John ii. 18, 19. Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things ? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
THE work of reformation usually involves in dif- ficulties those who undertake it. They who are the objects of it, however justly reproved, are sure to take offence, and to condemn the zeal which censures
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them. No one can doubt but that the turning of God's House into a place of merchandize was a very shameful practice ; or, that to suppress it was highly commendable : yet, when our blessed Lord exerted his authority to check this abuse, the people, instead of applauding his zeal, expressed great dissatisfaction, and demanded of him, what right he had to interfere in that matter. The very awe which was impressed on all their minds, whereby they were constrained to yield to the rebukes of a poor man unsupported by any human authority, might have convinced them, that a power more than human existed in the person of the Lord Jesus : and, if they had taken occasion to make inquiries respecting him in a becoming spirit, he would no doubt have given them all reasonable satisfaction : but, as their demands arose from mere petulance, he declined satisfying them by any fresh miracle, and referred them to an event yet distant, which, when accomplished, should be a perfect answer to every inquiry.
To place this matter in a just point of view, we shall shew,
I. To what event our Lord referred —
The occasion on which the words were spoken, will reflect considerable light on the words themselves. It was common with our Lord to make the things which were immediately before him subservient to his purpose of conveying spiritual instruction : and this he did on the present occasion. He had purged the temple from the abuses to which it had been exposed. The act itself, all things considered, was miraculous. A miracle was required of him to prove his right to exercise such authority: but he, not choosing to gra- tify this unreasonable demand, told the Jews, that, as they had defiled the material temple, so they would destroy the temple of his body: and that, as he had purged the one, so he would in three days rebuild and restore the other : and that this latter miracle would abundantly vindicate his claim to the authority he used.
VOL. XIII. it