Quaker Bible Index

(Mat 23)

IP1:208-210 (1659): [mini-commentary on Mat 23, with emphasis on 23:13 (q.v)]

(Mat 23:2f)

JN2:176 (1655): And thou says ... Christ bids them hear the hypocritical Pharisees, and observe to do as they bid you [Mat 23:3].... He bade hear them, because they sat in Moses' seat [Mat 23:2] and read the letter truly without adding [Deut 4:2]. But you are neither set in Moses' seat nor Christ's, but run in you own imaginations, till neither law nor gospel-letter will warrant any one thing of your worship – matter nor manner, means nor maintenance....

(Mat 23:3) [may be confl with Jas 1:22]

[Other texts citing Mat 23:3: GF7:22 (Jas 1:22), GF7:162f (under Mat 6:12)]

(Mat 23:4 | Luk 11:46)

[Other texts citing Mat 23:4: JN2:4 (under Mat 6:5)]

GF3:16f (Edward Burrough, 1659): But we beheld how unrighteousness and iniquity, and sin and wickedness were strengthened and encouraged in the government, and by such as were in authority; ... so that we could truly cry, truth was fallen in the streets, and justice and true judgment turned backward, and equity had no place to enter [Isa 59:14], and the innocent were devoured through want of true and just judgment, and the needy were spoiled and made a prey [Isa 10:2]. For no sooner had we opened our mouths, but the magistrates began to put us in prison, and execute great injustice upon us, and became oppressors of the innocent, and laid unjust burdens upon us, grievous to be borne [Mat 23:4 | Luk 11:46]....

GF7:94f (1655): And take heed of forward minds, and of running out before your guide [Gen 10:9], for that leads out into looseness; and such plead for liberty, and run out in their wills, and bring dishonour to the Lord [Rom 2:23]; and the unbridled will gets at liberty, and an exalted spirit gets up, and pride, and haughtiness, and high words. And such are they who add to the burden, and do not take it off [Mat 23:4].

(Mat 23:5-7 | Mar 12:38f | Luk 20:46) often in conjunction with "stand praying in the synagogues", Mat 6:5

GF3:146 (1659): They that pray for money, and preach for money [Mic 3:11], and get up a pulpit, and plead Ezra's example [Neh 8:4], they might have pleaded that the Pharisees had the chiefest seat [Mat 23:6 | Mar 12:39 | Luk 20:46]! They are ignorant of Christ, the light, the life, and the power; who came to put an end to Ezra, and the pulpit both; who preached up and down the mountains and wilderness, and denied the Pharisees' praying [Mat 23:14 | Mar 12:40 | Luk 20:47], and all that are got up there without the power. And that is antichrist that is got up in the long robe, praying for money, and pleads Ezra's pulpit; and saith "It is a civil honour to be called of men master" [Mat 23:7], and so slights and transgresses Christ's commands, and calls it civil respect....

GF7:46f (1653): Where are the covetous teachers now [Mic 3:11]? Who are called of men master now? Who love the chiefest places of the assemblies now? Who go in long robes now? [Mat 23:5-7 | Mar 12:38f | Luke 20:46] Who stand praying in the synagogues now [Mat 6:5], and speak a divination of their own brain [Jer 14:14], which the wo was pronounced against by Christ Jesus, (the substance of all the prophecies,) who cried wo against all such Pharisees and false prophets?

JN1:180 (1653): And as for your ordinances you cry up so much, are these they, to set up a proud man, called by you "master", in the highest place [Mat 23:5-7 ||] in the idol's temple [1 Cor 8:10], preaching always from a verse of another man's condition but not fulfilled in himself; raising points, reasons, objections, and uses, a divination of his own brain [Jer 14:14], but not from the mouth of the Lord; adding and diminishing to the Scripture [Deut 4:2]; sprinkling of infants and calling it baptizing into Christ; singing David's conditions in rhymes; telling people of a sacrament, and observing of times [Gal 4:10], doing all for tithes or money [Mic 3:11], living in pride, fulness [Ezek 16:49], and covetounsness, and many more like things, never used by any that ever Christ sent?

