and said unto him, Master, thus saying, thou reproachest also. A woe is likewise added to the lawyers. 565 CX. Luke one of the lawyers, pened to be present, observing that in this last SECT. woe Jesus mentioned the scribes, who were a us body of men to whom he and his brethren belonged, answered and said unto him, Master, in XI. 45. saying these things, thou reproachest not only the sect of the Pharisees, but us too, in a manner unbecoming the dignity of our holy profes sion, as the depositaries of the sacred oracles. 46 And he said, But Jesus was so far from palliating the 46 Woe unto you also, ye matter to ingratiate himself with them, that he lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens plainly and courageously said, Nay, it is a righgrievous to be borne, teous rebuke, and I intend it for you, and thereand ye yourselves fore particularly repeat it for your admonition: with one of your fin- Woe unto you also, ye professed interpreters of the touch not the burdens gers. 47 Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the pro thers killed them. law for, by your rigorous decisions on the I also solemnly denounce a woe unto you all, 47 works of your fathers; for as they indeed slew 566 SECT. CX. Luke The blood of all the prophets should be required of them. 49 Therefore also said the wisdom of prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and perse God, I will send them cute: which was shed from Therefore, also the wisdom of God hath said and I am in his name commissioned to declare it as his determinate purpose, I will yet send them X1. 49. other prophets and extraordinary messengers, particularly the apostles, who shall declare my gospel to them, as the last expedient for their recovery and salvation; but such I know to be the hardness of their hearts, that they will generally despise and reject them; nay, [some] of them they 50 will kill, and will persecute the rest: So that 50 That the blood by filling up the measure of their sins, they will of all the prophets, bring such aterrible destruction upon themselves, the foundation of the that the blood of all the prophets and martyrs, world, may be requirwhich has been cruelly shed from the foundation ed of this generation; of the world, may seem to be required of this ge51 neration. Even from the blood of righteous Abel, who in those early ages for his distinguished of piety was murdered by his inhuman brother, to the blood of Zechariah, one of the last of the prophets, who was slain between the altar and the temple (2 Chron. xxiv. 20-22). Yea, in the strongest terms I tell you, and repeat it again, The ruin, God will bring upon you in his righteous judgment, shall be so dreadful, that it shall seem as if the guilt of all their blood had been laid up in store, that it might be required at the hands of this generation, and heap aggravated ruin on their heads. (Compare Mat. xxiii. 34 -36, sect. clviii.) 52 51 From the blood Abel, unto the blood perished between the altar and the temple : verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation. of Zacharias, which 52 Wo unto you, taken And I will add, that the disguises thrown on scripture, and the methods used to conceal it lawyers! for ye have from the people, have done a great deal to bring on this terrible sentence: woe therefore unto you, interpreters of the law, on this account! for by these unrighteous practices you have, as it were, i Therefore also the wisdom of God hath said.] Dr. Guyse (with Markius, Exerc. p. 669) paraphrases this clause as the words of the historian, and supposes him here to apply this character to Christ, and to declare that Christ, the wisdom of God, farther said, I will send them prophets, &c.-I doubt not but Christ might with great propriety be spoken of by that phrase: but, with all due respect to that learned and pious interpreter, I cannot apprehend it to be the sense of this passage; not only because the phraseology is unexampled in the evangelists, but chiefly because our Lord does not say, I send to you but to them. Yet I see no reason to conclude (with Mr. Whiston, in taken his Essay for restoring the Old Testament, p. 228) that this is a quotation from any ancient writer. Christ was empowered, without any such voucher, to declare what the counsels of Divine wisdom had determine ed; and this manner of speaking strongly intimates that he was so; in which view it has on this interpretation a peculiar beauty and propriety. k The blood of Zechariah.] What reason there is to conclude, the Zechariah here spoken of is that prophet of whose death we have an account in 2 Chron. xxiv. 20, & seq. will be shewn in note g on Mat. xxiii. 35, sect. clviii. The scribes and Pharisees endeavour to ensnare him. not in yourselves, and them that were entering in, ye hindered. CX. 567 Luke taken away the key of taken away the key of Divine knowledge'; and SECT. knowledge : ye entered instead of tracing out a spiritual Messiah in scripture, and illustrating the testimony which the sacred oracles bear to him, you have rather XI. 52. abetted the popular prejudices against him; and have been so perverse and obstinate in your opposition to the gospel, as that you have not entered in to the kingdom of heaven yourselves and even those that otherwise were disposed to do it, and would have entered in, you by your wicked management have hindered. 53 And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the But while he spake these severe and awful things 53 with so much freedom to them, the scribes and Pharisees began to urge pharisees were so exceedingly provoked that they him vehemently, and began fiercely to fasten upon him, and rudely ento provoke him to speak deavoured to urge him to speak of many things of many things: catch something out 54 Laying wait for that were the most exceptionable topics. There- 54 warmth of natural resentment; that they might The key of knowledge.] Vitringa understands this of one fundamental truth, which would have led them into the knowledge of the rest (Observ. Sacr. lib. i. p. 125): but all their endeavours to embarrass and bias the minds of men in their inquirics after truth might be intended here; as well as more especially their disguising the prophecies which related to the Messiah.If a key was delivered to them as the badge of their office (see p. 463, note g. and Camero on this place), there may be a beautiful allusion to that circumstance; as if he should have said, You take that key, not to use, but to secrete it. See Archbisop Tillotson, Vol. I. p. 208.)