they brought him a penny. Then he demands of them, whose image was inscribed upon it? They confess it to be the signature of the Roman emperor: whence Christ concluded, that they which acknowledge Cæsar's supre. macy over them, ought to pay the tribute due to him as supreme; for the law of God, requiring that every one should possess that which belongs to him, he particu larizes the duties of paying acknowledgment to kings in their just dues, as acts of piety are due to God. This was a great disappointment to them, who thought, that, upon answering this question, he would unavoidable incur the displeasure of Cæsar, or of the people; but finding that by his incomparable wisdom he had broken their snare, they departed, admiring his prudence, and despairing of being able to gain any advantage over him. But though they were disappointed in their crafty stratagem, yet from thence this general good accrued to mankind, that our blessed Saviour, by means of their intended treachery, established a rule of the utmost importance, and of perpetual obligation, saying, "Give un. to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's."

The blessed Jesus having so excellently, and so much to their admiration answered the Pharisees, the Sadducees bring their objection to him against the resurrection, by proposing the case of a woman successively

der pretence of, defending the public liberty, of innumerable mischiefs to the

nation.

Inscribed. This plainly denoted their right of submission, and consequently of paying tribute to the Romans: for the coining of money is part of the supreme power or regal prerogative; and they being a conquered people, and their coin bearing Cæsar's inscription, the tribute must be supposed due to him.

+ Snare. The notion entertained by the bulk of the Jews was, that the Messiah would deliver them from foreign servitude. If therefore he who called himself the Messiah, recommended paying taxes to the Romans, they would consider it as inconsistent with his pretensions, nay, a renouncing them altogether. Admiring. See Matt. xxii. 22.

& Resurrection. See Mark xii. 19, &c.

married to seven husbands, and requiring whose wife should she be in the resurrection; for they weakly concluded that future state of things to be impossible, which would be liable to so great an absurdity as that a woman should be at once the wife of seven men. But Jesus first answered their objection, by telling them, that all those relations, whose foundation is laid in the imperfections, and passions of flesh and blood, shall cease in that state; which is so spiritual, that it resembles the con'dition of angels, among whom there is no difference of sex, no genealogies or derivations from one to another: and then, by a new argument, he proves the resurrection by one of God's condescending titles, for he had frequently called himself the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For since God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, unto him even these men are alive and if so, then either they now exercise acts of life, and therefore shall be restored to their bodies, that their actions may be complete, and they remain not in a state of imperfection to all eternity; or if they be alive, and yet cease from among men, they shall be much rather raised to a condition which shall actuate and make perfect their present capacities and dispositions, lest a power and inclination should for ever be in the root, and never grow up to fruit or perfection, and thus discredit the works of God as an eternal vanity.

Though the Pharisees and Sadducees were no great friends to one another; yet in the cause against the Saviour of the world they united their forces: but notwithstanding this partial union, they were glad upon any occasion to see each other foiled. Of which an instance occurred, when the Sadducees proposed the question relating to the resurrection; for the Pharisees were well pleased, not that Jesus spake so excellently, but that the Sadducees were confuted; and therefore hoping for better success, they attack him with another question, more out of curiosity, than any pious desire of satisfaction. But at last, after all their disputes, Jesus was pleased to ask them a question concerning CHRIST, whose Son he was? they answered, "The Son of David." But he, in reply, proposed another question? "How then doth David call him

Lord ?" saying, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, &c." To which they could give no

answer.

After this, Jesus gave his disciples a solemn caution against the pride, hypocrisy, and oppression of the Scribes and Pharisees; and commended the poor widow's oblation of her two mites into the treasury, preferring her pious intentions, who threw in her all, before the great and mighty superfluities of the rich, who had still so much to spare. All this was spoken in the temple; the goodly stones* and ornaments of which when the apostles beheld with wonder, they being so firm and beautiful, Jesus at the same time prophesies the destructiont of that holy place. Concerning which prediction, when the apostles, being with him at the mount of Olives, asked him privately of the time and signs of such sad events, he tells them one prognostic of that destruction shall be, that many deceivers shall arise, pretending to be the Messiah. Another forerunner of it is, that great commotions and tumults shall take place in Judea, before the Romans come to destroy them utterly. Then he discoursed largely of his coming to judgment against the city of Jerusalem, and from thence interweaved predictions of the universal judg ment of the world, of which this, though very awful, was but a small presage; adding precepts of watchfulness, and of due preparation, with hearts filled with grace: all which he enforced with the pathetic parable of the "Ten Virgins, who, at that point of time spoken of, the heavy visitation of this people, took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were prudent and

Stones. Josephus says that some of them were forty-five cubits long, five high, and six broad; that is, in English measure, sixty-seven feet long, seven and a half high, and nine broad. Tacitus also speaks of the immense opulence of the temple at Jerusalem. (Hist. lib. v.)