JN1: 397f (John Audland, 1654): Proud Haman sought to slay Mordecai because he did not bow to him, according to the king's commandment [Est 3:2-6], for he had received the law from God [Deut 6:13 LXX], which seed will not bow to the devil [Mat 4:9f ||]; the chief priests, who were called of men master, and had the chiefest place in the assemblies and stood praying, and went in long robes [Mat 23:5-7, Mat 6:5], these called Christ a blasphemer [Mat 9:3]....

(Mat 23:7-10)

These verses are often conflated. GF: "Be not ye of men [10:7] called master [10:10], for ye have one master, even Christ [8, 10], and ye are all brethren [8]."

[Other texts citing Mat 23:7-10: GF4:361: (under Mat 20:25f), GF5:46 (1 Pet 5:1-3), GF6:468 (Jas 3:1)]

GF3:159 (1659): Here under the wo of Christ thou art come; who said, "Woe unto them that were called of men master [Mat 23:7];" and said to his disciples, "It shall not be so among you [Mat 20:26], for ye have all one master, which is Christ [Mat 23:8,10]," and they abode in his doctrine. And we do not read of Mr. Paul, Mr. Peter, Timothy, or Titus, or Mr. James or John; but among you, the apostates, we read of such titles.

JN1:520 (1655): And whereas you say you hold the head [Col 2:19], the Lord Jesus, it is false; for they who hold him for their head, the Lord and Master, denied to be called masters themselves among the saints, or of the world, but owned one master [Mat 23:8,10], which is the head, which is Christ [Eph 4:15], and they were all breathren [Mat 23:8], neither did they exercise authority one over the other as the heathen do [Mat 20:25], neither were they bowed to, and worshiped with cap and knee, as you are, and do to others....

SIW 92 (Sarah Tuke Grubb and Mary Proud, 1782): in the promise of the restoration to Israel, it was said, “I will turn to the people a pure language” [Zeph 3:9] and knowing that this gospel day is still more glorious than that, if we did but live in the light thereof, which would clearly discover to us the corrupt source of flattering titles [Job 32:21f], and of seeking to gratify the vain mind of man, how can we, without sacrificing the principle of truth, which leads and guides into all truth [John 16:13], give up that pure language to which our forefathers were turned, and adopt the unsound words of You to a single person; and calling the days of the week and months by the heathen names; and those, our masters and mistresses, who are not really so; forgetting the command to call no man master [Mat 23:7-10?]?

(Mat 23:8)

GF7:85 (1654): And the everlasting command of the royal seed is, to love enemies [Mat 5:44], (which the Jews were allowed to destroy,) for ye are all brethren [Mat 23:8], not ruling in lordship, like Jews and Gentiles, but the greatest shall be as the least among you Mat 23:11]; for the seed is one in all, and that is the master, who destroyeth the devil [Heb 2:14].

WPR 580, WPT 366 (1694): Not to respect persons [Jas 2:9], was another of their doctrines and practices, for which they were often buffeted and abused. They affirmed it to be sinful to give flattering titles [Job 32:21f], or to use vain gestures and compliments of respect; though to virtue and authority they ever made a difference [deference], but after their plain and homely manner, yet sincere and substantial way; well remembering the example of Mordecai [Est 3:2] and Elihu [Job 32:21f], who forbade his followers to call men Rabbi [Mat 23:8], which implies Lord and Master, also the fashionable greetings and salutations of those times; that so self-love and honour, to which the proud mind of man is incident, in his fallen estate, might not be indulged but rebuked.

