Verse 32. Fill ye up then, &c.-There is no reason for considering this imperative as used for a future indicative, ye will fill up, &c., which renders the passage tame and spiritless. The words express hopeless abandonment: the case of this class of men had become desperate; they had set themselves to resist all conviction; and now, after repeated warnings and calls, they are utterly renounced by Christ, and surrendered to the power of their sins. The force of this expression is therefore most natural, and indicates strong emotion: "Go, since ye are yourselves wilfully bent upon it, and since ye reject all counsel, and contemn every effort to bring you to a better mind, fill up the measure of your fathers: ye have rejected me, and I now solemnly and judicially reject you." Our Lord, in these words, intimates the punishment of the Jewish nation, of which the scribes and Pharisees were the ecclesiastical leaders, and whose corrupting doctrines the people generally approved. There is a measure of sins which when filled up never fails to bring down upon nations the special visitations of judgment. To fill up this measure is seldom the work of one age. Successive generations adopt the principles, and imitate the practices, of their ancestors, adding "sin to sin, and iniquity to iniquity," until either by the natural consequence of such public vices as tend to subvert the strength and security of society, or by the special visitations of divine vengeance, now no longer corrective, but in the strictest sense penal, they receive the full reward of their sins.

deferred to another life; but nations, who are treated under the divine administration as political persons, have no existence but in time, and in this life therefore are rewarded according to their works; subject, however, to this consideration, that they, as well as individuals, are under a mediatorial government, receive greater blessings than they could "much claim of right, are treated with long-suffering," and can turn away God's anger by repentance and prayer. But when that point is once reached, beyond which it is inconsistent with the character of a wise and righteous government, though founded in mercy, to extend impunity, the measure is full, and the terribleness of the judgments of God proves to all the world, that none ever hardened his heart against God and prospered. This measure was filled up by the Jews, in rejecting the offers of mercy made them by the publication of the gospel throughout the land by the apostles and disciples of our Lord, after the day of pentecost. Many indeed were gathered into the Christian church; but the majority still influenced by the increased malignity and persecuting spirit of their chief men, and ecclesiastical leaders, not only rejected Christianity with contempt, but were enraged to fierce opposition and blasphemies, because of the calling of the Gentiles.

Verse 33. Ye serpents, &c.-The character of the hypocrites he reproves is here marked by our Lord in the express terms of his servant John the Baptist. See note on Matt. iii. 7. These words were uttered, not in anger, but in the

spirit of calm piercing judgment, by him who knew the hearts of men, and, as it has often been justly observed, afford no precedent to justify us in using harsh terms in reproving the most notorious sinners. John the Baptist acted and spoke under special inspiration; our Lord spoke as a sovereign and a judge. We are to deal faithfully with men in showing them their true character, and endeavouring to open their eyes to their spiritual dangers; but we are to remember that we, who address them, are their fellow sinners. To us it belongs to instruct, persuade, and reason; but it does not belong to us to pronounce the sentence.

How shall ye escape the damnation of hell?-How shall ye escape capital conviction? the phrase añоovуew кpρto being used for escaping condemnation in a'ccurt of judicature. Here, too, the punishment is stated it is that of yeevva, the fire of hell, which figuratively denotes the terribleness of that visitation which overwhelmed their city and nation in unheard of calamities, and literally the punishment to which they individually rendered themselves obnoxious in a future life. See note on chap. v. 22. The phrase, "the judgment of damnation of hell," often occurs in the Talmud for future torment, and the everlasting wrath of God.

Verse 34. Wherefore, behold I send unto you prophets, &c.-The words dia TOUTO can scarcely be understood in any other way than as marking the connexion of the discourse. The prophets, &c., were not sent to heighten the condemnation of the Pharisees; but their persecution is introduced as a further illustration of the character of these bad men, and as justifying the severity of the sentence which Christ denounces against them. At the same time it ought to be remembered,

