Besides the Pharisees, there were several doctors of the law at this entertainment. Jesus had not addressed them; but their morals were so like those of the Pharisees, that they thought they recognized themselves in the picture which the Saviour had drawn of the latter. "One of [these] lawyers answering, saith to him: Master, in saying these things, thou reproachest us also." It would have been better for him to say that he had dealt out justice to them. But he was not mistaken in applying to himself and his profession what he had just heard. Here is what Jesus added to it, addressing his speech directly to him. "He said [to him, therefore]: Woe to you, lawyers, also, because you load men with burdens which they cannot bear, and you yourselves touch not the packs with one of your fingers (6). Woe to you who build the monuments of the prophets; and your fathers killed them. Truly you bear witness that you consent to the doings of your fathers; for they in deed killed them, and you build their sepulchres."

In reality, the paying of these honors was a recognition that those whom their fathers put to death were truly prophets, and then to put to death those who had the same credentials of prophecy, was furnishing against themselves, by these honors, an unanswerable proof that they were murderers of prophets; for what could they reply to this: Those whom you have massacred were as just as those to whom you have built sepulchres?

If they had not as yet done so, they were going forthwith to do so, as Jesus Christ had foretold; for it is of himself, that is to say, of the Eternal Wisdom, that he speaks when he adds this prediction,

(6) It is asserted with reason that the saints are severe upon themselves, and indulgent with regard to others. Those who are indulgent to themselves and to others, are good souls, soft characters if you like, and too easy. He who is at the same time severe towards himself and towards others, may indeed be of a harsh character; but inasmuch as he does not spare himself more than he spares others, he thereby evinces that he acts from conviction, and that he has an upright heart. But those who are indulgent towards themselves and severe towards others are necessarily false and wicked persons. They cannot believe that the severity they exercise towards others is an obligation, since they do not exercise it towards themselves, nor that their indulgence of themselves is permissible, since they do not extend it to others. Wherefore, and therein consists their wickedness, their indulgence springs from corruption and their severity from cruelty. And they are both false and hypocritical, inasmuch as they endeavor to persuade the world that they practice towards themselves the severity which they display towards others.

which he again repeats at the approach of his passion: "For this cause also, the wisdom of God said: I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute, that the blood of all the prophets (7) which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, who was slain between the altar and the temple. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation."

He had yet another reproach to make to these false doctors, and, in their person, to those who, commissioned to show the right road to the people, abuse their confidence in order to lead them astray. He concludes, therefore, thus: "Woe to you, lawyers! for you have taken away the key of knowledge (8); you yourselves have not entered in, and those that were entering in you have hindered.

แ As he was saying these things to them, the Pharisees and the lawyers began vehemently to urge him, and to oppress his mouth about many things, lying in wait for him, and seeking to catch something from his mouth, that they might accuse him (9)." It is true that he did not spare them, and we may be surprised that the meek

(7) The murder of all the prophets was a national crime, for which God might justly impose all the temporal penalty upon the generation that crowned the enormity by the murder of the greatest number of prophets, and, moreover, by that of the Lord of prophets. We do not so clearly see how the murder of Abel could be imputed to the Jews, Cain never having been numbered amongst that people. It is said that they showed themselves to be his children by imitation, in the same sense that they are called by the Saviour the children of the devil. Whatever weight there may be in this reason, it is certain that, as they imitated him in his crime, they also resembled him in their punishment. Their banishment over all the earth, and the character of reprobation which they carry engraven on their forehead, are such visible features of resemblance, that we cannot doubt but that God, by the chastisement of the fratricide, purposed to exhibit the chastisement which he had in store for the deicides.

(8) The interpretation of the Scriptures, which Scriptures they were commissioned to explain to the people. They were unwilling to recognize in these the Messiah, and also hindered the people from recognizing him therein. Woe to the people who were seduced! but woe a thousand times to the authors of the seduction! Guilty of the seduction of a whole people, they shall bear the penalty of a whole people.