(Mat 23:9)

JN1:104 (1653): O false accusers! where do any walk stubbornly against their parents? but for conscience sake they cannot yield to those things which carnally they would have them act, as follow the worship of the world without them and not worship God in Spirit [John 4:23f], and set up your teachers of the world. God hath raised up a light in many young children, draws them to himself [margin: Luk 1:17, Mat 21:16, Mat 11:25], and you spew forth your venom against them ... because they will not hold you up, and now when you are like to fall. If Christ's words should be fulfilled where he saith, Call no man father on earth [Mat 23:9], and he that loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me [Mat 10:37], what would you say to that? (more)

JWJM 203 (1754): Though different degrees and a variety of qualifications and abilities, one dependent on another, be admitted, yet high thoughts will be laid aside, and all men treated as becometh the sons of one Father, agreeable to the doctrine of Christ Jesus [Mat 23:9].

(Mat 23:11)

GF7:85: [Mat 23:11, see under Mat 23:8]

(Mat 23:13-29 refrains)

GFJN 460 (1664): Preston said he would have an Independent, a Quaker, an Anabaptist, and a Presbyterian to interpret that scripture which said, "Woe be to the scribes and pharisees, hypocrites [Mat 23:13, etc., refrain]." I told him I would do it quickly, for the Jews they had the law and would not do it. The woe was unto them. The Christians they have Christ’s words, and the Apostles’ which saith, Love enemies [Mat 5:44| Luk 6:27,35] and love one another [John 13:34, 1 Jn 3:11, other places]. Now judge yourselves in this case.

(Mat 23:13 | cf Luk 11:52)

[Other texts citing Mat 23:13: JN2: 462 (John 14:6), JN2:544 (under Heb 4:3), IP1:210 (Mat 8:11f), EQ 99f (John 1:9)]

GF3:130f (1659): The light which enlightens every man [John 1:9], &c. leads from all idolatry.... And every man that comes into the light which he is enlightened with, is in that which was before any natural lights were: and the natural lights are the sun, the moon, and the stars [Gen 1:16]. And they delude and deceive people that say, the light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world is a natural light, and they keep people in idolatry; and so shut up the kingdom against men, and go not in themselves, nor suffer others [Mat 23:13]; for all idolatry is out of the light.

JN1:292 (1654): Is not Christ the end of the scriptures? And where he is come and manifest, are they not fulfilled in whom he is, who is the end of law and gospel, whereof thou art ignorant who puts it off till the next age, as thy fathers have always done? But the children of light see him present now and hear his voice today; but thou who denies the light art hardened through thy pride and riches and cannot enter, neither would thou suffer others; and woe unto thee who would shut up the kingdom against this generation [Mat 23:13].

RBA 449 (1678, XV.7): This certainly betokens a sad apostasy in those that will be accounted Christians, that they are so offended with those who love to follow Christ and his apostles, in denying of, and departing from, the lying vanities [Psa 31:6] of this perishing world, and so doth much evidence their affinity with such as hate to be reproved [Prov 15:10], and neither will enter themselves nor suffer those that would [Mat 23:13].

(Mat 23:14 | Mar 12:40 | Luk 20:47)

[Other texts citing GF3:146: Mat 23:14 (under Mat 23:5-7)]

GF7:133 (1657): Friends,—Know the praying in the spirit, and with the understanding [1 Cor 14:15]; then ye will come to know the sighs and groans that cannot be uttered [Rom 8:26]. For such as have not the spirit that gave forth the scriptures to guide them, are as the Pharisees were, in the long prayers, and in the wrath, and in the doubting, and do not lift up holy hands [1 Tim 2:8]. This makes a difference between praying in the spirit, and the Pharisees' long prayers, that devoured widows' houses [Mat 23:14 | Mar 12:40 | Luke 20:47].

JN1:494 (1655): And prayer we own which is with the Spirit [1 Cor 14:14]; and as the Spirit helps our infirmities [Rom 8:36], so we ask and receive of the Father [John 16:2], and deny the vain babblings [1 Tim 6:20, 2 Tim 2:16] of you heathen and you that "under pretence make long prayers [Mat 23:4]."

