Full text of "Notes on the parables of Our Lord"

THE PARABLES OF OUR LORD.

"Ae 7 i avrois 6 'IinroCs- SwiJKare raOra jrdjraj A^ovcriv aur<p- Nai, Kvpie- '0 5,= elTre^ avrois-
Auk toCto Tris 7 pap.p.aTei, s , /xa^Te^as Tg /3a<nAex 1W ovpcuW, op.ok m* i0p<o
olKoSeo-TTOTT), OOTi? e/ctfaAAei U toO 0T)ecraupoO avroC Kaiva xai TraAata. Matt. Xlll. 51, 52.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

CHAP.

I. On the Definition of the Parable
II. On Teaching by Parables

III. On the Interpretation of Parables

IV. On other Parables besides those in the Scriptures

PAGE

7
i5

3
44

THE PARABLES.

1. The Sower ....

2. The Tares

3. The Mustard-seed .

. 88

4. The Leaven .

5. The Hid Treasure

100

6. The Pearl of Great Price

. 108

7. The Draw-net

112

8. The Unmerciful Servant ....

121

9. The Labourers in the Vineyard

134

10. The Two Sons

152

11. The Wicked Husbandmen .

. - 156

12. The Marriage of the King's Son

171

13. The Ten Virgins ...

. 192

vi CONTENTS.

PAGE

14. The Talents 209

15. The Seed growing Secretly

224

16. The Two Debtors ....

229

17. The Good Samaritan .....

240

18. The Friend at Midnight

254

19. The Rich Fool

2 59

20. The Barren Fig-tree ....

267

21. The Great Supper ....

277

22. The Lost Sheep ....

285

23. The Lost Piece of Money

294

24. The Prodigal Son ....

298

25. The Unjust Steward

324

26. The Rich Man and Lazarus

343

27. The Unprofitable Servants

3 6 4

28. The Unjust Judge ....

37o

29. The Pharisee and the Publican ,

379

30. The Pounds

387

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

CHAPTER I.
ON THE DEFINITION OF THE PARABLE.

WRITERS who have had occasion to define a parable* have
found it no easy task to give such a satisfying definition as
should omit none of its distinctive marks, and at the same time include
nothing superfluous and merely accidental. Rather than attempt to
add another to the many definitions already given, b I will seek to note
briefly what seems to me to difference it from the fable, the allegory,
and such other forms of composition as are most nearly allied to, and

a UapaBoXrj, from jrapa/3aAA<fiv, projicere, objicere, i. e. n nvC, to put forth one thing
before or beside another ; and it is often assumed that the purpose for which they are
set side by side is, that they may be compared one with the other ; thus Plato {Phil.

33, B) : napaBoKri tu>v Bitav; PolybiuS (i. 2. 2): 7rapalSoA7) icai trtry/cpia-i?. In this Way We

arrive at that technical use of n-apa^oArj,- which is not, however, peculiar to sacred
Greek; for we meet it in Aristotle {Rhet. ii. 20), and in Longinus {napaBoXaX icai
eJKOfe's, 37). At the same time this notion of comparison is not necessarily included
in the word, the whole family of cognate words, as napa3o\os, 7rapa./36A<os, parabolanus,
being used in altogether a different sense, yet one growing out of the same root. In
all these the notion of putting forth is retained, but not for Ihe purpose of comparison,
which is only the accident, not of the essence, of the word. Thus napaBo\oi, qui
objicit se prsesentissimo vitas ricupelo, one who exposes his life, as the parabolani at
Alexandria, who buried infected corpses The chief Latin writers are not agreed in
their rendering oina.pa.Bo\ri- Cicero (De Inv. Rhet. i. 30) represents it by collatio ;
Seneca {Ep. 59) by imago; Quintilian {Inst. v. n. 8) by similitude.

b Many from the Greek Fathers are to be found in Suicer, Thes. s. v. irapaBoK^.
Jerome, on Mark iv., defines it thus: Sermonem utilem,sub idoneafiguraexpressum,
et in recessu continentem spiritualem aliquam admonitionem ; and elsewhere {Ad
Algas.'), quasi umbra praavia veritatis. linger {De Farad. Jesu Naturd, p. 30) :
Parabola Jesu est collatio per narratiunculam fictam,sed verisimilem, serio illustrans
rem sublimiorem. Teelman : Parabola est similitudo a rebus communibus et obviis
desumta ad significandum quicquani spirituale et caeleste. Bengel : Parabola est
oratio, quae per narrationem fictam, sed verae similem, a rebus ad vitae communis
usum pertinentibus desumtam, veritates minus notas aut morales repraesentat.

8 ON THE DEFINITION

most closely border upon, it. In the process of thus distinguishing
it from those forms of composition with which it is most likely to be
confounded, and of justifying the distinction, something will have
been said for the bringing out of its essential properties more clearly
than in any other way I could hope to do this.

i. There are some who have identified the parable with the ^Esopic
fable, or drawn a slight and hardly perceptible line of distinction
between the two : as, for instance, Lessing and Storr, who affirm that
the fable relates an event as having actually taken place at a certain
time, while the parable only assumes it as possible. But not to say
that examples altogether fail to bear them out in this assertion, the
difference is much more real, and far more deeply-seated, than this.
The parable is constructed to set forth a truth spiritual and heavenly:
this the fable, with all its value, is not. It is essentially of the earth,
and never lifts itself above the earth. It never has a higher aim
than to inculcate maxims of prudential morality, industry, caution,
foresight and the like \ and these it will sometimes recommend even
at the expense of the higher self-forgetting virtues. The fable just
reaches that pitch of morality which the world will understand and
approve. But it has no place in the Scripture/ and in the nature of
things could have none, for the purpose of Scripture excludes it ;
that purpose being the awakening of man to a consciousness of a
divine original, the education of the reason, and of all which is
spiritual in man, and not, except incidentally, the sharpening of the
understanding. For the purposes of the fable, which are the recom-
mendation and enforcement of the prudential virtues, the regulation
of that in man which is instinct in beasts, in itself a laudible disci-
pline, but by itself leaving him only a subtler beast of the field, for
these purposes examples and illustrations taken from the world
beneath him are admirably suited. b That world is therefore the haunt

a The two fables of the Old Testament, that of the trees which would choose a
king (Judg. ix. 8-15), and of the thistle and the cedar (2 Kin. xiv. 9), may seem to
impeach the universitality of this rule, but do not so in fact. For neither is it God
who speaks, nor yet messengers of his, delivering his counsel ; but men, and from an
earthly standing-point, not a divine. Jotham will teach the men of Shechem their
folly, not their sin, in making Abimelech king over them : the fable never lifting
itself to the rebuke of sin, as it is sin this is beyond its region but only in so faras
it is also folly. And Jehoash, in the same way, would make Amaziah see his pre-
sumption and pride, in challenging him to the conflict ; not thereby teaching him
any moral lesson, but only giving evidence in the fable which he uttered, that his
own pride was offended by the challenge of the Jewish king.

b The greatest of all fables, the Reineke Fuchs, affords ample illustration of all this;
it is throughout a glorifying of cunning as the guide of life and the deliverer from
all evil.

OF THE PARABLE. 9

and the main region, though by no means the exclusive one, of the
fable. Even when men are introduced, it is on the side by which
they are connected with that lower world; while on the other hand,
in the parable, the world of animals, though not wholly excluded,
finds only admission in so far as it is related to man. The relation of
beasts to one another not being spiritual, can supply no analogies,
can be in no wise helpful for declaring the truths of the kingdom of
God. But all man's relations to man are spiritual, many of his rela-
tions to the world beneath him are so as well. His lordship over the
animals, for instance, rests on his higher spiritual nature, is a
dominion given to him from above (Gen. i. 28; ii. 19; ix. 2; Ps.
viii. 6-8); will serve, therefore, as in the instance of the shepherd
and sheep (John, x.), and elsewhere, to image forth deeper truths of
the relation of God to man.

It belongs to this, the loftier standing-point of the parable, that it
should be deeply earnest, allowing itelf therefore in no jesting nor
raillery at the weaknesses, the follies, or the crimes of men. a Severe
and indignant it may be, but it never jests at the calamities of men,
however well deserved, and its indignation is that of holy love:
while in this raillery and in these bitter mockings the fabulist not
unfrequently indulges ; b he rubs biting salt into the wounds of men's
souls it may be, perhaps generally is, with a desire to heal those
hurts, yet still in a very different spirit from that in which the
affectionate Saviour of men poured oil and wine into the bleeding
wounds of humanity.

The definition by Phaedrus of the fable squares with that here given :
Duplex libelli dos est, quod risu?n movet,
Et quod prudenii vitam consilio monet.

b As finds place, for instance, in La Fontaine's celebrated fables, LaCigale ayant
chante tout l'ete, in which the ant, in reply to the grasshopper, which is starving in
the winter, reminds it how it sung all the summer, and bids it to dance now. That
fable, commending as it does foresight and prudence, preparation against a day of
need, might be compared for purposes of contrast to more than one parable urging
the same, as Matt. xxv. i ; Luke xvi. i ; but with this mighty difference, that the
fabulist has only worldly needs in his eye, it is only against these that he urges to
lay up by timely industry a sufficient store ; while the Lord would have us to lay up
for eternal life, for the day when not the bodies, but the souls that have nothing in
store, will be naked, and hungry, and miserable, to prepare for ourselves a recep-
tion into everlasting habitations. The image which the French fabulist uses was
very capable of such higher application, had he been conscious of any such needs (see
Prov. vi. 8, and on that verse, Coteler, Patt. Apost. vol. i. p. 104, note 13, and
Augustine, Enarr. in Ps. lxvi. 2). In Saadi's far nobler fable, The Ant and the
Nightingale, from whence La Fontaine's is undoubtedly borrowed, such application
is distinctly intimated. Von Hammer has in this view an interesting comparison
between the French and the Persian fable (Gesch. d. sch'on. Redek. Pers. p. 207).
The fable with which Cyrus answered the Ionian ambassadors, when they offered

10 ON THE DEFINITION

There is another point of difference between the parable and the
fable. While it cannot be affirmed that the fabulist is regardless of
truth, since it is neither his intention to deceive when he attributes
language and discourse of reason to trees and birds and beasts, nor
is any one deceived by him; yet the severer reverence for truth,
which is habitual to the higher moral teacher, will not allow him to
indulge even in this sporting with the truth, this temporary suspen-
sion of its laws, though upon agreement, or at least with tacit under-
standing. In His mind the creation of God, as it came from the
Creator's hands, is too perfect, has too much of reverence owing to
it, to be represented otherwise than as it really is. The great Teacher
by parables, therefore allowed Himself in no transgression of the estab-
lished laws of nature in nothing marvellous or anomalous ; He pre-
sents to us no speaking trees nor reasoning beasts, a and we should be
at once conscious of an unfitness in His so doing.

2. The parable is different from the mythus, inasmuch as in the
mythus the truth, and that which is only the vehicle of the truth, are
wholly blended together ; and the consciousness of any distinction
between them, that it is possible to separate the one from the other,
belongs only to a later and more reflective age than that in which the
mythus itself had birth, or those in which it was heartily believed.
The mythic narrative presents itself not merely as the vehicle of the
truth, but as itself being the truth; while in the parable there is a
perfect consciousness in all minds of the distinctness between form
and essence, shell and kernel, the precious vessel and yet more
precious wine which it contains. There is also the mythus of another
class, the artificial product of a self-conscious age, of which many
inimitable specimens are to be found in Plato, b devised with the dis
tinct intention of embodying some immortal spiritual truth, of giving
an outward subsistence to an idea. But these, while they have many

him a late submission, is another specimen of the bitter irony, of which this class of
composition is often the vehicle (Herodotus, i. 141).

a Klinckhardt (De Horn. Div. et Laz. p. 2) : Fabula aliquod vitse communis mo-
rumque praeceptum simplici et nonnunquam jocosa oratione illustrat per exemplum
plerumque contra veram naturam Actum : parabola autem sententiam sublimiorem
^ad res divinas pertinentem) simplici quidem sed gravi et seria. oratione illustrat per
exemplum ita excogitatum ut cum rerum natura. maxime convenire videatur. And
Cicero (De Invent, i. 19) : Fabula est in qua nee verae nee verisimilesrescontinentur.

But of the parable Origen says, 'E<m 7rapaj3oA7J, Adyos uiv nepi ywo^evov, /U.7J yivojueVov jxiv

Kara to prjroi', Swafievov Se yeveaBai. There is, then, some reason for the fault which
Calov finds with Grotius, though he is only too ready to find fault, for commonly
using fabula and fabella in speaking of our Lord's parables, words which certainly
have an unpleasant sound in the ear.

* Thus Gorg. 523, a ; Pheedo, 61, a ; cf. Plutarch, De Ser. Num. Vind. 18.

OF THE PARABLE. 11

points of resemblance with the parable, yet claim no credence for
themselves either as actual or possible (in this differing from the
parable), but only for the truth which they embody and declare.*
The same is the case when upon some old legend or myth that has
long been current there is thrust some spiritual significance, clearly
by an after-thought; in which case it perishes in the letter that it may
live in the spirit; all outward subsistence is denied to it, for the sake
of asserting the idea which it is made to contain. To such a process,
as is well known, the later Platonists submitted the old mythology of
Greece. For instance, Narcissus falling in love with his own image
in the water-brook, and pining there, was the symbol of man casting
himself forth into the world of shows and appearances, and expect-
ing to find the good that would answer to his nature there, but indeed
finding only disappointment and death. It was their meaning hereby
to vindicate that mythology from charges of absurdity or immorality,
to put a moral life into it, whereby it should maintain its ground
against the new life of Christianity; though, indeed, they were only
thus hastening the destruction of whatever lingering faith in it there
might yet survive in the minds of men.

3. The parable is also clearly distinguishable from the proverb?
though it is true that, in a certain degree, the words are used inter-
changeably in the New Testament, and as equivalent the one to the
other. Thus 'Physician, heal thyself (Luke iv. 23), is termed a
parable, being more strictly a proverb; so, again, when the Lord
had used that proverb, probably already familiar to His hearers, ' If
the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch,' Peter said,
'Declare unto us this parable' (Matt. xv. 14, 15); and Luke v. 36
is a proverb or proverbial expression, rather than a parable, which
name it bears : compare 1 Sam. xxiv. 14 ; 1 Chron. vii. 20 ; Ps. xiv.
15 ; Wis. v. 3. So, upon the other hand, those are called ' proverbs '
in St. John, which if not strictly parables, yet claim much closer
affinity to the parable than to the proverb, being, in fact, allegories :
thus Christ's setting forth of His relations to His people under those
of a shepherd to his sheep is termed a ' proverb,' though our Trans-
lators, holding fast to the sense rather than to the letter, have ren-

* The A070S iv /iLudu.

b lla.poi.ixCa, that is, nap' olp.ov, a trite, wayside saying; or, as some have understood
it, a saying removed from the ordinary way, an uncommon saying. Some derive it
from oifii), a tale, or poem ; yet Passow's explanation of the latter word shows that
at the root the two derivations are the same. See Suicer, Thes. s. v. napotp.Ca.

e It is current at least now in the East, as I find it in a collection of Turkish pro-
verbs, in Von Hammer's Morgenl. Kleeblatt, p. 63.

12 ON THE DEFINITION

dered it a 'parable' (John x. 6: cf. xvi. 25, 29).* It is easy to
account for this interchange of the words. Partly it arose from one
word in Hebrew signifying both parable and proverb ; b which cir-
cumstance must have had considerable influence upon writers accus-
tomed to think in that language, and is itself to be explained from
the parable and proverb being alike enigmatical and somewhat
obscure forms of speech, 'dark sayings,' uttering a part of their
meaning, and leaving the rest to be inferred. This is evident of the
parable, and is not, in fact, less true of the proverb. For though
such proverbs as have become the heritage of an entire people, and
have obtained universal currency, may be, or rather may have
become, plain enough ; yet in themselves proverbs are very often
enigmatical, claiming a quickness in detecting latent affinities, and
not seldom a knowledge which shall enable to catch more or less
remote allusions, for their right comprehension." 1 And yet further to
explain how the terms should be often indifferently used, the
proverb, though not necessarily, is yet very commonly, parabolical, 6
that is, it rests upon some comparison either expressed or implied,
as, for example, 2 Pet. ii. 22. Or again, the proverb is often a con-
centrated parable; for instance, that one above quoted, 'If the
blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch,' might evidently
be extended with ease into a parable ; and not merely might many
proverbs thus be beaten out into fables, but they are not unfrequently
allusions to or summings up in a single phrase of some well-known
fable/

napa/SoAi}. as is well known, never occurs in the Gospel of St. John, nor -napoi^ia
in the Synoptic Gospels.

b bW0 This word the LXX render napoi.fi.Cat in the title of that book which we also
call The Proverbs of Solomon; and napa^o^ elsewhere, as at 1 Sam. x. 12; Ezek.
xviii. 2. In Ecclesiasticus the two words more than once occur together : thus, xlvii.

17, vapoi/J-iaii KaX wapa/SoAaZs : xxxix. 3, d7r6Kpvi|)a irapoiwiioi' eV aiviypiao-i irapafioXLov .

So we find our Saviour contrasts the speaking in proverbs or parables (J ohn xvi.
25) with the speaking plainly (napprjo-Ca, i. e. nav pij/xa, or every word).

d For instance, to take two common Greek proverbs : Xpvo-ea xa\/ceiW would require
some knowledge of the Homeric narrative ; /3o0s em yAtoo-o-vjs of Attic moneys. The*
obscurity that is in proverbs is evidenced by the fact of such books as the Adagia of
Erasmus, in which he brings all his immense learning to bear on their elucidation,
and yet leaves many with no satisfactory explanation. Cf. the Parcemiographi Graci
(Oxf. 1836), pp. 11-16.

It is not necessarily, as some have affirmed, a Aoyos ko-x<\vaT<.<nx.ivvs : thus, 'Ex9pa>v
aSu,pa SUpa, or TKvkvs aneipaj irdAejuos, with innumerable others, are expressed without
figure ; but very many are also parabolical, and generally the best, and those which
have become most truly popular.

f Quintilian : napotiuo. fabella brevior, . . . parabola longius res quae com-
parentur repetere solet. On the distinction between the napapo\rj and napoip.ia there
are some good remarks in Hase, Thes. Nov. Theol. Philolog. vol. ii. p. 503 ; and in
Cremer, Wdrterbuch, d. Neutest. Gr'dcit'dt, p. 83, s. v. napafio\ri.

.,&

OF THE PARABLE

4. It remains to consider wherein the parable differs from the
allegory. This it does in form rather than in essence ; in the
allegory an interpenetration of the thing signifying and the thing
signified finding place the qualities and properties of the first being
attributed to the last, and the two thus blended together, instead of
being kept quite distinct, and placed side by side, as is the case 1 n
the parable. 3 Thus, John xv. 1-8, 'I am the true Vine,' &c, i s
throughout an allegory, as there are two allegories scarcely kept
apart from one another, John x. 1-16; the first, in which the Lord
sets Himself forth as the Door, the second as the good Shepherd of
the sheep. So, ' Behold the Lamb of God ' is an allegorical, ' He
is brought as a lamb to the slaughter ' a parabolical, expression." The
allegory needs not, as the parable an interpretation to be brought
to it from without, since it contains its interpretation within itself;
and, as the allegory proceeds, the interpretation proceeds hand in
hand with it, or at least never falls far behind. And thus the
allegory stands to the metaphor, as the more elaborate and long
drawn out composition of the same kind, in the same relation that
the parable does to the isolated comparison or simile. And as many
proverbs are concise parables, so also many are brief allegories. For
instance, the following, which is an Eastern proverb 'This world is
a carcass, and they who gather round it are dogs,' does, in fact,
interpret itself as it goes along, and needs not, therefore, that an
interpretation be brought to it from without; while it is otherwise
with the proverb spoken by our Lord, ' Wheresoever the carcass is,
there will the eagles be gathered together ; ' this gives no help to

a Thus Lowth (De Sac. Po'es. Heb. Prcel. 10): His denique subjicienda est quasi
lex quasdam parabolas, nimirum ut per omnia sibi constet, neque arcessitis propria
admista habeat. In quo multum differt a prima allegorise specie, quae a simplici
metaphora paulatim precendens, non semper continue excludit proprium, a propriis
in translata paulatim illapsa , nee minus leniter ex translatis in propria per gradus
quosdam se recipiens.

b Thus Isai. v. 1-6 is a parable, of which the explanation is separately given, ver.
7 ; while Ps. lxxx. 8-16, resting on the same image, is an allegory ; since, for in-
stance, the casting out of the heathen, that the vine might be planted, is an inter-
mingling of the thing signifying and that signified, wherein the note of the allegory
as distinguished from the parable consists, as Quintilian (Inst. viii. 3. 77) observes ;
for having defined the allegory, he proceeds : In omni autem napafioXfi aut praecedit
similitudo, res sequitur, aut prsecedit res, similitudo sequitur : sed interim libera et
separata est. The allegory, then, is //-ablatio, the parable co/latio.

Of all this the Pilgrim's Progress affords ample illustration, 'Interpreter' appear-
ing there as one of the persons of the allegory. Hallam {Liter, of Europe, vol. iv.
P- 5S3) counts it a defect in the book, that, 'in his language, Bunyan sometimes
mingles the signification too much with the fable ; we might be perplexed between
the imaginary and the real Christian ;' but is not this of the very nature of the alle-
gorical fable ?

14 ON THE DEFINITION OF THE PARABLE.

its own interpretation from within, and is a saying of which the
darkness and difficulty have been abundantly witnessed by the many
and diverging interpretations which it has received.

To sum up all, then, the parable differs from the fable, moving as
as it does in a spiritual world, and never transgressing the actual
order of things natural from the mythus, there being in the latter
an unconscious blending of the deeper meaning with the outward
symbol, while the two remain separate and inseparable in the parable
from the proverb, inasmuch as it is more fully carried out, and not
accidentally and occasionally, but necessarily figurative from the
allegory, comparing as it does one thing with another, but, at the
same time, preserving them apart as an inner and an outer, and not
transferring, as does the allegory, the properties and qualities and re-
lations of one to the other.

CHAPTER II.
ON TEACHING BY PARABLES.

HOWEVER our Lord may on one or more occasions have made
use of this manner of teaching by parables, with the intention
of withdrawing from certain of His hearers the knowledge of truths,
which they were unworthy or unfit to receive ; a so that, in Fuller's
words, the parables on such occasions were ' not unlike the pillar of
cloud and fire, which gave light to the Israelites, but was a cloud of
darkness to the Egyptians; ,b 'yet we may assume as certain that his
general aim was not different from that of others who have used this

* Macrobius Somn. Scrip, i. 2): Figuris defendentibus a vilitate secretum. No one
can deny that this was sometimes the Lord's purpose, without doing great violence
to his words (Matt. xiii. 10-15 ; Mark iv. 11, 12 ; Luke xiii. 9, 10; cf. Ezek. xx. 49).
And even if we could successfully deil with the \v<x and the ^^n-ore there, still the
passage of Isaiah (vi. 10) is in the way. Where would then be the fulfilment of his
prophecy ? There can be no doubt that the prophet speaks of a penal blindness, a
punishment of the foregoing sins of his people, and namely this punishment, that
they should be unable to recognize what was divine in his mission and character;
which prophecy had its crowning fulfilment, when the Jewish people were so darkened
by previous carnal thoughts and works, that they could see no glory and no beauty
in Christ, recognize nothing of divine in the teaching or person of Him who was
God manifest in the flesh.' It is not that by the command, 'Make the heart of this
people fat,' we need understand that any peculiar hardening then passed upon them;
but that the Lord, having constituted as the righteous law of his moral government,
that sin should produce darkness of heart and moral insensibility, declared that He
would allow the law in their case to take its course, and so also with this latter
generation : even as that law is declared in the latter half of Rom i. to have taken
its course with the Gentile world : in Augustine's awful words, Deus solus magnus,
lege infatigabili spargens poenales csecitates super illicitas cupidines. The fearful
curse of sin is that it ever reproduces itself, that he who sows in sin reaps in spiritual
darkness, which delivers him over again to worse sin :

For when we in our viciousness grow hard,

Oh, misery on't, the wise gods seal our eyes,

In our own filth drop our clear judgments, make us

Adore our errors, laugh at us, while we strut

To our confusion.'

b Pisgah Sight of Palestine, p. 148.

Bacon has noted this double purpose of parables (De Sap. Vet.)-. Duplex apud

1 6 ON TEA CHING B Y PARABLES.

method of teaching, and who have desired thereby to make clearer, 8
either to illustrate or to prove the truths which they had in hand : I
say either to illustrate or to prove ; for the parable or other analogy
to spiritual truth appropriated from the world of nature~oF man, is
not merely illustration, but also in some sort proof. It is not merely
that these analogies assist to make the truth intelligible, or, if intelli-
gible before, present it more vividly to the mind, which is all that
some will allow them. b Their power lies deeper than this, in the
harmony unconsciously felt by all men, and by which all deeper
minds have delighted to trace, between the natural and spiritual
worldSj_s^jiiai_aJiaJogjesfrom the first are felt to be something more
than illustra tions, happily but yet arbitrarily chosen. They are ar-
guments, and may be alleged as witnesses ; the world of nature being
throughout a witness for the world of spirit, proceeding from the same
hand, growing out of the same root, and being constituted for that
very end. All lovers of truth readily acknowledge these mysterious
harmonies, and the force of arguments derived from them. To them
the things on earth are copies of the things in heaven. They know
that the earthly tabernacle is made after the pattern of things seen

homines repertus est atque increbuit parabolarum usus, atque, quod magis mirum
sit, ad contraria adhibetur. Faciunt enim parabolse ad involucrum et velum, faciunt
etiam ad lumen et illustrationem. Cf. De Angm. Scient. ii. 13 ; and the passage from
Stobaeus, on the teaching of Pythagoras, in Potter's edit, of Clemens Alexandrinus,
p. 676, note.

This has been acknowledged on all sides, equally by profane and sacred writers;
thus Quintilian (Inst. viii. 3. 72): Praeclare vero ad inferendam rebus lucem repertae
sunt similitudines. And Seneca (Ep. 59) styles them, imbecillitatis nostrae admi-
nicula. Again, they have been called, mediae scientiam interet ignorantiam. The
author of the treatise ad Herennium : Similitudo sumitur aut ornandi causa, aut pro-
bandi, out apertius docendi, aut ante oculos ponendi. Tertullian {De Res. Cam.
33) expressly denies of parables, that they darken the light of the Gospel (obum-
brant Evangelii lucem). Basil calls the parable A6yo; u)$e'At|u.os ^er eVi/cpv^us /ueTpios,
with that moderate degree of concealment which shall ptovoke, not such as shall
repel or dissappoint, inquiry. The Lord, says Chrysostom {Horn. 69 in Afalth.),
spoke in parables, e P eeCwv al Sieyelpuv, or, as he expresses it elsewhere (De Prec. Serin.
2), that we might dive down into the deep sea of knowledge, from thence to fetch
up pearls and precious stones ; see too the quotation from him in Suicer, Thes. s. v.
And Jeremy Taylor : He taught them by parables, under which were hid mysterious
senses, which shined through their veil, like a bright sun through an eye closed with
a thin eyelid.'

b So Stellini : Ita enim fere comparati sumus, ut cum impressionis vjvacitate no-
tionis evidentiam confundamus, eaque clarius intelligere nos arbitremur, quibus im-
aginandi perculsa vis acrius est, et quae novitate aliqua. commendantur, ea stabiliora
sunt ad diuturnitatem memoriae, neque vetustate ulla. consenescunt. And Spanheim
(Dub. Evang. vol. ii. p. 497), though he does not urge this side exclusively : They
have their use, he says, ex pulsatione affectuum : nee enim major tantum lux ex
parabolis, sed etiam vehementior motus.

ON TEACHING BY PARABLES. 17

in the Mount (Exod. xxv. 40; 1 Chron. xxviii. 11, 12);* and the
question suggested by the angel in Milton is often forced upon their
meditations,

' What if earth
Be but the shadow of heaven, and things therein
Each to other like, more than on earth is thought? ' b

For it is a great misunderstanding of the matter to think of these
as happily, but yet arbitrarily, chosen illustrations, taken with a
skillful selection from the great stock and storehouse of unappropri-
ated images ; from whence it would have been possible that the same
skill might have selected others as good, or nearly as good. Rather
they belong to one another, the type and the thing typified, by an
inward necessity; they were linked together long before by the law
of a secret affinity. It is not a happy accident which has yielded so
wondrous an analogy as that of husband and wife, to set forth the
mystery of Christ's relation to His elect Church. There is far more
in it than this : the earthly relation is indeed but a lower form of the
heavenly, on which it rests, and of which it is the utterance. When
Christ spoke to Nicodemus of a new birth, it was not merely because
birth into this natural world was the most suitable figure that could
be found for the expression of that spiritual act which, without any
power of our own, is accomplished upon us when we are brought in-
to God's kingdom ; but all the circumstances of this natural birth
had been preordained to bear the burden of so great a mystery.
The Lord is King, not borrowing this title from the kings of the

* See Irenaeus, Con. H<zr. iv. 14. 3.

b Many are the sayings of a like kind among the Jewish Cabbalists. Thus in the
book Sohar: Quodcunque in terra est, id etiam in cselo est, et nulla r.s tarn exigua
est in mundo, quae non alii simili, quae in caelo est, correspondeat. In Gfrorer's
Urchristenthum, vol. ii. pp. 26-30, and Bahr's Symb, d. Mas. Cult. vol. i. p. 109,
many like passages are quoted. No one was fuller of this than Tertullian : see his
magnificent wcrds on the resurrection (De Res. Cam. 12) : All things here, he says,
are witnesses of a resurrection, all things in nature are prophetic outlines of divine
operations, God not merely speaking parables, but doing them (talia divinamm
virium lineamenta, non minus parabolis operato Deo quam locuto). And again,
De Animd, 43, the activity of the soul in sleep is for him at once an argument and
an illustration which God has provided us, of its not being tied to the body, to per-
ish with it : Deus . . . manum porrigens fidei, facilius adjuvandae per imagines
et parabolas, sicut sermonum, ita et rerum.

Out of a true sense of this has grown our use of the word likely. There is a con-
fident expectation in the minds of men of the reappearance, in higher spheres, of the
same laws and relations which they have recognized in lower ; and thus that which
is like is also likely or probable. Butler's Analogy is just the unfolding, as he him-
self declares at the beginning, in one particular line of this our consciousness that
the like is also the likelv.

18 ON TEA CHING BY PA RABLES.

earth, but having lent His own title to them and not the name
only, but having so ordered, that all true rule and government upon
earth, with its righteous laws, its stable ordinances, its punishment
and its grace, its majesty and its terror, should tell of Him and of
His kingdom which ruleth over all so that ' kingdom of God ' is
not in fact a figurative expression, but most liberal : it is rather the
earthly kingdoms and the earthly kings that are figures and shadows
of the true. And as in the world of man and human relations, so
also is it in the world of nature. The untended soil which yields
thorns and briers as its natural harvest is a permanent type and en-
during parable of man's heart, which has been submitted to the same
curse, and without a watchful spiritual husbandry will as surely put
forth its briers and its thorns. The weeds that will mingle during
the time of growth with the corn, and yet are separated from it at
the last, tell ever one and the same tale of the present admixture, and
future sundering, of the righteous and the wicked. The decaying of
the slight unsightly seed in the earth, and the rising up, out of that
decay and death, of the graceful stalk and the fruitful ear, contain
evermore the prophecy of the final resurrection, even as this is itself
in its kind a resurrection, the same process at a lower stage, the
same power putting itself forth upon meaner things. Of all such
correspondences as drawn out in Scripture you ought not to say, they
are finely chosen similitudes, but, they are rightly appropriated types*.
Doubtless it will be always possible for those who shrink from con-
templating a higher world-order than that imperfect one around them,
and this, because the thought of such would rebuke their own
imperfection and littleness, who shrink, too, from a witness for God
so near them as even that imperfect order would render, to deny this
conclusion. It will be possible for them to reply that it is not as we
affirm ; but that our talk of heavenly things is only a transferring of
earthly images and relations to them; that earth is not a shadow of
heaven, but heaven, such at least as we conceive it, a dream of
earth ; that the names Father and Son, for instance (and this is
Arianism), are only improperly used, and in a secondary sense, when
applied to Divine Persons, and then are terms so encumbered with
difficulties and contradictions that they had better not be used at all;
that we do not find and recognize heavenly things in their earthly
counterparts, but only dexterously adapt them. This denial will be
always possible, and has a deeper root than that it can be met with
argument ; yet the lover of a truth which shall be loftier than him-
self will not be moved from his faith that however man may be the
measure of all things here, yet God is the measure of man, that the

ON TEACHING BY PARABLES. 19

same Lord who sits upon His throne in heaven, does with the skirts
of His train fill His temple upon earth, that these characters of
nature which everywhere meet the eye are not a common, but a
sacred, writing, that they are hieroglyphics of God : and he counts
this his blessedness, that having these round about him, he is there-
fore never without admonishment and teaching.

For such is, in truth, the condition of man. Around him is a
sensuous world, yet one which need not bring him into bondage to
his senses, being so framed as, if he will use it aright, continually to
lift him above itself a visible world to make known the invisible
things of God, a ladder leading him up to the contemplation of
heavenly truth. And this truth he shall encounter and make his
own, not fleeing from his fellows and their works and ways, but in
the mart, on the wayside, in the field not by stripping himself bare
of all relations, but rather recognizing these as instruments through
which he is to be educated into the knowledge of higher mysteries ;
and therefore dealing with them in reverence, seeking, by faithful-
ness to them in their lower forms, to enter into their yet deeper sig-
nificance entertaining them, though they seem but common guests,
and finding that he has unawares entertained angels. And thus,
besides His revelation in words, God has another and an elder, and
one, indeed, without which it is inconceivable how that other could
be made, for from this it appropriates all its signs of communication.
This entire moral and visible world from first to last, with its kings
and its subjects, its parents and its children, its sun and its moon, its
sowing and its harvest, its light and its darkness, its sleeping and its
waking, its birth and its death, is from beginning to end a mighty
parable, a great teaching of supersensuous truth, a help at once to
our faith and to our understanding.*

It is true that men are ever in danger of losing the key of knowl-
edge,' which should open to them the portals of this palace : and
then, instead of a prince in a world of wonder that is serving him,
man moves in the midst of this world, alternately its taskmaster and
its dilidge. Such we see him to become at the two poles of savage
and falsely cultivated life his inner eye darkened, so that he sees
nothing, his inner ear heavy, so that there come no voices from
nature unto him; and indeed in all, save only in the one Man, there

a Abelard's are striking words {Introd. ad Theol. ii. 2) : In tantum vero in ipsa
factura delectatur Deus, ut frequentur in ipsis rerum naturis quas creavit se figurari
magis quam verbis nostris, quae nos confinximus aut invenimus, expnmi velit, ut
magis ipsa, rerum similimdine, quam verborum nostrorum gaudeat proprietate, ut
ad eloquentke venustatem ipsis rerum naturis, juxta aliquam similitudinem, pro
verbis Scriptura malit uti, quam proprice locutionis integritatem sequi.

20 ON TEACHING BY PARABLES.

is more or less of the dulled ear and the filmed eye. There is
none to whom nature tells out all that she has to tell, and as con-
stantly as she would be willing to tell it. Now the whole of
Scripture, with its ever -recurring use of figurative language, is a
re-awaKening of man to the mystery of nature, a giving back to him
of the key of knowledge, of the true signatura rerum : and this
comes out, as we might expect, in its highest form, but by no means
exclusively, in those which by pre-eminence we call the parables.
They have this point of likeness with the miracles, that those, too,
were a calling of heed to powers that were daily working, but which,
by their continual and orderly repetition, which ought to have
kindled the more admiration, had become wonder-works no more,,
had lost the power of exciting admiration or even attention, until
men had need to be startled anew to the contemplation of the
energies which were ever working among them. In like manner
the parables are a calling of attention to the spiritual facts
which underlie all processes of nature, all institutions of human
society, and which, though unseen, are the true ground and support
of all. Christ moved in the midst of what seemed to the eye of
sense an old and worn-out world, and it evidently became new at his
touch; for it told to man now the inmost secrets of His being. He
found that it answered with strange and marvellous correspondence
to another world within him, that it helped to the birth great
thoughts of his heart, which before were helplessly struggling to be
born, that of these two worlds without him and within each threw
a light and a glory on the other. For on this rests the possibility of
a real teaching by parables, such as, resting upon a substantial ground,
shall not be a mere building on the air, or painting upon a cloud,
on this, namely, cf.at the world around us is a divine world, that it is
God's world, the world of the same God who is leading us into
spiritual truth ; that the ghastly dream of Gnostic and Manichsean,
who would set a great gulf between the worlds of nature and of
grace, ascribing this to a good, but that to an imperfect or an evil
power, is a lie ; and that, being originally God's world, it is there-
fore a sharer in his redemption.

And yet this redeemed world, like man, is in part redeemed only
in hope (Rom. viii. 20) ; being in no present possession, but only in
the assured certainty, of a complete deliverance. For this, too, we
must not forget, that nature, in its present state, like man himself,
contains but a true prophecy of its coming glory ; it ' groaneth and
travaileth ; ' it cannot tell out all its secrets ; it has a presentiment of
something, which it is not yet, but hereafter shall be. It, too, is

ON TEACHING BY PARABLES. 21

suffering under our curse : yet thus in its very imperfection wonder-
fully serving us, since thus it has apter signs and symbols to declare
to our disease and our misery, and the processes of their healing and
removing ; it has symbols not merely of God's grace and power, but
also of man's sins and wretchedness. It has its sores and its wounds,
its storms and its wildernesses, its lion and its adder, by these inter-
preting to us death and all that leads to death., no less than, by its
more beneficent workings, life and all that tends to the restoring and
maintaining of life.

But while thus it has this gracious adaptation to our needs, not the
less does it, in this fallen estate, come short of its full purpose and
meaning : it fails in part to witness for a divine order, tanta stat
prczdita culpa, as one, whose eye was mainly directed to this, its
disorder and deficiency, exclaimed. It does not give always a clear
witness, nor speak out in distinct accents, of God's truth and love.
Of these it is oftentimes an inadequate expression yea, sometimes
seems not to declare them at all, but rather in volcano and in earth-
quake, in ravenous beasts and in poisonous herbs, to tell of strife,
and disharmony, and all the woful consequences of the Fall. But
one day it will be otherwise ; one day it will be translucent with the
divine idea which it embodies, and which even now, despite these
lark spots, shines through it so wondrously. For no doubt the end
and consummation will be, not the abolition of this nature, but the
the glorifying of it ; that which is now nature (natura) always, as
the word expresses, striving and struggling to the birth, will then be
indeed born. The new creation will be as the glorious child born
out of the world-long throes and anguish of the old. It will be as
the snake casting its wrinkled and winter skin ; not the world, but
' the fashion of the world,' passing away, when it puts off its soiled
work-day garments, and puts on its holiday apparel for the great
Sabbath which shall arrive at last. Then, when it, too, shall have
been delivered from its bondage of corruption, all that it now has of
dim and contradictory and perplexing shall disappear. This nature,
too, shall be a mirror, in which God will perfectly glass Himself, for
it shall tell of nothing but the marvels of His wisdom and power
and love.

But at present, while this natural world, through its share in man's
fall, has won in fitness for the expression of the sadder side of man's
condition, the imperfection and evil that cling to him and beset him,
it has in some measure lost in fitness for the expressing of the higher,
It possesses the best, yet oftentimes inadequate, helps for this. These
human relationships, and this whole constitution of things earthly,

22 ON TEACHING BY PARABLES.

share in the shortcoming that cleaves to all which is of the earth.
Obnoxious to change, tainted with sin, shut in within brief limits by
decay and death, they are often weak and temporary, where they
have to set forth things strong and eternal. A sinful element is
evidently mingled with them, while they yet appear as symbols of
what is entirely pure and heavenly. They break down under the
weight that is laid upon them. The father chastens after his own
pleasure, instead of wholly for the child's profit ; in this unlike that
heavenly Father, whose character he is to declare. The seed which
should set forth the word of God, that Word which liveth and
abideth for ever, itself decays and perishes at last. Festivals, so
frequently the image of the pure joy. of the kingdom, of the crown-
ing communion of the faithful with their Lord and with one another,
will often, when here celebrated, be mixed up with much that is
carnal, and they come to their close in a few hours. There is some-
thing exactly analagous to all this in the typical or parabolical per-
sonages of Scripture the men that are to set forth the Divine Man.
Through their sins, through their infirmities yea, through the
necessary limitations of their earthly condition, they are unable to
carry the correspondences completely out. Sooner or later they
break down ; and very often even the part which they do sustain,
they sustain it not for long. Thus few would deny the typical
character of Solomon. His kingdom of peace, the splendour of
his court, his wisdom, the temple which he reared, all point to a
Greater whom he foreshowed. Yet this gorgeous forecasting of the
coming glory is vouchsafed to us only for an instant , we catch a
glimpse of it and no more. Even before his reign is done, all is
beginning to dislimn again, to lose the distinctness of its outline, the
brightness of its colouring. His wisdom is darkened, the perfect
peace of his land has disappeared (i Kin. xi. 14, 23, 26); and the
gloom on every side encroaching warns us that this is but a fleeting
image, not the very substance, of the true kingdom of peace.

Again, there are men who only in some single point of their his-
tory are brought into typical relation with Christ; such was Jonah,
the type of the Resurrection. Others, again, there are whose lives
at one moment and another seem suddenly to stand out as symbolic,
but who then sink back so far that we hesitate whether we may dare
to consider them as such at all, and with whom the attempt to carry
out the resemblance into greater detail would involve in infinite em-
barrassment. Samson will at once suggest himself as one of these.
Doubtless something more was meant than is contained in the letter,
when he out of the eater brought forth meat, and out of the strong.

ON TEACHING BY PARABLES. 23

sweetness (Judg. xiv. 14) ; or when he wrought a mightier deliver-
ance for Israel through his death than he had wrought in his life
(Judg. xvi. 30). Yet we hesitate how far we may proceed. And so
it is in every case, for somewhere or other every man is a liar; he is
false, that is, to the divine idea, which he was meant to embody, and
fails to bring it out in all the fulness of its perfections. So that of
the truths of God in the language of men (this language of course
including man's acts as well as his words), of these sons of heaven
married to the daughters of earth, it may truly be said, ' we have
this treasure in earthen vessels.' And we must expect that some-
where or other the earthen vessel will appear, that the imperfection
which cleaves to our forms of utterance, to men's words and to their
works, will make itself felt either in the misapprehensions of those to
whom the language is addressed (as at John iii. 11), or by the lan-
guage itself, though the best that human speech could supply, by the
men themselves, though the noblest, it may be, of their age and na-
tion, yet failing to set forth the divine truth in all its fulness and
completeness. 8

No doubt it was a feeling, working more or less consciously, of
the dangers and drawbacks that attend all our means of communica-
tion a desire, also, to see eye to eye, or, as St. Paul terms it, face
to face 6 (1 Cor. xiii. 12), which caused the Mystics to press with

* It is now rather <!k ti.ipav%, iv aiviy/uaTt, Si" io-ompov (l Cor. xiii. 9, 12), kv 7rapoLfj.ia.ii

(John xvi. 25) ; cf. Bernard, In Cant. Serm. xxxi. 8. A Persian mystical poet has
finely expressed this truth (see Tholuck, Bliithensamm. aus d. Morgenl. Mystik, p.
216).

Die Sinnenwelt ein Schatten ist der Geistwelt,

Herab von dieser jener Nahrungsmilch quellt.

Gefiihle sind gefangene Monarchen,

Die in der Worte Kerker sich verbargen.

Tritt das Unendliche in's Herz des Weisen,

Muss flugs hinab er zum Verstande reisen.

Der muss die Schattenbilder ihm gewahren,

Damit er konn' Unendliches erklaren;

Doch nimmer ist das Abbild je vollkommen,

Nur Selbstverstandniss kann dir wahrhaft frommen.

Denn ziehst aus jedem Bild du Consequenzen,

Musst hier du Vieles wegthun, dort erganzen.

b John Smith {Select Disc. p. 159) observes that the later Platonists had three
terms to distinguish the different degrees of divine knowledge, kolt kiri.sTriii.Ttv, Kara
v6r)o-iv, and Kara, napovsiav. If we assumed these into Christian theology, and they
very nearly agree with the threefold division of St. Bernard, (De Consid. v. 3),
opinio, fides, and intelleotus (intuition), we might say of the first, that it is com-
mon to all men, being merely notional, knowing about God : the second is the privi-
lege of the faithful now, the knowing God: the third, the avro^dvua. of the same
school, the Arcanum facierum of the Jewish doctors, will be their possession in tha

24 ON TEACHING BY PARABLES.

such earnestness and frequency, that we should seek to abstract our-
selves from all images of things ; that to raise ourselves to the con-
templation of pure and naked truth is the height of spiritual attain-
ment, towards which we should continually be struggling. a But in
requiring this as a test and proof of spiritual progress in setting it
as the mark towards which men should strive, they are not merely
laying unnecessary burdens on men's backs, but actually leading
astray. For whether one shall separate in his own consciousness the
form from the essence, whether the images which he uses shall be
to him more or less conscious symbols, does not depend on his
greater or less advance in spiritual knowledge, but on causes which
may or may not accompany religious growth, and mainly on this one,

whether he has been accustomed to think upon his thoughts, to

reflect upon the wonderful instrument which in language he is using.
One who possesses the truth only as it is incorporated in the symbol,
may have a far stronger hold upon it, may be influenced by it far
more mightily, may far more really be nourished by it than another,
who, according to the mystic view, would be in a higher and more
advanced state. It is true, indeed, that for them who have not
merely to live upon the truth themselves, but to guard it for others,

not only to drink themselves of the streams of divine knowledge,

but to see that the waters of its well-heads be not troubled for their

brethren, for them it is well that they should be conscious, and the

more conscious the better, of the wonderful thing which language

is, of the power and mystery, of the truth and falsehood, of words ;

and as a part of this acquaintance, that the truth, and that which is
the vehicle of the truth, should for them be separable ; but then it
should be even for them as soul and body, not as kernel and husk.
This last comparison has been often used, but may easily be pushed
into an error. It has been said that, as when the seed is cast into

world to come, that seeing of God, the reciprocity of which is finally indicated by
Augustine, when he terms it, Videre Videntem. It was this, according to Jewish
interpreters, which Moses craved, when he said, ' I beseech Thee, show me thy
glory,' but which was denied him, as being impossible for man in this present life :
Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see Me, and live ' Exod. xxxiii.
18-20). Yet he, too, they say, came nearer lo this than any other of the Lord's
prophets (see Meuschen, N. T. ex Talm. illustr. 373). In a striking Mohammedan
tradition, the Lord convinces Moses how fearful a thing it would be to comply with
his request, 'Show me thy glory,' by suffering a spark of that glory, the fullness of
which Moses had craved to see, to fall upon a mountain, which instantly burst into a
thousand fragments.

Thauler, for instance, is continually urging, Ut ab omnibus imaginibus denude-
mur et exuamur, Fenelon the same ; and, indeed, all the Mystics, from Dionysius
downward, agree in this.

ON TEACHING BY PARABLES. 25

the ground, after a time the kernel disengages itself from the outer
coating, and alone remains and fructifies, while the husk decays and
perishes; so in the seed of God's word, deposited in man's heart, the
sensible form must fall off, that the inner germ, releasing itself, may
germinate. But the image, urged thus far, does not aptly set forth
the truth ; it will lead in the end to a perilous slighting of the writ-
ten word, under pretence of having the inner life. The outward
covering i? not to fall off and perish, but to become glorified, being
pierced and penetrated by the spirit that is within. Man is body and
soul, and, being so, the truth has for him need of a body and soul
likewise : it is well that he should know what is body, and what is
soul, but not that he should seek to kill the body, that he may get
at the scul.

Thus it was provided for us by a wisdom higher than our own, and
all our attempts to disengage ourselves wholly from sensuous images
must always in the end prove unsuccessful. It will be only a chang-
ing of our images, and that for the worst; a giving up of living
realities which truly stir the heart, and a getting of dead metaphysi-
cal abstractions in their room. The aim of the teacher who would
find his way to the hearts and understandings of his hearers, will
never be to keep down the parabolical element in his teaching, but
rather to make as large use of it as he can. To do this effectually
will demand a fresh effort of his own ; for while all language is, and
must be figurative, yet long familiar use is continually wearing out
the freshness and sharpness of the stamp (who, for example, that
speaks of insulting, retains the lively image of a leaping on the pros-
trate body of a foe ?) ; so that language is ever needing to be recalled,
minted and issued anew, cast into novel forms, as was done by Him
of whom it is said, that without a parable spake He nothing ; He
gave no doctrine in an abstract form, no skeletons of truth, but all
clothed, as it were, with flesh and blood. He did, as He declared
His Apostles must do, if they would be scribes instructed unto the
kingdom, and able to instruct others (Matt. xiii. 52); He brought
forth out of His treasure things new and old : by the help of the old
He made intelligible the new ; by the aid of the familiar He intro-
duced that which was strange ; from the known He passed more
easily to the unknown. And in His own manner of teaching He has
given us the secret of all effectual teaching, of all speaking which
shall leave, as was said of the eloquence of Pericles," stings in the
minds and memories of the hearers. There is a natural delight b in

Cicero, De Or at. iii. 34.

*This delight has left its mark upon our language itself. To like & thing is to

26 ON TEACHING BY PARABLES.

this manner of teaching, appealing, as it does, not to the understand-
ing only, but to the feelings, to the imagination ; calling the whole
man, with all his powers and faculties, into pleasurable activity :
and things thus learned with delight are those longest remembered.*
Had our Lord spoken naked spiritual truth, how many of His words,
partly from His hearers' lack of interest in them, partly from their
lack of insight, would have passed away from their hearts and mem-
ories, and left no trace behind them. b But being imparted to them
in this form, under some lively image, in some short and perhaps
seemingly paradoxical sentence, or in some brief but interesting
narrative, they aroused attention, excited inquiry, and even if the
truth did not at the moment, by the help of the illustration used, find
an entrance into the mind, yet the words must thus often have fixed
themselves in their memories and remained by them. And here the
comparison of the seed is appropriate, of which the shell should
guard the life of the inner germ, till that should be ready to unfold
itself, till there should be a soil prepared for it, in which it could
take root and find nourishment suitable to its needs. His words, laid
up in the memory, were to many that heard Him like the money of
another country, unavailable for present use, the value of which
they only dimly know, but which yet was ready in their hand, when
they reached that land, and were naturalized in it. When the Spirit
came, and brought all things to their remembrance, then He filled all
the outlines of truth which they before possessed with its substance,
quickened all its forms with the power and spirit of life. Not per-
haps at once, but gradually, the meanings of what they had heard
unfolded themselves to them. Small to the small, they grew with
their growth. And thus must it ever be with all true knowledge,
which is not the communication of information, the transfer of a
dead sum or capital of facts or theories from one mind to another,
but the opening of living fountains within the heart, the scattering

compare it with some other thing which we have already before our natural, or our
mind's eye : and the pleasurable emotion always arising from this act of comparison
has caused us to give the word a wider sense than belonged to it at first. That we
like what is like, is the explanation of the pleasure which rhyme gives us. For the
connexion between leikan and leiks see Dieffenbach, Goth. Sprache, vol. ii. pp. 133,

134-

* Thus Jerome (Comm. in Malt, in loc): Ut quod per simplex praeceptum teneri

ab auditoribus non potest, per similitudinem exemplaque teneatur.

b It was, no doubt, from a deep feeling of this that the Jewish Cabbalists affirmed,
Lumen supernum numpuam discendit sine indumento ; with which agrees the saying
of the pseudo-Dionysius, so often quoted by the Schoolmen, Impossibile est nobis
aliter lucere divinum radium nisi varietate sacrorum velaminum circumvelatum.

Bernard: An non expedit tenere vel involutum, quod nudum non capis ?

ON J EACH I NG BY PARABLES. 27

of sparks which shall kindle where they fall, the planting of seeds of
truth, which shall take root in the new soil where they are cast, and
striking their roots downward, and sending their branches upward,
shall grow up into goodly trees.

Nor is it unworthy of remark, when we are estimating the amount
of the parabolic element in Scripture, how much besides the spoken,
there is there of acted, parable. In addition to those which, by a
more especial right, we separate off, and call by that name, every
type is a real parable. The whole Levitical constitution, with its
outer court, its Holy, its Holiest of all, its High Priest, its sacrifices,
and all its ordinances, is such, and is declared to be such, in the
Epistle to the Hebrews (ix. 9). The wanderings of the children of
Israel have ever been regarded as a parable of the spiritual life. In
like manner we have parabolic persons, who teach us not merely by
what in their own characters they did, but as they represented One
higher and greater ; men whose actions and whose sufferings obtain
a new significance, inasmuch as they were in these drawing lines,
though often quite unaware of it themselves, which Another and a
greater should hereafter fill up ; as Abraham when he cast out the
bondwoman and her son (Gal. iv. 30), Jonah in the whale's belly,
David in his hour of peril or of agony (Ps. xxii.) And in the
narrower circles, without touching on the central fact and Person in
the kingdom of God, how often has He chosen that His servants
should teach by an acted parable rather than by any other means,
and this because no other teaching was fitted to make so deep and so
lasting an impression. Jeremiah breaks in pieces a potter's vessel,
that he may foretell the complete destruction of his people (xix. 1- 1 1) ;
he wears a yoke, himself a prophecy and a parable of their approach-
ing bondage (xxvii. 2 ; xxviii. 10) ; he redeems a field, in pledge of
a redemption in store for all the land (xxxii. 6-15) ; and these exam-
ples might be infinitely multiplied. And as God will have His
servants by these signs to teach others, He continually teaches them
by the same. It is not His word only that comes to His prophets,
but the great truths of His kingdom pass before their eyes incorpo-
rated in symbols, addressing themselves first to the spiritual eye, and
only through that to the spiritual ear. They are eminently Seers.
Ezekiel and Zechariah will at once suggest themselves, as those of whom
more than, perhaps, any others this was true. And in the New Testa-
ment we have a great example of the same teaching in St. Peter's
vision (Actsx. 9-16), and in all the visions of the Apocalypse. Nay,
we might venture to affirm that so it was with the highest and
greatest truth of all, that which includes all others the manifesta-

28 ON TEACHING BY PARABLES.

tion of God in the flesh. This, inasmuch as it was a making intelli-
gible of the otherwise unintelligible, a making visible of the invisible,
a teaching, not by doctrine, but by the embodied doctrine of a
divine life, was the highest and most glorious of all parables. 1

It would be an interesting study to trace the distinctive character
of the several Gospels in the parables which they severally record ;
or, where the parables are common to more than one, in the especial
circumstances which they bring prominently out. Here, indeed,
only St. Matthew and St. Luke will come into comparison, St. John
having allegories, as of the Good Shepherd, the True Vine, but no
parables ; while St. Mark has only one parable peculiarly his own
(iv. 26), and in his record of those which he shares with the other
two, presents no distinctive features. We may say generally of the
parables thus compared, that St. Matthew's are more theocratic ;
St. Luke's more ethical ; St. Matthew's are more parables of judg-
ment St. Luke's, of mercy; those are statelier, these tenderer.
St. Matthew's are frequently introduced as containing mysteries of
the kingdom of God, language which nowhere occurs in St. Luke.
In St. Matthew's God evermore appears as the King who, sitting on
His throne, scattered away all evil with His eyes, and has in readi-
ness to avenge all disobedience of men ; many of them concluding
with distinct judgment acts of a greater or a lesser severity (xiii. 42,
49; xviii. 34; xx. 14; xxi. 41; xxii. 7, 13; xxv. 12, 30). Such
judgment acts are not wanting in those of St. Luke, but less fre-
quently occur ; while mercy supplies to them their ground-tone, as
it does to the whole Gospel whereunto they belong. They are of
the tree which was spared at the gardener's intercession (xiii. 6) ; of
the Samaritan who poured oil and wine into the traveller's wounds
(x. 30) ; of the father who welcomed back his penitent son (xv. 11);
nay, even the parable of Dives and Lazarus is a parable of mercy,
for it is the declaration of what the issues of not showing mercy
will be.

