Outline of the Gospel of Matthew - Part 6
The Bible Treasury, New Series
Volume 13 (1920)
Its central truth is the
entrance of the rejected
Messiah, the Son of man by
humiliation and suffering unto death, into heavenly
glory and dominion
over all things. And this was
just the point
before the Lord: the little
ones were thus in the
truth and spirit of that oracle.
They were sucklings, out of whose mouth praise
was ordained
for the despised Messiah soon to
be in heaven,
exalted there and preached here
as the once
crucified and now glorified Son
of man. What
could be more appropriate to
that time, what more
profoundly true for all time,
yea for eternity!
Matthew, as we have seen, crowds
into one
scene all mention of the barren
fig tree (vers. 18-22),
without distinguishing éhe curse
of the one day
from the manifestation of its
accomplishment
on the day following. Was it
without moral
import? Impossible, Did it
convey the notion
of a hearty and true reception
of the Messiah, with
fruits meet for His hand who had
so long tended
it, and failed in no care or
culture? Was there
anything answering to the
welcome of the little
ones who cried Hosanna, the type
of what grace
will effect in the day of His
return, when the
nation itself will contentedly.
thankfully take the
place of babes and sucklings,
and find their best
wisdom in so owning the One whom
their fathers
rejected, the man thereon
exalted to heaven during
the night of His people’s
unbelief? Meanwhile,
another picture better suits
them, the state and
the doom of the fruitless fig
tree. Why so scornful
of the jubilant multitude, of
the joyous babes?
What was their condition before
the eyes of Him
who saw all that passed within
their minds.
They were no better than the fig
tree, that solitary
fig tree which met the Lord’s
eyes as He comes
from Bethany, entering once more
into Jerusalem.
Like it, they, too, were full of
promise: like its
abundant foliage, they lacked
not fair profession,
but there was no fruit. That
which made its
barrenness evident was the fact
that it was not
yet the time of figs. Therefore,
the unripe figs, the
harbinger of harvest, ought to
have been there.
Had the season of figs been
come, the fruit might
have been already gathered; but
that season
having not yet arrived, beyond
controversy the
promise of the coming harvest
should, and indeed
must, have been still there, had
any fruit been
really borne. This, therefore,
represented too
truly what the Jew, what the
nation, was in the
eye of the Lord. He had come
seeking fruit;
but there was none; and the Lord
pronounced
this curse, “Henceforth let no
fruit grow on thee
for ever.” And so it is. No
fruit ever sprang
from that generation. Another
generation there
must be; a total change must be
wrought if
there is to be fruit-bearing.
Fruit of righteousness
can only be through Jesus to
God’s glory; and
Jesus they yet despised. Not
that the Lord
will give up Israel, but He will
create a generation
to come, wholly different from
the present Christ rejecting one. Such an issue
will be seen to be
implied, if we compare our
Lord’s curse with the
rest of the word of God, which
points to better
things yet in store for Israel.
But He adds more than this.
It was not only
that the Israel of that day
should thus pass away,
giving place to another
generation, who, honouring
the Messiah, will bear fruit to
God; He tells the
wondering disciples that, had
they faith, the mountain would be cast into the sea.
This appears to
go farther than the
disappearance of Israel as
responsible to be a
fruit-bearing people; it
implies their whole polity
dissolved; for the
mountain is just as much the
symbol of a power
in the earth, an established
world-power, as the
fig tree is the special sign of
Israel as responsible to
produce fruit for God; and it is
clear that both
figures have been abundantly
verified. For the
time Israel is passed away.
After no long interval,
the disciples saw Jerusalem not
only taken, but
completely torn as it were from
the roots. The
Romans came, as the executioners
of the sentence
of God (according to the just
forebodings of the
unjust high priest Caiaphas, who
prophesied not
without the Holy Ghost), and
took away their
place and nation, not because
they did not, but
‘because they did, Kill Jesus
their Messiah.
Notoriously this total ruin of
the Jewish state
came to pass when the disciples
had grown up to be
a public witness to the world,
before the apostles
were all taken away from the
earth; then their
whole national polity sunk and
disappeared when
Titus sacked Jerusalem, and sold
and scattered
the people to the ends of the
earth. I have no
doubt that the Lord intended us
to know the
uprooting of the mountain just
as much as the
withering of the fig tree. The
latter may be the
simpler application of the two,
and evidently more
familiar to ordinary thought;
but there seems no
real reason to question, that if
the one be meant
symbolically, so too is the
other. However this
may be, these words of the Lord
close that part of
the subject.