TEM 114 (1667): These grind the poor; the needy these oppress [Isa 3:15]; / Widows devour [Mat 23:14]; tread on the fatherless; /Far from themselves they put the evil day [Amos 6:3], /Remove impending judgments far away; / And yet in vain they strive t’escape the stroke / Of that just God whom boldly they provoke.

(Mat 23:15)

[Other texts citing (Mat 23:15: IP1:419 (John 1:46)]

GF3:197 (1659): The devil that compasseth the earth [Job 1:7G], wandered from the truth [John 8:44]; the Pharisees compass sea and land [Mat 23:15]; the false prophets and antichrists have gone over nations [1 Jn 4:1]: now all these may get scriptures, but are out of the life of them. Such make proselytes, devils, disciples, and messengers; but such as are in the power of God, and the life that gave forth scriptures, that comprehends and fathoms the world, they are in that which the devils [etc.] are out of.

GF6:274 (1684): Where do you ever read, that the Jews, when they had conquered any nation or kingdom, did by law force them to the Jewish religion, or to be circumcised? Or that they cast them into prison, if they would not join with them in their divine service? Though Christ said, "they compassed sea and land to make proselytes" [Mat 23:15]; yet where to ye read, they made them by force, or they became proselytes to save their goods, or keep themselves out of prison?

JN1:392 (1654): Ye charge us, "With compassing sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made he is twofold more the child of hell than he was [Mat 23:15]." I answer, our endeavours is to call people out of their sins, not in shows but in reality, as many will witness with us; but your pleading is to persuade people that they must never overcome their sins. Now who makes proselytes the children of hell but they that keep them in the works of the devil [1 Jn 3:8]; and they that preach such doctrine are they that poison the hearts; but to turn from sin unto God is to purify and not to poison.

(Luk 11:52 | cf Mat 23:13)

[Other texts citing Luk 11:52: IP4:147 (under 2 Pet 3:16)]

GF3:236 (1659): And that which opens the scriptures is the spirit that gave them forth [2 Pet 1:21], that is the key of David [Isa 22:22, Rev 3:7], who in the light saw more light [Psa 36:9].... And you that are in the apostacy since the days of the apostles, want the key, and have taken away the key of knowledge [Luk 11:52]. And all that dwell on earth, that stop their ears, and close their eyes against that of God in them [Rom 1:19], that deny the light that doth enlighten every man that cometh into the world [John 1:9], want the key of knowledge.

IP1:58 (1658): Ye have forgotten God; ye have lost the true line of judgment [Isa 28:17]; ye have lost the key of knowledge [Luk 11:52]; and the light that is in you is darkness [Mat 6:23], and leads to darkness, though ye cannot possibly believe it. Oh! come back to the remembrance of God, and to true holiness, without which no man shall see him [Heb 12:14]. For the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God [Psa 9:17]; and ye have forgotten him days without number [Jer 2:32].

(Mat 23:16-22)

GF3: 300 (1659): Did ever the prophets swear by Moses’ words? or Moses by Enoch’s? Or the apostles by the prophets’, or Christ’s words? Now is not this a frivolous oath to swear by the bible, which says, "Swear not at all [Mat 5:34, Jas 5:12]? And worse than the Jews that swore by the temple [Mat 23:16], who were to swear by the Lord [Deut 6:13], and to perform the oath to him [Num 30:2]? Which oath Christ ended.... And do not you that swear by the bible, swear by all that is contained in it, as the Jews swore by the temple [Mat 23:16-22]? And so hath not the bible judged you?

RBA 457 (1678, XV.11): ...it is most evident that Christ forbids somewhat that was permitted under the Law, to wit, to swear by the Name of God [Deu 6:13], because it was not lawful for any man to swear but by God himself, and because he saith, "neither by heaven, because it is the throne of God [Mat 5:34]," therefore he excludes all other oaths [cites Mat 23:16-22, quotes 23:22].

