conceiving that either of those events could ever take place, cried, " God forbid!" Our Lord, in reply, re- ferred them to their own Scriptures, and added a most awful declaration of his own, in order that he might impress the passage more deeply on their minds. We shall consider,
I. The passage appealed to —
The words in their primary sense refer to Davidb — But they most undoubtedly have a reference to Christ also —
[Christ is represented in Scripture as the stone that should both support and connect the Church of Godc : and the passage referred to in the text particularly declared, that he should be rejected by the very persons whose duty it was to edify and build up the Church. It announced however the determination of God to frustrate their designs, and to establish him as the head of the corner in spite of all their endeavours to destroy him. In this view the passage is quoted no less than six times in the New Testament: and its full accomplishment was triumphantly proclaimed before the very builders who had rejected himd — ]
The particular manner in which our Lord appealed to them is worthy of notice —
[He " beheld" the objectors with a mixture of indigna- tion and pity. He referred them to the words as to a passage well known among them, and generally considered even among themselves as applicable to the Messiah. His very look, to- gether with the pointed manner of his address, intimated to them, that they were at that moment ignorantly fulfilling that prophecy, and that nothing but the most inveterate prejudice could induce them to persist one moment longer in such glaring impiety.]
The importance of this appeal will more strongly appear, if we consider,
II. The declaration founded upon it —
b David's establishment on the throne of Israel had been opposed to the uttermost : Saul had laboured incessantly to kill him : after the death of Saul, two tribes only acknowledged him as their king : it. was seven years before the other tribes became subject to him : and then all the surrounding nations sought his destruction. But God made him triumphant over all : in remembrance of which mercy he penned the words before us. See Ps. cxviii. 10, 22.
c Isai. xxviii. 16. d Acts ii. 36. and iv. 11, 12.