Nowhere do the characteristic differences of the two Evangelists
come out more strikingly than where they record parables, whose
features in many respects resemble one another. Thus compare St.
Matthew's parable of the Marriage of the King's Son (xxii. 1) with
St. Luke's of the Great Supper (xiv. 16). These are not, as I hope
by and by to show, two different versions or reports of the same
parable, but separate parables, akin to, but yet distinct from, one

a See a few words on this in the Epistle of Barnabas, 5, and in Clement of Alexandria

(Strom. 6, Potter's ed. p. 802): HapafSoKucvs yap o x a P aKT VP vn-ap^ec Tue ypa<f>i>v 5uJti kox
6 Kvpiot, ovk u>v Kotr/utKo; ei? acflpuiirous )A0ep.

ON TEACHING BY PARABLES. 29

another. As nothing is so ductile as fine gold, so was it with the
fine gold of the Saviour's doctrine, which yielded itself easily to be
fashioned and shaped into new forms, as need might require ; the
Evangelists severally giving prominence to that aspect of the para-
ble which corresponded most to their own spiritual predispositions,
which consented best with the special purpose of their Gospel. The
parable in St. Matthew is of a king, and a king's son, for whom a
marriage-festival is made. All is here of the theocracy ; roots itself
in the hopes which the Old Testament cherishes, in the promises
with which it abounds. And then, how characteristic of this Evan-
gelist is the double doom first, of the open foe, and then of the
false friend ! In St. Luke all is different, and all characteristic. No
longer a king, but simply a certain man, makes a supper; the two
judgment acts fall into the background ; one, indeed, disappears
altogether; while far more is made of the grace and goodness of
the giver of the feast, which lead him again and again to send forth
his servant that he may gather in the meanest, the most despised, the
most outcast to his table. These are but slight hints on a matter
which each student of the parables might profitably follow out for
himself. a

In addition to our recorded parables, Papias, a hearer of St. John, professed to
have received by tradition certain other parables of our Lord's (feVas 7rapa/3oAas,
Eusebius, H. E. iii. 39, calls them), which he recorded in his lost book, An Account
of the Lord ' s Sanngs.

CHAPTER III.
ON THE INTERPRETATION OF PARABLES.

THE parables, fair in their outward form, are yet fairer within,
< apples of gold in network of silver ; ' each one of them like a
casket, itself of exquisite workmanship, but in which jewels yet rich-
er than itself are laid up ; or as fruit, which, however lovely to look
upon, is yet in its inner sweetness more delectable still. a To find,
then, the golden key for this casket, at whose touch it shall reveal its
treasures ; so to open this fruit, that nothing of its hidden kernel
shall be missed or lost, has naturally been regarded ever as a matter
of high concern. b In this, the interpretation of the parable, a sub-
ject to which we have now arrived, there is one question of more
importance than any other one so constantly presenting itself anew,
that it will naturally claim to be the first and most fully consid-
ered. It is this, How much of them is to be taken as significant ?
and to this question answers the most different have been returned.
There are those who expect to trace only the most general correspon-
dence between the sign and the thing signified ; while others aim at
running out the interpretation into the minutest detail ; with those
who occupy every intermediate stage between these extremes. Some
have gone far in saying, This is merely drapery and ornament, and
not the vehicle of essential truth ; this was introduced either to give
liveliness and a general air of verisimilitude to the narrative, or as
actually necessary to make the story, the vehicle of the truth, a con-
sistent whole, without which consistency the hearer would have been
perplexed or offended ; or else to hold together and connect the dif-
ferent parts, just as in the most splendid house there must be
passages, not for their own sake, but to lead from one room to an-

Bernard: Superficies ipsa, tanquam a foris considerata, decora est valde: et si
quis fregerit nucem, intus inveniet quod jucundius sit, et multo amplius delectabile.

b Jerome (/ Eccles..): Parabolas aliud in medulla habent, aliud in superficie
pollicentur: et quasi in terra, aurum, in nuce nucleus, in hirsutis castanearum oper-
culis absconditus fructus inquiritur, ita in eis divinus sensus altius perscrutandus.

INTER PRE TA TION OE PARABLES. 3 1

other. 8 They have used often the illustration of the knife, which is
not all edge ; of the harp, which is not all string ; urging that much
in the knife, which does not cut, the handle for example, is yet of
prime necessity, much, in the musical instrument, which is never
intended to give sound, must yet not be wanting : or, to use another
comparison, that many circumstances ' in Christ's parables are like
the feathers which wing our arrows, which, though they pierce not
like the head, but seem slight things and of a different matter from
the rest, are yet requisite to make the shaft to pierce, and do both
convey it to and penetrate the mark." 5 To this school Chrysostom
belongs. He continually warns against pressing too anxiously all
the circumstances of a parable, and often cuts his own interpretation
somewhat short in language like this, ' Be not over-busy about the
rest. It is the same with the interpreters that habitually follow him,
Theophylact d and others, though not always faithful to their own

a Tertullian (De Pudicitid, 9): Quare centum oves? et quid utique decern drachmae?
et quse Mas scopae? Necesse erat qui unius peccatoris salutem gratissimam Deo
volebat exprimere, aliquam numeri quanti atem nominaret, de quo unum quidem
perisse describeret : necesse erat ut habitus requirentis drachmam in domo, tam sco-
parum quam lucernae adminiculo accommodaretur. Hujusmodi enim curiositates et
suspecta faciunt quaedam, et coactarum expositionum subtilitate plerumque dedu-
cunt a veritate. Sunt autem quae et simpliciter posita sunt ad struendam et dispon-
endam et texendam parabolam, et illuc perducantur, cui exemplum procuratur.
Brower (De Far. J. C. p. 175): Talia omitti non potuerunt, quoniam eorum tantum
ope res ad eventum facile perduci posset, cum alioquin saltus fieret aut hiatus in nar-
ratione, qui rei narratae similitudini omnino noceret, vel quia eorum neglectus audi-
tores fortasse ad inanes quaestiones et dubitationes invitare posset.

b Boyle, Style of the Holy Scriptures; Fifth Objection, Augustine (De Civ. Dei,
xvi. 2) carries out this view still further : Non sane omnia quae gesta narrantur,
aliquid etiam significare putanda sunt : sed propter ilia quae aliquid significant, etiam
ilia quae nihil significant attexuntur. Solo enim vomere terra proscinditur, sed ut
hoc fieri possit, etiam cetera aratri membra sunt necessaria. Et soli nervi in citharis
atque hujusmodi vasis musicis aptantur ad cantum, sed ut aptari possint, insunt et
cetera in compaginibus organorum, quae non percutiuntur a canentibus, sed ea quae
percussa resonant his connectuntur. Ita in prophetica historic dicuntur et aliqua,
quae nihil significant, sed quibus adhaereant quae significant, et quodam modo reli-
gentur. Cf. Con. Faust, xxii. 94. A Roman Catholic expositor, Salmeron, has a
comparison something similar: Certum est gladium non omni ex parte scindere, sed
una. tantum : nee enim per manubrium secat, neque per partem obtusam oppositam
aciei, neque per cuspidem, sed tantum per aciem secat. Et tamen nemo sanae men-
tis dixerit aut manubrium aut cuspidem aut partem obtusam oppositam aciei, neces-
saria non esse ad scindendum : nam etsi per se ipsa non scindant, serviunt tamen ut
pars quae acuta est, et ad secandum nata, scindere fortius et commodius valeat. Ita
in parabolis multa afferehtur quae etsi per se ipsa sensurn spiritalem non efficiant,
conducunt tamen ut parabola perilliam partem scindatetsecet, ad quod praestandum
ab auctore proposita fuerat.

c TaWa. /ut) Trepiepyd^ov.

TheophylaCt (/ Luc. 16): Tlana 7rapa|3oArj TrAayi'co? Kai eixoviiciu? SrjKol irpc.yixa.Tutv
Tivutv fyviriv, ov Kara navra ioixvia tois irpayp.a.<rt.v efcetcoif , Si 8. irapekyipthi: Si & ovSe xp'rj

32 ON THE INTERPRETATION

principles. So also with Origen, who illustrates his meaning by a
camparison of much beauty: 'For as the likenesses which are given
in pictures and statues are not perfect resemblances of those things
for whose sake they are made but for instance the image which is
painted in wax on a plain surface of wood, contains a resemblance of
the superficies and colours, but does not also preserve the depressions
and prominences, but only a representation of them while a statue,
again, seeks to preserve the likeness which consists in prominences
and depressions, but not as well that which is in colours but should
the statue be of wax, it seeks to retain both, I mean the colours, and
also the depressions and prominences, but is not an image of those
things which are within in the same manner, of the parables which
are contained in the Gospels so account, that the kingdom of heav-
en, when it is likened to anything, is not likened to it according
to all the things which are contained in that with which the com-
parison is instituted, but according to certain qualities which the
matter in hand requires.' 3 Exactly thus Tillotson has said that the
parables and its interpretation are not to be contemplated as two
planes, touching one another at every point, but oftentimes rather as
a plane and a globe, which, though brought into contact, yet touch
one another only at one.

On the other hand, Augustine, though himself sometimes laying
down the same canon, frequently extends the interpretation through
all the branches and minutest fibres of the narrative ; b and Origen
no less, despite the passage which I have just quoted. And in
modern times, the followers of Cocceius have been particularly
earnest in affirming all parts of a parable to be significant. 6 Ir-
ving has a noble passage describing the long and laborious care
which he took to master the literal meaning of every word in
the parables being confident of the riches of inward truth which
every one of those words contained ; he goes on to say : ' Of all
which my feeling and progress in studying the parables of our
Lord, I have found no similitude worthy to convey the impres-
sion, save that of sailing through between the Pillars of Hercules
into the Mediterranean Sea, where you have to pass between armed

navra ra p-ipi) tuiv napa^o\uiv Ae7TTu>s TroAvTrpayn-ovevaOai, a\y' oaov eoixe tu> wpoKip;eVa>
Kapnovp.kvovs. To Aoirrd eav, is Trj Trapc^JoAjj <rwv<t>L<TTa.p.eva, Kai p.T)Skv Trpbs to TvpoKtip-tvov
<7uji|8aAAofxci'a.

Comm. in Matt. xiii. 47.

i> His exposition of the Prodigal Son (Quast. Rvang. ii. qu. 33) is a marvellous
example of this.

Teelman (Comm. in Luc. xvi. 34-52) defends this principle at length and with
mach ability.

OF PARABLES. 33

rocks, in a strait, and under a current all requiring careful and
skilful seamanship but, being passed, opening into such a large, ex-
pansive, and serene ocean of truth, so engirdled round with rich and
ferule lands, so inlaid with beautiful and verdant islands, and full of
rich colonies and populous cities, that unspeakable is the delight and
the reward it yieideth to the voyager. ' a He and others have protested
inst that shallow spirit which is ever ready to empty Scripture of
its deeper meaning, to exclaim, ' This means nothing ; this circum-
stance is not to be pressed ; ' which, satisfying itself with sayings like
these, fails to draw out from the word of God all the rich treasures
contained in it for us, or to recognize the manifold wisdom with
which its type is often constructed to correspond with the antitype.
They bid us to observe that of those who start with the principle that
so much is to be set aside as non-essential, scarcely are to be found
any two agreed, when it comes to the application of their principle,
concerning what actually is to be set aside ; what one rejects another
retains, and the contrary : and further, that the more this scheme is
carried out, the more the peculiar beauty of the parable disappears,
and the interest of it is lost. For example, when Calvin will not
allow the oil in the vessels of the wise virgins (Matt. xxv. 4) to mean
anything, nor the vessels themselves, nor the lamps ; b or when Storr,
who, perhaps more than any other, ould leave the parables bare
trunks, stripped of all their foliage and branches, of every thing that
made for beauty and ornament, denies that the Prodigal leaving his
father's house has any direct reference to man's departure from the
presence of his heavenly Father, it is at once evident of how much not
merely of pleasure, but of instruction, they would deprive us. It is
urged, too, in opposition to the interpretation of the parables merely^
in the gross, that when our Lord Himself interpreted the two first
which He delivered, namely the Sower and of the Tares, it is more
than probable that He intended to furnish us with a key for the in-
terpretation of all. These explanations, therefore, are most import-
ant, not merely for their own sakes, but as supplying principles and
canons of interpretation to be applied throughout. Now, in these
the moral application descends to some of the minutest details of the
narrative : thus, the birds which snatch away the seed sown, are ex-
plained as Satan who takes the good word out of the heart (Matt. xiii.

Sermons, Lectures, and Occasional Discourses, 1828, vol. ii. p. 340.

b Multum se torquent quidam inlucernis, invasis.in oleo ; atqui simplex etgenuina
summa est non sulficere alacre exigui temporis studium, nisi infatigabilis constantia
simul accedat.

" De Parabohs Christi, in his Opusc. Acad. vol. i. p. 89.

34 ON THE INTERPRETATION

19), the thorns which choke the good seed correspond to the cares
and pleasures of life (Matt. xiii. 22), with much more of the same
kind.

On a review of the whole controversy it may safely be said, that
there have been exaggerations upon both sides. The advocates of
interpretation in the gross and not in detail have been too easily sat-
isfied with their favourite maxim, ' Every comparison must halt some-
where ; ' a since one may well demand, ' Where is the necessity ? '
There is no force in the reply, that unless it did so, it would not be
an illustration of the thing, but the thing itself; since two lines do
not cease to be two, nor become one and the same, because they run
parallel through their whole course." It must be. allowed, too, that
these interpreters, in their fear of capricious allegories, have often run
into an opposite extreme. Doubtless in the opposite extreme of in-
terpretation there lies the danger of an ingenious trifling with the
word of God ; a danger, too. lest the interpreter's delight in the ex-
ercise of this ingenuity, with the admiration of it on the part of
others, may not put somewhat out of sight that the sanctification of
the heart through the truth is the main purpose of all Scripture : even
as we shall presently note the manner in which heretics, through this
pressing of all parts of a parable to the uttermost, have been able to
extort from it almost any meaning that they pleased.

After all has been urged on the one side and on the other, it must
be confessed that no absolute rule can be laid down beforehand to
guide the expositor how far he shall proceed. Much must be left to
good sense, to spiritual tact, to that reverence for the word of God,
which will show itself sometimes in refusing curiosities of interpre-
tation, no less than at other times in demanding a distinct spiritual
meaning for the words which are before it. The nearest approach,
perhaps, to a canon of interpretation on the matter is that which
Tholuck lays down : ' It must be allowed,' he says, 'that a similitude
is perfect in proportion as it is on all sides rich in applications ; and

a Omne simile claudicat.

b Theophylact (in Suicer, Thes. S. V. napaPo\rj): 'H TTapapokrj, eav Sia ttolvtuv o-wfi)T<xi,
ovk eerTi 7rapaBo\rj, a\\' avrb exeii'O, Si' o 7) 7ro.pa/3oAj.

c Vitringa : Placent mihi qui ex parabolis Ghristi Domini plus veritatis eliciunt,
quam generale quaddam praeceptum ethicum, per parabolam illustratum et audito-
rum animis fortius infixum. Non quod audacter pronunciare sustineam, ejusmodi
inslitutionis aut persuasionis genus, si Domino nostro placuisset illud adhibere, cum
summa. ejus sapientia non potuisse consistere. Contendo tamen de summa sapientia
qualis ilia fuit Filii Dei, nos merito plus prassumer^, ac propterea, si parabolas
Christi Domini ita explicari queant, ut singulae earum partes commode et absque
violentiscontortionibus transferantur ad oeconomiam Ecclesiae, iilud ego explications
genus tanquam optumum amplect-endum, et ceteris prceferendum existimo. Quanto

OF PARABLES. 35

-~f
hence, in treating the parables of Christ, the expositor must proceed

on the oresumption that there is import in every single point, and

only desist from seeking it when either it does not result without

forcing, or when we can clearly show that this or that circumstance

was merely added for the sake of giving intuitiveness to the narrative . _

We should not assume anything to be non-essential, except when by~

holding it fast as essential, the unity of the whole is marred and

troubled.'* For, to follow up these words of his, in the same

manner as a statue is the more perfect in the measure that the life,

the idea that was in the sculptor's mind, breathes out of and looks

through every feature and limb, so much the greater being the

triumph of spirit, penetrating through and glorifying the matter

which it has assumed ; so the more translucent a parable is in all parts

with the divine truth which it embodies, the more the garment with

which that is arrayed, is a garment of light, pierced through, as was

once the raiment of Christ, with the brightness within illuminating

it in all its recesses and corners, and leaving no dark place in it by

so much the more beautiful and perfect it must be esteemed.

It will much help us in this matter of determining what is essential

and what not, if, before we attempt to explain the particular parts,

we obtain a firm grasp of the central truth which the parable would

set forth, and distinguish it in the mind as sharply and accurately as

we can from all cognate truths which border upon it ; for only seen

from that middle point will the different parts appear in their true

light. ' One may compare,' says a late writer on the parables, b ' the

entire parable with a circle, of which the middle point is the spiritual

truth or doctrine, and of which the radii are the several circumstances

of the narration ; so long as one has not placed oneself in the centre,

neither the circle itself appears in its perfect shape, nor will the

beautiful unity with which the radii converge to a single point beper-

enim plus solidae veritatis ex Verbo Dei eruerimus, si nihil obstet, tanto magis
divinam commendabimus sapientiam.

a Out of this feeling the Jev/ish doctors distinguished lower forms of revelation
from higher, dreams from prophetic communications thus, that in the higher all was
essential, while the dream ordinarily contained something that was superfluous ; and
they framed this axiom, 'As there is no corn without straw, so neither is there any
mere dream without something that is a?y6i>, void of reality and insignificant. ' Thus
in Joseph's dream (Gen. xxxvii. 9), the moon could not have been well left out,
when all the heavenly hosts bid obeisance to him : yet this circumstance was thus
apyov, for his mother, who thereby was signified, was even then dead, and so incapa-
ble of rendering the homage to him which the others at last did (see John Smith,
iscourres. p. 178).

Lisco, Die Parabtln. Jtsu, p. 22 ; a sound and useful work, though content to
remain too much on the surface of its subject.

36 ON THE INTERPRETATION

ceived, but this is all observed as soon as the eye looks forth from
the centre. Even so in the parable ; if we have recognized its
middle point, its main doctrine, its full light, then will the propor-
tion and right signification of all particular circumstances be clear
unto us, and we shall lay stress upon them only so far as the main
truth is thereby more vividly set forth.'

There is another rule which it is important to observe, one so
simple and obvious, that were it not continually neglected, one would
be content to leave it to the common sense of every interpreter. It
is this, that as, in the explanation of the fable, the introduction
(jzpoiJ.u6t.av) and application (ixtfwdiov') claim to be most carefully
attended to, so here what some have entitled the pro-parabola and
epi-parabola, though the other terms would have done sufficiently
well ; which are invariably the finger-posts pointing to the direction
in which we are to look for the meaning the key to the whole
matter. The neglect of these often involves in die most untenable
explanations; for instance, how many interpretations which have
been elaborately worked out of the Labourers in the Vineyard could
never have been so much as once proposed if heed had been paid to
the context, or the necessity been acknowledged of bringing the
interpretation into harmony with the saying which introduces and
winds up the parable. These helps to interpretation, though rarely
or never lacking, 3 are yet given in no fixed or formal manner; some-
times they are supplied by the Lord Himself (Matt. xxii. 14; xxv.
13); sometimes by the inspired narrators of His words (Luke xv. 1 ,
2; xviii. 1) ; sometimes, as the pro)ogue, they precede the parable
(Luke xviii. 9; xix. 11); sometimes, as the epilogue, they follow
(Matt. xxv. 13; Luke xvi. 9). Occasionally a parable is furnished
with these helps to a right understanding both at its opening and its
close; as is that of the Unmerciful Servant (Matt, xviii. 23), which
is suggested by the question which Peter asks (ver. 21), and wound
up by the application which the Lord Himself makes (ver. 35). So
again the parable at Matt. xx. 1-15 begins and finishes with the same
saying, and Luke xii. 16-20 is supplied with the same amount of help
for its right understanding. b

a Tertullian (De Res Cam. 33): Nullam parabolam non aut ab ipso invenias edis-
seratam, ut de Seminatore in verbi administratione ; aut a commentatore Evangeiii
praeiuminatam, ut judicis superbi et viduce instantis ad perseverantiam orationis ;
aut ultro conjectandam, ut arboris fici, dilatee in spera, ad instar Judaicas infructuo-
sitatis.

11 Salmeron {Serin, in Evang. Par. p. 19) recognizes in the parable a radix, a. cor-
lex, a medulla ; first, the radix or root out of which it grows, which may also be
regarded as - ; .1 cause or scope with which it is spoken, which is to be look :d

OF PARABLES. 37

Again, we may observe that a correct interpretation, besides being
thus in accordance with its context, must be so without any very
violent means being necessary to bring it into such agreement ; even
as, generally, the interpretation must be easy if not always easy to
discover, yet, being discovered, easy. For it is here as with the laws
of nature; the proleptic mind of genius may be needful to discover
the law, but, being discovered, it throws back light on itself, and
commends itself unto all. And there is this other point of similarity
also ; it is a proof that we have found the law, when it explains all
the phenomena, and not merely some; if, sooner or later, they all
marshal themselves in order under it ; so it is good evidence that we
have discovered the right interpretation of a parable, if it leaves none
of the main circumstances unexplained. A false interpretation will
inevitably betray itself, since it will ' invariably paralyze and render
nugatory some important member of an entire account.' If we have
the right key in our hand, not merely some of the wards, but all,
will have their corresponding parts; the key, too, will turn without
grating or over-much forcing ; and if we have the right interpreta-
tion it will scarcely need to be defended, and made plausible with
great appliance of learning, to be propped up by remote allusions to
Rabbinical or profane literature, by illustrations drawn from the
recesses of antiquity."

Once more : the parables may not be made first sources and seats
of doctrine. Doctrines otherwise and already established may be
illustrated, or, indeed, further confirmed by them ; but it is not
allowable to constitute doctrine first by their aid." They may be the

for in the -npoti.vBi.ov; next, the cortex or outward sensuous array in which it clothes
itself; and lastly, the medulla, or inward core, the spiritual truth which it enfolds.

" Teelman {Comm. in Luc. xvi. 23): Explicatio non sit hiulca, non aspera, non
auribus nee judicio difficilis, non ridicula ; sed mollis et verecunda, leniter manantis
fluvii instar amcenitate in aures auditorumque judicium infiuens, appropriata, prox-
ima, et ab omni longa petitione remota.

b This rule finds its expression in the recognized axiom : Theologiaparabolica non
est argumentativa ; and again : Ex solo sensu litterali peti possunt argumenta effi-
cacia (see Gerhard, Loc. Theoll. ii. 13. 202). There is a beautiful passage in
Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, i. 4, on the futility of using as primary arguments, and
against gainsayers, what can only serve as the graceful confirmation of truths already
on other grounds received and believed. An objector is made to reply to one who
presses him with the wonderful correspondences of Scripture : Omnia haec pulcra et
quasi quasdam picturae suscipienda sunt : sed si non sit aliquid solidum super quod
sedeant, non videntur infidelibus sutisfacere : nam qui picturam vult facere, aliquid
digit solidum super quod pingat, ut maneat quod pingit. Nemo enim pingit in aqua,
vel in ae're ; quia ibi nulla manenl picturae vestigia. Qua propter cum has conven-
ientias quas dicis, infidelibus quasi quasdam picturas rei gestae obtendimus, quoniam
non rem gestam sed figmentum arbitrantur esse quod credimus ; quasi super nubem

38 ON THE INTERPRETATION

outer ornamental fringe, but not the main texture, of the proof.
For from the literal to the figurative, from the clearer to the more
obscure, has been ever recognized as the order of Scripture interpre-
tation. This rule, however, has been often forgotten, and contro-
versialists, looking around for arguments with which to sustain some
weak position, for which they can find no other support in Scripture,
often invent for themselves supports in these. Thus Beliarmine
presses the parable of the Good Samaritan, and the circumstance
that in that the thieves are said first to have stripped the traveller,
and afterwards to have inflicted wounds on him (Luke x. 30),
as proving certain views of the Romish Church on the order of
man's fall, the succession in which, first losing heavenly gifts, the
robe of a divine righteousness, he afterwards, and as a consequence,
endured actual hurts in his soul. a And in the same way Faustus
Socinus argues from the parable of the Unmerciful Servant, that as
the king pardoned his servant merely on his petition (Matt, xviii. 22),
and not on the score of any satisfaction made, or any mediator
intervening, we may from this conclude that in the same way, and
without requiring sacrifice or intercessor, God will pardon sinners
simply on the ground of their prayers. 1 *

But by much the worst offenders against this rule were the Gnostics-
and Manichaeans in old time, and especially the former. Their whole
scheme was one, which, however it may have been a result of the
Gospel, inasmuch as that set the religious speculation of the world
vigorously astir, was yet of independent growth ; and they only came
to the Scripture to find a varnish, an outer Christian colouring, for
a system essentially antichristian ; they came, not to learn its lan-
guage, but to see if they could not compel it to speak theirs ; c with

pingerenosexistimant. Monstranda estpriusveritatisrationabilissoliditas. Deinde,
ut ipsum quasi corpus veritatis plus niteat, istae convenientiae, quasi picturae corporis
sunt exponendae.

a De Grat. Prim. Horn.: Neque enim sine causa Dominus in parabola ilia prius
dixit, hominem spoliatum, posterius autem, vulneratum fuisse, cum tamen contra
accidere soleat in veris latrociniis ; nimirum indl are voluit, in hoc spirituali latroci-
riio ex ipsa amissione justitise originalis nata esse vulnera nostras naturae (see Ger-
hard, Loc. Theoll. ix. 2, 86). His fact is inaccurate, for eastern robbers are careful
to strip, if possible, before they slay ; that so the wounds and blood may not injure
the garments, often the most precious portion of the spoil.

b Deyling, Obss. Sac. vol. iv. p. 649. Socinus here sins against another rule of
Scripture interpretation as of common sense, which is, that we are not to expect in
every place the whole circle of Christian truth, and that nothing is proved by the
absence of a doctrine from one passage, which is clearly stated in others. Thus
Jerome (Adv. fovin. 2): Neque enim in omnibus locis docentur omnia ; sed un-
aquaeque similitude ad id refertur cujus est similitudo.

c Jerome: Ad voluntatum suam Scripturam trahere repugnantem.

OF PARABLES. 39

no desire to draw out of Scripture its meaning, but only to thrust
into Scripture their own." When they fell thus to picking and
choosing what in it they might best turn to their ends, the parables
naturally invited them almost more than any other portions of Scrip-
ture. In the literal portions of Scripture they could fmd no colour
for their scheme ; their only refuge, therefore, was in the figurative,
in those which might receive more interpretations than one ; sucl^
perhaps, they might bend to their purposes. Accordingly, we find ,
them claiming continually, the parables for their own ; with no joy, /
indeed, in their simplicity, or practical depth, or ethical beauty ; for
they seem to have had no sense or feeling of these ; but delighted to^
superinduce upon them their own capricious and extravagant fancies.
Irenseus is continually compelled to rescue the parables from the \
extreme abuse to which these submitted them ; for, indeed, they not ''
merely warped and drew them a little aside, but made them tell
wholly a different tale from that which they were intended to tell. b /
Against these Gnostics he lays down that canon, namely, that the
parables cannot be in any case the primary, much less the exclusive,
foundations of any doctrine, but must be themselves interpreted
according to the analogy of faith ; since, if every subtle solution of
one of these might raise itself at once to the dignity and authority
of a Christian doctrine, the rule of faith would be nowhere. So to
build, as he shows, were to build not on the rock, but on the sand. c

* Irenaeus (Con. Hcer. i. 8): Ut figmentum illorum non sine teste esse videatur.
All this repeats itself in Swedenborg, who has many resemblances to the Gnostics,
especially the distinctive one of a division of the Church into spiritual and carnal
members. One has well said : His spiritual sense of Scripture is one altogether dis-
connected from the literal sense, is rather a sense before the sense ; not a sense to
which one mounts up from the steps of that which is below, but in which one must,
as by a miracle, be planted, for it is altogether independent of, and disconnected
from, the accidental externum superadditum of, the literal sense.'

b In a striking passage (Con. Hcer. i. 8) he likens their dealing with Scripture,
their violent transpositions of it till it became altogether a different thing in their
hards, to the fraud of those who should break up some work of exquisite mosaic,
wrought by a skillful artificer to present the effigy of a king, and should then reeom-
pose the pieces upon some wholly different plan, and make them to express some
vile image of a fox or dog, hoping that, since they could point to the stones as being
the same, they should be able to persuade the simple that this was the king's image
still. In the same manner there is a vile poem by one of the later Latin poets in
which he puts together lines and half lines and bits of lines from Virgil, so contriving
to weave out of the pure a composition of shameful impurity.

Thus Con. Hcer. ii. 27 : Et ideo parabolce debent non ambiguis adaptari : sic
enim et qui absolvit, sine periculo absolvit et parabolas ob omnibus similiter absolu-
tionem accipient : et a veritate corpus integrum, et simili aptatione membrorum et
sine concussione perseverat. Sed quae non aperte dicta sunt, neque ante oculos
posita, copulare absolutionibus parabolarum, quas unusquisque prout vult adinvenit

40 ON THE INTERPRETATION

Tertullian has the same conflict to maintain. The whole scheme
of the Gnostics, as he observes, was a great floating cloud-palace,
the figment of their own brain, with no counterpart in the world of
spiritual realities. They could therefore mould it as they would ;
and thus they found no difficulty in forcing the parables to seem to
be upon their side, shaping, as they had no scruple in doing, their
doctrine according to the leadings and suggestions of these, till they
brought the two into apparent agreement with one another. There
was nothing to hinder them here ; their creed was not a fixed body
of divine truth, to which they could neither add nor take away ;
which was given them from above, and in which they could only ac-
quiesce : but an invention of their own, which they could therefore
fashion and alter as best suited the purpose they had in hand. We,
as Tertullian often urges, are kept within limits in the exposition of
the parables, accepting, as we do, the other Scriptures as the rule of
truth, as the rule, therefore, of their interpretation. It is otherwise
with these heretics ; their doctrine is their own ; they can first dex-
terously adapt it to the parables, and then bring forward the conformity
between the two as a testimony of its truth."

As it was with the Gnostics of the early Church, exactly so was it
with the sects which, in a later day, were their spiritual successors,
the Cathari and Bogomili. They, too, found in the parables no
teaching about sin and grace and redemption, no truths of the king-
dom of God, but fitted to them the speculations about the creation,
the origin of evil, the fall of angels which were uppermost in their
own minds ; which they had not drawn from Scripture ; but whicli

[stultum est]. Sic enim apud nullum erit regula veritatis, sed quanti fuerint qui
absolvent parabolas, tantse videbuntur veritates pugnantes semet invicem. So too
3 : Quia autem parabolae possunt multas recipere absolutiones, ex ipsis de inquisitione
Dei affimare, relinquentes quod certum et indubitatum et verum est, valde praecipi-
tantium se in peiiculum et irrationabilium esse, quis ncn amantium veritatem confite-
bitur? et numquid hoc est non in petra firma et valida et in aperto posita. aedificare
suam domum, sed in incertum effusae arenae? Unde et facilis est eversio hujusmodi
Eedificationis. Cf. ii. 10 ; and i. 16, for monstrous and fantastic interpretations, after
this fashion, of Luke xv. 4-6, and 8, 9. The miracles were made by them to yield
similar results (see i. 7 ; ii. 24).

De Pudicitia, 8, 9. Among much else which is interesting, he says, Haeretici
parabolas quo volant trahunt, non quo debent, aptissime excludunt [his image if from
the workers in gold or other metals ; called exclusores (see Augustine, Enarr. in Ps.
lix. 22), from excludere, to strike or stamp out (Du Cange, s. v.). This meaning of
excludo is wanting in Scheller's Dictionary]. Quare aptissime? Quoniam a prim-
ordio secundum occasiones parabolarum, ipsas materias confinxerunt doctrinae. Va-
cavit scilicet illis solutis a regula veritatis, ea conquierere atque componere, quorum
parabolae videnture. Thus, too, De Prase. Hceret. 8 : Valentinus non ad materiam
Scripturas, sed materiam ad Scripturas, excogitavit. Compare De Anima, 18.

OF PARABLES. 41

having themselves framed, they afterwards turned to Scripture to see
if they could not find that there which they could compel to fall into
their scheme. Thus, the apostacy of Satan and his drawing after him
a part of the host in heaven, they found set forth by the parable of
Unjust Steward. Satan was the chief steward over God's house,
whom He deposed from his place of highest trust, and who then
drew after him the other angels, with the suggestion of lighter tasks
and relief from the burden of their imposed duties."

But to come to more modern times. Though not testifying to
evils at all so grave in the devisers of the scheme, nor leading alto-
gether out of the region of Christian truth, yet sufficiently injurious to
the sober interpretation of the parables is such a theory concerning
them as that entertained, and in actual exposition carried out, by
Cocceius and his followers of what we may call the historico-prophetical
school. By the parables, they say, and so far they have right, are
declared the mysteries of the kingdom of God. But then, ascribing
to those words, ' Kingdom of God,' a far too narrow sense, they are
resolved to find in every one of the parables a part of the history of
that kingdom's progressive development in the world to the latest
times. They will not allow any to be merely ethical, but affirm all
to be historico-prophetical. Thus, to let one of them speak for him-
self, in the remarkable words of Krummacher: b 'The parables of
Jesus have not primarily a moral, but a politico-religious, or theocra-
tic purpose. To use a comparison, we may consider the kingdom of
God carried forward under His guidance, as the action, gradually un-
folding itself, of an Epos, of which the first germ lay prepared long
beforehand in the Jewish economy of the Old Testament, but which
through Him began to unfold itself, and will continue to do so to the
end of time. The name and superscription of the Epos is, the
kingdom of God. The parables belong essentially to the Gospel of
the kingdom, not merely as containing its doctrine, but its progres-
sive development. They connect themselves with certain fixed periods

a Neander, Kirck. Gesch. vol. v. p. 1082. They dealt more perversely still with
the parable of the Unmerciful Servant {Ibid. vol. v. p. 1122): This servant, too, with
whom the king reckons, is Satan or the Demiurgus ; his wife and children, whom the
king orders to be sold, the first is Sophia or intelligence, the second the angels sub-
ject to him. God pitied him, and did not take from him his higher intelligence, his
subjects, or his goods ; he promising, if God would have patience with him, to create
so great a number of men as should supply the place of the fallen angels. Therefore
God gave him permission that for six days, the six thousand years of the present
world, he should bring to pass what he could with the world which he had created
but this will suffice.

b Not the Krummacher lately so popular in England, but his father, himself the
author of a volume of very graceful original parables.

42 ON THE INTERPRETATION

of that development, and, as soon as these periods are completed,
lose themselves in the very completion ; that is, considered as inde-
pendent portions of the Epos, remaining for us only in the image
and external letter.' He must mean, of course, in the same manner
and degree as all other fulfilled prophecy; in the light of such ac-
complished prophecy, he would say, they must henceforth be regarded.
Boyle gives some, though a very moderate, countenance to the same
opinion : ' Some, if not most, do, like those oysters that, besides
the meat they afford us, contain pearls, not only include excellent
moralities, but comprise important prophecies ; ' and, having ad-
duced the Mustard-seed and the Wicked Husbandman as plainly
containing such prophecies, he goes on, ' I despair not to see unheeded
prophecies disclosed in others of them.' a Vitringa's Elucidation of
the Parables* is a practical application of this scheme of interpreta-
tion, and one which will scarcely win many supporters for it. Thus,
the servant owing the ten thousand talents (Matt, xviii. 23), is the
Pope or line of Popes, placed in highest trust in the Church, but who
misusing the powers committed to them, were warned by the invasion
of Goths, Lombards, and other barbarians, of judgment at the door,
and indeed seemed given into their hands for doom ; but being
mercifully delivered from this fear of imminent destruction by the
Carlovingian kings, so far from repenting and amending, on the con-
trary now more than ever oppressed and maltreated the true servants
of God, and who therefore should be delivered over to an irreversible
doom. He gives a yet more marvellous explanation of the Merchant
seeking goodly pearls, this pearl of price being the Church of Ge-
neva and the doctrine of Calvin, opposed to all abortive pearls, that
is, to all the other Reformed Churches. Other examples may be
found in Cocceius an interpretation, for instance, of the Ten Vir-
gins, after this same fashion. Deyling has an interesting essay on

On the Style of the Holy Scripture; Fifth Objection. There is nothing new in this
scheme ; Oiigen held it long ago; see, for example, on the Labourers in the Vine-
yard (Comm. in Malt, xx.) how he toils under the sense of some great undisclosed
mystery concerning the future destinies of the kingdom lying hidden there. St.
Ambrose (Apolog. Alt. David, 57) gives a strange historico-prophetical interpreta-
tion of Nathan's parable of the Ewe Lamb (2 Sam. xii. 1-4); and Hippolytus (De
Anti-christo , 57) of the Unjust Judge.

b Being published, not like most of his other works in Latin, but in Dutch, it is far
less known, as indeed it deserves to be, than his other oftentimes very valua-
ble works. I have used a German translation, Frankfort, 1717. The volume consists
of more than a thousand closely-printed pages, with a few grains of wheat to be win-
nowed out from a most unreasonable proportion of chaff.

c Schol. in Matt. xxv. More may be found in Gurtler, Sysl. Theol. Proph.; as at
pp. 542, 676. Deusingius, Teelman, D'Outrein, Solomon Van Till, are among the
chief writers of this school.

OF PARABLES. 43

this school of interpreters, and passes a severe, though certainly not
undeserved, condemnation on them.* Prophetical, no doubt, many
of the parables are ; for they declare how the new element of life,
which the Lord was bringing into men's hearts and into the world,
would work the future influences and results of his doctrine that
the little mustard-seed would grow to a great tree that the leaven
would continue working till it had leavened the whole lump. But
they declare not so much the facts as the laws of the kingdom, or
the facts only so far as, by giving insight into the laws, they impart a
knowledge of the facts. Historico-prophetical are only a few ; as
that of the Wicked Husbandmen, which Boyle adduced, in which
there is a clear prophecy of the death of Christ ; as that of the Mar-
riage of the King's Son, in which there is an equally clear announce-
ment of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the transfer of the privileges
of the kingdom of God from the Jews to the Gentiles. But this
subject will again present itself to us, when we consider, in their re-
lation to one another, the seven parables in the thirteenth chapter of
St. Matthew.

Obss. Sac. vol. v. p. 331, seq. The same scheme of iDterpretation has been ap-
plied by the same school of interpreters to the miracles ; as by Lampe in his Commen-
tary on St. John, see, for instance, on the feeding of the five thousand (John vi.).
They form the weakest side of an admirable book.

CHAPTER IV.

ON OTHER PARABLES BESIDES THOSE IN THE SCRIPTURES.

THE most perfect specimens of this form of composition, and
those by which the comparative value of all other in the like
kind is to be measured, must be sought in that Book which is the
most perfect of all books ; yet they do not belong exclusively to it.
The parable, as St. Jerome has noted, is among the favourite
vehicles for conveying moral truth throughout all the East. Our
Lord took possession of it, honoured it by making it His own, by
using it as the vehicle for the highest truth of all. But there were
parables before the parables which issued from His lips. It belongs
to our subject to say something concerning those which, though they
did not give the pattern to, yet preceded, His concerning those also
also which were formed more or less immediately on the suggestion
and in imitation of His, on the Jewish, that is, and the Christian.

The Jewish Parables will occupy us first. Some, indeed, have
denied, but in the face of facts too evident to be explained away,
that this method of teaching by parables was current among the Jews
before our Saviour's time. They have feared, it would seem, lest it
should detract from his glory to suppose that He had availed Him-
self of a manner of teaching in use already. Yet surely the anxiety
to cut off the Lord's teaching from all living connexion with His age
and country is very idle; and the suspicion with which parallels
from the uninspired Jewish writings have been regarded is altogether
misplaced. It is the same anxiety which would cut off the Mosaic
legislation and institutions altogether from Egypt ; a which cannot
with honesty be done, and which, in truth, there is no object what-
ever in attempting. For if Christianity be indeed the world-religion,
it must gather into one all dispersed rays of light ; it must appropri-
ate to itself all elements of truth which are anywhere scattered

a The attempt fails even when made by so able and learned a man as Witsius.
It is not from grounds such as he occupies in his /Egyptiaca, that books like Spen-
cer's De Legibus Hebrceorum can be answered.

OTHER BESIDES SCRIPTURE PARABLES. 45

abroad ; not thus adopting what is alien, but rather claiming what is
its own. a Our blessed Lord so spake, as that His doctrine, in its
outward garb, should commend itself to His countrymen. There
were inner obstacles enough to their receiving of it ; the more need,
therefore, that outwardly it should be attractive. Thus, He appealed
to proverbs in common use among them. He quoted the traditionary
speeches of their elder Rabbis, to refute, to enlarge, or to correct
them. When He found the theological terms of their schools capa-
ble of bearing the burden of the new truth which He laid upon
them, He willingly used them ; b and in using, did not deny their old
meaning ; while at the same time, making all things new, He glorified
and transformed it into something infinitely higher, breathed into
them the spirit of a new life. ' Thy kingdom come ' formed already
a part of the Jewish liturgy, yet not the less was it a new prayer on
the lips of all who had realized in any measure the idea of the king-
dom, and what the coming of that kingdom meant, as He first had
enabled them to realize it So ' Peace be unto you ' was an ordinary
salutation among the Jews, yet having how much deeper a significance,
and one how entirely new upon Hi^ lips, who is our Peace, and who,
first causing us to enter ourselves into the peace of God, enabled us
truly to wish peace, and to speak peace, to our brethren. So, too, a
proselyte was in the Jewish schools entitled 'a new creature,' and
his passing over to Judaism was a 'new birth ; ' c yet these terms
expressed little more than a change in his outward relations : it
remained for Christ to appropriate them to the higher mysteries of
the kingdom of heaven. Nor less is it certain that the illustrating of
doctrines by the help of parables, or briefer comparisons, was com-
mon among the Jewish teachers f of them it might almost be said as
of Him, that without a parable they spake nothing. The very
formulas with which their parables were introduced remind us of
those we meet in the Gospels ; for instance, the question, ' W here-
unto shall I liken it? ' is of continual recurrence. But what then?
It was not in the newness of the forms, but in the newness of the

a In the words of Clemens {Strom, i. 13): \vva.7T\ >'; riArjtfeia <rvvayayeiv Ta oix :'- cr- ..-
fxara, Kap ets rrjv aWoOarvrju eKiricfl yr)i'.

i) See an essay by Schoettgen (Hor. Heb. vol. ii. p. 883): Christus Rabbin o rum
summits.

* Schoettgen, Hor. Heb. vol. 1. pp. 328, 704.

d Vitringa, De Synagoga, p. 678, seq. Hillel and Schammai were the most illus-
trious teachers by parables before the time of our Saviour; R. Meir immediately
after. With this last, as the tradition goes, the power of inventing parables notably
declined. This is not hard to understand. The fig-tree of the Jewish people was
withered, and could put forth no fruit any more (Matt. xxi. tcj).

46 ON OTHER PARABLES BESIDES

spirit, that the transcendent glory and excellency of Christ's teaching
consisted.

As some may desire to see what these Jewish parables are like, I
will quote, not, as is often done, the worst, but the best which I have
had the fortune to meet. The following is occasioned by a question
which has arisen namely, Why the good so often die young ? God,
it is answered, foresees that if they lived they would fall into sin.
'To what is this like? It is like a king who, walking in his garden,
saw some roses which were yet buds, breathing an ineffable sweet-
ness. He thought, ' ' If these shed such sweetness while yet they are
buds, what will they do when they are fully blown ? " After a while
the king entered the garden anew, thinking to find the roses now
blown, and to delight himself with their fragrance; but arriving at
the place, he found them pale and withered, and yielding no smell.
He exclaimed with regret, " Had I gathered them while yet tender
and young, and while they gave forth their sweetness, I might have
delighted myself with them, but now I have no pleasure in them."
The next year the king walked in his garden, and finding rosebuds
scattering fragrance, he commanded his servants, "Gather them,
that I may enjoy them before they wither, as last year they did." ,a
The next is ingenious enough, though a notable specimen of Jewish
self-righteousness : ' A man had three friends : being summoned to
appear before the king, he was terrified, and looked for an advocate :
the first, whom he had counted the best, altogether re/used to go
with him ; another replied that he would accompany him to the door
of the palace, but could not speak for him; the third, whom he had
held in least esteem, appeared with him before the king, and pleaded
for him so well as to procure his deliverance. So every man has
three friends when summoned by death before God his Judge : the
first, whom he prized, his money, will not go with him a step ; the
second, his friends and kinsmen, accompany him to the tomb, but no
further, nor can they deliver him in the judgment ; while the third,
whom he had in least esteem, the Law and good works, appear with
him before the king, and deliver him from condemnation." 5 But
this is in a nobler strain ; it is suggested by those words, ' In thy
light shall we see light.' As a man travelling by night kindled his
torch, which, when it was extinguished, he again lit, and again, but

Schoettgen, Hor. Heb. vol. i. p. 682.

b Ibid. vol. i. p. 1129. This parable, like so much else in the rabbinical books re-
appears in many quarters; in the Eastern romance, Barlaam and Josaphat, 13 ; and
among the traditional sayings of Mahomet (see Von Hammer, Fundgruben d.
Orients, vol. i. p. 315.

THOSE IN TH% SCRIPTURES. 47

at length exclaimed, " How long shall I weary myself in my way?
better to wait till the sun arise, and when the sun is shining I will
pursue my journey," so the Israelites were oppressed in Egypt, but
delivered by Moses and Aaron. Again, they were subdued by the
Babylonians, when Chananiah, Misael and Azariah delivered them.
Again, they were subdued by the Grecians, when Mattathias and his
sons helped them. At length the Romans overcame them, when
they cried to God, " We are weary with the continual alternation of
oppression and deliverance ; we ask no further that mortal man
may shine upon us, but God, who is holy and blessed for ever." ,a
There is a fine one of the fox, which, seeing the fish in great trouble,
darting hither and thither, while the stream was being drawn with nets,
proposed to them to leap on dry land. This is put in a Rabbi's
mouth, who, when the Grseco-Syrian kings were threatening with
death all who observed the law, was counselled by his friends to
abandon it. He would say, 'We, like the fish in the stream, are
indeed in danger now, but yet, while we continue in obedience to
God, we are in our element ; but if, to escape the danger, we forsake
that, then we inevitably perish."* Again, one of much tenderness
explains why a proselyte is dearer to the Lord than even a Levite.
Such a proselyte is compared to a wild goat, which, brought up in a
desert, joins itself freely to the flock, and which is cherished by the
shepherd with especial love ; since, that his flock, which from its
youth he had put forth in the morning and brought back at evening,
should love him, was nothing strange ; but that the goat, brought up
in deserts and mountains, should attach itself to him, demanded an
especial return of affection. There are besides these a multitude of
briefer ones, similitudes rather than parables. Thus, there is one,
urging collection of spirit in prayer, to this effect : ' If a man
brought a request to an earthly monarch, but, instead of making it,
were to turn aside and talk with his neighbour, might not the king
be justly displeased? ' a In another, the death common to all, and the
doom after death so different to each, is likened to a king's retinue

a Schoettgen, Hor. Heb. vol. ii. p. 691. b Ibid. vol. i. p. 189.

c ibid. vol. i. p. 377. This too on the resurrection is good (Cocceius, Excerpt.
Gem. p. 232): R. Ammin replied to a Sadducee who said, Numquid pulvis vivet?
Rem tibi hac parabola explicabo. Rex quidam jusserat a servis suis palatium in
loco, qui aqua et limo careret, exstrui. Factum. Eo collapso, jussit id reaedificari
in loco ubi utriusque erat copia. Negant se posse. Turn ille iratus, Quum abesset
aqua et limus, potuistis : nunc quum utrumque adsit, possetis?

A Schoettgen, Hor. Heb. vol. i. p. 606. The same comparison with slight variation
occurs in Chrysostom, Horn. 1, in Oziam, and again with further modification, Horn.
51, in Malt.

48 ON OTHER PARABLES BESfDES

entering a city at a single gate, but afterward lodged within it very
differently, according to their several dignity. a There is a singular
one, to explain why God has not told which command should have
the greatest reward for its keeping. 11 In another it is shown how
bodv and soul are partners in sin, and so will justly be partners in
punishment.

These, among the Jewish parables, with two or three more, which,
bearing some resemblance to Evangelical parables, will be noted in
their due places, are the most memorable which I have met. The
resemblance, it must be owned, even where the strongest, lies on the
surface merely, and is nothing so extraordinary as is often given
out. To some, indeed, the similarity has appeared so great, that it
needed in one way or another to be accounted for. These have
supposed that our Lord adopted such parables as would in any waj
fit His purpose, remodelling them and improving as they passed
under His hands. Others have thought that the Jewish parables are
of later origin than those in the Gospels, and that th^ Rabbis, while
they searched the Christian books for the purpose of ridiculing or
gainsaying them, enriched themselves with their spoils, borrowing
materials which they afterwards turned to account, concealing care-
fully the quarter from whence these were derived. d But neither of
these suppositions is necessary. Lightfoot has a collection of such
sayings under the title, Wit stolen by the Jews out of the Gospel ;"
but neither here, nor in the parables elsewhere adduced, is the resem-
blance so striking as to carry any conviction of the necessity, or even
the probability, of a common origin. The hatred and scorn with

a Ibid. vol. i. p. 388.

h Ibid. vol. i. p. 187.

Cocceius {Excerpt. Gem. p. 232): Antonius cum R. Jehuda sancto sic colio-
quutus aliquando est. Corpus, inquit, et anima a judicio se liberare possunt. Quo-
modo? Corpus dicat, Anima peccavit nam ex quo ilia a me discessit, ecce lapidis
instar sine sensu in sepulcro jacui. Anima autem dicat, Corpus peccavit, nam ex
quo illius laxata sum nexu, ecce volito per ae'rem aviculas in morem. Ad haec
Rabbi, Parabolam, inquit, tibi dabo. Rex mortalis horto cuidam amcenissimo, in
quo maturi fructus essent, duos custodes apposuit, claudum et cecum. Claudus,
visis, fructibus, caecum admonuit, ipsum uti in humeros, reciperet, quo iilos decer-
peret, et illi inter se devorarent. Insedit igitur claudus cjsci cervicibus. decerptosque
fructus absumserunt. Aliquanto post tempore venit Dominus horti e: de fructibus
requisivit. Cum csecui, sibi oculos non esse ut videret, et claudus, sibi pedes dee^e,
ut accederet. Quid ille? Quum jussisset hunc illius humeris excihi, utrumquesimul
judicavit et plexit. Consimiliter faciet Deus : anima corpori indita, pariter animam
et corpus judicabit.

d So Carpzow, Storr, Lightfoot, and Pfeiffer (7heot. Jud. atque Mohamm. th.

4-43)

* Erubhin, chap. 20.

THOSE IN THE SCRIPTURES. 49

which the Jews regarded all foreign literature, and most of all the
sacred books of the Christians, 8 make this last supposition extremely
improbable.

The resemblance is such as could hardly have been avoided, when
the same external life, and the same outward nature, were used as the
common storehouse, from whence images, illustrations, and examples
were derived alike by all. It may be well at once to consider one,
and one of the best, among the^e Talmudical parables, which pre-
tend to any similarity with our Lord's. It has been sometimes like-
ened to that latter part of the Marriage of the King's Son, which
relates to the wedding garment. ' The Rabbis have delivered what
follows, on Eccl. xii. 7, where it is written, ''The spirit shall return
unto God who gave it " He gave it to thee unspotted, see that thou
restore it unspotted to Him again. It is like a mortal king, who dis-
tributed royal vestments to his servants. Then those that were wise
folded them carefully up, and laid them by in the wardrobe ; but
those that were foolish went their way, and, clothed in these garments,
engaged in their ordinary work. After awhile, the king required his
garments again : the wise returned them white as they had received
them ; but the foolish, soiled and stained. Then the king was well
pleased with the wise, and said, " Let the vestments be laid up in the
wardrobe, and let these depart in peace; " but he was angry with the
foolish, and said, "Let the vestments be given to be washed, and
those servants be cast into prison : " so will the Lord do with the
bodies of the righteous, as it is written, Isai. lvii. 2 ; with their souls,
1 Sam. xxv. 29; but with the bodies of the wicked, Isai. xlviii. 22;
lvii. 21 ; and with their souls, 1 Sam. xxv. 29. ' b But, with the ex-
ception of a king appearing in each, and the praise and condemnation
turning on a garment, what resemblance is there here? In fact, if
we penetrate a little below the surface, there is more real similarity
between this parable and that of the Talents, as in each case there is
the restoration of a deposit, and a dealing with the servants accord-
ing to their conduct in respect of that deposit. But then, how remote
a likeness ! How capricious everything here ! The distribution of
garments which were not to be worn, and afterwards reclaiming them,
what resemblance has this to anything in actual life ? how differ-

Gfrorer, Urchristenthum, vol. i. p. 115, seq.

b Meuschen, N. T. ex Talm. Must. p. 117; cf. pp. 111, 194, 195 ; and Wetstein,
N. T. pp. 727, 765. Those given by Otto, a converted Jew, who afterwards relapsed
into Judaism, in a book entitled Gali Razia, have been tampered with by him for
the making of the resemblance between them and the Evangelical parables more
close, else they would be remarkable indeed (Pfeiffer, Theol. Jud.- th. 39).

This, with so many of the rabbinical parables, sins against almost every rule

50 ON OTHER PARABLES BESIDES

ent from the probability that a nobleman, going into a distant
country, should distribute his goods to his servants, and returning,
demand from them an account."

This much in regard of the Jewish parables. b Among the Fathers
of the Christian Church there are not many who have deliberately
constructed parables for the setting forth of spiritual mysteries.
Two or three such we meet in the Shepherd of Hennas. The whole
of its third book is indeed parabolical, as it sets forth spiritual truth
under sensuous images, only it does this chiefly in visions, that is, in
parables for the eye rather than for the ear. There are, however,
parables in the strictest sense of the word; this, for example, which
is an improved form of the rabbinical parable last quoted : ' Restore
to the Lord the spirit entire as thou hast received it : for if thou gavest
to a fuller a garment which was entire, and desiredst so to receive it
again, but the fuller restored it to thee rent, wouldest thou receive it ?
Wouldest thou not say in anger, " I delivered to thee my garment
entire, wherefore hast thou torn it and made it useless? It is now,
on account of the rent which thou hast made in it, of no more ser-
vice to me." If thou then grievest for thy garment, and complainest
because thou receivest it not entire again, how, thinkest thou, will
the Lord deal with thee, who gave thee a perfect spirit, but which
spirit thou hast marred, so that it can be of no more service to its
Lord? for it became useless when it was corrupted by thee.' There
are several parables, formally brought forward as such, in the writtings
of Ephraem Syrus, but such of these as I am acquainted with could
scarcely be tamer than they are. d Origen has what may be termed

which such compositions must observe, if they would carry any conviction with them.
Thus the author of the treatise, Ad Herenium, i. 9: Vensimilisnarratio erit, siutmos,
ut opinio, ut natura postulat, dicemus ; si spatia temporum, personarum dignitates,
consiliorum rationes, locorum opportunitates constabunt, ne refelli possit, aut tem-
poris parum fuisse, aut causam nullam, aut locum idoneum non fuisse, aut homines
ipsos facere aut pati non potuisse.

* Unger (De Parab. yes. Nat. p. 162) observes that he has gone into this compar-
ison of Evangelical with Jewish parables, partim ut absterreremur a solito rabbinicos
locos doctrinse Jesu quodammodo sequiparandi pruritu ac levitate, interdum ad in-
terpretationem juvandam parum utili, . . . partim ut inde magisagnosceremus
parabolarum Jesu praestantiam.

b There are no parables in the apocryphal gospels. Indeed, where a moral element
is altogether wanting, as in these worthless forgeries, it was only to be expected that
this, as every other form of communicating spiritual truth should be looked for in
vain.