(Mat 23:16)

[Other texts citing (Mat 23:16: IP1:419 (John 1:46)]

GF3:528 (1659): If the evil spirit be reasonable, thou puttest no difference between the precious and the vile [Jer 15:19]; thou hast the mark of a blind guide, and a false prophet in the forehead [Mat 23:16/Rev 14:9; more under Rev 14:9]

GF4:355 (1668): And did not Christ say that the persecuting priests and pharisees were "blind guides, and led the blind into the ditch"? [Mat 23:16/Mat 15:14 – common conflation]

GFT 113 (1675): They say that prophecy is ceased, they may as well say all men are blind nowadays. A prophet is a seer. "What, sight of my Way ceased? Ceased from them that be blind guides [Mat 23:16, 24]."

JN2:60 (1655): And what eyes was Paul to open in the Gentiles [Acts 26:18]? Was it not an eye within? Or was he but only to preach to men outwardly blind? Here thou hast manifested thyself to be a blind guide [Mat 23:16], who has not a witness of God in thee [1 Jn 5:10] thou knowest of to exercise thy conscience towards God and man [Acts 24:16], therefore the devil has his will in thee, lying, slandering, and false accusing, calling the inward man [2 Cor 4:16] in the saints Satan, or some of his legions.

(Mat 23:23 | Luk 11:42)

GF4:181 (1659): were not all your tythes, oblations, obventions, glebe-lands, your tythe-herbs and eggs, and mints, and sage, and rue [Mat 23:23 | Luk 11:42], and beasts, and doves, and tythe-fish and fowls, and tythe-corn and hay, and wool, and pigs, and chickens, and smoke-penny, and plough-penny, gardens, and bees, and apples, and plums, and all other tythes? was this not set up by your mother-church at Rome, which you say is the whore?

(Mat 23:24)

GFT 113: [Mat 23:24, see under Mat 23:16]

(Mat 23:25-27 | Luk 11:39)

MFU 87 (1654): ...turn in & wait upon the Lord within you, & that light of God will discover unto you all your former ways, & it will let you see that all this while you have been making clean the outside of the cup & plates, as the pharisees did which Christ cried woe against [Mat 23:25], and within all filthiness & rottenness [Mat 23:27]....

(Mat 23:25f | Luk 11:39)

[Other texts citing Mat 23:25f: WTG 64 (Heb 8:2)]

WPR 570, WPT 347 (1694): Then signs, types, and shadows flew away [Song 2:17], the day having discovered their insufficiency in not reaching to the inside of the cup [Luk 11:39 | Mat 23:35f], to the cleansing of the conscience; and all elementary services were expired in and by him that is the Substance of all.

(Mat 23:26 | cf Luk 11:40f)

MFU 264: [Other texts citing Mat 23:26: GF3:502f (under Luk 17:10), MFU 264 (Mar 4:21)]

IP3:75 (1668): The stony, hard, desperately wicked heart must be taken away, and the tender heart of flesh received [Ezek 11:19], the mind renewed to God [Rom 12:2], the fear put within [Jer 32:40] (which cleanseth and keepeth clean [2 Cor 7:1]), the law written within, the Spirit of the Lord put in the inward parts [Jer 31:33], and felt powerfully operating and changing there. Yea, and the inside must not only be clean, but the outside also [Mat 23:26]; for ye must be clothed with the Spirit, clothed with the Lamb’s righteousness and holiness [Eph 4:24?]....

(Mat 23:27)

GF7:98 (1655): And now are the whited walls [Acts 23:3] seen, and the painted sepulchres, who garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and build the tombs of the prophets, full of dead men's bones [Mat 23:27BT, 29].

