Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

CHAPTER XXI. 319
coming; but tlien they could have had no Saviour.
This is a dreadful instance of forgetfulness and ingra-
titude, to ask who Christ is, after so many wonders
and miracles ! Such is the forgetfulness of a sinner,
who, having been healed and sanctified by his grace,
loses it afterwards through his ingratitude.
" 11. And the multitude said. This is Jesus the
prophet of Nazareth of Galilee."
The people are readier to acknowledge and con-
fess Jesus Christ than the great : but faith and piety,
which have not yet been tried, are very unsteadfast
and wavering. Those truths of the gospel, which,
in some season or other of their lives, many have
known and commended, will serve only to condemn
them at the judgment of God.
Sect. II.— The Buyers and Sellers cast out of the
Temple. Little Children commended.
" 12. f And Jesus went into the temple of God,
and cast out all them that sold and bought in the
temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-
changers, and the seats of them that sold doves,"
Avarice, covered with the veil of religion, is one
of those things upon which Christ looks with the
greatest indignation in his church. It is a sure
mark of the terrible punishments which he reserves
for the profaners of his true temple the church, that
he suflPers in it those whose very shadow and figure
he would not suffer in the Jewish temple. Mer-
chandise of holy things, simoniacal presentations,
fraudulent exchanges, a mercenary spirit in sacred
functions; ecclesiastical employments, obtained by
flattery, service, or attendance, or by any thing which