the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these. On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets. The Scribe said to him: Well, Master, thou hast said in truth that there is one God, and there is no other besides him; that he should be loved with the whole heart, with the whole understanding, with the whole soul, and with the whole strength; and to love one's neighbor as one's self is a greater thing than all holocausts and sacrifices. Jesus, seeing that he had answered wisely, said to him: Thou art not far from the kingdom of God."

After having satisfied all their demands, the Saviour wished to question them in his turn, and to display before their eyes one of those flashes of light, whose dazzling radiance manifested his divinity through the thick cloud of his humanity. (a) "The Pharisees being gathered together, Jesus asked them: What think you of Christ? Whose Son is he? They said to him: David's. Whereupon he answering, said, teaching in the temple: How do the Scribes say that Christ is the Son of David? For David himself saith, by the Holy Ghost, in the Book of Psalms: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy enemies thy footstool. David, therefore, calleth him Lord; and whence is he then his Son (10)?

(a) St. Matthew, xxii. 41-46; St. Mark, xii. 35-37; St. Luke, xx. 42.

brother of Jesus Christ-the living member of that adorable head—the son of his grief, and the fruit of his blood-called to share eternally with him his throne and his felicity. Now it is easy to see that, whilst loving my neighbor from these motives, it is God and Jesus Christ that I love in his person. It is this which induced theologians to say that the virtue of charity, which makes us love God for God, is the same which makes us love our neighbor for God; and in the same way as the love of God is a theological, that is to say, a divine virtue, proposing God for its object, so likewise charity towards our neighbor is also a theological and divine virtue, inasmuch as it is God whom we love in our neighbor.

God has so much love for men, that he says to each of us: Love them on my account, and I shall make no difference, either as to merit or as to recompense, between the love which you shall entertain towards them and that which you shall entertain towards my

self.

If God should say to us: Love them for their own sake, it seems that hatred might sometimes be just and reasonable; but God removes from this passion every reasonable and equitable pretext, when he says to us: Love them for my sake.

(10) He does not deny that he is the Son of David; but he declares that he is some

And no man was able to answer him a word. Neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions; and a great multitude heard him gladly."

CHAPTER LV.

TO HEAR THE DOCTORS OF THE LAW, NOT TO IMITATE THEM. THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES ARE CURSED. THE WIDOW'S MITE. THE RUIN OF THE TEMPLE FORETOLD. QUESTION AS TO THE TIME OF THE RUIN OF JERUSALEM, AND OF THE END OF THE WORLD.

THE censors were to be censured in their turn. Jesus Christ, before leaving the earth, wished to make them thoroughly known to themselves and to others; to themselves for the purpose of converting them, supposing that at the sight of their own vices, laid bare before their eyes, they might yet be struck with remorse; and to others, supposing that these censors should not be converted, yet for the purpose of arresting the progress of seduction, by unmasking the seducers. But, inasmuch as these perverse men were still the ordinary interpreters of the Mosaic law-in order to preserve to them the authority which they should have on this account over the

thing more. David certainly calls him God when he calls him his Lord-royal power acknowledging no other Lord than God. It is apparently for this reason that Jesus Christ only quotes this passage of the Psalm in proof of his divinity. All the other characters which served to prove his divinity are to be found concentrated in this Psalm: his generation from the bosom of his Father-a proof of his consubstantiality; his sitting at his right hand--a mark of equality; his existence anterior to all the stars—which expresses his eternity; his absolute empire over all kings and over all people--which belongs to the Divinity alone. We see here, moreover, his quality-of Eternal Priest, according to the order of Melchisedech-of supreme and universal Judge-of Conqueror of all his enemies, who lie crushed beneath his feet; lastly, his sufferings, by which it was said that he should enter into his glory. We should observe that the question here is of the Messiah alone. We must not seek here for mere types, for Jesus Christ formally excludes them all, and refutes beforehand all those who have since professed to discover them throughout all this Psalm. The modern Jews will no longer have it that the Messiah is the object of this divine Psalm. Their fathers, and especially those who lived in the time of Jesus Christ, never entertained a doubt on the subject.

minds of the people, the Saviour took the precaution to point out beforehand the distinction which should be made between actions and instructions, between the chair and him who sits therein. (a) "Then Jesus spoke to the multitude and to his disciples, and said to them in his doctrine: The Scribes and the Pharisees have sitten on the chair of Moses. All things, therefore, whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do; but according to their works do ye not, for they say and do not. They bind insupportable burdens and lay them on men's shoulders; but with a finger of their own they will not move them. And all their works they do for to be seen of men. For they make phylacteries (1) broad, and enlarge their fringes. They love the first places at feasts, and the first chairs in the synagogues, and salutations in the market-place, and to be · called by men, Rabbi. Who devour the houses of widows under the pretence of long prayer. These shall receive greater judgment, but be not you," added the Divine Master, then directing his discourse to the disciples alone, "be not you called Rabbi; for one is your master, and all you are brethren. And call none your father upon earth; for one is your father who is in heaven; neither be ye called masters, for one is your master, Christ."

