t

wisely exercised in the modification of God's ordinances, or in new appointments consistent with the divine law, and of a manifest tendency to promote piety and virtue. For though Moses required a diligent teaching of the law, yet he did not enjoin a public reading and explanation of it on the sabbath. Christians indeed have apostolical authority for reading the scriptures in their religious assemblies and our Lord's example enforces a compliance with other injunctions which are orderly and edifying in the church: such as instruction of christian congregations by the minister. And the other instance as fully justifies new institutions. For it was Judas's dedication of the temple, after it had been profaned by the command of Antiochus, which gave rise to an additional solemn assembly, besides the three which Moses commanded like our present appointments of certain sacred scasons, besides the day on which we are taught to commemorate our Lord's resurrection. The principle which regulated the conduct of our divine master in this respect was inculcated by him, when he received John's baptism, in honour of that prophet and of a rite which he himself designed to institute, and also that he might set a decent example by a solemn initiation into his ministry: ""Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness;" to perform all religious duties, of a positive as well as of a moral And yet our divine Instructor well knew

nature.

9 Deut. vi. 7. Col. iv. 16. с 1 Macc. iv. 59. ib. i. 46. iii. 51. "Ablution was used under the law, when the Priests and Levites were set apart to their office. See Exod. xxix. 4. xl. 12. Lev. viii. 6. Numb. viii. 7.

Matt. iii. 15.

the different value of these duties; and has led his followers to a just estimation of them by a repeated reference to God's declaration in Hosea, "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice."

Here we must observe that the compass of our Lord's religious duties was much wider and more difficult than that of his disciples in after ages. "He y was made under the law," as St. Paul expresses it ; and lived in conformity to all its burdensome rites, except only where the great ends of his mission interfered for, that he might protract his ministry to its due period, he intermitted his attendance on some of the Jewish festivals. And in the observance of the law his part was peculiarly arduous. For many human doctrines had been blended with it. These our Lord carefully separated, though with extreme danger to himself; teaching, and exemplifying by his conduct, that "it was lawful to do good on the sabbath;" omitting and reproving Pharisaical ablutions; condemning religious vows inconsistent with natural duties solemnly enjoined by God himself; confuting idle distinctions of oaths; and cautioning his disciples and the multitude against that external parade of religion, and those ostentatious f alms givings, fastings and prayers, which distinguished the leading and most powerful sect of his times.

a

d

Our Lord's pious disposition further appeared in a most earnest zeal for his Father's honour. At the first passover which he celebrated during hist

ministry, he found in the third or outward court of the temple, called the court of the Gentiles, sellers of oxen, sheep and doves for sacrifices; and persons who for gain exchanged foreign coin into the half sheckle which by the law was annually paid into the sacred treasury. "And when he had made a scourge of cords" which had been used in tying the cattle, or of rushes i found on the spot," he cast all out of the temple, and the sheep and oxen, and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables :" and commanded those who sold doves to remove the enclosures which contained them, saying to them with indignation, "Take these things hence; make not MY FATHER'S house an house of merchandise."

And vindicating the temple from desecration "was with our Blessed Saviour Alpha and Omega, the first and last of his care." The vile abuse being continued, the act of reformation was repeated; with greater strictness, as our Lord "I would not suffer any to carry a vessel through the temple ;" with a more direct intimation of his regard to the Gentiles, as he said, "My m house shall be called the house of prayer n to all the Gentiles ;" and with more indignant language, as he now added to his former reproof these severe words, " But ye m have made it a den of thieves."

Exod. xxx. 15.

8 John ii. 15, &c.

Lightfoot i. 551. Bishop Hurd's Sermons, i. 256. Frequenter pro quovis fune ponitur σχοῖνος, sicut et σχοίνιον. Η. Stephens in voc.

k

* J. Mede ubi supr.

I Mark xi. 16.

See Acts xxvii. 32. Matt. xxi. 13. and p. p.

See J. Mede, Bishop Hurd, and the margin of the English trans

lation.

If any ask why, on these occasions, the effect se much exceeded the natural means in the expulsion of such numbers: I answer, that it may be ascribed partly to the co-operation of God, partly to a consciousness that by such practices the temple was profaned, and partly to the authority which accompanied our Lord's words and actions. For even at the first passover his authority was greatly strengthened by the testimony of John the Baptist; by the miraculous attestations at his baptism; by his reputation among the Galileans, to whom he had "manifested forth his glory;" and, I think, by miracles previously wrought at that very festival.

If the causes of our Lord's conduct are inquired into, the following may be assigned. Knowing that he should be accused as a violator of the law and a blasphemer, he thus reproved the profane indifference, hypocrisy and avarice of the Jewish rulers; for it is highly probable that they who cavilled at his miracles on the sabbath, and wondered at his eating with unwashen hands, not only calmly beheld this abuse of the temple, but made it an occasion of gain: he publicly assumed the character of a prophet, and of the Son of God in an eminent sense; for the Jews perceived that this was a prophetic act, as appears by their question, " What sign shewest thou unto us, since thou doest these things?" and by calling God his Father he gave a strong intimation of his Messiahship: he vindicated the court of the 'Gentiles from profanation, and signified his further favour towards rib. 23. gib. ii, 18. J. Mede disc. xi. Bishop

• John ii. 11. Hurd's Sermons.

them: and, which the history particularly points out, he asserted the sacredness of the temple; his zeal for God's house consumed him, and was in his breast as a devouring fire bursting forth irresistibly.

We may likewise remark with what a warmth of zeal our Lord reproved and admonished the Scribes and Pharisees, when they blasphemed the Holy Spirit. He compared them to corrupt trees bearing corrupt fruit; he called them evil men, bringing forth evil things out of the evil treasure of their heart; he declared that they should give account for their words in the day of judgment; he characterized them as an evil and adulterous generation, a race of subtle and pernicious vipers: and his sharp address to them, and stern denunciation of woes against them, which St. Luke has recorded on occasion of his sitting at meat with a Pharisee, stand in immediate connection with this blasphemy as their proper cause. Thus did he fulfil the words of the Psalmist, "The

reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me:" he felt, reprehended and refuted them: nay, they affected him much more deeply and inti. mately than if he had been their object, and he declared that they had a more heinous and even an inexpiable guilt.

The piety of Jesus was also evidenced by expressions of the highest honour for God's word. He read and explained it in the synagogue: he repeatedly argued from it, and once with this remarkable assertion, The scripture cannot be broken. He