">Prov. xv. 25</A>),
|
|
|
|
and <I>espouseth their cause</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+22:22,23">Exod. xxii. 22, 23</A>);
|
|
|
|
yet these were they whose houses the Pharisees devoured by wholesale;
|
|
so greedy were they to get <I>their bellies filled with the treasures
|
|
of wickedness!</I> Their devouring denotes not only covetousness, but
|
|
cruelty in their oppression, described
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mic+3:3">Mic. iii. 3</A>,
|
|
|
|
<I>They eat the flesh, and flay off the skin.</I> And doubtless they
|
|
did all this under colour of law; for they did it so artfully that it
|
|
passed uncensured, and did not at all lessen the people's veneration
|
|
for them.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. What was the cloak with which they covered this wicked practice;
|
|
<I>For a pretence they made long prayers;</I> very long indeed, if it
|
|
be true which some of the Jewish writers tell us, that they spent three
|
|
hours at a time in the formalities of meditation and prayer, and did it
|
|
thrice every day, which is more than an upright soul, that makes a
|
|
conscience of being inward with God in the duty, dares pretend
|
|
ordinarily to do; but to the Pharisees it was easy enough, who never
|
|
made a business of the duty, and always made a trade of the outside of
|
|
it. By this craft they got their wealth, and maintained their grandeur.
|
|
It is not probable that these long prayers were extemporary, for then
|
|
(as Mr. Baxter observes) the Pharisees had much more the gift of prayer
|
|
than Christ's disciples had; but rather that they were stated forms of
|
|
words in use among them, which they said over by tale, as the papists
|
|
drop their beads. Christ doth not here condemn long prayers, as in
|
|
themselves hypocritical; nay if there were not a great appearance of
|
|
good in them, they would not have been used for a pretence; and the
|
|
cloak must be very thick which was used to cover such wicked practices.
|
|
Christ himself <I>continued all night in prayer to God,</I> and we are
|
|
commanded to <I>pray without ceasing</I> too soon; where there are many
|
|
sins to be confessed, and many wants to pray for the supply of, and
|
|
many mercies to give thanks for, there is occasion for long prayers.
|
|
But the Pharisees' long prayers were made up of vain repetitions, and
|
|
(which was the end of them) they were for a <I>pretence;</I> by them
|
|
they got the reputation of pious devout men, that loved prayer, and
|
|
were the favourites of Heaven; and by this means people were made to
|
|
believe it was not possible that such men as they should cheat them;,
|
|
and, therefore, happy the widow that could get a Pharisee for her
|
|
trustee, and guardian to her children! Thus, while they seemed to soar
|
|
heaven-ward, upon the wings of prayer, their eye, like the kite's, was
|
|
all the while upon their prey on the earth, some widow's house or other
|
|
that lay convenient for them. Thus circumcision was the cloak of the
|
|
Shechemites' covetousness
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+34:22,23">Gen. xxxiv. 22, 23</A>),
|
|
|
|
the payment of a vow in Hebron the cover of Absalom's rebellion
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Sa+15:7">2 Sam. xv. 7</A>),
|
|
|
|
a fast in Jezreel must patronise Naboth's murder, and the extirpation
|
|
of Baal is the footstool of Jehu's ambition. Popish priests, under
|
|
pretence of long prayers for the dead, masses and dirges, and I know
|
|
not what, enrich themselves by devouring the house of the widows and
|
|
fatherless. Note, It is no new thing for the show and form of godliness
|
|
to be made a cloak to the greatest enormities. But dissembled piety,
|
|
however it passeth now, will be reckoned for as double iniquity, <I>in
|
|
the day when God shall judge the secrets of men.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
3. The doom passed upon them for this; <I>Therefore ye shall receive
|
|
the greater damnation.</I> Note,
|
|
|
|
(1.) There are degrees of damnation; there are some whose sin is more
|
|
inexcusable, <I>and whose ruin will therefore be more intolerable.</I>
|
|
|
|
(2.) The pretences of religion, with which hypocrites disguise or
|
|
excuse their sin now, will aggravate their condemnation shortly. Such
|
|
is the deceitfulness of sin, that the very thing by which sinners hope
|
|
to expiate and atone for their sins will come against them, and make
|
|
their sins more exceedingly sinful. But it is sad for the criminal,
|
|
when his <I>de</I>fence proves his <I>of</I>fence, and his pleas (<I>We
|
|
have prophesied in thy name, and in thy name</I> made long prayers)
|
|
heightens the charge against him.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
III. While they were such enemies to the conversion of souls to
|
|
Christianity, they were very industrious in the perversion of them to
|
|
their faction. They shut up the kingdom of heaven against those that
|
|
would turn to Christ, but at the same time <I>compassed sea and land to
|
|
make proselytes</I> to themselves,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:15"><I>v.</I> 15</A>.
|
|
|
|
Observe here,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. Their commendable industry in making proselytes to the Jewish
|
|
religion, not only proselytes of <I>the gate,</I> who obliged
|
|
themselves to no more than the observance of the seven precepts of the
|
|
sons of Noah, but proselytes of <I>righteousness,</I> who addicted
|
|
themselves wholly to all the rites of the Jewish religion, for that was
|
|
the game they flew at; for this, for one such, though but one, they
|
|
compass sea and land, had many a cunning reach, and laid many a plot,
|
|
rode and run, and sent and wrote, and laboured unweariedly. And what
|
|
did they aim at? Not the glory of God, and the good of souls; but that
|
|
they might have the credit of making them proselytes, and the advantage
|
|
of making a prey of them when they were made. Note,
|
|
|
|
(1.) The making of proselytes, if it be to the truth and serious
|
|
godliness, and be done with a good design, is a good work, well worthy
|
|
of the utmost care and pains. Such is the value of souls, that nothing
|
|
must be thought too much to do, to save a soul from death. The industry
|
|
of the Pharisees herein may show the negligence of many who would be
|
|
thought to act from better principles, but will be at no pains or cost
|
|
to propagate the gospel.
|
|
|
|
(2.) To make a proselyte, sea and land must be compassed; all ways and
|
|
means must be tried; first one way, and then another, must be tried,
|
|
all little enough; but all well paid, if the point be gained.
|
|
|
|
(3.) Carnal hearts seldom shrink from the pains necessary to carry on
|
|
their carnal purposes; when a proselyte is to be made to serve a turn
|
|
for themselves, they will compass sea and land to make him, rather than
|
|
be disappointed.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. Their cursed impiety in abusing their proselytes when they were
|
|
made; "Ye make him the disciple of a Pharisee presently, and he sucks
|
|
in all a Pharisee's notions; and so <I>ye make him twofold more the
|
|
child of hell than yourselves.</I>" Note,
|
|
|
|
(1.) Hypocrites, while they fancy themselves heirs of heaven, are, in
|
|
the judgment of Christ, the children of hell. The rise of their
|
|
hypocrisy is from hell, for the devil is the father of lies; and the
|
|
tendency of their hypocrisy is toward hell, that is the country they
|
|
belong to, the inheritance they are heirs to; they are called
|
|
<I>children of hell,</I> because of their rooted enmity to the kingdom
|
|
of heaven, which was the principle and genius of Pharisaism.
|
|
|
|
(2.) Though all that maliciously oppose the gospel are children of
|
|
hell, yet some are twofold more so than others, more furious and
|
|
bigoted and malignant.
|
|
|
|
(3.) Perverted proselytes are commonly the greatest bigots; the
|
|
scholars outdid their masters,
|
|
|
|
[1.] In fondness of ceremony; the Pharisees themselves saw the folly of
|
|
their own impositions, and in their hearts smiled at the obsequiousness
|
|
of those that conformed to them; but their proselytes were eager for
|
|
them. Note, Weak heads commonly admire those shows and ceremonies which
|
|
wise men (however for public ends they countenance them) cannot but
|
|
think meanly of.
