[d] regeneration] The word παλιγγενεσία signifies properly a new or second state, τὸ ἐκ δευτέρον γεννηθῆναι, καὶ ἀναπλασθῆναι, say the grammarians. It is used among the Pythagoreans for the return of the soul, εἰς γένεσιν, when that soul which was once in him that is dead comes back to life again in another body. In sacred writers it is used agreeably for the resurrection, whether that of the future being of body and soul, or that which Christ is pleased to make preparative to it, the spiritual proselytism, expressed by that phrase, Tit. iii. 5, the change and renovation of the soul and affections in this life, and as a token and sign of that work of Christ's, it is used for baptism, that being born of water and the Holy Ghost, John iii. And so hath Phavorinus observed, παλιγγενεσία, τὸ ἅγιον βάπτισμα λέγεται, it is set to signify holy baptism, (see note [a] Matt. iii. and note [a] John iii. Further yet, and by the same analogy, it may signify that second or new state, that μέλλων αἰών, in Isaiah, that age to come, that is, the state of the church under Christ, or his spiritual kingdom, beginning at the resurrection of Christ; and this, either in respect of the beginning of it, Christ's resurrection, which is fitly styled παλιγγενεσία the new birth of Christ, or else in regard that all other things (that is, the general disposal of all things in the church) are become new, 2 Cor. v. 27, the Gentiles received into the church, the Jewish priesthood and ceremonies abolished, &c. If this last sense be here made use of, then it will be most agreeable to the ordinary punctuation of our printed copies, which set a comma after ἀκολουθήσαντίς μοι, ye that have followed me, and another again after ἐν τῇ παλιγγενεσίᾳ, in the regeneration, severing the latter from the former, and joining it so with καθίσεσθε καὶ ὑμεῖς, ye shall also sit, &c. that what is betwixt ὅταν καθίση &c. when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, shall be as in a parenthesis, to explicate what is meant by that time, and what that in the regeneration signifies, viz. when Christ shall be gone to heaven, and all power in the church Was it not then reasonable for thee that hadst received pardon of so vast a debt from thy master, or superior, to have (in like manner as I gave thee example) shewed pity to thy fellowservant, to whom thou wert so much more obliged than I to thee, and to have remitted him so small a sum, when I forgave thee six hundred thousand times as much! Upon this the master was most justly enraged against him, and used him as he had done his fellow, ver. 30, and though he had before remitted him, yet upon this unworthy impious behaviour he revoked his designed mercy and cast him into prison, till— By this resemblance ye see what measure ye must expect from God in this matter, for just so shall God deal with you, remit nothing of that rigour against you which you use against others, deal most severely with you, if ye do not clearly, plenarily, and sincerely (without any reservation, or design to have God execute any vengeance for you, or the like) forgive all injuries, how great soever, (being certainly far below the proportion of yours against God,) that are done to you by any man living. ### CHAP. XIX. AND it came to pass, that 'when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judæa beyond Jordan: If you do not perfectly understand what was last said, (of the last shall be first, &c.,) then a resemblance of it (and in that of all God's dealing with men in the church) you may have in a man of an estate, managing it himself, by the manner of his dealing with his hired labourers; first, he went out as soon as it was light (answerable to Christ's calling and sending the twelve at the beginning of men's receiving the faith, ch. ix. 38, and ch. x. 1,) into the marketplace, where day-labourers were wont to stand, expecting employment, to hire labourers for his vineyard. And having agreed with a certain number for a set determinate wages of seven-pence halfpenny a day— And about five in the evening he went out again, and found others looking for work; willing to be employed, but not entertained by any, and saith— d See ver. 4. beginning first with those that came in latest, and so ascending to them that came in first. And when they came to be paid that had entered last upon their work, he gave them a whole day's hire, upon their good discharge of that one hour in the vineyard. [a] Hosanna] The word Hosanna is contracted of הוֹשִׁיעָה נָא, σῶσον δή, Save I beseech thee, a form of acclamation which the Jews were wont to use in their feast of tabernacles, in which also they used to carry boughs in their hands, (see Nehem. viii. 15, 1 Mac. xiii. 5, But when they came which were hired first, and wrought from the morning all day, they thought that they should have more than they which had been less time in the vineyard, but they were mistaken in their expectation, and had no more than the sum for which they were hired. [a] wrought] The word ποιεῖν in the New Testament, when it is joined with words that denote time, is to be rendered, to stay, or to spend. So Acts v. 34. βραχύ τι ποιῆσαι, to stay a little while. So Acts [b] tables] The word τράπεζα, table, here, is that from which those that dealt in returning moneys, or in bills of exchange, and made advantage and gain by so doing, are called τραπεζίται, Matth. xxv. 27, Be thou content with that which comes to thy share, according to agreement; this man that came last to work (it being not his fault that he came not sooner, but his not being sooner called, ver. 7, and he having laboured honestly and cheerfully ever since he came,) shall by me, who accept the will for the deed, be rewarded with the same reward that thou hast. And sure thou hast no reason to complain. What reason is there that my bounty to others should be matter of envy and discontent to thee? or that thou shouldst be the judge, how I am to deal with thy brother? Many reasons there may be, which thou knowest not, why they that came in last to the vineyard, if they were not sooner called, or not so powerfully as others, should be rewarded as liberally as they that have longer laboured; for a few acts of the will, if they be more intense and heroical, may in equitable estimation countervalue the work of a far longer time; as the thief's confessing Christ when he was on the cross, when his apostles had forsaken him; and so Paul, called last, was in labour more abundant, and so ranked with the first; and so many that came in to Christ in the cool of the day, when persecution was over, might yet be as cordially intense and affectionate in his service as they that suffered for him; and so some that come to repentance more aged than others; and those that at Christ's preaching came in to Christianity, compared with those that had lived in the Jewish church all their time, see note [b]. [b] good] The word ἀγαθός, good, hath a peculiar notion in this and some other places, and signifies bounty or liberality, as when works of mercy are called ἀγαθὰ ἔργα, good works; Acts ix. 36, ἀγαθοποιεῖν, doing good, Matt. xii. 12; καρποὶ ἀγαθοί, good fruits, James iii. 17; and ordinarily in the church-writers ἀγαθοεργίαι, working good. Thus ἀγαθὸν ἐργάζεσθαι, to work good, Gal. vi. 9, and πᾶν ἀγαθὸν ἔργον, every good work, 