(9) It is not stated whether they then found what they sought. On other occasions they found it either by malicious interpretation of the Saviour's words, or by making him say what he never uttered. He who wishes to find a crime can always contrive to find it in one way or another.

est of men, he who always appeared most indulgent with regard to sinners, should have inveighed against them with so much force, and have treated them so severely. There were several reasons for this conduct; the principal of which is, that these sinners believed themselves just. For inasmuch as they deemed themselves just, they had nothing but contempt and harshness for sinners; and on that account alone they deserved to be treated as they treated others. But, moreover, because they deemed themselves just, they ought not to have been treated in any other manner; and this was the only tone capable of correcting them. Nothing remains to be said to him who acknowledges himself a sinner, and who knows the enormity of his sin; or, if he is spoken to, it is only to present to him the mercy which so lovingly invites him back. But to the sinner who deems himself just, above all, if he make his justice to consist in iniquity itself, it is necessary, no matter at what price, to make known to him the falsehood of his justice, and his grievous sin. We must tear away the bondage wherewith he blindfolds himself. We must sift his perverse heart, pluck out of it the vices which his hypocrisy secretes there, paint them in their natural colors, and set before his very eyes this hideous portrait, so different from that which he had formed to himself. The enterprise is hazardous. We know what it has cost the Saviour and several of his intrepid ministers who have been in this respect imitators of his zeal. But still it is necessary; and, cost what it may, we must venture to unmask these hypocrites, or otherwise despair of their conversion.

Their mischievous doctrine was also what authorized the Saviour to denounce them before the people. The wolf should be made known when he appears under the skin of the sheep or in the shepherd's dress. To fail in this duty from a mistaken scruple, would rather be cruelty with regard to the public than charity towards the particular individual. It was on this account that (a)" when great multitudes stood about him, so that they trod one upon the other, he began to say to his disciples: Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, nor hidden that shall not be known; for whatsoever things you have spoken in darkness shall be published in the

(a) St. Luke, xii. 1–3.

light, and that which you have spoken in the ear in the chambers shall be preached on the house-tops."

So it is that the hope of the hypocrite shall perish. He seeks to dazzle the eyes, and to gain the esteem of men by an outward show of virtue; and a day shall come when his works of iniquity, drawn from the darkness wherein he vainly hoped to bury them, shall deliver him over to the contempt and the execration of all creatures; for these words must be understood in this sense. Elsewhere they signify the shining publicity which was soon to be given to that doctrine which the Saviour then proposed to his disciples in silence and seclusion.

What follows is the repetition of those instructions which he wished his disciples to have more especially present to their minds.

CHAPTER XLI.

INSTRUCTION TO THE DISCIPLES. GOD ALONE IS TO BE FEARED.-JESUS REFUSES TO BE THE ARBITER BETWEEN TWO BROTHERS. THE RICH MISER CONDEMNED.—WE ARE NOT TO BE ANXIOUS FOR THE MORROW.-THE GOOD AND BAD SERVANTS.

(a) "I SAY to you, my friends, be not afraid of them who kill (1) the body (2), and, after that, have no more that they can do; but I will show you whom you shall fear. Fear ye him who, after he

(a) St. Luke, xii. 4–48.

(1) Not to fear those who have no power except over the body, is on the Saviour's part the advice of a friend.

If authority be associated with this power, fear not the power, but fear, that is to say, recognize and respect always, authority, although you should not yield to it when you cannot do so without crime. We mean by authority the right of commanding, and by power the greater strength. See as to the same text, note 10, page 184, of Part I. (2) We must not fear to lose the life of the body, if we are not to fear those who take away that life. We necessarily fear those who do the evil when we fear the harm which

they can do.

For the same reason, we must say: Fear hell; for if this fear were not to exist, Jesus Christ must have here said without any reason: Fear him who can cast into hell.

hath killed, hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say to you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings? and not one of them is forgotten before God. Yea, the very hairs of your head are numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. And I And I say to you: Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God (3). Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but to him who shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven (4). When they shall bring you into the synagogues, and to magistrates and powers, be not solicitous how or what you shall answer; for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what you must say (5)."

Whilst Jesus was speaking in this manner, "one of the multitude," who thought that no one would dare to resist the authority of so great a prophet, "said to him: Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me." The King of kings and the Lord of lords, to whom all power had been given in heaven and on earth, and whom the Father has established sovereign judge of the living and the dead, had other work to do than deciding such questions as these. Such was not the object of his mission, and he wished to teach his ministers not to allow themselves to be too much distracted by affairs of this sort, with which they should only interfere when charity obliges them to do so. Wherefore "he said to him: Man, who hath appointed me judge or divider over you?" This man's right, to judge of it by the way in which he advanced his claim, was legitimate; but his actuating motive was an excessive attachment to the goods of the earth. The Saviour, to whom his disposition could not be unknown, profits by this occasion to instruct him upon these two points, highly suitable to make him feel how worthy of contempt riches are: one is their utter uselessness as to life, which they do not render either longer or happier; the other is the uncertainty of their possession, of which death can deprive us in a moment. This moral applies to all men, and the disciples themselves still required that it should be preached to them also. "Jesus [therefore addressing his speech to the whole throng assembled

(3) Part I., p.

184.

(4) See note 6, p. 159, of Part I.

(5) Part I.,

p. 182.