|
|
|
|
[2.] In fury against Christianity; the proselytes readily imbibed the
|
|
principles which their crafty leaders were not wanting to possess them
|
|
with, and so became extremely hot against the truth. The most bitter
|
|
enemies the apostles met with in all places were the Hellenist Jews,
|
|
who were mostly proselytes,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+13:45,14:2-19,17:5,18:6">Acts xiii. 45;
|
|
xiv. 2-19; xvii. 5; xviii. 6</A>.
|
|
|
|
Paul, a disciple of the Pharisees, was <I>exceedingly mad against the
|
|
Christians</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+26:11">Acts xxvi. 11</A>),
|
|
|
|
when his master, Gamaliel, seems to have been more moderate.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
IV. Their seeking their own worldly gain and honour more than God's
|
|
glory put them upon coining false and unwarrantable distinction, with
|
|
which they led the people into dangerous mistakes, particularly in the
|
|
matter of oaths; which, as an evidence of a universal sense of
|
|
religion, have been by all nations accounted sacred
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:16"><I>v.</I> 16</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>Ye blind guides.</I> Note,
|
|
|
|
1. It is sad to think how many are under the guidance of such as are
|
|
themselves blind, who undertake to show others that way which they are
|
|
themselves willingly ignorant of. <I>His watchmen are blind</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+56:10">Isa. lvi. 10</A>);
|
|
|
|
and too often the people love to have it so, and say to the seers,
|
|
<I>See not.</I> But the case is bad, when the leaders of the people
|
|
<I>cause them to err,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+9:16">Isa. ix. 16</A>.
|
|
|
|
2. Though the condition of those whose guides are blind is very sad,
|
|
yet that of the blind guides themselves is yet more woeful. Christ
|
|
denounces a woe to the blind guides that have the blood of so many
|
|
souls to answer for.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Now, to prove their blindness, he specifies the matter of swearing, and
|
|
shows what corrupt casuists they were.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) He lays down the doctrine they taught.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[1.] They allowed swearing by creatures, provided they were consecrated
|
|
to the service of God, and stood in any special relation to him. They
|
|
allowed swearing by the temple and the altar, though they were the work
|
|
of men's hands, intended to be the servants of God's honour, not
|
|
sharers in it. An oath is an appeal to God, to his omniscience and
|
|
justice; and to make this appeal to any creature is to put that
|
|
creature in the place of God. See
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+6:13">Deut. vi. 13</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[2.] They distinguished between an oath by <I>the temple</I> and an
|
|
oath by the <I>gold of the temple;</I> an oath by <I>the altar</I> and
|
|
an oath by <I>the gift upon the altar;</I> making the latter binding,
|
|
but not the former. Here was a double wickedness; <I>First,</I> That
|
|
there were some oaths which they dispensed with, and made light of, and
|
|
reckoned a man was not bound by to assert the truth, or perform a
|
|
promise. They ought not to have sworn by the temple or the altar; but,
|
|
when they had so sworn, they were taken in the words of their mouth.
|
|
That doctrine cannot be of the God of truth which gives countenance to
|
|
the breach of faith in any case whatsoever. Oaths are edge-tools and
|
|
are not to be jested with. <I>Secondly,</I> That they preferred the
|
|
gold before the temple, and the gift before the altar, to encourage
|
|
people to bring gifts to the altar, and gold to the treasures of the
|
|
temple, which they hoped to be gainers by. Those who had made gold
|
|
their hope, and whose eyes were blinded by gifts in secret, were great
|
|
friends to the Corban; and, gain being their godliness, by a thousand
|
|
artifices they made religion truckle to their worldly interests.
|
|
Corrupt church-guides make things to be sin or not sin as it serves
|
|
their purposes, and lay a much greater stress on that which concerns
|
|
their own gain than on that which is for God's glory and the good of
|
|
souls.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) He shows the folly and absurdity of this distinction
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:17-19"><I>v.</I> 17-19</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>Ye fools, and blind.</I> It was in the way of a necessary reproof,
|
|
not an angry reproach, that Christ called them <I>fools.</I> Let it
|
|
suffice us from the word of wisdom to show the folly of sinful opinions
|
|
and practices: but, for the fastening of the character upon particular
|
|
persons, leave that to Christ, who knows what is in man, and has
|
|
forbidden us to say, <I>Thou fool.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
To convict them of folly, he appeals to themselves, <I>Whether is
|
|
greater, the gold</I> (the golden vessels and ornaments, or the gold in
|
|
the treasury) <I>or the temple that sanctifies the gold; the gift, or
|
|
the altar that sanctifies the gift?</I> Any one will own, <I>Propter
|
|
quod aliquid est tale, id est magis tale--That, on account of which any
|
|
thing is qualified in a particular way, must itself be much more
|
|
qualified in the same way.</I> They that sware by the gold of the
|
|
temple had an eye to it as holy; but what was it that made it holy but
|
|
the holiness of the temple, to the service of which it was
|
|
appropriated? And therefore the temple cannot be less holy than the
|
|
gold, but must be more so; for the less is blessed and sanctified of
|
|
the better,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+7:7">Heb. vii. 7</A>.
|
|
|
|
The temple and altar were dedicated to God fixedly, the gold and gift
|
|
but secondarily. Christ is our altar
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+13:10">Heb. xiii. 10</A>),
|
|
|
|
our temple
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+2:21">John ii. 21</A>);
|
|
|
|
for it is he that sanctifies all our gifts, and puts an acceptableness
|
|
in them,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Pe+2:5">1 Pet. ii. 5</A>.
|
|
|
|
Those that put their own works into the place of Christ's righteousness
|
|
in justification are guilty of the Pharisees' absurdity, who preferred
|
|
the gift before the altar. Every true Christian is a living temple; and
|
|
by virtue thereof common things are sanctified to him; <I>unto the pure
|
|
all things are pure</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Tit+1:15">Tit. i. 15</A>),
|
|
|
|
and <I>the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the</I> believing
|
|
<I>wife,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+7:14">1 Cor. vii. 14</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(3.) He rectifies the mistake
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:20-22"><I>v.</I> 20-22</A>),
|
|
|
|
by reducing all the oaths they had invented to the true intent of an
|
|
oath, which is, By the name of the Lord: so that though an oath by the
|
|
temple, or the altar, or heaven, be formally bad, yet it is binding.
|
|
<I>Quod fieri non debuit, factum valet--Engagements which ought not to
|
|
have been made, are yet, when made, binding.</I> A man shall never take
|
|
advantage of his own fault.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[1.] He that swears by the altar, let him not think to shake off the
|
|
obligation of it by saying, "The altar is but wood, and stone, and
|
|
brass;" for his oath shall be construed most strongly against himself;
|
|
because he was culpable, and so as that the obligation of it may be
|
|
preserved, <I>ut res potius valeat quam pereat--the obligation being
|
|
hereby strengthened rather than destroyed.</I> And therefore an oath by
|
|
the altar shall be interpreted by it and by all things thereon; for the
|
|
appurtenances pass with the principal. And, the things thereon being
|
|
offered up to God, to swear by it and them was, in effect, to call God
|
|
himself to witness: for it was the altar of God; and he that went to
|
|
that, went to God,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+43:4,Ps+26:6">Ps. xliii. 4; xxvi. 6</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[2.] He that swears by the temple, if he understand what he does,
|
|
cannot but apprehend that the ground of such a respect to it, is, not
|
|
because it is a fine house, but because it is the house of God,
|
|
dedicated to his service, the place which he has chosen to put his name
|
|
there; and therefore he swears <I>by it, and by him that dwells
|
|
therein;</I> there he was pleased in a peculiar manner to manifest
|
|
himself, and give tokens of his presence; so that whoso swears by it,
|
|
swears by him who had said, <I>This is my rest, here will I dwell.</I>
|
|
Good Christians are God's temples, and the Spirit of God dwells in them
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+3:16,6:19">1 Cor. iii. 16; vi. 19</A>),
|
|
|
|
and God takes what is done to them as done to himself; he that grieves
|
|
a gracious soul, grieves it and the Spirit that dwells in it.