We enter upon a new series in
the rest of this
chapter and the next. The
religious rulers come
before the Lord to put the first
question that ever
enters the minds of such men, “By what authority
doest thou these things?”
Nothing is more
easily asked by those who assume
that their own
title is unimpeachable. Our Lord
answers them
by another question, which soon
disclosed how
thoroughly they themselves, in
what was incomparably more serious, failed in
moral competence.
Who were they, to raise the
question of His
authority? As guides of
religion, surely they
ought to be able to decide that
which was of the
deepest consequence for their
own souls, and for
‘those of whom they assumed the
spiritual charge.
The question He puts involved
indeed the answer
to theirs; for had they answered
Him in truth,
this would have decided at once
by what, and by
whose, authority He acted as He
did. “The
baptism of John, whence was it
(asks the Lord),
from heaven, or of men?” There
was no singleness
of purpose, there was no fear of
God, in these men
so full of swelling words and
fancied authority.
Accordingly, instead of its
being an answer from
conscience declaring the truth
as it was, they
reason solely how to escape from
the dilemma.
The only question before their
minds was, what
answer would be politic? how
best to get rid of
the difficulty? Vain hope with
Jesus! The
base conclusion to which they
were reduced is,
“We cannot tell.” It was a
falsehood: but
what of that, where the
interests of religion and
their own order were concerned?
Without a
blush, then, they answer the
Saviour, “We cannot
tell:”” and the Lord with calm
dignity strikes
home His answer—not “I cannot
tell,” but, “Neither
tell I you by what
authority I do these
things.” Jesus knew and laid
bare the secret
springs of the heart; and the
Spirit of God records
it here for our instruction. It
is the genuine
universal type of worldly
leaders of religion in
conflict with the power of God.
“‘ If we shall say,
From heaven, ‘he will say unto
us, Why did ye
not, then, believe him? But if
we shall say, Of
men, we fear the people; for
all hold John as
prophet.” If they owned John,
they must bow
to the authority of Jesus: if
they rejected John,
they feared the people. They
were thus put to
silence; for they would not
risk loss of influence
with the people, and they were
determined at all
cost to deny the authority of
Jesus. All they cared
about was themselves.
The Lord goes on and meets
parabolically a
wider question than that of the
rulers, gradually
enlarging the scope, till He
terminates these
instructions in chap. “xxii. 14.
First, He takes
up sinful men where natural
conscience works,
and where conscience is gone.
This is peculiar to
Matthew: “A certain man had two
sons; and
he came to the first, and said,
Son, go work to-day
in my vineyard. He answered and
said, I will
not: but afterwards he
repented, and went.” He
comes to the second, who was all
complacency,
and answers to the call, “I go,
sir: and went not.
Whether of them twain did the
will of his father?
They say unto Him, The first.
Jesus saith
unto them [such is the
application], Verily I say
unto you, That the publicans and
the harlots go
into the kingdom of God before
you. For John
came unto you in the way of
righteousness, and ye
believed him not: but the
publicans and the harlots
believed him: and ye, when ye
had seen it,
repented not afterward, that ye
might believe
him ” (Matt. xxi. 28-32). But He
was not content
with merely thus touching
conscience in a way
that was painful enough to the
flesh; for they
found that, spite of authority
or anything else,
those who professed most, if
disobedient, were
counted worse than the most
depraved, who
repented and did the will of
God.
Next, our Lord looks at the
entire people, and
this from the commencement of
their relations with
God. In other words, He gives us
in this parable
the history of God's dealings
with them. It was
in no way, so to speak, the
accidental circumstance
of how they behaved in one
particular generation.
‘The Lord sets out clearly what
they had been all
along, and what they were then.
In the parable
of the vineyard, they are tested
as responsible in
view of the claims of God, who
had blessed them
from the first with exceeding
rich privileges. Then,
in the parable of the marriage
of the king’s son, we
see what they were, as tested by
the grace or gospel
of God. These are the two
subjects of the parables
following.