This does not mean to convey that the Saviour here prohibits those titles which have been always in use, without any one ever thinking of being scandalized at them. But he wishes that, whilst we recognize fathers and masters upon earth, we should at the same time elevate our thoughts to the Father, by excellence, from whom comes all paternity in heaven and on earth, and to the first of all

(a) St. Matthew, xxiii. 1-10; St. Mark, xi. 38.

(1) This is a Greek word. Here is the way that we find the phylacteries described in the Notes of Richard Simon on the New Testament: "The phylacteries are made in order to preserve four sentences extracted from the law. These sentences were written upon parchment, and inclosed in black calf-skin, in a little square form, and this little square is between two strings, to which it is attached. When the Jews say their prayers, they bind their head with these strings, so that the square which is in the middle falls right down upon the forehead, hanging a little over the bridge of the nose; these are the phylacteries of the head: they also fix similar ones to the bend of the left arm. The Pharisees, in order to appear persons of greater worth, affected to have the phylacteries broader and larger than the other Jews."

masters, from whom proceedeth all light and all knowledge. For masters here below are but faint images of him, incapable of instructing us by themselves, and can only do it in a salutary way when they faithfully repeat the things which they have learned from him. This part of the instruction regards the common people; but it also had for its main object to warn the disciples beforehand against pharisaical pride, which ambitiously seeks these honorary titles, and takes pleasure therein. This is the reason why the Saviour concludes the instruction by these words: (a)" He that is greatest among you shall be your servant; and whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted."

Then returning to the Pharisees, from whom he had been withdrawn by this brief digression, he went on to add fresh reproaches to those which he had already heaped upon them, and forms from the whole, as it were, a cloud of anathemas, wherewith he is going to crush them in these tremendous words: "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men. For you yourselves do not enter in, and those that are going in you suffer not to enter (2). Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you devour the houses of widows (3), praying long prayers. For this ye shall receive the greater judgment. Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you go round about the sea and the land to make one proselyte; and when he is made, you make him the child of hell twofold more than yourselves (4). Woe to you, blind guides, who say: Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but he that shall swear by the (a) St. Matthew, xxiii. 11-39.

(2) See note 8, page 307, Part II.

(3) Why the widows more than any other women? Because they are usually more given to piety, and they are the mistresses of their own property. We see that the hypocrites have a fine opportunity here.

(4) It seems that the masters are more culpable than the disciples, and that a greater punishment is due to them. Yes, if the disciples do not become masters in their turn, which causes equality of malice in both parties, but very soon the disciples surpass the masters, because, in order to secure to themselves the merit of invention, they add additional dogmas to those which they have received, and they thus become worse than their

masters.

gold of the temple is a debtor. Ye foolish and blind; for whether is it greater, the gold, or the temple which sanctifieth the gold (5)? And whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gift upon it, is a debtor. Ye blind; for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? He, therefore, that sweareth by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things that are upon it; whosoever shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth in it; and he that sweareth by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you tithe mint, and anise, and cummin, and have left the weightier things of the law; judgment, and mercy, and faith. These things you ought to have done, and not leave those undone (6). Blind guides, you strain at a gnat and swallow a camel."

"Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you make clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but within you are full of extortion and uncleanness. Thou blind Pharisee, first make clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, that the outside become clean. Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you are like the whited sepulchres (7), which outwardly ap pear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones, and of all filthiness. So you also outwardly, indeed, appear to men just; but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity."

may

"Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who build the sepulchres of the prophets, and adorn the monuments of the just, and say: If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore you are witnesses against yourselves (8), that you are the sons of them who killed the prophets. Fill ye up, then, the measure of

(5) Many Pharisees belonged to the sacerdotal order; now amongst the oaths which were obligatory, some were profitable to the priests, and there were others from which they derived no advantage. This single difference constituted, according to the decisions of these worthy men, the whole difference between serious oaths and those which were of minor consequence.

(6) See page 305, Part II., and note 3, connected with the same passage.

(7) See page 305, Part II.

(8) See page 305, Part II.