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eph+4:30">Eph. iv. 30</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[3.] If a man swears by heaven, he sins
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+5:34"><I>ch.</I> v. 34</A>);
|
|
|
|
yet he shall not therefore be discharged from the obligation of his
|
|
oath; no, God will make him know that the heaven he swears by, is his
|
|
throne
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+66:1">Isa. lxvi. 1</A>);
|
|
|
|
and he that swears by the throne, appeals to him that sits upon it;
|
|
who, as he resents the affront done to him in the form of the oath, so
|
|
he will certainly revenge the greater affront done to him by the
|
|
violation of it. Christ will not countenance the evasion of a solemn
|
|
oath, though ever so plausible.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
V. They were very strict and precise in the smaller matters of the law,
|
|
but as careless and loose in the weightier matters,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:23,24"><I>v.</I> 23, 24</A>.
|
|
|
|
They were <I>partial in the law</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mal+2:9">Mal. ii. 9</A>),
|
|
|
|
would pick and choose their duty, according as they were interested or
|
|
stood affected. Sincere obedience is universal, and he that from a
|
|
right principle obeys any of God's precepts, will have respect to them
|
|
all,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+119:6">Ps. cxix. 6</A>.
|
|
|
|
But hypocrites, who act in religion for themselves, and not for God,
|
|
will do no more in religion than they can serve a turn by for
|
|
themselves. The partiality of the scribes and Pharisees appears here,
|
|
in two instances.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. They observed smaller duties, but omitted greater; they were very
|
|
exact in paying tithes, till it came to <I>mint, anise,</I> and
|
|
<I>cummin,</I> their exactness in tithing of which would not cost them
|
|
much, but would be cried up, and they should buy reputation cheap. The
|
|
Pharisee boasted of this, <I>I give tithes of all that I possess,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+18:12">Luke xviii. 12</A>.
|
|
|
|
But it is probable that they had ends of their own to serve, and would
|
|
find their own account in it; for the priests and Levites, to whom the
|
|
tithes were paid, were in their interests, and knew how to return their
|
|
kindness. Paying tithes was their duty, and what the law required;
|
|
Christ tells them they ought not to leave it undone. Note, All ought in
|
|
their places to contribute to the support and maintenance of a standing
|
|
ministry: withholding tithes is called <I>robbing God,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mal+2:8-10">Mal. ii. 8-10</A>.
|
|
|
|
They that <I>are taught in the word,</I> and do not <I>communicate to
|
|
them that teach them</I> that love a cheap gospel, come short of the
|
|
Pharisee.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
But that which Christ here condemns them for, is, that they <I>omitted
|
|
the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith;</I> and
|
|
their niceness in paying tithes, was, if not to atone before God, yet
|
|
at least to excuse end palliate to men the omission of those. All the
|
|
things of God's law are weighty, but those are most weighty, which are
|
|
most expressive of inward holiness in the heart; the instances of
|
|
self-denial, contempt of the world, and resignation to God, in which
|
|
lies the life of religion. Judgment and mercy toward men, and faith
|
|
toward God, are the weightier matters of the law, the <I>good
|
|
things</I> which the <I>Lord our God requires</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mic+6:8">Mic. vi. 8</A>);
|
|
|
|
to do justly, and love mercy, and humble ourselves by faith to walk
|
|
with God. This is the obedience which is better than sacrifice or
|
|
tithe; judgment is preferred before sacrifice,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+1:11">Isa. i. 11</A>.
|
|
|
|
To be just to the priests in their tithe, and yet to cheat and defraud
|
|
every body else, is but to mock God, and deceive ourselves. Mercy also
|
|
is preferred before sacrifice,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ho+6:6">Hos. vi. 6</A>.
|
|
|
|
To feed those who <I>made themselves fat with the offering of the
|
|
Lord,</I> and at the same time to shut up the bowels of compassion from
|
|
a brother or a sister that is naked, and destitute of daily food, to
|
|
pay tithe-mint to the priest, and to deny a crumb to Lazarus, is to lie
|
|
open to that judgment without mercy, which is awarded to those who
|
|
pretended to judgment, and showed no mercy; nor will judgment and mercy
|
|
serve without faith in divine revelation; for God will be honoured in
|
|
his truths as well as in his laws.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. They avoided lesser sins, but committed greater
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:24"><I>v.</I> 24</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>Ye blind guides;</I> so he had called them before
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:16"><I>v.</I> 16</A>),
|
|
|
|
for their corrupt teaching; here he calls them so for their corrupt
|
|
living, for their example was leading as well as their doctrine; and in
|
|
this also they were blind and partial; they <I>strained at a gnat, and
|
|
swallowed a camel.</I> In their doctrine they strained at gnats, warned
|
|
people against every the least violation of the tradition of the
|
|
elders. In their practice they strained at gnats, heaved at them, with
|
|
a seeming dread, as if they had a great abhorrence of sin, and were
|
|
afraid of it in the least instance; but they made no difficulty of
|
|
those sins which, in comparison with them, were as a camel to a gnat;
|
|
when they devoured widows' houses, they did indeed <I>swallow a
|
|
camel;</I> when they gave Judas the price of innocent blood, and yet
|
|
scrupled to put the returned money into the treasury
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+27:6"><I>ch.</I> xxvii. 6</A>);
|
|
|
|
when they would not go into the judgment-hall, for fear of being
|
|
defiled, and yet would stand at the door, and cry out against the holy
|
|
Jesus
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+18:28">John xviii. 28</A>);
|
|
|
|
when they quarrelled with the disciples for eating with unwashen hands,
|
|
and yet, for the filling of the Corban, taught people to break the
|
|
fifth commandment, they strained at gnats, or lesser things, and yet
|
|
swallowed camels. It is not the scrupling of a little sin that Christ
|
|
here reproves; if it be a sin, though but a gnat, it must be strained
|
|
at, but the doing of that, and then swallowing a camel. In the smaller
|
|
matters of the law to be superstitious, and to be profane in the
|
|
greater, is the hypocrisy here condemned.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
VI. They were all for the outside, and not at all for the inside, of
|
|
religion. They were more desirous and solicitous to appear pious to men
|
|
than to approve themselves so toward God. This is illustrated by two
|
|
similitudes.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. They are compared to a vessel that is clean washed on the outside,
|
|
but all dirt within,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:25,26"><I>v.</I> 25, 26</A>.
|
|
|
|
The Pharisees placed religion in that which at best was but a point of
|
|
decency--the <I>washing of cups,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mk+7:4">Mark vii. 4</A>.
|
|
|
|
They were in care to eat their meat in clean cups and platters, but
|
|
made no conscience of getting their meat by extortion, and using it to
|
|
excess. Now what a foolish thing would it be for a man to wash only the
|
|
outside of a cup, which is to be looked at, and to leave the inside
|
|
dirty, which is to be used; so they do who only avoid scandalous sins,
|
|
that would spoil their reputation with men, but allow themselves in
|
|
heart-wickedness, which renders them odious to the pure and holy God.
|
|
In reference to his, observe,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) The practice of the Pharisees; they made clean the outside. In
|
|
those things which fell under the observation of their neighbours, they
|
|
seemed very exact, and carried on their wicked intrigues with so much
|
|
artifice, that their wickedness was not suspected; people generally
|
|
took them for very good men. But within, in the recesses of their
|
|
hearts and the close retirements of their lives, they were <I>full of
|
|
extortion and excess;</I> of <I>violence and incontinence</I> (so Dr.