that it was no impeachment of the justice of God, when he had ends of mercy to accomplish as to others, to send his ministers among the Jews, although he foresaw that the result would be to excite the wicked scribes and Pharisees to more malignant opposition, and that it would hasten the filling up of their iniquities. These were not the reasons of their being sent, but the contrary; yet, in scripture idiom, the UNDESIGNED EFFECT is sometimes expressed, as though it had been the FINAL CAUSE. See the note on chap. x. 34. Prophets, wise men, and SCRIBES, were the three classes of public teachers among the Jews, and held by them in the highest reverence; and these venerated names he now transfers to the humble fishermen of Galilee, who, by his teaching and inspiration, were to be raised above the greatest of the PROPHETS, the wisest of their WISE MEN, and the most learned of their SCRIBES; who were to displace all those lofty pretenders to a wisdom by which the world knew not God, and to become the infallible guides of men, in the affairs of religion, in all ages, and the only authorized teachers of his church. Yet these divinely qualified men were rejected, though "filled with the Holy Ghost," and though they wrought "signs and wonders among the people" to attest their mission from God. Stephen they stoned; James was cut off by the sword; Peter and other apostles were scourged. Our Lord adds, Some ye shall crucify, referring probably both to his own death, and the like punishment inflicted upon some of his disciples in Judea, and before the destruction of Jerusalem, not recorded.

Verse 35. That upon you may come all the righteous blood, &c.-The blood of Abel is specially mentioned, because it is said to cry from the ground to God. For

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the same reason, the blood of Zacharias, the son of Barachias, is mentioned; by whom is probably meant the Zechariah mentioned in 2 Chron: xxiv. 20-22; for though he is there called the son of Jehoida, the Jews, as it has been well remarked, had frequently two names, and especially when the name Jehovah entered into the composition of one of them; thus Jehoiakim is called Eliakim, 2 Kings xxii. 34. This Zechariah is the only one of that name of whom mention is made in scripture, as having fallen a victim to his fidelity in declaring the truth. He, when 'he died, said, The Lord LOOK upon it, and require it; " so that both cases mentioned, that of Abel and that of Zecharias, are those of men persecuted to death for righteousness' sake, and whose deaths were expressly connected with the awful circumstance, a cry to heaven for RIGHTEOUS RETRIBU

TION.

The conjectures of commentators as to the other persons of this name are without foundation, that especially which would refer it prophetically to a Jew called Zecharias who was slain by the Jewish zealots in the temple a little before the destruction of Jerusalem; an irrelevant fact, which has been singled out under the false assumption that our Lord's words in this verse mean that the Jews of that generation were to be held guilty of the blood of all righteous men, from Abel downwards, to the last righteous blood shed by the Jews before their city was destroyed. This is not only a monstrous supposition, but plainly contrary to that principle of the divine government which is so expressly laid down in the words, "visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generation, of them that hate me." Besides, that the Jews should be held particularly responsible for the blood of Abel, when they stood in no nearer rela

tion to him than the persecutors of good men of any other nation, cannot be conceived; and that they should be chargeable with even the murder of those prophets whom their fathers put to death, when our Lord himself declares that they disavowed the deeds of their ancestors in this respect, although they would act as to him and his disciples in a similar manner, is as little reconcilable with the known equity of the divine proceedings. The interpretations founded upon this view of the meaning of our Lord's words create, therefore, a difficulty which does not exist. Their meaning is, that the VENGEANCE of all the righteous blood shed upon earth, from Abel to Zacharias, should come upon that generation; that is, a punishment equal to the accumulated woes brought upon men for the crime of rejecting the truth, and persecuting its righteous preachers in all these ages, should be heaped upon the devoted heads of the Jews. And this was an act of manifest justice, since they put one infinitely greater than all the prophets to death, even the Messiah himself; and, in opposition to stronger evidences of a divine mission than any former prophets had given, wreaked their persecuting hate both upon him and his disciples. The punishments brought upon the Jews bear a remarkable correspondence to those inflicted both upon the murderer of Abel, and upon those of Zacharias. The Jews have borne, ever since the subversion of their nation by the Romans, the curse of Cain: a mark" has been set upon them; and "fugitives " and " vagabonds" have they been in the earth. And as, in consequence of the murder of Zechariah, at the command of Joash, "the host of Syria came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people," so it was, only in a severer degree, in the Roman invasion.

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1 Luke xiii. 34.