The householder, who lets out
his vineyard to
husbandmen, sets forth God
trying the Jew,
on the ground of blessings
abundantly conferred
upon him, Accordingly we have,
first, servants sent, and then more,—not only in
vain, but with
insult and increase of wrong.
Then, at length,
He sends His Son, saying, They
will reverence my
Son. This gives occasion for
their crowning sin—
the utter rejection of all
divine claims, in the death
of the Son and Heir; ior “they
caught him, and
cast him out of the vineyard,
and slew him.”
“When the Lord therefore of the
vineyard comes,”
He asks, “what will he do unto
these
husbandmen?” They say unto Him,
“He will’
miserably destroy these wicked
men, and let out
his vineyard unto other
husbandmen, which
shall render him the fruits in
their seasons.””
The Lord accordingly pronounces
according to
the Scriptures, not leaving it
merely to the answer
of the conscience, “Did ye never
read in the
Scriptures, The stone which the
builders rejected,
the same is become the head of
the corner: this
is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our
eyes?” Then He applies further
this prediction
about the stone, connecting, it
would appear, the
allusion in Psalm cxviii, with
the prophecy of
Daniel ii. The principle at
least is applied to
the case in hand, and, I need
hardly say, with
perfect truth and beauty; for
in that day apostate
Jews will be judged and
destroyed, as well as
Gentile powers. In two positions
the stone was
to be found. The one is here on
the earth—the
humiliation, to wit, of the
Messiah. Upon that
Stone, thus humbled, unbelief
trips and falls. But
again, when the Stone is
exalted, another issue
follows; for “the Stone of
Israel,” the glorified
Son of man, shall descend in
unsparing judgment,
and crush His enemies together.
When the chief
priests and Pharisees had heard
His parables, they
perceived that He spake of them.
The Lord, however, turns in the
next parable to
the call of grace. It is a
likeness of the kingdom
of heaven. Here we are on new
ground. It is
striking to see this parable
introduced here. In
the Gospel of Luke there is a
similar case though
it might be too much to affirm
that it is the same.
Certainly an analogous parable
is found, but in
a totally different connection.
Besides, Matthew
adds various particulars
peculiar to himself, and
quite falling in with the
Spirit’s design by him;
as we find also in Luke his own
characteristics. Thus, in Luke, there is a
remarkable display of
grace and love to the despised
poor in Israel;
then, further, that love
enlarging its sphere, and
going out to the highways and
hedges to bring
in the poor that were there—the
poor in the city—
the poor everywhere. I need not
say how
thoroughly in character all this
is Here, in
Matthew, we have not only God’s
grace, but a
kind of history, very strikingly
embracing the destruction of Jerusalem, on
which Luke is here
silent. “The kingdom of heaven
is like unto a
certain king which made a
marriage for his son.”
It is not merely a man making a
feast for those
that have nothing —that we have
fully in Luke;
but here rather the king bent
upon the glorification of his son, “‘ He sent
forth his servants
call them that were bidden to
the wedding: and
they would not come. Again he
sent forth
other servants, saying, Tell
them which were
bidden, Behold, I have prepared
my dinner: my
oxen and my fatlings are killed,
and all things are
ready: come unto the marriage.”
There are two
missions of the servants of the
Lord here: one
during His lifetime; the other
after His death.
On the second mission, not the
first, it is said, “All
things are ready.” The message
is, as ever,
despised.‘ They made light of
it, and went their
ways.” It was the second time
when there was
this most ample invitation which
left no excuse
for man, that they not only
would not come, going
one to his farm, and another to
his merchandise,
but “the remnant took his
servants, and entreated
them spitefully and slew them.”
This was not
the character of the reception
given to the apostles
‘during our Lord's lifetime, but
exactly what
transpired after His death.
Thereupon, though
in marvellous patience the blow
was suspended
for years, nevertheless judgment
came at last.