|
|
Hammond); that is, of injustice and intemperance. While they would seem
|
|
to be godly, they were neither sober nor righteous. Their <I>inward
|
|
part was very wickedness</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+5:9">Ps. v. 9</A>);
|
|
|
|
and that we are really, which we are inwardly.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) The rule Christ gives, in opposition to this practice,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:26"><I>v.</I> 26</A>.
|
|
|
|
It is addressed to the blind Pharisees. They thought themselves the
|
|
<I>seers of the land,</I> but
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+9:39">John ix. 39</A>)
|
|
|
|
Christ calls them <I>blind.</I> Note, those are blind, in Christ's
|
|
account who (how quick-sighted soever they are in other things) are
|
|
strangers, and no enemies, to the wickedness of their own hearts; who
|
|
see not, and hate not, the secret sin that lodgeth there.
|
|
Self-ignorance is the most shameful and hurtful ignorance,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+3:17">Rev. iii. 17</A>.
|
|
|
|
The rule is, <I>Cleanse first that which is within.</I> Note, the
|
|
principal care of every one of us should be to wash our hearts from
|
|
wickedness,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+4:14">Jer. iv. 14</A>.
|
|
|
|
The main business of a Christian lies within, to get cleansed from the
|
|
<I>filthiness of the spirit.</I> Corrupt affections and inclinations,
|
|
the secret lusts that lurk in the soul, unseen and unobserved, these
|
|
must first be mortified and subdued. Those sins must be conscientiously
|
|
abstained from, which the eye of God only is a witness to, who
|
|
searcheth the heart.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Observe the method prescribed; <I>Cleanse first that which is
|
|
within</I> not that <I>only,</I> but that <I>first;</I> because, if due
|
|
care be taken concerning that, the outside will be clean also. External
|
|
motives and inducements may keep the outside clean, while the inside is
|
|
filthy; but if renewing, sanctifying grace make clean the inside, that
|
|
will have an influence upon the outside, for the commanding principle
|
|
is within. If the heart be well kept, all is well, for <I>out of it are
|
|
the issues of life;</I> the eruptions will vanish of course. If the
|
|
heart and spirit be made new, there will be a newness of life; here
|
|
therefore we must begin with ourselves; first cleanse that which is
|
|
within; we then make sure work, when this is our first work.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. They are compared to <I>whited sepulchres,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:27,28"><I>v.</I> 27, 28</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) They were fair without, like sepulchres, <I>which appear beautiful
|
|
outward.</I> Some make it to refer to the custom of the Jews to whiten
|
|
graves, only for the notifying of them, especially if they were in
|
|
unusual places, that people might avoid them, because of the ceremonial
|
|
pollution contracted by the touch of a grave,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Nu+19:16">Num. xix. 16</A>.
|
|
|
|
And it was part of the charge of the overseers of the highways, to
|
|
repair that whitening when it was decayed. Sepulchres were thus made
|
|
remarkable,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:16,17">2 Kings xxiii. 16, 17</A>.
|
|
|
|
The formality of hypocrites, by which they study to recommend
|
|
themselves to the world, doth but make all wise and good men the more
|
|
careful to avoid them, for fear of being defiled by them. <I>Beware of
|
|
the scribes,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+20:46">Luke xx. 46</A>.
|
|
|
|
It rather alludes to the custom of whitening the sepulchres of eminent
|
|
persons, for the beautifying of them. It is said here
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:29"><I>v.</I> 29</A>),
|
|
|
|
that they <I>garnished the sepulchres of the righteous;</I> as it is
|
|
usual with us to erect monuments upon the graves of great persons, and
|
|
to strew flowers on the graves of dear friends. Now the righteousness
|
|
of the scribes and Pharisees was like the ornaments of a grave, or the
|
|
dressing up of a dead body, only for show. The top of their ambition
|
|
was to <I>appear righteous before men,</I> and to be applauded and had
|
|
in admiration by them. But,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) They were <I>foul</I> within, like sepulchres, <I>full of dead
|
|
men's bones, and all uncleanness:</I> so vile are our bodies, when the
|
|
soul has deserted them! Thus were they full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
|
|
Hypocrisy is the worst iniquity of all other. Note, It is possible for
|
|
those that have their hearts full of sin, to have their lives free from
|
|
blame, and to appear very good. But what will it avail us, to have the
|
|
good word of our fellow-servants, if our Master doth not say, <I>Well
|
|
done</I>? When all other graves are opened, these whited sepulchres
|
|
will be looked into, and the dead men's bones, and all the uncleanness,
|
|
shall be <I>brought out,</I> and be <I>spread before all the host of
|
|
heaven,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+8:1,2">Jer. viii. 1, 2</A>.
|
|
|
|
For it is the day when God shall judge, not the shows, but the secrets,
|
|
of men. And it will then be small comfort to them who shall have their
|
|
portion with hypocrites, to remember how creditably and plausibly they
|
|
went to hell, applauded by all their neighbours.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
VII. They pretended a deal of kindness for the memory of the prophets
|
|
that were dead and gone, while they hated and persecuted those that
|
|
were present with them. This is put last, because it was the blackest
|
|
part of their character. God is jealous for his honour in his laws and
|
|
ordinances, and resents it if they be profaned and abused; but he has
|
|
often expressed an equal jealousy for his honour in his prophets and
|
|
ministers, and resents it worse if they be wronged and persecuted: and
|
|
therefore, when our Lord Jesus comes to this head, he speaks more fully
|
|
than upon any of the other
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:29-37"><I>v.</I> 29-37</A>);
|
|
|
|
for that toucheth his ministers, <I>toucheth his Anointed,</I> and
|
|
toucheth the <I>apple of his eye.</I> Observe here,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. The respect which the scribes and Pharisees pretend for the prophets
|
|
that were gone,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:29,30"><I>v.</I> 29, 30</A>.
|
|
|
|
This was the varnish, and that in which they outwardly appeared
|
|
righteous.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) They honoured the relics of the prophets, they built their tombs,
|
|
and garnished their sepulchres. It seems, the places of their burial
|
|
were known, David's sepulchre was with them,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+2:29">Acts ii. 29</A>.
|
|
|
|
There was a title upon the sepulchre of <I>the man of God</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:17">2 Kings xxiii. 17</A>),
|
|
|
|
and Josiah thought it respect enough not to <I>move his bones,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:18"><I>v.</I> 18</A>.
|
|
|
|
But they would do more, rebuild and beautify them. Now consider this,
|
|
|
|
[1.] As an instance of honour done to deceased prophets, who, while
|
|
they lived, were counted as the off-scouring of all things, and had all
|
|
manner of evil spoken against them falsely. Note, God can extort, even
|
|
from bad men, an acknowledgment of the honour of piety and holiness.
|
|
Them that honour God he will honour, and sometimes with those from whom
|
|
contempt is expected,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Sa+6:22">2 Sam. vi. 22</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>The memory of the just is blessed,</I> when the names of those that
|
|
hated and persecuted them shall be covered with shame. The honour of
|
|
constancy and resolution in the way of duty will be a lasting honour;
|
|
and those that are manifest to God, will be manifest in the consciences
|
|
of those about them.