Josephus likewise asserts, that the marble of the temple was so white, that it appeared to a spectator at a distance, like a mountain of snow; and the gilding of its several external parts, which he also mentions, must, when the sun shone upon it, have rendered it a most splendid and beautiful spectacle. See Josephus Bell. Jud. lib. v. c. 5, &c.

+ Destruction. See Matt. xxiv. 3. Mark xiii. 3. Luke xxi. 7.

watchful; the other vain and improvident. The five wise had provided themselves with a stock of oil sufficient to furnish their lamps during their expectation of the bridegroom's coming; but the five foolish took no more with them than for their present occasion. After long waiting, heavy sleep sealed their weary eyes; but at midnight they are alarmed with the cry of the bridegroom's coming. The five wise, who had trimmed their lamps before they went to rest, are not surprised with the sudden summons, but joyfully prepare to meet the bridegroom; while the five foolish and careless virgins, roused at the noise, find their lamps extinct. In vain they implore a supply of the others; they are forced to seek for more oil elsewhere; in which time the bridegroom arrives, who receives the five wise, and takes them with him to the place of the nuptial entertainment, and orders the door to be shut. The five foolish damsels having long loitered about for oil to recruit their exhausted lamps, come to the bridegroom's gate, demanding entrance with as much assurance as those that had paid the most strict attendance. Their importunate cries reach the bridegroom's car, who tells them there was no room for such loiterers, whose sloth and improvidence had betrayed them to the loss of any entertainment with him." By this parable, the blessed Jesus hinted to his disciples he necessity of watchfulness, that not knowing the day or hour of the Son of man's coming, they might be always ready to receive him.*

Him. The excellent Doddridge expresses the general use which Christians should make of this parable in the following manner:

Let us apply our hearts to the obvious instructions which this well-known parable so naturally suggests. We are under a religious profession: our lamps are in our hands; and we go forth as those that expect to meet Christ; as those that desire and hope to be admitted to the marriage supper of the Lamb. But, alas, how few are there, that are truly prepared for such a blessedness! Would to God there were reason to hope that the Christian church were so equally divided, that five of ten in it had the oil of Divine grace in their hearts, to render them “burning and shining lights!"

Let even such as have it, be upon their guard; for our Lord intimates, that the wise, as well as the foolish virgins, are too apt to slumber and sleep, and carelessly to intermit that watch which they ought constantly to maintain. There may be,

This parable of diligence and watchfulness he enforces with another of the talents entrusted with the faithful and slothful servants, thereby pressing the observance of those duties more earnestly to them. And then for the encouragement of the diligent, and terror of the slothful, he proceeds to tell them, that when Christ shall come to judgment, whether to execute judgment on this people, or to doom every man for his future and eternal existence, then shall his appearance be glorious and full of majesty. All the people of the Jews, believers and unbelievers, and all that ever lived in this world, every one with whom God had entrusted any talent, shall by the angels be ga thered before him: and all his obedient followers and disciples shall be placed in a state of the greatest dignity; but the unfaithful and disobedient shall be liable to judgment. Then shall he, as king and judge, distribute the joys and comforts of the kingdom of heaven, which before all eternity were designed to be the portion of all the faithful servants of God, according to the evidence of true faith expressed by every man's works of piety and charity performed in this life, particularized * in St. Matthew's gospel, by feeding and entertaining Christ, by clothing his naked body, attending him when he was sick, relieving, assisting, providing for, and visiting him in restraint. Then shall his humble and faithful disciples, as not conscious of any such acts of service or charity shewed to Christ, decline the

at an unexpected time, a midnight cry. Happy the souls that can hear it with pleasure; being not only habitually, but actually ready to obey the summons! Happy they, that have their loins girded, and their lamps burning! Luke xji. 35.

The foolish virgins saw their error too late they applied to the wise; but their application was vain. And as vain will the hope of those be who trust to the intercession of departed saints, or any supposed redundancy of merit in them, while they are themselves strangers to a holy temper and life. In vain will they cry, "Lord, Lord, open to us. The door of mercy will be shut for ever, and the workers of iniquity utterly disowned." The day of grace has its limits; and for those that have trifled it away, there remaineth nothing" but the blackness of darkness for ever." Jude, v. 13.

* Particularized. See Matt. xxv. 35, 36, &c.