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And, with respect to other prophets, "because they mocked his messengers, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy; therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man or him that stooped for age; he gave them all into his hand and all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, all these he brought to Baby. lon; and they burnt the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire," &c. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16-19. This too was realized with aggravated severity, and this terrible type of vengeance was accomplished in an accumulation of similar woes, when the prophetic words of our Lord in the text were fully accomplished. These especially were the calamities which Christ had in view, when he adds, Verily I say unto you, that all these things shall come upon this generation. But these terrible denunciations proceed from no resentment, no indignant feeling at the wrongs he himself had endured: they are wrung from this lover of his country, this lover of the souls of his own people, by the stern necessity of reluctant justice; and they are uttered amidst the heavings of compassion and sorrow.

Verse 37. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, &c. -Every part of this apostrophe is charged with feeling and beauty. The repetition of the word Jerusalem, denoting how intensely the mind was fixed upon an

n 2 Esdras i. 30.

object of interest; the comparison of his own intense desire to save the people of his own nation from these impending calamities, with the restless anxiety of the parent bird to shelter her brood, from birds of prey, under her wings; the frequency of his calls and warnings; and the despairing conclusion—and ye would not ! are all deeply touching. Nor is this expression of our blessed Saviour's compassion to be confined to the Jews. It is an exhibition of his character instructive to all ages. It was this tender concern for human salvation which brought him from heaven, and carried him through his painful course of humiliation, shame, and sorrow; and now every annunciation of his gospel is a call to us to the shelter of his wings from impending danger. He WOULD gather us together there, and be our eternal refuge from the vengeance which we have so justly provoked; and if we are not saved, this is not only against his intention, but his anxious attempts and most sincere endeavours to bring us, by the use of a variety of means, to a better mind. I WOULD AND YE WOULD NOT, are words which at once declare the fulness of his grace, and place the sole and aggravated fault of the final destruction of men upon themselves alone.

Verse 38. Behold, your house, &c.House, okos, is here used for the city of Jerusalem, the words being manifestly taken from Jeremiah xxii. 5, "But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation," ori eis epnuwḍiv eotal O OIKOS OUTOS; which is another indication that the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and the deportation of the

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people from the land, were a type of the still severer punishment inflicted by Roman severity. The word oukos is used not only in this enlarged sense, but for country. So also the Latins use domus. Verse 39. Ye shall not see me henceforth, &c.-The word an' ap is, in Matt. xxvi. 64, rendered hereafter: and, in the sense of henceforth, it cannot certainly be taken here, because they saw him many times after this. After a while best expresses the meaning.-Ye shall not after a while see me, until ye shall say, &c.

Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.-These words imply the acknowledgment of our Lord by the Jews, as the Messiah. In these terms the multitudes that attended his entry into Jerusalem saluted him, and joined them with their "Hosanna to the Son of David." They cannot therefore relate to his coming in his vengeance to destroy Jerusalem, for then the Jews did not more acknowledge him in his judgments than before; nor can they be so properly referred to his coming to judge the world, as to that acknowledgment of him as the Christ by the Jews as a people, which shall long precede that event. His COMING, therefore, is here to be taken in a spiritual sense; and the words contain a remarkable instance of a threatening and a promise, and that each of the most emphatic import, being couched under the

same terms. A long and dark interval was to take place in which they should not SEE him, have no perception of the truth of his mission, and be separated from his peculiar mercies,—a long night in which they should wander in ignorance and unbelief, denationalized, unchurched, and deserted by God; but still ultimately they shall SEE him in all the demonstrations of his divinity and redeeming offices, shall acknowledge him as the true Christ, and take up that very acclamation of the multitudes in the streets of Jerusalem, at which their fathers were maddened into rage, and cry with them, Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

CHAPTER XXIV. Verse 1. Departed from the temple.—He had delivered the preceding discourses in the court of the temple: he now departs from it, to enter it no more, taking only, as it would seem, his disciples with him. These, as they were departing, came to him; that is, drew near to him, soliciting his attention to the buildings of the temple. The temple was repaired, beautified, and enlarged by Herod; yet, as the old materials remained, and he was many years in accomplishing the work, proceeding by degrees, so that the services of the temple were not interrupted, it was never considered as another and distinct building from the former,