Matthew 23:33

Ye serpents, &c.— See Luke 3:7. Men of warm tempers are apt to mistake this part of Christ's discourse; they fancy that his giving the Pharisees names expressive of their characters, and his denouncing woes against them, justifies those censorious judgments, which, without reason, or, it may be, contrary to reason, they pass on persons who happen to be at variance with them. It is very true that Jesus pronounced the Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites, blind guides, serpents, &c. and declared that they could not escape the damnation of hell; but it is equally true, that they were hypocrites and fools, as wicked as he has painted them, and that he knew them certainly to be such. Wherefore, till we can make it evident that we have the faculty of knowing men's hearts, which Christ possessed, we have no pretensions to imitate him in an action not designed for our imitation, being done by him as a prophet and in virtue of his prophetical gifts, or as God over all, not as an ordinary man. Instead of making free with the characters of others, as too many do, it is far safer, and in every respect better, both for ourselves and for society, that we keep close to the precept forbidding rash judgments, evil surmisings, and all backbitings. See ch. Matthew 7:1. The phrase Αποφυγειν κριμα, which is the same in sense with the original, rendered to escape the damnation, properly signifies, to evade conviction in a court of judicature; which is often done by the artifice of the criminal. See Raphaelius and Macknight.