Church, and, perhaps, to subscribe to their monuments, who yet are altogether of a different spirit from them. There are also some who can praise faithful ministers when they are gone, who did not improve their ministry while they lived, and who still hold out against the truth. There are even some who, while they honour, in words, the memory of the faithful teachers of former times, dislike and vilify the faithful teachers of their own times. The departed are out of sight, and silent, and at a distance; the living are seen, and heard, and close upon them. The dead disturb not their slumbers; but the living, by their doctrines and life, break their false peace. Like the two witnesses prophesied of in the Revelation, faithful teachers, and, indeed, all faithful Christians, torment them that dwell on the earth;" that is, by their doctrine, example, and reproofs, they disquiet their minds, so that they cannot proceed with.. out disturbance in their course of worldliness and ungodliness. It concerns us all to think well of this. It is common, too, for people who are neglecting the opportunities of salvation, with which they themselves are favoured, to imagine that if they had had the opportunities of other times, it would have been different with them, forgetting that the fault of their present hardness is all their own, and that there is every reason to believe that the same perversity would have characterized them in any circumstances. And what shall we say of those who, having had pious parents, are heard to speak honourably of their memory, but who are, as to religion, altogether of a different character? Do they imagine that such talk will pass for piety with Him whose word teaches that every man must stand or fall by himself? Let them know that good parental example not followed, must reflect disgrace on them, and aggravate their guilt and condemnation.

The same subject is prosecuted as follows: " Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute; that the blood of all the prophets, 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 perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation." Though there are some passages in the Old Testament* somewhat similar to this, which speak of the past conduct of the Jews to God's pro* 2 Chron. xxxvi. 15; Neh. ix. 26.

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phets, this appears to be, not a quotation, but the original words of Christ himself. It is the most common opinion, that the words, "Therefore also said the wisdom of God," are the words of Luke designating the Redeemer himself as the wisdom of God; as Paul, writing to the Corinthians, calls him "the power of God and the wisdom of God." This idea is strengthened by the consideration, that in the passage of Matt. xxiii. 34, which is very similar, though referring to a different occasion, our Lord is represented in the usual plain way, as speaking in his own person, thus: 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: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation." At all events, as some hesitate to adopt this idea in its full extent, we are to consider Christ as authoritatively declaring what divine wisdom had determined as to the mission of these inspired men, and as predicting what would be the result. In this respect, these Jews too closely imitated the conduct of their persecuting forefathers: for, the subsequent history of the Church shows how, by themselves, or by handing them over to the Roman power, they persecuted and put to death most of the apostles, and other prophets, or inspired teachers of the gospel.

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The word "that," with which the 50th verse is introduced, is to be understood as pointing out merely the event, and not the design, and is equivalent to so that." Lord is "long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." With regard both to individuals and nations, he generally waits long before he strikes. Perseverance, however, in disobedience, is sure to bring down his vengeance at last. The reference here is chiefly to the Jews as a nation. By joining, as most of them did, in opposition to Christ and his apostles, they showed themselves to be of the same spirit with their persecuting fathers, and identified themselves, as it were, with their crimes; and, by their obstinate wickedness, which surpassed whatever had been shown before, they were accumulating on themselves the aggravated guilt and punishment of the blood of all the prophets and righteous men that had

ever been shed. God was to "require" it of them; that is, he was to visit them and inflict punishment on them for it. The circumstances of the murder of righteous Abel by his brother Cain, out of envy, and because Cain's "own works were evil, and his brother's good," are well known. Having mentioned the first Old Testament martyr, Jesus mentions one of a much lower age. There is a difference of opinion, however, as to who is here intended. Most of the commentators believe that the Zacharias here mentioned was the same of whom we thus read in 2 Chron. xxiv. 20: "And the Spirit of the Lord came upon Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the priest, who stood above the people [in an elevated situation, that they might see and hear him], and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord, that ye cannot prosper? And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones, at the commandment of the king, in the court of the house of the Lord;" the enormity of the crime being increased by the sacredness of the place in which it was committed. "Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son: and when he died, he said, The Lord look upon it, and require it," or, as it might be rendered, in the future, and prophetically, "The Lord will look upon it, and require it." In answer to the objection, that whereas our Lord, in Matthew, calls this Zacharias the son of Barachias, the person mentioned in 2 Chronicles is called the son of Jehoiada, it is observed that the Jews frequently had two names, as Abiel and Ner, Matthew and Levi, Lebbeus and Thaddeus. Others, though with less probability, consider the person here mentioned to have been the less prophet Zechariah, who is called, in the first verse of his prophecy, "the son of Barachiah, the son of Iddo;" and they remark that, though the temple was in ruins in the beginning of his life, he lived till after it was rebuilt, and might have suffered martyrdom in it; and also that there is mention, in the Jewish Targum, of a tradition of Zechariah, the son of Iddo, being slain in the house of the sanctuary of the Lord, because he would have withdrawn the people from their evil ways.t

