Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

366 ST. MATTHEW.
try, when he bestows on it some eminent saints,
some pastors full of zeal, wisdom, and knowledge
but wo to those who, by persecuting these saints
and pastors, change this favour and blessing into
judgment and malediction. All private persons con-
tribute to this misfortune by their sins, and therefore
they ought all to avert it by their repentance.
" 35. That upon you may come all the righteous
blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righ-
teous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Bara-
chias, whom ye slew between the temple and the
altar."
The resemblance which the crimes of children
bear to those of their fathers, draws upon them the
same punishments. There is, in the life of a wicked
man, a chain of sins linked one to another, from the
beginning to the end of it, which altogether cause
his reprobation : so in proportion in a nation, in a
community, and particularly in the body of the Jews.
Abel, the first righteous man, slain by his brother
out of envy, and 21acharias the priest, stoned on the
account of his zeal in speaking the truth, are two
figures of Jesus Christ, and of the causes of his
death.
"3G. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall
come upon this generation."
So terrible is the justice of God, that when he
punishes a sinner, he seems to punish all sins in
him. God in mercy foretells his judgments, con-
firms the prediction by a kind of oath, represents the
rigour, and points out the time of them; but the
sinner's obduracy turns this mercy into a new treasure
of wrath.