2 Cor. ix. 8, appear by the context to belong to works of mercy. Thus Rom. v. 7, where the good man is so particularly distinguished from the righteous man, and Tit. ii. 6, where the elder women are commanded to be ἀγαθοί, good, that is, merciful or kind to those of their family. Thus when Hesychius mentions the word χάσιος, (which is, as hath been said, the Hebrew חביר, or Syriac חבי, with the Greek termination, which signifies bountiful or merciful,) he explains it by ἀγαθός, χρηστὸς, making these three words to have the same signification, and so doth the Targum render the Hebrew חביר by טוב sometimes, that is, good. And so in this place the master is said to be good, because he gave to him that had been in the vineyard but an hour as much as was the wages of the whole day: this, though it were not matter of injury to them that had laboured all day, because they had the full hire, for which they had contracted, is yet matter of murmuring there, ver. 11, and indeed hath somewhat of difficulty in it, how to reconcile it with God's rewarding every man according to his works or actions, (which is every where said of God,) and his giving a more liberal harvest to him that soweth plentifully, than to any that soweth less plentifully, 2 Cor. ix. 6. The way of clearing this difficulty will be by observing that this parable here used by Christ was a parable used among the Jews, and therefore if any part of it were here unmentioned by Christ, and briefly referred to by him, the sure way will be to supply it by the authors among them, by whom it is fully set down. Now this is done by Gemara Hierosol. Cod. Berachoth. Of a king, and labourers hired by him, and one of them paid for a little time the whole day's hire, whereupon the rest of them grieve and murmur, and say, "We have laboured all day, and this man" לא יגע, &c. "hath not laboured above two hours of the day, and," say they, יטול שכרו משלם, "he hath received his hire in peace," that is, the full hire of a day for that small time; to these the king's answer there is, "He in that two hours hath laboured as much as you have done all the day." Here it is evident, the account of the business is laid upon the superabundant diligence and earnestness of those that came late in, which God (though not tied by contract, as with the other, but only by promise of giving them what shall be meet, ver. 47, that is, dealing equitably with them) thinks fit to reward, through his merciful interpretation and acceptance of it, And thus that which was said before, ch. xix. 30, is evident, that some that come after you in time may prove as richly rewardable as you; for the known saying is very true, that they that have favours done them by God beyond others (as, to be first called, was a special favour to the disciples, of which no reason can be given but God's will) do not always exceed all others in labour and Christian diligence, (as the apostle St. Paul, called long after, and therefore by himself styled less than the least, and born out of due time, as called after Christ's being gone to heaven, yet did labour more abundantly than all the twelve,) nay some of them apostatize, and fall off from the called are many, but the choice or elect few. ᵍ to the sanhedrim there, who though they have not power to put any man to death, yet shall pass that sentence against him, that he is guilty of death. [c] called] What the word κλητὸς signifies here, and how it differs from ἱκλεκτος, is worth examining at large now once for all, which therefore I shall set about. The words κλῆσις and κλητὸς in the New Testament are proportionable one to the other, and will mutually help to the understanding one the other. If we look on them in the Apocrypha, as we meet with them both in one place of the third book of the Maccabees, it will prove a useful rise; there κλητοὶ signifies guests invited to a feast, ἀθρόους τοὺς κλητοὺς ἰδών, (as in human authors, ὅταν πῆ κληθῶμεν καὶ λαμπρῶς συνενωχώμβα, Heraclitus περὶ ἀπιστ. λβ', to which is opposed ἀκλητοι in Homer, and invocati in Plautus,) and κλῆσις the office of inviting and entertaining them; and Judith xii. 11, a banquet or invitation. So ὁ πρὸς ταῖς κλίσεσι τεταγμένος, is he that was to invite and entertain (κλήτωρ, invitator, in the Gloss, and δεικνόκλητωρ, see note [d].) In the Greek translation of the canonical books of the Old Testament the word hath another notion; as when those that were pitched on as special men by Adonijah to be of his party are called οἱ κλητοὶ τοῦ Ἀδωνίου, 1 Kings i. 49, and ver. 41, the called of Adonijah, not because they had been invited by him to a feast, but such as were called by his name, that is, such as adhered to him. For so they that Absalom had picked out in the same manner to be his confidents are called κλητοί, two hundred called men, 2 Sam. xv. 11. So that hitherto κλητοὶ signifies those that are pitched on either to receive special favours, or over and above to be employed in special trusts, and the latter the special meaning of the word. So Aristotle in his Economics, l. 2, in the passage of Antimenes Rhodius, where we find τεχνίτας And shall press the Roman judge to put him to death after their manner of punishing the basest malefactors: and the third— Upon this mention of his resurrection, which they presumed to be the time of his taking all greatness upon him, the mother of James and John, being put upon it by them, came with them to Jesus, and falling down to him, made a petition (see Power of Keys, ch. v. §. 13,) to him. ᵇ Of that dignity which thou hast promised thy disciples, ch. xix. 28, proportionable to that of being heads among the tribes of the Jews, grant that my two sons, James and John, may have the first places, as Joseph and Judah had among them. Then Jesus told the two disciples they begged they knew not what. All the dignity, saith he, that is to be had by being nearer to me than others, is that of suffering inwardly and outwardly; can you prepare yourselves for that? ¹ It is true indeed, the sufferings that befall me shall befall you also, afflictions and persecutions, wherein you may rejoice that you are made partakers with me; but for any privilege of honour or dignity above others, they to whom my Father hath designed shall have it; and I shall not go about to change his designation, or assign it to any others, upon any absolute unconditionate will or favour of mine, to gratify you or satisfy your importunity, but dispose of it according to those rules and conditions and qualifications, which my Father hath set down, and I from him have revealed to you. ᵃ delivered up, vapabothorras. But prelacy and preeminence among you must bring along with it offices of burden and humility, and not be after the manner of Gentile princes. must be the servant of all the rest, (for so the governors of the church are to be.) Even as Christ's kingdom here is not administered in that way, which might bring in splendour or profit to him, but in a way of charity, serving, relieving, providing, and dying for his people, instead of requiring such offices from them. And whosoever shall for my sake part with any of the advantages and possessions of this life, whatsoever it is, he shall be so far from being a loser by it, that he shall in this very life be by that means abundantly more richly provided for; in