days were coming, when they who accounted barren- ness so great a calamity, should congratulate them- selves upon it; and when, to be crushed to death under rocks and mountains, instead of being dreaded, should be coveted as a blessingV His own suffer- ings were indeed great : but, says he, " If these things be done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?"
Under this proverbial expression he conveyed, I. A prophetic intimation to that peculiar people —
They were now committing a greater sin than had ever yet been committed on the face of the earth —
[All other sins were light in comparison of this. Nothing had he done among them, but good. Not one amongst them could lay any sin to his charge. His very judge proclaimed his innocence. Yet did they, even the whole nation, rise against him, to put him to death : and when, by reason of their sub- jection to the Romans, they were unable to gratify their malice to the extent they wished, they delivered him up to the Roman governor, and, by their importunities and threats, compelled him to put him to death. In executing this sentence, they loaded him with every species of indignity, and strove by all possible means to aggravate his sufferings to the uttermost. Hence it may be said of him, " Never was sorrow like unto his sorrow."]
And for this they were doomed to suffer a heavier punishment than had ever been inflicted on any other nation under heaven —
[They were thus ripening themselves for vengeance, which was soon to come upon them to the uttermost. And it was to be inflicted by the instrumentality of that very people by whom they were now wreaking their vengeance upon him. They had proposed to put Jesus to death, " lest the Romans should come and take away their place and nation." And God awarded to them, as their punishment, that very judgment which they had sought to avert. Into the hands of the Romans he delivered them ; and not less than one million one hundred thousand of them were slain in the siege : the rest were carried captive, or sold for slaves: and from that day to this have their afflictions been continued, with a severity which has marked, in a peculiar manner, the wrath of Almighty God against them. To this hour are they " a reproach, and a hissing," in every quarter of
b ver. 28 — 30.