|
|
|
|
[2.] As an instance of the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees, who
|
|
paid their respect to them. Note, Carnal people can easily honour the
|
|
memories of faithful ministers that are dead and gone, because they do
|
|
not reprove them, nor disturb them, in their sins. Dead prophets are
|
|
<I>seers that see not,</I> and those they can bear well enough; they do
|
|
not torment them, as the living witnesses do, that bear their testimony
|
|
<I>viva voce--with a living voice,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+11:10">Rev. xi. 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
They can pay respect to the writings of the dead prophets, which tell
|
|
them what they <I>should</I> be; but not the reproofs of the living
|
|
prophets, which tell them what they <I>are.</I> <I>Sit divus, modo non
|
|
sit vivus--Let there be saints; but let them not be living here.</I>
|
|
The extravagant respect which the church of Rome pays to the memory of
|
|
saints departed, especially the martyrs, dedicating days and places to
|
|
their names, enshrining their relics, praying to them, and offering to
|
|
their images, while they make themselves drunk with the blood of the
|
|
saints of their own day, is a manifest proof that they not only
|
|
<I>suc</I>ceed, but <I>ex</I>ceed, the scribes and Pharisees in a
|
|
counterfeit hypocritical religion, which builds the prophets' tombs,
|
|
but hates the prophets' doctrine.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) They protested against the murder of them
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:30"><I>v.</I> 30</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been
|
|
partakers with them.</I> They would never have consented to the
|
|
silencing of Amos, and the imprisonment of Micaiah, to the putting of
|
|
Hanani in the stocks, and Jeremiah in the dungeon, to the stoning of
|
|
Zechariah, the mocking of all the messengers of the Lord, and the
|
|
abuses put upon his prophets; no, not they, they would sooner have lost
|
|
their right hands than have done any such thing. <I>What, is thy
|
|
servant a dog?</I> And yet they were at this time plotting to murder
|
|
Christ, <I>to whom all the prophets bore witness.</I> They think, if
|
|
they had lived in the days of the prophets, they would have heard them
|
|
gladly and obeyed; and yet they rebelled against the light that Christ
|
|
brought into the world. But it is certain, a Herod and an Herodias to
|
|
John the Baptist, would have been an Ahab and a Jezebel to Elijah.
|
|
Note, The deceitfulness of sinners' hearts appears very much in this,
|
|
that, while they go down the stream of the sins of their own day, they
|
|
fancy they should have swum against the stream of the sins of the
|
|
former days; that, if they had had other people's opportunities, they
|
|
should have improved them more faithfully; if they had been in other
|
|
people's temptations, they should have resisted them more vigorously;
|
|
when yet they improve not the opportunities they have, nor resist the
|
|
temptations they are in. We are sometimes thinking, if we had lived
|
|
when Christ was upon earth, how constantly we would have followed him;
|
|
we would not have despised and rejected him, as they then did; and yet
|
|
Christ in his Spirit, in his word, in his ministers, is still no better
|
|
treated.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. Their enmity and opposition to Christ and his gospel,
|
|
notwithstanding, and the ruin they were bringing upon themselves and
|
|
upon that generation thereby,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:31-33"><I>v.</I> 31-33</A>.
|
|
|
|
Observe here,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) The indictment proved; <I>Ye are witnesses against yourselves.</I>
|
|
Note, Sinners cannot hope to escape the judgment of Christ for want of
|
|
proof against them, when it is easy to find them witnesses against
|
|
themselves; and their very pleas will not only be overruled, but turned
|
|
to their conviction, and <I>their own tongues</I> shall be made to
|
|
<I>fall upon them,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+64:8">Ps. lxiv. 8</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[1.] By their own confession, it was the great wickedness of their
|
|
forefathers, to kill the prophets; so that they knew the fault of it,
|
|
and yet were themselves guilty of the same fact. Note, They who condemn
|
|
sin in others, and yet allow the same or worse in themselves, are of
|
|
all others most inexcusable,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+1:32-2:1">Rom. i. 32-ii. 1</A>.
|
|
|
|
They knew they ought not to have been partakers with persecutors, and
|
|
yet were the followers of them. Such self-contradictions now will
|
|
amount to self-condemnations in the great day. Christ puts another
|
|
construction upon their building of the tombs of the prophets than what
|
|
they intended; as if by beautifying their graves they justified their
|
|
murderers
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+11:48">Luke xi. 48</A>),
|
|
|
|
for they persisted in the sin.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[2.] By their own confession, these notorious persecutors were their
|
|
ancestors; <I>Ye are the children of them.</I> They meant no more than
|
|
that they were their children by blood and nature; but Christ turns it
|
|
upon them;, that they were so by spirit and disposition; <I>You are of
|
|
those fathers, and their lusts you will do.</I> They are, as you say,
|
|
<I>your</I> fathers, and you <I>patrizare--take after your fathers;</I>
|
|
it is the sin that runs in the blood among you. <I>As your fathers did,
|
|
so do ye,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:51">Acts vii. 51</A>.
|
|
|
|
They came of a persecuting race, were <I>a seed of evil doers</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+1:4">Isa. i. 4</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>risen up in their fathers' stead,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Nu+32:14">Num. xxxii. 14</A>.
|
|
|
|
Malice, envy, and cruelty, were bred in the bone with them, and they
|
|
had formerly espoused it for a principle, to <I>do as their fathers
|
|
did,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+44:17">Jer. xliv. 17</A>.
|
|
|
|
And it is observable here
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:30"><I>v.</I> 30</A>)
|
|
|
|
how careful they are to mention the relation; "They were <I>our</I>
|
|
fathers, that killed the prophets, and they were men in honour and
|
|
power, whose sons and successors we are." If they had detested the
|
|
wickedness of their ancestors, as they ought to have done, they would
|
|
not have been so fond to call them <I>their fathers;</I> for it is no
|
|
credit to be akin to persecutors, though they have ever so much dignity
|
|
and dominion.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) The sentence passed upon them. Christ here proceeds,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[1.] To give them up to sin as irreclaimable
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:32"><I>v.</I> 32</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.</I> If Ephraim be
|
|
joined to idols, and hate to be reformed, <I>let him alone. He that is
|
|
filthy, let him be filthy still.</I> Christ knew they were now
|
|
contriving his death, and in a few days would accomplish it; "Well,"
|
|
saith he, "go on with your plot, take your curse, walk in the way of
|
|
your heart and in the sight of your eyes, and see what will come of it.
|
|
<I>What thou doest, do quickly.</I> You will but fill up the measure of
|
|
guilt, which will then overflow in a deluge of wrath." Note,
|
|
<I>First,</I> There is a measure of sin to be filled up, before utter
|
|
ruin comes upon persons and families, churches and nations. God will
|
|
bear long, but the time will come when he can <I>no longer forbear,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+44:22">Jer. xliv. 22</A>.
|
|
|
|
We read of the measure of the Amorites that was to be filled
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+15:16">Gen. xv. 16</A>),
|
|
|
|
of the <I>harvest</I> of the earth <I>being ripe for the sickle</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+14:15-19">Rev. xiv. 15-19</A>),
|
|
|
|
and of sinners <I>making an end to deal treacherously,</I> arriving at
|
|
a full stature in treachery,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+33:1">Isa. xxxiii. 1</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> Children fill up the measure of their fathers' sins
|
|
whey they are gone, if they persist in the same or the like. That
|
|
national guilt which brings national ruin is made up of the sin of many
|
|
in several ages, and in the successions of societies there is a score
|
|
going on; for God justly visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the
|
|
children that tread in the steps of it. <I>Thirdly,</I> Persecuting
|
|
Christ, and his people and ministers, is a sin that fills the measure
|
|
of a nation's guilt sooner than any other. This was it that brought
|
|
wrath without remedy upon the fathers
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+36:16">2 Chron. xxxvi. 16</A>),
|
|
|
|
and wrath to the utmost upon the children too,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Th+2:16">1 Thess. ii. 16</A>.
|
|
|
|
This was that fourth transgression, of which, when added to the other
|
|
three, the Lord <I>would not turn away the punishment,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Am+1:3,6,9,11,13">Amos i. 3, 6, 9, 11, 13</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>Fourthly,</I> It is just with God to give those up to their own
|
|
heart's lusts, who obstinately persist in the gratification of them.