-Elsner has well shewn on this text that the heathen priests were called xandøya, key-bearers. Observ. Vol. I. p. 228, 229. m Fiercely to fasten upon him.] So days X properly significs (see note g on Mark vi. 19, p. 158).-Several more of the words here used are metaphors taken from hunting. Amalia might be rendered to mouth or bear down with the violence of their words, as Theophylact excellently IMPROVE explains it; but the addition of w Any engaged me rather to translate it as I have done. Grotius and Casaubon have shown that it sometimes signifies to examine in a magisterial way; but Erasmus's note is, on the whole, the best I have seen upon this word. n To start some unguarded word.] Ongev ca in this connection has a most beautiful propriety, and signifies the eagerness with which sportsmen beat about for their game to start it from its covert.-It is very probable as Mr. Cradock conjectures, that the Pharisee, who was master of the house, had invited a great many of his brethren and learned friends on purpose to make a more formidable attack upon Christ, and by their concurrent testimony to charge upon him any thing which might render him obnoxious: and the presence of so many of them made the discourse delivered at this time more proper, and the courage and zeal it expressed more remarkable. See Cradock's Harmony, part ii. p. 6. 322 558 Reflections on the guilt and danger of hypocrisy. IMPROVEMENT. SECT. CX. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; and such were the reproofs of Christ on this occasion. How well had all the entertainments Luke of the Pharisee's table been repaid, had he and his brethren heard X1.59. them with candour, humility, and obedience! These men de5 spised them to their ruin; let us often review them for our instruction, that none of these dreadful woes may come upon us. & seq. 39, 42 This discourse of our Lord is a most just and severe rebuke to every hypocritical professor, who is scrupulous and exact in matters of ceremony, while he neglects morality; and is studious to shine in the sight of men, while he forgets the all-penetrating eye 43 of God. It exposes the ostentation of those who pride themselves in empty titles of honour, and eagerly affect precedence and supe46 riority. And it evidently chastises those who press on others the duties they neglect themselves, and so are most righteously judged out of their own mouth. 44 How melancholy it is to observe, in instances like these, the hypocrisy and deceitfulness of the human heart, and its desperate and unfathomable wickedness! and to see how men impose upon 47, 49 themselves with empty appearances, like these Pharisees; who built the sepulchres of the former prophets, while they were persecuting those of their own day; and, in contempt of all that was 50, 51 said by the messengers of God, were filling up the measure of their iniquities, till the cloud which had been so long gathering burst on their heads, and poured forth a storm of aggravated wrath and ruin! May that God, who has an immediate access to the hearts of men, deliver all christian countries, and especially all protestant 52 churches, from such teachers as are here described: who take away and secrete the key of knowledge instead of using it, and obstruct, rather than promote, men's entrance into the kingdom of heaven! How loud will the blood of the souls they have betrayed cry against them in the awful day of accounts! and how little will the wages of unrighteousness, and the rewards of worldly policy, be able to warn them against destruction, or to support them under it ! SECT. Christ charges his disciples to beware of hypocrisy. SECT. CXI. Christ cautions his disciples against hypocrisy, and animates them against the fear of men by the promise of extraordinary assistance from his Spirit in their greatest trials. Luke XII. 1—12. LUKE XII. 1. when there were that they trode one of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2 For there is no thing covered, that shall not be revealed; IN LUKE XII. 1. 569 SECT. Luke XII. 1. IN the mean time, IN the mean time, while Christ was thus disgathered together an coursing at the Pharisee's house, many thou- cxi. innumerable multitude sands of people were gathered together, and of people, insomuch pressed with so much eagerness to hear him, that upon another, he began they even trampled on each other: and [Jesus] to say unto his disciples going forth among them, began to say to his disfirst of all, Beware ye ciples in the presence of them all, See that you more especially beware, and above all things take heed to yourselves of being corrupted by the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy; a vice which secretly puffs uptheir minds, and strangely spreads itself through their hearts and lives, so as to taint and spoil the very best of their duties. But seriously reflect upon the folly of it; for 2 you may assure yourselves, as I have told you neither hid, that shall formerly (Mat. x. 26. Mark iv. 22. and Luke viii. 17.) that there is nothing now so secretly concealed which shall not be discovered, and be openly unveiled another day; nor any thing so artfully disguised or hid, which shall not then at least be made known, if God does not more immediately expose those shallow artifices, which he now discerns and abhors. So that whatever 3 you have spoken with the utmost caution, in the heard in the light thickest darkness, shall then be published and and that which ye have heard in the clearest effulgence of light: and spoken in the ear in what you have whispered in the most retired closets, shall be pro- chambers and closets, shall then be proclaimed aloud as from the house-tops in the audience of all. not be known. 3 Therefore what soever ye have spoken in darkness, shall be claimed upon the house-tops. 4 And I say unto you, my friends, Be not And therefore let it be your care, not merely 4 to save appearances, but to maintain a good conscience, though at the greatest expence: for I say unto you, my dear friends, with all possible seriousness, and most tender concern for your everlasting Many thousands of people were gathered together.] It would be more exactly rendered many myriads; but lest every English reader should not know that a myriad is ten thousand, I render it many thousands; nor is it necessary to take the word in its strictest sense. Perhaps this vast assemblage of people might be owing to an apprehen- b For |