the imperfections of earth, but in the heights of heaven, for one upon whom you may fully rely. Of course there is no prohibition here of children paying respect to their parents. It is not a little remarkable, that the head of the dominant church of Christendom, in his sometimes greater than imperial authority, has in all ages been called by that very title which is here forbidden, Papa, Pope, Father. So little has the doctrine of Christ been adhered to, by the great mass of his disciples!

10. Masters. Leaders, guides. This was a third title of honor assumed by the Scribes and Pharisees, as we learn from the Rabbinical writers. Because their epithets encouraged pride and spiritual tyranny on one side, and subserviency and superstition on the other, they were to be wholly discontinued among the equal children of a common Father, and the equal disciples of a common Master. In the bright light of these verses, what becomes of the doctrines of infallibility and divine right vested in any man, or body of men? what becomes of ecclesiastical usurpations and exclusiveness? They disappear like mists before the morning sun.

11, 12. He now points out the true and royal road to greatness, that of usefulness and humility. See note on Mat. xviii. 4.—Abased -humble. Words from the same Greek verb, which would be more properly translated alike. Jesus preaches no doctrine more often than this of Humility, and none is

go in

more necessary to our being his real disciples, and entering into the deep and pure life of his religion. Covet humility; beautiful is "the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price."

13. This and the next verse are transposed by Griesbach, and many other trustworthy scholars. - But woe unto you. Rather, alas for you. See note on Mat. xi. 21. It is congenial to our ideas of Jesus' character, to believe that an unutterable pity mingled with his most searching rebukes. He wounded not to inflict pain, but to heal. To use the language of Wakefield: "Woe unto you is an exclamation better suited to the enthusiasts of modern times, who denounce damnation against all but their own sects, than to the benevolent Saviour of inankind." Mat. xxiv. 19.-Scribes and Pharisees. See note on Mat. iii. 7.

Shut up the kingdom of heaven against men. Or, in their faces as it were. The figure is taken from shutting and locking a door against those who were entering it. In accordance with this, they are described in Luke xi. 52, as having "taken away the key." They had done so by their example, instructions, and authority, and thrown all possible obstacles in the path of the Gospel.-Neither suffer ye them, &c. They were not content with remaining outside themselves, but they endeavored to prevent all others from going in. This churlish conduct reminds us of the fable of the dog in the manger,

14. Devour widows' houses. Or, estates. They were furthermore guilty of avarice, and, under the mask of great sanctity, they hesitated not to defraud those who were peculiarly helpless and exposed, and who were taken in by their fair-seeming goodness.-Long prayer. Nine hours were daily spent by some in devotion. See note on Mat. vi. 7. For such mingled hypocrisy, covetousness, and oppression, they would be doomed to a severe punishment.

15. Compass sea and land. A proverbial phrase, signifying that they left no effort untried, or, as we say, no stone unturned, to gain proselytes to Judaism, or, more likely, to Pharisaism, doing it not so much from a religious as a covetous and ambitious motive; for they made a gain and a boast of godliness. There were two kinds of proselytes; 1st, the proselytes of righteousness, i. e. complete, who embraced the Jewish religion in its full extent, and shared in all the rites and privileges of Jews themselves; 2d, the proselytes of the gate; foreigners who lived among the Jews, who were not circumcised, yet conformed to some of the Jewish laws and customs; they were admitted into the outer division of the temple, called the court of the Gentiles. The Talmudists speak against proselytes as injurious to the purity of their religion,

Make him two-fold, &c. Many critics translate this clause, Ye make him a child of hell more deceitful than yourselves. The simple idea is, that by converting him they made him far worse than themselves, for he probably retained his old errors, mixed with those of his formal, hypocritical teachers.— Child of hell is an expression signifying worthy of, or doomed to hell, or the severest punishment; as the children of light means those who enjoy the light.

16, 17. Next he censures their absurd and wicked distinctions respecting oaths, which they divided into great and small. See notes on chap. v. 33-37.-It is nothing, i. e. the oath by the temple is not obligatory. The gold of the temple. Probably the money in the treasury is meant, not the ornaments with which the building was decorated. -He is a debtor, i. e. is bound to fulfil his oath. Unusual sanctity seems to have been attributed to the gold in the temple treasury. It was corban, devoted. Mark vii. 11. Our Lord showed the idleness of their distinction by intiniating that the temple was greater than the gold which it consecrated. It has been conjectured that the Pharisees took advantage of the feeling of sacredness associated with this gold, to obtain greater contributions from the people.

18, 19. They also attributed pe

culiar sanctity to the offerings upon the altar, as is supposed from selfish considerations. 1 Cor. ix. 13.-He is guilty. Rather, he is bound. The same word which is translated in verse 16, he is a debtor. It was absurd to believe that the gift could be more sacred than the altar, for it derived all the sacredness it had from the altar.

20-22. Jesus would sweep away their idle distinctions, and show that the validity of an oath depended not on the particular thing by which it was taken, whether gift, altar, gold, temple, or heaven, but upon its tacit reference to God. Just so far as it was efficacious from appealing to objects consecrated to the divine service, so far was it obligatory, since it called God to witness.—By him that dwelleth therein. A visible symbol of the Divine presence, in the form of a cloud, rested upon the mercy-seat of the Holy of Holies. 1 Kings viii. 10, 11, 13. As God was the king of the Jews, the temple was his palace. In pursuance of the same idea he is described as sitting upon a throne in heaven.