“When the king heard thereof,
he was wroth, and
sent forth his armies and
destroyed those murderers, and burnt up their
city.” This, of course,
closes this part of the parable
as predicting a providential dealing of God; but,
besides being thus
judicial after a sort to which
we find nothing
parallel in the Gospel of Luke
(i.e. in what answers
to it), as usual, the great
change of dispensation is
shown in Matthew much more
distinctly than in
Luke. There it is rather the
idea of grace that
began with one sending out to
those invited, and
a very full exposure of their
excuses in a moral
point of view, followed by the
second mission to
the streets and lanes of the
city, for the poor,
maimed, halt, and blind; and
finally, to the
highways and hedges, compelling
them to come
in that the house might be
filled. In Matthew it is
very much more in a
dispersational aspect; and
hence the dealings with the
Jews, both in mercy
and judgment, are first given as
a whole according
to that manner of his which
furnishes a complete
sketch at one stroke, so to
speak. It is the more
manifest here, because none can
deny that the
mission to the Gentiles was long
before the
destruction of Jerusalem. Next
is appended the
Gentile part to itself. “Then
saith he to his
servants, The wedding is ready,
but they which
were bidden were not worthy. Go
ye therefore
into the highways, and as many
as ye shall find,
bid to the marriage. So those
servants went out
into the highways, and gathered
together all as
many as they found, both bad and
good: and the
wedding was furnished with
guests.” But there
is a further thing brought out
here, in a very distinctive manner. In Luke, we
have no judgment
pronounced and executed at the
end upon him
that came to the wedding without
the due garment.
In Matthew, as we saw the
providential dealing
with the Jews, so we find the
closing scene very
particularly described, when the
king judges
individually in the day that is
coming. It is not
an external or national stroke,
though that too
we have here—a providential
event in connection
with Israel. Quite different,
but consistent with
that, we have a personal
appraisal by God of the
Gentile profession, of those now
bearing Christ’s
name, but who have not really
put on Christ,
Such is the conclusion of the
parable: nothing
more appropriate at the same
time than this
picture, peculiar to Matthew,
who depicts the
vast change at hand for the
Gentiles, and God’s
dealing with them individually
for their abuse of
His grace. The parable
illustrates the coming
change of dispensation. Now this
falls in with
Matthew’s design, rather than
Luke’s, with whom
we shall find habitually it is a
question of moral
features, which the Lord may
give opportunity of
exhibiting at another. time.
After this come the various
classes of Jews—the
Pharisees first of all, and,
strange consorts! the
Herodians, Ordinarily they were,
as men say,
natural enemies. The Pharisees
were the high
ecclesiastical party; the
Herodians, on the contrary, were the low worldly
courtier party: those,
the strong sticklers for
tradition and righteousness
according to the law; these,
the panderers to the
powers that then were for
whatever could be got
in the earth. Such allies now
joined hypocritically
against the Lord. The Lord meets
them with that
wisdom which always shines in
His words and ways.
They demand whether it be lawful
to give tribute
to Cesar or not. “Shew me,” says
He, “the
tribute money . . . . And he saith
unto them,
Whose is this image and
superscription? They
say unto him, Cesar’s. Then
saith he unto them,
Render unto Czsar the things
which are Cesar's;
and unto God the things that are
God’s.” Thus
the Lord deals with the facts as
they then came
before Him. The piece of money
they produced
proved their subjection to the
Gentiles. it was
their sin which had put them
there. They writhed
under their masters; but still
under alien masters
they were; and it was because
of their sin. The
Lord confronts them not only
with the undeniable
witness of their subjection to
the Romans, but also
with a graver charge still,
which they had entirely
overlooked—the claims of God, as
well as of Caesar.
The money you love proclaims
that you are slaves
to Cesar. Pay, then, to Czsar
his dues, But
forget not to “render to God the
things that are
God's.” The fact was, they hated
Cesar only
less than they hated the true
God. The Lord
left them therefore under the
reflections and
confusion of their own guilty
consciences,
Next, the Lord is assailed by
another great
party. “The same day came to him
the
Sadducees "—those most opposed
to the Pharisees
in doctrine, as the Herodians
were in politics.
The Sadducees denied
resurrection, and put a
|case which to their mind
involved insuperable
difficulties. To whom would
belong, in that
state a woman who here had been
married to
seven brethren successively? The
Lord does not
cite the clearest Scripture
about the resurrection;
He does what in the
circumstances is much better;
He appeals to what they
themselves professed
most of all to revere. To the
Sadducces there was
no part of Scripture possessed
of such authority
as the Pentateuch, or five books
of Moses. From
Moses, then, He proved the
resurrection; and
this in the simplest possible
way. Every one—
their own conscience—-must allow
that God is
the God, not of the dead, but of
the living. Therefore, if God calls Himself the
God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, it is not an
unmeaning thing.