Simil. ix. 32 ; cf. Simil, v. 2. There is a very fair estimate of the merits of these
in Donaldson's History of Christian Literature, vol- i. p. 271 sqq.

a This is the best that I know ; of which, however, I only judge in its Latin trans-
lation : Duo homines proficiscebantur ad quandam civitatem, quae stadiis aberat
trig-inta. Cum autum jam duo aut tria confecissent stadia, obtulit se in via locus, in

THOSE IN THE SCRIPTURES. 51

a parable, and a very striking one, by which he seeks to illustrate the
peculiar character and method of St. Paul's teaching ; its riches, its
depths, its obscurities, its vast truths only partially shown by him, and
therefore only partially seen by us. The great characteristics of the
Apostle's teaching have not often been so happily seized. This par-
able is very fitly introduced in Origen's Commentary on the Romans,
and on chap. v. 12-21.* Eadmer, a disciple of Anselm, has gathered
up a basket of fragments from his sermons and his table-talk. Among
these there are so many of his similitudes and illustrations as to give
a name to the whole collection. b There are not a few complete par-
quo silvae et arbores erant umbrosae, fiuentaque aquarum, multaque ibidem delecta-
tio. Qui dum contemplarentur ista, alter quidem ad urbem spectandam contendens,
instar cursoris locum praeteribat ; alter vero, cum constitisset ut contemplaretur,
remansit. Deinde cum prodire jam vellet extra arborum umbram, calores timuit,
atque ita diutius ibidem loci dum remaneret, locique simul amoenitate sese delectaret
atque occuparet, bestia ex iis quae in silva commorantur prodiit, apprehensumque
ipsum pertraxit in suum antrum ; alter vero, qui neque iter neglexisset, neque forma
arborum se ditineri passus esset, recta ad urbem perrexit. See also Paranes. xxi. 28.

Yidetur mihi Apostolus Paulus in his prcecipue lobis quae nunc habentur in mani-
bus, ita quodammodo haec loqui, velut siquis fidelis famulus et prudens a rege mag no
et domino suo introducatur in thesauros regios, et ostendantur ei diversa et magna
domicilia, quorum aditus varii sint et incerti, ita ut ei per alium ingressus, et per
alium monstretur egTessus, interdum autum ex diversis ingressibus ad unum conclave
veniatur ; ostendatur etiam huic qui circumducitur fideli famulo thesaurus argenti
regii, et alius auri, lapidum quoque et margaritarum, variorumque monilium, pur-
puras etiam reginae locus, et alius diadematum ; demonstrenturadhuc reginae thalami
in multis diversisque mansionibus positi : et tamen singula haec non penitus ad integ-
rum patenibus januis reserentur, sed ex parte subapertis, ita ut agnoscat quidem the-
sauros domioos et regiasopes, nee tamen ad liquidum et ad perfectum singula quaeque
cognoscat. Post haec vero iste servus, qui tarn fidelis habitus est, ut ei rex et dominus
opum suarum magnitudinem fecerit innotescere , mittatur ut exercitum congreget regi
delectum habeat, milites probe t ; proeo quidem quia fidelis est, ut plures invitet ad
militandum, et majorem exercitum congreget regi, necessitatem patietur proferre ex
parte quae viderii ; et rursum quia prudens est, et scit necessarium esse abscondere
mystenum regis, indiciis quibusdam magis quam relationibus utetur, ita ut potentia
quidem regis, ordinis autum atque ornatus palaiii et habitus occulta tamen maneat
dispensatio. Ita ergo, ut dixi, videtur mihi etiam Apostolus Paulus in his sermonibus
facere, &c.

b De S. Anselmi Shnililudinibus. It is published at the end of the Benidict. edit,
of St Anselm. I find no better than this, on the keeping of the heart with all dili-
gence, of which I quote no more than is necessary for giving an insight into the
whole (41): Cor etenim nostrum simile est molendino semper molenti, quod domi-
nus quidam cuidam servo suo custodiendum dedit : proecipiens ei ut suam tantum
annonam in eo molat, et ex eodem quod moluerit, ipse vivat. Verum illi servo qui-
dam inimicatur, qui si quando illud vacuum invenerit, aut arenam ibi statim projicit,
quae illud dissipat ; autpicem, quae conglutinat ; aut aliquid quod foedat, aut paleam,
quae tantem illud occupat. Servus igitur ille si molendinum suum bene custodierit,
dominique sui tantum annonam in illo moluerit, et domino suo servit, sibique ipsi
victum acquirit. Hoc itaque molendinum semper aliquid molens cor est humanum,
assidue aliquid cogitans. Cf. 42, 46.

52 ON OTHER PARABLES BESIDES

ables here, though none perhaps of that beauty which the works
coming directly from his hand might lead us to expect. In the works
of Francis of Assissi there are two parables, but of little or no value.*
Far better are those interspersed through the Greek religious romance
of the seventh Gr eighth century, Barlaam and Josaphat, ascribed,
though on no sufficient grounds, to John of Damascus, and often
printed with his works. They have been justly admired, b yet more
than one of them is certainly not original, being easily traced up to
earlier sources. Avery interesting one will be found in the note be-
low. Those which are entitled parables in the writings of St. Ber-
nard/ which, whether they be his or no, have much of beauty and
instruction in them, are rather allegories than parables, and so do not
claim here to be considered.

But if parables, which are professedly such, occur rarely in the

* Opp. Paris, 1641, p. 83.

b See Dunlop, Htslory of Fiction, London, 1845, p. 40, seq. Wunderscho Para-
beln, Rosenkranz (Gesch. der Poesie, vol. ii. p. 46) calls them. Cf. the Wiener
Jahrb. 1824, pp. 26-45.

c Urbem quandam magnam exstitisse accepi, in qua cives hoc in more et instituto
positum habebant, ut peregrinum quendam et ignotum virum ac legum et consuetu-
dinum civitatis omnino rudem et ignarum acciperent, eumque sibi ipsis regem con-
stituerent, penes quem per unius anni curriculum re rum omnium potestas esset,
quique libere et sine ullo impedimento quicquid vellet, faceret. Post autem, dura
ille omni prorsus cura. vacuus degeret, atque in luxu et deliciis sine ullo metu ver-
saretur. perpetuumque sibi regnum fore existimaret, repente adversus eum insurgentes,
regiamque ipsi vestem detrahentes, ac nudum per totam urbem tanquam in tri-
umphum agentes, in magnam quandam et longe remotam insulam eum relegabant,
in qua. nee victio nee indumentis suppetentibus, fame ac nuditate miserrime premeba-
tur, voluptate scilicet atque animi hilaritate, quae praeter spem ipsi concessa fuerat, in
mserorem nirsus praeter spem omnem et expectationem commutata. Contigit ergo ut
pro antiquo civium illorum more atque instituto vir quidam magno ingenii acumine
prseditus ad regnum ascisceretur. Qui statim subita ea felicitate, quae ipsi obtigerat,
haudquaquam proeceps abreptus, nee eorum qui ante se regiam dignitatem obtinuer-
ant misereque ejecti fuerant, incuriam imitatus, animo anxio et solicito id agitabat,
quonam pacto rebus suis optime consuleret. Dum ergo crebra. meditatione haec
secum versaret, per sapientissimum quendam consiliarium de civium consuetudine
ac perpetui exilii loco certior factus est : quonam pacto sine ullo errore ipse sibi
cavere deberet, lntellexit. Cum igitur hoc cognovisset, futurumque propediem, ut
ad illam insulam ablegaretur, atque adventitium illud et alienum regnum aliis re-
linqueret, patefactis thesauris sbis, quorum tunc promptum ac liberum usum habebat,
aurique atque argenti ac pretiosorum lapidum ingenti mole famulis quibusdam quos
fidissimos hnbebat, tradita, ad earn insulam, ad quam abducendus erat, prsemisit.
Vertente autem anno cives commota seditione nudum eum, quemadmodum superiores
reges, in exilium miserunt. Ac celeri quidem amentes, et brevis temporis reges,
gravissima fame laborabant : ille contra qui opes suas prasmiserat,in perpetua rerum
copia. vitam ducens, atque infinita voluptate fruens, perfidorum ac sceleratorum
civium metu prorsus abjecto, sapientiissimiconsilii sui nomine beatum se praedicabat.
Compare 1 Tim. vi 19.

a In the Benedictine edition, vol. i. p. 1251, seq.

THOSE IN THE SCRIPTURES. 53

works of the early Church writers, the parabolical element is, not-
withstanding, very predominant in their teaching, especially in their
homilies, which are popular in the truest sense of the word. What
boundless stores, for instance, of happy illustration, which might
with the greatest ease be thrown into the forms of parables, are laid
up in the writings of St. Augustine. One is only perplexed, amid
the endless variety, what instances to select : but we may take this
one as an example. He is speaking of the Son of God and the sin-
ner as in the same world, and appearing under the same conditions
of humanity: 'But,' he proceeds, 'how vast a distance there is be-
tween the prisoner in his dungeon, and the visitor that has come to
see him ! They are both within the walls of the dungeon : those
who did not know might suppose them under equal restraint, but one
is the compassionate visitor, who can use his freedom when he will,
the other is fast bound there for his offences. So great is the differ-
ence between Christ, the compassionate visitor of man, and man
himself, the criminal in bondage for his offences.' 3 Or, rebuking
them that dare in their ignorance to find fault with the arrangements
of Providence : ' If you enter the workshop of a blacksmith, you
would not dare to find fault with his bellows, anvils, hammers. If
you had not the skill of the workman, but the consideration of a
man, what would you say? " It is not without cause the bellows are
placed here; the artificer knew, though I do not know, the reason."
You would not venture to find fault with the blacksmith in his
shop, and do you dare to find fault with God in the world ?' b
Chrysostom, too, is rich in such similitudes, which need nothing to
be parables, except that they should be presented for such ; as for in-
stance, when speaking of the redemption of the creature, which shall
accompany the manifestation of the sons of God, he says, ' To what
is the creature like ? It is like a nurse that has brought up a royal
child, and when he ascends his paternal throne, she too rejoices with
him, and is partaker of the benefit.'

But the field here opening before me is too wide to enter on. d

In Ep. i Joh. Tract. 2.

b Enarr. in Ps. cxlviii. He has something more nearly approaching to a parable
than either of these, Enarr. in Ps. ciii. 26.

Horn, in Rom. viii. 19.

d One, however, from H. de Sto. Victore I must transcribe {De Sacram. ii. pars,
14, 8): Pater quidam contumacem filium quasi cum magno furore expulit, ut ita
afflictus humiliari disceret. Sed illo in contumacia sua. persistente, quidam secreta
dispensatione consilii a patre mater mittitur, ut non quasi a patre missa, sed quasi
materna per se pietate ducta, veniens muliebri lenitate obstinatum demulceat, con-
tumacem ad humilitatem flectat, vehementer patrem iratem, nuntiet, se tameninter-
venturam spondeat, consilium salutis suggerat, . . . non nisi magnis precibus

54 OTHER BESIDES SCRIPTURE PARABLES.

It is of the parables of our Lord, and of those only, that I pro-
pose to speak.*

patrera placari posse dicat; causam tamen rei se suscepturam asserat, et ad bonam
finem rem omnem se perducturam promittat. The mother here he presently explains
as divine Grace. In Poiret's (Economia Divina, a parable (vol. ii. p. 554, v. 9, 26),
too long to quote, is worthy a reference ; another in Salmercn, Serm. in Parab.
Evang. p. 300.

One Persian, however, I will quote for its deep significance (Deslongchamps,
Fables Indiennes, p. 64). The Persian moralist is speaking of the manner in which
frivolous and sensual pleasures cause men to forget all the deeper interests of their
spiritual being : On ne peut mieux assimiler le genre humain qu'a un homme qui,
fuyant, un elephant furieux, est descendu dans un puits, il s'est accroche a deux
rameaux qui en couvrent 1 'orifice ; et ses pieds se sont poses sur quel que chose qui
forme une saillie dans l'interieur du meme puits ; ce sont quatre serpens qui sortent
leurs tetes hors de leurs repaires : il apercoit au fond du puits un dragon qui gueule
ouverte n'attend que l'instant de sa chute pour le devorer. Ses regards se portent
vers les deux rameaux auxquels il est suspendu, et il voil a. leur naissance deux rats,
l'un noir, l'autre blanc, qui ne cessent de les ronger. Un autre objet cependant se
presente a sa vue : c'est une ruche remplie de mouches a miel, il se met a manger de
leur miel, et le plaisir qu'il y trouve lui fait oublier les serpens sur lesquels reposent
ses pieds, les rats qui rongent les rameaux auxquels il est suspendu et le danger dont
il est menace a chaque instant, de devenir la proie du dragon qui guette le moment
de sa chute pour le devorer. Son etourderie et son illusion ne cessent qu'avec son
existence. Ce puits c'est le monde rempli de dangers et de miseres ; les quatre
serpens ce sont les quatres humeurs dont le melange forme notre corps, mais qui,
lorsque leur equilibre est rompu, deviennent autant de poisons mortels ; ces deux
rats, l'un noir, l'autre blanc, ce sont le jour et la nuit, dont la succession consume la
duree de notre vie ; le dragon c'est le terme inevitable qui nous attend tous ; le miel,
enfin, ce sont les plaisirs des sens dont la fausse douceur nous seduit et nous detourne
du chemin 011 nous devons marcher. Compare Von Hammer, Gesch. d. sch'dn. Redek.
Pers. p. 183, and Barlaam and "Josaphat, 12. S. de Sacy (Ckresl. Arabe, vol. ii. p.
364) has a parable ; and in the Bluthensammlung aus d. Morgenl. Myst. , by Tho-
luck, there are several from the mystical poets of Persia, for instance, a beautiful
one, p. 105.

THE PARABLES.

/. THE SOWER.
Matt. xiii. 3-8, 18-23; Mark iv. 4-8, 14-21; Luke viii. 5-8, 11-15.

ON the relation in which the seven parables recorded in the
thirteenth chapter of St. Matthew, of which this of the Sower
is the first, stand to one another, there will be need to say something.
But this will best follow after they have all received their separate
treatment; and till then, therefore, I shall defer it.

It is the evident intention of the Evangelist to present these para-
bles as the first which the Lord spoke, this of the Sower introducing
a manner of teaching which He had not hitherto employed. As
much is indicated in the question of the disciples, ' Why speakest
Thou unto them in parables? ' (ver. 10), and in our Lord's answer
ver. n-17), in which He justifies His use of this method of teaching,
and declares His purpose in adopting it ; it is involved no less in His
treatment of this parable as the fundamental one, on the right under-
standing of which will depend their comprehension of all which are
to follow : 'Know ye not this parable ? and how then will ye k;:ow
all parables ? ' (Mark iv. 13). And as this was the first occasion on
which He brought forth these new things out of His treasure (see
ver. 22), so was it the occasion on which He brought them forth
with the largest hand. We have nowhere else in the Gospels so rich
a group of parables assembled together, so many and so costly pearls
strung upon a single thread.

It will not be lost labour to set before ourselves at the outset as
vividly as we can what the aspects of that outward nature were, with
which our Lord and the multitudes were surrounded, as He uttered,
and they listened to, these divine words. 'Jesus went out from the
house? probably at Capernaum, which was the city where He com-

56 THE SOWER.

monly dwelt after His open ministry began (Matt. iv. 13), 'His own
city ' (Matt. ix. 1), ' which is upon the sea coast,'" and, going out,
He ' sat by the sea-side,'' that is, by the lake of Genesaret, the scene
of so many incidents in [lis ministry. The lake, called in the Old
Testament ' the sea of Chinnereth ' (Num. xxxiv. 1 1 ; Josh. xii. 3 ;
xiii. 27), from a town of that name which stood near its shore (Josh,
xix. 35), ' the water of Gennesar ' (1 Mace. xi. 67), now Bahr
Tabaria, goes by many names in the Gospels. It is simply ' the
sea' (Matt. iv. 15 ; Mark iv. 1), or ' the sea of Galilee ' (Matt. xv.
29 ; John vi. 1) ; or, as invariably in St. Luke, 'the lake ' (viii. 22),
or ' the Lake of Genesaret ' (v. 1) ; sometimes, but this only in St.
John, ' the sea of Tiberias,' from the great heathen city of Tiberias
on its shores (vi. 1 ; xxi. 1) ; being, indeed, no more than an inland
sheet of water, of moderate extent, some sixteen miles in length,
and not more than six in breadth. But it might well claim regard
for its beauty, if not for its extent. The Jewish writers would have
it that it was beloved of God above all the waters of Canaan ; and
indeed, almost all ancient authors who have mentioned it speak in
glowing terms of the beauty and rich fertility of its banks. Hence,
as some say, its name of Genesaret, or ' the garden of riches,' b but
the derivation is insecure. And even now, when the land is crushed
under the rod of Turkish misrule, many traces of its former beauty
remain, many evidences of the fertility which its shores will again
assume in the day which assuredly cannot be very far off, when that
rod shall be lightened from them. It is true that the olive-gardens
and vineyards, which once crowned the high and romantic hills
bounding it on the east and west, have disappeared ; but the citron,
the orange and the date-tree are still found there in rich abundance ;
and in the higher regions the products of a more temperate zone
meet together with these ; while, lower down, its banks are still
covered with aromatic shrubs, and its waters, as of old, are still sweet
and wholesome to drink, and always cool, clear and transparent to
the very bottom, and as gently breaking on the fine white sand with
which its shores are strewn as they did when the feet of the Son of
God trod those sands, or walked upon those waters. On the edge

Ttjo Tra.pa6a\a<T<rlav (Malt, iv. 13) , probably so called to distinguish it from another
Capernaum on the brook Kishon.

b Jerome (De Nomin. Heb.') makes Genessar = hortus principum.

" Josephus {Bell. Jud. iii. 10. 7) rises into high poetical animation in describing
its attractions ; and in Rohr's Palulina (termed by Goethe 'a glorious book') , p. 67,
there is a very spirited description of this lake and the neignboring country ; see also
Lightfoot's Chorograph. Cent. lxx. 79;) and Meuchen, Nov. Test., ex Talm. Must.
p. 151. Robinson (Bibl. Researches . vol. iii. p. 253) is less enthusiastic in his praise.

THE SOWER. 57

of this beautiful lake the multitude were assembled ; the place was
convenient, for, ' whilst the lake is almost completely surrounded by
mountains, those mountains never come down into the water, but
always leave a beach of greater or lesser extent along the water's
edge.' Their numbers were such that, probably, as on another day
(Luke v. i), they pressed upon the Lord, so that He found it con-
venient to enter into a ship; and putting off a little from the shore,
He taught them from it, speaking ' many things unto them in
parables. '

First in order is the parable of the Sower. It rests, like so many
others, on one of the common familiar doings of daily life. Christ,
lifting up his eyes, may have seen at no great distance a husbandman
scattering his seed in the furrows, may have taken in, indeed, the
whole scenery of the parable. b As it belongs to the essentially pop-
ular nature of the Gospels, that parables should be found in them
rather than in the Epistles, where indeed they never appear, so it
belongs to the popular character of the parable, that it should thus
rest upon the familiar doings of common life, the matters which
occupy

the talk
Man holds with week-day man in the hourly walk
Of the world's business ; '

while the Lord, using these to set forth eternal and spiritual truths,
at the same time ennobles them, showing them continually to reveal

He speaks, indeed, of the lake as a 'beautiful sheet of limpid water in a deeply de-
pressed basin ;' but the form of the hills, 'regular and almost unbroken heights' (p.
312), was to his eye 'rounded and tame,' and, as it was the middle summer when
his visit was made, the verdure of the spring had already disappeared, and he com-
plains of the nakedness in the general aspect of the scenery. But the account which
transcends all others in the picturesque accuracy of its details, which leaves nothing
to be desired by the reader, except that he might himself behold this, 'the most
sacred sheet of water which this earth contains,' is to be found in Stanley, Sinai and
Palestine, pp. 361-378.

il Dean Stanley, describing the shores of the lake, shows us how easily this may
have been : 'A slight recess in the hillside, close upon the plain, disclosed at once,
in detail, and with a conjunction which I remember nowhere else in Palestine, every
feature of the great parable. There was the undulating corn-field descending to the
water's edge. There was the trodden pathway running through the midst of it, with
no fence or hedge to prevent the seed from falling here and there on either side of it,
or upon it, itself hard with the constant tramp of horse and mule and human feet.
There was the "good" rich soil, which distinguishes the whole of that plain and its
neighborhood from the bare hills elsewhere, descending into the lake, and which,
where there is no interruption, produces one vast mass of corn. There was the
rocky ground of the hillside protruding here and there through the corn-fields, as else-
where through the grassy slopes. There were the large bushes of thorn the nabk,
that kind of which tradition says that the crown of thorns was woven springing up,
like the fruit-trees of the more inland parts, in the very midst of the waving wheat.'

58 THE SOWER.

and set forth the deepest mysteries of his kingdom. ' A sower 7vent
forth to sow ' what a dignity and significance have these few words,
used as the Lord uses them here, given in all after-times to the toils
of the husbandman of the furrow.

The comparison of the relations between the teacher and the taught
to those between the sower and the soil, the truth communicated
being the seed sown, rests on analogies between the worlds of
nature and of spirit so true and so profound, that we must not won-
der to find it of frequent recurrence ; and this, not merely in Scripture
(i Pet. i. 23 ; 1 John iii. 9), but in the writings of all wiser heathens*
who have realized at all what teaching means, and what sort of influ-
ence the spirit of one man may exercise on the spirits of his fellows.
While all words, even of men, which are better than mere words, are
as seeds, able to take root in their minds and hearts who hear them,
have germs in them which only unfold by degrees ; b how eminently
must this be true of the words of God, and of these uttered by Him
who was Himself the seminal Word which He communicated. Best
right of all to the title of seed has that word, which exercising no
partial operation on their hearts who receive it, wholly transforms and
renews them that word of living and expanding truth by which men
are born anew into the kingdom of God, and which in its effects
'endureth for ever' (1 Pet. i. 23, 25). I cannot doubt that the Lord
intended to set Himself forth as the chief sower of the seed (not, of
course, to the exclusion of the Aposiles d and their successors), that
here, as in the next parable, ' he that soweth the good seed'' is the Son
of man ; and this, even though He nowhere, in as many words, an-

* Grotius is rich in illustrative passages from Greek and Latin writers ; he or others
have adduced such from Arisrotle, Cicero (Tusc. ii. 5)), Plutarch, Quintilian, Philo,
and many more ; but it would not be worth while merely to repeat their quotations.
I do not observe this one from Seneca (p. 74): Deusad homines venit, imo (quod
proprius est) in homines venit. Semina in corporibus humanis dispersa sunt, quae
si bonus cultor excipit, simila origini prodeunt, et paria his ex quibus orta sunt sur-
gunt : si malus, non aliter quam humus sterilis ac palustris necat, ac deinde creat
purgamenta pro frugibus.

b Thus Shakspeare, of a man of thoughtful wisdom :

His plausive words
He scattered not in ears, but grafted them
To grow there and to bear.'

Salmeron (Serm. in Par. Evang. p. 30): Quemadmodum Christus Medicus est
et medicina, Sacerdos et hostia, Redemptor et redemptio, Legislator et lex, Janitor
et ostium, ita Sator et semen. Nee enim est aliud Evangelium ipsum, quam Christus
incornatus, natus, praedicans, moriens, resurgens, mittens Spiri turn Sanctum, congre-
gans Ecclesiam, illamque sanctifican et gubernans.

d Isidore of Pelusium (Ep. 176, p. 326) has a sublime comparison, in which he
likens St. Paul to Triptolemus, the winged scatterer of seed through the earth.

THE SOWER. 59

nounces Himself as such. a His entrance into the world was a going
forth to sow; b the word of the kingdom, which word He first pro-
claimed, was his seed ; the hearts of men his soil ; while others were
only able to sow, because He had sown first ; they did but carry on
the work which He had auspicated and begun.

' And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side [and it was
trodden down (Luke viii. 5)], and the fowls came and devoured them
7ip.' > Some, that is, fell on the hard footpath or road, where the glebe
was not broken, so could not sink down in the earth, but lay exposed
on the surface to the feet of passers-by, till at length it fell an easy
prey to the birds, such as in the East are described as following in
large flocks the husbandman, to gather up, if they can, the seed-corn
which he had scattered. This parable is one of the very few, where-
of we possess an authentic interpetation from the Lord's own lips ;
and these words He thus explains : ' Wlien any one heareth the word
of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the Wicked
One, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart.'' In St.
Luke, Satan appears yet more distinctly as the adversary and hinderer
of the kingdom of God (of whom as such there will be fitter oppor-
tunity of speaking in the following parable), the reason why he
snatches the word away being added ' lest they should believe and be
saved.'' How natural it would have been to interpret 'the fowls'*
impersonally, as signifying, in a general way, worldly influences hos-
tile to the truth. How almost inevitably, if left to ourselves, we
should have so done. Not so, however, the Lord. He beholds the
kingdom of evil as it counterworks the kingdom of God gathered up
m a personal head, l the Wicked One.'

The words which St. Matthew alone records, ' and understandeth
it not,' do much for helping us to comprehend what this first state of
mind and heart is, in which the word of God fails to produce even a
passing effect. The man ' understandeth it not ; ' he does not recog-
nize himself as standing in any relation to the word which he hears,
or to the kingdom of grace which that word proclaims. All that
speaks of man's connexion with a higher invisible world, all that
speaks of sin, of redemption, of holiness, is unintelligible to him,
and without significance. But how has he arrived at this state ? He
has brought himself to it ; he has exposed his heart as a common
road to every evil influence of the world, till it has become hard as a

* See, however, Greswell's arguments to the contrary (Exp. of the Par. vol. v. part
2, p. 238).

b Salmeron (Sertn. in Parab. p. 29): Dicitur exire per operationem Incarnationis,
qua. indutus processit tanquam agricola aptam pluviae, soli, et frigori vestem assu-
mens, cum tamen Rex essct.

60 THE SOWER.

pavement, ft till he has laid waste the very soil in which the word of
God should have taken root ; he has not submitted it to the plough-
share of the law, which would have broken it up ; which, if he had
suffered it to do its appointed work, would have gone before, pre-
paring that soil to receive the seed of the Gospel. But what renders
his case the more hopeless, and takes away even a possibility of the
word germinating there, is, that besides the evil condition of the soil,
there is also one watching to take advantage of that evil condition, to
use every weapon that man puts into his hands, against man's salva-
vation : and he, lest by possibility such a hearer ' should believe and
be saved,' sends his ministers in the shape of evil thoughts, worldly
desires, carnal lusts, and by their help, as St. Mark records it, ' im-
mediately taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.?
This is he that received seed by the way side. '

There was other seed, which promised at the first to have, but in
the end had not truly any, better success. 'Some fell upon stony
places, where they had not much earth ; and forthwith they sprung
up, because they had no deepness of earth ; and when the sun was up, b
they scorched ; and because they had no root they withered away.'
The ' stony places ' here are to be explained by the ' rock ' of St.
Luke, and it is important that the words in St. Matthew, or rather in
our Version (for l rocky places,'' as, indeed, the Rhemish Version
has it, would have made all clear), do not lead us astray. A soil
mingled with stones is not meant ; these, however numerous or
large, would not certainly hinder the roots from striking deeply down-
ward ; for those roots, with an instinct of their own, would feel and
find their way, penetrating between the interstices of the stones, till
they reached the moisture below. But what is meant is ground such
as to a great extent is that of Palestine, where a thin superficial
coating of mould covers the surface of a rock; this stretching below
it, would present a barrier beyond which it would be wholly impossi-
ble that the roots could penetrate, to draw up supplies of nourish-
ment from beneath. While the seed had fallen on shallow earth,

H. de Sto, Victore Annot. in Matt.): Via est cor frequenti raalarum cogitationum
transitu attritum et arefactum. Cora, a Lapide : Via est trita secularis et licentioris
vitas consuetude

b 'AvaTeTiAeu/ once occurs transitively in the New Testament, Matt. v. 45 ; so Gen.
iii. 18, Isai. xlv. 8 (LXX). It is especially used, as here, of the rising of the sun or
stars (Num. xxiv, 17 ; Isai. lx. 1 ; Mai. iv. 2); but also of the springing up of plants
from the earth (Gen. xix. 25; Isai. xliv. 4; Ezek. xvii. 6; Ps. xci. 7); and so
elarareAAu in this present parable. In either sense of the title 'Ava-roAij belongs to
Christ, and has been applied to Him in both; as He is The Branch ("Ai/aToAjj, Zech.
vi. 12, LXX), and as He is The Day-spring (Luke i. 78).

c Bengel: Non innuuntur lapides sparsim in agro jacentes, sed petra sive saxum
continuum, sub terrse superficie tenui.

THE SOWER. 61

therefore the plant the sooner appeared above the surface ; and while
the rock below hindered it from striking deeply downward, it put
forth its energies the more luxuriantly in the stalk. It sprang up
without delay, but rooted in no deep soil ; and because therefore it
1 lacked moisture?* it was unable to resist the scorching heat of the
sun, and being smitten by that withered and died. b

We recur again to the Lord's interpretation of His own words :
* They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word
with joy ; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in
time of temptation fall away. ' Though the issue proves the same
in this case as in the last, the promise is very different. So far from
the heart of this class of hearers appearing irreceptive of the truth,
the good news of the kingdom is received at once, and with gladness.
The joy itself is most appropriate. How should he not be glad whom
the glad tidings have reached? (Acts viii. 8; xvi. 24; Gal. v. 22;
1 Pet. i. 6). But alas ! in this case the joy thus suddenly conceived is
not, as the sequel too surely proves, a joy springing up from the
contemplation of the greatness of the benefit, even after all the
counterbalancing costs, and hazards, and sacrifices, have been taken
into account, but a joy which springs from an overlooking and
leaving out of calculation those costs and hazards. It is this which
fatally differences the joy of this class of hearers from that of the
finder of the treasure (Matt. xiii. 44), who, ' for joy thereof,' went
and sold all that he had, that he might purchase the field which con-
tained the treasure that is. was willing to deny himself all things,
and to suffer all things, that he might win Christ. We have rather
here a state of mind not stubbornly repelling the truth, but wofully
lacking in all deeper earnestness ; such as that of the multitudes that
went with Jesus, unconscious what His discipleship involved, to
whom He turned and told, in plainest and most startling words, what
the conditions of that discipleship were (Luke xiv. 25-33 > Josh. xxiv.
19). This is exactly what the hearer now described has not done ;
whatever was fair and beautiful in Christianity as it first presents

* 'iK/na; only here in the N. T.; twice in the Septuagint, Jer. xvii. 8 (al eerrai w?

v\ov evOevovv nap' vSara, Kal enl tKfxdSa /3aAet ptas avrov' Kal ov <fro{iiq9ecreTaL otov eA^r;

itaS/na) and Job xxvi. 14.

b How exactly this is taken from the life, a brief quotation from Pliny (H. N. xvii.
3) will show: In Syria levem tenui sulco imprimunt vomerem, quia subest saxum
exurens sestate semina. The same soil is by Theophrastus described as un-dn-eTpoj.
At Matt. vii. 24, 25 (cf. Luke vi. 48), it is implied that one who digs deep enough
will everywhere come to rock.

c Cocceius : Statim loetari est malum signum, quia non potest non verbum Dei, si
recte percipiatur, in homine operari, displicentiam sui, aywvCav, angustias, cor contri-
tum, spiritum fractum, famem ac sitim, denique luctum, ut Servator docuit, Matt. v.

62 THE SOWER

itself, had attracted him its sweet and comfortable promises,* the
moral loveliness of its doctrines ; but not its answer to the deepest
needs of the human heart ; as neither, when he received the word
with gladness, had he contemplated the having to endure hardness in
his warfare with sin and Satan and the world ; and this will explain
all which follows : ' Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a
while ; for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the
word, by and by he is offended."' It is not here, as in the last case,
that Satan needs merely to come and take the word out of the heart
without further trouble. That word has found some place there, and
it needs that he bring some hostile influences to bear against it.
What he brings in the present case are outward or inward trials, these
being compared to the burning heat of the sun. It is true that the
light and warmth of the sun are oftener used to set forth the genial
and comfortable workings of God's grace ; as eminently, Mai. iv. 2 ;
but not always, for see Ps. cxxi. 6; Isai. xlix. 10; Rev. vii. 16. As
that heat, had the plant been rooted deeply enough, would have
furthered its growth, and hastened its ripening, fitting it for the
sickle and the barn so these tribulations would have furthered the
growth in grace of the true Christian, and ripened him for heaven.
But as the heat scorches the blade which has no deepness of earth,
and has sprung up on a shallow ground, so the troubles and
afflictions which would have strengthened a true faith, cause a faith
which was merely temporary to fail. d When these afflictions for the
truth's sake arrive ' he is offended,' as though some strange thing had
happened to him : for then are the times of shifting," and of win-

" Bede : Ilia sunt praecordia quse dulcedine tantum auditi sermonis ac promissis
caelestibus ad horam delectantur.

b Quintilian (Inst. i. 3. 3-5) supplies a good parallel ; he, it is true, is speaking of
the rapid progress and rapid decay in the region of the intellectual, our Lord in
that of the moral, life : Illud ingeniorum velut praecox genus non temere unquam
pervenit ad frugem. . . . Non multum praestant, sed cito. Non subest vera vis,
nee penitus immissis radicibus nititur ; ut quae summo solo sparsa sunt semina celerius
se effundunt ; et imitatae spicas herbulae, inanibus aristis ante messem flavescunt.

c It was the rising of the sun that the Kavaw, the hot desert wind, a^e/uo? 6 Kavawv,
as often in the Septuagint (Jer. xviii. 17 ; Ezek. xvii. 10; xix. 12 ; Hos. xiii. 15 ; Jon.
iv. 8), began commonly to blow, the deadly effects of which on vegetation are often,
referred to (Jon. iv. 8; Jam. i. 12). Plants thus smitten with the heat are called
torrefacta, rj\iovfj.eva.

a Augustine is rich in striking sayings on the different effects which tribulations will
have on those that are rooted and grounded in the faith, and those that are other-
wise. Thus (Enarr. in Ps. 21), speaking of the furnace of affliction : Ibiestaurum
ibi est palea, ibi ignis in augusto operatur. Ignis ille non est diversus, et diversa
agit, paleam in cinerem vertit, auro sordes tollit. See for the same image Chrysos-
tom, Ad . Pop. Antioch. Horn. iv. 1.

e The very word 'tribulation,' with which we have rendered flAtyi?, rests on this

THE SOWER. 63

nowing ; and then, too, every one that has no root, or, as St.
Matthew describes it, 'no root in himself,'' no inward root, 3 falls away.
The having of such an inward root here would answer to having a
foundation on the rock, to having oil in the vessels, elsewhere (Matt,
vii. 25 ; xxv. 4). It is not an unfrequent image in Scripture (Ephes.
iii. 17 ; Col. ii 7 ; Jer. xvii. 8 ; Hos. ix. 16 ; Job. xix. 28) ; and has
a peculiar fitness and beauty, for as the roots of a tree are out of
sight, while yet from them it derives its firmness and stability, so up-
on the hidden life of the Christian, that life which is out of the sight
of other men, his firmness and stability depend; and as it is through
the hidden roots that the nourishment is drawn up to the stem and fc
branches, and the leaf continues green, and the tree does not cease I
from bearing fruit, even so in that life which ' is hid with Christ in
God ' lie the sources of the Christian's strength and of his spiritual
prosperity. Such a ' root in himself had Peter, who, when many
were offended and drew back, exclaimed, ' To whom shall we go ?
Thou hast the words of eternal life ' (John vi. 68). This faith that
Christ and no other had the words of eternal life and blessedness,
constituted his root, causing him to stand firm when so many fell
away. So, again, when the Hebrew Christians took joyfully the
spoiling of their goods, knowing in themselves that they had 'in
heaven a better and an enduring substance ' (Heb. x. 34), this knowl-
edge, this faith concerning their unseen inheritance, was the root
which enabled them joyfully to take that loss, and not to draw back
unto perdition, as so many had done. Compare 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18,
where faith in the unseen eternal things is the root, which, as St.
Paul declares, enables him to count the present affliction light, and
to endure to the end (cf. Heb. xi. 26). Demas, on the other hand,
lacked that root. It might at first sight seem as if he would be more
correctly arranged under the third class of hearers; since he forsook
Paul, ' having loved this present world ' (2 Tim. iv. 10). But when
we examine more closely Paul's condition at Rome at the moment
when Demas left him, we find it one of extreme outward trial and
danger. It would seem then more probable that the immediate cause
of his going back was the tribulation which came for the word's
sake."

image from tributum, the threshing roller, and signifying those afflictive processe,
by which in the moral discipline of men God separates their good from their evil,
their wheat from their chaff.

a With allusion to this passage, men of faith are called in the Greek Fathers
Po.6vppioi, iroAvppioi. Compare with this division of the parable the Shepherd of
Hermas, iii. sim. 9. 21.

b See Bernard (De Offic. Episc. iv. 14, 15) for an interesting discussion, whether

64 THE SOWER.

But there is other seed, of which the fortunes are still to be told.
' And some fell among thorns ; ' as fields were often divided by
hedges of thorn (Exod. xxii. 6; Mic. vii. 4), this might easily come
to pass (Jer. iv. 3 ; Job v. 5); ' and the thorns sprung up, and choked
them' or as Wiclif has, ' strangled it,'* so that, as St. Mark adds, ' it
yielded no fruit.' This seed fell not so much among thorns that were
full grown, as in ground where the roots of these had not been dili-
gently extirpated, in ground which had not been thoroughly purged
and cleansed; ouherwise it could not be said that ' the thorns sprang
up with it' (Luke viii. 7). They_grew together; only the thorns
overtopped the good seed, shut them out from the air and light, drew
away from their roots the moisture and richness of earth which should
have nourished them. No wonder that they pined and dwindled in
the shade, grew dwarfed and stunted ; for the best of the soil did
not feed them forming, indeed, a blade, but unable to form a full
corn in the ear, or to bring any fruit to perfection It is not here,
as in the first case, that there was no soil, or none deserving the
name ; nor yet, as in the second case, that there was a poor or shal-
low soil. Here there was no lack of soil it might be good soil ;
but what lacked was a careful husbandry, a diligent eradication of
the mischievous growths, which, unless rooted up, would oppress and
strangle whatever sprang up in their midst.

This part of the parable the Lord thus explains : He_ also that re-
ceived seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care h
of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches [and the lusts of other
things entering in (Mark iv. 19)] choke the word, and he became tin-
fruitful,' or as St. Luke gives it, ' they bring no fruit to perfection.'"'
It js not here, as in the first case, that the word of God is totally in-
effectual, nor yet, as in the second case, that after a temporary
obedience to the truth, there is an evident falling away from it, such
as the withering of the stalk indicates : the profession of a spiritual
life is retained, the ' name to live ' still remains ; but the life and
power of godliness is by degrees eaten out and has departed. And
to what disastrous influences are these mournful effects attributed ?

the faith of those comprehended under this second head was, so long as it lasted,
real or not, in fact, on the question whether it be possible to fall from grace given.

Columella : Angenlem herbam The image of an evil growth strangling a nobler,
is permanently embodied in our language in the name cockle, given to a weed well
known in our fields derived from the Anglo-Saxon ceocan, to choke.

* Catullus : Spinosas Erycina serens in pectore curas.

Ou Te\e<T<S>opov<n. The word occurs only here in the N. T. It is especially used
of a woman bringing a child to the birth, or a tree its fruit to maturity (Josephus,

Antt. i. 6. 3 ; Cf. Plutarch, De Lib. Ed. 4: Uvhpo. eyapjra Kal TeAe<r<J>op<x).

THE SO WER. 65

To two things, the care of this world and its pleasures ; these are the
thorns and briers that strangle the life of the soul. a It may sound
strange at first hearing that two causes apparently so diverse should
yet be linked together, and have the same hurtful operation ascribed
to them. But the Lord, in fact, here presents to us this earthly life
on its two sides, under its two aspects. There is, first, its crushing
oppressing side, the poor man's toil how to live at all, to keep hun-
ger and nakedness from the door, the struggle for a daily subsistence,
' the cares of this life,' which, if not met in faith, hinder the thriving
of the spiritual word in the heart:-4J3ut life has a flattering as well as
a threatening side, its pleasures no less than its cafes ; and as those
who have heard and received with gladness the word of the kingdom
are still in danger of being crushed by the cares of life, so, no less,
of being deceived by its flatteries and its allurements. The old man
is not dead in them ; it may seem dead for a while, so long as the
first joy on account of the treasure found endures ; but, unless mor-
tified in earnest, will presently revive in all its strength anew. Unless
the soil of the heart be diligently watched, the thorns and briers, of
which it seemed a thorough clearance had been made, will again
grow up apace, and choke the good seed. While that which God

See the Shephard of Hermas, iii. sim. 9. 20. In the great symbolic language of
the outward world, these have a peculiar fitness for the expression of influences
hostile to the truth ; they are themselves the consequences and evidences of sin, of a
curse which has passed on from man to the earth which he inhabits (Gen. iii. 17),
till that earth had nothing but a thorn-crown to yield to its Lord. It is a sign of the
deep fitness of this image that others have been led to select it for the setting forth
of the same truth. Thus the Pythagorean Lysis (Baur, Apollonius, p. 192) : tIvkwoX

/cat Aacuai AdxP-ai 7repi Tots <J>peVaj KaX tov Kap&Cav Tre^u'/cai/Tt Toil' /xtj xadapais Tens /u.a5jj/j.acn.y
bpyt-a<r9evTu)Vy irav to a/xepov KaX npaov koX AoytsTcxov Tay i^u^as e7rio-/aaovo-cu, icat KioKvovaai
TTpoc(>cu'u)5 jiiv avr)9r)ft.ev koX 7rpOKvi|/Gu to votitikov.

b Me'pip.xa from fie'pi? (curae unimum divorse trahunt, Terence), that which draws
the heart different ways. See Hos. x. 2 : 'Their heart is divided,' i. e. between God
and the world ; such a heart constitutes the di^p Su/zuxos (Jam. i. 8).

c Thus with a deep heart-knowledge Thauler (Dom. post Trin. Serm. 2): Nostis
ipsi, quod dum ager sive hortus a loliis ac zizaniis expurgatur, ut plurimum radices
quaedam zizaniorum in terrae visceribus maneant, ita tamen ut minime deprehendan-
tur. Iterim humus diligenter conseritur atque sarritur : ubi dum bona semina oriri
deberent, simul zizania ex radicibus terras fixis succrescunt, et frumentum aliasque
herbas et semina bona destruent opprimentque. Sic ergo et in praesenti loco radices
dico, pravos quosque defectus et vitia in fuendo latentia, et necdum mortificata: quae
per confessionem et pcenitentiam, ut ita dicam, sarrita quidem sunt, et per bona
exercitia exarata : attamen vitiosarum radicum malae inclinationes seu propensiones,
puta vel superpiae vel luxuries, iras vel invidiam, sue odii hisque similium in ipso fundo
relictae sunt, quae postea exoriuntur, et ubi divina, beata, virtuosa, laudabilis vita ex
homine germinare, succrescere, oriri deberet , hasc pessima noxiarum radicum germina
prodeunt, fructusque illius ac religiosam devotumque dispergunt, extinguunt obruunt
vitam.

66 THE SOWER.

promises is felt to be good, but also what the world promises is felt to
be good also, and a good of the same kind, instead of a good mere-
ly and altogether subordinate to the other, an attempt will be made
to combine the service of the two, to serve God and mammon. But
the attempt will be in vain : they who make it will bring no fruit to
perfection, will fail to bring forth those perfect fruits of the Spirit
which it was the purpose of the word of God to produce in them. a

But it is not all the seed which thus sooner or later perishes. The
spiritual husbandman is to sow in hope, knowing that with the bless-
ing of the Lord he will not always sow in vain, that a part will pros-
per. 1 " ' But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit,
some an hundredfold, some sixty fold, some thirty fold,' St. Luke says
simply, 'and bare fruit an hundredfold,' leaving out the two lesser
proportions of return ; which St. Mark gives, but reverses the order
of the three, beginning from the lowest return, and ascending to the
highest. The return of a hundred for one is not unheard of in the
East, though always mentioned as something extraordinary ; thus it
is said of Isaac, that he sowed, ' and received in the same year a
v/imndredfold, and the Lord blessed him' (Gen. xxvi. 12); and other
examples of the same kind are not wanting.

We learn that ' he that receiveth seed into the good ground is he that
heareth the word, and under standeth it, which also beareth fruit,
and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty,'' or,
with the important variation of St. Luke, 'That on the good ground
are they which, in an honest and good heart, having heard the word,
keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience" 1 important, because in
these words comes distinctly forward a difficulty, which equally
existed in every record of the parable, but might in the others have

Ovid's enumeration {Met. v. 483-486) of all which may disappoint and defeat
the sower's toil exactly corresponds with that of our parables; though with some
additions, and in order a little different :

Et modo Sol nimius, mimius modo corripit imber;

Sideraque ventique nocent ; avidceque volucres

Semina Jacta legunt ; lolium tribulique fatigant

Triticeas messes, et inexpugnabile gramen.
> Thus the author of a sermon in the Appendix to Augustine {Opp. vol.ivi. p. 97.
Bened. ed.): Non ergo nos, dilectissimi, ant timor spinarum, aut saxa petrarum , aut
durissima via perterreat: dum tamen seminantes verbum Dei ad terram bonam tan-
dem aliquando pervanire possimus. Accipe verbum Dei, omnis ager, omnis homo,
sive sterilis, sive fecundus. Ego spargam, tu vide quomodo accipias: ego erogem,
tu vide quales fructus reddas.

According to Herodotus two hundredfold was a common return in the plain of
Babylon, and sometimes three; and Niebuhr {Beschreib. v. Arab, p. 153) mentions a
species of maize that returns four hundredfold : Wetstein (in loc.) has collected ex-
amples from antiquity of returns far greater than that of the text.

THE SOWER. 6T

been overlooked and evaded ; while yet on its right solution a suc-
cessful interpretation must altogether depend. What is this ' honest
and good heart" 1 ? How can any heart be called 'good' before the
Word and the Spirit have made it so ? and yet here the seed finds
a good soil, does not make it. The same question recurs, as when
Christ declares, ' He that is of God heareth God's words ' (John
viii. 41) ; and again, ' Every one that is of the truth heareth my
voice ' (John xviii. 37). For who in this sinful world can be called
* of the truth ' ? Isjt not the universal doctrine of Scripture that
men become 'of the truth ' through hearing Christ's words, not that
they hear His words because they are ' of the truth; ' that the heart
is good through receiving the word ; not that it receives the word
because it is good ? a This is certainly the scriptural doctrine, and
he teaches preposterously, to use the word in its most proper sense,
who teaches otherwise. -fA-t the same time those passages in St. John,
and the words before us, with much else in Scripture, bear witness to
the fact that there are conditions of heart which yield readier
entrance to the truth than others; 'being of the truth,' 'being
of God,' 'doing the truth,' 'having the soil of an honest and
good heart,' all signifying the same thing. Inasmuch as these all
express a condition anterior to hearing God's words to coming to
the light to bringing forth fruit they cannot indicate a state of
mind and heart, in which the truth, in the highest sense of that
word, is positive and realized, but only one in which there is a pre-
paredness to receive the truth. None is good save God only ; and
yet the Scripture speaks often of good men : even thus no heart can
be said to be absolutely a good soil ; yet comparatively it may be
affirmed of some, that their hearts are a soil fitter for receiving the
seed of everlasting life than those of others. Thus the ' sons of
peace ' will alone receive the message of peace (Luke x. 6 ; cf. Acts
xiii. 48), while yet only the reception of that message will make him
truly and in the highest sense 'son of peace.' He was before,
indeed, a latent son of peace, but it is the Gospel which first makes
actual that which hitherto was only potential. And thus the preach-
ing of the word of the Gospel may be likened to the scattering of
sparks, which, where they find tinder, fasten there, and kindle into a
flame ; where they find it not, expire ; or the truth may be regarded

* Augustine (/. Ev. Joh. Trad. 12) puts the difficulty, and solves it thus: Quid
est hoc? quorum enim erant bona opera? Nonne venisti ut justifices impios? He
replies: Initium cperum honorum confessio est operum malorum. Facis veritatem,
et venis ad lucem. Quid est, facis veritatem ? non te palpas, non tibi blandiris, non
tibi adularis, non dicis, [ustum sum, cum sis iniquus, et incipis facere veritatem.

68 THE SOWER.

as a loadstone thrust in among the world s rubbish, attracting to
itself all particles of true metal, which but for it would never, as
they could never, have extricated themselves from the surrounding
mass, however they testify their affinity to the loadstone, now that
it is brought in contact with them.

Exactly thus among those to whom the word of Christ came, there
were two divisions of men, and the same will always subsist in the
world. There were, first, the false-hearted, who called evil good and
good evil, who loved their darkness, and hated the light that would
make that darkness manifest (John iii. 20 ; Ephes. v. 13), who, when
that light of the Lord shone round about them, only drew further
back into their own darkness, self-excusers and self-justifiers, such as
were for the most part the Scribes and Pharisees with whom He came
in contact. But there were also others, sinners as well, often, as
regards actual transgression of positive law, much greater sinners
than those first, but who yet acknowledged their evil had no wish to
alter the everlasting relations between right and wrong who, when
the light appeared, did not refuse to be drawn to it, even though they
knew that it would condemn their darkness, that it would require an
entire renewing of their hearts and remodelling of their lives : such
were the Matthews and the Zacchaeuses, and all who confessed their
deeds, justifying not themselves but God (Luke vii. 29, 30). Not
that I would prefer to instance these as examples of the ' good and
honest heart, .' except in so far as it is needful to guard against a
Pelagian abuse of the phrase, and to show how the Lord's language
here does not condemn even great and grievous sinners to an
incapacity for receiving the word of life. Nathanael would be a yet
more perfect specimen of the class referred to the ' Israelite, indeed,
in whom was no guile ' a (John i. 47), in other words, the man with
the soil of 'an honest and good heart,' fitted for receiving and
nourishing the word of everlasting life, and for bringing forth fruit
with patience ; one of a simple, truthful and earnest nature; who had
been faithful to the light which he had, diligent in the performance
of the duties which he knew, who had not been resisting God's pre-
paration in him for imparting to him at the last His best gift, even
the knowledge of His Son; who, with all this, knowing himself a
sinner, did not affirm that he was just. For we must keep ever in
mind that the good soil comes as much from God as the seed which

Augustine : Si dolus in illo non erat, sanabilem ilium judicavit Medicus, non
sanum. Quomodo dolus in illo non erat? Si peccator est, fatetur se peccatorem.
Si enim peccator est, et justum se dicit, doius est in ore ipsius. Ergo in Nathanael
confessionem peccati laudavit, non judicavit non esse peccatorem.

THE SOWER. 69

is to find there its home. The law and the preaching of repentance,
God's secret and preventing grace, run before the preaching of the
word of the kingdom ; and thus when that word comes, it finds men
with a less or a greater readiness to receive it for what indeed it is,
a word of eternal life."

When the different measures of prosperity are given, the seed
bringeth forth ' some an hundredfold, some sixty/old, some thirtyfold,'
it seems difficult to determine whether these indicate different degrees
of fidelity in those that receive the truth, according to which they
bring forth fruit unto God more or less abundantly; or rather
different spheres of action more or less wide, which they are
appointed to occupy ; as in another parable to one servant were
given five talents, to another two ; in which instance the diligence
and fidelity appear to have been equal, and the meed of praise the
same, since each gained in proportion to the talents committed to
him, though these talents were many more in one case than in the
other (Luke xix. 16-19): I should suppose, however, the former. b
The words which St. Luke records (ver. 18), 'Take heed therefore
how ye hear : for whosoever hath, to him shall be given ; and whoso-
ever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to
have ' (cf. Mark iv. 33), are very important for the avoiding of a
misunderstanding, which else might easily have arisen here. The
disciples might have been in danger of supposing that these four
conditions of heart, in which the word found its hearers, were per-
manent, immutable and fixed for evermore; and therefore that in
one heart the word must flourish, in another that it could never
germinate at all, in others that it could only prosper for a little while.
There is no such immoral fatalism in Scripture. It left to the Gnos-
tics to arrange men in two classes, one capable of a higher life, and
the other incapable. All it declares to be capable ; even as it sum-
mons all to be partakers of the same; and the warning, 'Take ye
heed how ye hear,' testifies as much, for it tells us that in each case,
according as the word is heard and received, will its success be that,
while it is indeed true that all which has gone before in a man's life

a On this subject of the ^honest and good heart ' there is an admirable discussion
by Jackson, The Eternal Truth of Scripture, iv. 8.

b So Irenaeus {Con. Hcer. v. 39, 2) must have understood it, and Cyprian (Ep.
69) : Eadem gratia spiritalis guse sequaliter in baptismo a credentibus sumitur, in
conversatione atque actu nostro postmodum vel minuitervelaugetur, ut in Evangelio
Dominicuin semen sequaliter seminatur, sed pro varietate terrse aliud absumitur,
aliud in multiformem copiam vel tricesimi, vel sexagesimi, vel centesimi numeri
fructu exuberante cumulatur. So too Theodoret (in Cant. vi. 8) , who finds here ,
iis he does at John xiv. 2, an evidence of the ttoWo. Taynara koI Sid<j>opa. tS>v tvoefihv.

70 THE SOWER.

will greatly influence the manner of his reception of that word, for
every event will have tended either to the improving or the deterior-
ating of the soil of his heart, and will therefore render it more or
less probable that the seeds of God's word will prosper there, yet it
lies on every man now to take heed how he hears, and through this
taking heed, to insure, with God's blessing, that it shall bring forth
in him fruit that shall remain (Jam. i. 21).

For while it is true, and the thought is a very awful one, that
there is such a thing as laying waste the very soil in which the
seed of eternal life should have taken root that very act of sin,
of unfaithfulness to the light within us, is, as it were, a treading
of the ground into more hardness, so that the seed shall not sink in
it, or a wasting of the soil, so that the seed shall find no nutri-
ment there, or a fitting of it to a kindlier nourishing of thorns
and briers than of good seed; yet on the other hand, even for
those who have brought themselves into these evil conditions, a
recovery is still, through the grace of God, possible : the hard soil
may again become soft, the shallow soil may become rich and
deep, and the soil beset with thorns open and clear." For the
heavenly seed in this differs from the earthly, that the latter, as it
finds, so it must use its soil, for it cannot alter its nature. But
the heavenly seed, if acted upon by the soil where it is cast, also
reacts more mightily upon it, softening it where it was hard (Jer.
xxiii. 29), deepening it where it was shallow, cutting up and extir-
pating the roots of evil where it was encumbered with these; and,
wherever it is allowed free course, transforming and ennobling
each of these inferior soils, till it has become that which man's
heart was at the beginning and before the Fall, good ground, fit
to afford nourishment to that divine word, the seed of everlasting
life b (1 Pet. i. 23-25).

* So Augustine {Serm. lxxiii. 3) : Mutamini cum potestis; dura aratro versate, de
agro lapides projicite, de agro spinas evellite. Nolite habere durum cor, unde cito
verbum Dei pereat. Nolite habere tenuem terram, ubi radix caritatis alta non
sedeat. Nolite curis et cupiditatibus secularibus offocare bonum semen, quod vobis
spargitur laboribus nostris. Etenim Dominus seminat ; sed nos operarii ejus sumus.
Sed estote terra bona. Cf. Serm. ci. 3; and the author of a sermon, August. Opp.
vol. vi. p. 597, Bened. ed.: Si vero te terram infecundam aut spinosam vel siccam
sentis, recurre ad Creatorem tuum. Hoc enim nunc agitur, ut innoveris, ut fecun-
deris, ut irrigeris ab illo qui posuit desertum in stagna aquarum, et terram sine aqua
in exitus aquarum (Ps. cvi. 35-37).

b As our Saviour here, so the Jewish doctors divide the hearers of the words of
wisdom into four classes. The best they liken to a sponge which, drinking in all
that it receives, again expresses it for others; the worst to a strainer which, letting
all the good wine pass through, retains only the worthless dregs ; or to a sieve that,

THE SOWER. 11

passing the fine flour, keeps back only the bran. Prudentius (Co. Symm. ii. .
1022) has put this parable well into verse. These are a few lines :

Christus . . . dedit haec praecepta colonis :
Semina cum sulcis committitis, arva cavete
Dura lapillorum macie, ne decidat illuc
Quod seritur: primo quoniam prasfertile germen
Luxuriat : succo mox deficiente, sub nestu
Sideris igniferi sitiens torretur et aret
Neve in spinosos incurrant semina vepres :
Aspera nam segetem surgentem vincula texunt,
Ac fragiles calamos nodis rubus arctat acutis.
Et ne jacta viae spargantur in aggere grana :
Haee avibus quia nuda patent, vassimque vorantur,
Immundisque jacent foeda ad ludibria corvis . .
Talis nostrorum solertia centuplicatos
Agrorum redigit fructus.

a. THE TARES.
Matthew xiii. 24-30, and 36-43.

OF this parable, the parable, namely, ' of the tares of the field,'
we have, no less than of that which went before, an authentic
interpretation from his lips who uttered it. And this is well : for it
is one on the interpretation of which very much has turned before
now. References or allusions to it occur at every turn of the con-
troversy which the Church had to maintain with the Donatists ; and
its whole exposition will need to be carried out with an eye to ques-
tions which may seem out of date, but which, in one shape or another,
continually reappear, and demand to receive some solution from us.

< Another parable put He forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of

heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field : but
7vhile men slept, his enemy came and sowed" tares among the wheat,
and went his way.' 1 Our Lord did not imagine here a form of malice
without example, but adduced one which may have been familiar
enough to his hearers, one so easy of execution, involving so little
risk, and yet effecting so great and lasting a mischief, that it is not
strange, where cowardice and malice met, that this should have been
often the shape in which they displayed themselves. We meet traces
of it in many quarters. In Roman law the possibility of this form
of injury is contemplated ; and a modern writer, illustrating Scrip-
ture from the manners and habits of the East, with which he had
become familiar through a sojourn there, affirms the same to be now

a In the Vulgate superseminzvit, as in the Rhemish, 'oversowed,' according to the
better reading, eVeo-n-eipev, which Lachmann retains.

* z^ai-iov nowhere occurs but here, and in the Greek and Latin Fathers who have
drawn it from hence. The derivation, napa to o-Itos koX !J . that which grows
side by side with the wheat, is absurd; the word is no doubt oriental, Persian (see
Pott, Elym. Forschungen, vol. ii. p. 810) or Arabic. It is identical, as there can be
little doubt, with our own darnel, the alpa, or lolium temuldenlum (in German toll-
korn, in French ivroie), so named to distinguish it from the lolium proper, and to
indicate the vertigo which it causes, when mingled with and eaten in bread ; as in
the East will sometimes happen. See the Dictionary of the Bible, S. v. Tares.

THE TARES. 73

practised in India. 'See,' he says, 'that lurking villain watching
for the time when his neighbour shall plough his field : he carefully
marks the period when the work has been finished, and goes in the
night following, and cast in what the natives call pandinellu, i.e. pig-
paddy ; this being of rapid growth, springs up before the good seed,
and scatters itself before the other can be reaped, so that the poor
owner of the field will be for years before he can get rid of the
troublesome weed. But there is another noisome plant which these
wretches cast into the ground of those they hate, called per um-pir audi,
which is more destructive to vegetation than any other plant. Has
a man purchased a field out of the hands of another, the offended
person says, "I will plant the perum-pirandi in his grounds." ' a

There can be no question who is the Sower of the good seed here.
From the Lord's own lips we learn, ' He that sowed the good seed is
the Son of man.'' This title, by which our Lord most often designates
Himself, is only in a single instance given to Him by another (Acts
vii. 56), and then indicates no more than that the glorified Saviour
appeared in a bodily shape to the eyes of Stephen. To the Jews this
name, though drawn from the Old Testament, from the great apoca-
lyptic vision of Daniel (vii. 13), was so strange, that when they heard
it, they asked, ' Who is this Son of man ? ' (John xii. 34) ; not ' Son
of man/ but 'Son of David,' being the popular name for the ex-
pected Messiah (Matt. ix. 27 ; xii. 23 ; xv. 22 ; xx. 31, &c). He
claimed by this title a true participation in our human nature ; this,
and much more than this. He was ' Son of man, as alone realizing
all which in the idea of man was contained, as the second Adam,
the head and representative of the race, the one true and perfect
flower which had ever unfolded itself out of the root and stalk of
humanity. Claiming this title for His own, He witnessed against
opposite poles of error concerning his person the Ebionite, to which
the exclusive use of the title ' Son of David ' might have led, and
the Gnostic, which denied the reality of the human nature that He
bore.

But if Christ is the Sower in this, exactly in the same sense as in
the preceding, parable, the seed here receives an interpretation dif-
ferent from that which it there obtained. There ' the seed is the
svord of God' (Luke viii. n), or ' the word of the kingdom ; ' here

Roberts, Oriental Illustrationz, p. 441. A friend, who has occupied a judicial
station in India, confirms this account. We are not without this form of malice
nearer home. Thus in Ireland I have known an outgoing tenant, in spite at his
eviction, to sow wild oats in the fields which he was leaving. These, like the tares
of the parable, ripening and seeding themselves before the crops in which they were
mingled, it became next to impossible to extirpate

14 THE TARES.

1 the good seed are the children of the kingdom. And yet there is no
real disagreement; only a. progress from that parable to this. In
that, the word of God is the instrument by which men are born anew
and become children of the kingdom (Jam. i. 18 ; i Pet. i. 23) ; in
this that word has done its work ; has been received into hearts ; is
incorporated with living men ; is so vitally united with them who
through it have been made children of the kingdom, that the two
cannot any more be contemplated asunder (cf. Jer. xxxi. 27 ; Hos.
ii. 23 ; Zech. x. 9).

The next words, ' The field is tfie world J at once bring us into
the heart of that controversy referred to already. Over these few
words, simple as they may seem, a battle has been fought, greater,
perhaps, than over any single phrase in the Scripture, if we except
the consecrating words at the Holy Eucharist. Apart from mere
personal questions affecting the regularity of certain ordinations, the
grounds on which the Donatists justified their separation from the
Church Catholic were these : The idea of the Church, they said, is
that of a perfectly holy body ; holiness is not merely one of its es-
sential predicates but the essential, its exclusive note. They did not
deny that hypocrites might possibly lie concealed in its bosom ; but
where the evidently ungodly are suffering to remain in communion
with it, not separated off by the exercise of discipline, there it for-
feits the character of the true Church, and the faithful must come
out from it, if they would not, by contact with these unholy, them-
selves be defiled. Such was their position, in support of which they
urged Isai. lii. 1, and all such Scriptures as spoke of the Church's fu-
ture freedom from all evil. These were meant, they said, to apply
to it in its present condition ; and consequently, where they failed
to apply, there could not be the Church.

On this, as on so many other points, the Church owes to Augus-
tine, not the forming of her doctrine, for that she can owe to no
man, but the bringing out into her own clear consciousness that
which hitherto she had implicitly possessed, yet had not worked out
into a perfect clearness even for herself. He replied, not gainsaying
the truth which the Donatists proclaimed, that holiness is an essential
note of the Church ; but only refusing to accept their definition of
that holiness, and showing that in the Church which they had for-
saken this note was to be found, and combined with other as essential
ones catholicity, for instance, to which they could make no claim.
The Church Catholic, he replied, despite all appearances to the con-
trary, is a holy body, for they only are its members who are in true
and living fellowship with Christ, and therefore partakers of his sane-

THE 7 ARES. 75

tifying Spirit. All others, however they may have the outward
marks of belonging to it, are in it, but not of it : they press upon
Christ, as the thronging multitude ; they do not touch him, as did
that believing woman, on whom alone his virtue went forth (Luke
viii. 45). There are certain outward conditions without which one
cannot belong to his Church, but with which one does not of neces-
sity do so. And they who are thus in it, but not of it, whether
hypocrites lying hid, or open offenders who from their numbers may
not without worse inconveniences ensuing be expelled," do not defile
the true members, so long as these share not in their spirit, nor com-
municate with their evil deeds. They are like the unclean animals
in the same ark as the clean (Gen. vii. 2), goats in the same pastures
with the sheep (Matt. xxv. 32), chaff on the same barn floor as the
grain (Matt. iii. 12), tares growing in the same field with the wheat,
vessels to dishonour in the same great house with the vessels to hon-
our (2 Tim. ii. 20), endured for awhile, but in the end to be separated
from it, and for ever.

The Donatists wished to make the Church, in its visible form and
historic manifestation, identical and coextensive with the true Church
which the Lord knoweth and not man. Augustine also affirmed the
identity of the Church now existing with the final and glorious Church ;
but he denied that the two were coextensive. For now the Church
is clogged with certain accretions, which shall hereafter be shown riot
to belong, and never to have belonged, to it. He did not affirm,
as his opponents charged him, two Churches, but two conditions of
one Church ; the present, in which evil is endured in it ; the future,
in which it shall be free from all evil ; not two bodies of Christ ;
but one body, in which now are wicked men, but only as evil
humours in the natural body, which in the day of perfect health will
be expelled and rejected altogether, as never having more than
accidentally belonged to it; and he laid especial stress upon this
fact, that the Lord Himself had not contemplated His Church, in its

1 On the extent to which discipline should be enforced, and the questions of pru-
dence which should determine its enforcing, Augustine has the following remarks.
Having referred to these parables, and to the separation of the sheep and goats
(Matt. xxv. 31-46), he proceeds {Ad Don. post Coll. 5): Quibus parabolis et figuris
Ecclesia praenunciata est usque ad finem seculi bonos et malos simul habitura, ita ut
mali bonis obesse non possint, cum vel ignorantur, vel pro pace et tranquillitate Ec-
clesiae tolerantu si eos prodi aut accusari non oportuerit, aut aliis bonis non potuerint
demonstrari : ita sane ut neqne emendationis vigilantia quiscat, corripiendo, degra-
dando, excommunicando, ceterisque coercitionibus licitis atque concessis, quaesalva
unitatis pace in Ecclesia quotidie fiunt, caritate servata. . . . ne forte aut indis-
ciplinata patientia foveat iniquitatera, aut impatiens disciplina dissipet unitatem. On
all this matter see the admirable discussion by Field, Of the Church, i. 7-18.

Y6 THE TARES.

present state, as perfectly free from evil.* At this point of the con-
troversy the present parable and that of the Draw-net came in.
From these he concluded that, as tares are mingled with wheat, and
bad fish with good, so the wicked shall be with the righteous, and
shall remain so mingled to the end of the present age ; b and this not
merely as a historic fact ; but that all attempts to have it otherwise
are, in this parable at least, expressly forbidden (ver. 29). The
Donatists were acting as the servants would have done, if, notwith-
standing the master's distinct prohibition, they had gone and sought
forcibly to root out the tares.

The Donatists were put to hard shifts to escape these conclusions.
They did, however, make answer thus : ' By Christ's own showing,
"the field" is not the Church, but "the world" (ver. 38); the
parable, therefore, does not bear on the dispute betwixt us and you ;
far that is not whether ungodly men should be endured in the world
(which we all allow), but whether they should be suffered in the
Church.'"' It must, however, be evident to every one not warped by
a previous dogmatic interest/ that the parable is, as the Lord

a Augustine (Serm. cccli. 4): Multi enim corriguntur ut Petrus, multi tolerantur
ut Judas, multi nesciuntur donee adveniat Dominus, qui illuminet abscondita tene-
brarum, et manifestet consilia cordium. Again : Homo sum et inter homines vivo,
nee mihi arrogare audeo meliorem domum meam quam area Noah. He often
rebukes the Donatists for their low Pharisaical views concerning what the separation
from sinners meant. Thus (Serm. lxxxviii. 20): Displicuit tibi quod quisque pecca-
vit, non tetigisti immundum. Redarguisti, corripuisti, monuisti, adhibuisti etiam, si-
res exegit, congruam et quae unitatem non violat disciplinam, existi inde. Else-
where he asks, Did the prophet of old who said, 'Go ye out of the midst of her'
(tsai. lii. 11), himself separate from the Jewish church? Continendo se a consensu
non tetigit immundum : objurgando autem exiit liber in conspectu Dei : cui neque
sua Deus peccata imputat, qui non fecit, neque aliena, quia non approbavit, neque
negligentiam, quia non tacuit neque supebiam, quia in unitate permansit. See also
Ad Don. post Coll. 20. Once more : Cecidit Angelus ; numquid inquinavit caelum?
Cecidit Adam ; nmquid inquinavit Paradisum I Cecidit unus de filiis Noe ; num-
quid inquinavit justi domum? Cecidit Judas; numquid inquinavit apostolorum
choros ?

b Augustine : Alia est agri conditio, alia quies horrei.

c See how Augustine answers this argument, Ad Don. post Coll. 8. As the Dona-
tists professed to make much of Cyprian's authority, Augustine quotes often from
him (as Con. Gaudent. ii. 4,) words which show that he understood the parable as
one relating to the Church : Nam etsi videntur in Ecclesia. esse zizania, non tamen
impediri debet aut fides aut caritas nostra, ut quoniam zizania esse in Ecclesia cer-
nimus, ipsi de Ecclesia recedamus. Nobis tantummodo laborandum est, ut frumen-
tum esse possimus, ut cum cceperit frumentum Dominicis horreis condi, fructum pro
opere nostro et labore capiamus.

d Commentators who have interpreted the parable, irrespectively of that contro-
versy one way or the other, acknowledge this. Thus Calvin : Qnanquam autem
Christus postea subjicit mundum esse agrum, dubium tamen non est, quin propria

THE TARES. 77

announces, concerning the 'kingdom of heaven,' or the Church.
It required no special teaching to acquaint the disciples that in the
world there would ever be a mixture of good and bad ; while they
could have so little expected the same in the Church, that it behoved
to warn them beforehand, both that they might not be offended,
counting that the promises of God had failed, and also that th:y
might know how to behave themselves, when that mystery of iniquity,
now foretold, should begin manifestly to work. Nor need the term
' world' here used perplex us in the least. No narrower term would
have sufficed for Him, in whose prophetic eye the word of the Gos-
pel was contemplated as going forth into all lands, as seed scattered
in every part of the great outfield of the nation.

It was ' while men slept ' that the enemy sowed his tares among
the wheat. Many have found this statement significant, have under-
stood it to suggest negligence and lack of watchfulness on the part
of the Rulers in the Chnrch, whereby nngodly men creep into it
unawares, introducing errors in doctrine and in practice* (Acts. xx.
29, 30; Jude 4; 2 Pet. ii. 1, 2, 19). There is, alas! always more
or less of this negligence ; yet I cannot think that it was meant to be
noted here. If any should have watched, it is 'the servants ; ' but
they first appear at a later period in the story ; nor is any want of due
vigilance laid to their charge. The men, therefore, who slept are
not, as I take it, those who should or could have done otherwise, but
the phrase is equivalent to 'at night,' and must not be further urged
(Jobxxxiii. 15; Mark iv. 27). This enemy seized his opportunity,
when all eyes were closed in sleep, and wrought the secret mischief
upon which he was intent, and having wrought it undetected,
withdrew.

'The enemy that sowed them is the devils We behold Satan here,

hoc nomen ad Ecclesiam aptare voluerit, de qua exorsus fuerat sermonem. Sed
quoniam passim aratrum suum ducturus erat per omnes mundi plagas, ut sibi agros
excoleret in toto mundo, ac spargeret vitse semen, per synecdochen ad mundum
transtulit, quod parti tantum magis quadrabat.

So Augustine (Qucsst. ex Matt. qu. 9) : Cum negligentius agerent praepositi Ec-
clesise ; and Chrysostom. H. de Sto. Victore (Annott. in Matth.) : Mortem significat
apostolorum sive torporem praelatorum. But Grotius more rightly : 'AuSpoiTois- h'c
indefinitum est, non universale: quasi dicas, cum dormiretur : hoc autem nihil est
aliud quam descriptio opportunitatis ; and Cajetan's remark has value : Cum dor-
mirent homines, non dicit custodes, si enim dixisset custodes, intelligeremus negli-
gentiam custodum accusan ; sed dicit homines, ut inculpabiles intelligamus, naturali
somno occupatos. Jerome's dormiente patre-fatnilias {Adv. Lucif,) can only be
explained on this view.

b Zizaniator, as therefore he has been called; see Du Cange, s. v. zizanium : and
by Tertullian (De Animd, 16), Avenarum superseminator, et frumentariae segetis
nocturnus interpolator. When Ignatius exhorts the Ephesians (c. 10) that no one
be found among them toO Sia86\ov tiordtrq, there is probably an allusion to this parable.

78 THE TARES.

not as he works beyond the limits of the Church, deceiving the
world, but in his far deeper malignity, as he at once mimics and
counterworks the work of Christ : in the words of Chrysostom,
' after the prophets, the false prophets ; after the Apostles, the false
apostles; after Christ, Antichrist.'* Most worthy of notice is the
the plainness with which the doctrine concerning Satan and his
agency, his active hostility to the blessedness of man, of which there
is so little in the old Testament, comes out in the New; as in the
parable of the Sower, and again in this. As the lights become brighter
the shadows become deeper. Not till the mightier power of good had
been revealed, were men suffered to know how mighty was the power
of evil ; and even in these cases it is only to the innermost circle of
disciples that the explanation concerning Satan is given. h Nor is it
less observable that Satan is spoken of as His enemy, the enemy of
the Son of man ; for here, as so often, the great conflict is set forth
as rather between Satan and the Son of man, than between Satan
and God. It was essential to the scheme of redemption that the
victory over evil should be a moral triumph, not one obtained by a
mere putting forth of superior strength. For this end it was most
important that man, who lost the battle, should also win it (i Cor.
xv. 21); and therefore as by and through man the kingdom of dark-
ness was to be overthrown, so the enmity of the Serpent was
specially directed against the seed of the woman, the Son of man.
In the title 'the wicked one? which he bears, the article is emphatic,
and points him out as the absolutely evil, the very ground of
whose being is evil. For as God is light, and in Him is no darkness
at all (i John i. 5 ; Jam. i. 17), so Satan is darkness, and in him is
no light at all ; ' there is no truth in him ' (John viii. 44). Man is
in a middle position ; he detains the truth in unrighteousness (Rom.
i. 18) ; light and darkness in him are struggling ; but, whichever may
predominate, the other is there, kept down indeed, but still with the
possibility of manifesting itself. And thus a redemption is possible
for man, for his will is only perverted, but Satan's is inverted. He
has said what no man could ever fully say, or, at least, act on to the
full : ' Evil, be thou my good ; ' and therefore, so far as we can see,
a redemption and restoration are impossible for him.

* Cf. Tertullian, De Praser . Haret. Si.

b Bengel (on Ephes. vi. 12) has observed this : Quo apertius quisque Scripturae
liber de aeconomia et gloria Christi agit, eo apertius rursum de regno contrario
tenebrarum.

In Augustine's memorable words : Diabolus non potentii Dei, sed justitia super-
andus erat.

THE TARES. 79

The mischief done, the enemy ' went his ivay ; ' and thus the
work did not evidently and at once appear to be his. How often,
in the Church, the beginnings of evil have been scarcely discernible ;
how often has that which bore the worst fruit in the end appeared at
first like a higher form of good. St. Paul, indeed, could detect a
mystery of iniquity as yet in its obscure beginnings, could detect the
punctum saliens out of which it would unfold itself; but to many,
evil would not appear as evil till it had grown to more ungodliness.
'But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then
appeared the tares also; appeared, that is, for what they were,
showed themselves in their true nature. Many have noted the
remarkable similarity which exists between the wheat and this
lolium or tare as long as they are yet in the blade.* Being only dis-
tinguishable when the ear is formed, they fulfil literally the Lord's
words, ' by their fruits ye shall know them.' Augustine upon this
that, only when the blade began to ripen and bring forth fruit, the
tares showed themselves as such indeed, most truly remarks, that it
is the opposition of good -which first makes evil to appear ; ' None
appear evil in the Church, except to him who is good ; ' and again,
When any shall have begun to be a spiritual man, judging all things,
then error begins to appear unto him ; ' b and elsewhere, drawing
from the depths of his Christian experience : ' It is a great labour of
the good to bear the contrary manners of the wicked ; by which he
who is not offended has profited little ; for the righteous, in propor-
tion as he recedes from his own wickedness, is grieved at that of
others.' As there must be light with which to contrast the darkness,
height wherewith to measure depth, so there must be holiness to be
grieved at unholiness ; only the new man in us is grieved at the old
either in ourselves or in others.

' So the servants of the householder came, and sail unto him, ' Sir,
didst not thou sow good seed in thy field ? from whence then hath it

* The testimony of Jerome, himself resident in Palestine, may here be adduced :
Inter triticum et zizania, quod nos appellamus lolium, quamdiu herba est, et non-
dum culmus Venit ad spicam, grandis similitudo est, et in discernendo aut nulla aut
perdifncilis distantia. See also Thomson {The Land and the Book, p. 420): 'The
grain is just in the proper stage to illustrate the parable. In those parts where the
grain has headed out, the tares have done the same, and then a child cannot mistake
them for wheat or barley ; but where both are less developed, the closest scrutiny will
often fail to detect them. Even the farmers, who in this country generally weed their
fields, do not attempt to separate the one from the other.'

b Qucest. ex Matt. qu. 12 : an admirable exposition of the whole parable.

Tantum enim torquet justum iniquitasal ena, quantum recedita sua. CI. Enarr.
in Ps. cxix. 4, and in Ps. cxl.: Nondum sum totus instauratus ad imaginem fabrica-
toiis mei : ccepi resculpi, et ex ea parte qua reformer, displicet mihi quod deforme est.

80 THE TARES.

tares ? ' These servants are not, as Theophylact suggests, the angels
(they are ' the reapers ;' ver. 30, 41); but rather men, zealuus for
the Lord's honour, but not knowing what spirit they are of, any more
than James and John, who would fain have called fire from heaven
on the inhospitable Samaritan village (Luke ix. 54). The question
which they ask, ' Didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? ' expresses
well the perplexity, the surprise, the inward questioning which must
often be felt, which in the first ages, before long custom had too
much reconciled to the mournful fact, must have been felt very
strongly by all who were zealous for God, at the woful and unlooked-
for spectacle which the visible Church presented. Where was the
' glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing ? '
Well, indeed, might the faithful have questioned their own spirits,
have poured out their hearts in prayer, of which the burden should
have been exactly this, ' Didst not thou sow good seed in thy field?
from whence then hath it tares ? didst not Thou constitute thy
Church to be a pure and holy communion ? is not the doctrine such
as should only produce fruits of righteousness ? whence then is it
that even within the holy precincts themselves there should be so
many who themselves openly sin and cause others to sin ? ' a In the
householder's reply, ' An enemy hath done this,' the mischief is traced
up to its source ; and that not the imperfection, ignorance, weakness,
which cling to everything human, and which would prevent even a
Divine idea from being more than very inadequately realized by men ;
but the distinct counterworking of the great spiritual enemy ; ' the
tares are the children of the Wicked One ; the enemy that sowed them
is the devil.''

In the question which follows, ' Wilt thou then that we go and gath-
er them up ? ' the temptation to use violent means for the suppression
of error, a temptation which the Church itself has sometimes failed
to resist, finds its voice and utterance. b But they who thus speak are

a Menken : 'This question, " Whence then hath it tares?" is the result of our first
study of Church history, and remains afterwards the motto of Church history, and
the riddle which should be solved by help of a faithful history ; instead of which,
many so-called Church historians, ignorant of the purpose and of the hidden glory
of the Church, have tneir pleasure in the tares, and imagine themselves wonderfully
wise and useful, when out of Church history, which ought to be the history of the
Light and the Truth, they have made a shameful history of error and wickedness.
They have no desire to edify, to further holiness or the knowledge of the truth ; but
at the expense of the Church would gratify a proud and ignorant world.'

b Augustine (Quesst. ex Matt. qu. 12); Potest ei suboriri voluntas, ut tales homines
de rebus humanis auferet, si aliquam temporis habeat facultatem : sed utrum facere
debeat, justitiam Dei consulit, utrum hoc ei praecipiat vel permittat, et hoc officiurn
esse hominum velit.

THE TARES. hi

unfit to be trusted in this matter. They have often no better than a
Jehu's 'zeal for the Lord' (2 Kin. x. 16); it is but an Elias-zeal at
the best (Luke iv. 54). And therefore ' he said, Nay.' By this pro-
hibition are forbidden all such measures for the excision of heretics,
as shall leave them no room for after repentance or amendment ; in-
deed the prohibition is so clear, so express, that whenever we meet
in Church history with ought which looks like a carrying out of this
proposal, we may be tolerably sure that it is not wheat making war
on tares, but tares seeking to root out wheat. The reason of the
prohibition is given : * Lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up
also the wheat with them: This might be, either by rooting up what
were now tares, but hereafter should become wheat ' children of the
Wicked One,' who, by faith and repentance, should become ' children
of the kingdom; ' a or through the servants' error, who, with the best
intentions, should fail to distinguish between these and those, and
involve good and bad in a common doom ; or perhaps leaving tares,
might pluck up wheat. It is only the Lord Himself, the Searcher
of hearts, who with absolute certainty ' knoweth them that are his.'
The later Roman Catholic expositors, and as many as in the Middle
Ages wrote in the interests of Rome, in these words, ' lest ye root up
also the wheat with them' find a loophole whereby they may escape
the prohibition itself. Thus Aquinas will have it to be only then
binding, when this danger exists of plucking up the wheat together
with the tares. b To which Maldonatus adds, that in each particular
case the householder is to judge whether there be such danger or not ;
the Pope being now the representative of the householder, to him the
question should be put, ' Wilt thou that we go and gather up the tares ? '
and he concludes his exposition with an exhortation to all Catholic
princes, that they imitate the zeal of these servants, and rather, like
them, need to have their eagerness restrained, than require, as did so
many, to be stimulated to the task of rooting out heresies and heretics.
At the same time this ' Nay ' does not imply that the tares shall
never be plucked up, but only that this is not the time, nor they the
doers ; for the householder adds, ' Let both grow together until the
harvest: Pregnant words, which tell us that evil is not, as so many
dream, gradually to wane and disappear before good, the world to
find itself in the Church, but each to unfold itself more fully, out of
its own root, after its own kind : till at last they stand face to face,

Jerome: Monemur, ne cito amputemus fratrem : quia fieri potest, ut ille, qui
hodie noxio depravatus est dogmate, eras resipiscat, et defendere incipiat, veritatem.

b Summa. Theol. <za, 2<e, qu. 10: Cum metus itse non subest , . . . nondormiat
severit?s disciplince.

82 THE TARES.

each in its highest manifestation, in the persons of Christ and of
Antichrist ; on the one hand, an incarnate God, on the other, the
man in whom the fulness of all Satanic power will dwell bodily. Both
are to grow ' until the harvest? till they are ripe, one for destruction,
and the other for full salvation.

And they are to grow ' together ; ' the visible Church is to have
its intermixture of good and bad until the end of time ; and, by
consequence, the fact of bad being found mingled with good will in
nowise justify a separation from it, or an attempt to set up a little
Church of our own." Where men will attempt this, besides the
guilt of transgressing a plain command, i* is not difficult to see what
darkness it must bring upon them, into what a snare of pride it must
cast them. For while, even in the best of men, there is the same in-
termixture of good and evil as in the visible Church, such a course
will infallibly lead a man to the wilful shutting of his eyes alike
to the evil in himself, and in that little schismatical body which he
will then call the Church, since only so the attempt will even seem to
be attended with success. Thus Augustine often appeals to the fact
that the Donatists had not succeeded they would not themselves
dare to assert that they had succeeded in forming what should even
externally appear a pure communion : and since by their own ac-
knowledgement there might be, and probably were, hypocrites and
undetected ungodly livers among them, this of itself rendered all
such passages as Isai. lii. i, as inapplicable to them as to the Catholic
Church in its present condition : while yet, on the strength of this
freedom from evil gratuitously assumed by them, they displayed a
spirit of intolerable pride and presumptuous uncharitableness towards
the Church from which they had separated. And the same sins
cleave more or less to all schismatic bodies, which, under plea of a
purer communion, have divided from the Church Catholic : b the
smallest of these, from its very smallness persuading itself that it is
the most select and purest, being generally the guiltiest here. None
will deny that the temptation to this lies very close to us all. Every
young Christian, in the time of his first zeal, is tempted to be some-

it Calvin's words are excellent : Est enim haec periculosa tentatio, nullam Ecclesiam
putare, ubi non appareat perfecta puritas. Nam quicunque ha.c occupatus fuerit,
necesse tandem erit, ut, discessione ab omnibus aliis facta, solus sibi sanctus videatur
in mundo, aut peculiarem sectam cum paucis hypocritis instituat. Quid ergo causae
habiut Paulus cur Ecclesiam Dei Corinthi agnosceret? nempe quia Evangelii doctri-
nam, baptismum, ccenam Domini, quibus symbolis censeri debet Ecclesia, apudeos
cernebat.

b See Augustine (Co/t. Carih. iii. 9) for an extraordinary instance of this pride on
the part of the Donatist adversaries of the Church.

THE TARES. 83

what of a Donatist in spirit. It would argue little love or holy earn-
estness in him, if he had not this longing to see the Church of his
Saviour a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle. But he must
learn that the desire, righteous and holy as in itself it is, yet is not to
find its fulfilment in this present evil time ; that, on the contrary, the
suffering from false brethren is one of the pressures upon him, which
shall wring out from him a more earnest prayer that the kingdom of
God may appear.* He must learn that all self-willed and impatient
attempts, such as have been repeated again and again, to anticipate
that perfect communion of saints, are works of the flesh ; that how-
ever fairly they may promise, no blessing will rest upon them, nor
will they for long even appear to be crowned with success. b

Some in modern times, fearing lest arguments should be drawn
from this parable to the prejudice of attempts to revive stricter dis-
cipline in the Church, have sought to escape the dangers which they
feared, by urging that in our Lord's explanation no notice is taken
of the proposal made by the servants (ver. 28), nor yet of the house
holder's reply to that proposal (ver. 29). They conclude from this
that the parable is not to teach us what the conduct of the servants
of a heavenly Lord ought to be, but merely prophetic of what gener-
ally it wilt be, that this proposal of the servants is merely brought

1 Fuller {Holy State, v. 2) enumerates six reasons why the kingdom of grace
wicked men should be inseparably mingled with godly : 'First, because hypocrites
can never be severed but by Him that can search the heart ; secondly, because if
men should make the separation, weak Christians would be counted no Christians,
and those who have a graia of grace under a load of imperfections would be counted
reprobates; thirdly, because God's vessels of honour for all eternity, not as yet ap-
pearing, but wallowing in sin, would be made castaways; fourthly, because God
by the mixture of the wicked with the godly will try the watchfulness and patience
of his servants ; fifthly, because thereby He will bestow many favours on the wicked,
to clear his justice and render them more inexcusable ; lastly, because the mixture
of the wicked grieving the godly will make them the more heartily pray for the day
of judgment.'

b Augustine (Enarr. in Ps. xcix. 1) Quo se separaturus est Christianus ut non
gemat inter falsos fratres ? Solitudines petat ? sequuntur scandala. Separaturus est
se qui beneproficit, ut nullum omnino hominem patriatur? quid si et ipsum antequam
proficeret nemo vellet pati? Si ergo quia proficit, nullum hominem vult pati, eo
ipso quo non vult aliquem hominem pati, convicitur, quod non profecerit. An quia
veloces pedes tibi videris habuisse ad transeundum, praecisurus es pontem ? The
whole passage excellency sets forth the vanity of the attempt to found a Church on a
subjective instead of an objective basis, on the personal holiness of the members,
instead of recognizing one thee to be founded for us, where the pure Word of God
is preached, and the Sacraments administered, by those duly commissioned thereto.
How admirable are his words elsewhere {Con. Cresc. iii. 35): Fugio paleam, ne hoc
sim ; non aream, ne nihil sim : cf. Se>m, clxiv. 7, 8.

Steiger, in the Evang. Kirch. Zeit, 1833, and an able writer in the British Critic,
No. Iii. p. 385.

84 THE TARES.

in to afford an opportunity for the master's reply, and that of this
reply the latter is the only significant portion. But, assuredly, when
Christ asserts that it is His purpose to make a complete and sol-
emn separation at the end, He implicitly forbids, not the exercise
in the meantime of a godly discipline, not, where that has become
necessary, absolute exclusion from Church-fellowship, but any
attempts to anticipate the final irrevocable separation, of which He
has reserved the execution to Himself.* 'In the time of harvest I
will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind
them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.'
Not now, but 'in the time of harvest,'* shall this separation find
place; and even then, not they, but ' the reapers, 1 shall carry it
through. This 'time of harvest,' as the Lord presently explains,
is 'the end of the world, "* and ' the reapers are the angels ; ' who
are here, as everywhere else, set forth as accompanying their Lord
and ours at His coming again to judgment (Matt, xvi. 27 ; xxiv. 31 ;
2 Thess. i. 7; Rev. xix. 14), and fulfilling his will both in respect

Tertullian (Apol. 41): Quisemel aeternum judicium destinavit post seculi finem
non prsecipitat discretionem quae est conditio judicii, ante seculi finem.

b Bishop Horsley (Bibl. Crit. vol. iii. p. 344) distinguishes between the vintage and
the harvest, the two images under which the consummation of the present age is
commonly represented. 'The vintage is always an image of the season of judgment,
but the harvest of the ingathering of the objects of God's final mercy. I am not
aware that a single unexceptionable instance is to be found, in which the harvest is a
type of judgment. In Rev. xiv. 15, 16, the sickle is thrust into the ripe harvest, and
the earth is reaped, i.e. the elect are gathered from the four winds of heaven. The
wheat of God is gathered into his barn (Matt. xiii. 30). After this reaping of the
earth the sickle is applied to the clusters of the vine, and they are cast into the great
winepress of the wrath of God, (Rev. xiv. 18-20). This is judgment. In Joel iii.
13 the ripe harvest is the harvest of the vine, i.e. the grapes fit for gathering, as ap-
pears by the context. In Jer. li. 33 the act of threshing the corn upon the floor, not
the harvest, is the image of judgment. It is true the burning of the tares in our
Saviour's parables (Matt, xiii.) is a work of judgment, and of the time of harvest,
previous to the binding of the sheaves ; but it is an accidental adjunct of the business,
not the harvest itself.'

c Augustine : Audes usurpare officium alienum, quod nee in messe erit tuum ?
And Cyprian (see 2 Tim. ii. 20, 21): Nos operam demus et, quantum possumus,
laboremus, ut vas aureum et argenteum simus. Ceterum fictilia vasa confringere
Domino soli concessum est, cui et virga ferrea data est. Jerome (Adv. Lucif.):
Nemo potest Christ) palmam sibi assuroere, nemo ante diem judicii de hominibus
judicere. Si jam mundata est Ecclesia, quid Domino reservamus?

d The (TvineXca. toO aiS>vos, or tS>v aiuvwv (Heb. ix. 26) , the juncture of the two aeras,

see Job (XXV. 20, /ie'xP 1 - <rvvTeXeia<; (Jxdtos Kal ckotovs) , the present Called aluiv tVe<7Tu>s

(Gal. i. 4), al<av outos (Luke xx. 24), or 6 vvv <umv (Tit. ii. 12) , koo>os outos, with

the future, termed aiiav Zpx6/J.evos (Mark X. 30), aiioves eTrepxdjaevot Ephes. ii. 7), allay

o /ueAAwv (Heb. vi. s, = oUovnevr) r/ ^eMovcra. (Heb. ii. 5). The phrase is equivalent
to the Tf'Aij Til/ aldvuv (i Cor. x. n), the extremities of the two aeras, the end of the
one and the commencement of the other.

THE TARES. 85

of those who have served (Matt. xxiv. 31), and those who have
served Him not (Matt xiii 47, xxii. 13)

'As therefore the tares are gathered* and burned in the fire, so shall
it be in the end of this world ; the Son of man shall send forth His
angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that
offend* and them -which do iniquity;' in the words of Zephaniah,
4 the stumbling-blocks with the wicked ' (i. 3). The setting forth of
the terrible doom of ungodly men under the image of the burning
with fire of thorns, briers, weeds, offal, chaff, barren branches, dead
trees, is frequent in Scripture ; thus see 2 Sam. xxiii. 6, 7 ; Matt,
iii. 10, 12; vii. 19; John xv. 6; Heb. vi. 8; x. 26, 27; Isai v.
24; ix. 18, 19; x. 16, 17; xxxiii. n, 12 ; lxvi. 24; 2 Esd. xvi. 77,
78. But dare we speak of it as an image merely? The fire reap-
pears in the interpretation of the parable ; the angels ' shall east
them' those, namely, 'which da iniquity' ' into a furnace of fire.'
Fearful words indeed ! and the image, if it be an image, at all events
borrowed from the most dreadful and painful form of death in use
among men. Something we read of it in Scripture. Judah would
have fain made his daughter-in-law (Gen. xxxviii. 24), and David,
alas ! did make the children of Araraon (2 Sam. xii. 31) taste the
dreadfulness of it. c It was in use among the Chaldeans (Jer. xxix.
22 ; Dan. iii. 6) ; and in the Jewish tradition, which is probably of
great antiquity, Nimrod cast Abraham into a furnace of fire for
refusing to worship his false gods. d It was one of the forms of cruel
death with which Antiochus sought to overcome the heroic constancy
of the Jewish confessors in the time of the Maccabees (2 Mace. vii. ;
Dan. xi. ^Z > I Cor. xiii. 3). In modern times Chardin makes
mention of penal furnaces in Persia. 6 Whatever the 'furnace of
Jire ' may mean here, or ' the lake of fire ' (Rev. xix. 20 ; xxi.
8), ' the fire that is not quenched ' (Mark ix 44), ' the ever-
lasting fire ' (Matt. xxv. 41 ; cf. Luke xvi. 24 ; Mai. iv. 1), else-
where, this at all events is certain ; that they point to some doom so

Augustine : Hoc est, rapaces cum rapacibus, adulteros cum adulteris homicidas
cum homicidis, fures cum furibus, derisores cum derisoribus, similes cum similibus.
It is exactly so in the Inferno of Dante.

b IkAvSoXov (in its classical form <TKav8d\r t 6pov') is that part of a trap or snare on
which the bait is placed, and which, being touched, gives way, and causes the noose
to draw suddenly tight ; then generally a snare. In the New Testament it is trans-
ferred to spiritual things ; and includes whatever, entangling as it were men's feet,
might cause them to fall ; it is therefore = TzpouKo^tia, and allied closely in meaning
to 7rayis and flijpa, with we find it joined, Rom. xi. 9.

For the use of this punishment by Herod the Great, see Josephus, B.y". i. 33. 4.

d Eisenmenger, Entdeckt. Judenth. vol. ii. p. 378.

Voy. en Perse, ed. LangleS, vol. vi. p. 118.

86 THE TARES.

intolerable that the Son of God came down from heaven and tasted
all the bitterness of death, that He might deliver us from ever know-
ing the secrets of anguish which, unless God be mocking men with
empty threats, are shut up in these terrible words, 'There shall be
wailing and gnashing of teeth'' (Matt. xxii. 13). All which has just
gone before makes very unlikely their explanation of the ' gnashing
of teeth' who take it as a chattering from excessive cold ; a who, in
fact, imagine here a kind of Dantean hell, with alternations of heat
and cold, alike unendurable. We take these rather as the utterances
generally of rage and impatience (Acts vii. 54), under the sense of
intolerable pain and unutterable loss.

'Then,' after it has been thus done with the wicked, l shall the
righteous shine forth h as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. ' As
fire was the element of the dark and cruel kingdom of hell, so is
light of the pure heavenly kingdom. ' Then' when the dark hindering
element has been removed, shall this element of light, which was before
struggling with and obstructed by it, come forth in its full brightness
(see Col. iii. 3; Rom. viii. 18; Prov. xxv. 4, 5). A glory shall be
revealed in the saints ; not merely brought to them, and added from
without ; but rather a glory which they before had, but which did not

See Suicer, s. v. ppvy/j.6$, which some make= Tpr/u.6s o&6vtujv, but it is simpler to
say with Bernard: Fletus ex dolore, stridor dentium ex furore; for in Cyprian's
words (Ad Detnet.) : Erit tunc sine fructu pcenitentiaa dolor, pcenae inanis ploratio,
et inerncax deprecatio. See Ambrose, Exp. in Luc. vii. 205, 206; and Gerhard, Loc.
Theoll. xxxi. 6, 46.

b 'EKAa/x^ouo-Li'=^/"fulgebunt > not as in the Vulgate, fulgebunt. Schleusner indeed:
Parum differt a simplici Aa/x7ro>, but Passow : Hervorstrahlen, sich plotzlich in aller
Herrlichkeit hervorthun. Two beautiful similitudes in the Shepherd of Hermas
(iii. sim. 3 and 4) set forth the same truth under a different image. The Seer is
shown in the first a number of trees in the winter-time ; all leafless alike ; all seeming
alike dead ; and he is told that as the dry and the green trees are not distinguishable
in the winter, all being bare alike, so neither in the present age are the just from the
sinners. In the second, he is again shown the trees, but now some are putting forth
leaves, while others still remain bare. Thus shall it be in the future age, which for
the just shall be a summer, their life, which was hidden for a while, manifesting it-
self openly ; but for sinners it shall still be winter, and they, remaining without leaf
or fruit, shall as dry wood be cut down for the burning. In some beautiful passages
of Augustine {Enarr. in Ps. xxxvi. 2; in Ps. cxlviii. 13) the same image occurs.
Of the Christian as he is now, he says (/ 1 Joh. Tract. 5) : Gloria ejus occulta est ;
cum venerit Dominus, tunc apparebit gloria. Viget enim, sed adhuc in hieme ;
viget radix, sed quasi aridi sunt rami. Intus est medulla quae vigit, intus sunt folia
arborum, intus fructus : sed sestatem expectant. Cf. Minucius Felix (p. 329, ed.
Ouzel.) : Ita corpus in seculo, ut arbores in hiberno occultant virorem ariditate
mentita. Quid festinas ut cruda adhuc hieme reviviscat et redeat? Expectandum
nobis etiam corporis ver est.

It is exactly thus that in the Mohammedan theology the good angels are compact
of light, and the evil ones of fire.

THE TARES. 87

before evidently appear, shall burst forth and show itself openly, as
once in the days of His flesh, at the moment of His Transfiguration,
did the hidden glory of our Lord (Matt. xvii. 2). That shall be the
day of ' the manifestation of the sons of God ; ' they ' shall shine
forth as the sun? when the clouds are rolled away (Dan. xii. 3);
they shall evidently appear, and be acknowledged by all, as ' the
children of light; of that God who is ' the Father of Lights " (Jam.
i. 17); who is Light, and in whom is no darkness at all (1 Johni. 5).
And then, but not till then, shall be accomplished those glorious
prophecies so often repeated in the Old Testament ; ' Henceforth
there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the un-
clean ' (Isai. lii. 1); ' In that day there shall be no more the Canaanite
in the house of the Lord of hosts ' (Zech. xiv. 21); 'Thy people
also shall be all righteous ' (Isai. lx. 21; cf. Isai. xxxv. 8 ; Joel Hi.
17; Ezek. xxxvii. 21-27; Zeph. iii. 13).

* Calvin : Insignisconsolatio, quod filii Dei qui nunc vel squalore obsiti jacent, vel
latent nullo in pretio, vel etiam probris cooperti sunt, tunc quasi sereno caslo, et dis-
cussis omnibus nebulis, vere et ad liquidum semel conspicni fulgebunt : suos in sublime
attollet Filius Dei, et omnem fuliginem absterget, qua nunc eorum fulgore obruitur.
It is the saying of a Jewish expositor of Ps. lxxii.: Quemadmodum sol et luna
illuminant hoc seculum, ita futurum est ut justi illuminent seculum futurum.

3. THE MUSTARD-SEED.
Matt. xiii. 31, 32; Mark iv. 30-32 ; Luke xiii. 18, 19.

THE four parables which follow group themselves into two pairs.
Those of the Mustard-seed and the Leaven constitute the first
pair, and might seem, at first sight, merely repetitions of the same
truth ; but in this, as in every other case, upon nearer inspection es-
sential differences reveal themselves. They have indeed this much
in common, that they both describe the small and slight beginnings,
the gradual progress, and the final marvellous increase of the Church

or how, to use another image, the stone cut out without hands

should become a great mountain, and fill the whole earth (Dan. ii.
34 35 5 f- Ezek. xlvii. 1-5). But each also has much which is its
own. That other has to do with the kingdom of God which < cometh
not with observation; ' this with that same kingdom as it displays it-
self openly, and cannot be hid. That declares the intensive, this the
extensive, development of the Gospel. That sets forth the power and
action of the truth on the world brought in contact with it ; this the
power of the truth to develop itself from within ; as the tree which,
shut within the seed, will unfold itself according to the law of its

own being.

Chrysostom a traces finely the connexion between this parable and
those which have just gone before. From that of the Sower the
disciples may have gathered that of the seed which they should sow
three parts would perish, and only a fourth part prosper ; while that
of the Tares had opened to them the prospect of further hindrances
which would beset even that portion which had taken root down-
ward, and sprung upward ; now, then, lest they should be tempted
quite to lose heart and to despair, these two parables are spoken for

eSo also Lyser, with more immediate reference to the question with which the
parable is introduced in St. Mark (iv. 30): Cum ea sit Evangelii sors, ut tarn multa
ejus fructum impediand, et eidem Satanas tot tnodis insidetur, ut vix fructus aliquis
sperari possit, quid de illo dicemus? poteritne in rerum natura aliquid inveniri, quod
ejus exilitatem excusare, illudque contemptu vindicare queat?

THE MUSTARD-SEED. 89

their encouragement. 'My kingdom,' the Lord would say, 'shall
survive these losses, and surmount these hindrances, until, small as its
first beginnings may appear, it shall, like a mighty tree, fill the earth
with its branches, like potent leaven, diffuse -its influence through
all the world.' The growth of a mighty kingdom is not here for the
first time likened to that of a tree. Many of our Lord's hearers
must have been familiar with such a comparison from the Scriptures
of the Old Testament. The upcoming of a worldly kingdom had
been set forth under this image (Dan. iv. 10-12; Ezek. xxxi 3-9*),
that also of the kingdom of God (Ezek. xvii. 22-243 Ps. lxxx. 8 b ).
But why, it may be asked, among all trees is a fnusiard-treo chosen
here? Many nobler plants, as the vine, or taller trees, as the cedar
(1 Kin. iv. 2>2> ) Ezek. iii. 3), might have been named. Doubtless
this is chosen, not with reference to greatness which it obtains in the
end, for in this many surpass it, but to the proportion between the
smallness of the seed and the greatness of the tree which unfolds
itself therefrom. For this is the point to which the Lord calls
especial attention, not the greatness of the mustard-tree in itself,
but its greatness as compared with the seed from whence it springs ;
for what He would fain teach His disciples was not that His kingdom
should be glorious, but that it should be glorious despite its weak and
slight and despised beginnings. And the comparison had in other
ways its fitness, too. The mustard-seed, minute and trivial as it
might seem, was not without its significance and acknowledged worth
in antiquity. It ranked among the nobler Pythagorean symbols ;
was esteemed to possess medicinal virtues against the bites of
venomous creatures and against poison, and used as a remedy in
many diseases. d Nor can I, with a modern interpreter, account very

* See Havernick, Comm. ub. Daniel, p. 139.

b In a striking poem, found in the Appendix to Fell's Cyprian, and in my Sacred
Latin Pcetry, p. 198, the growth of the kingdom of God, under the figure of that of
a tree, is beautifully iet forth.

u Some modern enquirers recognize in the mustard-tree of this parable, not that
which goes by this name in Western Europe, but the Salvadora Persica, commonly
called in Syria now khardal. So Dr. Lindly, in his Flora Indica; and see in the
Athenceum of March 23, 1844, an interesting paper by Dr. Royle, read before the
Asiatic Society. Captains Irby and Mangles, describing this khardal, say : It has a
pleasant, though a strong aromatic taste, exactly resembling mustard, and if taken
in any quantity, produces a similar irritability of the nose and eyes.' There is, on
the other hand, a learned discussion in the Gentleman s Magazine, June 1844, calling
in question Dr. Royle's conclusions; from which also the author of a careful article
in the Diet, of the Btble dissents.

d Pliny, H. N. xx. 87. Sinapis scelerata Plautus calls it, for its pungent qualities;
and Columella,

heque lacessenti flectum factura sinapis.

90 THE MUSTARD-SEED.

ridiculous the suggestion that the Saviour chose this seed on account
of further qualities possessed by it, which gave it a peculiar aptness
to illustrate the truth which He had in hand. Its heat, its fiery vigour,
the fact that only through b< ing bruised it gives out its best virtues,
and all this under so insignificant an appearance and in so small a
compass, may well have moved Him to select this seed by which to
set forth the destinies of that word of the kingdom, that doctrine of
a crucified Redeemer which to the Greeks foolishness, and the Jews a
stumbling-block, shonld prove to them that believed ' the power of
God unto salvation.' 3

But not Christ's doctrine merely, nor yet even the Church which
He planted upon earth, is this grain of mustard-seed in its central
meaning. He is Himself at once the mustard-seed" and the Man
that sowed it. He is the mustard-seed, for the Church was originally
enclosed in Him, and unfolded itself from him, having as much one-
ness of life with Him as the tree with the seed in which its rudiments
were all enclosed, and out of which it grew ; and the Sower, in that
by a free act of his own, He gave Himself to that death whereby
He became the Author of life unto many ; c as Himself has said,

This, too, may make part of its fitness here ; for as little is the Gospel all sweets, being
compared by Clement of Alexandria to the mustard-seed, imSaKowtrav el<eAi>a>s tt\v
ifrvxv"- And in the Homily of an uncertain author: Sicut sinapis granum cum
sumimus, vultu cortristamur, fronte contrahimur, ad lacrimaspermovemur, et ipsam
salubritatem corporis nostri cum quodam fletu austeritatis accipimus, . . . lta
ergo et cum fidei Chrlstianae mandata percimus, contristamur animo, affligimur cor-
pore, ad lacrimas permovemur, et ipsam salutem nostram cum quodam fletu ac
maerore consiquimur. This its active energy makes it as apt an emblem of the good
as the ill : and thus when Darius, according to Eastern tradition, sent Alexander the
Great a barrel of sesame, to acquaint him with the number of his soldiers, Alexander
sent a bag of mustard-seed in return, to indicate the active, fiery, biting courage of
his (D'Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient, s. v. Escander).

* Thus the author of a sermon on the martyrdom of St. Lawrence, ascribed to
Augustine (Serm. 85, Appendix) and to Ambrose : Sicut enim granum sinadis prima
fronte speciei suas est parvum, vile despectum, non saporem praestans, non odorem
circumferens, non indicans suavitatem: at ubi teri coeperit, statim odorem suum
fundit, acrimoniam exhibet, cibum flammei saporis exhalat, et tanto fervoris ealore
succenditur, ut minim sit in tam frivolis [granis] tantum ignem fuisse conclusum ;
. . . ita ergo et fides Christiana prima fronte videtur esse parva, vilis, et tenuis,
non potentiam suam ostendens, non superbiam praeferens, non gratiam subministrans.
Ambrose has much instructive, with something merely fanciful, on this parable
(Exp. in Luc. vii. 176-186).

* See a fragment of Irenaeus (p. 347, Bened. ed.) , who also notes how the mustard-
seed was selected for its fiery and austere qualities (to Trvppa/ce? icai auo-njpdv). So
Tertullian, Adv. Marc. iv. 30.

Early Christian art had a true insight into this. Didron (Iconographie Chretienne.
p. 208) describes this as a frequent symbol : Le Christ dans un tombeau : de sa
bouche sort un arbre, sur les branches duquel sont les apotres.

THE MUSTARD-SEED. 91

' Expect acorn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone ;
but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit ' (John xii. 24). And the
field in which he sowed this seed was the world; ' his field' or, as
St. Luke expresses it (xiii. 19), ' his garden;' for the world was
made by Him, and coming to it, 'He came unto His own.'

This seed, when cast into the ground, is ' the least of all seeds,'
words which have often perplexed interpreters, many seeds, as of
poppy or rue, being smaller. Yet difficulties of this kind are not
worth making ; it is sufficient to know that ' small as a grain of
mustard-seed' was a proverbial expression among the Jews 8 for some-
thing exceedingly minute (see Luke xvii. 6). The Lord, in His
popular teaching, adhered to the popular language. And as the
mustard -seed, so was His kingdom. What, to the eye of flesh, could
be less magnificent, what could have less of promise, than the com-
mencements of that kingdom in His own person? Growing up in
a distant and despised province, till his thirtieth year He did not
emerge from the bosom of his family; then taught for two or three
years in the neighboring towns and villages, and occasionally at Jeru-
salem ; made a few converts, chiefly among the poor and unlearned ;
and at length, falling into the hand of his enemies, with no attempt
at resistance on his own part or that of his followers, died a male-
factor's death upon the cross. Such, and so slight, was the com-
mencement of the universal kingdom of God ; for herein that kingdom
differs from the great scheme of this world ; these last have a proud
beginning, a shameful and miserable end towers as of Babel, which
at first threaten to be as high as heaven, but end a deserted misshapen
heap of slime and bricks ; while the works of God, and most of all
His chief work, His Church, have a slight and unobserved
beginning with gradual increasing and a glorious consummation.
So it is with His kingdom in the world, a kingdom which came not
with observation ; so it is with His kingdom in any single heart :
there too the word of Christ falls like a slight mustard-seed, seeming
to promise little, but effecting, if allowed to grow, mighty and mar-
vellous results." For that seed which was the smallest of all seeds.

* So also in the Coran {Sur. 31) : 'Oh my son, verily every matter, whether good
or bad, though it be of the weight of a grain of mustard-seed, and be hidden in a
rock, or in the heavens, or in earth, God will bring the same to light.

Jerome {Comm.in Matt.'va loc.) brings out this difference well: Praedicatio
Evangelii minima sst omnibus disciplinis. Ad primam quippe doctrinam, fidem non
habet veritatis, hominem Deum, Deum mortuum, et scandalum cruris praedicans.
Confer hujscemodi doctrinam dogmatibus philosophorum, et libns eorum, splendori
eloquentios, et compositioni sermonum, et videbis quanto minor sit ceteris seminibus
sementis Evangelii. Sed ilia cum creverit, nihil mordax, nihil vividum, nihil vitale

92 THE MUSTARD-SEED.

1 when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree,
so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.''
There is no exaggeration here. In hot countries, as in Judaea, the
mustard-tree attains a size of which we do not so much as dream in
our colder latitudes, sometimes such as will allow a man to climb up
into its branches (this, however, was counted worth recording),* or to
ride on horseback under them, as a traveller in Chili mentions that
he has done. Maldonatus assures us that in Spain he has seen large
ovens heated with its branches ; often, too, he has noted when the
seed was ripening, immense flocks of birds congregating upon the
boughs, which yet were strong enough to sustain the weight without
being broken. All this was probably familiar to our Lord's hearers
as well, and presented a lively image to their minds. They, too, had
beheld the birds of the air coming and lodging in the branches of
the mustard-tree, and finding at once their food and their shelter
there.

There is prophecy too in these words. As in that grand announce-
ment of the kingdom of God (Ezek. xvii. 22-24) which has so many
points of contact and resemblance with this parable, b it is said of the
tender twig which the Lord shall plant, ' it shall bring forth boughs,
and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar, and under it shall dwell all
fowls of every wing ; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall
they dwell ; ' and as these last words announce there the refuge and
defence which men shall find in the Church of God (cf. Ezek. xxxi.
6, 12), so must they have the same meaning here. Christ's kingdom
shall attract multitudes by the shelter and protection which it offers ;
shelter, as it has often proved, from worldly oppression, shelter from
the great power of the devil. Itself a tree of life whose leaves are
for medicine and whose fruit for food (Ezek. xlvii. 12; Rev. xxii.
2), all who need the healing of their soul's hurts, all who need the
satisfying of the soul's hunger, shall betake themselves to it ; and all
who do so shall be enabled to set their seal to the words of the Son
of Sirach (xiv. 20, 26, 27), 'Blessed is the man that doth meditate
good things in Wisdom. . . . He shall set his children under

demonstrat, sed totum flaccidum marcidumque, et mollitum ebullit in olera et in
herbas quae cito arescunt et corruunt. Haec autem praedicatio, quae parva videbatur
in principio, cum vel in anima credentis, vel in toto mundo sata fuerit, non exsurgit
in olera, sed crescit in arborem.

Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. in loc.

b See Hengstenberg, Christologie , vol. ii. p. 556, 2d edit.

By 'the fowls of the air ' [toO oupai>oG] Gregory of Nyssa {Hexa'em. Proem) finely

Unders'iands ra? vij/TfAas kox iKTeoipoiropovi i/yv^a?.

THE MUSTARD-SEED. 93

her shelter, and shall lodge under her branches ; by her he shall be
covered from heat, and in her glory shall he dwell. ,a

Augustine (Serm. xliv. 2) : Crevit Ecclesia, crediderunt gentes, vinti sunt terrae
principes sub nomine Christi, ut essent victores in orbe terrarum. Persequebantur
ante Christianos pro idolis, persequuntur idola propter Christum. Omnescontugiunt
ad auxilium Ecclesiae, in omni pressura. in omni tribulatione sua. Crevit illud
granum sinapis, veniunt volatilia ca?li, superbi seculi, et acquiescunt sub ramis ejus.

4. THE LEAVEN.

Matthew iii. 33; Luke xiii. 20, 21.

' /% NO THER parable spake He unto them : The kingdom of heaven
-^"- is like unto leaven, 7vhich a woman took, and hid in three
measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. ' This parable relates
also to the marvellous increase of the kingdom of God ; but, while
the last set forth its outward visible manifestation, this declares its
hidden working, its mysterious influence on the world which on all
sides it touches. The mustard-seed does not for some while attract
observation ; nor until it has grown to some height do the birds of
the air light upon its branches ; but the leaven has been actively
working from the first moment that it was hidden in the lump. Here,
indeed, we are met at the outset by Gurtler," Teelman, b and some
little bands of modern separatists," who altogether deny that the
parable has anything to do with the glorious developments of the
kingdom of God. They take it rather as a prophecy of the heresies
and corruption which should mingle with and adulterate the pure
doctrine of the Gospel, of the workings, in fact, of the future
mystery of iniquity. The woman that hides the leaven in the meal
is for them the apostate Church; which, with its ministers, they
observe, is often represented under this image (Prov. ix. 13 ; Rev.
xvii. 1 ; Zech. v. 7-1 1). The argument on which they mainly rely
in support of this interpretation is, of course, that leaven is oftenest
employed in the Scripture as the symbol of something evil (1 Cor.
v. 7 ; Luke xii. 1 ; Gal. v. 9). This is undoubtedly true. As such
it was forbidden in the offerings under the Law (Exod. xiii. 3 ; Lev.
ii. n j Amos iv. 5), though not without an exception (Lev. xxiii.

Sjyst. Theol. Prophet, p. 590.

b Comm. in Luc. xvi. p. 59, seq. Vitringa gives, with great impartiality, two en-
tirely independent expositions of the parable, taking first the leaven in a good, then
in-an evil sense, but decides absolutely for neither.

Brief Exposition of Matthew xiii., by J. N. Darby, 1845, p. 40. He makes, in
the same way, the parable of the mustard-seed to be a prophecy of the upgrowth of
a proud world-hierarchy.

THE LEAVEN. 95

17). The strict command to the children of Israel, that they should
carefully put away every particle of leaven out of their houses during
the Passover week, rests on this view of it as evil; they were thus
reminded that if they would rightly keep the feast, they muse seek to
cleanse their hearts from all workings of malice and wickedness.*
But conceding all upon which they rest their argument, it would still
be impossible to accept their interpretation as the true. The parable,
*s the Lord declares, is of ' the kingdom of heaven ; ' it would in that
case be a parable of another kingdom altogether. Announcing that
there was one who should leaven through and through with a leaven
of falsehood and corruption the entire kingdom of heaven, He would
have announced that the gates of hell should prevail against it ; He
would have written failure upon His whole future work; there would,
in that case, have remained no re-active energy, by which it could
ever have been unleavened again.

But the admitted fact that leaven is, in Scripture, most commonly
the type of what is false and corrupting, need not drive us to any
interpretation which should be encumbered with embarrassments like
these. It was not, therefore, the less free to use it in a good sense.
In those other passages, the puffing up, disturbing, souring properties
of leaven were the prominent points of comparison ; in the present,
its warmth, b its penetrative energy, the way in which a little of it
lends its own savour and virtue to much wherewith it is brought in
contact. The figurative language of Scripture is not so stereotyped,
that one figure must always stand for one and the same thing. The
devil is ' a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour ' (1 Pet. v. 8) ;

See our Collect for the First Sunday after Easter. The Jews termed the figmen-
tum malum, that in man which lusteth against the spirit,' and hinders him from
doing the things that he would, the leaven in the lump ;' and-the reason is given in
the book Sohar : Prava concupiscentia vocatur fermentum, quia parum ejus cor per-
vadit, et in tantum exturgescit, ut findatur pectus (see Schoettgen, Nor, Heb. vol. i.
p. 597). The Romans had the same dislike to the use of leaven in sacred things :
Fannam fermento imbutam attingere flamini Diali fas non est (Gel!, x. 15, 19-) ;
Plutarch {Qucest. Rom. 109) giving no doubt the true explanation : ' The leaven it-
self is born from corruption, and corrupts the mass with which it is mingled.' Thus
it comes to pass that doxoi Ka$apoC is used as = au|uoi. So Jerome (Ep. 31) gives the
reason why honey was forbidden in the Levitical offerings (Lev. ii. 11): Apud Deum
enim nihil voluptuosum, nihil tantum suave placet; nisi quod in se habet mordacis
aliquid veritatis. It was the feeling of the unsuitableness of leaven in sacrti which,
in part, caused the Latin Church to contend so earnestly against the use of fermented
bread in the Eucharist, calling those who used it lermentarii, though a historical in-
terest also mingled in the question (see Augusti, Handb. d. Christl. Arch'iol, vol. ii.
p. 662).

t> Z<Vi) from <=, as fermentum (= feciraentum) from ferveo : leaven (in French,
levain) from levare, to lift up.

96 THE LEAVEN.

yet this does not hinder the same title from being applied to Chrisr,
' the Lion of the tribe of Judah ' (Rev. v. 5) ; only there the subtlety
and fierceness of the animal formed the point of comparison, here
the nobility and kingliness and conquering strength.* The silliness
of the dove is in one place the point of comparison (Hos. vii. n),
its simplicity at another (Matt. x. 16). St. Cyril, h then, could
scarcely have had this parable in his mind when he said : ' Leaven,
in the inspired writings, is always taken as the type of naughtiness
and sin.' Ignatius shows rather by his own application of the image,
how it may be freely used, now in a good, now in a bad, sense ; for,
warning against judaizi ng practices, he writes: 'Lay aside the evil
leaven which has grown old and maketh sour, and be transmuted into
the new leaven, which is Christ Jesus.' Nor is it to be forgotten that
if, on one side, the operation of leaven upon meal presents an
analogy to something evil in the spiritual world, it does also on the
other to something good; its effect on bread being to render it
more tasteful, lighter, more nourishing, and generally more wholesome.
We ought not, then, to take the parable in other than its obvious
sense, that it prophesies the diffusion, and not the corruptions, of
the Gospel. By the leaven, we are to understand the word of the
kingdom, which Word, in its highest sense, Christ Himself was. As
the mustard-seed, out of which a mighty tree was to grow, was ' the
least of allseeds' so the leaven is also something apparently of slight
account, but at the same time mighty in operation ; in this fitly set-
ting forth Him, of whom it was said, ' He hath no form nor comeb-
ness, and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should
desire Him ; ' but then presently again, ' By his kn jwledge shall my
righteous Servant justify many, . . . and He shall divide the
spoil with the sttong ' (Isai. liii. 2, n, 12); and who, when He had
communicated of His life and spirit to his Apostles, enabled them
too, in their turn, poor and mean and unlearned as they were, to be-
come ' the salt of the earth,' the leaven of the world. For, in Chrys-
ostom's words, ' that which is once leavened becomes leaven to the
rest; since as the spark when it takes hold of wood, makes that which

See Augustine (Sertn. lxxiii. 2): Quid enim tarn distat ab invicem, quara Christus
etDiabolus? Tamen leo et Christus est appelatus, et Diabolus. . . . Ille leo,
propter fortitudinem : ille leo, propter fentatem. Ille leo, ad vincendum : ille leo,
ad nocendum. Cf. Serm. xxxii. 6.

b Horn. Paschal. 19.

Ad Magnes. 10. Cf. Gregory Naz. {Oral, xxxvi. 90), who says that Christ by

his Incarnation sanctiSed men, uiairep v/n7) yefd/u.ei'Os tcu iravri <pvpa.na.Ti, icaX trpos iavrbv

tfjjaat.

THE LEAVEN. 97

is already kindled to transmit the flame, and so seizes still upon more,
thus it is also with the preaching of the word.' a

Is it part of the natural machinery of the parable, the act of
kneading being proper to women, that it should be ' a woman,' who
hides the leaven in the three measures of meal ? or shall we look for
something more in it than this ? A comparison with Luke xv. 8
(the woman who loses, and then seeks and finds, her piece of money)
may suggest that the divine Wisdom (Prov. ix. 1-3), the Holy Spirit,
which is the sanctifying power in humanity (and it is of that sancti-
fying that the word is here), may be intended. But if it be asked,
Why represented as a woman? to this it may be replied, that the
organ of the Spirit's working is the Church, which evidently would
be most fitly represented under this image. In and through the
Church the Spirit's work proceeds : only as the Spirit dwells in the
Church (Rev. xxii. 7), is that able to mingle a nobler element in the
mass of humanity, to leaven the world. So again, why should ' three '
measures of meal be mentioned ? It might be enough to answer,
because it was just so much as would be often kneaded at one time
(Gen. xviii. 6; Judg. vi. 19; 1 Sam. i. 24 b ). Yet the 'three' may
intend something more, may prophecy of the spread of the Gospel
through the three parts then known of the world ; or, as Augustine
will have it, of the ultimate leavening of the whole human race, de-
rived from the three sons of Noah ; which amounts to much the same
thing. And those who, like Jerome and Ambrose, find in it a pledge
of the sanctification of spirit, soul, and body (1 Thess v. 23), are
not upon a different track, if, as has not been ill suggested, Shem,
Japheth, and Ham, do indeed answer to these elements, spirit, soul,
and body, which together made up the man the one or other ele-
ment having, as is plainly the case, predominance in the descendants
severally of the three.

But the leaven which is thus mingled with the lump, which acts on
and coalesces with it, is at the same time different from it ; for the
woman took it from elsewhere to mingle it therein : and even such is
the Gospel, a kingdom not of this world (John xviii. 36), not the
unfolding of any powers which already existed therein, a kingdom

In Matt. Horn. 46; see also Con. Ignoviam. Horn. iii. 2, SoCajetan: Christi
discipuli, prima regni cselorum membra, spiritu penetrxunt cordahominum, cruda-
que ac acerba ad maturitatem ac saporem caelestis vitas promoverunt.

b In the two last places of the Septuagint has rpia ixirpa. For the Gnostic perversion
of this parable, these 'three measures' being sever illy men xoiW (iCor. xv. 47), i/v X iKoi
(1 Cor. ii. 14), and vvevixa.Ti.Koi (Gal. vi. 1), see Ir^nasus, Con. Hcer. i. 8. 3. It fur-
nishes a notable illustration of what has been said already (see p. 39) on the manner
in which the Gnostics dealt with the parables.

98 THE LEAVEN.

not rising, as the secular kingdoms, 'out of the earth' (Dan. vii. 17),
but a new power brought into the world from above ; not a philoso-
phy, but a Revelation. The Gospel of Christ was a new and quick-
ening power cast into the midst of an old and dying world, a centre
of life round which all the moral energies which still survived, and
all which itself should awaken, might form and gather ; by the help
of which the world might constitute itself anew. a This leaven is not
merely mingled with, but hidden in the mass which it renewed. For
the true renovation, that which God effect, is ever thus from the in-
ward to the outward ; it begins in the inner spiritual world, though
it does not end there : for it fails not to bring about, in good time, a
mighty change also in the outward and visible world. This was won-
derfully exemplified in the early history of Christianity. The leaven
was effectually hidden. How striking is the entire ignorance which
heathen writers betray of all that was going forward a little below
the surface of society, the manner in which they overlooked the
mighty change which was preparing ; and this, not merely at the first,
when the mustard-tree might well escape notice, but, with slight ex-
ceptions, even up to the very moment when the open triumph of
Christianity was at hand. Working from the centre to the circum-
ference, by degrees it made itself felt, till at length the whole Roman
world was, more or less leavened by it. Nor must we forget, that
the mere external conversation of that whole world gives us a very
inadequate measure of the work which had to be done : besides this,
there was the eradication of the innumerable heathen practices and
customs and feelings which had enwoven and entwined their fibres
round the very heart of society ; a work which lagged very consider-
ably behind the other, and which, in fact, was never thoroughly ac-
complished till the whole structure of Roman society had gone to
pieces, and the new Teutonic framework had been erected in its
room. b

But while much has thus been effected, while the leavening of the

Augustine, in whose time the fading away of all the glory of the ancient world
was daily becoming more apparent (mundus tanta. rerum labe contritus, ut etiam
speciem seductionis amiserit), delighted to contemplate and to present the coming
of Christ under this aspect. Thus Serm. lxxxi.: Parum tibi praestitit Deus, quia in
senectute mundi misit tibi Christum, ut tunc te reficiat, quando omnia deficiunt ?
. . Venit cum omnia veterascerent in occasum. Necesse erat ut abunderet
laboribus : venit ille, et consolari te inter labores, et promittere tibi in sempiternum
quietem. Noli adhserere velle seni. mundo, et nolle juvenescere in Christo, qui tibi
dicit: Perit mundus, senescit mundus, deficit mundus, laborat anhelitu senectutis.
Noli timere, renovabitur juventus tua sicut aquilae.

b On this subject there is much which is admirable in Tzschirner's Fall des Heiden-
thums, 1829.

THE LEAVEN, 99

mass has never ceased to go forward, yet the promise of the parable
has hitherto been realized only in a very imperfect measure ; nor can
we consider these words, 'till the whole is leavene./,' as less than a
prophecy of a final complete triumph of the Gospel that it will
diffuse itself through all nations, and purify and ennoble all life.
We may also fairly see in these words a pledge and assurance that
the word of life, received into any single heart, shall not there cease
its effectual working, till it has brought the whole man into obedience
to it, sanctifying him wholly, so that he shall be altogether a new
creation in Christ Jesus. a It shall claim every region of man's being
as its own, and make its presence felt through all. In fact, the para-
ble does nothing less than set forth to us the mystery of regeneration,
both in its first act, which can be but once, as the leaven is but once
hidden ; and also in the consequent renewal by the Holy Spirit,
which, as the ulterior working of the leaven, is continual and pro-
gressive. This side of the truth is that exclusively brought out by
Hammond, who thus paraphrases our Lord's words : ' The Gospel
hath such a secret invisible influence on the hearts of men, to change
them and affect them, and all the actions that flow from them, that
it is fitly resembled to leaven, so mixed thoroughly with the whole,
that although it appeareth not in any part of it visibly, yet every
part hath a tincture from it.' We may fitly conclude, in the words
of St. Ambrose : ' May the Holy Church, which is figured under the
type of this woman in the Gospel, whose meal are we, hide the Lord
Jesus in the innermost places of our hearts, till the warmth of the
Divine wisdom penetrate into the most secret recesses of our souls.'"

* Corn, a Lapide quotes from an earlier commentater : Dicitautem, Donee fer-
mentatum est totum, quia ciritas in mente nostra recondita eo usque crescere debet,
ut totum mentem in sui perfectionem commutet, quod hie quidem inchoatur , in futuro
vero perficitur.

b Exp. in Luc. vii. 187. Clement of Alexandria (p. 694, Potter's ed.) gives an
admirable exposition of the parabie, and in very few words. The kingdom ot heaven,
he says, is likened to leaven, Sti t\ io~xys toO Adyou cu'ito/io? ovcra. koX Swottj, nkvia. tov

KaTaSi(aixevov KaX evros eavxoO KTriaoixevov outi)v, eiriKeKpvtinivias re kcu a<J>ai'ws irpbs eavn)
lA/cet, Kai t6 ttclv avroC <ri<rn\\i.a. t\% kv&rtra. ouvdyet..

100

J-. THE HID TREASURE.
Matthew xiii. 44.

THE kingdom of God is not merely a general, it is also a person-
al, thing. It is not merely a tree overshadowing the earth, or
leaven leavening the world, but each man must have it for himself,
and make it his own by a distinct act of his own will. He cannot
be a Christian without knowing it. He may indeed come under the
shadow of this great tree, and partake of many blessings of its shel-
ter ; he may dwell in a Christendom which has been leavened with
the leaven of the truth, and so in a degree himself share in the uni-
versal leavening. But more than this is needed, and more than this
in every elect soul will find place. There will be a personal appro-
priation of the benefit ; and we have the history of this in these two
parables" which follow. They were spoken, not to the multitude, not
to those ' without,' but in the house (ver. 36), and to the inner circle
of disciples ; who are addressed as having lighted on the hid treas-
ure, having found the pearl of price ; and are now warned of the
surpassing worth of these, and that, for their sakes, all which would
hinder from making them securely their own, must be joyfully
renounced.

The second parable repeats what the first has said, but repeats it
with a difference ; they are each the complement of the other : so
that under one or other, as finders either of the pearl or of the hid
treasure, may be ranged all who become partakers of the blessings of
the Gospel of Christ. Of these there are some who feel that there
must be some absolute good for man, in the possession of which he
shall be blessed and find the satisfaction of all his longings ; who are
therefore seeking everywhere and inquiring for this good. Such are
likened to the merchant that has distinctly set before himself the

m Origen (Comm. in Matt.') observes that these would more fitly be called simili-
tudes (6/iouuo-ei?) than parables, which name, he says, is not giyen to them in the
Scriptures : yet see ver. 53. For a series of these briefer parables as in use among
the Jews, see Schoettgen, Hor. Heb. vol. i. pp. 83-85.

THE HID TREASURE. 101

purpose of seeking and obtaining goodly pearls. They are the fewer
in number, but all likely to prove the noblest servants of the truth.
There are others, who do not discover that there is an aim and a
purpose for man's life, or that there is a truth for him at all, until the
truth as it is in Jesus is revealed to them. Such are compared to the
finder of the hid treasure, who stumbled upon it unawares, neither
expecting nor looking for it. While the others felt that there was a
good, and were looking for it, the discovery of the good itself for
the first time reveals to these that there is such at all ; whose joy,
therefore, as greater, being the joy at the discovery of an unlooked-
for treasure, is expressed ; that of the others, not. Thus Hammond,
bringing out this distinction, paraphrases the two parables thus : ' The
Gospel being by some not looked after, is yet sometimes met with by
them, and becomes matter of infinite joy and desire to them : and
so is likened fitly to a treasure, which a man finding casually in a field,
hid again, or concealed it, and then, designing to get into his pos-
session, accounts no price he can pay too dear for it. Others there
are which have followed the study of wisdom, and thirsted after some
instruction : and then the Gospel of Christ comes as a rich prize doth
to a merchant, which is in pursuit of rich merchandize, and meet-
ing with a jewel for his turn, lays out all his estate upon it.'

The cases of Jew and Gentile will respectively exemplify the con-
trast between the Pearl and the Hid Treasure ; though, of course,
in the case of the Jews, or the larger part of them, the illustration
cannot be carried through, as they, though seeking pearls, having a
zeal for righteousness, yet, when the pearl of great price was offered
to them, were not willing to ' sell all, ' to renounce their peculiar
privileges, their self-righteousness, and all else which they held dear,
that they might buy that pearl. The Gentiles, on the contrary, came
upon the treasure unawares. Christ was found of them that sought H im
not, and the blessings of His truth revealed to them who before had
not divined that there were such blessings for man (Rom. ix. 30).*
Or, again, we might instance Nathanael as an example of the more
receptive nature, of one who has the truth found for him ; or a still

1 Grotius: Doctrina Evangelica quibusdam affulsit, neque de Deo, neque de vita,
emendanda, neque de spe vitae alterius quicquam cogitantibus, quales erant plerique
in gentibus externis, quibus illud vaticinium Paulus aptat : Inventus sum non quaeren-
tibus me. Erant etsapientiae studiosi inter Judaeos etalibi, qui veritatiscognoscendae
desiderio quodam tangebantur quive Prophetam aliquem aut ipsum etiam Messiam
avidis animis expectabant. Priores respicet thesauri comparatio, posteriores ista de
unione. Bengel recognizes the same distinction : Inventio thesauri non praesupponit
-rb quaerere, ut margaritse, qusepercontioneinveniuntur. Alex. Knox {Remains, vol.
i. p. 416, seq.) has very excellent remarks to the same effect.

102 THE HID TREASURE.

more striking example, the Samaritan woman (John iv.), who, when
she came on that memorable day to draw water from the well, antici-
pating anything rather than lighting on the hid treasure. Yet in this
character there cannot be a total absence of a seeking for the truth ;
only it is a desire that has hitherto slumbered in the soul, and displays
itself rather as a love of the truth when revealed, and at once a joy-
ful and submissive acquiescence to it, than in any active previous
quest. In both, there must be the same willingness to embrace it
when known, and to hold it fast, at whatever costs and hazards. On
the other hand, we have, perhaps, no such record of a noble nature,
seeking the pearl of price, and not resting till he had found it, as
that which Augustine gives of himself in his Confessions ; though
others are not wanting, such as Justin Martyr's account of his own
conversion, given in his first dialogue with Trypho, in which he tells
how he had travelled through the whole circle of Greek philosophy,
seeking everywhere for that which would satisfy the deepest needs of
his soul, and ever seeking in vain, till he found it at length in the
Gospel of Christ. We derive a further confirmation of this view of
the parables, and that it is not a mere fancy, from the forms which they
severally assume. In this the treasure is the prominent circumstance ;
' The kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure? Now if the other had
been cast in exactly the same mould, it would have been said, 4 The
kingdom of heaven is like unto a pearl ; ' the words, however, run
not so ; but rather, ' The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant-
man ; ' so that the person seeking is in that parable at the centre of
the spiritual picture, the thing found, in this. This is scarcely
accidental.

The circumstance which supplies the groundwork of this first par-
able, namely, the finding of a concealed treasure,* is of much more
frequent occurrence in an insecure state of society, such as in almost
all ages has prevailed in the East, than happily it can be with us.
A writer on Oriental literature and customs mentions that in the
East, on account of the frequent changes of dynasties, and the revo-
lutions which accompany them, many rich men divide their goods
into three parts : one they employ in commerce, or for their necessary
support ; one they turn into jewels, which, should it prove needful
to fly, could be easily carried with them ; a third part they bury.

* rjo-aupv?, i.e. o-vvayuiyri xpw-aTwv Keicpvunevri, as an old Lexicon explains it. The
derivation T %i and avpov ( aurum), the receptacle of gold, is inadmissible, since
aipov is not so old as flrjo-oupd? itself. The Jurisconsult Paulus gives its legal defini-
tion : Thesaurus est tarn vetus depositio pecuniae, ut ejus non exstet memoria, et jam
dominium non habeat.

THE HID TREASURE. 103

But as they trust no one with the place where the treasure is buried,
so is the same, should they not return to the spot before their death,
as good as lost to the living 6 (Jer. xli. 8), until, by chance, a lucky
peasant digging in his field, lights upon it. b And thus, when we read
in Eastern tales, how a man has found a buried treasure, and, in a
moment, risen from poverty to great riches, this is, in fact, no strange
or rare occurance, but a natural consequence of the customs of these
people. Modern books of travels bear witness to the universal be-
lief in the existence of such hid treasures ; so that the traveller often
finds much difficulty in obtaining information about antiquities, is
sometimes seriously inconvenienced, or even endangered, in his re-
searches among ancient ruins, by the jealousy of the neighbouring in-
habitants, who fear lest he is coming to carry away concealed hoards
of wealth from among them, of which, by some means or other, he
has got notice. And so also the skill of an Eastern magician in great
part consists in being able to detect the places where these secreted
treasures will successfully be looked for. d Often, too, a man aban-
doning the regular pursuits of industry will devote himself to treasure-
seeking, in the hope of growing through some happy chance, rich of
a sudden (Job iii. 21 ; Prov. ii. 4). The contrast, however, between
this parable and the following, noticed already, will not allow us to
assume the finder here to have been in search of the treasure ; he
rather stumbles upon it, strikes it with plough or spade, unawares,
and thinking of no such thing : e probably while engaged as a hire-
ling in cultivating the field of another.

Some draw a distinction between ' the field'' and ' the treasure.'
The first is the Holy Scriptures ; the second the hidden mystery of
the knowledge of Christ contained in them/ which when a man has
partly perceived, discovered, that is, and got a glimpse of the

' Gregory of Nyssa {Oral, con. Usurar. vol. ii. p. 233, Paris, 1638) has a curious
story of an avaricious and wealthy usurer of his day, all whose property was thus
lost to his children.

1 Compare the Aulularia of Plautus, Prolog. 6-12.

Richardson {Dissert, on the Languages, i&r. of Eastern Nations, p. 180). Com-
pare the strange story told by Tacitus, Annal. xvi. 1-3.

d See Burder, Oriental Literature, vol. i. p. 275 ; and for evidence of the same in
old time. Becker, Charicles, vol. i. p. 224.

"Horace: O si urnam argenti fors qua mini monstret / Perius : O si Sub rastro
crepet argenti mihi seria !

f So Jerome (Comm. in Mall, in loc): Thesaurus iste, . . . sanctse Scriptural
in quibu:; reposita est notia Salvatoris; and Augustine {Quasi. Evang. i. qu. 13):
Thesaurum in agro absconditum, dixit duo Testamenta Legis in Ecclesia, quas quis
cum ex parte intellectus attigerit, sentit illic magna latere, et vadit etvendit omnia
sua, et emit agrum ilium, id est, contemtu temporalium comparat sibi otium, ut sit
dives cognitione Dei.

104 THE HID TREASURE.

treasure, he is willing to renounce all meaner aims and objects;
that, having leisure to search more and more into those Scriptures,
to make them his own, he may enrich himself for ever with the
knowledge of Christ which therein is contained. a Yet to me ' the
field'' rather represents the outer visible Church, as contradistin-
guished from the inward spiritual, with which ' the treasure ' will
then agree. As the man who before looked on the field with care-
less eye, prized it but as another field, now sees in it a new worth,
resolves that nothing shall separate him from it, so he who recognizes
the Church, not as a human institute, but a divine, as a dispenser,
not of earthly gifts, but of heavenly, who has learned that God is
in the midst of it, sees now that it is something different from, and
something more than, all earthly societies, with which hitherto he has
confounded it : and henceforth it is precious in his sight, even to its
outermost skirts, for the sake of that inward glory which is revealed
to his eyes. And he sees, too, that blessedness is unalterably linked
to communion with it. As the man cannot have the treasure and
leave the field, but both or neither must be his, so he cannot have
Christ except in His Church; none but the golden pipes of the
sanctuary are used for the conveyance of the golden oil (Zech. iv.
12) ; he cannot have Christ in his heart, and, at the same time, sepa-
rate his fortunes from those of Christ's struggling, suffering, warring
Church. The treasure and the field go together; both, or neither,
must be his.

This treasure ' when a man hath found he hideth ; ' having laid it
open in the discovery, he covers it up again, while he goes and
effects the purchase of the field. This cannot mean that he who has
discovered the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are hidden
in Christ Jesus, will desire to keep his knowledge to himself; since
rather he will feel himself, as he never did before, a debtor to all
men, to make all partakers of the benefit. He will go to his brother
man, like Andrew to Peter, and saying to him, ' We have found the
Messias ' (John i. 41), will seek to bring him to Jesus. If he hide
the treasure, this hiding will be, not lest another should find, but lest
he himself should lose it. b In the first moments that the truth is

a Origen's view in the striking passage, De Prin. iv. 23, namely, that 'the field' is
the letter, and 'the kid treasure' the spiritual or allegorical meaning, underlying this
letter, is only a modification of the same.

b Maldonatus : Non ne alius inveniat, sed ne ipse perdat ; Jerome (Comm. in Matt.
in loc): Non quod hoc de invidia. faciat, sed quod timore servantis et nolentis per-
dere, abscondit in corde suo quem pristinis praetulit facultantibus. H. de Sto. Vic-
tore differently (><? Area, Mor. iii. 6): Thesaurum inventum manifestat, qui acceptum
donum Sapientise in ostentatione portat. Thesaurum autem inventum abscondit, qui

THE HID TREASURE. 105

revealed to a soul there may well be a tremulous fear lest the blessing
found should, by some means or other, escape from it again ; the
anxiety that it may not do so, the jealous precautions for this end
taken, would seem to be the truth signified by this re-concealment of
the found treasure.

Having thus secured it for the moment, the finder, ' for joy thereof
(or, for his joy), goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that
field. ' The joy is expressly mentioned here, being that in the strength
whereof the finder of the spiritual treasure is enabled to part with
everything besides.* No compulsion, no command is necessary ;
'for joy thereof ' he cannot do otherwise ; all other things have now
no glory, 'by reason of the glory which excelleth.' Augustine
excellently illustrates from his own experience this part of the parable.
Describing the crisis of his own conversion, and how easy he found
it, through his joy, to give up all which he had long dreaded to be
obliged to renounce, which had so long held him fast bound in the
chains of evil custom ; and which if he renounced, it had seemed to
him as though life itself would not be worth living, he exclaims :
' How sweet did it at once become to me to want the sweetnesses of
those toys ! and what I feared to be parted from was now a joy to
part with. For thou didst cast them forth from me, Thou true and
highest sweetness. Thou castedst them forth, and, for them, enteredst
in Thyself, sweeter than all pleasure.' 6 The parting with those sinful
delights which had hitherto held him bound was, in Augustine's case,
the selling of all that he had, that he might buy the field. Compare
Phil. iii. 4-1 1, where St. Paul declares how he too sold all that he had,
renounced his trust in his own righteousness, in his spiritual and
fleshly privileges, that he might ' win Christ, and be found in Him.'
In each of these illustrious instances the man parted with the dearest
thing that he had, so to make the treasure his own : though, in each
case, the thing parted with how different ! So, too, whenever any
man renounces what is closest to him, rather than that they should
his embracing and making his own all the blessings of Christ, when
the lover of money renounces his covetousness, and the indolent
man his ease, and the lover of pleasure his pleasure, and the wise
man his confidence in the wisdom of this world, then each is selling
what he has, that he may buy the field which contains the treasure.

accepto dono Sapientiae non forsis in occulis hominum, sed intus coram Deo inde
gloriari quserit.

a Bengel : Gaudium spirituale, stimulus abnegandi mundum.

* Confess, ix. i : Quam suave mihi subito factum est carere suavitatibus nugarum,
st quas amittere metus fuerat, jam dimittere gaudium erat. Ejiciebas enim eas a me,
vera tu et summa suavitas, ejiciebas et intrabas pro eis, omni voluptate dulcior.

106 THE HID TREASURE.

Yet this selling of all is no arbitrary condition, imposed from without,
but rather a delightful constraint, acknowledged within : even as a
man would willingly fling down pebbles and mosses with which he
had been filling his hands, if pearls and precious stones were offered
him in their stead ; a or, as the dead leaves, of themselves fall off from
the tree when propelled by the new buds and blossoms which are
forcing their way from behind.

A difficulty has been sometimes found in the circumstance of the
finder of the treasure purchasing the field," at the same time keeping
back, as plainly he does, from the owner the knowledge of the fact
which enhanced its value so much ; which, had the other known,
either he would not have parted with it at all, or only at a much
higher price. They argue that it is against the decorum of the divine
teaching and the Divine Teacher that an action, morally questionable
at least, if not absolutely unrighteous, should be used even for the
outward setting forth of a spiritual action which is commended and
urged upon others as worthy of imitation ; that there is a certain
approbation of the action conveyed, even in the use of it for such
ends ; in fact, they find the same difficulty here as in the parables of
the Unjust Steward and the Unjust Judge. Olshausen, so far from
evading the difficulty, or seeking to rescue the present parable from
underlying the same difficulty as undoubtedly cleaves to one of those,
himself urges the likeness which exists between the two, and affirms
that, in both, prudence (klugheit) with regard to divine things is
commended ; so that they are parables of the same class, and in this
respect, at least, containing the same moral. But to the objection
made above it seems enough to reply, that not every part of his con-
duct who found the treasure is proposed for imitation, but only his

Augustine : Ecce betis a Deo, et dicis, Domine, da mihi. Quid tibi dabit, qui
aliunde manus tuas videt occupatus ? Ecce Dominus vult dare quae sua sunt, et non
videt, ubi ponat. And again (in i Ep. Joh. Tract. 4): Bono implendus es, funde
malum. Puta quia melle te vult implere Deus. Si aceto plenus es, ubi mel pones?
Fundendum est quod portabat vas. Mundandum est, etsi cum labore, cum tritura :
ut fiat aptum cuidam rei.

b Ancient history, as noticed by Vitringa (Erkldr. d. Parab. p. 235), offers an
account nearly answering to that which supplies the groundwork of this parable.
After the defeat of Mardonius at Platcea , a report was current that he had left vast
treasures buried within the circuit where his tents had siood ; Polycrates, a Theban,
buying the ground, sought long for the treasure, but not finding it inquired at Delphi,
and was told 'to turn every stone,' which doing, he found it. Such the proverb-
collectors give as the origin of the proverb, udvra \i<f>ov kiv (Parcem. Grac. Oxf.
1836, p. 363).

Augustine (Enarr. in. Ps. lvii. 6): Non undecunque datursimilitudoa Scripturis,
laudatur ipsa res, sed tantum inde similitudo trahiter. In books of casuistry, where
they treat of the question, how far and where a finder has a right to appropriate

THE HID TREASURE. 107

earnestness in securing the treasure found, his fixed purpose to make
it at all costs and all hazards his own, and (which, I suppose, is
Olshausen's meaning) his prudence, without any affirmation that the
actual manner in which that prudence was exercised was praise-
worthy or not."

things found, this parable is frequently adduced, as by Aquinas (Summ. Theol, ii. qu.
69, art. 5): Circa res inventas est distinguendum. Quaedum enim sunt, quae nun-
quam fuerint in bonis alicujus, sicut lapilliet gemmae quas inveniuntur in litore maris.
Et talia occupanti conceduntur, et eadam ratio est de thesauris antiquo tempore sub
terra occulatis, quorum non exstat aliquis possessor : nisi quod secundum leges civiles
tenetur inventor dare medietatem domino agri, si in alienoagro invenerit. Propter
quod in parabola dicitur (Matt, xiii.) de inventore thesauri, quod emitagrum, quasi
ut haberet jus possidendi totum thesaurum.

Calderon has founded several of his Autos on parables of our Lord ; thus El
Tesoro Escondido (Autos, Madrid, 1759, v01 - - P- 37 2 )- as its name sufficiently
indicates, on this ; La Vina del Sehor (vol. iii. p. 162) on that of the Wicked Hus-
bandmen ; La Semilla y la Zizafia (vol. v. p. 316) on those of the Sower and the
Tares combined. Any one of these, were there room for it, would be well worthy
of analysis, both for its own sake, and as showing the capabilities of highest poetical
treatment which, in a great poet's hands, the parables possess ; the latent and as yet
unfolded germs of beauty and grandeur which they contain.

108

6, THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE.

Matthew xiii. 45, 46.

ALMOST all which it would have needed to say upon this parable,
had it stood alone, has been anticipated in the sister parable,
which has just gone before. The relations in which the two stand to
one another have been already noticed. We have not here, as there,
merely a finder, but also a seeker, of true wisdom ' The kingdom of
God is like unto a merchant-man* seeking goodly pearls. 1 To find
them has been the object of his labours : ' the search is therefore de-
terminate, discriminative, unremitting.' He has set this purpose
distinctly before him, and to it is bending all his energies ; he is one
who has understood that man was not made in vain, that there must
be a centre of peace for him, a good that will satisfy all the cravings
of his soul, and who is determined not to rest till he has found that
good. As yet he may not know that it is but one, for at his starting
he is seeking many goodly pearls, but perhaps imagines that it is to be
made up and combined from many quarters : but this also will be re-
vealed to him in due time. b

It makes much for the beauty of the parable, and the fitness of
the image used to set forth the surpassing value of the kingdom of
God, that we keep in mind the esteem in which pearls were held in
antiquity, sums almost incredible having been given for single pearls,

The pearl-merchant was termed margaritarius, a name sometimes also given to
the diver.

* Augustine {Serm. de Disc. Christ, vi. p. 583, Bened. ed.) assumes the oneness of
that which here is found as furnishinganotherpointofcontrast, besides those already
detailed, between this parable and the last. There the kingdom of heaven is pre-
sented as manifold, even as a treasure would contain precious things of various kinds
laid up in it ; here it is presented in its unity as much as to say, This which is so
multifold, is also single and at heart but one.

Pliny : Principium culmenque omnium rerum pretii margaritae tenent : and the
word which was rendered (Prov. iii. 15 ; viii. 11 ; xx. 15 ; xxxi. 10; Job xxviii. 18)
by earlier translators of Scripture most commonly as 'rubies' (D'JPJS) is generally
believed now to signify pearls (Gr. irCwa) .

THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE. 109

when perfect of their kind. There are many defects which materially
diminished their value, as for instance, if they had a yellow or dusky
tinge, or were not absolutely round or smooth. The skill and wari-
ness which the pearl-merchant therefore needed, if he would not
have a meaner thing imposed on him in place of the best, will not be
without its answer in the spiritual world." There are many pearls of
an inferior quality, b but this merchant is seeking 'goodly ' pearls ; as
he whom the merchants represents, has set before himself, not low
and poor, but noble and worthy, aims ; and this even in times an-
terior to that in which he finds the pearl of price. He is not one
living for sensual objects. He has not made pleasure, or gain, or the
high places of the world, the end and scope of his toils. But he has
been, it may be, a philanthropist, a seeker of wisdom, a worshipper
of the beautiful in nature or in art ; one who has hoped to find his
soul's satisfaction in some one of these things. ' Who, when he had
found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and
bought it. ,' This ' pearl of great price? what is it? Many answers
have been given, which yet, diverging as they may seem from one
another, grow all out of one and the same root ; all ultimately re-
solve themselves into one. c Whether we say the pearl is the kingdom
of God within a man, or the knowledge of Christ, d or Christ
Himself, 6 we do but in different ways express one and the same
thing.

August ine (Serm. xxxvii. 3) : Discite lapides aestimare,negotiatores regni caelorum.

b Origen (Comm. in Matt, in loc.) has much curious learning about pearls ; and
details the theory of their formation current in antiquity. The fish conceived the
pearl from the dew of heaven, and according to the quality of the dew, it was pure
and round, or cloudy or deformed with specks (see Pliny, H. N. ix. 35 ; Ammianus
Marcellinus, xxiii. 6. 85). The state of the atmosphere at the time of conception,
and the hour of the day, had great influence on their size and colour. Thus Isidore
Hisp.: Meliores . . . candidce margaritas quam quae flavescunt : illas enim aut
juventus, aut matutini roris conceptioreddit Candidas ; has senectus vel vespertinus
ae'rreddit obscuras. Cf. Gresswell, Expos, of the Parables, vol. ii.pp. 210-222; and
Bochart, Hierozoicon, pars ii. 5, 5-8.

See Suicer, Thel. s. v. papyapiros.

H. de Sto. Victore (Annot. in Matt.): Bonae margaritas, lex et prophetae : una
pretiosa, Salvatoris scientio. Origen hos these instructive references, Matt. xvii. 5-8;
a Cor. iii. 10. Schoettgen observes {Hor. Heb. vol. i. p. 132): Judcei doctrinas et
lectiones pulcras ac notatu dignas vocarunt margaritas. Von Bohlen (Das Alt. Ind.
vol. ii. p. 122) derives margarita from a Sanscrit word, manaarita, signifying The
pure. Another name it bore signified The beloved.

Theophylact says, that it was at a moment when it lightened that the conception
of the pearl from the heavenly dew took place ; which explains an otherwise obscure
passage in Clement of Alexandria (Potter's ed. p. 1014): 'This Pearl is the most
pellucid and pure Jesus, whom the Virgin conceived from the divine lightning.'
Augustine, too (Quasi, ex Matt. qu. 13) , likens Christ to the pearl, though he does.

110 THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE.

The merchant, having found this excellent pearl, ' went and sold
all that he had, and bought it .' a What this selling implies, has been
already seen ; b and to understand what the buying means, and what
it does not mean, we may compare Isai. lv. i ; Matt. xxv. 9,10;
Rev. iii 18; and Prov. xxiii. 23, 'Buy the truth, and sell it not; '
obtain the truth at any price, and let no price tempt you to part with
it. Chrysostom calls our attention here to the one pearl which the
merchant finds, and the many which he had been seeking. The
same contrast is marked elsewhere ; Martha is troubled about many
things; Mary has found that but one thing is needful (Luke x. 41,
42). There is but one such pearl (though every seeker may obtain
that one, even as God is one; and the truth possessed restores that
unity to the heart of man, which sin had destroyed. The heart
which had been as a mirror shattered into a thousand fragments, and
every fragment reflecting some different object, is now reunited again,
and the whole with more or less clearness reflects, as it was at the
first intended to do, the one image of God. It is God alone in
whom any intelligent creature can find its centre and true repose ;
only when man has found Him, does the great Eureka burst forth
from his lips; in Augustine's beautiful and often-quoted words,
' Lord, Thou hast made us for Thee, and our heart is disquieted
till it resteth in Thee.' 4

Before leaving this parable, it may be worth while to mention an
interpretation which strangely reverses the whole matter. The mer-
chant seeking goodly pearls is not Christ Himself. The Church of
the elect is the pearl of price ; which that He might purchase and
make his own, He parted with all that He had, emptying Himself of
His divine glory, and taking the form of a servant. 6 Or yet more
ingeniously, the pearl, as in the common explanation, is the kingdom

not bring out this point of comparison : Est enim Verbum Domini lucidum candore
veritatis, et solidum firmitateaeternitatis, etundiquesui simile pulcritudinedivinitatis,
qui Deus penetrata carnis testudine intelligendus est. Bochart (Hierozoicon, pars
ii. 4, 8, in fine) has a graceful bringing out of the points of likeness between the
kingdom of God and a pearl.

a Prudentius (Psyckom. 872-874) has a fine allusion.

b Vitringa tells here the story of Galea zzo Caraccioli as an illustration of what this
selling of all before now has meant for one who, having found the pearl of price, has
resolved at all costs to make it his own.

Mia yap eariv i) aAijfleta koX ov noKvax'Srj^ .

A Fecisti nos propter te, et inquietum est cor nostrum donee requiescat in te.

Salmeron (Serm. in Par. Evang. p. 66) applies the same to the parable preced-
ing : Homo qui invenit thesaurum, hoc est, pretiosam Ecclesiam electorum . . .
Christusest, qui pro comparando tanto sanctorum thesauro omnia bona sua distraxit.
Compare the Brief Exposition of Matth. xiii. by J. N. Darby, pp. 30, 31.

THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE. Ill

of heaven ; but Christ the merchant, who to secure that kingdom to
us and make it ours, though He was so rich, gladly made Himself
poor, buying that pearl and that treasure, not indeed for Himself,
but for us.'

a So Drexelius, {Opp. vol. i. p. 209) : Quis verior Christo Domino mercator, qui
pretium sui sanguinis infinitum pro pretiosis illis mercibus dedit? Vere abiit, ven-
diditque omnia, famam, sanguinem, vitem exposuit, ut nobis caelum emeret. Com-
pare the Theol. Stud, und Krit. 1846, pp. 939-946.

112

7. THE DRAW-NET.
Matthew xiii. 47-50.

THIS parable might at first sight seem merely to say over again
what the Tares had said already. Maldonatus, ascribing abso-
lute identity of purpose to the two, conceives the parables of this
chapter not to be set down in the order wherein the Lord spoke
them, but this to have immediately followed upon that. Here, how-
ever, he is clearly mistaken ; there is this fundamental difference
between them, that is the present intermixture, of this, the future
separation, of the good and the bad ; of that, that men are not to
effect the separation ; of this, that the separation will one day, by
God, be effected. The order in which we have the parables is that
in which they were spoken ; that other relating to the progressive
development, this to the final consummation, of the Church. Olshau-
sen draws a further distinction between the two ; in that, the king-
dom of God is represented rather in its idea, coextensive, as it shall
ultimately be, with the whole world ; in this, in its present imperfect
form, as a less contained in a greater, though tending to spread over
and embrace that greater ; the Church gathering in its members from
the world, as the net its fish from the sea.

With all this, the parables resemble one another so nearly, that
much which has been already said, in considering the other, will
apply to this. The same use has been made of both ; there is the
same continual appeal to both in the Donatist controversy ; both
convey the same lesson, namely, that He who founded a Church
upon earth did not contemplate that Church as a communion free
from all intermixture of evil ; but as there was a Ham in the ark,
and a Judas among the twelve, so there should be a Babylon even
within the bosom of the spiritual Israel ; Esau should contend with
Jacob even in the Church's womb,* till, like another Rebekah, she
should often be compelled to exclaim, ' Why am I thus? ' (Gen. xxv.

See Augustine, Enarr. in Ps. cxxvi. 3.

THE DRA W-NET 113

22). They convey, too, the same further lesson, that all this will in
nowise justify self-willed departure from the fellowship of the Church,
an impatient looking over, or breaking through, the nets, as here it
has often been called. The separation of a more unerring hand than
man's is patiently to be waited for, which shall not fail to arrive when
the mystery of the present dispensation has been accomplished.*

This parable, the last in this grand series, commences thus : ' Again,
the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net t/iat was cast into the sea, and
gathered of every kind' If we ask to what manner of net the king-
dom of heaven is likened here, the heading of the chapter in our
Bibles calls it a ' draw-net? and the word of the original leaves no
doubt upon the subject. The seine or sean, b for the word has been

a The following extracts will show the uses to which the parable was turned.
Augustine (Enarr. in Ps. lxiv. 6): Jam in mari capti per retia fidei, gaudeamus nos
ibi natare adhuc intra retia, quia adhuc mare hoc saevit procellis, sed retia quae nos
ceperunt perducentur ad litus. Interim intra ipsa retia, fratres, bene vivamus, non
retia rumpentes foras exeamus. Multi enim ruperunt retia et schismata fecerunt, et
foras exierunt. Quia malos pisces intra coptos tolerare se nolle dixerunt, ipsi mali
facti sunt potius, quam illi quos se non potuisse tolerare dixerunt. The curious
ballad verses, in a sort of Saturnian metre, and written, as Augastine tells us, to
bring the subject within the comprehension of the most unlearned, begin with a
reference to this parable :

Abundantia peccatorum solet fratres conturbare ;
Propter hoc Dommus noster voluit nos praemonere,
Comparans regnum cselorum reticulo misso in mare,
Congreganti multos pisces, omne genus hinc et inde,
Quos cum traxissent ad litus, tunc coeperunt separare,
Bonos in vasa miserunt, raliquos malos in mare.
Quisquis recolit Evangelium, reeognoscat cum timore:
Videt reticulum Ecclesiam, videt hoc seculum mare,
Genus autem mixtum piscis, Justus est cum peccatore :
Seculi finis est litus, tunc est tempus separare :
Quando retia ruperunt, multum dilexerunt mare.
Vasa sunt sedes sanctorum, quo non possvnt pervenire.
One or two quotations from the minutes of the Conference at Carthage will show
how the Donatists sought to evade the force of the arguments drawn from this para-
ble. They did not deny that, since bad and good were in the net, it must follow
that sinners are mixed with righteous in the Church upon earth ; and that Christ
contemplated such a mixture; only they affirmed {Coll. Carlh. d. 3), hoc de reis
latentibus dictum, quoniam reticulum in mari positum quid habeat, a piscatoribus, id
est a sacerdotibus, ignoratur, donee extractum ad litus ad purgationem boni seu
mali prodantur. Ita et latentes et in Ecclesia constituti, et a sacerdotibus ignorati,
in divino judicio proditi, tanquam pisces mali a sanctorum consortio separantur.
They take refuge here in an accidental feature of the parable ; and Augustine well
rejoins, with allusion to Matt. iii. 12 {Ad Don. post Coll. 10) : Numquid et area
sub aqua vel terra trituratur, aut certe nocturnis horis, non in sole, conteritur, aut in
ea. rusticus csecus operatur ?

* 2ayi)K)j (not from e<ra> ayeiv. but from o-arno, <r<?<raya, onero),= J"n03D? a hauling
net, as distinguished from the A^CpKricrvpov or casting net (Matt. iv. 18); in Latin,

114 THE DRAW-NET.

naturalized in English, is a net of immense length, suffering nothing
to escape from it. This, its all-embracing nature, is no accidental or
unimportant feature, but makes the parable prophetic of the wide
reach and effectual operation of the Gospel. The kingdom of heaven
should henceforward be a net, not cast into a single stream as hitherto,
but into the broad sea of the whole world, and gathering ' of every
kind,'' out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation; or,
as some understand it, men good or bad ; that as the servants, in
another parable, ' gather together all, as many as they found, both
bad and good ' (Matt. xxii. 10) ; so here the same servants collect of
all kinds within the folds of their net ; men of every diversity of
moral character having the Gospel preached to them, and finding
themselves within the limits of the visible Church. a

But as all use not aright the advantages which fellowship with

tragum, tragula, verriculum ; vasta sagena, as Manilius calls it. On the coast of
Cornwall, where the ' sean ' is well known, it is sometimes half a mile long. Leaded
below, that it may sweep the bottom of the sea, and supported with corks above, it
is carried out so as to enclose a large space of sea ; the ends are then brought to-
gether, and it, with all it contains, is drawn up upon the shore. Cicero, calls
Verres, with a play upon his name, evernculum in provincia, in that he swept all
before him ; and in the Greek Fathers we have 9o.v6.tov <rayrjvr\, KaraxXva-fiov aayrjvr]
(Suicer, Thes. s. v.); see Hab. i, 15-17, LXX, where the mighty reach of the Chal-
dean conquests is set forth under this image, and by this word. In this view of it,
as an inripavTov SUtvov 'Attjs, how grand is Homer's comparison (Od. xxii. 384) of
the slaughtered suiters ; whom Ulysses saw,

wot' i^fluas, oii<70' oAiijes
koiKov es aiyt.aJi.bv 7roAi>7? Ikto<t#6 flaAatro)?
6iKTua> ti;4pvo~av 7roAva>7rcu. ot 6e T TrapTes,
Kvp.a6' dAb? iroOeovres, inl <|/a/ad.0ori xe'xui'Tai.

Herodotus (iii. 149; vi. 31) tells us how the Persians swept away the population from
some of the Greek islands ; a chain of men, holding hand in hand, and stretching
across the whole island, advanced over its whole length taking the entire population
as in a draw-net ; and to this process the technical word o-ayTjveveiv was applied. In
Bonwick's Last of the Tasmanians is a full account of a very singular attempt, about
the year 1830, to compel, by a rougher process of thesamekind, the whole surviving
black population of Van Dieman's Land into one corner of the island, and to bring
them so within the power of the Government. Itissued, as might have been expected
in an attempt over so vast an extent of territory, in total failure, in the capture of a
single black. Cf. Plato, Menexenus, 240, b c; Legg . iii. 698 ; Plutarch. De Sol. Anim.
26 ; and generally on the <jayr\iT\ the Diet, of Gr. and Rom. Antt. s. v. Rete, p. 823.
a Beza, indeed, translates e 7r<u"rbs yeVovs, ex omni rerutn genere, as mud, shells,
sea-weed, and whatever else of worthless would be swept into a net ; these being the
aa-npd, which in the next verse are 'cast away;' and so in the Geneva Version, 'of all
kinds of things. ' But the whole drift of the parable makes it certain that the net is
here regarded as a navaypov, and that fish of all kinds (as the Vulgate, ex omni
genere piscium). and not things of all kinds are intended. H. de Sto. Victore
(Annott. in Matt.): Congregat ex omnibus qui minoribusvel majoribus peccatis sunt
a Deo divisi, et per multas iniquitates dispersi.

THE DRAW- NET. 115

Christ in His Church affords, an ultimate separation is necessary.
Our Lord proceeds to describe it ' which, when it was full, they
drew to shore, a and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but
cast the bad away.'' Whether these ' bad ,b are dead putrid fish, such
as a net will sometimes bring to land, or fish worthless and good for
nothing, ' that which was sick and unwholesome at the season,' or
such as from their kind, their smallness, or some other cause, are
profitable for nothing, and therefore flung carelessly aside to rot upon
the beach, and to become food for the birds of prey (Ezek. xxxii. 3,
4), has been often a question ; and it is not easy, as it is not very
important, to decide. The interpretation, which is not affected by a
determination in one of these senses or in another, is obvious.
When all nations have been gathered into the external fellowship of
the Church, when the religion of Christ has become the religion of
the world, then the severing of the precious from the vile, of the
just from the unjust, shall begin. But who are they that shall effect
it ? to whom shall this awful task be confided ? Here I must entirely
dissent from those, Vitringa, for example, and Olshausen, who urge
that they who first carry out the net, and they who discriminate be-
tween its contents, being, in the parable, the same ; therefore, since
the former are evidently the Apostles and their successors, now be-
come, according to the Lord's promise, ' fishers of men ' (Matt. iv.
19; Luke v. 10; Ezek. xlvii. 10 ; Jer. xvi. 16) ; d the latter must be
in like manner, not the angelic ministers of God's judgments, but
the same messengers of the Covenant, and as such, ' angels ' (ver.

Claudian :

Attonitos ad litora pisces
itquoreus populator agit, rarosque plagarum
Contrahit anfractus, et hiantes colligit oras.

b San-pa, scil. Ix6v&i.a. Grotius, Sunt nugamenta et quisquilliae piscium, quod genus
ut servatu indignum, videmus a piscatoribus, abjici (d00wTa *<u anua, Lucian ; pisces
frivolos, Apuleius); and this despite of Vitringa's note {Erkldrung d. Parab. p.
344) I must think the right interpretation. Dead fish in a net can only rarely occur;
while of the fish which, for instance, Ovid enumerates in his fragment of the Halieu-
ticon, how many, though perfectly fresh, would be flung aside as not edible, as
worthless or noxious, the immunda chromis, merito vilissima salpa, Et nigrum
niveo portans in corpore virus Loligo, durique sues; or again, Et capitis duro
nociturus scorpius ictu, all which might well have been gathered in this a-ay^vri.
Moreover, with Jewish fishermen, this rejection of part of the contents would of
necessity find place, not because some were dead, but because they were unclean ;
all that have not fins and scales shall be an abomination to you ; (Lev. xi. 9-12).
These probably were the aarrpa. Fritzsche combines both meanings, for he explains
it, inutiles et putridos. Our Translation has not determined absolutely for one sense
or the other. See Suicer, Thes. s. v.

Erkl'dr, d. Parab. p. 351, seq.

* In that grand Orphic hymn attributed to Clement of Alexandria (p. 312, Potter's

1 1 6 THE DRA W-NE T.

49) ; to whom, being equipped with divine power, the task of
judging and sundering should be committed. No doubt the Church,
in her progressive development, is always thus judging and separating
(1 Cor. v. 4, 5 ; 2 Thess. iii 6; 2 John 10; Matt, xviii. 17; Jude
22, 21); putting away one and another from her communion, as
they openly declare themselves unworthy of it. But she does not
count that she has thus cleansed herself, or that a perfect cleansing
can be effected by any power which now she possesses. There must
be a final judgment and sundering, not any more from within, but
from without and from above ; and of this decisive crisis we find
everywhere else in Scripture the angels of heaven distinctly named
as the instruments (Matt. xiii. 41; xxiv. 31 ; xxv. 31 ; Rev. xiv. 18,
19). It is contrary then to the analogy of faith so to interpret the
words before us as to withdraw this office from them. It is indeed
true that in that familiar occurrence of our workday world which sup-
plies the groundwork of the parable, the same who carry out the net
would also bring it to shore ; as they too would inspect its contents,
selecting the good, and casting the worthless away. But it is a push-
ing of this, which, in fact, is the weak side of the comparison, too
far, to require that the same should hold good in the spiritual thing
signified. In the nearly allied parab'e of the Tares, there was no
improbability in supposing those who watched the growth of the crop
to be different from those who should finally gather it in ; and, ac-
cordingly, such a difference is marked: those are the 'servants,'
these are the ' reapers ; ' just as in every other parable of judgment
there is a marked distinction between the present ministers of the
kingdom, ond the future executors of doom ; in the Marriage of the
King's Son (Matt. xxii. 3, 13) between the 'servants' and the 'at-
tendants,' though our Translation has effaced it; in the Pounds be-
tween the 'servants' and 'those that stand by' (Luke xix. 25). That
the agents in the one work and in the other are not identical, could
not here be so easily marked ; but it is slightly, yet sufficiently,
indicated in another way. The fishers are not once mentioned by
name. The imperfection of the human illustration to set forth the
divine truth is kept in good part out of sight, by the whole circum-
stance being told, as nearly as may be, impersonally. And when
the Lord Himself interprets the parable, He passes over, without a

ed.), Christ Himself is addressed as the chief Fisher ; and, as here, the world is the
great sea of wickedness, out of which the saved, the holy fish, are drawn:

"AAieO ixepomav ix^vs ayvovs

jreAoyous KaKi'at y\vKepjj uiy ScKed^mv.

THE DRAW-NET. 117

word, the beginning; thus still further drawing away attention from
a feature of it, upon which to dwell might needlessly have perplexed
his hearers ; and explains only the latter part, where the point and
stress of it lay. Assuming, then, as we may and must, the angels of
heaven to be here, as everywhere else, the takers and the leavers, we
may recognize an emphasis in the ' coming forth ' attributed to them.
Ever since the first constitution of the Church they have been hid-
den, for ages withdrawn from men's sight. But then, at that grand
epoch and catastrophe of the kingdom, they shall again ' come forth }
from before the throne and presence of God, and walk up and down
among men, the visible ministers of his judgments.

The deliberate character of that judgment-act which they shall
accomplish, that it shall be no hasty work confusedly huddled over,
is intimated in the sitting down of the fishers for the sorting and
separating of the good from the bad. a From some image like that
which our parable supplies, the ' taking ' and ' leaving ' of Matt,
xxiv. 41, 42, would seem to be derived. There, too, the taking is
probably for blessedness, the selecting of the precious; the leaving
for destruction, the rejecting of the vi'e. Some reverse the meaning,
yet hardly with justice ; for what is the ' /eft' is but the refused, and
the refused but the refuse ? We dare not lay any stress upon the
order here, that the good are first ' gathered into vessels,' even though
it is also the order of Matt. xxv. 34, seeing that it is exactly reversed
in the cognate parable of the Tares, where with a certain emphasis
it is said, ' Gather ye together first the tares ' (ver. 30). Of these
' vessels ' Christ gives no interpretation ; nor indeed is any needed.
They are the ' barn ' of ver. 30 ; the ' many mansions ' of John
xiv. 2 ; the ' everlasting habitations ' of Luke xvi. 9 ; the ' city
which hath foundations ' for which Abraham looked, of Heb. xi. io. b
This task accomplished, those who drew the net to shore ' cast the
bad away.' These words hardly prepare us for the fearful meaning
which in the interpretation they receive ' and shall cast them' that
is, the wicked, * into the furnace of fire' No wonder that Chrys-

" Thus Bengel, who to this KaeiaavTis appends, Studiose ; cf. Luke xiv. 28, 31 ; xvi.
6. At the same time it completes the natural picture :

in illo
Cespite consedi, dum lina madentia sicco,
Utque recenserem captivos ordine pisces. Ovid.

b Augustine (Serm. ccclxvii. 3). Vascula sunt sanctorum sedes, et beatae vita
magna secreta.

Note the frequency of the term UfidMeiv fa>, resting on the image of the Church
as a holy enclosure, with its line of separation from the unholy kootxo? (=oi !<#
Mark iv. 11; Col. iv. 5) distinctly drawn*; thus John vi. 37 ; xii. 31; xv. 9.

118 THE DRAW- NET.

ostom should characterize this as ' a terrible parable ; ,a that Gregory
the Great should style it one ' to be feared rather than to be ex-
pounded. ,b But on this ' furnace of fire'' something has been said
already. Thus, and thus only, when God Himself takes in hand to
cleanse His Church, shall that entire freedom from all evil which
belongs to the idea of the Church be at length brought about
(Rev. xxii. 15).

Comparing once more this parable with that of the Tares, we find
that, notwithstanding seeming resemblances, the lessons which they
teach are very different. The lesson of that it is needless to repeat ;
but of this it clearly is, that we be not content with being included
within the Gospel-net, since ' they are not all Israel who are of
Israel ; ' that, in the ' great house ' of the Church, ' there are not
only vessels of gold and silver, but of wood and of earth, and some
to honour, and some to dishonour ; ' that each of us therefore seek to
be ' a vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet for the Master's use '
(2 Tim. ii. 20, 21) ; since despite of all the confusions of the visible
Church, 'the Lord knoweth them that are His,' and will one day
bring these confusions to an end, separating the precious from the
vile, the gold from the dross, the true kernel of humanity from the
husk in which for a while it was enveloped.

I conclude with a few remarks on the relation of these parables to
one another. The mystical number seven has tempted not a few
interpreters to seek some hidden mystery here ; and when the seven
petitions of the Lord's Prayer, and the names of the seven first
deacons (Acts vi. 5), have been turned into prophecy of seven suc-
cessive states of the Church, not to speak of the seven Apocalyptic
Epistles (Rev. ii., iii.), c it was scarcely to be expected that these
seven parables should escape being made prophetic of the same.
They have, in fact, so often been dealt with as prophecy, that a late
ingenious writer' 1 needed not to apologize for an attempt in this kind,
as though he were suggesting something altogether novel and unheard
of before. ' It is,' he says, ' my persuasion that the parables in this
chapter are not to be considered disjointedly, but to be taken together
as a connected series, indicating, progressively, the several stages of
advancement through which the mystical kingdom of Christ, upon
earth, was to proceed, from its commencement to its consummation.

a 4>o/3epdy 7rapa/3oAjji/.

b Horn. 11, in Evang.: Tirnendum est potius quam exponendum.
See my Commentary on the Epistles to the Seven Churches in Asia, 2d edit. pp.
57-62, 220-237.

* Alex. Knox, Remains, vol. i. p. 408.

THE DRAW- NET. 119

. . . It will be understood, then, that each parable has a period
peculiarly its own, in which the state of things, so signified, pre-
dominates ; but when another state of things commences, the former
does not cease. It only becomes less prominent ; operative as really
as ever, but in a way subsidiary to that which now takes the lead. It
will follow that each succeeding stage implies a virtual combination
of all that has gone before, and of course the grand concluding
scene will contain the sublimated spirit and extracted essence of the
whole.' Bengel has anticipated all this." He refers the first parable
to the times of Christ and His immediate Apostles, when was the
original sowing of the word of eternal life. The second, that of the
Tares, belongs to the age immediately following, when watchfulness
against false doctrine began to diminish, and heresies to creep in.
The third, that of the Mustard-seed, to the time of Constantine,
when the Church, instead of even seeming to need support, evidently
gave it, and the great ones of the earth came under its shadow and
protection. The fourth, that of the leaven, sets forth the diffusion
of true religion through the whole world. The fifth, of the Hid
Treasure, to the more hidden state of the Church, signified in the
Apocalypse (xii. 6) by the woman flying into the wilderness. The
sixth, that of the Pearl, to the glorious time when the kingdom shall
be esteemed above all things, Satan being bound. The seventh, of
the Draw-net, describes the ultimate confusion, separation and
judgment.

In rejecting this notion of an historico-prophetical character, as
belonging to these parables, for which certainly there is no warrant
whatever, we must not at the same time refuse to acknowledge that
they possess a most significant unity of their own, being knit to one
another by very real bonds, succeeding one another in a logical order,
and together constituting a complete and harmonious whole. But it
is the ideas and laws, not the actual facts, of the Church's history
which they declare. Thus in the Sower are set forth the causes of
the failures and success which the word of the Gospel meets when it
is preached in the world. In the Tares, the obstacles to the internal
development of Christ's kingdom, even after a Church has been
hedged in and fenced round from the world, are traced up to their
true authors with a warning against methods in which men might be

Praeter communes et perpetuas regni caelorum sive Ecclesiae rationes, conveniunt
ha; septem paraboloe, reconditissimum habentes sensum, etiam in periodos et setates
Ecclesire diversas, ita quidem ut alia postaliam in complemento, incipiat, non tamen
prior qucelibet ante initium sequentis exeat. An essay by Reuss : Meletema de Sensu
Septem Parab. Mallh. xiii. Prophetico, Jenae, 1734. is in the same line of interpreta-
tion.

120 THE DRAW- NET.

tempted to remove those obstacles. The Mustard-seed and the
Leaven announce, the first, the outward, and the second, the inward,
might of that kingdom ; and therefore implicitly prophesy of its
development in spite of all these obstacles, and its triumph over
them. As these two are objective and general, so the two which
follow, the Hid Treasure and the Pearl, are subjective and individual,
declaring the relation of the kingdom to every man, its supreme
worth, and how those who have discovered that worth will be willing
to renounce all things for its sake ; they have, besides, mutual rela-
tions, already touched on, and complete one another. This of the
Draw-net declares how that entire separation from evil, which it is
right to long for, but wrong by self-willed efforts prematurely to
attempt to bring about, shall in God's own time come to pass ; look-
ing forward to which, each should give diligence so to use the
privileges and means of grace which the communion of the Church
affords him, that he may be acknowledged of the Lord, whsn He
shall separate for ever the precious from the vile. a

' Marckius, who (Syll. Diss. Exerc. 4) sets himself against the caprice of the
historico-prophetic exposition, recognizes them as in this sense prophetic : Plantanda
erat Ecclesia per Evangelii paerdicationem, apud multos tamen futuram inutilem ;
immiscendi per Satanas astutam malitiam erant multi ad earn vere non pertinentes,
et hinc aliquando ab ea segregandi ; ab initiis parvis erat ilia tamen surrectura in
magnitudinem summam ; et hinc progressura ad complexum omnium electorum ;
habitura ilia erat verum summumque in sinu suo conclusum bonum ; propter quod
prae aliis appeteretur merito ; quod cum prae iebus praestantissimis quibusvis ex-
celleret, cum omnium aliorum perditione quaerendum erat ab electis; et cujus neuti-
quam omnes erant futuri participes, qui hie in externam Ecclesiae communionem
essent allecti quidem, sed tamen ex ea ejiciendi in perditionem. Quo pacto hae
parabolae respectu praecipui scopi sui non difficulter inter se connectuntur.

121

8. THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT.
Matthew xviii. 21-35.

A QUESTION of Peter's gives occasion to this parable, that
question growing out of some words of Christ, in which He
had declared to the members of his future kingdom how they should
bear themselves towards an offending brother. Peter would willingly
know more on this matter, and brings to the Lord his question:
' Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him ?
till seven times ? ' Chrysoslom observes that Peter, thus instancing
seven as the number of times of forgiveness, accounted probably
that his charity was taking a large stretch, these seven being four
times more than the Jewish masters enjoined ; grounding as they
did the duty of forgiving three times and not more, upon Amos i. 3 ;
ii. 6 ; and on Job xxxiii. 29, 30.* He extended their three to seven,
no doubt, out of a just sense that the spirit of the new law of love
which Christ had brought into the world, a law larger, freer, more
long-suffering than the old, requires this. b There was then in
Peter's mind a consciousness of this new law of love, though an
obscure one ; else he would not have deemed it possible that love
could be overcome by hate, good by evil. But there was, at the
same time, a fundamental error in the qusstion itself; for in pro-
posing a limit beyond which forgiveness should not extend, it was

Lightfoot, Hor . Heb. in loc.

b While this is true, there were yet deeper motives for his naming seven times. It
is the number in the divine law with which the idea of remission (a^eo-is) is ever
linked. The seven times seventh year was the year of jubilee (eVo? r^5 d^eVeio;) ,
Lev. xxv. 28 ; cf. iv. 6, 17 ; xvi. 14, 15. It is true that it is the number of punish-
ment, or retribution for evil, also (Gen. iv. 15 ; Lev. xxvi. 18, 21, 24, 28 ; Deut.
xxviii. 25 ; Ps. lxxix. 12; Prov. vi. 31 ; Dan. iv. 16; Rev. xv. 1) ; yet this only con-
firms what has been said ; since there lies ever in punishment the idea of restoration
of disturbed relations, and so of forgiveness (Ezek. xvi. 42) ; punishment being as
the storm which violently restores the disturbed equilibrium of the moral atmosphere.

Gregory of Nyssa well {Opp. vol. i p. 159) : Haperrip<T<sv 6 nerpos, 6Vi kolvuv napaSocreoj';
apx a '05 <7Ti, tov j35op.a5a tixfyatjiv e\Li' Ttvo? d$e'(reu>s ap.apTTj/jiaTWJ', avaTravtretas TeAeias, Ov
trqiLStov to (rdftfiarov e<TTiv, ij t/38ap.T7 ep.epa anb -yeve'Tea>?.

122 THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT.

evidently assumed, that a man in forgiving, gave up a right which he
might still, under certain circumstances, exercise. In this parable
the Lord will make clear that when God calls on a member of his
kingdom to forgive, He does not call on him to renounce a right,
but that he has now no right to exercise in the matter ; for having
himself asked for and accepted forgiveness, he has implicitly pledged
himself to show it ; and it is difficult to imagine how any amount of
didactic instruction could have brought home this truth with at all
the force and conviction of the parable which follows.

' Jesus saith unto him, I say tiot unto thee, Until seven times ; but,
Until seventy times seven? Therefore,' 1 that is, to the end that
Peter may understand why the Lord has said, ' till seventy times seven,'
' is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would
take account of his servants.'' This is the first of the parables in
which God appears as King. We are the servants with whom He
takes account. This, as is plain, is not the final reckoning, not
theretore identical with reckoning of Matt. xxv. 19; 2 Cor. v. 10;
but rather such as that of Luke xvi. 2. To this He brings us by the
preaching of the law, by the setting of our sins before our face,
by awakening and alarming our conscience that was asleep before,
by bringing us into adversities, by casting us into sore sicknesses, 1 *
into perils of death, so that there is not a step between us and it (2
Kin. xx. 4) ; He takes account with us, when He makes us feel that
we could not answer Him one thing in a thousand, that our trespasses
are more than the hairs of our head ; when by one means or another
He brings our careless carnal security to an end (Ps. 1. 21). Thus
David was summoned before God by the word of Nathan the
prophet (2 Sam. xii.); thus the Ninevites by the preaching of Jonah
(Jon. iii. 4) ; thus the Jews by John the Baptist.

' And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which
owed him ten thousand talents.' 1 The sum is great, whatever talents
we presume; if Hebrew talents, it will be enormous indeed; yet

Our Lord's 'seventy times seven' of forgiveness makes a wonderful contrast,
which has not escaped the notice of St. Jerome (vol. ii. p. 565, edit. Bened.), to
Lamech, the antediluvian Antichrist's seventy and seven-fold of revenge (Gen. iv.
24). , e/3Soht]ko't<kis em-a is not, as Origen and some others understand it, 70+7=77 ;
for that would be rather e|35o/urjKOM-a ejrraKis, but 70X7=490.

b Anselm {Horn. 5) : Incipit Deus rationem ponere, quando per infirmitatis moles-
tiam ad lectum et ad mortem pertrahit homines.

How vast a sum it was we can most vividly realize to ourselves by comparing it
with other sums mentioned in Scripture. In the construction of the tabernacle
twenty-nine talents of gold were used (Exod. xxxviii. 24 ; David prepared for the
temple three thousand talents of gold, and the princes five thousand (1 Chron. xxix.
4-7); the queen of Sheba presented to Solomon one hundred and twenty talents

THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT. 123

thus only the fitter to express the immensity of every man's trans-
gression in thought, word, and deed, against God. Over against the
Ten Commandments which he should have kept, are the ten thousand
talents, for the number is not accidental, setting forth the debts
(see Matt. vi. 12) .vhich he has incurred. So far as the letter of the
parable reaches, we may account for the vastness of the debt by
supposing the defaulter to have been one of the chief officers of the
king, a farmer or administrator of the royal revenues. 3 Or, seeing
that in the despotisms of the East, where a nobility does not exist,
and all, from the highest to the lowest, stand in an absolutely servile
relation to the monarch, this name of ' servant'* need not hinder us
from regarding him as one, to whom some chief post of honour and
dignity in the kingdom had been committed, a satrap who should
have remitted the revenues of his province to the royal treasury.
The king had not far to go, he had only ' begun to reckon ' when he
lighted on this one ; perhaps the first into whose accounts he looked;
there may have been others with yet larger debts behind. This one
'was brought unto him, } for he never would have come of himself;
more probably would have made that ' ten thousand ' into twenty ;
for the secure sinner goes on, heaping up wrath against the day of
wrath, writing himself an ever deeper debtor in the books of God.

' But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord cotnmanded him to
be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to

(1 Kin. x. 10) ; the king of Assyria laid upon Hezekiah thirty talents of gold (2
Kin. xviii. 14) ; and in the extreme impoverishment to which the land was brought
at the last, one talent of gold was laid upon it, after the death of Josiah, by the king
of Egypt (2 Chron. xxxvi. 3).

a In the Jewish parable (Schoettgen, Nor. Neb. vol i. p. 155), bearing some re-
semblance to this, the sins of men being there represented as an enormous debt,
which it is impossible to pay, it is the tribute due from an entire city which is
owing, and which, at the prayer of the inhabitants, the king remits.

b Euripides <Hel. 276) : Ti /3ap/3ap<oi/ -yap SovKa TrdvTa n\riv eeos.

c Harpalus, satrap of Babylonia and Syria, besides ihe enormous sums which he
had squandered, carried off with him five thousand talents when he fled to Athens
from the wrath of Alexander (see Grote, Hist, of Greece, vol. viii. p. 496). It was
with exactly ten thousand talents that Darius sought to buy off Alexander, that he
should not prosecute his conquests in Asia (Plutarch, Reg. et Imp. Apopk.). The
same sum was the fine imposed by the Romans on Antiochus the Great, after his
defeat by them ; and when Alexander, at Susa, paid the debts of the whole Mace-
donian army, they amounted to only twice this sum, though every motive was at
work to enhance the amount (see Droysen, Gesch. Alexanders, p. 500). Von Bohlen
{Das Alt. Ind. vol. ii. p. 119) gives almost incredible notices of the quantities of
gold in the ancient East. The immensity of the sum may in part have moved
Origen to his strange supposition, that it can only be the man ot sin (2 Thess. ii.)
that is here indicated, or stranger still, the Devil! Compare Thilo, Cod. Apocry-
phus, vol. i. p. 887, and Neander, Kirch. Gesch. vol. v. p. 1122.

124 THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT.

be made' The sale of the debtor's wife and children rested upon
the assumption that they were a part of his property. Such was
the theory and practice of the Roman law. That it was allowed
under the Mosaic law to sell an insolvent debtor, is implicitly stated,
Lev xxv. 39 ; and from ver. 41 we infer that his family came into bond-
age with him ; no less is implied at 2 Kin. iv. 1 ; Neh. v. 6 ; Isai. 1.
1 ; lviii. 6; Jer. xxxiv. 8-1 1; Amos. ii. 6; viii. 6. The latter Jew-
ish doctors disallowed this practice, except where a thief should be
sold to make good the wrong which he had done ; and in our Lord's
time a custom so harsh had probably quite disappeared from among
the Jews. a Certainly the imprisonment of a debtor, twice occuring
in this parable (ver. 30, 34), formed no part of the Jewish law;
and, where the creditors possessed the power of selling him into bond-
age was totally superfluous. ' The tormentors ' also (ver. 34) have a
foreign appearance, and dispose us to look for the scene of the par-
able among the Oriental monarchies, and not in the Jewish common-
wealth, where a more merciful legislation tempered the rights of the
rich and of the strong. For the spiritual significance, this of having
nothing to pay expresses the utter bankruptcy of every child of Adam
as he stands in the presence of a holy God, and is tried by the
strictness of His holy law (Rom. iii. 23 ; Job. xlii. 5, 6). The
dreadful command that he shall be sold and all that he has (cf. Ps.
xliv. 12), is the expression of God's right and power altogether to
alienate from Himself, reject, and to deliver over into bondage, all
those who have thus come short of his glory (Ps. xliv. 12) ; that by
a terrible but righteous sentence these, unless this sentence be re-
versed, shall be punished by everlasting destruction from the presence
of the Lord and the glory of His power.

'The servant therefore,'' hearing the dreadful doom pronounced
against him, betakes himself to supplication, the one resource that
remains to him ; he 'fell down, and worshipped him.'' The formal
act of worship, or adoration, consisted in prostation on the ground,
with the embracing and kissing of the feet and knees. Origen bids
us here to notice a nice observance of proprieties in the slighter
details of the parable. This servant ' worshipped' the king, for that
honour was paid to royal personages ; but we shall not find that the
other ' worshipped, 1 which, as between equals, would have been out
of place, he only 'besought,' him. His 'Lord, have patience with
me, and I will pay thee all' is characteristic of the anguish of the
moment, out of which he is ready to promise impossible things, even

Michaelis, Mos. Recht, vol. iii. pp. 58-60.

THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT. 125

mountains of gold, if he only may be delivered from his present
fear. When words like these find utterance from a sinner' j lips in
the first coviction of his sin, they testify that he has not yet attained
to a full insight into his relations with God ; but has still much to
learn ; and this chiefly, that no future obedience can make up for
past disobedience; since that future God claims for His own, and as
nothing more than His due. It could not, therefore, even were there
no fault or flaw in it, and there will be many, make compensation
for the past ; and in this '/ will pay thee all,' we must detect the
voice of self-righteousness, imagining that, if only time were allowed,
it could make all past short-comings good. This goes far to explain
the later conduct of this suppliant. It is clear that he whom this
servant represents had never come to a true recognition of the
immensity of his debt. Little, in the subjective measure of his own
estimate, has been forgiven him, and therefore he loves little, or not
at all (Luke vii. 47). It is true that by his demeanour and his cry he
did recognize his indebtedness, else would there have been no setting
of him free ; and he might have gone on, and, had he only been true to
his own mercies, he would have gone on, to an ever fuller recognition
of the grace shown him : but as it was, in a little while he lost sight
of it altogether, and showed too plainly that he had ' forgotten that
he was purged from his old sins ' (2 Pet. i. 9).

However, at the earnestness of his present prayer, ' the lord of
that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave
him the deol.' & The severity of God only endures till the sinner is
brought to acknowledge his guilt ; like Joseph's harshness with his
brethren, it is love in disguise; and having done its work, having
brought him to own that he is verily guilty, it reappears as grace
again ; that very reckoning, which at first threatened him with
irremediable ruin being, if he will use it aright, the chiefest mercy of
all; bringing, indeed, his debt to a head, but only bringing it to
this head, that it may be for ever abolished. That, however, must
be first done. There can be no forgiving in the dark. God will
forgive ; but He will have the sinner to know what and how much he
is forgiven ; there must be first a ' Come now, and let us reason

a Compare Chardin ( Voy. en Perse, vol. v. p. 285) : Toute disgrace en Perse em-
porte infailliblement avec soi la confiscation des biens, et c'est un revers prodigieux
et epouvantable que ce changement de fortune, car un homme se trouve denue en
un instant si entierement qu'il n'a rien a lui. On lui ote ses biens, ses esclaves, el
quelquefois jusqu'a sa femme et ses enfans. Son sort s'adoucit dans la suite. Le
roi declare sa volonte sur non sujet. On lui rend presque toujours sa famille, partie
de ses esclaves, et ses meubles, et assez souvent ll revient au bout d'un temps a etre
retabli dans les bonnes graces de la cour, et a rentrer dans les emplois.

126 THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT.

together,' before the scarlet can be made white as snow (Isai. i 18).
The sinner must know his sins for what they are, a mountain of
transgression, before ever they can be cast into the deep sea of
God's mercy. He must first have the sentence of death in himself,
ere the words of life will have any abiding worth for him.

Such abiding worth they have not for him who so lately cried for
mercy and obtained it (Wisd. xii. 18, 19). ' The same servant went
out,' that is, from his master's presence, ' and found,' 1 on the instant,
as it would seem, and while the memory of his Lord's goodness
should have been fresh upon him, ' one of his fellow-servants, which
owed him an hundred pence' May we press this ' went out,' and say
that we go out from the presence of our God, when we fail to keep
an ever-lively sense of the greatness of our sin, and the greatness of
his forgiveness? So more than one interpreter ; a yet, on the whole,
I am disposed to see in this no more than what the outward condi-
tions of the parable require. He is said to go out, because in the
actual presence of his lord he could have scarcely ventured on the
outrage which follows. The term 'fellow-servant ' here does not im-
ply equality of rank between these two, or that they filled similar
offices ; b but only that they stood both in the relation of servants to
a common lord. And this sum is so small, ' an hundred pence' as
the other had been so large, 'ten thousand talents,' to signify how
little any man can offend against his brother, compared with what
every man has offended against God ; c so that, in Chrysostom's words,
these offences to those are as a drop of water to the boundless ocean. d

The whole demeanour of this unrelenting creditor toward his
debtor is graphically described : ' He laid hands on him, and took
him by the throat, saying* Pay me that thou owest.' Some press
the word in the original, and find therein an aggravation of this ser-
vant's cruelty, as though he was not even sure whether the debt were
owing or not. f There is no warrant for this. That the debt was

a Thus Theophylact : OiiSeU yap ii> t<u QetZ fj.evu>v, d<n>/itira0>js.

h Such would have been b^oSovKos, this is <rvv&ov\o<;.

c The Hebrew talent=3O0 shekels (Exod. xxxviii. 25, 26). Assuming this, the
proportion of the two debts would be as follows :

10,000 talents : 100 pence : : 1,250,000 : 1.

a Melanchton : Ideo autem tanta summa ponitur, ut sciamus nos valde multa et
magna peccata habere coram Deo. Sicut facile invenies multa, si vitam tuam as-
picies ; magna est securitas carnalis, magna negligentia in invocatione, magna diffi-
dentia, et multse dubitationes de Deo. Item vagantur sine fine cupiditates variae.

e Erasmus :"E.m>iyev, obtorto collo trahebat, . . . pertinet ad vi trahentem vei
in carcerem, vel in judicem.

f The et n o^eiAeis, which reading, as the more difficult, is to be preferred to 5 n
txtet'Aew, and which is retained by Lachmann, does not imply any doubt as to whether

THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT. 127

owing is plain ; he found, we are told, ' one of his fellow-servants,
which owed him an hundred pence. ' Any different assumption would
mar the proprieties of the story, would turn the edge of the parable,
and we should have here a vulgar extortioner and wrong-doer. But
such a one the law would have sufficiently condemned ; there would
have been no need to speak for this a parable of the kingdom of
heaven. The lessons which it teaches are different ; lessons which
they need to learn who are not under the law, but under grace ;
and this chiefly that it is not always right, but often the most oppo-
site to right, to press our rights, that in the kingdom of grace the
summum jus may be the summa injuria. This man would fain have
been measured to by God in one measure, while He measured to his
brethren in another. He would fain be forgiven, while yet he did
not forgive. But this may not be. A man must make his choice.
It is free to him to dwell in the kingdom of grace ; finding love, he
must exercise love. If, on the contrary, he pushes his rights, as far
as they will go, if the law of strictest severest justice is the law of his
dealings with his fellow-men, he must look for the same as the law of
God's dealings with him, and in the measure wherein he has meted,
that it shall be measured to him again.

It was in vain that ' his fellow-servant fell down at his feet, and
besought him, saying, Have patience with me, an i I will pay thee all ; '
using exactly the same words of entreaty which he, in the agony of
his distress, had used, and, using, had found mercy. ' He would
not ; but went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt ; '
dragging, as we may suppose, his debtor with him till he could con-
sign him to the safe custody of the jailer ; recusing, in Chrysostom's
words, to 'recognize the port in which he had L/mself so lately escaped
shipwreck ; ' and all unconscious that he was condemning himself,
and revoking his own mercy. But such is man, so harsh and hard,
when he walks otherwise than in a constant sense of forgiveness re-
ceived from God. Ignorance or forgetfulness of his own guilt makes
him harsh, unforgiving, and cruel to others ; or at best, he is only
hindered from being such by those weak defences of natural charac-
ter which may at any moment be broken down. The man who
knows not his own guilt, is ever ready to exclaim, as David in the
time of his worst sin, ' The man that hath done this thing shall surely
die ' (2 Sam. xii. 5) ; to be as extreme in judging others, as he is re-
miss and indulgent in judging himself; while, on the other hand, it
is to them ' who are spiritual ' that St. Paul commits the restoring of

the debt were really due or no : but the conditional form was originally, though of
course not here, a courteous form of making a demand.

128 THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT.

a brother ' overtaken in a fault ' (Gal. vi. i) ; and when he urges on
Titus the duty of showing meekness unto all men, he finds the motive
here 'for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient,
deceived, serving divexs lusts and pleasures ' (Tit. iii. 3) It is just
in man to be merciful (Matt. i. 19), to be humane is human. None
but the altogether Righteous may press his utmost rights ; whether
He will do so or not is determined by altogether different considera-
tions, but He has not that to hold his hand, which every ma?i has,
even the sense of his own proper guilt (John viii. 7-9).

' So when his fellow-servants saw what was done, they were very
sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done.' It is not
in heaven only that indignation is felt when men thus measure to
others in so different a measure from that which has been measured
to them. There are on earth also those who have learned what is
the meaning of the mercy which the sinner finds, and what the obli-
gations which it imposes on him; and who mourn in their prayer
when this is greatly forgotten by others round them. The servants
were 'sorry;' their lord, as we read presently, was 'wroth' (ver.
34) ; to them grief, to him anger, is ascribed. The distinction is
not accidental, nor without its grounds. In man, the sense of his
own guilt, the deep consciousness that whatever sin he sees come to
ripeness in another, exists in its germ and seed in his own heart, with
the knowledge that all flesh is one, and the sin of one calls for hu-
miliation from all, will ever make sorrow the predominant feeling in
his heart, when the spectacle of moral evil is brought before his eyes ;
but in God the pure hatred of sin, a which is, indeed, His love of
holiness at its opposite pole, finds place. As the servants of the
king here, so the servants of a heavenly King complain to Him,
mourn over all the oppressions that are wrought in their sight : the
things which they cannot set right themselves, the wrongs which
they are weak to redress, they can at least bring to Him ; and they
do not bring them in vain. ' Then his lord, after that he had called
him, said unto him, O thou wicked servaut' b this, which he had not
called him on account of his debt, he now calls him on account of
his ingratitude and cruelty ' I forgave thee all that debt, because
thou desiredst me : shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy
fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee ? D The guilt which he is

" On the language of Scripture, attributing anger, repentance, jealousy to God,
Augustine has good remarks {Con. Adv. Leg. et Proph. i. 20; and Ad Simplic. ii.
qu. 2).

b Bengel: Sic non vocatus fuerat ob debitum, a remark which Origen and Chrys-
osiom had already made.

See Chrysostom, De Simult. Horn. xx. 6, an admirable discourse.

THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT. 129

charged with is, not that, needing mercy, he refused to show it, but
that, having received mercy, he remains unmerciful still. A most im-
portant difference ! They, therefore, who like him are hard-hearted
and cruel, do not thereby bear witness that they have received no
mercy : on the contrary, the stress of their offence is, that having
received an infinite mercy, they remain unmerciful yet. The ob-
jective fact, that Christ has put away the sin of the world, and that
we have been baptized into the remission of sins, stands firm, whether
we allow it to exercise a purifying, sanctifying, humanizing influence
on our hearts cr not. Our faith apprehends, indeed, the benefit, but
has not created it, any more than our opening of our eyes upon the
sun has first set the sun in the heavens.

'And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormenters, till
he should pay all that was due unto him'' according to that word,
' He shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy '
(Jam. ii. 13). The king had dealt with him before as a creditor
with a debtor, now as a judge with a criminal. 'The tormenters'
are those who, as the word implies, shall make the life of the
prisoner bitter to him ; wring out from him the confession of any
concealed hoards which he may still possess ; even as there are ' tor-
mentors ' in that world of woe, whereof this prison is a figure
fellow-sinners and evil angels instruments of the just yet terrible
judgments of God. a But here it is strange that the king delivers the
offender to prison and to punishment not for the evil which he had
just wrought, but for that old debt which had seemed unconditionally
remitted to him. When Hammond says, that the king ' revoked his
designed mercy,' and would transfer this view of the transaction to
the relation between God and sinners, this is one of those evasions

a Grotius makes the patravurrai merely=Seo-(xo^uAaKes, and Kuinoel, who observes
that debtors are given to safe keeping, but not to tortures. This is not accurate.
Thus in early times there were certain legal tortures, a chain weighing fifteen pounds,
a pittance of food barely sufficient to sustain life (see Arnold, Hist, of Rome, vol. i.
p. 136), which the Roman creditor might apply to the debtor for the bringing him
to terms. The old centurion (Livy, ii. 23) complains of worse than this ductum
se ab creditore non in servitium, sed in ergastulum et carnificinam esse: inde osten-
tare tergum, fcedum recentibus vestigiis vulnerum. In the East, too, where no
depth of apparent poverty excludes the suspicion that there may be somewhere a
hidden store, where too it is almost a point of honour not to pay but on hardest
compulsion, the torture would be often used to wring something from the sufferings
of the creditor, himself, or from the compassion of his friends. In all these cases
the jailer would be naturally the tormentor ' as well (see 1 Kin. xxii. 27) ; so that
'tormentors' may well stand in its proper sense. Had this wicked servant mere'y
been given into ward now, his punishment would have been lighter than it should
have been, when his offence was not near so enormous as now it had become ; for
then he was to have been so d into slavery.

130 THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT.

of a difficulty by help of an ambiguous expression, or a word
ingeniously thrust in, which are too frequent even in good interpreters
of Scripture. It was not merely a designed mercy ; the king had not
merely purposed to forgive him, but, as is distinctly declared 'for-
gave him the debt. 1 It has been ingeniously suggested that the debt
for which he is now cast into prison is the debt of mercy and love,
which, according to that pregnant word of St. Paul's, ' Owe no man
anything, but to love one another, he owed, but had so signally
failed to pay. Few, however, would be satisfied with this. As little
are the cases of Adonijah and Shimei (i Kin. ii) altogether in point.
They, no doubt, on occasion of their later offences, were punished
far more severely than they would have been, but for their former
offences which are revived that they might be punished, but the later
offence which calls down its own punishment ; and moreover, paral-
lels drawn from questionable acts of imperfect men go but a little
way in establishing the righteousness of God.

The question which seems involved in all this, Do sins, once for-
given, return on the sinner through his after offences ? is one fre-
quently and fully discussed by the Schoolmen ; a and of course this
parable takes always a prominent place in such discussions. But it
may be worth considering, whether difficulties upon this point do not
arise mainly from too dead and formal a way of contemplating the
forgiveness of sins ; from our suffering the earthly circumstances of
the remission of a debt to embarrass the heavenly truth, instead of
regarding them as helps, but weak and often failing ones, for the
setting forth of that truth. One cannot conceive of remission of
sins apart from living communion with Christ ; being baptized into
Him, we are baptized into the forgiveness of sins ; and the abiding
in Christ and the forgiveness of sins go ever henceforward hand in
hand, are inseparable one from the other. But if we cease to abide
in Him, we then fall back into that state from which we had been
delivered into another, which is of itself a state of condemnation
and death, and one on which the wrath of God is resting. If, then,
setting aside the contemplation of a man's sins as a formal debt,
which must either be forgiven to him or not forgiven, we contem-
plate the life out of Christ as a state or condition of wrath, and the

By Pet. Lombard (Sent. iv. dist. 22) ; Aquinas (Sum. Theol. pars iii. qu. 88) ;
and H. de Sto. Victore (De Sacram. ii. pars, 14, 9: Utrum peccata semel dimissa
redeant). Cf. Augustine, De Bapt. Con. Don. i. 12. Cajetan, quoting Rom. xi.
29, the gifts of God are without repentance ' (a.^TafLiXryra) , explains thus the re-
calling of the pardon which had once been granted : Repetuntur debita semel donata,
non ut fuerant prius debita, sed ut modo effecta sunt materia ingratitudinis, which
is exactly the decision of Aquinas.

THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT. 131

life in Christ as one of grace, the one a walking in darkness, and the
other a walking in the light, we can better understand how a man's
sins should return upon him; that is, he, sinning anew, falls back
into the darkness out of which he had been delivered, and, no doubt,
all that he has done of evil in former times adds to the thickness of
that darkness, causes the wrath of God to abide more terribly on
that state in which he now is, and therefore upon him (John v. 14).
Nor may we leave out of sight that all forgiveness, short of that
crowning and last act, which will find place on the day of judgment,
and will be followed by a blessed impossibility of sinning any more,
is conditional in the very nature of things so conditional, that the
condition must in every case be assumed, whether stated or no ; that
condition being that the forgiven man continue in faith and obedience,
in that state of grace into which he has been brought ; which the
counterpart in the world of grace of this unmerciful servant had
evidently failed to do. He that will partake of the final salvation
must abide in Christ, else he will be ' cast forth as a branch, and
withered' (John xv. 6). This is the condition, not arbitrarily
imposed from without, but belonging to the very essence of salvation
itself; just as if one were drawn from the raging sea, and set upon the
safe shore, the condition of his continued safety would be that he
remained there, and did not again cast himself into the raging waters.
In this point of view 1 John i. 7 will supply an interesting parallel :
' If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth
us from all sin.' He whom this servant represents does not abide in
the light of love, but falls back into the old darkness ; he has, there-
fore, no fellowship with his brother, and the cleansing power of the
blood of Jesus Christ ceases from him.

It is familiar to many that the theologians of Rome have drawn
an argument for purgatory from the words, < till he should pay all
that was due," 1 * as from the parallel expression, Matt. v. 26 ; as though
they marked a limit beyond which the punishment should not extend.
But the phrase is proverbial, and all which it signifies is, that the
offender shall now taste of the extreme rigour of the law ; shall have
justice without mercy ; and always paying, shall yet never have paid
off, his debt. For since the sinner could never acquit the slightest
of the debt in which he is indebted to God, the putting that as a con-

* So Gerhard, Loci Theoll. loc. xxvii. 8. Chrysostom : i-ovi-eari fii-r^eKou, out* ykp
an-oSuo-ci wore : and Augustine (De Serm. Dom. in Alon. i. n): Donee solvas . . .
mirorsi non earn significat poenam quae vocatur aeterna. So Remigius: Semper sol-
vet, sed nunquam persolvet.

132 THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT.

dition of his liberation, which it is impossible could ever be fulfilled,
is the strongest possible way of expressing the eternal duration of his
punishment. When the Phocaans, abandoning their city, swore
that they would not return till the mass of iron which they plunged
into the sea appeared once more upon the snrface, this was the most
emphatic form they could devise of declaring that they would never
return ; such en emphatic declaration is the present.

The Lord concludes with a word of earnest warning : 'So likewise
shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts*
forgive not every one his brother their trespasses* 'So 1 with the
same rigour ; such treasures of wrath, as well as such treasures of
grace, are with Him : He who could so greatly forgive, can also
so greatly punish. 'My heavenly Father ' not thereby implying that
in such case He would not be theirs, since they, thus acting, would
have denied the relationship ; for our Lord says often 'My Father '
(as ver. 19), when no such reason can be assigned. On the declara-
tion itself we may observe that the Christian stands in a middle point,
between a mercy received and a mercy which he yet needs to receive.
Sometimes the first is urged upon him as an argument for showing
mercy ' forgiving one another, as Christ forgave you ' (Col. iii. 13 ;
Ephes. iv. 32); sometimes the last, 'Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall obtain mercy ' (Matt. v. 7) ; ' With the merciful Thou
wilt show Thyself merciful' (Ps. xviii. 25) ; ' Forgive, and ye shall
be forgiven' (Luke vi. 37; Jam. v. 9); and so the Son of Sirach
(xxviii. 3, 4), ' One man beareth hatred against another, and doth he
seek pardon from the Lord ? he showeth no mercy to a man who is
like himself, and doth he ask forgiveness of his own sins ? ' and thus,
while he must ever look back on a mercy received as the source and
motive of the mercy which he shows, he looks forward as well to the
mercy which he yet needs, and which he is assured that the merciful,
according to what Bengel beautifully calls the benigna talio of the
kingdom of God, shall obtain, as a new provocation to its abundant
exercise. Tholuck has some good remarks upon this point : ' From
the circumstance that mercy is here (Matt. v. 7) promised as the recom-
pense of anterior mercy on our part, it might indeed be inferred that
under ' merciful'' we are to imagine such as have not yet in any
degree partaken of mercy ; but this conclusion would only be just on
the assumption that the divine compassion consisted in an isolated

**A7rb tu>v Kap&Luv = it tyvxns, Ephes. vi. 6; to the exclusion, not merely to acts of
hostility, but also of all jui^o-i/caid'a. H. de Sto. Victore : Ut nee opere exerceat vin-
dictam, nee corde reservet mahtiam ; and Jerome: Dominus addidit, De cordibus
vestris, ut omnem simulationem firt-* n*ni<; prtpret.

THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT. 133

act, of which man could be the object only once for all in his life.
Seeing, however, that it is an act which extends over the whole life
of the individual, and reaches its culminating point in eternity, it
behoves us to consider the compassion of God for man, and man for
his brethren, as reciprocally calling forth and affording a basis for
one an other. ' a And a difficulty which Origen suggests, finds its
explanation here. b He asks, where in time are we to place the trans-
actions shadowed forth in this parable ? There are reasons on the
one hand why they should be placed at the end of this present dis-
penstion ; since at what other time does God take account with His
servants for condemnation or acquittal ? while yet, if placed there,
what further opportunity would the forgiven servant have for dis-
playing the harshness and cruelty which he actually does display
towards his fellow-servant ? The difficulty disappears, when we no
longer contemplate forgiveness as an isolated act, which must take
place at some definite moment, and then is past and irrevocable ; but
contemplate it as ever going forwrrd, as running parallel with and
extending over the entire life of the redeemed, which, as it is a life
of continual sin and shortcoming, so has need to be a life of con-
tinual forgiveness.

a Auslegung der Bergpredigt, p. 93. * Comm. in Matt, xviii.

Fleury has a fine story, illustrative of this parable {Hist. Eccles. vol. ii. p. 334V
Between two Christians at Antioch enmity had sprung up. After a while one of
them desired to be reconciled, but the other, who was a priest, refused. While it
thus fared with them, the prosecution of Valerian began; and Sapricius, the priest,
having boldly confessed himself a Christian, was on the way to death. Nicephorus
met him, and again sued for peace, which was again refused. While he was seeking
that peace which the other withheld, they arrived at the place of execution. He
that should have been the martyr was here terrified, offered to sacrifice to the gods,
and, despite the entreaties of the other, did so, making shipwreck of his faith :
while Nicephorus, boldly confessing, stepped in his place, and received the crown
which Sapricius lost, This story runs finely parallel with our parable. Before
Sapricius could have had grace to confess Christ, he must have had his own ten
thousand talents forgiven; but refusing to forgive a far lesser wrong, to put away
the displeasure he had conceived on some infinitely lighter grounds against his
brother, he forfeited all, his Lord was angry, withdrew from him his grace, and
suffered him again to be entangled in that kingdom of darkness from which he had
once been delivered. We are further reminded well that the unforgiving temper,
apart from all outward wrong, itself constitutes the sin of the unmerciful servant.
So Augustine (Quasi. Evang. i. qu. 25) : Noluit ignoscere ; . . . intelligendum,
tenuit contra eum hunc animum, ut supplicia illi vellet.

134

g. THE LABOURERS IN THE VINEYARD.
Matthew xx. 1-16.

THIS parable stands in closest connexion with the four last
verses of the preceding chapter, and can only be rightly un-
derstood by their help; which being so, the actual division of chap-
ters is here peculiarly unfortunate ; often causing it to be explained
with no reference to the context, and with no attempt to trac6 the
circumstances out of which it sprung. And yet on a right tracing of
this connexion, and the showing how the parable grew out of, a\id
was in fact an answer to, Peter's question, ' What shall we have ?"*
the success of the exposition will mainly depend. It is a parable
which stands only second to that of the Unjust Steward in the num-
ber of explanations, and those diverging the most widely, that have
been proposed for it ; and only second to that, if indeed second, in
the difficulties which it presents. These Chrysostom states clearly
and strongly ; though few will be wholly satisfied with this solution
of them. There is, first, the difficulty of bringing it into harmony
with the saying by which it is introduced and concluded, and which
it is plainly intended to illustrate ; and secondly, there is the moral
difficulty, the same as finds place in regard of the elder brother in
the parable of the Prodigal Son, namely, how can one who is him-
self a member of the kingdom of God 'be held,' as Chrysostom
terms it, 'by that lowest of all passions, envy, and an evil eye/
grudging in his heart the favours shown to other members of that
kingdom? or, if it be denied that the murmurers of this parable are
members of that kingdom, how is this denial reconcilable with the
fact of their having laboured all day long in the vineyard, and ulti-
mately carrying away their own reward ? And lastly, there is the
difficulty of deciding what is the drift, scope, and main doctrine
which it was intended to teach.

Of its many interpreters there are, first, those who see in the equal
penny to all, the key to the whole matter, and for whom its lesson is

THE LABOURERS IN THE VINEYARD. 135

this, the equality of rewards in the kingdom of God." This was
Luther's explanation in his earlier works, though he afterwards saw
reason to withdraw it. But however this may appear to agree with
the parable, 6 it evidently agrees not at all with the saying which sums
it up, and contains its moral : ' Many that are first shall be last, and
the last shall be first ; '" for such an equality would be no reversing
of the order of the first and last, but a setting of all upon a level.

Others affirm that the parable is meant to set forth this truth,
that God does not regard 'the length of time during which men are
occupied in his work, but the fidelity and strenuous exertion with
which they accomplish that work. d Of this explanation there will
presently be occasion to speak more at large ; it will be enough now
to observe that if all had turned on the fact that the last-hired la-
bourers had worked more strenuously than the first, this circumstance
would never have been omitted.

Calvin's explanation is this, a little modified, and in fact amounts
to the .-same thiug. He asserts that the intention of the parable is
to warn us against being over-confident, because we may have begun
well ; e lest (though this is not his illustration), like the hare in the
fable, growing careless and remiss in our exertions, we allow others to
outrun us ; and so, from having seemed the first, fall into the hind-
most rank : he takes it to convey a warning that no one begin to
boast, or consider the battle won, till he puts off his armour. But to
him also it may be replied that this agrees not with the circumstances

"Augustine (Serm. 343): Denarius ille vita aeterna est, quae omnibus par est ;
but without affirming equality in the kingdom of God ; for all the stars, as he goes
on to say, are in the same firmament, yet 'one star differeth from another star in
glory' (splendor dispar, caelum commune). Cf. De Sand. Virgin. 26; In Joh.
Evang. tract, lxvii. 2; Tertullian, De Monog. 10; Bernard, In Ps. Qui habitat,
Sertn. ix. 4; Ambrose, Ep. vii. n ; Gregory the Great, Moral, iv. 36. '

Yet Spanheim (Due. Evang. vol. iii. p. 785) is not easily answered, when
against this he says : Nee enim per denarium vita aeterna intelligi potest, quippe qui
denarius datur etiam murmuratoribus et invidis, nee datus exsatiat, et datur ill is qui
recedere jubentur a Domino (ver. 14). Atqui nee murmuratorum portio est vita
ceterna, nee invidorum, nee homines a Deo abducit, sed conjungit cum ille, nee ulli
datur, cui non plenam adferat satietatem gaudiorum. :

Fritzche, indeed, finds no difficulty in giving the sense of the gnome thus : Qui
postremi ad Messiam se adplicuerunt, primis accensebuntur, et qui prlmi eum secuti
sunt, postremis : but this is doing evident violence to the words.

d So Maldonatus: Finis parabolas est mercedem vitae sesternae non tempori quo
quis laboravit, sed labori et operi qvod fecit, tespondere ; and Kuinoel the same.

Non alio Dominum spectasse quam ut sues ad pergendum continuis stimulis in-
citaret. Scimus enim segnitiem (ere ex nimia fiducia nasci. If we found, indeed,
the gnome by itself, we might then say that such was his purpose in it : see the ad-
mirable use which Chrysostom (/ Matt. Horn. 67, ad hnem) makes of it, in this
regard.

136 THE LABOURERS IN

of the parable, since the labourers who were first engaged are not
accused of having grown slack in labour during the latter part of the
day, and there is nothing to warrant any such assumption.

There are others who make not the penny equal to all, but the
successive hours at which the different bands of labourers were hired,
the most prominent circumstance of the parable. And these inter-
preters may be again subdivided ; for there are, first, those who, as
Irenaeus," Origen, and Hilary, see in it a history of the different
summonses to a work of righteousness which God has made to men
from the beginning of the world, to Adam, to Noah, to Abra-
ham, to Moses, and lastly to the Apostles, bidding them each, in
his order, to go work in his vineyard. Of these labourers, all the
earlier lived during weaker and more imperfect dispensations, and
underwent, therefore, a harder toil, in that they had not such abun-
dant gifts of the Spirit, such clear knowledge of the grace of God
in Christ, to sustain them, as the later called, the members of the
Christian Church. Their heavier toil, therefore, might aptly be set
forth by a longer period of work, and that at the more oppressive
time of the day (cf. Acts xv. 10) ; while the Apostles, and the other
faithful called into God's vineyard at the eleventh hour (' the last
time,' or, 'the last hour' as St. John [i Ep. ii. 18] terms it), and
partakers of the larger free grace now given in Christ had little by
comparison to endure. But in reply, it may be asked, When could
that murmuring have taken place, even supposing the people of God
could thus grudge because of the larger grace freely bestowed upon
others? Those prior generations could not have so murmured in
their lifetime ; for before the things were even revealed which God
had prepared for His people that came after, they were in their
graves. Far less is it to be conceived as finding place in the day of
judgment, or in the kingdom of love made perfect. Unless, then,
we quite explain away the murmuring, accepting Chrysostom's
ingenious solution of it, that the Lord only brought it in to enhance
the greatness of the things freely given to His disciples, which He
would thus imply were so great and glorious that those who lived
before they were imparted might be almost tempted to murmur, com-
paring themselves with their more richly endowed successors, this
explanation seems untenable; as, were it worth while, much more
might be urged against it.

a Con. Hcer. iv. 36.7. His immediate object is to assert the unity of the Old Dis-
pensation and the New, that one purpose ran through, and one God ordered, them
both ; the same who called patriarchs and prophets in the earlier hours calling
Apostles in the last. He makes many of the parables, and some with better right
than this, to teach this lesson.

THE VINEYARD. 137

Then, as a subdivision of this group of interpreters, there are those
who, in the different hours at which the labourers are hired, see
different periods of men's lives, at which they enter on the Lord's
work ; and who affirm that its purpose is to encourage those who
have entered late on His service, now to labour heartily, not allow-
ing the consciousness of past negligences to make slack their hands ;
since they, too, if only they will labour with their might for the
time, long or short, which remains, shall receive with the others a
full reward. This is, in the main, Chrysostom's view:" but while,
under certain limitations, such encouragement may undoubtedly be
drawn from the parable, it is another thing to say that this is the
admonishment which it is especially meant to convey. In what living
connexion would the parable then stand with what went before, with
Peter's question, or with the temper out of which that question grew,
and which this teaching of the Lord was intended to meet and to
correct ?

But the explanation, which certainly contains more truth in it than
all hitherto passed under review, is that which finds here a warning
and a prophecy of the causes which would lead to the rejection of
of the Jews, the first called into the vineyard of the Lord ; these
causes being mainly their proud appreciation of themselves and of
their own work ; their displeasure at seeing the Gentiles, aliens so
long, put on the same footing, admitted to equal privileges, with
themselves in the kingdom of God : b and an agreement or covenant
being made with the first hired, and none with those subsequently
engaged, has seemed a confirmation of this view. Doubtless this
application of the parable is by no means to be excluded. It was
notably fulfilled in the Jews; their conduct did supply a solemn con-
firmation of the need of the warning here given : yet at the same
time this fulfilment was only one out of many ; for our Lord's words
are so rich in meaning, to bring out the essential and abiding rela-
tions between men and God, that they are continually finding their
fulfilment. Had this, however, been His primary meaning, we

a And also Jerome's (Comm. in Matt.): Mihi videntur primae horae esse operarii
Samuel et Jeremias et Baptista Johannes, qui possunt cum Psalmista dicere, Ex
utero matris meae Deus es tu. Tertiae vero horae operarii sunt qui in pubertate
servire Deo coeperunt. Sextae horse, qui matura. aetate susceperunt jugum Christi :
nonae, qui jam declinant ad senium : porro undecimas, qui ultima senectute. Et
tamen onmes pariter accipiunt prasmium, licet diversus labor sit.

b Cocceius : Subindicatur futura murmuratio et indlgnatio Judaeorum contra gen-
tes : quorum praesumptio est, gentes in regno Christi ipsis debere subjici, et non de-
bere pervenire ad prasmium, nisi ipsi quoque ita laboraverint, ut Judaei per multa
secula laboraverant. See, in favour of this explanation, Greswell, Expos, of the
Par. vol. iv. p. 370, sqq.

138 THE LABOURERS IN

should expect to hear of but two bands of labourers, the first hired
and the last : all who come between would only serve to confuse and
perplex. The solution sometimes given of this objection, that the
successive hirings are the successive summonses to the Jews ; first,
under Moses and Aaron ; secondly, under David and the kings ;
thirdly, under the Maccabsean chiefs and priests ; and lastly, in the
time of Christ and His Apostles ; or that these are severally Jews,
Samaritans, and proselytes of greater and less strictness, seems
devised merely to escape from an embarrassment, and only witnesses
for its existence without removing it.

Better, then, to say that the parable is directed against a wrong
temper and spirit of mind, which, indeed, was notably manifested in
the Jews, but one against which not merely they, but all men in pos-
session of spiritual privileges, have need to be, and are here, warned :
while at the same time the immediate occasion from which it rose,
was not one in which they were involved. This is clear, for the
warning was not primarily addressed to them, but to the Apostles, as
the chiefest and foremost in the Christian Church, the earliest called
to labour in the Lord's vineyard ' the first? both in time and in
the amount of suffering and toil which they would have to undergo.
They had seen the rich young man (xix. 22) go sorrowful away,
unable to abide the proof by which the Lord had mercifully revealed
to him how strong the bands whereby he was yet holden to the world
and the things of the world. They (for Peter here, as so often, is
the representative and spokesman of all) would fain know what their
reward should be, who had done this very thing from which he had
shrunk, and forsaken all for the Gospel's sake (ver. 27). The Lord
answers them first and fully, that they and as many as should do the
same for His sake, should reap an abundant reward (ver. 28, 29).
At the same time the question itself, ' What shall we have ? ' was not
a right one; it put their relation to their Lord on a wrong footing ;
there was a tendency in it to bring their obedience to a calculation
of so much work, so much reward. There lurked, too, a certain
self-complacency in this speech. That spirit of self-exalting com-
parison of ourselves with others, which is so likely to be stirring,
when we behold any signal failure on their part, was obscurely at
work in them ; so obscurely that they may have been hardly conscious
of it themselves ; but He who knew what was in man, saw with a
glance into the depths of Peter's heart, and having replied to the
direct question, ' What shall we have?' went on to crush the evil in
the bud, and before it should unfold itself further. * Not of works,
lest any man should boast ; ' this was the truth which they were in

THE VINEYARD. 139

danger of missing, and which He would now by the parable enforce ;
and if nothing of works, but all of grace for all, then no glorying of
one over another, no claim as of right upon the part of any." In
that question of theirs there spake out something of the spirit of the
hireling and it is against this spirit that the parable is directed, which
might justly be entitled, On the nature of rewards in the kingdom of
God, the whole finding a most instructive commentary in Rom. iv.
1-4, which supplies not a verbal, but more deeply interesting, a real
parallel to the parable before us.

