Wright - BT300 W8 1788

and SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST, and his APOSTLES,' &c. 159 401510 '44-ik °514 C H AP TER XXIII. JESUS remarks the Ignorance and Stupidity of the Jews, in not difcerning the Times ; andfheweth the Danger of negle/Zing the Means of Reconciliation offered them : He fheweth, that temporal Calamities are no fure Signs of Sinfulnefs, but that others fhould take Warning by them, and repent He delivers the Parable of the Fig Tree that was ordered to be cut clown for being fruitlefs : He healeth a Woman that had been long bowed together, and putteth the hypocritical Ruler of the Synagogue to Silence. CHRIST being afked of the Number of the Saved, he exhorteth to f rive to enter in at the firaight Gate: He is warned to leave the Dominions of Herod, but will not be diverted from his Courfe through Fear ; and lamenteth over the ap- proaching Defolation of ferúfalem : He healeth the Dropfy on the Sabbath, and juftfeth his doing fo: He recommendeth Humility; and Hfpitality towards the Poor: And delivers the Parable of the Marriage-Supper, and of the Gins, who making Excufes were excluded, and their Rooms filled by others. HAVING concluded his inflrufi.ions to his difciples, our Lord then ad- dreffed the multitude, and remarked the prevailing infidelity, of the Jewifh nation, and obferved, that the evidences of his being the Meflìah were clearer and fironger than thofe marks in the hey, which deno- minated fair or rainy weather to be ap- proachint: and though thepeoplewere very acute and fagacious in the one, they were unaccountably blind and undifcerning in the other : Whenye fee a cloud rife out of the weft, ftraitway ye fay, There cometh a flsower ; and fit it is. And when yefee the fouthwind blow, ye fay, There will be heat ; and it cometh to pals. Ye hypocrites, ye can difcern the face of the fly and of the earth ; but how is it that ye do not difcern this time ? But he proceeded to let them know, that their blindnefs, obílinacy, and rebel- lion, fhould be feverely punifhed, and that he would come in as unexpeaed a manner, as a thief cometh in the night : he therefore exhorted them to a fpeedy re- formation, telling them that they ought to confider well what way their peace was to be expeaed, and diligently attend to thofe things which would preferve them from the confequences of their rebellion. When thougod with thine adverfary to the ma- 8-Orate, as thou art in the way, give dili- gence that thou mayft be delivered from him; left he hale thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the f- cer caft _thee .intoprifon: I tell thee, thou /halt not depart thence, till thou halt paid the very laß mite. Some of his hearers thought proper to confirm this doíirine, by giving what they thought an example of it : There werepre- fent at that feafon, fame that told hint of the Galileans, whole blood Pilate had mingled with their facrices; thinking that thefe perfoas had been guilty of fome extraordinary crime, for which Providence had

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