MFU 161 (1656): But thou enemy of God slays the Just [Jas 5:6], and garnisheth his sepulcher [Mat 23:29], thou art the grave that men goes over [Luk 11:44], who art full of rottenness & dead men’s bones, corrupt & filthy [Mat 23:27]. But the Lord God will be avenged of thee who hath slain the prophet [Mat 23:34,37], and beaten his Son and would also kill the heir [Mat 21:32-41].

IP1:24 (1658): A corrupt profession, corrupt doctrines, may paint, and make a man to himself seem changed; but the corruption still lodges within, which a spiritual eye can easily discern, though he that is in the corruption cannot. The Pharisees seemed glorious to themselves; but Christ saw through them [Mat 23:27].

Humphrey Smith, "To the Musicioners" (1658, online): the musicioners were of Cain's seed, and that which slays the man of sorrows [Isa 53:3], invents, set up and delights in the instruments of music; and the father of all such was Jubal [Gen 4:21], the seed of Cain, who built a city [Gen 4:17], and so was a rich man, and his seed delighted in music, and so his seed, who are begotten from the Lord, are building cities, strong holds, high and large houses, with painted parlours, and then set up the instruments of music, in the ceiled houses without [Hag 1:4], and within themselves full of rottenness [Mat 23:27], or as a cage of unclean spirits [Rev 18:2], whereby the just is murdered [Jas 5:6], and the house lie waste [Hag 1:4] and desolate, as to the life of God, which should be the temple of the Holy Ghost.... [more under Gen 4:21]

(Mat 23:29-36 | Luk 11:49-51)

GF7:47 (1653): So, here be ye witnesses against yourselves, that ye are in the generation of Cain, which ever slew the righteous seed [Mat 23:31-35]; and in the generation of all the false prophets. Put it not far from you, as they did who put Christ to death. If thou hadst lived at that day, (thou mayst say,) thou wouldst not have put Christ to death [cf Mat 23:30]. But thou shalt see the same nature in thee now, as was then. For now is the son of God come; and ye are of the same generation that they were, seeking to put him to death where he is manifest.

RBA 389f, RBAF 343f (1678, XIII.5): ... if they [take outward communion] without that due preparation and examination which every religious act ought to be performed in, then instead of truly remembering the Lord’s death, and his body and his blood, they render themselves guilty of it, as being in one spirit with those that crucified them, and shed his blood, though pretending with thanksgiving and joy to remember it. Thus the scribes and Pharisees of old, though in memory of the prophets they garnished their sepulchres, yet are said by Christ to be "guilty of their blood" [Mat 23:29-36; 1 Cor 11:27].

(Mat 23:29-33 | Luk 11:47-49)

JN1:60: [Mat 23:29-33, see under Gen 4:8f]

(Mat 23:29)

[Other texts citing Mat 23:29: GF3:369f (under Mat 10:37), GF7: 98, MFU 161 (Mat 23:27), GFT 218 (Mat 1:23)]

(Mat 23:30)

IP1:342 (1660): Ah! how did the Jews cry out against their fathers for killing the prophets, and verilhy thought if they had lived in their days, they should by no means have done it [Mat 23:30]: and yet the same spirit was in them, though they saw it not, but thought themselves far from it. That which blinded them was a wrong knowledge of the Scriptures, and a great zeal and devotion about their temple, worship, and ordinances, without a sensible feeling of the guidance of God’s spirit.

(Mat 23:32)

[Other texts citing Mat 23:32: JN2:287 (under Luk 13:16), JN3:95 (Gen 15:16)]

JN1:67 (1653): The fathers commit cruelty and oppression in heaping together [Jas 5:3f], and the children commit filthiness in spending it upon their lusts [Jas 4:3]. And thus the children eat up the sins of their fathers [Jer 31:29] and fill up the measure of their fathers’ iniquity [Mat 23:32].