On many occasions, the wrath of God had already visited the Jewish people, because of this and other crimes; but

* Among whom is Scott.

+ The opinions which refer this to the father of John the Baptist, and to a later person still, are altogether untenable.

now the time was approaching when it was to come on them far more fiercely than ever, and so as utterly to destroy them as a nation. They were continuing to increase their national guilt, till it was approaching the highest pitch which a God of long-suffering could endure. This was what our Lord, according to Matthew, called " filling up the measure of their fathers;"- -a way of speaking illustrated by such passages as these, "The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full;" and, "The Jews both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men; forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, to fill up their sins alway: for, the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost." In this case, the Lord was to visit, in a most awful manner, "the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hated him." This was fulfilled in the dreadful temporal destruction which came on their temple, city, and nation, from the Romans; and in the still more dreadful misery which, in the unseen world, overtook those of them who died in impenitence and in the rejection of the only Saviour.

But let us apply this to ourselves. When we think of the prophets and apostles whose writings and lives we read, and who may therefore be said to have been sent to us, let us see, that while we profess to acknowledge them as inspired, and thus honour them in so far, we do not pour contempt on their memory, and show that we would have been likely to join with their enemies, by refusing to listen to what they have revealed and enjoined, and to follow their example. Instead of that, let us give heed to their sure word of prophecy, and take them "who have spoken in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering affliction and of patience."

Again; let the sinner who is continuing in a life of unbelief and rebellion, think well what he is doing when he is thus filling up the measure of his iniquity, and what will be the consequence, if he go on till it be full. O foolish and infatuated transgressor! thus to abuse the divine patience, and to dare omnipotence. "Thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them who do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance, and long-suffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and

impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his works." The cloud of wrath is gathering thick around thee, and will soon burst in a storm on thy head. Be entreated to stop. Seek forgiveness for past sin by faith in the blood of Christ, who will then prove to thee as a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest: and, instead of adding to thy sins, begin, by a patient continuance in well-doing, to seek for glory, and honour, and immortality.

This part of the passage is also very admonitory with regard to national guilt and national judgments. The awful judgments of the Jewish nation, when the measure of their iniquity was filled up, were a specimen of what every nation may expect that follows a similar career. Individuals may escape in this life, and yet be overtaken by vengeance hereafter; but nations have no existence, as nations, in the other world; and therefore, if they are to be punished at all, it must be in this world. While nations, too, are accountable for all national sins, the guilt of innocent blood, and especially of blood shed in persecution, is what God is peculiarly careful to require of them. How plainly has the seat of the beast, especially the part of it composed of the French nation, been suffering for many years on account of the torrents of blood shed in the persecution of those who were slain for the word of God, and the testimony which they held! The time also will come, when the universal and final retribution will thus be celebrated by a "great voice of much people in heaven,”"Alleluia, salvation, and glory, and honour, and power unto the Lord our God: for true and righteous are his judgments; for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand." If we may hope that the blood thus shed in former times in our own land has been repented of, and if there be certain pleasing signs on which we can fix our eye, is there not, however, reason to apprehend the just judgments of God on our nation, because of the many iniquities which prevail in it? Let us sigh and cry for all the abominations that are done in the midst of us. May the Lord pour down a spirit of prayer, and of reformation on all ranks, that we may be enabled to comply with his call, "Repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin."