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The Last Discourse of Christ

Gospel According to Saint Matthew
1)  Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples, 2) Saying:  The scribes and the
Pharisees have sitten on the chair of Moses.  3)  All things therefore whatsoever they shall say
to you, observe and do:  but according to their works do ye not; for they say, and do not.  4)  For
they bind heavy and insupportable burdens, and lay them on men's shoulders; but with a finger of their
own they will not move them.  5)  And all their works they do for to be seen of men.  For they make
their phylacteries broad, and enlarge their fringes.
5)  "Phylacteries"...that is, parchments, on which they wrote the ten commandments, and carried 
them on their foreheads before their eyes:  which the Pharisees affected to wear broader than other
men; so to seem more zealous for the law.
6)  And they love the first places at feasts, and the first chairs in the synagoues, 7)  And 
salutations in the market place, and to be called by men, Rabbi.  8)  but be not you called Rabbi.
For one is your master; and all you are brethren.  9)  And call none your father upon earth for one
if your Father, who is in heaven.  10)  Neither be ye called masters; for one is your master, Christ. 
11)  He that is the greatest among you shall be your servant.  12)  And whosoever shall exalt
himself shall be humbled:  and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.  13)  But woe to you
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men, for you
yourselves do not enter in; and those that are going in, you suffer not to enter.  14)  Woe to you
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites:  because you devour the houses of widows; praying long prayers.
For this you shall receive the greater judgment.  15)  Woe to you scribes and Parisees, hypocrites;
because you go round about the sea and the land to make one proselyte; and when he is made, you make
him the child of hell twofold more than yourselves. 
16)  Woe to you blind guides that say, whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but
he that shall swear by the gold of the temple, is a debtor.  17)  Ye foolish and blind; for whether
is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?  18)  And whosoever shall swear by the
altar, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gift that is upon it, is a debtor.  19)  Ye
blind:  for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?  20)  He therefore
that sweareth by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things that are upon it:
21)  And whosoever shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth in it:
22)  And he that sweareth by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.
23)  Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you tithe mint, and anise, and cummin,
and have left the weightier things of the law; judgment, and mercy, and faith.  These things you
ought to have done, and not to leave those undone.  24)  Blind guides, who strain out a gnat,
and swallow a camel.  25)  Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you make clean
the outside of the cup and of the dish, bu within you are full of rapine and uncleanness.
26)  Thou blind Pharisee, first make clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, that the
outside may become clean.  27)  Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you are like
the whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men's
bones, and of all filthiness.  28)  So you also outwardly indeed appear to men just; but inwardly 
you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.  29)  Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; that 
build the sepulchres of the prophets, and adorn the monuments of the just, 30)  And say:  If we
had been in the days of our Fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood
of the prophets.
31)  Wherefore you are witnesses against yourselves, that you are the sons of the that killed
the prophets.  32)  Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.  33)  You serpents, generation of
vipers, how will you flee from the judgment of hell?  34)  Therefore behold I send to you prophets,
and wise men, and scribes:  and some of them you wil put to death and crucify, and some you will
scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city:  35)  That upon you may come all the
just blood that hath been shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the just, even unto the
blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom you killed between the temple and the altar.
36)  Amen I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation.  37)  Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often
would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings,
and thou wouldest not?  38)  Behold, your house shall be left to you, desolate.  39)  For I say
to you, you shall not see me henceforth till you say:  Blessed is he that cometh in the name of
the Lord
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