love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, nor suffer ye them that are entering to go in. 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. 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. Woe unto you, ye 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! Ye fools, and blind: for whether is greater; the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? And, whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing: but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty! Ye fools, and blind for whether is greater; the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. And, whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. And he, that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God and by him that sitteth thereon. Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin; and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. 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. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. 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 men's bones and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, 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. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city 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. Verily I say unto you: All these things shall come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered together thy children, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings; and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.* That the corrupt rulers of Israel should be vehemently enraged at the bold reformer, who could publicly utter such unwelcome truths; and that, instead of furthering any projects which (as an impostor) he might be supposed to have conceived, they * Matt. xxiii. should at length compass his death: will excite little wonder in him, who has at all studied the workings of the human heart. But, that an impostor, who in his character of an impostor must specially have had his own interest and aggrandizement in view, could deliberately act a part, which had an obvious and necessary tendency to irritate and provoke all the leading men of the nation selected as the object of his selfish plans; that an impostor, himself absolutely foreseeing and declaring that his conduct would lead both to his suffering many things and to his being rejected of the people whom he sought to delude, should, nevertheless, in plain opposition to the dictates of common sense, persist in such conduct:* that an impostor, as an impostor, should, with his eyes wide open to the consequences, act thus strangely, thus incongruously, thus unaccountably, is a circumstance, which does indeed beggar the utmost profuseness of credulity. Nor was the conduct of Christ in regard to his disciples less extraordinary, than his conduct in regard to the Scribes and Pharisees. An impostor, if placed in a similar situation, would have allured his followers by bountiful promises of worldly prosperity: the long-expected kingdom of the Messiah was about to be erected; the Roman yoke was on the point of being broken; Judah was on the eve of liberty and triumph; every faithful adherent would be munificently rewarded by honours and dignities and emoluments in the mighty empire of a prince, who was alike able and willing to repay the services of his friends and companions. This would have been the language of an impostor: this, in fact, was the language of Coziba. But was it the language of Christ? Let us hear his own words, addressed unreservedly * Luke xvii. 23. to his followers. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues. And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. But, when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death; and the father, the child and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he, that endureth to the end, shall be saved. But, when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another. The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple, that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? Fear not them, which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him, which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.* If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For, whosoever will save his life, shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake, shall find it. The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men: and they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: for nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. All these are the Matt. x. 16-28. + Matt. xvi, 24, 25. Matt, xvii, 22, 28. beginning of sorrow. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.* If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but, because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world; therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word, that I said unto you: the servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father nor me. Such was the constant tenor of Christ's language to his disciples: such was the mode in which he sought to allure followers and to gain proselytes. That its total want of earthly encouragement was abundantly felt, is clear, not only from the reason of the thing, but from the express testimony of the narrative itself. On one occasion of receiving these melancholy and discouraging communications, it is said, that the disciples were exceeding sorry § on another, that Peter began to rebuke him.|| But not in the slightest degree would Christ either change, or even soften, his language. He still persevered in his own. most extraordinary mode of gaining followers. He still allured his countrymen to enlist under his banners, by promising them every sort of persecution, universal hatred, flight, *Matt. xxiv. 7-9. John xv. 18-21. Matt. xvi. 22. John xvi. 1-3. |