_Then spake Jesus to the multitude_ Leaving all converse with his
adversaries; whom he now gave up to the hardness of their hearts. _The
scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses's seat_ Or, _chair_ That is, read
and expound the law of Moses, and are the appointed teachers of the
people. The Jewish doctors... [ Continue Reading ]
_For they bind heavy burdens_ Not only insisting upon the most minute
circumstances of the ceremonial law, called _a yoke, Acts 15:10_; and
pressing the observation of them with more strictness and severity
than God himself did; but by adding to his word, and imposing their
own inventions and tradit... [ Continue Reading ]
_All their works they do to be seen of men_ They have the praise of
men in view in all their actions. Hence they are constant and abundant
in those duties of religion which come under the observation of men;
but with respect to those that are of a more spiritual nature, and lie
between God and their... [ Continue Reading ]
_Be not ye called rabbi_ Do not affect those titles of reverence and
respect which give too much honour or authority to man. The Jewish
doctors were called _rabbis, fathers_, and _masters_, by their several
disciples, whom they required both to believe implicitly what they
affirmed, without asking a... [ Continue Reading ]
_But he that is greatest among you_, &c. If any one among you would in
reality be greater than another, let him be the more condescending,
kind, and ready cheerfully to serve others in love. The words may
either imply, 1st, a promise that such should be accounted greatest,
and stand highest in the f... [ Continue Reading ]
_But wo to you, scribes_, &c. Our Lord pronounced eight blessings upon
the mount, he pronounces eight woes here, not as imprecations, but
solemn, compassionate declarations of the misery which these stubborn
sinners were bringing upon themselves. The reasons of his denouncing
these woes are set fort... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wo unto you, ye blind guides_ Before he had styled them _hypocrites_,
from their personal character; now he gives them another title
respecting their false doctrine and influence upon others. Both these
appellations are severely put together in Matthew 23:23: and this
severity rises to the height i... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wo unto you, for ye pay tithe_, &c. Here we have the fifth wo, which
is denounced for their superstition. They observed the ceremonial
precepts of the law with all possible exactness, while they utterly
neglected the eternal, immutable, indispensable rules of
righteousness. _Judgment_ That is, just... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wo unto you, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup_,
&c. This is the sixth wo. They were at great pains to appear virtuous,
and to have a decent external conduct, while they neglected to
beautify their inward man with true holiness, and a conformity to the
divine goodness, or with th... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wo unto you, for you are like whited sepulchres_ Here we have the
seventh wo. Dr. Shaw, (_Trav._, p. 285,) gives a genial description of
the different sorts of tombs and sepulchres in the East concluding
with this paragraph “Now all these, with the very walls of the
enclosure, being always kept cle... [ Continue Reading ]
_Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers' wickedness_ Ye may now
be as wicked as they: a word of permission, not of command: as if he
had said, I contend with you no longer: I leave you to yourselves: you
have conquered: now ye may follow the devices of your own hearts. Ye
_serpents_ Our Lord ha... [ Continue Reading ]
_O Jerusalem, Jerusalem_ The Lord Jesus having thus laid before the
Pharisees and the Jewish nation their heinous guilt and impending
ruin, was exceedingly moved at the thought of the calamities coming
upon them. A day or two before he had wept over Jerusalem; now he
bewails it in the most mournful... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold, your house_ The temple, which is now your house, not God's;
_is left unto you desolate_ Forsaken of God and his Christ, and
sentenced to utter destruction. Our Lord spake this as he was going
out of it for the last time. _For I say unto you_ Ye Jews in general,
ye men of Jerusalem in partic... [ Continue Reading ]