the same proportion that he which in the harvest hath the most plentiful returns to his seed and painstaking, (ch. xiii. 8.) [e] hundredfold] There is a saying in the Alcoran very agreeable to this, Qui opes suas erogunt in via Dei, similes sunt grano, quod septem spicas germinavit, "They that lay out their riches in the way of God, are like a grain of corn which hath shot out seven stalks." Now supposing every of those stalks or ears to have ten corns in it, that will be the seventyfold spoken of, Matt. xiii. But supposing fourteen or fifteen in each, (as in the most fruitful places and years it is,) then it amounts to an hundredfold, and so the hundredfold being the proportion of the most fruitful messuage, is here set down as the harvest of the Christian (that suffers or gives for Christ's sake) and that in this life. [d] In this place, after ver. 28, there is a large addition in the ancient Greek and Latin MSS. thus: Ὑμεῖς δὲ ζητεῖτε ἐκ μικροῦ ἀδῆσαι, καὶ ἐκ K 2 But though you have advantage of other men in being thus early in discipleship, yet it is very possible that some that come after you in time (as Paul) may labour as fervently, deserve as much, and consequently be as richly rewarded as you. (Upon which follows the parable of ch. xx. 1.) ### CHAP. XX. [c] thieves] By λῃστοι, thieves, here are meant those that by merchandise make gain of others, not those that are robbers indeed; so John ii. 16, it is οἶκος ἐμπορίου, a house of merchandise. Of this see our learned countryman Mr. Fuller, Miscell. l. iv. p. 6. p. 499. And when they of the Jewish sanhedrim saw his miraculous cures, ver. 14, and the children's acclamations as to a king, or Messias, they were much troubled at it. [d] perfected praise] The Greek κατηρτίσω αἶνον in this place is the Septuagint's translation of יְכֹרַת עֹז, thou hast founded, or ordained strength. There is little doubt but our Saviour repeated this place, as it was in the Hebrew of the psalm, or in the Syriac dialect (as it appears he did in the repeating of the beginning of psalm xxii. by the Syriac sabachthani) and not in the Greek, and therefore the Greek made use of by the evangelist or his interpreter must still continue to have a sense that the Hebrew words will bear, and so belongs to the children's singing hosannas, (for though those which did so were not infants or sucklings, but as they are called ver. 15, παῖδες, children, yet were they of an age far less able to judge, than the Pharisees that rejected Christ; and if that which was said by the psalmist of very infants were true, then much more may it be admitted of these,) which was a testimony of his divinity; and so was the ordaining strength, that is, a strong and glorious effect from weak means, and again the perfecting praise, that is, compacting, putting together a song of confession or praise, (see note [c] 2 Cor. xiii.,) a testimony of him, such as the Scribes and Pharisees could not think fit for him to accept, but he by remembering them of that prophecy of the psalmist, acknowledges and owns it as a good and valid testimony, and gives them reason to do so too. And the next morning, Mark xi. 20, passing by, the disciples saw it and wondered, saying, How wonderful is it that the fig tree upon those words of Christ should be withered and dead all of it thus instantly! But this you must set upon not in any confidence of yourselves, but in all humility of prayer to God; and whatsoever ye shall thus pray for, believing that I, according to my promise, will grant it to you, ye shall certainly receive from me; see Mark xi. 24. ⁴ at some distance from the way, ἐπὶ τῆς ὁδού: see note on Mark ii. 6. ⁵ How is the fig tree withered presently! Πότ παραχρῆμα ἐξηράνθη. To this question Jesus thought fit to give answer by making this other question, which would retort and stop their mouths; as it appears it did, ver. 27. Had John the Baptist commission from God to do what he did, or came he only of himself? ¶ we shall be in danger to be stoned by the multitude, Luke xx. 6. ¶ Then sure it is not needful for me to give you account of my commission or authority, when it is granted by you that a man may lawfully preach and baptize, and entertain disciples, as John did, without the approbation of the sanhedrim. [e] heaven] Heaven here signifies God, one of God's titles among the Hebrews being הֲשִׁמִּים, heaven. But is not this a strange thing, that you that undertake and pretend so much to be God's knowing and obedient servants should yet stand out the most obstinately of all others against his commands and messengers sent from him, when the worst and meanest of men, the publicans and the multitude, forsake their former ways, repent and believe the gospel? I will tell you a story, or parable: There was a man that had two sons— ¶ Or, other: for the Gr. and Lat. and most of the MSS. read tripy, not bery. H 2 And when the harvest time came, when they were to receive the fruit and pay the rent, he sent— n at another they threw stones, though they killed him not. o a greater number of servants than those which he had sent at the first: and they— And the Pharisees expressed a great indignation against these false and bloody servants, affirming them worthy of utter destruction, that the lord might provide him better officers, which should pay him his rent duly; though when Jesus, upon this answer of theirs, approved the reasonableness of it, and affirmed it should thus befall them indeed, Luke xx. 16, (by which they began to discern that he spake the parable against them,) they with indignation deprecate the sentence, Luke xx. 19. Did you never observe a notable passage in the Psalmist, Psalm cxviii. 22, referring proverbially to some famous building, the temple or the like, (wherein one stone which the builders had laid aside as good for nothing proved at length to be very fit for the prime place in the building, the utmost corner stone) and by that psalmist applied to David, (whom the princes with Saul and the chief of Israel refused and persecuted, but after he became king,) and which yet farther prophetically belongs to Christ, (who being refused and rejected a long time by the chief priests and elders, and the sanhedrim of the Jews, and by them put to death, was to rise again, and become a glorious head of his church)? The gospel, and the privilege of being the only church and people of God, shall be taken from you, and given to such as shall practise those things which the gospel requires. [f] this] Both in the Greek of psalm cxviii. 23. and here, αὐτὴ is put for τοῦτο, the feminine for the neuter, because the Hebrew וְתוֹ is so used; and so psalm xxvii. 4, the Greek hath μίαν ἡτῆσαμην, for ἐν, one thing have I asked, because the Hebrew אַחַת is feminine. He that on occasion of Christ shall by any thing that befalls him be discouraged, or fall into unbelief, this shall be a great wounding of his soul, a great sin thus to fall off in time of tribulation; but he that not out of weakness, but of contumacy, shall resist and provoke his wrath and judgments, and so bring this stone, this vengeance of Christ down upon him, it shall come down most heavily, and dash him into a thousand pieces. bruised, or shrewdly shaken, [g] grind] Λικμᾶν here is by the grammarians rendered τὸν σῖτον καθαίρειν, and ἀλοᾶν, and σῖτον καὶ ἄχυρα διαχωρίζειν, not only to κἴππον It hath and shall be the fate of the gospel now preached to men, and first to the Jews, to meet with such reception as a king is by parable supposed to meet with, who at the marriage of his son made an entertainment. to call upon the appointed guests for whom the feast was provided, and to bring them in. [a] marriage] That γάμος and γάμοι signify both in this place and John ii. a marriage-feast, we have before observed (see note [e] ch. ix.); that here the ἔνδυμα γάμου signifies the garment that was customary at such feasts, that is, a better sort of array than those that were used upon ordinary days, will be obvious to any man that is conversant in ancient customs; so in the wardrobes of great men, there were robes to put on for that use, mentioned by Juvenal, when he speaks of the trechedipna, that runs about to feasts or entertainments. These were vestes discubitoriae, fine and florid, such as Trimalcios in Petronius, in whom they are also called vestimenta triclinaria, and in Xiphilin, in the Life of Adrian, στολῆ δειπνίτις, the festival garment, and this, it seems, so necessary, (as repentance and reformation of life, the new garment, or array of the soul, which is here parabolically expressed by it,) that without it, even they that were invited to come, were not yet permitted to taste of the feast, or remain among the guests. But of the whole number of those that were invited, none came; some preferring their other affairs in the world before coming to a feast, took no great heed to the invitation, but sent back their desires to be excused, Luke xiv. 18. Others, most barbarously treating the servants that were sent on no other message to them but this of inviting them to a feast, killed them reproachfully which came thus to oblige them. The feast is prepared, and in it your duty is performed, but those which were the prime guests first invited to it have behaved themselves most unthankfully and unworthily, there is no reason they should [b] Herodians] The Herodians were not a distinct sect from the Pharisees and Sadducees (see note [a] ch. xvi.), but some of them Sadducees, as appears by comparing Matt. xvi. 16, with Mark viii. 15. They are by ba learned man said to be Grecians, which king Herod brought with him out of the desert, and which became a certain sect after that time, for which he cites Aruch; but this was by a great mistake in him of the Hebrew יונים, as if it were Ἰωνες, Grecians, when it is no more but jonim, doves, or pigeons, which Herod brought with him out of the desert, and from which sprang a certain sort of pigeons, (not sect of men) different from others. The Herodians by many of the ancients are thought to be those that (conceiving the prophecy of Jacob concerning the sceptre departing from Judah to be accomplished in Herod the Great, who was not a Jew, and yet swayed the sceptre there) believed him to be the Shiloh promised by Jacob at that time; so Epiphanius, that they were Jews, idle and hypocrites, b Drusius in Præter. [c] superscription] The tribute-money or denarius, that was to be paid to Cæsar by way of tribute, had on it, saith Occo, the picture or image of Cæsar, and in it these letters written, Καίσαρ Λύγουσεν: Ἰουδαίας ἰαλωπνίας, Cæsar Augustus, such a year, after the taking of Judæa. This c De Bell. Jud. I. i. c. 8. They confessed it to be the image or signature of the Roman emperor; and Christ thence concluded, that they that acknowledge Caesar's supremacy over the Jews ought not to dispute, but pay him that tribute that is due to him as supreme, there being nothing derogatory to God in so doing. But the law of God requiring that every one should have that which belongs to him, and particularly kings their due acknowledgments and tributes, which are due to them as acts of piety are due to God. admired the prudence of his answer, and so departed without hopes of gaining any advantage against him. future estate after this life, and asked— do the part of the next of kin to his wife, and the children which he begetteth of her shall be accounted his dead brother's children or seed. Until all the seven were married, and dead without children. "This error of yours, in believing no resurrection, proceeds from your not considering the several places of scripture, nor the power of God in ordering the life to come in another manner than is used in this. As for your argument against it, it is soon answered, by telling you, that in that other world those that are there live not like husbands and wives, but are in that respect no otherwise than the pure, spiritual angels of God, which have no bodies about them; all such relations which are here among men are swallowed up in that other world. But to make it evident to you by that part of scripture which hath authority among you Sadducees, that is, by the law, by you acknowledged for the word of God, that there is another life, it is there, you know, thus written: I am— "which being spoken after their decease, was an evidence that there is another life after this, which they that are dead to this have their parts in, or otherwise how could God be said not only to have been, but still to be their God after their death? "on design to ensnare him in his answer, or to hear what he would say, and saying— "with all thy will and affections and understanding, Mark xii. 32. [d] resurrection] The argument against the living of souls now after death, and before the resurrection, which is taken by some (see Brevis Disquisitio) from this place of Matt. xxii. 31, 32, lies thus: Christ proves the resurrection of the dead, ver. 31, by this argument; God saith, he is the God of Abraham, &c. long after Abraham's death, and God is not the God of the dead, but of the living; which proof being put into form must lie thus: "Abraham's body shall rise," and likewise Isaac's and Jacob's, "therefore the bodies of the dead shall rise;" the antecedent is proved thus, "Abraham shall live again now he is dead, therefore his body shall rise;" that antecedent thus, "God is the God of Abraham now he is dead, therefore Abraham shall live again now he is dead." If this antecedent were denied, then the plain words of scripture were denied, and therefore the argument or consequence must be denied, or nothing; and that will thus be proved: "God is not the God of the dead who are so dead that they shall never live again; therefore it being granted that God is the God of Abraham, since the time of his death, it must follow, that though he be now dead, he shall live again." Christ's argument being supposed thus to proceed, might readily have been answered (by them that deny the resurrection of the body) in case the continued life or not dying of the soul were granted; for they might reply thus: "Abraham's soul lives all this while since his death, and therefore God's being the God of Abraham, granting him to be the God of none but the living, doth not conclude that Abraham's body shall rise; for he who lives in soul, may be said to be living, though his body never rise." Now because it is certain that Christ's argument was a good argument, concluding unanswerably what he meant to prove, therefore the not dying of souls, on concession of which the refutation of Christ's argument is or may be grounded, is not to be thought a truth. To