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The second crime which Christ reproves in these men, is their grand hypocrisy, in pretending great honor to the saints departed, building their tombs, and garnishing their sepulchres, declaiming against their fathers' impiety, that had they lived in their days, they would not have been partakers with them in their sins.
Now their hypocrisy appeared in three particulars:
1. In that they continued in their own wickedness, and yet commended the saints departed; they magnify the saints, but multiply their sins, and instead of imitating their virtues, they content themselves with garnishing their sepulchres.
2. In professing great respect to the dead saints, and at the same time, persecuting the living. Palpable hypocrisy! And yet, as gross as it is, it prevails to this day. The church of Rome, which magnifies martyrs, canonizes saints departed, have added to their number, by shedding of their blood.
3. In taking false measures of their love to the saints departed, from their building their tombs, and garnishing their sepulchres. Whereas the best evidence of our love to them, is the imitating their virtues, and cherishing their followers. It is gross hypocrisy to pay respect to the relics of saints, and veneration to their images, and at the same time to persecute and hate their followers.
From the whole, note, 1. That the world has all along loved dead saints better than living ones. The dead saint's example, how bright soever, is not scorching and troublesome at a distance, and he himself stands no longer in other men's light; whereas the living saint's example is a cutting reproof to sin and vice.
Note, 2. That there is a certain civility in human nature, which leads men to a just commendation of the dead; and to due estimation of their worth. The Pharisees here, though they persecuted the prophets while alive, yet did they pretend to a mighty veneration for their piety and virtue after they were dead, and thought no honor too great to be done unto them.
Note, 3. That it is the greatest hypocrisy imaginable to pretend to love goodness, and at the same time to hate and persecute good men. These Pharisees and lawyers pretended high to piety and religion, and at the same time killed the prophets.
Note, 4. That the highest honor we can pay to the saints departed, is not by raising monuments, and building tombs to their memory, but by a careful imitation of their piety and virtue, following the holiness of their lives, and their patience and constancy at their death.
Lastly learn, that it is a righteous thing with God to punish children for the impiety of their parents when they walk in their ungodly parents' footsteps: upon you shall come the blood of all the prophets, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zacharias: yet must this be understood of temporal evils, not of eternal punishments; no man for his father's sins shall lie down in everlasting burnings: as our fathers; faith will not let us into heaven, so neither will their impiety shut us into hell. At the day ofjudgement every man shall be separately considered according to his own deeds.