Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

368 ST, MATTHEW.
his truth, nor its own duty ! O
miserable heart be mine !
Let
Jesus, let not this
it never lose sight
of thee. Let thy light continually shine upon it.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Sect. I.— T/ie Destruction of the Temple. De-
ceivers. Wars. Famine.
" L And Jesus went out, and departed from the
temple : and his disciples came to him, for to show
him the buildings of the temple."
Jesus Christ, by going now the last time out of
the temple, denotes the reprobation of the Jews.
He bears with the curiosity of his disciples, to teach
us how to make that of our friends subservient to
their instruction and edification. It is a very extra-
ordinary talent, to know how to improve every un-
profitable part of conversation to the advantage of
religion, by taking occasion from thence still to men-
tion something which is edifying, and to sow the
seed of some beneficial truth.
" 2. And Jesus said unto them. See ye not all
these things ? Verily I say unto you. There shall
not be left here one stone upon another, that shall
not he thrown down."
This temple was destroyed, justly, on the account
of the sins of the Jews; mercifully, to take away
from them the occasion of continuing in Judaism ;
and mysteriously, to show that the ancient sacrifices
were abolished, and that the Jewish worship was
ceased. If God spared not his own temple, what
will become of those profane edifices, built and