|
|
Those who will run headlong to ruin, let the reins be laid on their
|
|
neck, and it is the saddest condition a man can be in on this side
|
|
hell.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[2.] He proceeds to give them up to ruin as irrecoverable, to a
|
|
personal ruin in the other world
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:33"><I>v.</I> 33</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the
|
|
damnation of hell?</I> These are strange words to come from the mouth
|
|
of Christ, into whose lips grace was poured. But he can and will speak
|
|
terror, and in these words he explains and sums up the <I>eight</I>
|
|
woes he had denounced against the scribes and Pharisees.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Here is, <I>First,</I> Their description; <I>Ye serpents.</I> Doth
|
|
Christ call names? Yes, but this doth not warrant us to do so. He
|
|
infallibly knew what was in man, and knew them to be subtle as
|
|
serpents, cleaving to the earth, feeding on dust; they had a specious
|
|
outside, but were within malignant, had poison under their tongues, the
|
|
seed of the old serpent. They were a <I>generation of vipers;</I> they
|
|
and those that went before them, they and those that joined with them,
|
|
were a generation of envenomed, enraged, spiteful adversaries to Christ
|
|
and his gospel. They loved to be called of men, <I>Rabbi, rabbi,</I>
|
|
but Christ calls them <I>serpents</I> and <I>vipers;</I> for he gives
|
|
men their true characters, and delights to put contempt upon the
|
|
proud.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> Their doom. He represents their condition as very sad,
|
|
and in a manner desperate; <I>How can ye escape the damnation of
|
|
hell?</I> Christ himself preached hell and damnation, for which his
|
|
ministers have often been reproached by those that care not to hear of
|
|
it. Note,
|
|
|
|
1. The damnation of hell will be the fearful end of all impenitent
|
|
sinners. This doom coming from Christ, was more terrible than coming
|
|
from all the prophets and ministers that ever were, for he is the
|
|
Judge, into whose hands the keys of hell and death are put, and his
|
|
saying they were damned, made them so.
|
|
|
|
2. There is a way of escaping this damnation, this is implied here;
|
|
some are <I>delivered from the wrath to come.</I>
|
|
|
|
3. Of all sinners, those who are of the spirit of the scribes and
|
|
Pharisees, are least likely to escape this damnation; for repentance
|
|
and faith are necessary to that escape; and how will <I>they</I> be
|
|
brought to these, who are so conceited of themselves, and so prejudiced
|
|
against Christ and his gospel, as they were? How could they be healed
|
|
and saved, who could not bear to have their wound searched, nor the
|
|
balm of Gilead applied to it? Publicans and harlots, who were sensible
|
|
of their disease and applied themselves to the Physician, were more
|
|
likely to escape the damnation of hell than those who, though they were
|
|
in the high road to it, were confident they were in the way to
|
|
heaven.</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_34"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_35"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_36"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_37"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_38"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Mt23_39"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec3"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>The Doom of the Pharisees; The Guilt and Doom of Jerusalem.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men,
|
|
and scribes: and <I>some</I> of them ye shall kill and crucify; and
|
|
<I>some</I> of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute
|
|
<I>them</I> from city to city:
|
|
35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the
|
|
earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of
|
|
Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and
|
|
the altar.
|
|
36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this
|
|
generation.
|
|
37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, <I>thou</I> that killest the prophets,
|
|
and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have
|
|
gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her
|
|
chickens under <I>her</I> wings, and ye would not!
|
|
38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
|
|
39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye
|
|
shall say, Blessed <I>is</I> he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
We have left the blind leaders fallen into the ditch, under Christ's
|
|
sentence, into the damnation of hell; let us see what will become of
|
|
the blind followers, of the body of the Jewish church, and particularly
|
|
Jerusalem.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. Jesus Christ designs yet to try them with the means of grace; <I>I
|
|
send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes.</I> The connection
|
|
is strange; "<I>You are a generation of vipers,</I> not likely to
|
|
<I>escape the damnation of hell;</I>" one would think it should follow,
|
|
"Therefore you shall never have a prophet sent to you any more;" but
|
|
no, "<I>Therefore I will send unto you prophets,</I> to see if you will
|
|
yet at length be wrought upon, or else to leave you inexcusable, and to
|
|
justify God in your ruin." It is therefore ushered in with a note of
|
|
admiration, behold! Observe,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. It is Christ that sends them; <I>I send.</I> By this he avows
|
|
himself to be God, having power to gift and commission prophets. It is
|
|
an act of kingly office; he sends them as ambassadors to treat with us
|
|
about the concerns of our souls. After his resurrection, he made this
|
|
word good, when he said, <I>So send I you,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+20:21">John xx. 21</A>.
|
|
|
|
Though now he appeared mean, yet he was entrusted with this great
|
|
authority.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. He sends them to the Jews first; "I send them to <I>you.</I>" They
|
|
began at Jerusalem; and, wherever they went, they observed this rule,
|
|
to make the first tender of gospel grace <I>to the Jews,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+13:46">Acts xiii. 46</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
3. Those he sends are called <I>prophets, wise men,</I> and
|
|
<I>scribes,</I> Old-Testament names for New-Testament officers; to show
|
|
that the ministers sent to them now should not be inferior to the
|
|
prophets of the Old Testament, to Solomon the wise, or Ezra the scribe.
|
|
The extraordinary ministers, who in the first ages were divinely
|
|
inspired, were as the prophets commissioned immediately from heaven;
|
|
the ordinary settled ministers, who were then, and continue in the
|
|
church still, and will do to the end of time, are as the wise men and
|
|
scribes, to guide and instruct the people in the things of God. Or, we
|
|
may take the apostles and evangelists for the prophets and wise men,
|
|
and the pastors and teachers for the scribes, <I>instructed to the
|
|
kingdom of heaven</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+13:52"><I>ch.</I> xiii. 52</A>);
|
|
|
|
for the office of a scribe was honourable till the men dishonoured
|
|
it.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. He foresees and foretels the ill usage that his messengers would
|
|
meet with among them; "<I>Some of them ye shall kill and crucify,</I>
|
|
and yet I will send them." Christ knows beforehand how ill his servants
|
|
will be treated, and yet sends them, and appoints them their measure of
|
|
sufferings; yet he loves them never the less for his thus exposing
|
|
them, for he designs to glorify himself by their sufferings, and them
|
|
after them; he will counter-balance them, though not prevent them.
|
|
Observe,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. The cruelty of these persecutors; <I>Ye shall kill and crucify
|
|
them.</I> It is no less than the blood, the life-blood, that they
|
|
thirst after; their lust is not satisfied with any thing short of their
|
|
destruction,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+15:9">Exod. xv. 9</A>.
|
|
|
|
They killed the two James's, crucified Simon the son of Cleophas, and
|
|
scourged Peter and John; thus did the members partake of the sufferings
|
|
of the Head, he was killed and crucified, and so were they. Christians
|
|
must expect to resist unto blood.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. Their unwearied industry; <I>Ye shall persecute them from city to
|
|
city.</I> As the apostles went from city to city, to preach the gospel,
|
|
the Jews dodged them, and haunted them, and stirred up persecution
|
|
against them,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+14:19,17:13">Acts xiv. 19; xvii. 13</A>.
|
|
|
|
They that <I>did not believe in Judea</I> were more bitter enemies to
|
|
the gospel than any other unbelievers,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+15:31">Rom. xv. 31</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
3. The pretence of religion in this; they scourged them in their
|
|
synagogues, their place of worship, where they kept their
|
|
ecclesiastical courts; so that they did it as a piece of service to the
|
|
church; cast them out, and said, <I>Let the Lord be glorified,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+66:5,Joh+16:2">Isa. lxvi. 5; John xvi. 2</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
III. He imputes the sin of their fathers to them, because they imitated
|
|
it; <I>That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the
|
|
earth,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:35,36"><I>v.</I> 35, 36</A>.