this objection against the immortality of souls from this manner of Christ's arguing against the Sadducees, the answer might be easy enough, by remembering the disputers, that the Sadducees, with whom Christ disputed, are not supposed to grant the immortality of the soul, any more than the rising of the body, and therefore this argument of Christ's, though it would not hold against him that did acknowledge the immortality and continued life of the soul, without ever having the body united to it, would yet be a good argument ad homines against the Sadducees, and that were sufficient to salve the matter; or secondly, that the resurrection of the body is a necessary consequent to the life of the soul, and that the proving that the soul lives after death is therefore used by Christ as an argument sufficient to infer that the body shall certainly revive also: but this is not all: they that make use of this arguing of Christ to favour their opinion of ψυχοπαννυχία, do mistake the thing that Christ went about to prove against the Sadducees. For it being certain that the Sadducees denied all other life beyond this that here men live in the flesh, (affirming that there is no spirit, no soul of man subsisting after death, and in consequence to that, that the body after death rots, never to rise again,) it is as certain that Christ here confronted his argument (out of the law, which was the only scripture which those Then Jesus having quit himself from the Pharisees and Sadducees, spake to the multitude— The scribes and Pharisees, &c., those that are of the sanhedrim, are by you to be looked on as your lawful rulers, that have authority over you, succeeding Moses and the seventy elders, Num. xi. 16. And therefore do ye live in obedience to all their lawful commands, in all regular subjection and obedience. But let not their actions be your exam- In, &c. conspire. the Christ, τοῦ Χριστοῦ. For many severe ordinances they impose on others over and above what the law exacts, but will not themselves be persuaded to take the least pains to do those things which by the clear law of God are most necessary. [a] heavy burdens] Heavy burdens imposed on men by the Pharisees may be discerned by their own writers. R. Joshua before Christ's time, among the several things that are pernicious to the world, numbers בְּכוֹת פְּרוּשִׁין, plagas Pharisaeorum, "the strokes, or severities of the Pharisees." And these are mentioned in the Talmud* tr. Sotah, Plagas Pharisaeorum vocat superfluos cultus, ac ritus molestos ab ipsis in religionem lege Mosaica præscriptam subintroductos, "By the strokes of the Pharisees he means superfluous worships and troublesome rites, introduced by them underhand into the Jewish * Cap. iii. §. 4. All that they exercise themselves in most industriously are the performances which will bring them in most of praise. The law, which they were commanded, Deut. vi. 8, to bind upon their hands, &c., that is, to lay it near their hearts, to practise it diligently, they write in rolls, and hang them in their foreheads, and bind them on their wrists, &c., count them as a kind of charms, and make them as large as they can, to be seen of men, and one to exceed the other. And for the fringes of their garments, which they were indeed commanded to wear, Num. xv. 38, Deut. xxii. 12, to remember them of the law, and as a peculiar fashion to discriminate them from other men, they either for an ostentation of piety which those were to remember them of, or to express the greater strictness in separating from all others, wear these fringes very large; and so, whether for observances invented and prescribed by themselves only, or for those which the law prescribes, all their care is to be praised of men. [b] phylacteries] The phylacteries were a great part (though a great mistake and deceit) of the religion of the latter Jews. Upon God's commandment, Deut. vi. 8, Exod. xiii. 16, of binding those words for a sign upon their hands, and as frontlets between their eyes, and writing them upon the posts of their doors, and of their gates, (which certainly were but figurative expressions of that which was before mentioned, Deut. vi. 7, Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest in the way, &c.) this carnal people, which were apt to turn all inward piety into outward formality, and matter of ambition and ostentation, would needs understand this precept literally, and made them scrolls of parchment, in which they wrote four sections of the Pentateuch; 1. the nine former verses of Deut. vi.; 2dly, the nine first verses of the xiiith of Exodus; 3dly, the eight last verses of the same chapter; 4thly, from the 13th to the 22nd of Deut. xi. These rolls of parchment were by them prepared with a great multitude of ceremonies and decrees made by them of the creatures of whose skins that parchment was to be made, of the knives with which it was to be cut, and a great deal more. Being made, they fitted and applied them to the foreheads and to the wrists, and they were called by them in Hebrew tephillin, because the special use of them was in their prayers, and here φυλακτήρια, either because they were to help keep the law in their memory, or because they were a kind of amulet or charm against fascinations and diseases, against the malus genius, saith Paulus Fagius. This being the nature of the phylacteries, a carnal observation of their own, set out with many ceremonies, and yet by them affixed on God, as if commanded by him; the Pharisees, the most exact among the Jews, that would go beyond all others in performances, and withal the most ostentatious of any, and willing to be differenced from all others by such marks of extraordinary piety, did πλατύνειν φυλακτήρια, wear these of a greater breadth than any others, and are here said properly to do this, πρὸς τὸ θεοθῆναι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις, that they may be looked on by men. Ib. [c] borders] The κρίσπεδα are the fringes, that God commands the people to use, Num. xv. 38, and wear on the borders of their garment, with a blue ribband on the fringe. And the use of it there assigned was, 1. that they may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of God, and do them; 2. that they seek not after their own hearts, and their own eyes, after which they use to go a whoring, that is, that they take not up the customs or fashions of other nations, which they were very apt and prone to do, ever since they came out of Egypt, and therefore are by this forewarned that they keep themselves a peculiar people to God, in outward fashions, and consequently in inward purity of heart (in order to which the other was designed) discriminated from all the nations of the earth. By this it appears how this custom of the fringes differs from the other of the phylacteries: that was wholly a tradition and invention of the Jews, on a mistake of God's command, and then an enlarging of this to vanity and ostentation; but this hath a truth in God's precept, was really commanded They love to have the first place, if it be but at an ordinary meal; and in the consistories they are ambitious of the headships, and when they teach in the synagogues, or are there to hear others teach, and, as the manner was, sit in chairs while they do so, they are ambitious of getting the uppermost chairs, And to receive the civilities and adorations and commendations of men above all others, as the greatest doctors and leaders of others; which is an evidence of their temper, what it is that they principally design in all their religious performances. But do not ye contend thus for superiorities, for precedence one above another, for you are all fellow-servants by being fellow-Christians. And give not up your faith absolutely to be swayed and ruled by any man, as children are to be swayed wholly by their parents' bare will, and as these men, Pharisees, &c., have their admirers and followers in religion, whereas indeed God your Father ¹ fringes. ² meals, Science. [d] father] The wise man, the principal of the school of the prophets, who had the great authority among them, no man contradicting what he said, was by them then called אב, father. So Maimonides Com. ad Peah, c. i. §. 