Chapter Verfefon is he?' They anfwer- The Son of David.' To which he replied- How then doth David

⚫ in fpirit call him Lord? faying-the Lord faid unto my Lord, fit thou on my right hand, till 'I make thine enemies thy footftool. If David then call him Lord, how is he his fon? (The Jews might have replied-Thou calleft thyfelf the Son of Man: how then art thou Christ the Son of God?) St. Matthew adds, and no man was able to anfwer him a word, neither ' durft any man, from that day forth, afk him

any more questions.' Mark and Luke, in this place mention the ftory of the widow's mites, which I cannot help thinking has in it fomething of improbability; and if true, wherein was it a praise-worthy act? Though it was but a trifle, yet if it was her all, it was imprudent, and certainly it had, at leaft in appearance, more of oftentation than charity: to whom was it given? Why to the public treasury of the temple. We now proceed to St. Matthew, 23d chapter, throughout which Jefus explodes the pride and hypocrify of the Scribes and Pharifees; in the xxiii. 15 15th verfe, he tells them, that to make one profelyte, they would compafs fea and land but in fo doing, they made him two-fold more the child of hell than themfelves. (There is fome ambiguity in this.) In the 23d verse, he says, they were indeed punctual in the payment of trifling tythes, but omitted the weightier matters of the

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law,

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law, judgment, mercy, and faith. From the Chapter Verfe 29th to the 36th, he tells them, they are the children of those who killed the prophets; calls them ferpents, a generation of vipers, and afks how they can efcape the damnation of hell? Tells them, that to fill up the measure (or iniquity) of their fathers, he would fend them prophets, and wife-men, and Scribes: fome of whom they would kill, fome fcourge in their fynagogues; and fome perfecute from city to city: that upon them might come all the righteous blood which had been shed upon the earth, from that of Abel, to that of Zacharias the fon of Barachias. (This is a mistake, but whether of Jefus or Matthew is of little confequence.) And adds- Verily I fay unto you, all these things xxiii. fhall come upon this generation.' This prophecy was certainly fulfilled, in the courfe of a few years; and that generation, in fulfilling it, had crimes enough of their own for punishment: but why they should be loaded with those of their ancestors, even to the third and fourth generation, according to Mofes, I know not; much lefs from the time of Abel, according to Jefus. It is obfervable, that eight times in this fingle chapter, Jefus denounces woe to the Scribes and Pharifees, but not a fingle word is faid of the Sadducees, nor do we find in all the fcriptures a fingle denunciation made by him against them. This diftinction appears to me, not a little extraordinary,

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traordinary. In the preceding chapter we are told, they likewife had tempted him and we learn from history that in the fubject of this temptation, the Sadducees were far worfe than the Pharifees. The former, following indeed the literal fenfe of the Mofaic law, obftinately rejected the immortality of the foul: the latter, profiting by the wisdom of their eastern neighbours, admitted and profeffed it, together with its felfevident confequence, a future ftate of reward and punishment. This belief affuredly must have influenced the actions of mankind to good, much more than the contrary opinion which had no fuch ftimulation. The Pharifees, whom he in this chapter fays, would compafs fea and land to make a profelyte; in courfe would affail the Sadducees their neighbours; but how, in converting from a difbelief to a belief of a future ftate they made him two-fold more the child of hell, is beyond my powers of conception. The Pharifees, in fome circumftances, appear to have been his friends: we are told by Luke, ch. xiii. v. 31. that at or in his way to (but I apprehend in) Jerufalem, 'There came certain of the Pharifees, faying unto him-Get thee out, and de

part hence for Herod will kill thee.' And in the first verse of the following chapter Luke fays-And it came to pafs, as he (Jefus) went into the house of one of the chief Pharifees to

eat bread, &c.' From this friendly advice,

which he seems to have taken, and the friendly Chapter Verfe intercourfe which followed; it appears that he had fome friends among the Pharifees. But it doth not appear that he had any among the Sadducees; and these last, after his death, were the first to moleft his apostles in their duty, vide Acts ch. iv, v. 1, and ch. v, v. 17. We hear nothing of that fort done by the Pharifees: on the contrary, when the former would have flain the apoftles; they were diverted from that cruel defign, by the humane and wife advice of Gamaliel a Pharifee. Vide

ch. v, v. 34, &c *.

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St. Matthew proceeds to inform us-that Jefus xxiii. 37 then lamented, in pathetic terms the former cruelty of Jerufalem; and in a very beautiful fimile, the inattention of its prefent inhabitants to his folicitations for their benefit. Adding Ye shall not fee me henceforth, till ye fhall fay-Bleffed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. I do not understand this, unless he meant that they should not see him again in the temple; for though he foon after left the city, he returned to it again to celebrate the paffover; and was after that brought there to be examined before the High Priests, &c. Upon quitting the temple, he foretells its de- xxiv. ftruction. And as he fat upon the Mount of Olives, his difciples privately interrogate himTell us, when shall these things be? And what

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Chapter Verfe fhall be the fign of thy coming, and of the end

of the world? A very interefting question; plainly put, but not plainly anfwered. The deftruction of Jerufalem, and the end of the world, are fo blended, that we cannot feparate them with any degree of confiftency: and therefore we muft fuppofe that the men to whom this anfwer was. addreffed, concluded and believed, that one would immediately follow the other, and that both would be accomplished in that generation. Experience has however taught us, that though the first happened in about forty years after the prediction; more than feventeen hundred have elapfed from that period, and yet the accomplishment of the fecond does not appear to us, either from obfervations upon nature, or upon prophecy, to be at all advanced. Their afflictions, previous to the accomplishment, Jefus defcribes; he tells them-Earth-quakes, wars, famines, peftilences, and falfe prophets, fhould afflict and deceive mankind. Adding -And this gofpel of the kingdom fhall be preached in all the < world, for a witness unto all nations, and then fhall the end come.' According to this prediction, the end of the world is even yet at a diftance: the gofpel not having been preached in one half the world, cannot be a witnefs unto all nations. The Chinese are, an ancient, learned, and profperous nation: morality is, no where better understood, or more generally practifed. To

what