HPS 192 (Katharine Evans and Sarah Chevers, prisoners of the Inquisition, 1662): The diviners did wax mad [Isa 44:25], and did run at their wits end, from mountain to hill [Jer 50:6], and from hill to mountain, to cover them [Hos 10:8 / Luk 23:30]: They ran to the Inquisitor, and writ to the Pope, and went to him; their king did not hide them at all; some of them did gnash with their teeth, and even gnaw their tongues for pain [Rev 16:10]: Yet the rest would not repent of their blasphemy, sorcery, nor enchantments, but do post on to fill up their measures [Mat 23:32]; Oh! the Lord reward them according to their works [2 Tim 4:14].

(Mat 23:32f)

JN2:229 (1655): ...you are but imitators, and out of the life and power, and so lead one another into forms and traditions, but deny the power [2 Tim 3:5] which should give you victory over sin in this world; ... that you look for in another world, but in the meantime go on to fill up the measure of your fathers, and so go to the grave in fear and torment [Mat 23:32f].

(Mat 23:33)

GFJN 30 (16–): So I saw, it was the fallen man that was got up into the scriptures, and was finding fault with those before mentioned; and with the backsliding Jews, calling them the sturdy oaks, tall cedars, fat bulls of Bashan, wild heifers [Zech 11:2/Isa 2:13/Jer 50:11/Ezek 39:18], vipers, serpents [Mat 23:33], &c.... But when these ... came ... with the light of Christ thoroughly to search themselves, they might see enough of this in themselves; then the cry could not be, it is he or they, but I and we are found in these conditions.

GF3:439 (1659): The scripture saves not instrumentally, but as men are in the faith; and men know not salvation, but as they are in the life which gave the scriptures forth, and Christ, the saviour they speak of; and there is the instrumental saving that the scripture owns, for Christ asked them that had the scriptures how they could escape the damnation of hell [Mat 23:33], that were out of the life.

(Mat 23:34)

MFU 161: [Mat 23:34, see under Mat 23:27]

(Mat 23:35)

[Other texts citing Mat 23:35: GF3:538 (Mat 26:14- 16), GF4:243 (Mat 27:8), GF4:315 (Gen 4:10)]

GF3:522 (1659): Here all may see that you are doing the devil’s work, hunting after blood, whose envy, madness, and folly appear to all men. What ye cannot do yourselves, ye exhort the people to do; what ye and the people cannot do, ye petition the magistrates to do, that all unrighteous blood may come upon you, Mat 23:35.

GF4: 354 (1668): The children of Israel were oppressed under Pharaoh; mind the end of that oppressor [Exo 14:28]. And Elijah was persecuted by Jezebel; mind the persecutor’s end [2 Ki 9:30-37]. And the prophet was threatened by Jeroboam [1 Ki 3:1-4]; Zachary was stoned to death for his religion [2 Chr 24:20f, Mat 23:35] (There follow many other examples from various biblical sources, Heb 11:37, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, etc.)

HPS 138 (Dorothy White, 1662): O London, thy streets are risen like Sodom whom the Lord God destroyed [Gen 19:1-29], and thy inhabitants abound in iniquity like unto Gomorrah; the blood of the righteous cryeth in thy streets [Mat 23:35/Gen 4:10/Prov 1:20?]....

(Luk 11:50f | cf Mat 23:35f)

[Other texts citing Luk 11:50f: GF4:243 (under Mat 27:8)]

IP1:166 (1659): The work of the minister of Christ is to keep the conscience tender, that the voice of Christ may be heard, and the law of his spirit of life [Rom 8:2] (which makes obedient to the God of life) spring up there: but this is the image, here is the way, bow, conform [cf Isa 30:21], say the ministers of antichrist. But we are not convinced in the sight of God that this is the way, say the poor souls. It is your own fault; ye may be convinced if you will, say the ministers of antichrist.... Ye must be convinced, otherwise the magistrate must deal with you. Thus they endeavor to harden the conscience, that they may sit upon it and ride it, and terrify it from its subjection to its only true and lawful king. Oh, the havoc that hath been made of souls by this means! [cf Acts 8:3] The Lord is requiring it of this generation [Luk 11:50f].