1. כבוד אבות והחכמים שהם אבות הכל "The parents must be honoured, and the wise men, which are the fathers of all;" and in this respect, and this sense of the word father among the Jews, all Christians, being now taught of God by Christ, are appointed to acknowledge no father in earth. And do not ye pretend to be leaders or teachers, but all fellow-disciples that receive the faith from me, and so communicate it to others. As for any precedency or superiority, which shall hereafter be instituted in the church, ye are not to look upon that but as an office of burden and duty, of watching and waiting on them over whom ye are placed. And indeed for this, this ought to be the rule, that whosoever is ambitious of dignity in Christ's church ought never to be admitted to it, but he that shall think himself unworthy of it is fittest to be advanced to it. ye keep the multitude from embracing the gospel or doctrine of Christ, to which they are generally inclined; ye suppress the meaning of the scriptures which belong to the Messias; and not only reject Christ yourselves, but prohibit others from believing on him, which, were it not for fear of you, would willingly embrace him. for instead of shewing mercy and charity to them that are left destitute, ye, on the other side, are greedy and rapacious, grind the face of the poor, and devour the remainder of their substance whom ye ought in reason to relieve; and that ye may do these acts of uncharitableness more securely, ye pretend to great piety, and for a colour or fair show, (that you may be the more trusted, and so have opportunities to do it the better,) use to make long prayers: but for this, for your making piety a colour and guise, under which to practise the greater sins, ye shall receive— to get one Gentile to your religion, and when he is so, by teaching him the worser part of your doctrine, that which fortifies him against the receiving of Christ, and by pressing him to that legal strictness, (which is commanded you as Jews, but belongs not to him,) you put him into a far worse and more dangerous estate, and make him more vehemently to oppose the gospel than yourselves or your own children, natural Jews. [e] proselyte] A proselyte is one that, being a Gentile by birth and religion, comes over to the Jewish religion, either in whole or in part; for there are three sorts of strangers, and two of proselytes among the Jewish writings. The first sort of strangers are those which continue open idolaters, who were not permitted to live, or have any place of being in the land of Israel; the second sort of strangers are the first of proselytes, which though they embraced not the whole Jewish religion of circumcision, washing and sabbatizing, &c., yet renounced the idolatry and πολυβέστης or multitude of the Gentile gods, and assented to some foundations of the Jewish religion, which they called the seven precepts of the sons of Adam, and of Noah, of which we shall have a fitter occasion to say more on Acts xv. These were called proselytes of the gates, were permitted to live among them, to come into one court, the outer, of the temple, (called atrium Gentilium, divided by a low wall or sept from the other, called by St. Paul μεσότοιχον φραγμόν, Ephes. ii. 14, a half-wall of partition, on which, saith Josephus, was written μὴ δεῖν ἀλλόφυλον ἐντός ἰέναι, "that no stranger might go into the inner court") and, in brief, were by the Jews allowed to have portionem in vita futura, "a portion in the life to come," whether that be heaven, or the kingdom of the Messias, Maimon. de Pœn. c. 3. §. 5. And yet of these it is observable, that after the Jews came under the Roman yoke, and so were unable to keep their proselytes of the gates within their prescribed rules, having no jurisdiction over them, their wise men determined that they should have no commerce with them, which was accordingly observed, till St. Peter's vision (Acts x.) assured the Christian Jews that this was not required of them. The third sort of strangers, and second of proselytes, are those which embraced the whole Jewish religion, submitted to be circumcised, and to perform the whole number of the precepts of the law; and these are admitted to privileges proportionably, and differ nothing from a Jew, but only that they are not born in the land, (as the Mamluchi, among the Mahomedans,) of whom it is ᵇJustin Martyr's affirmation, προσήλυτος ὁ ᵇ Dial. cum Tryph. p. 275. Woe unto you which take upon you to be the leaders of the blind, Rom. ii. 19, and are blind yourselves, saying, If a man swear by the temple he is not obliged by that oath, but he that swears by the gold obliged, &c. [f] swear by the temple] It seems by this, which Christ here affirms of the Pharisees, that they had a tradition that those oaths only were obligatory which were conceived by God, or something immediately consecrated to him; meaning thereby not the temple and altar, which had only an universal consecration, (being set apart to his service,) but other particular oblations and gifts, which were by the voluntary piety of men devoted unto him. Of this sort is the gold of the temple, and the gift on the altar, wherein it seems they placed a more especial sanctity than in the other. This Christ looks on as a pitiful, nice piece of deceit, either to frustrate the obligation of some oaths, (it being ordinary with them to swear per templa tonantis, saith the poet, "by the temple," when, it seems by him, they did not think themselves obliged by such an oath,) or to make a nice distinction of sanctity, where indeed there was none, the whole sanctity of the gold or gift flowing from the temple or altar, to which, and the God in it, they were consecrated. What should be the colour or pretence of this doctrine of theirs, it would be hard to guess, unless perhaps it was that they conceived the temple, by its having been demolished, to have lost its sanctity, and not to have recovered it at its rebuilding and increase by Herod; whereas the gold or the gift which the piety of the Jewish donor had consecrated might be allowed by them to have that sanctity: but this, being so weak a reason, leaves it liable to the censure of hypocrisy which Christ here lays upon it; the true cause surely being, that by persuading men that the gold and gifts brought to the temple were the holiest things in the world, holier than the temple or altar itself, they might bring men to great liberality