of Spirits.-God taught them by rites and ceremonies external, leading them by the hand to the purities of the heart, and by the services of the body to the obedience of the spirit; which because they would not understand, they thought they had done enough in the observation of the letter. Again. They broke Moses' tables into pieces, and, gathering up the fragments, took to themselves what part of duty they pleased, and let the rest alone. For it was a proverb among the Jews, that "if a man chooses one positive commandment for his business, he may be less careful in any of the rest." Indeed, they said also, "He that multiplies the law, increases life;" that is, if he did attend to more good things, it was so much the better, but the other was well enough. But as for universal obedience, that was not the measure of their righteousness; for they taught that God would put our good works and bad into the balance, and, according to the heavier scale, give a portion in the world to come; so that some evil they would allow to themselves and their disciples, always provided it was less than the good they did. They would devour widows' houses, and make it up by long prayers; they would love their nation, and hate their prince; offer sacrifice, and curse Cæsar in their heart; advance Judaism, and destroy humanity. TAYLOR. These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.-The serving of God consisteth in the performing of sincere and universal obedience to all his laws and commands: for if our whole man, both soul and body, and whatsoever we have or are, ought to be devoted to his glory, it must needs follow that whatsoever we do should be conformable to his precepts.—We must not think to pick and choose, to do some things and leave other things undone. We should take it ill if our servants should serve us so; if when we send them upon their several businesses, they should mind one of them and neglect all the other, we should questionless look upon them as very idle and careless servants. But let us consider and bethink ourselves, whether we have not served our master and eternal God as bad as our servants have served, or can serve, us. He hath given us several laws to observe, and hath set us several works to do, and we perhaps can make a shift to do something that is required of us, but never think of the other, and perhaps the principal things too that he expects from us. Just as if, when Moses had broken the two tables of stone, whereon the Ten Commandments were written, one man should have come and snatched away one piece, a second run away with another piece, and a third with another, until at length ten several persons had gotten ten several pieces, whereon the Ten Commandments were severally written; and when they had done so, every one of them should have striven to keep the law that was written on his own piece, 306 never minding what was written in the others. Do you think that such persons as these are could be reputed the servants of God, and to observe his laws, when they minded only one particular branch or piece of them? Let us remember, that the same finger that wrote one of the commands, wrote all the others And therefore he that doth not observe all as well as one, cannot properly be said to observe any at all. Neither indeed doth he serve God in any thing: for, though he may do something that God requires, yet it is plain that he doth not therefore do it because God requires it; for if he did so, he would do all things else too that God requires. -BEVERIDGE. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.-God "searcheth the heart, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts." He is thoroughly acquainted with every thought in our hearts, and with every motion and inclination of our souls, infinitely better than ourselves are. And therefore it is vain for us to think to put him off with outward and formal, instead of inward and real, service: for he doth not only see what we do, but knows too what we think while we are doing of it; and doth not only observe the matter of our actions, but the manner also of performing them: it being his great prerogative to search the heart and to try the reins, and to have all things naked and open unto him (Heb. iv. 13), - so that he seeth what the soul doth within doors, as clearly as what it does without, in the open streets of the world; every affection of the soul being as manifest unto him as the actions of the body are. And therefore hypocrisy is the most foolish and ridiculous sin imaginable, making as if we would cheat and deceive God, and hide our sins from the all-seeing eyes of Omniscience itself, or make God believe that we are holy because we appear so to men. But know this, O vain man, whosoever thou art, that God will not be mocked;' and though thou hast not seen, or perhaps so much as thought of, him, he hath seen thee and thy thoughts too; yea, at this very moment looks upon thee. And what wilt thou answer him, the great Judge of the whole world, when he shall tell thee to thy face, and call his Omniscience to witness, that he saw thee play the hypocrite with him, making as if thou servedst him, when thou servedst him not?-But, to prevent what justly may be our doom, let us repent of our former neglects in this kind; and for the future, let us still look upon God as looking upon us, and fix in our hearts this one thing, that God knows all things in the world. Let us not think to put God off with careless and perfunctory services; but if we desire to serve him at all, let us serve him "with a perfect heart, and with a willing mind."-BEVERIDGE. "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew renew a right spirit within me."-Psalm li. 10. "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.-Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart."-Ps. cxix. 1, 2, 33, 34. "Then shall I not be ashamed, commandments." Ps. cxix. 6. 27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! "for ye when I have respect unto all thy ve are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, outward, but within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. 1 H PSALM XXXII. Happy the man to whom his God But, wash'd in the Redeemer's blood, Happy, beyond expression, he Whose debts are thus discharg'd, And, from the guilty bondage free, Who feels his soul enlarg'd. His spirit hates deceit and lies; His words are all sincere ; He guards his heart, he guards his eyes, While I my inward guilt suppress'd, No quiet could I find ; Thy wrath lay burning in my breast, And rack'd my tortur'd mind. Then I confess'd my troubled thoughts, Thy pard'ning grace forgave my faults, This shall invite thy saints to pray; When, like a raging flood, Temptations rise, our strength and stay Is a forgiving God. WATTS. are 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. e d 34 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: g 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, thou 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 her wings, and ye would not! 38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. 0 39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall • Blessed is he say, that cometh in the name of the Lord. y Luke xi. 44. Acts xxiii. 3.- Luke xi. 47.-a Acts vil. 51. 52. 1 Thess. ii. 15.-6 Gen. xv. 16. 1 Thess. il. 16.-c ch. iii. 7.; & xii. 34.-d ch. xxi. 34, 35. Luke xi. 49.-e Acts v. 40; & vii. 58, 59; & xxii. 19.-f ch. x. 17. 2 Cor. xi. 24, 25.-g Rev. xviii. 24-A Gen. iv. 8. 1 John iii. 12.- 2 Chron. xxiv. 20, 21.-k Luke xiii. 34. - 2 Chron. xxiv. 21.-m Deut. xxxii. 11, 12. 2 Esd. i. 30.-n Ps. xvii. 8; & xci. 4.-0 Ps. cxviii. 26. ch. xxi. 9. Reader Zacharias to whom our Lord refers in ver. 35, is the one whose death is recorded in 2 Chron. xxiv. 20-22. He is there called the son of Jehoiada; but as double names are not unusual among the Jews, it is possible that Jehoiada may also have been called Barachia.-Others, however, suppose that our Lord alluded to an event of later date: and it has been conjectured that Zechariah is the prophet of that name whose writings have been preserved in the sacred volume, and who might have been put to death by the Jews; or that our Lord, speaking prophetically, alluded to the death of Zacharias, son of Baruch, a rich Jew, who was murdered in the temple shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem. READER.-Ye are like unto whited sepulchres. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.— What avails it to wear this mask? A man may indeed in the sight of men act his part handsomely under it, and pass so for a time; but know we not there is an eye that sees through it, and a hand that, if we will not pull off this mask, will pull it off to our shame, either here in the sight of men, or, if we should escape all our life, and go fair off the stage under it, yet that there is a day appointed wherein all hypocrites shall be unveiled, and appear what they are indeed before men Some suppose that the and angels? It is a poor thing to be approved and applauded by man | Lord seeth us not." And Job (xxiv. while God condemns, by whose sentence all men must stand or fall. Oh, seek to be approved and justified by him, and then, "Who shall condemn ?" (Rom. viii. 34.) It is no matter who do. How easily may we bear the mistakes and dislikes of all the world, if he declares himself well pleased with us! "With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged-of man's judgment. He that judgeth me is the Lord," saith the Apostle.LEIGHTON. 15) tells us that the adulterer, "waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me." But, alas! all this caution will not do. "The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good." And both good and bad men have always found this true.-Let us consider that however we may escape here, yet, if we do not sincerely repent us of our sins, our sins will one day find us out, and overtake us, when God shall judge the world in righteousness, and give to every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doing, whether they have been good or bad.-WILSON. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?-If a man be once persuaded that he cannot possibly escape the judgments of God, but that, either in this world, or (which is much worse) in the next, they will certainly overtake him, if he sin presumptuously;-if this could be so pressed upon men's minds as to be received and believed, it must certainly in some measure put a stop to a great many crying sins which are but too rife among us.-I think it may be truly said that most people, when they commit any sin, do hope that they shall never hear of it again. At least there are few people engaged in sinful courses who are persuaded that no sin shall escape without its due reward.-graces of the Spirit. And is not And it is no new thing for peo- this the case of too many Christians ple to hope to hide their sins, and who depend upon being in covenant by that means to escape the punish- with God, and called by the name ment that is due to them. "Hast of Christians, and on that account thou seen," saith God to Ezekiel, only secure from destruction? And (chap. viii. 12) "what these people yet this was the very case of the do in the dark? For they say, the Jews, whose unhappy condition and -The Jews were too wise to be taught, even by the Son of God; they were too righteous to need repentance; they were too exact in lesser matters to mind the great concerns of the law; in one word, they took some care of their outward actions and profession, but had little or no concern for the inward |