Referring long afterwards to
their fathers who
were passed away, He speaks of
Himself as in relationship with them. Were
they not, then,
dead? But was all gone? Not so,
But far
more than that,—He speaks as one
who not
merely had relations with them,
but had made
promises to them, which never
yet were accomplished. Either, then, God must
raise them from
the dead, in order to make good
His promises to
the fathers; or He could not be
careful to keep
His promises. Was this last what
their faith in
God, or rather their want of
faith, came to? To
deny resurrection is, therefore,
to deny the promises
and God’s faithfulness, and in
truth God Himself.
The Lord, therefore, rebukes
them on this acknowledged principle, that God was
the God of the living,
not of the dead. To make Him God
of the dead
would have been really to deny
Him to be God at
all; equally so to make His
promises of no value or
stability. God, therefore must
raise again the
fathers in order to fulfil His
promise to them; for
they certainly never got the
promises in this life.
The folly of their thoughts too
was manifest in
this, that the difficulty
presented was wholly
unreal—it only existed in their
imagination.
Marriage has nothing to do with
the risen state:
there they neither marry, nor
are given in marriage,
but are as the angels of God in
heaven. Thus,
on their own negative ground of
objection, they
were altogether in error.
Positively, as we have
seen, they were just as wrong;
for God must raise
the dead to make good His own
promises. There
is nothing now in this world
that worthily witnesses
God, save only that which is
known to faith;
but if you speak of the display
of God, and the
manifestation of His power, you
must wait until
the resurrection. The Sadducees
had not faith,
hence were in total error and
blindness: “Ye
do err, not knowing the
Scriptures, nor the power
of God.” Therefore it was that,
refusing to believe,
they were unable to understand.
When the
resurrection comes, it will be
manifest to every
eye. Accordingly this was the
point of our
Lord’s answer; and the
multitudes were astonished
at His doctrine.
Though the Pharisees were not
sorry to find the
then ruling party the Sadducees,
put to silence,
one of them, a lawyer, tempted
the Lord in a
question of near interest to
them. “Master,
which is the great commandment
in the law?”
But He who came full of grace
and truth never
lowered the law, and at once
gives its sum and
substance in both its
parts—Godward and manward.
‘The time, however, was come for
Jesus to put
His question, drawn from Psalm
cx. If Christ be
confessedly David's Son, how
does David in
spirit call Him Lord, saying, “Jehovah said unto
my Lord, Sit thou on my right
hand, till I make
thine enemies thy footstool?”
The whole truth
of His position lies here. It
was about to be
realized; and the Lord can
speak of the things
that were not as though they
were. Such was the
language of David the king in
words inspired of
the Holy Ghost. What was the
language, the
thought of the people now, and
by whom inspired?
Alas! Pharisees, lawyers,
Sadducees--it was only
‘a question of infidelity in
varying forms; and the
glory of David’s Lord was even
more momentous
than the dead rising according
to promise. Believe it or not, the Messiah was
about to take His
seat at the right hand of
Jehovah. They were—
indeed, they are—critical
questions: If the
Christ be David’s Son, how is He
David’s Lord?
If He be David’s Lord, how is He
David’s Son?
It is the turning point of
unbelief at all times,
now as then, the continual theme
of the testimony
of the Holy Ghost, the habitual
stumbling-block
of man, never so vain as when he
would be wisest,
and either essay to sound by his
own wit the
unfathomable mystery of Christ’s
person, or deny
that there is in it any mystery
whatever. It
was the very point of Jewish
unbelief. It was the
grand capital truth of all this
Gospel of Matthew,
that He who was the Son of
David, the Son of
Abraham, was really Emmanuel,
and Jehovah.
It had been proved at His birth,
proved throughout
His ministry in Galilee, proved
now at His last
presentation in Jerusalem. “And no man was
able to answer him a word,
neither durst any man
from that day forth ask him any
more questions.”
Such was their position in
presence of Him who was
so Soon about to take His seat
at the right hand of
God; and there each remains to
this day. Awful,
unbelieving silence of Israel
despising their own
law, despising their own
Messiah, David’s Son and
David's Lord, His glory their
shame!