So far as it is addressed to Peter, and in him to all true believers,
it is rather a warning against what might be, if they were not careful
to watch against it, than a prophecy of what would be. b For we can-
not conceive of him who dwells in love as allowing himself in envious
and grudging thoughts against any of his brethren, because, though
they have entered on the service of God, or been engaged in a lighter
labour, they will yet be sharers with him of the same heavenly reward ;
or refusing to welcome them gladly to all the blessings and privileges
of the communion of Christ. Least of all can we imagine him so to
forget that he also is saved by grace, as to allow such hateful feelings
to come to a head, actually to take form and shape, which they do in
the parable, or as justifying to himself and to God, like the spokes-
man among the murmurers here. We cannot conceive this even here
in our present imperfect state, much less in the perfected kingdom
hereafter; for love 'rejoices in the truth, ,c and the very fact of one
so grudging against another would prove that he himself did not
dwell in love, and therefore was under sentence of exclusion from
that kingdom. d It is then a warning to the Apostles, and through
them to all believers, of what might be, not a prophecy of what shall

* Gerhard : Sub finem, quia Christo Petri etreliquorumconfidentia non fuit ignota,
et verendum erat ne ob magnificamhancpromissionem sealiisprceferrent.hunc locum
gravi sentential concludit, qui ipsos et in primis Petrum sub modestia et metu con-
tinere cupit, Multi autem primi erunt novissimi primi. . . . Nolit ergo altum
sapere, nolite arroganter de vobis ipsis sentire. So also Olshausen, who refers to
ver. 20-28 of this chapter (ct. Mark x. 35), as an evidence how liable the promise
(xix. 28) was to be perverted and misunderstood by the old man not yet wholly
mortified in Apostles themselves.

b Bengel : Respectu Apostolorum non est praedictio sed admonitio.

In the beautiful words of Leighton (Prcz/ect. 6): 'o 4>Q6vo<; ef<o toO 6eiov xopou- sed
caritas absolutissima, qua unusquisque simul cum sua alterius muruo felicitate fruitur
et beatus, est, ilia, scilicet tanquam sua collastatus ; unde inter illos infinita quaedam
beatitudinis repercussio et multiplicatio est: qualis foret splendor aulse auro et gemmis,
pleno regum et magnatum choro, nitentis, cujus parietes speculis undique lucidissi-
mis obtecti essent.

d Gregory the Great says excellently (Horn. 19, in Evang.) on this murmuring;
Cselorum regnum nullus murmurans accipit ; nullus qui accipit, murmurare poterit.

1 40 THE LABO URERS IN

be for any who share in the final reward. They are taught that,
however long continued their work, abundant their labours, yet
without this charity to their brethren, this humility before God, they
are nothing; that pride and a self-complacent estimation of their
work, like the fly in the precious ointment, would spoil the work,
however great it might be, since that work stands only in humility ;
and from first they would fall to last. There is, then, this difference
between the story of the parable and the truth of which it is the
exponent, that while it would not have been consistent with equity
for the householder altogether to have deprived the first labourers of
their hire, notwithstanding their pride and discontent, while conse-
quently they receive their wages, and are only punished by a severe
rebuke, yet the lesson taught to Peter, and through him to us all, is,
that the first may be altogether last; that those who seem chiefest in
labour, yet, if they forget withal that the reward is of grace and not
of works, and begin to boast and exalt themselves above their fellow-
labourers, may altogether lose the things which they have wrought;*
while those who seem last, may yet, by keeping their humility, be
acknowledged first and foremost in the day of God. With these
preliminary remarks, which the difficulties of the parable have made
it necessary to draw out at length, we may now proceed to consider
its details.

' The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder,
which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vine-
yard: ' in other words, The manner of God's dealings with those
whom He calls to the privileges of working in His Church is like to
that of a householder, who should go out early in the morning to
hire labourers. b This is ever true in the heavenly world, that God
seeks His labourers, and not they who seek Him : < You have not
chosen Me, but I have chosen you' (John xv. 16). E vary summons
to a work in the heavenly vineyard is from the Lord: man's heart
never originates the impulse ; all which is man's in the matter is, that
he do not resist the summons, which it is his melancholy prerogative
that he is able to do. It is 'a call,' according to the instructive
Scriptural expression : but as in the natural world a call implies no
force, may be listened to or may be disregarded, so also is it in the

spiritual.

'And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he

* Gregory the Great again {Moral, xix. 21): Perit omne quod agitur, si non sol-
licite in humilitate custoditur.

b Fleck : Non in una persona sed in tota actione collatio consistit ; a remark of
frequent application.

THE VINEYARD. 141

sent them into his vineyard.'* The different footing upon which the
different bands of labourers went to their work, would scarcely have
been so expressly noted, if no signification were to be found therein.
An agreement was made by these first-hired labourers before they en-
tered on their labour, exactly the agreement and bargain which Peter
wished to make, ' What shall we have ? ' while those subsequently
engaged went in a simpler spirit, trusting that whatever was equitable
the householder would give them. We have here already hints upon
the part of some of that wrong spirit which presently comes to a head
(ver. u, 12) ; on the part of others, we have the true spirit of humble
waiting upon the Lord, in full assurance that He will give far more
than his servants can desire or deserve, that God is not unrighteous
to forget any labour of love which is wrought for Him, that He will
not fail to show Himself an abundant rewarder of all them that seek
and serve Him. b

At the third, at the sixth, and at the ninth hour, or at nine in the
morning, at midday, and at three in the afternoon, he again went
into the market-place, d and those whom he found waiting there, sent

a A denarius, a Roman silver coin, which passed current as equal to the Greek
drachm, though in fact some few grains lighter. It was = 8%^. at the latter end of
the commonwealth, afterwards something less, of our money. It was not an uncom-
mon, though a liberal, day's pay (see Tob. v. 14). Morier in his Second yourney
through Persia, p. 265, mentions having noted in the market-place at Hair.adan a
custom like that alluded to in the parable : 'Here we observe every morning before
the sun rose, that a numerous band of peasants were collected with spades in their
hands, waiting to be hired for the day to work in the surrounding fields. This cus-
tom struck me as a most happy illustration of our Saviour's parable, particularly
when passing by the same place late in the day, we still found others standing idle,
and remembered his words, "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" as most appli-
cable to their situation ; for on putting the very same question to them, they answered
us "Because no man hath hired us.'' '

b Thus Bernard, in a passage {In Cant. Serm. xvi. 4) containing many interesting
allusions to this parable : Ille [Judaeus] pacto conventionis, ego placito voluntatis
innitor.

These would not, except just at the equinoxes, be exactly the hours ; for the Jews,
as well as the Greeks and Romans, divided the natural day, that between sunrise and
sunset, into twelve equal parts (John xi. 9), which parts must of course have been
considerably longer in summer than in winter ; for though the difference between the
longest and the shortest day is not so great in Palestine as with us, yet it is by no
means trifling ; the longest day is of 14k i2 m duration, the shortest of o> 48, with a
difference therefore of 4 h 24m, so that an hour on the longest day would be exactly
22 m longer than an hour on the shortest. The equinoctial hours did not come into
use until the fourth century (see the Lid. of Gr.and Rom. A?M. s. v. Hora, p. 485).
Probably the day was also divided into the four larger parts here indicated, just as
the Roman night into four watches, and indeed the Jewish no less : the four divisions
of the latter are given in a popular form, Mark xiii, 35 (see Schoettgen, Hor. Heb*
vol. i. p. 136).

d Maldonatus : Totum mundum qui extra Eccles'^'n est.

142 THE LABOURERS IN

into his vineyard; events which call for no remark, as first and last
are the only ones on whom the parable ultimately turns. 'And about
the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith
unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle ? ' All activity out of
Christ, all labour that is not labour in his Church, is in his sight a
'standing idle? 'They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us.'
There was a certain amount of rebuke in the question, which it is in-
tended that this answer shall clear away ; for it belongs to the idea of
the parable, that it shall be accepted as perfectly satisfactory. It is
not then in a Christian land, where men grow up under sacramental
obligations, with the pure word of God sounding in their ears, that
this answer could be given ; or at least, only in such woful instances
as that which, alas ! our own land at the present affords, where in the
bosom of the Church multitudes have been allowed to grow up ig-
norant of the blessings which her communion affords, and the re-
sponsibilities it lays upon them; and even in their mouths there
would only be a partial truth in the answer, 'No man h%th hired us ;'
since even they cannot be altogether ignorant of their Christian voca-
tion. Only when the kingdom of God is first set up in a land, enters
as a new and hitherto unknown power, could any with full truth
reply, 'No man hath hired us : if we have been living in disobedi-
ence to God, it has been because we were ignorant of Him ; if we
were serving Satan, it was because we knew no other master and no
better service.'

While then the excuse which these labourers plead, appertains not
to them who, growing up within the Church, have despised to the
last, or nearly to the last, God's repeated biddings to go work in his
vineyard ; while the unscriptural corollary cannot be appended to the
parable,* that it matters little at what time of men's lives they enter

The Author of a modern Latin essay, De Sera Resipiscentia, desirous to rescue
tne parable from such dangerous abuse, urges that it should have been otherwise
framed, if such were its doctrine : Oportuisset dixisse, Regnum caelorum simile est
homini egres<o alto mane, ad conducendum operarios in vineam suam. Invenit tales
quibus fecit maxima promissa, sed isti haec rejecerunt, praeferentes manere in foro ad
ludendum et compotandum. Reversus est hora tertita, sedem illis obtulit, et in-
stantius eos rogavit, sed absque fructu. . . . Idem fecit hora sexta et nona, ipsius
autem oblationes et promissiones semper fuerunt inutiles. Illi quin etiam ipsum
male exceperunt, ipsique proterve dixerunt, quod nollent pro eo laborare. Ipse ne
sic quidem offensus, reversus est, cum non nisi una diei hora superesset, eandemque
obtulit summam quam mane. Illi tunc videntes quod summam tantam lucrari pos-
sent labore momentaneo, tandem passi sunt hoc sibi persuaderi, spectantes maxime
quod dies fere transactus foret ante suum in vineam adventum. Augustine (Serm.
lxxxvii. 6) has the same line of thought : Numquid enim et illi, qui sunt ad vineam
conducti, quando ad illos exibat paterfamilias, ut conduceret quos invenit hora tertii
. . . dixerunt illi : Exspecta, non illuc imus nisi hora. sexta.? aut quos invenit hora

THE VINEYARD. 143

heartily upon his service, how long they despise his vows which have
been upon them from the beginning ; yet one would not therefore
deny that there is such a thing even in the Christian Church as men
being called, or to speak more correctly, since they were called
long before, as men obeying the call and entering the Lord's vine-
yard, at the third, or sixth, or ninth, or even the eleventh hour.
Only their case will be parallel not to that of any of these labourers
in regard of being able to make the same excuse as they did, but
rather to that of the son, who being bidden to go work in his father's
vineyard, refused, but afterwards repented and went (Matt. xxi. 28);
and such an one, instead of clearing himself as respects the past,
which these labourers do, will on the contrary humble himself most
deeply, while he considers all his neglected opportunities and the
long-continued despite which he has done to the Spirit of grace. Yet
while thus none can plead, l No man hath hired us f in a land where
the Christian Church has long been established, and the knowledge
of Christ more or less brought home unto all, the parable is not
therefore without its application in such ; since there also there will
be many entering into the Lord's vineyard at different periods, even
to a late one, of their lives ; and who, truly repenting their past un-
profitableness, and not attempting to excuse it, may find their work,
be it for a long or a short while, graciously accepted now, and may
share hereafter in the full rewards of the kingdom." For in truth
time belongs not to the kingdom of God. Not ( How much hast
thou done? ' but ' What art thou now?' will be the great question of
the last day. Of course we must never forget that all which men
have done will greatly affect what they are ; yet still the parable is a
protest against the whole quantitative appreciation of men's works
(the Romanist), as distinct from the qualitative, against all which
would make the works the end, and man the means, instead of the
man the end, and the works the means against that scheme which,
however unconsciously, lies at the root of so many of the confusions
in our theology at this day. b

sexta dixerunt Non imus nisi hora. nona. . . . Omnibus enim tantumdem daturas
est : quare nos amplius fatigamur? Quid ille daturus sit, et quid facturus sit, penes
ipsum consilium est. Tu quando vocaris, veni. Cf. Gregory of Nazianzum, Oral.
jcl. 20, against those who used this parable as an argument for deferring baptism.

a Remarkably enough we find this view supported by Leo the Great (V Voc.
Omn. Gent. 1. i. c. 17): Sine dubio hora undecima. intromissi in vineam, et totius
diei opa^ariis aggregati, istorum prseferunt sortem quos ad commendandam gratiae
excellentiam in defectu diei et conclusione vitas divina indulgentia muneratur, non
labori pretium solvens, sed divitias bonitatis suae in eos, quos sine operibus elegit,
effundens; ut etiam hi qui in multo labore sudarunt, nee amplius quam novissimi
acceperunt, intelliganl, donum se gratiae, non operum occepisse mercedam.

t> This mechanical, as opposed the dynamic, idea of righteousness, is carried to the

144 THE LABOURERS IN

'So ivhen even was come, the lor J of the vineyard saith unto his
steward, Call the labourers, and give them thir hire, beginni.ig from
the last unto the first.' 1 This householder will fulfil strictly the precept
of the law ; the hired labourer shall not have his payment deferred
till to-morrow : 'At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall
the sun go down upon it ; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it '
(Deut. xxiv. 15; cf. Lev. xix. 13 ; Job vii. 2 ; Mai. iii. 5 ; Jam. v. 4;
Tob. iv. 14). Christ is the 'steward,' or overseer rather, set over all
Gcd's house (Heb. iii. 6; John v. 27; Matt. xi. 27). The whole
economy of salvation has been put into his hands, and as part of this
the distribution of rewards (Rev. ii. 7, 10, 17, 28, &c). And first
the last hired are paid, those who came in without any agreement
made, and they receive a full penny. And here is encouragement
not to delay entering on God's service till late in our lives ; for we
everywhere find in Scripture a marked blessing resting on early piety
but encouragement for those who have so done now to work
heartily and with their might. Misgivings concerning the acceptance
of their work do not make men work the more strenuously; on the
contrary, nothing so effectually cuts the nerves of all exertion ; but
there is that in this part of the parable which may help to remove
such misgivings an those who would be most likely to feel them : let
them labour in hope ; they too shall be sharers in the full blessings of
Christ and of his salvation.

It may be securely inferred that all between the last and the first
hired received the penny as well ; though it is the first hired alone
who remonstrate, as those in whose case the injustice, for so it seemed
to them, appeared the most flagrant. To assume, as Chrysostom,

extremest point in the Chinese theology. Thus in that remarkable Livre des recom-
penses el des peines, the mechanical, or to speak more truly, the arithmetical, idea of
righteousness comes out with all possible distinctness. For example, p. 124. Pour
devenir immortel, il faut avoir amasse trois mille merites, et huit cents actions ver-
tuuses. How glorious, on the other hand are Thauler's words upon the way in
which men may have restored to them 'the years which the cankerworm has eaten:'
Libet hie quaerere quo pacto deperditum tempus unquam recuperarequispossit, cum
nullum sit tarn breve et velox temporis momentum, quod non totum cum omni vir-
tute ac facultate nostra Deo creatori debeamus. Sed hac in parte consilium sanis-
simum praestatur. Avertat se quisque cum omnibus tarn supremis quam infimis viri-
bus suis ab omni loco et tempore, seque in illud Nunc aeternitatis recipiat, ubi Deus
essentialiter in stabili quodam Nunc existit. Ibi neque prseteritum aliquid est, neque
futurum Ibi principium et finis universi temporis prsesentia adsunt. Ibi, in Deo
scilicet, deperdita omnia reperiuntur. Et qui in consuetudinem ducunt saepius in
Deum se immergere atque in ipso commorari, hi nimium fiunt locupletes, immo
plura inveniunt quam deperdere queant . . . Denique et neglecta omnia atque
deperdita in ipso quoque Dominicae passionis pretiossisimo thesauro reperire ac
recuperare licet.

THE VINEYARD. 145

Maldonatus, Hammond, Waterland, and Olshausen have done, that
these first hired had been doing their work negligently by comparison,
while the last hired, such for instance as a Paul, whom Origen, quoting
i Cor. xv. 10, suggests, had done it with their might, and had in fact
accomplished as much in their hour as the others in their day, is to
assume that of which there is no slightest trace in the narrative. And
more than this, such an assumption effectually blunts the whole point
of the parable, which lies in this very thing, that men may do and
suffer much, infinitely more than others, and yet be rejected, while
those others are received, that first may be last, and last first. It is
nothing strange that a rationalist like Kuinoel should thus explain the
parable ; for in fact the whole matter is thus taken out of the spiritual
world, and brought down to the commonest region of sense ; since if
one man does as much work in one hour as another in twelve, it is
only natural that he should receive an equal reward. Every difficulty
disappears, except indeed this, how the Lord should have thought
it worth while to utter a parable for the justifying of so very ordinary
a transaction ; or if He did, should have omitted that very thing
which constituted the justification. But indeed this interpretation
exactly brings us back to the level, from which to raise us the parable
was spoken; we have a Jewish,* instead of an Evangelical, parable;
an affirmation that the reward is not of grace, but of debt, the very
untruth which it was meant to rebuke and to reprove.

Singularly enough, exactly such a one is quoted by Lightfoot and others from
the Talmud. Of a famous Rabbi, who died young, it is asked, 'To what was R. Bon
Bar Chaija like? To a king who hired many labourers, among whom there was
one hired who performed his task surprisingly well. What did the king ? He took
him aside, and walked with him to and fro. When even was come, those labourers
came, that they might receive their hire, and he gave him a complete hire with the
rest. And the labourers murmured saying, "We have laboured hard all the day,
and this man only two hottrs, yet he hath received as much wages as we." The
king saith to them, "He hath laboured more in those two hours than you in the
whole day." So R. Bon plied the law more in eight and twenty years than another
in a hundred years.' Cf. the Spicilegium of L. Capellus, p. 28. Von Hammer
(Fundgruben d. Orients, vol. i. 157) quotes from the Sunna, or collection of Mahomet's
traditional sayings, what reads like a distorted image of this parable. The Jew, the
Christian, the Mahommedan are likened to three different bands of labourers, hired at
different hours, at morning, mid- day, and afternoon. The latest hired receive in the
evening twice as much as the others. It ends thus : 'The Jews and Christians will
complain and say, "Lord, Thou hast given two carats to these, and only one to us."'
But the Lord will say, ''Have I wronged you in your reward?" They answer, "No."
"Then learn that the other is an overflowing of my grace." ' See the same with
immaterial differences in Gerock, Christol. d. Koran, p. 141 ; and Mohler {Verm.
Schrift. vol. i. p. 355) mentions that, when claiming prophetic intimations of their
faith in our Scriptures, the Mahommedans refer to this parable and its successive
bands of labourers.

146 THE LABOURERS IN

When the first hired received the same sum as the others and no
more, 'they murmured against the goodman of the house, saying, These
last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto
us, which have borne the burden and heat a of the day. ' These other,
they would say, have been labouring not merely for a far shorter
time ; but when they entered on their tasks it was already the cool of
the evening, when toil is no longer so oppressive, while we have
borne the scorching heat of the middle noon. But here the perplex-
ing dilemma meets us, Either these are of the number of God's faith-
ful people ; how then can they murmur against their fellow-servants ?
or they are not of that number; what then can we understand of
their having laboured the whole day through in his vineyard, and
actually carrying away at last the penny, the reward of eternal life?
It is a very unnatural way of escaping the difficulty, to understand
'Take that which is thine," 1 as meaning 'Take the damnation which
belongs to thee, the just punishment of thy pride and discontent;'
or as Basil the Great has it, 'Take the earthly reward, the " hundred-
fold " promised in this present time, but lose the " everlasting life,"
which thou shouldst have had in addition' (Matt. xix. 29. b Theo-
phylact and others seek to mitigate as much as possible the guilt of
their murmuring, and see in it no more than the expression of that
surprise and admiration which will escape from some, at the unex-
pected position that others, of perhaps small account here, will occupy
in the future kingdom of glory. d But the expression of their discon-
tent is too strong, and the rebuke which it calls out too severe, to
admit of any such extenuation of their dissatisfaction. Better to say
that no analogy will be found for this murmuring in the future world
of glory ; and only where there is a large admixture of the old cor-

a Kav'ow, the dry burning east wind (Isai. xlix. 10; Ezek. xix. 12; Jam. i. 11) , so
fatal to all vegetable life, 'The wind from the wilderness" (Hos. xiii. 15), of which
Jerome says (Com. in Os. iii. 11): Kavauva, i.e. aridatem, sive ventum urentum, qui
contrarius floribus est, et germinantia cuncta disperdit. It has much in common
with, though it is not altogether so deadly as the desert wind Sam or Samiel, which
is often fatal to life ; and whose effects Venema (Comtn. in Ps. xci. 6) thus describes :
Tenetrat ventus, venenatis particulis mixtus, aestu suo venenato in viscera, etpraesen-
tissimum ac dolorificum adfert exitium. Subito corpora fcede afficiuntur ac putres
cunt. One of the grandest passages in Palgrave's Journey through Central and
Eastern Arabia is a description of the terrors of a Simoon.

i> Reg. Brev. Tract. Interr. 255, 256.

c Bellarmine : Admirationem potius quam querimoniam significare videtur.

d So Gregory tha Great (Horn. 19 in Evang.), though with particular reference to
the saints of the Old Testament : Quia antiqui patres usque ad adventum Domini
ducti ad regnum non sunt, . . . hoc ipsum murmurasse est ; quod et recte pro
percipiendo regno vixerunt, et tamen diu ad percipiendum regnum dilati stint.
Origen in the same spirit quotes Heb. xi. 39, 40.

THE VINEYARD. 147

ruption, in the present world of grace. There is rather here a teach-
ing by contraries ; as thus, ' Since you cannot conceive such a spirit
as that here held up before you, and which you feel to be so sinful
and hateful, finding room in the perfected kingdom of God, check
betimes its beginnings; check all inclinations to look grudgingly
at your brethren, who, having lingered and loitered long, have yet
found a place beside yourselves in the kingdom of grace, and are
sharers in the same spiritual privileges ; a or to look down upon and
despise those who occupy a less important field of labour, who are
called in the providence of God to endure and suffer less than your-
selves : repress all inclinations to pride yourselves on your own doings,
as though they gave you a claim upon God, instead of accepting
all of His free mercy and undeserved bounty, and confessing that
you as well as others must be saved entirely by grace.'

On the fact that the murmurers actually receive their penny, a
Roman Catholic expositor ingeniously remarks that the denarius or
penny was of different kinds ; there was the double, the treble, the
fourfold; that of brass, or rather copper, of silver, and of gold.
The Jew (for he applies the parable to Jew and Gentile) received
what was his, his penny of (he meaner metal, his earthly reward, and
with that went his way ; but the Gentile the golden penny, the
spiritual reward, grace and glory, admission into the perfected king-
dom of God. Ingenious as this must be confessed to be, no one
will for an instant accept it as a fair explanation of the difficulty ;
and yet it may suggest valuable considerations. The penny is very
different to the different receivers ; objectively the same, subjectively
it is very different ; it is, in fact, to every one exactly what he will
make it. b What the Lord said to Abraham, He says to each and to

There are many interesting points of comparison, as Jerome has observed,
between this parable and that of the Prodigal Son ; and chiefly between the murmur-
ing labourers in this, and the elder brother in that. They had borne the burden and
heat of the day he has served his father these many years; they grudged to see the
labourers of the eleventh hour made equal with themselves he to see the Prodigal
received into the full blessings of his father's house ; the lord of the vineyard remon-
strates with their narrow-heartedness and in like manner the father with him.

b Thus Aquinas, in answer to the question whether there will be degrees of glory
in the heavenly world, replies that in one sense there will, in another there will not:
Contingit aliquem perfactius frui Deo quam alium, ex eo quod est melius dispositus
vel ordinatus ad ejus fruitionem ; and again : Virtus erit quasi materialis dispositio
ad mensuram gratiss et glorias suscipiendae. There is one vision of God ; but there
are very different capacities for enjoying that vision, as is profoundly expressed by
the circles eccentric but ever growing smaller and thus nearer to the centre of light and
life, in the Paradiso of Dante. Augustine (Bnarr.in Ps. lxxii. i) carries yet further
this of the one vision of God for all : he compares it to the light which gladdens the
healthy eye, but torments the diseased (non mutatus, sed mutotum). It was a

148 THE LABOURERS IN

all, 'I am thy exceeding great reward;' and He has no other
reward to impart to any save only this, namely Himself. To ' see
Him as He is,' this is His one reward, the penny unto all. But they
whom these murmuring labourers represent had been labouring for
something else besides the knowledge and enjoyment of God, with
an eye to some other reward, to something on account of which
they could glory in themselves, and glory over others. It was not
merely to have much which they desired, but to have more than
others ; not to grow together with the whole body of Christ, but to
get before and beyond their brethren ; a and therefore the penny,
because it was common to all, did not seem enough, while in fact it
was to each what he would make it. For if the vision of God shall
constitute the blessedness of the coming world, they whose spiritual
eye is most enlightened, will drink in most of his glory ; then, since
only like can know like, all advances which are here made in humility,
in holiness, in love, are a polishing of the mirror that it may reflect
more distinctly the divine image, a purging of the eye that it may
see more clearly the divine glory, an enlarging of the vessel that it
may receive more amply of the divine fulness ; just as, on the other
hand, all pride, all self-righteousness, all sin of every kind, whether
it stop short with impairing, or end by altogether destroying, the
capacities for receiving from God, is in its degree a staining of the
mirror, a darkening of the eye, a narrowing of the vessel. 1 " In the
present case, where pride and envy and self-esteem had found place,
darkening the eye of the heart, the reward as a consequence seemed

favourite notion with the Mystics that God would not put forth a two-fold power to-
punish and reward, but the same power acting differently on different natures ; as, to
use their own illustration, the same heat hardens the clay and softens the wax. The
Zend-Avesta supplies a parallel : All, it is there said, in the world to come will have
to pass through the same stream ; but this stream will be as warm milk to the
righteous, while to the wicked it will be as molten brass.

The true feeling is expressed by Augustine : Hereditas in qua coheredes Christi
sumus, non minuitur multitudine filiorum, nee fitangustiornumerositatecoheredum.
Sed tanta est multis quanta qaucis, tanta singulis quanta omnibus ; and in a sublime
passage, De Lib. Arbit. ii. 14, where of truth, the heavenly bride, he exclaims :
Omnes amatores suos nullo modo sibi invidos recipit, et omnibus communis est, et
singulis casta est ; and by Gregory, who says : Qui facibus mvidias carere desiderat,
illam caritatem appetat, quam numerus possidentium non angustat. The same is
beautifully expressed by Dante Purgat 15, beginning.

Com' esser puote ch' un ben distributo

In piu posseditor, faccia piu recchi

Di se, che se da pochi e posseduto?
b Bellarmme (De /Eter. Felic. Sanct. v.): Denarius vitam seternam significat: sed
quemadmodum idem sol clarius conspicitur ab aquila quam ab aliis avibus, et idem
ignis magis calefacit proximos quam remotos, sic in eadam aeterna vita clarius videbit
et meundius sraudebit unus quam alius.

THE VINEYARD. 149

no reward; it did not appear enough ; a instead of being exactly what
each was willing, or rather had prepared himself to make it.

'But he answered one of them,'' him, probably, who was loudest
and foremost in the utterances of his discontent, < and said, Friend*
I do theee no wrong; didst thou not agree with me for a penny ? '
'Friend' 1 is commonly a word of address, as it would be among
ourselves, from a superior to an inferior, and in Scripture is a word
of an evil omen, seeing that, besides the present passage, it is the
compellation used to the guest that had not on a wedding garment,
and to Judas when he came to betray his Master (Matt. xxii. 12;
xxvi. 50). ' I do thee no wrong ; ' he justifies his manner of dealing
with them, as well as his sovereign right in his own things. They
had put their claim on the footing of right, and on that footing they
are answered. ' Take that thine is, and go thy way ; ' and again, 'Is
thine eye" evil, because I am good? so long as I am just to thee, may
I not be good and liberal to others ? ' The solution of the difficulty
that these complainers should get their reward and carry it away with
them, has been already suggested, namely, that, according to the
human relations to which the parable must adapt itself, it would not
have been consistent with equity to have made them forfeit their own
hire, notwithstanding the bad feeling which they displayed. Yet we
may say their reward vanished in their hands ; and the sentences
which follow sufficiently indicate that with God an absolute forfeiture
might follow, nay, must necessarily follow, where this grudging,
unloving, proud spirit has come to its full head ; as much is affirmed
in the words which immediately follow, ' So the last shall be first,
and the first last.'

Many expositors have been soreiy troubled how to bring these
words into agreement with the parable ; for in it 'first ' and ' last '
are all set upon the same footing ; while, in these words, it is rather

As Seneca has well said: Nulli ad aliena respicienti, sua placent ; and again:
Non potest quisquam et invidere et gratias agere.

b "Eraipe, in the Vulgate, Amice: but Augustine (Serm. lxxxvii. 3), Sodalis, which
is better. Our 'fellow' contains too much of contempt in it, though else the most
accurate reading of all.

Envy is ever spoken of as finding its expression from the eye, Deut. xv. 9; 1 Sam.
xviii. 9 ('Saul eyed David'); Prov. xxiii. 6; xxviii. 22; Tob. iv. 7 ; Ecclus. xiv. 10;
xxxi. 13 ; Mark vii. 22 ; indeed the word invidia says as much, being, as Cicero
observes ( Tusc. iii. 9) , a nimis intuendo fortunam alterius. There lies in the expres-
sion the belief, one of the widest spread in the world, of the eye being able to put
forth positive powers of mischief. Thus in Greek the 6<0aAn6? fiao-Kavos, and {Saanalveiv
= 4>8ovelv (see J. B. Lightfoot, Ep. to the Galalians, p 127); in Italian, the mal-
occhio ; in French, the mauvais-ceil. Persius: [/rentes oculos. See Becker, Charicles,
vol. ii. p. 291. We have on the other hand the iyaSb? o^flaA^d?, the ungrudging eye
(Ecclus. xxxii. 10, LXX).

150 THE LABOURERS IN

a reversing of places which is asserted ; those who seem highest, it
is declared, shall be placed at the lowest, and the lowest highest :
when, too, we compare Luke xiii. 30, where the words recur, there
can be no doubt that a total rejection of the 'first,' the unbelieving
Jews, accompanied with the receiving of the ' last? the. Gentiles,
into covenant is declared. Origen, whom Maldonatus follows, finds
an explanation in the fact that the ' last'' hired are the ' first' in
order of payment ; but this is so infinitesimally small an advantage,
that the explanation cannot be admitted. Moreover, the circum-
stance of the last hired being first paid is evidently introduced for
convenience-sake ; if the first hired had been first paid, and, as was
natural, had then gone their way, they would not have seen that the
others had obtained the same penny as themselves, and so would
have had no temptation to express their discontent. Neander* so
entirely despairs of reconciling the parable with the words which
introduce and finish it, that he proposes a desperate remedy, and one
under the frequent application of which we should lose all confidence
in the trustworthiness, not to speak of the inspiration, of the evan-
gelical records. He thinks the sentences and the parable to have been
spoken on different occasions, and only by accident to have been
here brought into connexion ; and asserts that one must wholly per-
vert this weighty parable, to bring it through forced artifices into
harmony with words which are alif n to it. But if what has been ob-
served above be correct, the saying is not merely in its place here,
but is absolutely necessary to complete the moral, to express that
which the parable did not, and, according to the order of human af-
fairs, could not express, namely, the entire forfeiture which would
follow on the indulgence of such a temper as that displayed by the
murmurers here.

There is more difficulty in the closing words, 'For many be called,
but few chosen.'* They are not hard in themselves, but only in the
position which they occupy. The connexion is easy and the appli-
cation obvious, when they occur as the moral of the Marriage of the
King's Son (Matt. xxii. 14); but here they have much perplexed
those who will not admit entire rejection from the heavenly kingdom
of those whom the murmuring labourers represent. Some explain,
'Many are called, but few have the peculiar favour shown to them,

Leben yesu, p. 196, note.

b It is not often that there is so felicitous an equivalent proverb in another language
as that which the Greek supplies here ; and which Clement oi Alexandria has more
than once adduced on the score of its aptness as a parallel :

noAAoi toi vap07jKO<opoi, n-aupoi 5e Te P6.k\ol.

THE VINEYARD. 151

that though their labour is so much less, their reward should be equal ;'
thus Olshausen, who makes the 'called 1 and the ' 'chosen'' alike par-
takers of final salvation, but assumes that by these terms are signified
lower and higher standings of men in the kingdom of heaven."
These last hired had, in his view, laboured more abundantly, but this
their more abundant labour was to be referred to a divine election,
so that the name 'chosen ' or elect well becomes them to whom such
especial grace was given. But this assumption of larger labour upon
their part mars, as has been already noted, the whole parable, and
cannot for a moment be admitted. Others understand by the 'called''
some not expressly mentioned, who had refused altogether to work
in the vineyard; in comparison with whom the 'chosen, 1 those who at
any hour had accepted the invitation, were so few, that the Lord
could not bear that any of these should be shut out from his full
reward. But the simplest interpretation seems to be : Many are
called to work in God's vineyard, but few retain that humility, that
entire submission to the righteousness of God, that utter abnegation
of any claim as of right on their own part, which will allow them in
the end to be partakers of his reward. b

a Thus Wolf also (Cures, in loc.) : KAtjtous et Ukex-nx; hie non tanquam specie sibi
oppositos considerandos esse, sed tanquam oppositos gradu felicitatis atque dignitatis.

b The term reward, to express the felicity which God will impart to his people,
sometimes offends, seeming to bring back to a legal standing point, and to imply a
claim, as of right, and not merely of grace, upon their part. But being a scriptural
term (Matt. v. 12, vi. 1 ; Luke vi. 35 ; 2 John 8 ; Rev. xxii. 12) , there is no reason
why we should shrink, and our Church has not shrunk, from its use ; for we pray
that we, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of Thee be plen-
teously rewarded.' Only let us understand what we mean by it. Aquinas says :
Potest homo apud Deum aliquid mereri non quidem secundum absolutam justitise
rationem, sed secundum divinse ordinationis quandam praesuppositionem ; and this
is a satisfactory distinction. The reward has relation to the work, but this, as the
early protesters against the papal doctrine of merits expressed it, according to a
justitia promissionis divines, not a justitia retributionis . There is no meritum con-
dignum, though Bellarmine sought to extort such from this very parable (see Ger-
hard, Loc. Theol. loc. xviii. 8, 114). When it is said, God is not unrighteous to
forget your work and labour of love,' it is only saying, He is faithful,' or promise-
keeping (ouk dSiKos=7ria-T6s : cf. 1 John i. 9 ; 1 Cor. x. 13 ; 1 Pet. iv. 19). Augustine
(Serm. ex. 4) : Non debendo, sed promittendo, debitorem se Deus fecit. In the
reward there is a certain retrospect to the work done, but no proportion between
them, except such as may have been established by the free appointment of the
Giver, and the only claim is upon his promise. It is, as Fuller says (Holy State, iii.
25), 'a reward, in respect of his promise; a gift, in respect of thy worthlessness ;
and yet the less thou lookest on it, the surer thou shalt find it, if labouring with
thyself to serve God for Himself, in respect of whom even heaven itself is but a
sinister end ; ' for, in the words of St. Bernard : Vera caritas mercenaria non est,
quamvis merces earn sequatur He is faithful that promised ' this, and nothing
else, must remain always the ground of all expectations ; and what these expectations
are to be, and what they are not to be, this parable declares. This subject of reward
is well discussed in the Supplement to Herzog's Real Encyclopiidie, s. v. Lohn.

152

10. THE TWO SONS.
Matthew xxi. 28-32.

OUR Lord had put back with another question (ver. 24, 25) the
question (ver. 23) with which his adversaries had hoped
either to silence Him, if He should decline to answer ; or to obtain
matter of accusation against Him, if He should give the answer
which they expected : and now, becoming Himself the assailant, He
commences that series of parables, in which, as a glass held up
before them, they might see themselves, the impurity of their hearts,
their neglect of the charge laid upon them, the aggravated guilt ot
that outrage against Himself which they were already meditating in
their hearts. Yet even these, wearing as they do so severe and
threatening an aspect, are not words of defiance, but of earnest
tenderest love, spoken with the intention of turning them, if this
were yet possible, from their purpose, of winning them also for the
kingdom of God. The first, that of the Two Sons, goes not so
deeply into the matter as the two that follow, and is rather retro-
spective, while those other are prophetic as well.

' But what think ye ? a certain man had two sons." 1 Here, as at
Luke xv. 11, are described, under the image of two sons of one
father, two great moral divisions of men, under one or other of
which might be ranged almost all with whom our blessed Lord in His
teaching and preaching came in contact. Of one of these classes
the Pharisees were specimens and representatives, though this class
as well as the other will exist at all times. In this are included all
who have sought a righteousness through the law, and by help of its
have been kept from openoutbreakings of evil. In the second class,
of which the publicans and harlots stand as representatives, are con-
tained all who have thrown off the yoke, openly and boldly trans-
gressed the law of God, done evil ' as with both hands earnestly.'
Now the condition of those first is of course far preferable ; that
righteousness of the law better than this open unrighteousness;
provided always that it be ready to give place to the righteousness of

THE TWO SONS. 153

faith, when that appears ; provided that it knows and feels its own
incompleteness ; and this will always be the case where the attempt
to keep the law will then have done its work, and have proved a
schoolmaster to Christ. But if this righteousness is satisfied with
itself, and this will be where evasions have been sought out to
escape the strictness of the requirements of the law ; if cold and
loveless and proud, it imagines that it wants nothing, and so refuses
to submit itself to the righteousness of faith ; then far better that
the sinner should have had his eyes open to perceive his misery and
guilt, even though it had been by means of manifest and grievous
transgressions, than that he should remain in this ignorance of his
true state, of all which is lacking to him still ; just as it would be
better that disease, if in the frame, should take a definite step, so
that it might be felt and acknowledged to be disease, and then met
and overcome, than that it should be secretly lurking in, and per-
vading, the whole system ; and, because secretly, its very existence
denied by him whose life it was threatening. From this point of
view St. Paul speaks, Rom. vii. 7-9 ; and this same lesson, that there
is no such fault as counting we have no fault, is taught us throughout
all Scripture. It is taught us in the bearing of the elder son towards
his father and returning brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son
(Luke xv. 28-30) ; and again in the demeanour of the Pharisee who
had invited Jesus to his house toward Him and toward the woman
'which was a sinner' (Luke vii. 36-50); and in that of another
Pharisee, whose very prayers this spirit and temper made to be
nothing worth (Luke xviii. 10 ; cf. 29-32).

'And he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to-day in my
vineyard' (cf. Matt. xx. 1-16). This command was the general
summons made both by the natural law on the conscience, and
also by the revealed law which came, by Moses, that men should
bring forth fruit unto God. This call the publicans and harlots,
and all open sinners, manifestly neglected and despised. The
son first bidden to go to the work ' answered and said, I will not.'"-
The rudeness of the answer, the total absence of any attempt to
excuse his disobedience, are both characteristic. The representative
of careless, reckless sinners, he has dismissed even the hypocrisies
with which others cloke their sins; cares not to say, like those
invited guests, ' I pray thee have me excused ; ' but flatly refuses to
go. 'And he came to the second, and said likewise; and he
answered and said, I go, sir. ,h The Scribes and Pharisees, as pro-

Gerhard : Vita peccatorum nihil aliud est, quam realis quidara clamor et professio,
Nolumus facere Dei voluntatem.

b 'E7U, Kupte. The readings here are various ; vaX Kiipie, imiyw xvpie, and many more;

154 THE TWO SONS.

fessing zeal for the law, set themselves in the way as though they
would fulfil the commands ; this, their profession, was like the second
son's promised obedience. But they said, and did not (Matt, xxiii.
2) ; the prophet Isaiah, as the Lord declared, had long since described
them truly (Matt. xv. 8; cf. Isai. xxix. 13), 'This people draweth
nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me ; ' and so was it here. When the
marked time arrived, when it was needful to take decisively one side
or the other, when the Baptist came to them 'in the way of right-
eousness,' and summoned to an earnest repentance, to a revival of
God's work in the hearts of the entire people, then many of those
hitherto openly profane were baptized, confessing their sins (Matt.
iii. 5,6); and like the son who first so insolently refused obedience
to his father's bidding, ' repented, and went : ' while on the other
hand, the real unrighteousness of the Pharisees, before concealed
under show of zeal for the law, was evidently declared : professing
wilingness to go, they ' went not.'

To the Lord's question, ' Wliether of the tioain did the will of his
father ? ' His adversaries cannot profess inability to reply, as they
had done to a former question (ver. 27) ; they are obliged to answer,
though their answer condemns themselves. ' They say unto Him,
The first : ' not, of course, that he did it absolutely well, but by
comparison with the other. Then follows the application to them-
selves of the acknowledgement reluctantly wrung from them : ' Verily,
I say unto you, That the publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of
God before you.'' In these words, 'go before you,' or 'take the lead
of you,' Christ would indicate that for them too the door of hope
was open still, that no irreversible doom excluded them from that
kingdom : the others, indeed, had preceded them ; but they might
still follow, if they would. 'For John came unto you in the way of
righteousness, and ye believed him not." 1 An emphasis has been laid
on the words, 'in the way of righteousness,' as though they were
brought in to aggravate the sin of the Pharisees, as though the Lord
would say, ' The Baptist came, a pattern of that very righteousness
of the law, in which you profess to exercise yourselves. He did not
come, calling to the new life of the Gospel, of which I am the
pattern, and which you might have misunderstood ; he did not come,
seeking to put new wine into the old bottles, but himself fulfilling
that very idea of righteousness which you pretended to have set

all, however, easily traced up to transcribers wanting to amend a phrase which seemed
to them incomplete. Uopevo/iai, airep^onat , or some such word, must be supplied.
See 1 Sam. iii. 4, 6; Gen. xxii. 1.

THE TWO SONS. 155

before yourselves, that which consisted in strong and marked separa-
tion of himself from sinners, and in an earnest asceticism (Matt. ix.
11-14); and yet you were so little hearty in the matter, that for all
this he obtained no more acceptance with you than I have done. You
found fault with him for the strictness of his life, as you find fault
with Me for the condescension of mine (Matt. xi. 16-19). Nor did
you merely reject him at the first, but afterwards, when his preaching
bore manifest proof in the conversion of sinners, when God had set
His seal to it, when the publicans and the harlots believed him, even
then ye could not be provoked to jealousy ; ye when ye had seen it,
repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.''

In many copies, and some not unimportant ones, it is the son that
is first spoken to who promises to go, and afterwards disobeys ; and
the second who, refusing first, afterward changes his mind, and enters
on the work. Probably the order was thus reversed by transcribers,
who thought that the application of the parable must be to the suc-
cessive callings of Jews and Gentiles, a and that therefore the order
of their calling should be preserved. But the parable does not
primarily apply to the Jew and Gentile, but must be referred rather
to the two bodies within the bosom of the Jewish people : it is not
said < the Gentiles ,' but ' the publicans and harlots enter the king-
dom of heaven before you ; ' while yet the first, if the parable had
admitted (and if it had admitted, it must have required it), would
have been a stronger way of provoking them to jealousy (Acts xxii.
21, 22 : Rom. x. 21, 22). The application of the parable to Gentile
and Jew need not, indeed, be excluded, since the whole Jewish nation
stood to the Gentile world in the same relation which the more self-
righteous among themselves did to notorious transgressors. But not
till the next parable do Jew and Gentile, in their relations to one
another, and in their respective relations to the kingdom of God,
come distinctly and primarily forward.

a So Origen, Chrysostom, and Athanasius : Jerome too, who quotes as a parallel
to 'I go, sir,' the words of the children of Israel at the giving of the law, 'All that
the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient' (Exod. xxiv. 7) The Auct. Oper.
Imperf. is almost the only ancient author who interprets the parable rightly ; noting
at length the inconveniences that attend the application of it to Jew and Gentile.
But the 108 efioi 5oki, with which Origen introduces his erroneous explanation marks
that there was another interpretation current in the Church, as is explicitly stated by
Jerome: Alii non putant Gentilium et Judceorum esse paxabolam, sed simpliciter
peccatorum et justorum.

156

iz. THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN.
Matt. xxi. 33-45 ; Mark xii. 1-12 ; Luke xx. 9-19.

THE Lord's hearers would have been well content if that one
parable which He had just spoken had been all. But no ; He
will not let them go : He has begun and will finish : 'Hear another
parable ; ' as though He would say, ' I have not done with you yet ;
I have still another word of warning and rebuke,' and to that He
now summons them to listen. Uttered in the presence at once of
the Pharisees and of the people, to St. Matthew it seemed rather
addressed to the former, while St. Luke records it as spoken to the
people (xx. 9) ; but there is no real difference here. ' There was a
certain householder, which planted a vineyard. ' These opening words,
and still more those which immediately follow, suggest, and are
intended to suggest, a comparison with Isai. v. 1-7. He who came
not to destroy, but to fulfil, the law and the prophets, takes up the
prophet's words, the more willingly that His enemies accused Him
of standing in a hostile relation to the one and to the other ; and
not in the outward form only, but in the innermost structure of the
parable, He connects His own appearing with all which had gone
before, presents it as the crown and consummation of all God's
dealings through a thousand years with His people. Nor is it to that
passage in Isaiah alone that the Lord links on His teaching here.
The image of the kingdom of God as a vine-stock, 11 or as a vineyard, 5

The vine-stock often appears on the Maccabaean coins as theemblem of Palestine;
sometimes too the bunch of grapes and the vine-leaf. Deyling ( Obss. Sac. vol. iii.
p. 236): Botrus praeterea, folium vitis et palma, ut ex nummis apparet, symbolum
erant Judaeae.

b St. Bernard compares the Church with a vineyard at some length (/ Cant. Serm.
30): In fide plantata, caritate mittit radices, defossa sarculo disciplinae, stercorata
pcenitentium lacrymis, rigata praedicantium verbis, et sic sane exuberans vino, in quo
est laetitia, sed non luxuria vino totius suavitatis, nullius libidinis. Hoc certe vinum
laetificat cor hominis, hoc constat et angelos bibere cum laetitia. Augustine also
Serm. lxxxvij. i): Cultura ipsius est in nos, quod non cessat verbo suo extirpare
semina mala de cordibus nostris, aperire cor nostrum tanquam aratro sermonis,
plantere semina prasceptorum, expectare fructum pietatis. Cf. Ambrose, Exp. in Luc.
ix. 29.

THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN. 15T

runs through the whole Old Testament (Deut. xxxiii. 32 ; Ps. lxxx.
8-16; Isai. xxvii. 1-7; Jer. ii. 21; Ezek. xv. 1-6; xix. 10; Hos.
x. 1); and has many fitnesses to recommend it. The vine, the
lowest, is at the same time the noblest of plants. Our Lord appro-
priates it, among earthly symbols, to Himself; He is the mystical
vine (John xv. 1); had been in prophecy compared to it long
before 4 (Gen. xlix. 11. It is a tree which spreads and diffuses itself,
casts out its tendrils and branches on every side ; b so that of the Vine
which the Lord brought out of Egypt the Psalmist could say, ' it
filled the land ' (lxxx. 9). Nor may we, while drawing out these
points of similitude, omit the fact that there was no property so
valuable, nor esteemed to yield returns so large, as a vineyard (Cant,
viii. 11, 12); but rendering these only in answer to the most
unceasing diligence and toil.

In Isaiah, the vineyard and the Jewish Church are one ; ' The
vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men
of Judah his pleasant plant.' It is therefore described, not as trans-
ferred to others, but as laid waste and utterly destroyed (v. 5, 6).
Here, where the vineyard is transferred to more faithful husbandmen,
and the judgment lights not on it, but on those who sought so
shamefully to seize it for their own, we must rather understand by the
vineyard the kingdom of God in its idea, which idea Jew and
Gentile have been successively placed in condition to realize ; d '
failure in the fulfilment of this involving for both alike a forfeiture
of the tenure. Inasmuch, indeed, as Israel according to the flesh
was the first called to realize a kingdom of God, it may be said that
for a time the vineyard was the Jewish Church ; but this arrangement
was accidental and temporary, not necessary and permanent, as the
sequel abundantly proved. It was the fatal mistake of the Jews,
witnessed against in vain by the prophets of old (Jer. vii. 4), by the
Baptist (Matt. hi. 9) ; and now and often by the Lord Jesus Himself

m Grotius : Glariatur vitis in fabula (Jud. ix. 13) suo liquore laetificari Deum et
homines, quod de Christi sanguine verissime dicitur.

* Pliny, Hist. Nat. xiv. 3.

Cato : Nulla possessio pretiosior, nulla majorem operam requirit. Virgil presses
the same words well worthy to be kept in mind by all to whom a spiritual vineyard
has been committed {Georg. ii. 397-419):

Est etiam ille labor curandis vitibus alter,
Cui nunquam exhausti satis est : namque omne quotannis
Terque quaterque solum scindendum, glebaque versis
jEternum frangenda bidentibus ; omne levandum
Fronde nemus. Redit agricolis labor actus in orbem,
Atque in se sua per vestigia volvitur annus.

* See Orieen, Comm. in Mail, in loc.

158 THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN.

(Matt. viii. 12 ; Luke xiii. 29), that they and the kingdom were so
identified, thai it could never be parted from them.

The householder is more than possessor of this vineyard : he has
himself 'planted* it (Exod. xv. 17; Ps. xliv. 2). The planting of
the spiritual vineyard found place under Moses and Joshua, in the
establishing of the Jewish polity in the land of Canaan; and is
described, Deut. xxxii. 12-14; cf. Ezek. xvi. 9-14; Neh. ix. 23-25.
But he did not satisfy himself with this. Having planted, he also
' hedged it round about, and digged a wine-press* in it, and built a
tower.' This hedge might be either a stone wall b (Prov. xxiv. 31 ;
Num. xxii. 24; Isai. v. 5), or a fence of thorns or other quickset;
this last, if formed, as is common in the East, of the prickly wild
aloe, would more effectually exclude the enemies of the vineyard,
the fox (Cant. ii. 15; Neh. iv. 3), and the wild boar (Ps. lxxx. 13),
than any wall of stone. At Isai. v 5 the vineyard is furnished with
both. That it should possess a ' wine-press ' would be a matter of
course. Not less needful would be the ' tower ; ' d by which we
understand not so much the kiosk, or ornamental building, serving
mainly for delight, as a place of shelter for the watchmen who should
guard the fruits of the vineyard, and a receptacle for the fruits
themselves.

1 At)w5s = torcular ; in St. Mark \mo\r\viov = lacus ; which last can alone be properly
said to have been dug ; being afterwards lined with masonry, as Chardin mentions
that he found them in Persia. Sometimes they were hewn out of the solid rock :
Nonnus (Dionys. xii. 330) describes in some spirited lines how Bacchus hollowed out
such a receptacle from thence. In the Ar^ds, or press above, the grapes were placed,
and were there crushed, commonly by the feet of men (Judg. ix. 27 ; Neh. xiii. 15 ;
Isai. Ixiii. 3); at the bottom of this press was a closely-grated hole, through which
the juice, being expressed, ran into the vttoK-^vlov (or npoK^viov, Isai. v. 3, LXX), the
vat prepared beneath for its reception, the lacus vinaries of Columella. See the
Dictionary of the Bible, s. v. Wine- press.

b See Greswell, Exposition of the Parables, vol. v. p. 4.

Homer, //. xviii. 564; so too Virgil (Georg. ii. 371): Texendae sepes etiam.

d nu'pyos ==67ra>po<vAaKioi/, Isai. i. 8; xxiv. 20; specula quam custodes satorum
habere consueverunt (Jerome); 'a booth that the keeper maketh' (Job xxvii. 18).
Such temporary towers are common in Spain, at the season when the ripening grapes
might tempt the passer-by ; the more necessary, as often the vineyard lies open to
the road without any protection whatever. A scaffolding is raised high with planks
and poles, and with matting above to protect from the sun ; and on this, commanding
an extensive view all around, a watcher, with a long gun, is planted. The elder Niebuhr
Beschreib. v. Arab. p. 138) says : 'In the mountainous districts of Yemen I saw here
and there as it were nests in the trees, in which the Arabs perched themselves to
watch their corn fields. In Tehama, where the trees were scarcer, they built for this
purpose a high and light scaffold.' Ward {View of the Hindoos, vol. ii. p. 327)
observes : 'The wild-hogs and buffaloes [silvestresuri, Gcorg. ii. 374] make sad havoc
in the fields and orchards of the Hindoos; to keep them out, men are placed on
elevated covered stages in the fields ; ' sometimes on mounds built with sods of

THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN. 159

The question, which to an interpreter of the parables must so often
recur, presents itself here. Shall we attach any special signification
to these several details ? or accept them rather as the filling up of the
picture ; and, if expressing anything, yet only in a general way God's
provident care for His Church, that provision of all things necessary
for life and godliness which He made for His people, a provision so
rich that He could ask with confidence, ' What could have been
done more to my vineyard, that I have not done ? ' (Isai. v. 4).
Many in this as in similar cases will allow nothing more than this last.
But, whatever may be said of the wine-press and the tower, it is
difficult, with Ephes. ii. 14 before us, where the law is described as
' the middle wall of partition ' a between the Jew and Gentile, to
refuse to the hedging round of the vineyard a definite meaning. By
their circumscription through the law, the Jews became a people
dwelling alone, and not reckoned among the nations (Num. xxiii. 9);
that law being at once a hedge of separation and of defence," ' a
wall of fire ' (Zech. ii. 5 ; cf. Ps. cxxv. 2 ; Isai. xxvii. 3), which,
preserving them distinct from the idolatrous nations round them and
from their abominations, gave them the pledge and assurance of the
continued protection of God. Nor should it be forgotten that not
inwardly only, but outwardly as well, Judaea, through its geographical
position, was hedged round; by the bounty of nature on every side
circumscribed and defended ; being guarded on the east by the river
Jordan and the two lakes, on the south by the desert and mountain-
ous country of Idumasa, on the west by the sea, and by Anti-Libanus
on the north : for so, observes Vitringa, had God in His counsels
determined, who willed that Israel should dwell alone. It is not so
easy to point out distinct spiritual benefits shadowed forth by the
wine-press and the tower. d Many attempts to discover such have

earth ; and the watchers are frequently armed with slings, which they use with dex-
terity and effect, to drive away invaders of every description.

a MecnjToixoi" toO fipayixov there, as 0paAju6s here.

b Ambrose {Exp. tn Luc. ix. 24) explains it: Divinae custodiae munitione vallavit,
ne facile spiritalium pateret incursibus bestiarum ; and Hexa'em. iii. 12 : Circumdedit
earn velut vallo quodam caelestium praeceptorum, et angelorum custodia.

c Generally the wine-press is taken to signify the prophetic institution. Thus
Irenaeus {Con. Har. iv. 36): Torcular fodit, receptaculum prophetici Spiritus prae-
paravit. Hilary : In quos [prophetas] musti modo quaedam ubertas Spiritus Sancti
ferventis influeret. So Ambrose, Exp. in Luc. ix. 24.

d In the parallel passage in Isaiah two other principal benefits are recorded, that
the vineyard was on a fruitful hill (apertos Bacchus amat colles, Virgil), sloping
towards the rays of the sun, and that the stones were gathered out from it (2 Kin.
iii. 19), the last an allusion to the casting out of the Canaanites, who else might have
proved stumbling-blocks for God's people (Ps. cxxv. 3). With the whole parable
Ezek. xvi. will form an instructive parallel.

160 THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN.

been made : but they all have something fanciful and arbitrary about
them; and, though often ingenious, yet fail to command an
unreserved assent.