(Mat 23:37 | Luk 13:34)

[Other texts citing Mat 23:37: MFU 161 (under Mat 23:27), JN3:531 (Gen 18:23-32), IP1:196f (Mat 11:19)]

IP1:60 (1658): O England! England! thou that kill’dst the martyrs in Queen Mary’s days; thou that persecutedst the Nonconformists afterwards; thou that wouldst not suffer the people of God to meet together, to seek him with an honest heart; but wouldst confine them to thy gross, carnal ways of worship! though the Lord hath appeared, and broken the horns of the oppressors; yet the persecuting spirit is not broken in thee.... How often would the Lord have gathered thee! but thou wouldst not [Mat 23:37 | Luk 13:34]; and yet seeks to gather thee; but still thou wilt not: but, as if the former laws, made in Queen Mary’s days, were not sufficient, desirest new laws, to ensnare and entangle the innocent.

IP3:331 (1674): Can sin break in upon those who dwell under the shadow of the Almighty [Psa 91:1]? Indeed a man may be under a literal dispensation of holy commands against sin, and yet be under the power of sin; but he that is gathered under the wing of Christ [Mat 23:27 | Luk 13:34], under the grace and Spirit of the gospel, turned from Satan’s power to God’s power [Acts 26:18], and within the wall and bulwark thereof [Isa 26:1], he witnesseth this true, sin hath not dominion, sin cannot have dominion, sin shall not have dominion over you [Rom 6:14].

RBA 136, RBAF 98 (1678, V/VI.20): Lastly, that there is a day of visitation given to the wicked, wherein they might have been saved, appears evidently by Christ’s lamentation over Jerusalem, expressed in three sundry places (Mat 23:27, Luk 13:34 and 19:41-42) .... A familiar example ... shows that the offer of salvation made unto them was not in vain, on his part, but as really, and with as great cheerfulness and willingness, as a hen gathereth her chickens. Such as is the love and care of the hen towards her brood, such is the care of Christ towards men and women, to redeem them out of their corriupt and degenerate state. [more under Luk 19:41f]

HPS 394f (Elizabeth Bathurst, 1679): Although there is a time when the Lord waits to be gracious [Isa 30:18], in which time he often expresses his willingness to save men from their sins, and to gather them to himself; [quotes Mat 23:37, Rom 10:21].... If they refuse to answer his gracious call, and to entertain his Son whom he hath sent ... and continue thus to slight him, till their time and season be over, ... will it not be just for him then to laugh at their calamity, and mock when fear cometh upon them [Prov 1:26]?

WPR 584, WPT 373 (1694): [Jerusalem] withstood the son of God in the flesh, and thou resisteth the son of God in the Spirit. He would have gathered her as an hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and she would not [Mat 23:37 | Luk 13:34]; so would he have gathered thee out of thy lifeless profession, and have brought thee to inherit substance, to have known his power and kingdom, for which he often knocked within [Rev 3:20], by his grace and spirit, and without by his servants and witnesses, but thou wouldst not be gathered.....

(Mat 23:37f | Luk 13:34f)

[Other texts citing Mat 23:37f: GF8:274 (Luke 19:41]

GFJN 69 (1651): O Derby! as the waters run away when the floodgates are up, so doth the visitation of God’s love pass away from thee, O Derby! Therefore look where thou art, and how thou art grounded; and consider, before thou art utterly forsaken. The Lord moved me twice before I came to cry against the deceits and vanities that are in thee, to warn all to look at the Lord, and not at man ... it doth break my heart to see how God is dishonoured in thee [Rom 2:23], O Derby! [cf Mat 23:37f, Luk 19:41-44]

(Mat 23:39 | Luk 13:35a)

IP1:299: [Mat 23:38, see under Rev 2:5]