|
|
|
|
Though God bear long with a persecuting generation, he will not bear
|
|
always; and patience abused, turns into the greatest wrath. The longer
|
|
sinners have been heaping up treasures of wickedness, the deeper and
|
|
fuller will the treasures of wrath be; and the breaking of them up will
|
|
be like breaking up the fountains of the great deep.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Observe,
|
|
|
|
1. The extent of this imputation; it takes in <I>all the righteous
|
|
blood shed upon the earth,</I> that is, the blood shed for
|
|
righteousness' sake, which has all been laid up in God's treasury, and
|
|
not a drop of it lost, for <I>it is precious.</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+72:14">Ps. lxxii. 14</A>.
|
|
|
|
He dates the account <I>from the blood of righteous Abel,</I> thence
|
|
this <I>æra martyrum--age of martyrs</I>--commences; he is
|
|
called <I>righteous</I> Abel, for he obtained witness from heaven, that
|
|
he was <I>righteous, God testifying of his gifts.</I> How early did
|
|
martyrdom come into the world! The first that died, died for his
|
|
religion, and, <I>being dead, he yet speaketh.</I> His blood not only
|
|
cried against Cain, but continues to cry against all that walk in the
|
|
way of Cain, and hate and persecute their brother, <I>because their
|
|
works are righteous.</I> He extends it <I>to the blood of Zacharias,
|
|
the son of Barachias</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:36"><I>v.</I> 36</A>),
|
|
|
|
not Zecharias the prophet (as some would have it), though he was <I>the
|
|
son of Barachias</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Zec+1:1">Zech. i. 1.</A>)
|
|
|
|
nor Zecharias the father of John Baptist, as others say; but, as is
|
|
most probable, <I>Zechariah the son of Jehoiada,</I> who was <I>slain
|
|
in the court of the Lord's house,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+24:20,21">2 Chron. xxiv. 20, 21</A>.
|
|
|
|
His father is called <I>Barachias,</I> which signifies much the same
|
|
with Jehoiada; and it was usual among the Jews for the same person to
|
|
have two names; <I>whom ye slew,</I> ye of this nation, though not of
|
|
this generation. This is specified, because the requiring of that is
|
|
particularly spoken of
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+24:22">2 Chron. xxiv. 22</A>),
|
|
|
|
as that of Abel's is. The Jews imagined that the captivity had
|
|
sufficiently atoned for the guilt; but Christ lets them know that it
|
|
was not yet fully accounted for, but remained upon the score. And some
|
|
think that this is mentioned with a prophetical hint, for there was one
|
|
Zecharias, the son of Baruch, whom Josephus speaks of (<I>War</I>
|
|
4. 335), who was a just and good man, who was killed in the temple a
|
|
little before it was destroyed by the Romans. Archbishop Tillotson
|
|
thinks that Christ both alludes to the history of the former Zecharias
|
|
in <I>Chronicles,</I> and foretels the death of this latter in
|
|
Josephus. Though the latter was not yet slain, yet, before this
|
|
destruction comes, it would be true that they had slain him; so that
|
|
all shall be put together from first to last.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. The effect of it; <I>All these things shall come;</I> all the guilt
|
|
of this blood, all the punishment of it, it shall <I>all come upon this
|
|
generation.</I> The misery and ruin that are coming upon them, shall be
|
|
so very great, that, though, considering the evil of their own sins, it
|
|
was less that even those deserved; yet, comparing it with other
|
|
judgments, it will seem to be a general reckoning for all the
|
|
wickedness of their ancestors, especially their persecutions, to all
|
|
which God declared this ruin to have special reference and relation.
|
|
The destruction shall be so dreadful, as if God had once for all
|
|
arraigned them for all the righteous blood shed in the world. It shall
|
|
<I>come upon this generation;</I> which intimates, that it shall come
|
|
quickly; some here shall live to see it. Note, The sorer and nearer the
|
|
punishment of sin is, the louder is the call to repentance and
|
|
reformation.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
IV. He laments the wickedness of Jerusalem, and justly upbraids them
|
|
with the many kind offers he had made them,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:37"><I>v.</I> 37</A>.
|
|
|
|
See with what concern he speaks of that city; <I>O Jerusalem,
|
|
Jerusalem!</I> The repetition is emphatical, and bespeaks abundance of
|
|
commiseration. A day or two before Christ had wept over Jerusalem, now
|
|
he sighed and groaned over it. Jerusalem, <I>the vision of peace</I>
|
|
(so it signifies), must now be the seat of war and confusion.
|
|
Jerusalem, that had been <I>the joy of the whole earth,</I> must now be
|
|
<I>a hissing, and an astonishment, and a by-word;</I> Jerusalem, that
|
|
has been <I>a city compact together,</I> shall now be shattered and
|
|
ruined by its own intestine broils. Jerusalem, <I>the place that God
|
|
has chosen to put his name there,</I> shall now be abandoned to the
|
|
spoil and the robbers,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=La+1:1,4:1">Lam. i. 1, iv. 1</A>.
|
|
|
|
But wherefore will the Lord do all this to Jerusalem? Why? <I>Jerusalem
|
|
hath grievously sinned,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=La+1:8">Lam. i. 8</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. She persecuted God's messengers; <I>Thou that killest the prophets,
|
|
and stonest them that are sent unto thee.</I> This sin is especially
|
|
charged upon Jerusalem; because there the Sanhedrim, or great council,
|
|
sat, who took cognizance of church matters, and therefore a prophet
|
|
could not perish but in Jerusalem,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+13:33">Luke xiii. 33</A>.
|
|
|
|
It is true, they had not now a power to put any man to death, but they
|
|
killed the prophets in popular tumults, mobbed them, as Stephen, and
|
|
put the Roman powers on to kill them. At Jerusalem, where the gospel
|
|
was first preached, it was first persecuted
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+8:1">Acts viii. 1</A>),
|
|
|
|
and that place was the head-quarters of the persecutors; thence
|
|
warrants were issued out to other cities, and thither the saints were
|
|
brought bound,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+9:2">Acts ix. 2</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>Thou stonest them:</I> that was a capital punishment, in use only
|
|
among the Jews. By the law, false prophets and seducers were to <I>be
|
|
stoned</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+13:10">Deut. xiii. 10</A>),
|
|
|
|
under colour of which law, they put the true prophets to death. Note,
|
|
It has often been the artifice of Satan, to turn that artillery against
|
|
the church, which was originally planted in the defence of it. Brand
|
|
the true prophets as seducers, and the true professors of religion as
|
|
heretics and schismatics, and then it will be easy to persecute them.
|
|
There was abundance of other wickedness in Jerusalem; but this was the
|
|
sin that made the loudest cry, and which God had an eye to more than
|
|
any other, in bringing that ruin upon them, as
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+24:4,2Ch+36:16">2 Kings xxiv. 4; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16</A>.
|
|
|
|
Observe, Christ speaks in the present tense; <I>Thou killest, and
|
|
stonest;</I> for all they had done, and all they would do, was present
|
|
to Christ's notice.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. She refused and rejected Christ, and gospel offers. The former was a
|
|
sin <I>without</I> remedy, this <I>against</I> the remedy. Here is,
|
|
|
|
(1.) The wonderful grace and favour of Jesus Christ toward them; <I>How
|
|
often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathers her
|
|
chickens under her wings!</I> Thus kind and condescending are the
|
|
offers of gospel grace, even to Jerusalem's children, bad as she is,
|
|
the inhabitants, the little ones not excepted.
|
|
|
|
[1.] The favour proposed was the gathering of them. Christ's design is
|
|
to gather poor souls, gather them in from their wanderings, gather them
|
|
home to himself, as the Centre of unity; for <I>to him must the
|
|
gathering of the people be.</I> He would have taken the whole body of
|
|
the Jewish nation into the church, and so gathered them all (as the
|
|
Jews used to speak of proselytes) <I>under the wings of the Divine
|
|
Majesty.</I> It is here illustrated by a humble similitude; <I>as a
|
|
hen</I> clucks <I>her chickens together.</I> Christ would have gathered
|
|
them, <I>First,</I> With such a tenderness of affection as the hen
|
|
does, which has, by instinct, a peculiar concern for her young ones.
|
|
Christ's gathering of souls, comes from his love,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+31:3">Jer. xxxi. 3</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> For the same end. <I>The hen gathered her chickens
|
|
under her wings,</I> for protection and safety, and for warmth and
|
|
comfort; poor souls have in Christ both refuge and refreshment. The
|
|
chickens naturally run to the hen for shelter, when they are threatened
|
|
by the birds of prey; perhaps Christ refers to that promise
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+91:4">Ps. xci. 4</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>He shall cover thee with his feathers.</I> There is <I>healing under
|
|
Christ's wings</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mal+4:2">Mal. iv. 2</A>);
|
|
|
|
that is more than the hen has for her chickens.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[2.] The forwardness of Christ to confer this favour. His offers are,
|
|
<I>First,</I> Very free; <I>I would have done it.</I> Jesus Christ is
|
|
truly willing to receive and save poor souls that come to him. He
|
|
desires not their ruin, he delights in their repentance.