that way, and so make gain of their doctrine. What a sottish senseless folly is this, which your deep learning hath advanced you to! For sure the gold of the temple, which receives all the sacredness it hath above other gold merely from being the gold of the temple, cannot be more sacred than the temple itself, nor consequently the oath by the gold obliging, when an oath by the temple itself is not. The swearing by the altar contains in it that other oath, which ye take to be so much more obliging, that by all the free-will offerings presented at or on the altar, and so cannot possibly be less obliging than that alone 'by God, who although he have his throne in heaven, yet is pleased to own the temple as his place of residence or dwelling upon earth. in matter of paying tithes you are as exact as any the strictest lawyer would require of you, descending to the tithing of herbs, of which there was doubt and dispute whether they ought to be paid or no; but for the great moral duties, both of the second and even the first table, just dealing, and works of mercy towards men, and the great duty, (even of the law,) faith in God, you are far from the practice of these, which being the most considerable weighty duties, ought most precisely to be walked in, to be made your work and care; and the other, though not to be left undone, yet counted inferior to those. are very scrupulous in small, and very adventurous in the greatest matters. 'ye are all for washing of outsides, as of your vessels to eat and drink in, so also of your hands and whole bodies, and in the mean while leave your souls full of all abominable impurities, such as, Gen. vi. 11, are expressed by corrupt and full of violence; which is as if you should make clean only the outside of a cup or platter, and leave the inside, where the drink and meat is put, full of all kind of filth: see Luke xi. 39. ' obliged. [g] judgment] For the discerning the meaning and difference of these three, the best rise will be from the observation of Maimonides, Thou hypocrite, that art so like a blind man as to wash one part only, and then think all is clean, see to the cleansing thy heart, which is as it were the inside of the vessel, and that is the true way of cleansing the outside, the actions also; at least let the first care be taken for the inside, and the outward cleanness will have its place, and praise will be to some purpose. ye may fitly be resembled to sepulchres, which are fain to be whited over that they may be discerned to be such, and so avoided, being otherwise grown over with grass, and not discernible from other ordinary ground by the outside, Luke xi. 44, whilst yet within, like real sepulchres, ye are full of all pollution. [A] whited sepulchres] There is little difficulty to determine what is meant by τάφοι κεκονισμένοι, sepulchres washed over with white lime, on purpose that they may be discerned by passengers, and avoided lest they contract legal pollution by them; for thus the Jews were wont to mark sepulchres: Calcem aqua maceratam effundit in locum immunditiei, "They use lime macerated with water, and pour it upon the place of uncleanness." Yad. Tum. Met. c. 8; and Rashi ad Gemar. Moed kat. c. i. f. 5, renders the reason, quod ipsa alba sit instar ossium, quam ergo videntes, eo non accederent, "because lime is white like bones, and therefore they see and go not near it." So among the Christians in Optatus: Corpora (occisorum) per dealbatas aras aut mensas poterunt numerari, "The bodies of the slain may be yet numbered by the whited altars or tables," that is, by the tombs in fashion of an altar or table, laid over them and whited. All the difficulty is, in what respect it here follows that they appear Ἔξωθεν ὡραίοι, outwardly fair, when, Luke xi. 44, it is said of them that they are ὡς μνημεῖα δδηλα, as graves that appear not. And this will be fitly salved by considering that this fairness is not all one with their being whited before, but denotes the reason why they had need of being thus whited. These graves were, it seems, grown over with grass, and so were undistinguishable from other ordinary ground, were outwardly as fair green grass, as if there were no graves under; and so, as they are properly said to appear ὡραίοι Ἔξωθεν, outwardly fair, so most fitly is it said of them in Luke that they are δδηλα μνημεῖα, undiscernible graves or monuments; so that the men that go over them are not aware of their being graves, and so are polluted by going over them; and that makes it necessary that they should have some mark set upon them, be washed over with lime; proportionable to which was Christ's reproving of these Pharisees' hypocrisy, that so, as fair as they were outwardly, they might not deceive and pollute silly disciples, which were not aware of their wickedness. See Mr. Pocock, Miscell. c. 5. Even so are ye the fairest in outward guise and show, but in your hearts, designs, and actions that flow from thence, the most noisome and polluted that can be, nothing but contrariety to your professions, and instead of justice and charity, which ye pretend, the most greedy and ravenous oppressors, ver. 14. you do honour unto the prophets slain by your forefathers. And express your dislike of them that killed them, and say that, if you had then lived, you would sure never have used them as your fathers did. And this you do, that men, seeing this indignation of yours against your fathers' bloodiness, may believe all wicked whom you persecute. 31, 32. Hereby you do avowedly confess that you are the children of those bloody men, and consequently that if you go on in their sins, it is most just that all the vengeance due to them should with advantage fall on you; and now are ye going on in their steps, (see note [f] on ch. x.) and all your declaiming against their bloodiness, all your condemning of them, is but a piece of hypocrisy, you being now as bloodily disposed as any of them, and as ready to perfect that work of cruelty begun by them, and so bring all that blood on you: see Luke xi. 47. And being of such a serpentine viperous race, and filling up the measure of your fathers' sins, in going on still in their bloody course, ver. 37, how is it possible for you to escape that final destruction which attends all this guilt, and those torments of hell consequent to it? violence and incontinence, ἀρπαγῆς καὶ ἀκρατίας; see note [h] on 1 Cor. v. the inside of, τὸ ἑστὸς τοῦ. 1 that, ὅτι. 2 And do ye fill up, καὶ ὑμεῖς πληρώσατε, or, And ye have filled up; for the Gr. and Lat. MS. reads, ἐκληρώσατε, implextis. Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: I tell you plainly that I am that God that send to you prophets, and others learned in your religion, which receiving the faith, ch. xiii. 52, shall preach it to you. And I now foretell you, that, contending that they are no prophets, &c., some of them ye shall kill in zeal and fury; others ye shall press the Romans to crucify (which is the very thing which your fathers, whom ye condemn, did before you, for they contended that they were not prophets); others ye shall scourge in your public judicatures, though ye do not put, or cause them to be put, to death. And the issue of it will be, That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteousness Abel unto the blood of [i] Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the [k] altar. 