Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

364 ST. MATTHEW.
rupt heart, under the veil of a false righteousness :
there being nothing more apt to increase pride, and
to render it incurable. If the best of men find so
much difficulty in weaning themselves from the vain
desire of the esteem of the world; how shall a hypo-
crite ever recover from it, whose whole application
and only study it is to attract and secure it
*' 29. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hy-
pocrites ! because ye build the tombs of the prophets,
and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, 30. 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. 31. Wherefore ye be witnesses
unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them
which killed the prophets."
The Pharisees thought themselves very far from
the injustice and cruelty of those who had killed the
prophets; and yet were themselves at the same time
contriving the death of Christ. Let men condemn
the conduct of the wicked ever so much with their
mouth; if they imitate it, they approve it. They
who praise the saints, and yet persecute those who
resemble them, arraign themselves. Men are ready
enough to extol the righteous of former ages, and to
blame their persecutors; there being now nothing to
fear or hope from those who are dead. But for the
sake of a very small interest, they will, without any
scruple, join with the world against good men of the
present age. Grant, Lord, that our opinions and
conduct may be directed by thy word and interests,
and not by the corruption of our own heart, or by
the spirit of the world.