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> Very frequent; <I>How often!</I> Christ often came up
|
|
to Jerusalem, preached, and wrought miracles there; and the meaning of
|
|
all this, was, he would have gathered them. He keeps account how often
|
|
his calls have been repeated. As often as we have heard the sound of
|
|
the gospel, as often as we have felt the strivings of the Spirit, so
|
|
often Christ would have gathered us.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[3.] Their wilful refusal of this grace and favour; <I>Ye would
|
|
not.</I> How emphatically is their obstinacy opposed to Christ's mercy!
|
|
I would, and <I>ye would not.</I> He was willing to save them, but they
|
|
were not willing to be saved by him. Note, It is wholly owing to the
|
|
wicked wills of sinners, that they are not gathered under the wings of
|
|
the Lord Jesus. They did not like the terms upon which Christ proposed
|
|
to gather them; they loved their sins, and yet trusted to their
|
|
righteousness; they would not submit either to the grace of Christ or
|
|
to his government, and so the bargain broke off.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
V. He reads Jerusalem's doom
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:38,39"><I>v.</I> 38, 39</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>Therefore behold your house is left unto you desolate.</I> Both the
|
|
city and the temple, God's house and their own, all shall be laid
|
|
waste. But it is especially meant of the temple, which they boasted of,
|
|
and trusted to; that holy mountain because of which they were so
|
|
haughty. Note, they that will not be gathered by the love and grace of
|
|
Christ shall be consumed and scattered by his wrath; <I>I would, and
|
|
you would not. Israel would none of me, so I gave them up,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+81:11,12">Ps. lxxxi. 11, 12</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. Their house shall be <I>deserted; It is left unto you.</I> Christ
|
|
was now departing from the temple, and never came into it again, but by
|
|
this word abandoned it to ruin. They doated on it, would have it to
|
|
themselves; Christ must have no room or interest there. "Well," saith
|
|
Christ, "it is left to you; take it, and make your best of it; I will
|
|
never have any thing more to do with it." They had made it <I>a house
|
|
of merchandise, and a den of thieves,</I> and so it is left to them.
|
|
Not long after this, the voice was heard in the temple, "Let us depart
|
|
hence." When Christ went, <I>Ichabod, the glory departed.</I> Their
|
|
city also was left to them, destitute of God's presence and grace; he
|
|
was no longer <I>a wall of fire about them,</I> nor <I>the glory in the
|
|
midst of them.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
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2. It shall be <I>desolate; It is left unto you desolate;</I> it is
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left <B><I>eremos</I></B>--<I>a wilderness.</I>
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(1.) It was immediately, when Christ left it, in the eyes of all that
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understood themselves, a very dismal melancholy place. Christ's
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departure makes the best furnished, best replenished place a
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wilderness, though it be the temple, the chief place of concourse; for
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what comfort can there be where Christ is not? Though there may be a
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crowd of other contentments, yet, if Christ's special spiritual
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presence be withdrawn, that soul, that place, is <I>become a
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wilderness, a land of darkness, as darkness itself.</I> This comes of
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men's rejecting Christ, and driving him away from them.
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(2.) It was, not long after, destroyed and ruined, and <I>not one stone
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left upon another.</I> The lot of Jerusalem's enemies will now become
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Jerusalem's lot, <I>to be made of a city a heap, of a defenced city a
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ruin</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+25:2">Isa. xxv. 2</A>),
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<I>a lofty city laid low, even to the ground,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+26:5">Isa. xxvi. 5</A>.
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The temple, that holy and beautiful house, became desolate. When God
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goes out, all enemies break in.</P>
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<P>
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<I>Lastly,</I> Here is the final farewell that Christ took of them and
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their temple; <I>Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say,
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Blessed is he that cometh.</I> This bespeaks,</P>
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<P>
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1. His departure from them. The time was at hand, when <I>he should
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leave the world, to go to his Father,</I> and be seen no more. <I>After
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his resurrection, he was seen only by a few chosen witnesses,</I> and
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they saw him not long, but he soon removed to the invisible world, and
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there will be <I>till the time of the restitution of all things,</I>
|
|
when his welcome at his first coming will be repeated with loud
|
|
acclamations; <I>Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.</I>
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|
Christ will not be seen again till he <I>come in the clouds, and every
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eye shall see him</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+1:7">Rev. i. 7</A>);
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and then, even they, who, when time was, rejected and pierced him, will
|
|
be glad to come in among his adorers; then every knee shall bow to him,
|
|
even those that had bowed to Baal; and even the workers of iniquity
|
|
will then cry, <I>Lord, Lord,</I> and will own, when his wrath is
|
|
kindled, that <I>blessed are all they that put their trust in him.</I>
|
|
Would we have our lot in that day with those that say, <I>Blessed is he
|
|
that cometh?</I> let us be with them now, with them that truly worship,
|
|
and truly welcome, Jesus Christ.</P>
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|
<P>
|
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2. Their continued blindness and obstinacy; <I>Ye shall not see me,</I>
|
|
that is, not see me to be the Messiah (for otherwise they did see him
|
|
upon the cross), not see the light of the truth concerning me, nor
|
|
<I>the things that belong to your peace, till ye shall say, Blessed is
|
|
he that cometh.</I> They will never be convinced, till Christ's second
|
|
coming convince them, when it will be too late to make an interest in
|
|
him, and nothing will remain <I>but a fearful looking for of
|
|
judgment.</I> Note,
|
|
|
|
(1.) Wilful blindness is often punished with judicial blindness. If
|
|
they <I>will</I> not see, they <I>shall</I> not see. With this word he
|
|
concludes his public preaching. <I>After his resurrection,</I> which
|
|
was <I>the sign of the prophet Jonas,</I> they should have no other
|
|
sign given them, till they should <I>see the sign of the Son of
|
|
man,</I>
|
|
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|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+24:30"><I>ch.</I> xxiv. 30</A>.
|
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(2.) When <I>the Lord comes with ten thousand of his saints,</I> he
|
|
will convince all, and will force acknowledgments from the proudest of
|
|
his enemies, of his being the Messiah, and even <I>they shall be found
|
|
liars to him.</I> They that would not now come at his call, shall then
|
|
be forced to depart with his curse. The chief priests and scribes were
|
|
displeased with the children for crying <I>hosanna</I> to Christ; but
|
|
the day is coming, when proud persecutors would gladly be found in the
|
|
condition of the meanest and poorest they now trample upon. They who
|
|
now reproach and ridicule the hosannas of the saints will be of another
|
|
mind shortly; it were therefore better to be of that mind now. Some
|
|
make this to refer to the conversion of the Jews to the faith of
|
|
Christ; then they shall see him, and own him, and <I>say, Blessed is he
|
|
that cometh;</I> but it seems rather to look further, for the complete
|
|
manifestation of Christ, and conviction of sinners, are reserved to be
|
|
the glory of the last day.</P>
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