36. That not reforming the sins of your fathers and all other bloody men that have been before you, (the foulness of whose crimes ought to have warned you from the like guilts, though they were not all your lineal progenitors, as Cain,) but still continuing and going on in them, and filling up the measure of their sins, you shall now in this age have all that destruction come upon you which hath been merited by the shedding of those just men's blood, (a grievous and, in scripture style, a crying sin, that is said to have called to God for the avenging of it): such was Abel, whose blood was said to cry, and such Zacharias the son of Baruch, who is like to be slain in this generation, between the porch of the temple and altar without in the court, and immediately to usher in that destruction upon you. how many passionate invitations and calls have I given you to bring you to repentance, to persuade you to be gathered under the wings of the divine presence, that is, to become proselytes to me, to be born again, and lead new lives, (see note [d] on Luke xiii.) but ye refused all! [i] Zacharias son of Barachias] Who this Zacharias was, is L. 3. p. 90. L 2 [k] altar] There were two sorts of altars, one the θυμιατήριον, the altar of incense, within the temple, (ἴνδον πρὸς τὸ ἐπιθυμᾶν in Philo,) the other θυσιαστήριον, the altar of holocaust or burnt offering, that was without in the court, (ἴξω πρὸς τὰ ἱερεία, see note [e] Apoc. vi.) Of both of them Philo's words are perspicuous, and worth setting down: 'Ὁ νόμος προστάξας δύο κατασκευασθῆναι βωμοὺς, καὶ ταῖς ὕλαις, καὶ τοῖς τόποις, καὶ ταῖς χρήσεσι διαφέροντας, "The law appointed two altars to be made, differing in matter and place and uses;" ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἐκ λίθων λογάδων ἀτμήτων συνῳκοδόμηται, καὶ ἐν ὑπαίθρῳ πυρὰ ταῖς τοῦ νεῷ προβάσεσιν ἴδρυται, καὶ γέγονε πρὸς χρείαν τὴν τῶν ἑναίμων, "for the one was built of choice unhewed stones, and was set in the open court by the ascent or stairs of the temple, and was for the bloody sacrifices;" ὁ δὲ χρυσοῦ μὲν κατεσκεύασται, ἴδρυται δὲ ἐν ἀδύτῳ εἴσω τοῦ προτέρου καταπετάσματος, δὲ οὐδενὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἐστὶν ὁρατὸς, ὅτι μὴ τοῖς ἀγνεύουσι τῶν ἱερίων, καὶ γέγονε πρὸς τὴν χρείαν τὴν τῶν θυμιαμάτων, "the other was made of gold, set in the inner court within the first veil, which cannot be seen by any other but only by those of the priests that are clean, and this was for the offering of incense." And so that which was said of Zacharias, 2 Chron. xxiv. 21, that he was stoned in the court of the house of the Lord, that is, in the court of the temple, (as ναὸς, temple, here, and οἶκος, house, Luke xi. 51, are directly all one,) might be well enough agreeable to what is here said, that he was slain betwixt the temple and the altar, to wit, this altar of holocaust, peculiarly θυσιαστήριον, as here, which was without in the court; and to that also belongs as properly that which Josephus saith of the other Zacharias, son of Baruch, that he was "slain" ἐν μέσῳ τῷ ἱερῷ, "in the midst of the temple," that is, not of the ναὸς or sanctuary, rendered temple here, but of the ἱερὸν, that is, the whole fabric of the court, &c. Beyond this altar and court was Solomon's porch, built before the temple, or at the entrance to it; and the space betwixt that portal and the altar of incense was, saith Codex Middoth, c. 3, twenty-two cubits. Thither the priest was wont to enter at other times, with incense at that altar, to sanctify the prayers of the people; but on days of expiation he was not to approach so far, but without the door of the porch to prostrate himself, as unworthy to approach the sanctuary, and there to confess the sins of the people, Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this [l] generation. [l] generation] Γενεὰ, generation, signifies not a whole secle, but rather the third part of a secle, or hundred years; as in Homer, when of Nestor it is said, Τῇ δ' ἤδη δύο μὲν γενεαί, Πλ. α'. 250. the two generations signify about sixty years; and so in m Herodotus, τριακοσίαι μενεαὶ δύνανται μύρια ἤτη, three hundred generations are equivalent to ten thousand years; and Clem. Alex. Strom. l. 2, εἰς τὰ ἱκατὸν ἤτη τρεῖς ἐγκαταλέγονται γενεαὶ, three generations amount to an hundred years; so Phavorinus, γενεαὶ κατὰ τοὺς παλαιούς τριάκοντα χρόνοι, the ancients used the word to signify thirty years; and, citing that of Nestor's age in Homer, saith it signifies that ὑπερίβη τὰ ἑξήκοντα ἤτη, "he was above sixty years old." So in Hesychius the word is taken to signify either the life of a man, or thirty years, or twenty-five, or twenty, (as it is also taken for seven years by the physicians, and for ten clearly in Jeremy's Epistle, v. 2,) where the life of a man signifies not the ordinary space of a man's life from birth to death, for that may be sixty or eighty years, but so as the space of the life of fourteen men, children to one another, and succeeding one another, make up fourteen generations, Matt. i. By all which it appears what is meant here by the phrase this generation, such a space that they that were then alive might and should live to see it. And so Christ here foretells, 1. the great persecutions from the Jews, and, 2. the great judgments and destruction that should then come upon that people within few years, n about forty, saith Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. l. 3. c. 7, within the space of the life of some that were then alive, as was said, ch. xvi. 28, (see the note there,) and is more largely shewed, ch. xxiv., where that which was said of the destruction of the Jews was occasioned by this speech of Christ's in this chapter. See note [c] Luke xviii. 7. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. Behold, your desolation of temple, and city, and whole nation is irreversibly at hand. [r] great] This commandment, by which the worship of the one God is commanded, Deut. vi. 4, is not only one of those which were written in their phylacteries, fastened on their posts, and read in their houses daily, but to note it to be the great commandment indeed above others, it is observable, that in Deut. the words in the Hebrew, which begin and end it, have the last letter written very big, and noted in the margin to be so written. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me [m] henceforth, till ye shall say, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. And after I am once gone from you, ye shall see me no more, receive no more admonitions from me, till I come to take vengeance of you, at which time you shall be forced to confess me; and those that will not confess me now, would then be most glad (if it would be accepted) to use that acclamation which the children did, when ye were displeased with them, ch. xxi. 9, to obtain any mercy from me. a bird her young ones, ὕρνει τὰ νοσσία. 10 after a while, till you would say. 11 Blessed in the name of the Lord be he that cometh: see ch. xxi. 9. [m] henceforth] Ἀπ' ἄρτι here, as in some other places, signifies not from henceforth, as it were from that very time wherein he spake, m L. 2. p. 144. p. 335. n Τεσσαράκοντα ἐφ' ὅλοις ἔτεσι μετὰ τὴν κατὰ τοῦ Χριστοῦ τόλμαν, τὸν κατ' αὐτῶν ἔλεθρον ὑπερθεμίνης προνοίας.