But if man was silent, it was
the Lord’s place not
merely to question but to
pronounce; and in
chapter xxiii, most solemnly
does the Lord utter
His sentence upon Israel. It was
an address
both to the multitude and to the
disciples, with
woes for Scribes and Pharisees.
The Lord fully
sanctioned that kind of mingled
address for the
time, providing, it would
appear, not merely for
the disciples, but for the
remnant in a future day
who will have this ambiguous
place; believers in
Him, on the one hand, yet withal
filled, on the
other, with Jewish hopes and
Jewish associations.
This seems to me the reason why
our Lord speaks
in a manner so remarkably
different from that
which obtains ordinarily in
Scripture. “The
scribes,” He says, “and the
Pharisees sit in Moses’
seat. All, therefore, whatsoever
they bid you
observe, that observe and do;
but do not ye after
their works: for they say, and
do not. For
they bind heavy burdens, and
grievous to be
borne, and lay them on men’s
shoulders; but
they themselves will not move
them with one of
their fingers. But all their
works they do to be
seen of men.” The principle
fully applied then,
as it will in the latter day;
the Church scene
coming in meanwhile as a
parenthesis. The
suitability of such instruction
to this Gospel of
Matthew is also obvious, as
indeed here only it is
found. Then, again, our souls
would shrink from
the notion, that what our Lord
taught could
have merely a passing
application. Not so,
it has 4 permanent value for His
followers; save
only that the special privileges
conferred on the
Church, which is His body,
modify the case, and,
concurrently with this, the
setting aside meanwhile
of the Jewish people and state
of things. But as
these words applied literally
then, so I conceive
will it be at a future day. If
this be so, it preserves
the dignity of the Lord, as the
great Prophet and
Teacher, in its true place. In
the last book of the
New Testament we have a similar
combination of
features, when the Church will
have disappeared
from the earth; that is, the
keeping the commandments of God and having the
faith of Jesus.
So here, the disciples of Jesus
are exhorted to heed
what was enjoined by those who
sat in Moses’
seat—to follow what they taught,
not what they
did. So far as they brought out
God’s commandments, it was obligatory. But
their practice
was to be a beacon, not a guide.
Their objects were
to be seen of men, pride of
place, honour in public
and private, high-sounding
titles, in open contradiction of Christ and that
oft-repeated word
of His—" Whosoever shall exalt
himself shall be
abased; and he that shall
humble himself shall,
be exalted.” Yet, of course, the
disciples had the
faith of Jesus.
Next the Lord1 launches out woe
after woe
against the Scribes and
Pharisees. They were
hypocrites. They shut out the
new light of God,
while zealous beyond measure for
their own
thoughts; they undermined
conscience by their
casuistry, while insisting on
the minutest alliteration in ceremonializing; they
laboured after external
cleanness, while full of rapine
and intemperance; and if they
could only seem righteously fair
without, feared not within to be
full of hypocrisy and
lawlessness. Finally, their
monuments in honour of slain prophets and
past worthies were
rather a testimony to their own
relationship, not
to the righteous, but to those
who murdered them.
Their fathers killed the
witnesses of God who
while living, condemned them;
they, the sons,
only built to their memory when
there was no
longer a present testimony to
their conscience,
and their sepulchral honours
would cast a halo
around themselves,
Such is worldly religion and its
heads: the
great obstructions to divine
knowledge, instead of
living only to be its channels
of communication;
narrow, where they should have
been large;
cold and lukewarm for God,
earnest only for self;
daring sophists, where divine
obligations lay deep,
and punctilious pettifoggers in
the smallest details,
straining at the gnat and
swallowing the camel;
anxious only for the outside,
reckless as to all that
lay concealed underneath, The
honour they paid
those who had suffered in times
past was the proof
that they succeeded not them but
their enemies,
‘the true legitimate successors
of those that slew
the friends of God. The
successors of those that
of old suffered for God are
those who suffer now;
the heirs of their persecutors
may build them
sepulchres, erect statues, cast
monumental brasses,
pay them any conceivable honour. |
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1) The most ancient text, represented by the Vatican, Sinai, Beza’s Cambridge, L. of Paris (C. being defective, as well as the Alexandrian), and the Rescript of Dublin, omits verse 14, which may have been foisted in from Mark xii. 40 and Luke xx. 47. This leaves the complete series of seven woes.
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