The householder, this rich provision for his vineyard made, ' let
it to husbandmen' (Cant. viii. n) ; it is not said upon what terms,
but, as the sequel clearly implies, having made a covenant with them
to receive a fixed proportion of the fruits in their season. Since, as
it is evident, the husbandmen must be distinguished from the vine-
yard they were set to cultivate and keep, we must understand by
them the spiritual chiefs of the nation, to whom God, in the very
constitution of the Jewish polity, had given authority to sit in Moses'
chair, and from it to teach the people (Mai. ii. 7 ; Ezek. xxxiv. 2 ; Matt.
xxiii. 2, 3). By the vineyard itself will then naturally be signified
the great body of the nation, who, instructed and taught by these,
should bring forth fruits of righteousness unto God." The vineyard
thus committed to the care of the husbandmen, the householder
'went into afar country' and, as St. Luke adds, 'for a long while?
In the miracles which went along with the deliverance from Egypt,
the giving of the law from Sinai, and the planting in Canaan, God
may be said to have openly dealt with His people, to have entered
into a covenant with them ; but then, this done, to have withdrawn
Himself again for a while, not speaking any more to them face to
face (Deut. xxxiv. 10-12), but waiting in patience to see what the
law would effect, and what manner of works they, under the teaching
of their spiritual guides, would bring forth. b

'And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to
the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it? the house-
holder's share of the produce, whatever that may have been. There
was, of course, no time when God did not demand obedience, grati-
tude, love from His people ; all times therefore are in one sense
' the time of the fruit ' (Isai v. 7). But the conditions of the

* A friend who looked over some parts of this work before publication has added
a note, which I am sure every reader will be glad I have preserved : 'I do not abso-
lutely question the truth of this interpretation, but it seems to me rather an escape
from a difficulty which does not exist more in the parable than in all our customary
language about the Church. The Church is both teacher and taught; but the teachers
are not merely ministers ; the whole Church of one generation teaches the whole
Church of another, by its history, acts, words, mistakes, &c. The Church existing
out of time an unchangeable body teaches the members of the Church existing in
every particular time.'

b Ambrose {Exp. in Luc. ix. 23): Multis temporibus abfuit, ne praepropera vide-
retur exactio : nam quo indulgentior liberalitos, eo inexcusabilior pervicacia. Theo-
phylact : 7) inoSruxia toO 0eoO, J; naxpo u/xia. Bengel : Innuitur tempusdivinas taciturni-
tatis, ubi homines agunt pro arbitrio. See Ezek. viii. 12 ; Ps. x. 5.

THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN. 161

parable demand this language ; and moreover, in the history of souls
and of nations, there are seasons which even more than all othar are
< times of fruit ;' when God requires such with more than usual
earnestness, when it is very ill with that soul or that nation, if they
be not found. But the 'servants ' who should receive this fruit, how,
it may be asked, are these to be distinguished from the ' husbandmen 7
Exactly in this, that the ' servant 'V that is, the prophets and other
more eminent ministers and messengers of God to the people whom
He had chosen, were sent; being raised up at critical epochs, having
distinct missions, and their power lying in their direct mission from
Him; the 'husbandmen,' on the other hand, were the more regular
ecclesiastical authorities, whose power lay in the very constitution of
the theocracy itself. a On this receiving the fruits, or, as St. Luke
has it, 'of the fruit of the vineyard' 01shausen b says well, ' These
fruits which are demanded, are in nowise to be explained as particular
works, nor yet as a condition of honesty and uprightness, but much
rather as the repentance and the inward longing after true inward
righteousness, which the law was unable to bring about. It is by no
means meant to be said that the law had not an influence in pro-
ducing uprightness : it cuts off the grosser manifestations of sin, and
reveals its hidden abomination ; so that a righteousness according to
the law can even under the law come forth as fruit, but this, to be
sufficing, must have a sense of a need of the redemption for its basis
(Rom. iii. 20). The servants, therefore, here appear as those who
seek for these spiritual needs, that they may link to them the promises
concerning a coming Redeemer : but the unfaithful husbandmen who
had abused their own position, denied and slew these messengers of
grace. This ' time of the fruit ' would not, according to the Levitical
law, have arrived till the fifth year after the planting of the vineyard.
For three years the fruit was to be uncircumcised, and therefore

Bengel : Servi sunt ministri extraordinarii, majores : agricoloe, ordinarii.

b 'An-b toO Kapirov according to the well-known metayer system still practiced in
parts of France and in Italy. Pliny (2s/. ix. 37) writes that the only why in which
he derives any benefit from some estates of his, hitherto badly managed, was by
letting them on this system : Medendi una ratio si non nummo sed partibus locem.
He was to appoint some guardians (exactores and custodes) , differing only from
these servants, that they were to be constantly on the spot to prevent fraud, and to
see that he obtains his just share of the produce. Chardin Voy. en Perse, vol. v. p.
384, Langles' ed.) has much on the metayer system as he found it in Persia, and
illustrates our parable well, showing what a constant source it proved of violence
and fraud : Cet accord, qui paroit un marche de bonne foi et qui le devroit etre, se
trouve neanmoins une source intarissable de fraude, de contestation, et de violence,
ou la justice n'est presque jamais gardee, et ce qu'il y a de fort singulier c'est que le
seigneur est celui qui a toujours de pire, et qui est lese. See Du Crange, s. vv.
Medietarius and Medietas.

162 THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN.

ungathered ; in the fourth it was ' holy to praise the Lord withal ; '
and only in the fifth could those who tended the vineyard either
themselves enjoy or to others render of the fruits thereof (Lev. xix.
23-29). During this long period the husbandmen may have man-
aged to forget that they were tenants at all, and not possessors in
fee ; and this may help to explain what follows.

'And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed
another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servan's more
than the first, and they did unto them likewise.' The two later Evan-
gelists record the wickedness of these wicked husbandmen more in
detail than the first, St. Luke tracing very distinctly their advance
under the sense of impunity from bad to worse. When the first
servant came, they ' beat him, and sent him away empty.' 1 The next
they ' entreated shamefully ; ' or, according to St. Mark, who defines
the very nature of the outrage, ' at him they cast stones, and wounded
him in the head* and sent him away shamefully handled.'* One
might almost gather from these last words that in their wanton
insolence they devised devices of scorn and wrong, not expressly
named, against this servant; such, perhaps, as Hanun's, when he
' took David's servants, and shaved off the one half of their beards,
and cut off their garments in the middle, and sent them away ' (2
Sam. x. 4). The third they wounded, and cast out of the vineyard
with violence; flung him forth, it might be, with hardly any life in
him. In the two earlier Evangelists the outrage reaches even to the
killing of some of the subordinate messengers; while in St. Luke
this extremity of wrong is reserved for the son. The latter thus
presents the series of outrages on an ever-ascending scale ; but the
former are truer to historical fact, seeing that not a few of the
prophets were not merely maltreated, but actually put to death.
Thus, if we may trust Jewish tradition, Jeremiah was stoned by the
exiles in Egypt, Isaiah sawn asunder by king Manasseh. For an
abundant historical justification of this description, and as showing

a St. Mark has here (xii. 4) a singular use of the word K <pa.\at6u>, as to wound in
the head, which is nowhere else used but as to gather up in one sum, as under one
head; of which correcter use we have a good example in the Epistle of Barnabas,
where of the Son of God it is said that he came in the flesh, iW to i-cAdo? tuv ap.apTiu>v
<ce!!>aA<ua>o-jj toIs Suoao-i>' ev 8ava.T<a tows npo<t>rJTas auToO (c. v.). The suggestion of Wake-
field (Silv. Crit. ii. p. p. 76) , that exefyaXaXuaav here is, breviter vel summatim egerunt,
they made short work of it, or as Lightfoot expresses it, referring to the circumstance
that the servant came to demand payment, they reckoned with him, they squared
accounts with him (ironically), is quite untenable. The accusative avrov is decisive
against it, as against Theophylact's anticipation of this explanation : o~uveTi\eo-av koX

icopv<t>u><rav Tqv v^piv.

b 'Air&rreiAav tiTip.uip.ivov, or, as in the best texts. rjTip.T)o-av.

THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN. 163

that the past ingratitude of the people is not painted here in colours
a whit too dark, see Jer. xx. i, 2; xxxvii. 15; 1 Kin. xviii. 13;
xix. 14; xxii. 24-27 ; 2 Kin. vi. 31 ; xxi. 16 ; 2 Chron. xxiv. 19-22 ;
xxxvi. 15, 16; and also Acts vii. 52; 1 Thess. ii. 15; the whole
passage finding its best commentary in the words of the Epistle to
the Hebrews : ' And others had trial of cruel mockings and
scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment : they were
stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted,, were slain with the
sword; ... of whom the world was not worthy ' (xi. 37, 38).

The patience of the householder under these extraordinary
provocations is wonderful, sending as he does messenger after
messenger to win back these wicked men to a sense of their
duty, instead of resuming at once possession of his vineyard, and
inflicting summary vengeance upon them. It is only fit that it should
thus be magnified, for it represents to us the infinite patience and
long-suffering of God : ' Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants
the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this
abominable thing that I hate ' (Jer. xliv. v). ' Nevertheless, they
were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind
their backs, and slew thy prophets who testified against them, to turn
them to thee, and they wrought great provocations ' (Neh ix. 26).
This whole confession of the Levites is in itself an admirable com-
mentary on this parable.

1 But last of all he sent unto them his son,' or in the still more
affecting words of St. Mark, 'Having yet therefore one son, his well-
beloved, he sent him also last utito them, saying, They zvill rever-
ence my son.'' When the householder expresses his conviction, that
hewever those evil men may have outraged and defied his inferior
messengers, they will reverence his son, we need not embarrass our-
selves here, as some have done, with the fact that He whom the
householder represents must have fully known from the beginning
what treatment His Son would receive from those to whom He sent
Him. Not that there is not a difficulty, but it is the same which
meets us everywhere, that of the reconciliation of man's freedom
with God's foreknowledge.* That they are reconcilable we know,
and that we cannot reconcile them we know ; and this is all which
can be said upon the matter. The description of this the last of the
ambassadors as the son of the householder, as his only one, ' his

Jerome: Quod autem dicit, Verebuntur forte filium meum, non de ignorantia.
dicitur : quid enim nesciat paterfamilias, qui hoc loco Deus intelligitur ? Sed semper
ambigere Deus dicitur, ut libera voluntas homini reservetur. Cf. Ambrose, De Fide,
v. 17, 18.

164 THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN.

well-beloved,' 1 all marks as strongly as possible the difference of rank
between Christ and the prophets, the dignity of his person, who only
was a Son in the highest sense of the word a (Heb. iii. 5, 6) ; and
some, doubtless, of those who heard, quite understood what He
meant, and the honour which He thus claimed as His own, however
unable to turn His words against Himself, and to accuse Him, on
the strength of them, of making Himself, as indeed He did, the Son
of God (John v. 18). In this sending of His own Son by the
heavenly Father, is the last and crowning effort of divine mercy. If
it fail, on the one side all the resources even of heavenly love will
have been exhausted ; while on the other, those whose sin has caused
it to fail will have filled up the measure of their guilt.

'But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves,
This is the heir ; come let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheri-
tance.'' Compare John xi. 47-53, an( ^ lne counsels of Joseph's
brethren against him : ' When they saw him afar off, even before he
came near unto them, they conspired against, him to slay him, and
they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now
therefore, and let us slay him, . . . and we shall see what will
become of his dreams ' (Gen. xxxvii. 19, 20). As they, thinking
to disappoint the purpose of God concerning their younger brother,
help to bring it to pass, so the Jewish rulers were the instruments to
fulfil that purpose of God concerning Christ, which they meant to
defeat" (Acts iii. 18; iv. 27, 28). 'This is the heir;' the word is
not used here in its laxer sense as a synonym for lord, like heres for
dominus ; but more accurately, he for whom the inheritance is meant,
who is not in present possession, but to whom it will in due course
rightfully arrive ; not, as in earthly relations, by the death, but by
free appointment, of the actual possessor. Christ is ' heir of all
things ' (Heb. i. 2), not as He is the Son of God, for the Church
has always detected Arian tendencies lurking in that interpretation,
but as He is the Son of man (Ephes. i. 20-23; Phil. ii. 9-1 1). So
Theodoret : ' The Lord Christ is heir of all things, not as God, but
as man ; for as God He is maker of all.'

It is the heart which speaks in God's hearing (Ps. liii. 1); the
thought of men's heart is their true speech, and therefore it is here
recounted as the utterance of their lips. We cannot, indeed,

a This is often urged by early Church writers, when proving the divinity of the Son;
as by Ambrose (De Fide, v. 7): Vide quia ante servos, postea filium nominavit ; ut
scias quod Deus Filius unigentius secundum divinitatis potentiam nee nomen habet,
nee consortium commune cum servis. Cf. Irenseus, Con. H<zr. iv. 36. 1.

* Ainrmtine: Ut possiderent, occiderunt ; et quia occiderunt. nerdi^pmnt

THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN. 165

imagine the Pharisees, even in their secretest counsels, ever trusting
another so far, or daring to look their own wickedness so directly in
the face, as to say, in as many words, ' This is the Messiah, therefore
let us slay Him.' But they desired that the inheritance might be
theirs. What God had willed should only be transient and tem-
porary, enduring till the times of reformation, they would fain have
seen permanent ; and this, because they had prerogatives and
privileges under that imperfect system, which would cease when that
which was perfect had come ; or rather, which, not ceasing, would
yet be transformed into other and higher privileges, for which they
had no care. The great master-builder was about to take down the
scaffolding provisionally reared, which had now served its end ; and
this His purpose they, the under- builders, were setting themselves to
oppose, a and were determined, at whatever cost, to resist to the ut-
termost. What God had founded, they would fain possess without
God and against God ; and imagined that they could do so ; for in-
deed is not all self-righteousness an attempt to kill the heir, and to
seize on the divine inheritance, a seeking to comprehend and take
down into self that light, which is only light while it is recognized as
something above self, and whereof man is permitted to be a partaker ;
but which he neither himself originated, nor yet can ever possess in
fee, or as his own, or otherwise than as a continual receiver of it
from on high ; a light too, which, by the very success of the attempt
to take it into his own possession, is as inevitably lost and extinguished
as would be a ray of our natural light if we succeeded in cutting it
off from its luminous source?

'And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew
him.'' All three Evangelists describe the son as thus ' cast out of the
vineyard? reminding us of Him who 'suffered without the gate,'
(Heb. xiii. 12, 13; John xix. 17); cut off in the intention of those
who put Him to death from the people of God, and from all share
in their blessings. Thus when Naboth perished on charges of
blasphemy against God and the king, that is, for theocratic sins,
-' they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones,
that he died ' b (1 Kin. xxi. 13; cf. Acts vii. 58; xxi. 30). In St.

Hilary : Consilium colonorum et hereditatisocciso herede praesumptio.spesinanis
est gloriam Legis perempto Christo posse retineri. Grotius : His verbis ostenditur
sacerdotes et principes Judaici populi hoc egisse summo studio ut Divinam Legem
cogerent ambitioni suae et qusestui inservire.

* Naboth dying for his vineyard has been often adduced as a prophetic type of the
death of Christ and the purpose of that death. Thus, Ambrose addresses the vine-
yard of the Lord, purchased with his own blood {Exp in Luc. ix. 33): Salve vinea
tanto digna custode: te non unius Nabuthss sanguis, sed innumerabilium prophetarum

166 THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN.

Mark the husbandmen slay the son first, and only afterwards cast
out the body (xii. 8) ; they deny it the common rites of sepulture ;
fling it forth, as much as to say, that is their answer to the house-
holder's demands. The Lord so little doubts the extremities to
which the hatred of His enemies will proceed, that in the parable
He holds up to them the crime which they were meditating in their
hearts, and which a few days should bring to the birth, as one
already accomplished ; not indeed thus binding them to this sin, but
rather showing to them as in a mirror the hideousness of it, and, if
this were possible, terrifying them from its actual commission.*

If, however, this might not be, and if, like the husbandmen in the
parable, they were resolved to consummate their crime, what should
be their doom ? This, too, they may see reflected in the mirror
which He holds up before their eyes. ' When the lord, therefore, of
the vineyard comcth, what will he do unto those husbandmen ?' It is
very instructive to note the way in which successive generations,
which during so many centuries had been filling up the measure of
the iniquity of Israel, are contemplated throughout but as one body
of husbandmen ; for indeed God's word is everywhere opposed to
that shallow nominalism which would make 'nation' no more than
a convenient form of language to express a certain aggregation of
individuals. God will deal with nations as living organisms, and as
having a moral unity of their own, and this continuing unbroken
from age to age. Were it otherwise, all confession of our fathers' sins
would be a mockery, and such words as our Lord's at Matt, xxiiii.
32-35, without any meaning at all. Nor is there any injustice in
this law of God's government, with which He encounters our selfish,
self-isolating tendencies; for while there is thus a life of the whole,
there is also a life of every part ; and thus it is always possible for
each individual even of that generation which, having filled up the
last drop of the measure, is being chastised for all its own and its
fathers' iniquities, by personal faith and repentance to withdraw him-
self from the general doom. It will not indeed always be possible
for him to escape his share in the outward calamity (though often
there will be a Pella when Jerusalem is destroyed, an ark when the
world perishes), but always from that which is the woe of the woe,

et (quod est amplius) pretiosus craor Domini consecravit. Me temporalem vineam
defendebat, te vero in perpetuum multorum nobis martyrum plantavit interitus, te
crux apostolorum aemula Dominicas passionis usque in orbis totius terminos
propagavit.

a We have a remarkable example of a like prophesying to men their wickedness,
as a last endeavour to turn them away from that wickedness, in Elisha's prophecy to
Hazeal (2 Kin. viii. 12-15).

THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN. 167

from the wrath of God, of which the outward calamity is but the
form and expression (Jer. xxxix. n).

The necessity of preserving the due probabilities of the narrative
makes it impossible that the son himself should execute the final
vengeance on these wicked husbandmen. He is slain, and cannot,
like Him whom he shadows forth, rise again to exact the penalties
of their guilt. This ' the lord of the vineyard,'' now for the first
time so called, must do: neither is there anything here inconsistent
with the general doctrine of Scripture, for it is the Father, revealing
Himself in the Son, who both gave the law at Sinai, and who also,
when the time had arrived, visited and judged the apostate Church of
Israel.

Perhaps the Pharisees, to whom Christ addressed the question,
making the same appeal to them which Isaiah had made to their
fathers (v. 3), and extorting their condemnation from their own
lips, b had hitherto missed the scope of the parable, and before they
were aware, pronounced sentence against themselves: He will
miserably destroy those wicked men* and will let out his vineyard unto
other husbandmen ; ' or it may be that, perceiving well enough, they
had yet hitherto pretended not to perceive His drift, and so drew
from Him words more explicit still ; such as it was useless any longer
to affect to misunderstand: 'Therefore I say unto you, The kingdom
of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth
the fruits thereof.'' For then at length Christ and His adversaries
stood face to face, as did once before a prophet and a wicked king of

a Vitringa : Tarn enim liquidum est Dei jus, ut si homo exuto affectu in tertio
simili contempletur quod sui amore excaecatus in se videre non vult, per conscien-
tiam obligetur ad agno=cendam causae divinos justitiam. Imo neminem Deus
damnat, nisi quern sua condemnet conscientia. Habet enim Deus in omni homine
suum tribunal, sui sedem judicii, et per hominem de homini judicat.

b Kokous Kaxws (=pessimos pessime), a proverbial expression, and, as Grotius ob-
serves, petita ex purissimo sermone Graeco. This parallel, a parallel in much more
than those two words, may suffice in place of many that might be adduced :

Totyap <r<f>' '0\vp.rrov toGS' 6 iroeafievwv iranr/p,
Mvrjfiaji' T 'Epivius, koX Te\e<T(j>6pos At'xr)
Kxout k a.Ku> s </>0et'peiai', aicrire'p TjdeXov
Tbv ai'6pa Aui^ai's ixfiaXelv drafiw?.

Sophocles, Ajax, 1361-1364.
Similar idioms are frequent in Greek. Thus Xap-np'os Aaun-pSs, /xeydAoi f/.eydAcoj, Ka.9a.pa.
Ka.9ap5>i, veixvbs active, koXov koAu? (Lobeck, Paralipomena, p. 58). Our Version has
not attempted to preserve the paronomasia, which for evident reasons is far from
being easy. The same difficulty attends the double <pBeipeiv at 1 Cor. lii. 17, for
which our Version has equally failed to give an equivalent. How remarkable, as
read in the light of these words, is the conviction expressed by Josephus (B. y. iv.
5. 2), that one man's murder was the cause of the destruction of Jerusalem. This
was most true, although Ananus the high-priest was not the man.

168 THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN.

Israel, when the prophet, having obtained in his disguise a sentence
from the lips of the king against himself, removed the ashes from his
face, and the king ' discerned him that he was of the prophets,' and
understood that he had unconsciously pronounced his own doom
(i Kin. xx. 41). a The 'God forbid,' 1 which the 'people 1 uttered
(Luke xx. 16), when they heard the terrible doom of the husband-
men the Pharisees had too much wariness and self-command to have
allowed such an exclamation to escape from their lips shows plainlv
that the drift of the parable had not escaped them, that they saw
betimes whither it was tending. The exclamation itself was either
an expression of fear, desiring that such evil might be averted; or
else of unbelief. ' That shall never be it cannot be that our
privileges should ever be so forfeited : ' and this more probably than
that, from the spirit and temper of those who utter it (Matt. iii. 9 ;
Rom. ii. 17).

But this truth, so strange and unwelcome to his hearers, is not his
only. The same was long ago foreannounced in those Scriptures of
tha Old Testament to which his adversaries professed to cling, and
from which they condemned Him: 'Did ye never read in the
Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become
the head of the corner i " The quotation is from Ps. cxviii. 22, 23,
a psalm which the Jews acknowledged as applying to Messiah, and of
which there is a like application at Acts iv. 1 1 ; 1 Pet. ii. 7 ; with an
allusion somewhat more remote, Ephes. ii. 20. b The passage quoted
forms an exact parallel with this parable ; all which the Lord threatens
here, being implicitly threatened there. 'The builders' there corres-
pond to ' the husbandmen ' here ; as those were appointed of God to
carry up the spiritual temple, so these to cultivate the spiritual vine-
yard; the rejection of the chief corner-stone corresponds to the
denying and murdering of the heir There is another motive for
abandoning the image of the vineyard ; I mean its inadequacy to set
forth one important moment of the truth, which yet must by no
means be passed over ; namely this, that the malice of men should
not defeat the purpose of God, that the Son should yet be tha heir ;
and that not merely vengeance should be taken, but that He should

a Compare the rule which Cicero {De Invent, i. 32) gives for this bringing of an
adversary unconsciously to convict himself.

b The aKpoy<avialo<; there = Ai'/3os yau'iaiosi Job. xxxviii. 6; Ai'flos eis Kt4>a\r\v ywviaij here;
6 \t'/3o5 6 TTpoireviav, Zech iv. 7 (see i Kin. v. 17). Christ is this corner-stone, as uniting
Jew and Gentile, making both one ; thus Augustine {Serm. lxxxviii. n): Angulus
duos parietes copulat de diverso venientes, Quid tarn diversum, quam circumcisio
et praeputium, habens unum paritem de Judaea, allerum paritem de gentibus ? sed
angulari lapide copulantur. It is a very favourite image with him.

THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN. 169

take it. Now all this is distinctly involved in the Lord's concluding
words : ' Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken ; but on
whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.' The rejected
stone, having become the head of the corner, is itself the instrument
of their punishment, who have set it at nought. 3 They fall on the
stone who are offended at Christ in His low estate (Isai. viii. 14;
liii. 2; Luke ii. 34; iv. 29; John iv. 44;) of this sin his hearers
were already guilty. There was yet a worse sin which they were on
the point of committing, which He warns them would be followed
with a more tremendous punishment ; they on whom the stone falls
are those who set themselves in self-conscious opposition against the
Lord ; who, knowing who He is, do yet to the end oppose themselves
to Him and to his kingdom ; b and these shall not merely fall and be
broken ; for one might recover himself, though with some present
harm, from such a fall as this ; but on them the stone shall fall as
from heaven, and shall grind them to powder, in the words of
Daniel (ii. 35,) 'like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors,'
crushing and destroying them forever. d

All three Evangelists note the exasperation of the Chief Priests
and Pharisees, when they perceived, as all did at last, though some
sooner than others, that the parable was spoken against them (Jer.
xviii. 18.) They no longer kept any terms with the Lord, and, only
that ' they feared the multitude,' would have laid violent hands on
Him at once. Yet not even so does He give them up ; but having,
in this parable, set forth their relation to God as a relation of duty,

Cajetan : Plus subjungit quam parabola pateretur : parabola enim usque ad vin-
dictam duxit ; sed hac additione suppletur, quod occisio filii non privavit filium
hereditate : hoc enim significat adjuncta prophetia de Messia sub metaphora. lapidis.

b So Tertullian {Adv. Marc. iii. 7); and Augustine : Christus verus lapis in hoc
seculo quasi terrse infixus jacet, in judicio vero futuro quasi exsummo veniet, impios
conteret : hoc dictum est de lapide illo, Qui offenderitin lapidem ilium, conquassabit
eum ; super quern venerit, conteret eum : aliud est conquassari, aliud conteri : con-
quassari minus est quam conteri.

c AiK^o-ei, from AiKjud? (=Trrvov, Matt. iii. 12), the fan with which the chaff, which
in the act of threshing had been crushed and broken into minute fragments, is scat-
tered and driven away upon the wind (Isai. xvii. 13 ; xli. 2, 15, 16; Ps. i. 4). In
the New Testament it occurs only here ; in the parallel passage, Dan. ii. 44, Auc^o-et

7ra<raj ras /3acriAeias.

d H. de Sto. Victore (Annott. in Luc): Secundum moralem sensum vinea locatur,
cum mysterium baptismi fidelibus ad exercendum operecommititur. Mittuntur tres
servi ut de fructu accipiant, cum Lex, Psalmodia, Prophetia, ad bene agendum hor-
tatur : sed contumeliis affecti, vel caesi ejiciuntur, cum sermoauditus vel contemnitur,
vel blasphematur. Missum in super heredem occidit, qui filium Dei contemnit, et
Spiritui, quo sanctificatus est, contumeliam facit. Vinea alteri datur, cum gratia,
quam superbus abjicit, humilis ditatur.

170 THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN.

shown them that a charge was laid upon them, which they incurred a
terrible guilt in neglecting to fulfil, so in that which follows, He sets
forth to them the same in a yet more inviting light as a relation of
privilege. He presents to them their work not any more as a task
and burden laid upon them, but as a grace and boon freely imparted
to them ; which, therefore, they incurred an equal guilt, or indeed
a greater, in counting light of or despising. If this is a more legal,
that is a more evangelical, parable.

171

is. THE MARRIAGE OF THE KING'S SON.
MATTHEWhcii j 1-14.

THIS parable is sometimes called the parable of the Wedding
Garment. The name is a faulty one, being drawn from that
which is but an episode in it after all; and the title given above, the
same which it bears in our Bible, quite effectually distinguishes it
from the Great Supper of St. Luke (xiv. 16.) Such distinction
indeed it is needful to maintain, for the two must not be confounded
with one another," as merely two different recensions of the same
discourse. It is true that the image of a festival, to which many are
bidden, and which some refuse and some accept, lies at the root of
both ; yet were they plainly spoken on different occasions, that at a
meal, this in the temple. They belong also to very different epochs
of our Lord's ministry, that to a much earlier period than this.
When that was spoken the Pharisees had not openly broken with the
Lord ; so far from this, it was in the house of a Pharisee, whither He
had gone to eat bread, that the parable was uttered (Luke xiv. 1.)
But at the time of the utterance of this, their enmity had reached the
highest pitch ; they had formally resolved by any means to remove
Him out of the way (John xi. 47-53.) Then there was hope that
the chiefs of the nation might yet be won over to the obedience of
the truth ; now they are fixed in their rejection of the counsel of
God, and in their hatred of his Christ. In agreement with all this,
the parable as last spoken, or as we have it here, is far severer than
when first uttered, than St. Luke has recorded it. In that the guests,
while they decline the invitation, are yet at pains to make civil ex-
cuses for so doing ; in this they put it from them with a defiant and
absolute No so hating the message that some among them maltreat
and kill the bearers of it ; even as we cannot doubt that, had it

a See Augustine, De Cons. Evang. . li. 71 ; Gregory the Great, Horn. 38 in Evang.
Strangely enough, Theophylact, Calvin, and Maldonatus, maintain their identity ;
the last saying, Quas dissimilia videntus adeo sunt levia, ub ab hac sententia. dimo-
vere non debeant.

172 THE MARRIAGE OF

consisted with decorum, and if the parable would have borne it, the
king's son himself, as the last ambassador of his grace, would have
been the victim of their outrage, as is the householder's son in the
parable preceding. It is there a private man whose bidding is con-
temptuously set aside, it is here a king ; it is there an ordinary enter-
tainment, here the celebration of the marriage of his son. In the
higher dignity of the person inviting, in the greater solemnity of the
occasion, there are manifest aggravations of the guilt of the despisers.
And as the offence is thus heavier, as those were but discourteous
guests, while these are rebels, so is the doom more dreadful. In St.
Luke's parable they are merely shut out from the festival ; in this,
their city is burned, and they themselves destroyed; the utmost
which in fact is threatened there being that God, turning from one
portion of the Jewish people, from the priests and the Pharisees,
would offer the privileges which they despised to another portion of
the same nation, the people that knew not the law, the publicans and
harlots, with only slightest intimation (ver. 23) of a call of the
Gentiles; while here, the forfeiture of the kingdom by the whole
Jewish people, who with fewest exceptions had proved themselves
unworthy of it, is announced. a

A late objector, 1 * taking no account of these altered conditions,
which justify and explain the different forms in which the parable
appears, asserts that St. Luke is here the only accurate reporter of
Christ's words, St. Matthew mixing up with them some foreign
elements, reminiscences, for instance, of the maltreatment and
murder of the servants, drawn from the parable preceding ; and also
blending into the same whole fragments of another parable, that,
namely, of the Wedding Garment, which, when uttered, was totally
distinct. For his first assertion, his only plausible argument is, that
while it is quite intelligible that husbandmen should maltreat servants
of their lord, who came, demanding rent from them; it is incon-
ceivable, and therefore could find no place in a parable, of which
perfect likelihood is the first condition, that invited guests, however
unwilling to keep their engagement, should abuse and even kill the

a Fleck {De Reg. Div. p. 214) with truth observes: Parabolarum in posterioribus
Matthaeiani libri partibus propositarum talis est indoles, ut sacrum divini animi
maerorem spirent, et severum prodant habitum. Incidunt in ea tempora quibus
Pharisaeorum , sacerdotum, seniorumque plebis machinationem, maligna consilia, et
csecitatem abunde expertus Servator, divinae causae quotidie infestiores praevidit
futuros. And Unger (De Parab. yes. Nat. p. 122): Videtur itaque Matthaeus para-
bolam tradidisse, qualem Jesus posteriore eique austeriore occasione ipse repetierit,
variatam, actiorem, severiorem, jam toto de populo Judaico maeste vaticinantem.

b Strauss, Leben Jesu, vol. i. p. 677, seq.

THE KING'S SON if 3

servants sent to remind them that the festival, to which they were
engaged, was actually ready. This, it is true, can with difficulty be
conceived, so long as we suppose that no other motive but unwilling-
ness to keep the engagement at work in them. But may not a deep
alienation from their lord, with a readiness to resist and rebel against
him, existing long before, have found their utterance here? The
presence of these his ambassadors, an outrage against whom would
constitute an outrage against himself, may have afforded the desired
opportunity for displaying a hostility which had long been entertained."
If there be something monstrous in their conduct, it is only the fitter
to declare the monstrous fact, that men should maltreat and slay the
messengers of God's grace, the ambassadors of Christ, who come to
them with glad tidings of good things, should be ready at once to
rend them, and to trample their pearls under foot.

His other assertion, that the episode of the wedding garment cannot
have originally pertained to the parable, rests partly on the old
objection, that the guest could not, with any fairness, be punished
for wanting that which, as the course of the story goes, he had no
opportunity of obtaining on which something will presently be
said and partly upon this, that an entirely new and alien element is
here introduced into the parable ; marring its unity ; awkwardly
appended to, not intimately cohering with it. But it is not so. Most
needful was it that a parable, inviting sinners of every degree to a
fellowship in the blessings of the Gospel, should also remind them
that, for the lasting enjoyment of these, they must put off their former
conversation ; that if, as regarded the past, they were freely called,
still for the present and time to come they were called unto holiness
in Theophylact's words, ' that the entrance, indeed, to the marriage-
feast is without scrutiny, for by grace alone we are called, as well bad
as good ; but the life of those that have entered, hereafter shall not
be without scrutiny ; that the King will make a very strict exami-
nation of those who, having entered into the faith, shall be found in
filthy garments.'

Thus much on the relation in which this parable stands to the
similar one in St. Luke. Comparing it with that of the Wicked
Husbandmen, which it immediately follows, we behold the Lord

a Oftentimes in the East a feast would have a great political significance would,
in fact, be a great gathering of the vassals of the king ; contemplated on this side,
their refusal to come assumes the aspect of rebellion. Thus some have supposed the
feast recorded in Esther i. is identical with the great gathering which Xerxes (Aha-
suerus) made when he was planning his Greek expedition (o-uAAoyoi- liriKkifrov Hepa-eW
ru>v apc'o-Twv); though Herodotus (vii. 8) brings out more its political, the sacred his-
torian its festal, side.

174 THE MARRIAGE OF

revealing Himself in ever clearer light as the central person of the
kingdom,, giving here a far plainer hint than there of the nobility of
His descent. There He was indeed the Son, the only and beloved
one of the householder ; but here his race is royal, and He appears
as Himself at once the King, and the King's Son (Ps. lxxii. i.) It
is thus declared that the sphere in which this parable moves is that of
the kingdom; which, announced and prepared before, was only
actually present with the advent of the King. In that other, a parable
of the Old Testament history, the Son Himself appears rather as the
last and greatest in the line of its prophets and teachers, crowning
and completing the old, than as inaugurating the new. In that, a
parable of the law, God appears, demanding something from men ;
in this, a parable of grace, He appears more as giving something to
them. There, He is displeased that His demands are not complied
with ; here, that His goodness is not accepted ; there He requires ;
here, He imparts. And thus, as we so often find, the two mutually
complete one another; this taking up the matter where the other
left it.

' The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a
marriage* for his son.'' The two favourite images under which the
prophets of the Old Covenant set forth the blessings of the New,
and of all near communion with God, that of a festival (Isai. xxv.
6 ; lxv. 13; Cant. v. 1), and of a marriage (Isai. lxi. 10; lxii. 5 ;
Hos. ii. 19 ; Matt. ix. 15 ; John hi. 29 ; Ephes. v. 32 ; 2 Cor. xi. 2),
meet and interpenetrate one another in the marriage festivaP here.
There results, indeed, this inconvenience, a consequence of the
inadequacy of things earthly to set forth things heavenly, that the
members of the Church are at once the guests invited to the feast,
and, in their collective capacity, constitute the bride at whose
espousals the feast is given." But as we advance in the parable the

noiecv yanov (Gen. xxix. 22 ; Tob. viii. 19 ; 1 Mace. ix. 39 ; x. 58) is rather, as
often in classical Greek, to celebrate the marriage feast than the marriage (Matt. xxv.
10; Esth. ii. 18); and sometimes the notion of a marriage is altogether lost, and
that of a festival alone remains; thus Esth. ix. 22; and probably at Luke xiv. 8.
Exactly the reverse has befallen the German Hochzeit, which, signifying at first any
high festival, is now only the festival of a marriage. These marriage festivities lasted
commonly seven, fourteen, days (Gen. xxix. 17; Judg. xiv. 12 ; Tob. viii. 19); and
this by accident, but because of the significance of this, the Covenant number,

b Vitringa (/ Apocal. xix. 7) : Nuptiae ipsae figurant arctissimam Christi cum
Ecclesia. unionem, fide utrinque data, et fcederali contractu obsignatam, ad faciendam
spiritualem sobolem, quae orbem repleat. Epulum nuptiale adumbrat tumbeneficia
gratis, quae viae justitiae Christi Ecclesi ad satietatem et hilaritatem exhibentur, turn
illorum beneficiorum communionem, turn denique laetitiam et festivitatem, quae cum
fruitione bonorum gratiae conjungitur, et ex ea. ad convivas hujus epuli redundat.

Augustine {In Rp. 1 ^oh. Tract. 2) : Non quomodo in nuptiis carnahbus alii

THE KING'S SON. 175

circumstances of the marriage altogether fall out of sight;* the
bearing of the several invited guests is that to which our whole atten-
tion is directed. This parable, like the last, has its groundwork and
rudiments in the Old Testament (Exod. xxiv. 1 1 ; Zeph. i. 7,8;
Prov. ix. 1) ; and it entered quite into the circle of Jewish expecta-
tions that the setting up of the kingdom of the Messiah should be
ushered in by a glorious festival : our Lord Himself elsewhere making
use of the same image for the setting forth of the same truths (Luke
xxii. 18, 30). The marriage, indeed, of which He there speaks, and
at Rev. xix. 7, will not be celebrated till the end of the present age,
while it is here as already present. We put the two statements in
harmony with one another, when we keep in mind how distinct the
espousals and the actual marriage were held in the East, and regard
His first coming as the time of His espousals, while only at His
second He leads home His bride.

'And sent forth His servants* to call them that were bidden to the
wedding' (cf. Prov. ix. 3-5). In the corresponding parable of St.
Luke the giver of the feast, a private man, 'bade many.' Here we
may assume a still more numerous company, from the higher rank
and dignity of the author of the feast and the solemnity of the
occasion (cf Esther i. 3-9). This summoning of those already
bidden, was, and, as modern travellers attest, is still, quite in accord-
ance with Eastern manners. Thus Esther invites Haman to a banquet
on the morrow (Esth. v. 8), and when the time has actually arrived,
the chamberlain comes to usher him to the banquet (vi. 4). There
is, therefore, no slightest reason why we should make ' them that
were bidden' to mean them that were now to be bidden; such an
interpretation not merely violating all laws of grammar, but the
higher purpose with which the parable was spoken; for our Lord,
assuming that the guests had been invited long ago, does thus remind
His hearers that what He brought, if in one sense new, was in another
a fulfilment of the old ; that He claimed to be heard, not as one

frequentat nuptias et alia nubit : in Ecclesia. qui frequentant, s> bene frequentant,
sponsa fiunt.

a Augustine and Gregory the Great (Hem. 38 in Evang.) escape this difficulty, re-
garding this marriage as one between the divine Word and the human Nature ; not,
at the same time, excluding the more obvious meaning suggested by such passages as
Ephes. v. 24-32. Gregory the Great shows how well the two interpretations can be
reconciled, saying: In hoc Pater regi Filio nuptias fecit, quo ei per iucamationis
myUerium sanctam Ecclesiam sociavit.

b Technically, vocarores, invitatores, KArjTopes, &eurvoK\rJTopts, eAearpot.

Thus Storr (Opusc. Acad. vol. i. p. 120) affirms tous KeKArj/uepous may as well
signify vocandos as vocatos ! Did not this refute itself, Luke xiv. 16, 17, would be
decisive in the matter.

176 THE MARRIAGE OF

suddenly starting up, unconnected with ought which had gone
before but as Himself ' the end of the law,' to which it had been
ever tending, the birth with which the whole Jewish dispensation had
been pregnant, and which alone should give a meaning to it all. In
His words, ' them that were bidden," 1 is involved the fact that there
was nothing abrupt in the coming of His kingdom, that its rudi-
ments had a long while before been laid, that all to which His adver-
saries clung as precious in their past history was prophetic of bless-
ings now actually present to them in Him. a The original invitation,
which had now come to maturity, reached back to the foundation of
the Jewish commonwealth, was taken up and repeated by each suc-
ceeding prophet, as he prophesied of the crowning grace that should
one day be brought to Israel (Luke x. 24; 1 Pet. i. 12), and
summoned the people to hold themselves in a spiritual readiness to
welcome their Lord and their King.

Yet the actual calling pertained not to these, the prophets of the
older dispensation. They spoke of good things, but of good things
to come. Not till the days of John the Baptist was the kingdom
indeed present, was there any manifestations of the King's Son, any
actual summoning of the guests, bidden long before, to come to the
marriage (Luke iii. 4-6). By the first band of servants I should
understand John the Baptist (Matt. iii. 2), the Twelve in that first
mission which they accomplished during the lifetime of the Lord
(Matt, x.) and the Seventy (Luke x.). His own share in summoning
the guests, inviting them, that is, unto Himself (Matt. iv. 7 ; Marki.
14, 15), His 'Come unto Me, naturally in the parable falls out of
sight. It would have disturbed its proprieties had the king's son
been himself a bearer of the invitation. A condescension so infinite
would have seemed unnatural ; for it is only the Son of the heavenly
King who has ever stooped so far. He, indeed, was content, even
while the marriage was made for Himself, to be as one of those sent
forth to call the guests thereunto. It is not implied that on this first
occasion the servants had any positive ill-usage to bear. They found
indeed a general averseness from the message, and an alienation
from the messengers ; but nothing worse. In agreement with this
we have no record of any displays of active enmity against the
Apostles or disciples during the lifetime of the Lord, b nor at the first
against the Lord Himself. It was simply, ' they would not come.''

a Tertullian makes excellent use of this parable, or rather of its parallel (Luke
xiv. 16), arguing against Marcion (iv. 31), who would fain have cut loose the New
Testament from the Old ; cf. Irenosus, iv. 36.

b The death of John the Baptist cannot be urged as invalidating this assertion ; for
he by whose command he was murdered was an Edomite, not therefore one of the

THE KINGS SON 177

' Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are
lidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner ; my oxen and my fallings
are killed? and all things are ready ; come unto the marriage 1 The
king graciously assumes that these guests deferred their coming
through some misunderstanding, unaware, perhaps, that all the pre-
parations were completed ; and instead of threatening and punishing,
only bids the servant whom he now sends to press the message with
greater instancy and distinctness than before Something of this
same gracious overlooking of the past breathes through the language
of St. Peter in all his discourses after Pentecost, ' And now, brethren,
I wot that through ignorance ye did it ' (Acts iii. 17), a willingness
to regard the sin which hitherto the people had committed in the
mildest possible light. This second summons I take to represent the
invitation to the Jewish people, as it was renewed to them at the
second epoch of the kingdom, that is, after the Resurrection and
Ascension. It is true that of these events, and of the crucifixion as
well, nothing is hinted in the parable, where, indeed, they could have
found no room. It need not perplex us that this second company is
spoken of as ' other servants,' while, in fact, many of them were
the same ; for, in the first place, there were many now associated
with these, as Paul, perhaps, too, as Stephen and Barnabas, who not
till after Pentecost were added to the Church. Those, too, who
were the same, yet went forth as other men, full of the Holy Ghost,
and with a message still more gracious than at the first ; not preach-
ing any more a kingdom of God at hand, but one already come
' Jesus and the resurrection ; ' declaring, which the servants had not
been empowered to do on their first mission, that all things were now
ready, that ' the fulness of time ' had arrived, and that all obstacles
to an entrance into the kingdom, which the sin of men had reared
up, the grace of God had removed (Acts ii. 38, 39; iii. 19-26; iv.
12, 17, 30) ; that in that very blood which they had impiously shed,
there was forgiveness of all sins, and freedom of access to God. b

invited guests at all ; and moreover it was for preaching the Law (Matt. xiv. 4),
not the Gospel, that he died.

A sign of the immediate nearness of the feast. Chardin ( Voy. en Perse, vol. iv.
p. 48) : On tue le matin le mouton et l'agneau qu'on mangera le soir. . . . Les
Persans croient que la meilleure chair est la plus fraiche tuee (cf. Gen. xviii. 7, 8 ;
xliii. 16; Prov. ix 1-5).

b These missions (ver. 3, 4) have been sometimes differently understood. Thus
Origen refers both to the sending of the prophets under the law ; Jerome, confident
that the first mission (ver. 3) is to be understood, is more doubtful about the second.
Gregory the Great {Horn. 38 in Rvang.~) ascribes the first to the prophets, and only
the second to the Apostles: Bis itaque servos ad invitandum misit, quia Incarna-
tionem Unigeniti et per prophetas dixit futuram, et per Apostolos nuaciavit factr-.-a.

178 THE MARRIAGE OF

If the king's servants had found dull and deaf ears on their first
mission, they find a more marked averseness from themselves and
from their message on the second. And they, too, themselves fare
worse, as it will presently appear. But first we are told of guests,
who, when they heard the reiterated invitation, ' made light of it,
and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise?
The question presents itself, Can we trace a distinction between these
and those? Did the divine Utterer of the parable intend a dis-
tinction? Perhaps, if we regard the first as one who went to his
estate (and the word of the original will perfectly bear out this
meaning), a distinction will appear. The first is the landed pro-
prietor, the second the merchant. The first would enjoy what he
already possesses, the second would acquire what as yet is his only in
anticipation. The first represents the rich ; the second those that
would be rich. a This will agree with Luke xiv. 18, 19; where the
guest who has bought a piece of land, and must needs go and see it,
has entered into the first condition; the guest who must try his five
yoke of oxen belongs to the second. The temptations which beset
the having and the getting, though cognate, are not altogether the
same ; there is quite difference enough between them to account for
the mention' of them both. One of the guests, when urged to
come, turned to that which by his own toil, or the toil of those who
went before him, he had already gotten ; another to that which he
was in the act of getting. b We have here those who are full, and
those who are striving to be full ; and on both the woe pronounced
at Luke vi. 25 has come. This apparent fulness is a real emptiness ;
keeping men away from him who would have indeed filled and
satisfied their souls.

But this is not the worst. ' The remnant took his servants, and
entreated them spitefully, and slew them.' 1 The oppositions to the
truth are not merely natural, they are also devilish. Of those who
reject the Gospel of the grace of God there are some who do not so
much actively hate it, as love the world better than they love it.

But Hilary's is the truer explanation (Comm, in Mail, in loc) : Servi missi, qui in-
vitatos vocarent, Apostoli sunt: eorum enim erat proprium, commonefacere eos,
quos invitaverant prophetae. Qui vero iterum cum praeceptorum conditione mittun-
tur, apostolici sunt viri et successores Apostolorum.

The irXovaioi (i Tim. vi. 17;, as distinguished from the pov\6u.evot. nXovrelv ( 1 Tim.
vi. 9).

b Bengel, with his rare skill in detecting the finer allusions of Scripture, exactly
so : Alius per falsam avrapKeiav, alius per cupiditatem acquirendi detentus. Gerhard
suggests the same explanation (Barm. Evang. 153) : Quid si per abeuntes ad nego-
tiationem intelligamus eos qui inhiant opibus adhuc acquirendis ; per abeuntes ad
villam, qui male delectantur in opibus jam ante partis et acquisitis?

THE KING'S SON. 119

We have just heard of these. But there are also those in whom it
rouses a fierce opposition, whose pride it wounds, whose self-right-
eousness it offends ; who also, where they dare, will visit on those
that bring the message the hate which they bear to itself. Three
forms of outrage are enumerated here : and how full a commentary
on these prophetic words do the Acts of the Apostles, and much else
in the later Scriptures, supply. Those who should have received
with all honours these ambassadors of the Great King 'took,' or
laid violent hands on, them (Acts iv. 3; v, 18; viii. 3); they
1 entreated them spitefully' (Acts v. 40; xiv. 5, 19; xvi. 23; xvii.
5; xxi. 30; xxxiii. 2); they ' slew them' (Acts vii. 58; xii. 3; cf.
Matt, xxiii. 34 ; John xvi. 2).*

'But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth' The insult was
to him, and was intended for him ; as in every case where an
ambassador is outraged, it is his master where the blow was intended
to reach (2 Sam. x.). As such it is punished ; for the king ' sent
forth his armies' that is, as some say, God sent forth His avenging
angels, the armies in heaven (Rev. xix. 14), the legions at His bid-
ding there (Matt. xxvi. 53, 1 Kin. xxii. 19; 2 Sam. xxiv. 16) ; b or,
it may be, the hosts of Rome (Dan. ix. 26), which were equally
l His armies? since even ungodly men are men of God's hand, by
whom He punishes His own people that have sinned, or executes
vengeance on others more wicked than themselves (thus Isai. x. 4,
O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger ; ' cf. Isai. xiii. 5 ; Ezek. xvi.
41; xxix. 17-20; Jer. xxv. 9, 'Nebuchadnezzar, my servant').
The two explanations do, in fact, flow into one ; for when God's
judgments are abroad, the earthly and visible ministers of those
judgments and the unseen armies of heaven are evermore leagued
together. The natural eye sees only those, the spiritual eye beholds
the other behind them. It is ever at such moments as it was with
Israel of old (1 Chron. xxi. 16). The multitude, to whom the
purged spiritual eye was wanting, beheld only the outward calamity,
the wasting pestilence; but David lifted up his eyes and saw the
angel of the Lord standing between the earth and the heaven, having

a See 2 Chron. xxx. io, for an interesting parallel. When Hezekiah restored the
worship of Jehovah at Jerusalem, he sent messengers throughout all the tribes, in-
viting all Israel to take part in the solemn passover which he was about to keep :
so the posts passed from city to city ; . . . but they laughed them to scorn and
mocked them;' yet not all; there were guests who accepted the invitation; 'divers
bumbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem.'

b Gregory the Great (ffom. 38 in Evang.) : Quid namque sunt ilia Angelorura
agmina, nisi exercitus Regis nostri?

So Irenaeus, Con. H<zr. iv. 36. 6.

180 THE MARRIAGE OF

a drawn sword in his hand. 3 'And destroyed those murderers, and
burned up their city. ' It is ' their city;'' the city of these murderers ;
no longer ' the city of the great King,' who will not any more own
it for His. Compare our Lord's word a little later : ' Your house is
left unto you desolate ; (xxiii. 38) ; your house, and not mine ; how-
ever it may still bear my name ; ' and see Exod. xxxii. 7. This city
is, of course, Jerusalem, the central point of the Jewish theocracy
(Matt, xxiii. 34, 35; Luke xiii. 33, 34; Acts vii. 39; xii. 2, 3);
burned up once already (2 Kin. xxv. 9 ; Jer. xlix. 8) , as seems to
have been the constant doom of a taken city (Josh. vi. 24; viii 19;
xi. 11 ; Judg. i. 8; Isai. i. 7 ; and often); and now threatened with
a repetition of the same terrible fate.

'Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready ; but they which
were bidden were not worthy.' 1 The Scripture recognizes a worthiness
in men (Matt. x. 10, 11 ; Luke xx. 35 ; xxi. 36; 2 Thess i. 5, 11 ;
Rev. hi. 4) ; nor is it any contradiction to say that this worthiness
consists in great part in a sense of unworthiness ; the unworthiness,
on the other hand, of these consisting in the absence of any such di-
vine hunger in their hearts after a righteousness which they had not,
as would have brought them, eager guests, to the marriage supper of
the Lamb. 'Go ye therefore into the highways? and as many as ye
shall find bid to the marriage.' Compare Matt. viii. 11, 12, which
contains, so to speak, this parable in the germ. There, as here, that
truth long ago foreannounced by Psalmist (Ps. xviii. 43, 44) and by
prophet, but not the less strange or hateful to Jewish ears (see Acts
xxii. 21, 22), the calling of the Gentiles, and that by occasion of
the disobedience of the Jews, the diminishing of these which should
be the riches of those (Rom. xi), is plainly declared.

Even the heathen could understand this. When Troy was perishing, the poet
describes the multitude as seeing only their Grecian enemies engaged in the work of
destruction ; but to iEneas, when his goddess mother had purged his eyes, there ap-
peared other foes ; to him

Apparent dira? facies, inimicaque Trojtz

Numina magna Dtutn. ^. ii. 601-623.

b These SUgo&oi may be transitus or exitus (Passow gives both meanings, Durch-
gang and Ausgang): the thoroughfares (see Ps. i. 3), or the outlets leading from the
city (Grotius : Vias extra urbem ducentes) , or such as lead to its places and squares
(Kuinoel : Compita viarum), or the points where many roads or streets meet;
Chrysostom (Horn. 69 in Matlli.) more than once substituting rpidSous (Schleusner:
Loca ubi plures plateee coneurrunt). All these have equal fitness, as places of con-
course and resort, where the servants might hope soon to gather a company. We
must not permit our English 'highways' to suggest places in the country as distin-
guished from the town ; the image throughout is of a city, in which the rich and
great and noble, those naturally pointed out as a king's guests, refuse his banquet,
whereupon the poor of the same city are brought in to share it.

THE KING'S SON. 181

'So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together
nil as many as they found, both bad and good' In the spirit of this
command ' Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached
Christ unto them ' there (Acts viii. 5 ; Peter baptized Cornelius and
his company (Acts viii. 42); and Paul proclaimed to the men of
Athens how God now commanded ' all men everywhere to repent '
(Acts xvii. 30). When it is said they gathered in ' bad? as well as
' good' in which words there is a passing over from the figure to
the reality, since moral qualities would scarcely be predicated of the
guests as such, this is not to prepare and account for one hereafter
being found without a wedding garment. 'Bad' here is not equiva-
lent to ' not having a wedding garment ' there ; on the contrary,
many were 'bad' when invited (1 Cor. vi. 9-1 1), who, accepting
the invitation, passed into the number of the 'good:' for the
beautiful words of Augustine on Christ's love to His Church may
find here their application, ' He loved her foul, that He might make
her fair." Neither may ' bad and good,' least of all the latter, be
pressed too far: for in strictest speech none are 'good' till they
have been joined to Him, who only is the Good (Matt. xix. 17), and
made sharers in His Spirit. At the same time there are varieties of
moral life, even anterior to obedience to the Gospel call. There are
'good,' such as Nathanael, as Cornelius, as those Gentiles that were
a law to themselves (Rom. ii. 14; cf. Luke viii. 15); and 'bad, in
whom the sin common to all has wrought more mightily than in
others (Ps. lviii. 3-5); the sickness of which the whole body of
humanity is sick concentrating itself in some of the members more
than in others." The kingdom of heaven is as a draw-net, which
brings within its ample folds of the best and of the worst, of those
who have been before honestly striving after a righteousness accord-
ing to the law, and of those who have been utterly 'dead in trespasses
and sins.' 'And the wedding was furnished with guests'

a Foedam amavit, ut pulchram faceret; a thought which he pursues elsewhere (/
1 Ep. yoh. Trad. 9) : Amavit nos prior qui semper est pulcher. Et quales amavit,
nisi fcedos et deformes? Non ideo tamen ut fcedos dimitteret, sed ut mutaret et ex
deformibus pulchros faceret. Quomodo erimus pulchri? amando eum qui semper
est pulcher. Quantum in te crescit amor, tantum crescit pulchri tudo, quia ipsa
caritas est animse pulchruudo.

b Jerome: Inter ipsos quoque Ethnicos est diversitas infinita, quum sciamus alios
esse proclives ad vitia et ruentes ad mala, alios ob honestatem morum virtutibus
deditos. Augustine's conflict with the Pelagians would have hindered him from
expressing himself exactly thus, and he will only allow these 'good ' to be minus
mali than the others. Yet he too is most earnest against the abuse of these words,
which should argue for allowing men to come to baptism without having faithfully
renounced, as far as human eye could see, all their past ungodliness; for that were

182 THE MARRIAGE OF

At this point the other and earlier spoken parable concludes (Luke
xiv. 1 6) ; but what constitutes the whole in it is only as the first act
in this present; and another judgment act is still in reserve. The
judgment of the avowed foe has found place ; that of the false friend
lias still to follow. Hitherto the parable has set forth to us their
guilt and their punishment who openly reject the Gospel of the
grace of God ; as the great body of the Jewish people with their
chiefs and rulers were doing. It is now for others, and contains an
earnest warning for those who have found a place in His kingdom.
Besides the separation between those who come and those who refuse
to come, it shall be also proved who among the actual comers are
walking worthy of their vocation, and who not ; and as it is thus or
thus, there shall be a second sifting and separation. But, as in the
parable of the Tares it was not the office of the servants to discern
between the tares and the wheat (Matt. xiii. 29, 30), as little is it
here to separate decisiv