23. Pay tithe, i. e. a tenth part.— Mint. Sweet-scented, garden mint, or spearmint. It was strewed by the Jews on the floors of their dwellings.-Anise. A mistake of the

translators for dill, an aromatic plant used by perfumers.—Cummin. An herb resembling fennel, with aromatic seeds of a hot and bitter taste.-The Scribes and Pharisees were not satisfied with paying the usual tithes for the support of the Levites and the poor, and for the service of the temple, Numb. xviii. 20-24, Deut. xiv. 22-24, 28, 29, but they paid also a tenth part of the small herbs.-Have omitted. Same word as is rendered below, leave undone.-Judgment, mercy, and faith. Mic. vi. 8. A more approved translation is, justice, humanity, and fidelity, the great social virtues, unless by faith we understand man's duties to God. Luke, xi. 42, has recorded it, "judgment and the love of God."-These ought ye to have done, &c. The moral duties should have been discharged, whilst the ceremonial observances should not have been neglected. He did not object to their scrupulousness in tithes, provided they kept the spiritual commandments; though in reality the two courses of conduct could hardly be reconciled in the same person.

24. Strain at a gnat. It is remarkable that this error, which was at first merely a blunder in printing, should have been so long perpetuated. The correct reading is,

strain out a gnat. It was the custom in the east, where insects abound, to strain or filter, wine through a cloth or sieve. The Jews did it, partly from fear of swallowing any creature that was unclean in the eye of the law, as well as from motives of cleanliness, What is here called gnat is said by some to be a small animalcule bred in the liquor. The camel was the largest animal with which the Jews were much acquainted. Hence the smallest insect and the greatest animal are employed to make the antithesis stronger. The phrase is proverbial, and is similar to one found among the Arabians: "He eats an elephant, and is strangled with a gnat." Jesus places in bold relief their inconsistency in carefully observing the little points of ceremonial usage, and trampling under foot the first moral principles of religion.

25, 26. Woe unto you. See note on chap. xi. 21. The repetition of this phrase of condemnation carried with it an awful weight and solemnity. As he begins sentence after sentence with this word, it must have sounded in their ears like the first thunderings of those judgments which were soon to roll over their nation.-Make clean the outside. They were attentive to the washings and purifications of the law, but neglected that moral

and inward purity without which all forms were but a cheat and lie. Cup-platter. The vessels for drink and food respectively.Within they are full of extortion and excess. Instead of excess, Griesbach reads injustice, which would be more consonant to the known character of the Pharisees. However scrupulously their vessels were washed, they were yet filled with food procured by extortion and injustice, and therefore most foul and unclean.-Cleanse first, &c. Sec that their contents are the fruits of honesty and justice, and they will be truly clean. Purify the heart, and the conduct cannot be otherwise than pure, for streams take their character from the fountain out of which they flow.

27, 28. Whited sepulchres. Tombs are said to have been annually whitewashed, that they might be seen and shunned; for it was an unclean act, according to the law, to touch them. Numb. xix. 16. Their whiteness, contrasted with the green herbage or groves, must have possessed a degree of beauty, but within there was death and corruption. So it was with these hypocrites. Precise in the observance of forms, sanctimonious in their deportment, zealous for the law, they were yet chargeable with the grossest immoralities and stained with the foulest crimes. Luke xi. 44.

29, 30. Because ye build. They were blamed, not because they paid marks of respect to the venerable dead, but because they did it hypocritically; because, whilst they thus honored the prophets and the righteous, they yet were ready to imitate their persecutors.-Garnish the sepulchres, &c. It was customary, both among the Jews and Gentiles, to show their reverence for the dead by building or beautifying their tombs. The Scribes and Pharisees pretended a respect for the martyred prophets which they did not feel, for it was wholly inconsistent with their real character. They adorned indeed their tombs, but they violated their instructions. Even after the time of Christ, there were many tombs of the ancient worthies still to be found in Judea, which had been erected or rebuilt long after their death.-Partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Yet at the same time they were indulging in a worse spirit than that of their persecuting forefathers, and desiring and plotting the death of him who was greater than the prophets. They professed to honor the departed messengers of God, but they were ready to kill the Messiah, his Son.

31. Ye are the children of them, &c. They acknowledged that they were children by natural descent of those who had slain the prophets of God. But, more than that, they

were witnesses to themselves, they were conscious in their own hearts, that they were, in feelings and motives likewise, children of those bloody ancestors.

32. Fill ye up then, &c. The last verse may be regarded as parenthetical, and this one to be a conclusion drawn from the 30th. They pretended, that, if they had lived in the days of yore, they should not have been guilty of the barbarities of those periods; but they would go on, and in time fully equal the most wicked age. Despairing of their amendment, indignant at their hypocrisy, he says, Go on and fill up the measure of the sins of your fathers. A prediction is here expressed in the imperative mode, i. e. you will go on.

33. Ye generation of vipers. Better, brood of vipers. They possessed the venom and malignity of the most noxious reptiles. See note on chap. iii. 7. How then could they escape the severest punishment? The seeming harshness of this language is perhaps partly attributable to the oriental highly figurative mode of speech, which delights in the boldest metaphors, most startling paradoxes, and strongest hyperboles. Jesus spoke in the usual style. But until we possess his knowledge of mankind, and his authority from God, we are forbidden to judge our fellows and pronounce their condemnation.— Hell, i. e. Gehenna, or the valley of